I'm not admitting anything!

First of all, I quit caffeinated coffee. That's my excuse reason for taking a few months off from posting. I do feel a lot better in general but I don't seem to have much of a personality left. Hmmm.
Also, during the glorious summer and fall months, well to be honest, I had better things to do. And now I don't. So let me fill you in a little bit...
Apple picking, usually a favorite, did not go so well. Mostly because Isaac was in a really bad mood and didn't want to actually pick anything. No apples, no pumpkins. All he wanted to do was take the hay-ride, which we did, twice.
Not surprisingly, his very favorite outing this fall was to the trolley museum. They have an event (every year I think) where you can ride the trolley to a field, pick out a pumpkin and then paint it. That was ok. The kids seemed to enjoy the painting a little bit, although not nearly as much as I thought they would. They wouldn't go near the bouncy house but they had fun running around the field. Isaac kept wanting to get back on the trolley but I was trying to draw out the experience a little bit because I thought that after that it would be a short ride back and the outing would be over. Not so. First of all, the ride back was longer than the ride there. It turns out that it is just a long straight track with a loop at the end where the trolleys have to queue up before they can all head back in the opposite direction.
Secondly, it turned out that we were allowed to ride the trolley as much as we wanted as long as we only took one pumpkin each. No problem.
So, we waited for the open-air trolley (extra exciting) to take us back to the station for a snack and bathroom break and then we waited for the open-air trolley to come back and pick us up for a second trip. And this trip had a fun little twist!
When we got to the loop at the end of the line (we were behind one trolley and waiting for two more to show up) newly-potty-trained Isaac informed us that he needed to pee...badly! There was no way he was going to make it until the trolleys started moving again let alone until we got all the way back to the station. Sooo...

Here's my advice:

1. Always sit in the very back of the trolley so nobody can see what you're doing.

2. Ignore signs that say not to bring drinks on a trolley ride (we honestly didn't notice the sign until later) so that you always have an empty soda bottle on hand.

If you follow my advice you may just have happy ending like we did instead of a puddly one.

Happy New Year!

The things we get excited about...

Isaac is potty training! In case you hadn't heard. Not so much training though really as him deciding that it's worth the trouble to use the potty. Since he's known how for a while I think. I knew my laziness instinct to wait would pay off!
So that's my parenting advice for today. If you have a strong-willed child, you may as well just wait for potty training to be his idea. Unless you love losing power struggles. And unless your definition of potty training means training yourself to clean pee off of everything BUT the potty. It's a lot less work. Except for emptying man-size poops out of the little potty into the big one...
Sigh... he's getting so grown-up. The only things left that he doesn't say quite right are hangaburgers (hamburgers), pecks (beaks, as in, Do those seagulls have crackers in their pecks?), and cries (he get's very upset when I wipe the "cries" off of his cheeks while he's having a tantrum). I really hope he doesn't figure those out too soon.
Gracie is talking up a storm now too. Some of her favorite words are NO! and MINE! She's completely spoiled rotten. Yesterday we tried AS HARD AS WE COULD not to laugh while her Daddy was speaking sternly to her. We really really wanted to be serious and make sure that she knew what she was doing was unacceptable. It didn't work. Her face... she brings new meaning to the phrase "too cute for your own good".
We got her sleeping well for about a week and a half and now she's got a bunch of teeth coming in and stays up half the night. This is both of them "waking up slow" as we say in our house. For me that involves a couple of giant cups of coffee but the sugar in a sippy cup of juice does plenty for them.

The Secret to my... uh, Insanity?

These pictures are a bit old (March probably?) but I've been wanting to share them. They were all taken on the same day. See if you notice a theme.

This one is a little bit hard to make out but look carefully at each of the items. This is the result of one of Isaac's passions... painting! Luckily this was with washable paint because he's even more enthusiastic about totally permanent craft paint!




This one is Grace and, I think, Bisquick. Not as bad as the time she dumped an entire bag of powdered sugar on the living room carpet though...



This is Isaac. He is standing behind the electric heater in our living room driving his toy engines through... any guesses?... baking soda!!! A whole box. Look at the heater and at the floor. Yikes!




Yeah, I need to get the lock fixed on the cupboard with all the baking supplies. Although they haven't been getting into it as much since we've been able to get outside.
So, that's my tip of the day I guess:
If the children aren't in the house, then they can't mess it up!

That's also the only way I know to keep the end of the day tidy-up to under 3 hours! And you wondered why I don't keep up with my blog...

