I Got Daddy in the Belly

We bought Karlie a T-ball set about a week ago.  She is a straight demon when she hits the ball too.  We've been practicing outside throwing it to her, but we had no idea she was going to be so aggressive!  Here is a video of her the first night we got the t-ball in our garage:

That same night, as the hubs was video taping, Karlie decided to go in a slightly different direction than expected...

That still makes me laugh watching it now.  The best toy ever!

Disclaimer:  The hubs was not hurt during the making of this video.

Boo!

One of our night-time rituals is to play hide-and-go-seek.  Every single night.  As you can imagine, playing with 2 20-month old babies and a 3-year old can be a bit chaotic, but we've learned to embrace the chaos in our house.  Here's how it goes down:

Typically I'm "it" first, and Daddy and the 3 munchkins go hide.  There are approximately 3 places they hide - on the side of the bed, behind the bedroom door, or in the shower.  My typical places with the babies is under the desk, under the bed, or behind the big living room chair.  Of course after "searching" every room, and whomever is found, we all shout "BOO!" and giggle and laugh.  The object of hide-and-go-seek is not to find the hider, but to scare each other a little - just enough to be funny.

Lately, the babies, along with Karlie have begun taking turns counting and seeking!  When Maggie is "it" she says "OK" and takes off at a dead run to hide behind one of the doors by herself - we basically come to her on that one.  Ella on the other hand, covers up part of her eyes while closely watching and following, counting "on, choo, chee, juh" along with some rendition of "ready or not here I come," and then she will search every nook and cranny for us all.  Karlie, well, she counts and seeks, but her idea of seeking is poking her head in the door of each room and shouting "boo" until whomever she is seeking appears. 

Strange how different personalities appear when you're all playing the same game, isn't it?

Redneck Sleigh Ride

Our area recently received 6-8 inches of snow - in case you are wondering, that is not a normal occurrence.  We don't have salt trucks on stand-by, snow shovels in our garage, and certainly not any sleds.  If, on the off chance we do ever receive snow, it usually always all melts by the next day.

So we found ourselves snowed in, quite literally, with a ton of snow on the ground and all the roads closed.  So we bundled up in our multiple layers and headed out to our winter playground.  Yeah.  No.  The babies HATED the snow.  It was too deep for them to walk around in, and they were cold.  Not fun for them at all.  Karlie had a blast, but that tends to be overshadowed by 2 upset sisters. 

So we had a brilliant idea - let's go sledding.  Hmmm...how to get all 3 babies on a vessel and where to go?  We have a baby pool...and a lawn mower.  Sweeeeet!!! Wait we need rope - dang it!  Oh wait!  We have extension cords - those are as strong as rope.  So the hubs drills a hole in the pool, connects it to the lawn mower via an extension cord, and realizes the tires are flat.  While he's airing them up, I'm pumping the kids full of hot chocolate and gathering blankets for the bottom of the "sled."  Ok, we are fired up and ready to go.  The hubs hops on the lawn mower and tries to crank her up.  No deal.  Dang it!!!!  Ok, he jumps the lawn mower off the jeep, and we are ready to rock and roll.  Everyone piles in...and guess what happens?  We get stuck.  And stuck.  And stuck again.  Stuck in our driveway and stuck in the street.  Never fear, here comes Mommy to the rescue with her trusty shovel.

FINALLY, after what seemed like hours of trying to "sled," my family was the one making laps back and forth on our street (with all of our neighbors outside watching) in a baby pool, connected to a lawn mower by an extension cord in 20 degree weather, with all three of my children screaming in delight.

And that my friends, is what we call a "Redneck Sleigh Ride."

Happy Holidays!

A late Merry Christmas and early Happy New Year to you all!  I hope everyone is feeling the stress of the holidays lifting off their shoulders, and preparing for the new year!

I love Christmas, it is absolutely the best holiday.  For me, the thrill of buying gifts and then watching people open them has always been my favorite part.  Add to that the decorations and lights and parties, and what is there that you could possibly not like? 

The last couple of years our families have started drawing names to make home-made gifts for each other.  This is a really cool thing to do - you may want to think of doing it with your family.  It really takes away from the "greediness" of the season and really takes kids and adults back to basics. 

This year, I went completely outside my comfort level and painted my 2 gifts.  My sister is the painter in the family, not me, so this was a really big deal. 

Here is the stool I made for my step-mom who has a Coke themed kitchen (it says Coca-cola - made to look like an old advertising button - if you can't tell).

Here is the little cubbard I painted for my sister-in-law, whose favorite flower is yellow roses - if you can't tell (I was really hoping her favorite flower was sunflowers, because I can trace a circle!)

Because of our little confidence boost in our home-made gift making abilities, the hubs and I have decided to start making our kids home-made gifts too.  This year we scrolled out the first letter of each of their names in redwood, then stained them with redwood stain too.

Hopefully they will be something each one of them will keep through the years.  In a couple of years we will draw names in our family and