If anyone has any ideas that are more helpful than mine, I'd love to hear them! :)

Crime and Punishment

I was sitting at the computer, also known as the time-suck machine, doing something very pointless important. Isaac was sitting behind me at the table eating a sandwich and Grace, well who ever really knows what Grace is doing?
Suddenly, "Ouch!" said Isaac. Loudly.
"What's wrong?" I asked, distractedly.
"Ouch!"
"What's the matter?!" I was starting to be mildly concerned.
"OUCH!!!"
"WHAT IS THE MATTER?" I said, raising my voice and finally turning around.
There was Isaac, still at the table and there was Grace, standing beside him and trying to steal his sandwich.
"That hurt my feelings," he said, referring to the attempted theft.

That kid cracks me up!

On another note, Gracie will be 15 months tomorrow. Sigh. My big big girl. She's saying a bunch of words now including her latest, "baby". I remember, distinctly, the first time Isaac said "baby". Which is funny 'cuz I don't remember much these days. I think it's just one of those words that sounds ultra-cute in the teeny-tiny voice of a one-year old. Grace also sings "baby, baby, baby, baby" to the tune (sorta) of the "Baby Signing Time" theme song which just melts my heart.
And guess what else 15 months old means? According to Dr. Dobson, it is the earliest you can begin discipline.
I've been waiting for this.... ;)

For Safety's sake

The gate by the stairs fell down yesterday and I, inexplicably, didn't put it back up right away. Then I sat down for 2.2 seconds to help Isaac with something and when I looked up I noticed that Gracie was gone. Of course I knew right away where she was. But I couldn't see her from where I was standing so I immediately thought that she must be up near the top, where the stairs turn the corner and are really really steep. The part where she always slips when I let her crawl up ahead of me (with my hands on her the whole time of course). So I sprinted for the stairs, all the while in the midst of a heart-attack. Before I could reach the top though, I heard a sound over the baby monitor. It was Gracie, playing happily in our bedroom (yes we still share). When she saw me, she gave me such a proud (and also impish) smile. I'm glad she was so happy because there goes another year off of my life!
Isaac, apparently, is trying to make up for the years he's shaved off of my life expectancy. I had taken out a bottle of cleaner and left it on the dining room table for later use. But Isaac spotted it and said to me, "Those are chemicals Mama. I don't want you to touch them."
Now that's advice that I don't mind taking!

Lights, camera, action, Wiggles!

Isaac's dear Nana got him a "Wiggles" dvd. I'm not sure that we needed to have the "Wiggles" in our lives. It was good strategy on Nana's part though, if she's wanting to spend more time with the kids. I mean, Hubby is going to need lots of help with them when the dvd drives me to the funny farm.
Ok, so having Wiggles songs stuck in my head 24/7 is annoying (Literally they are going through my head even while I'm sleeping. You know, for all of 20 minutes.) but they may actually be a good thing for Isaac. He is just so self-concious about dancing. Well, he actually doesn't really dance but he gets embarassed even when other people do (and not just his dorky parents). So that's why she got him the dvd. And yesterday he actually watched me dance along with the dvd and didn't even glower at me. And this morning I caught him nodding his head to the music for a few seconds. I'd call that progress. Worth my sanity anyway. Since I didn't have much left to begin with.
Speaking of progress, Gracie actually took a step all by herself yesterday! Go Gracie! There's good news about her sleep too! Well, not really good news... her sleep is as horrible as ever, but at least I've found someone new to blame. Early this morning, during her 648th(ish) waking, when she wouldn't go back to sleep, I finally turned toward her and peeled open my eyelids to find... the cat. She was licking Gracie or doing something equally entertaining. So I kicked the cat out of bed and I didn't even have to nurse Grace again to get her to go back to sleep. Which is good because I draw the line at 648 times per night. Usually. Unless I'm desperate.

Gracie Day!

I am aware that I don't talk about Gracie very often. That's mostly because she doesn't say anything funny yet and I know it's not very interesting to read about how cute someone looks. But I did want to have a "Gracie Day" today so I've decided to just show you how cute my baby is these days.







Alright, I can't resist just a little bit of bragging. She can draw! And since she is my very neglected independent second child, she taught herself, using Isaac's crayons, in between crayon-eating sessions. She is also quite good with a spoon. Mostly because she would rather die than let someone feed her. She doesn't actually eat much but her aim is really good! Especially when she aims at the floor... or me. Last but not least, boy can she climb stairs! I think that that little talent of hers my end up accounting for my first gray hairs.
Anyway, have a great Gracie Day!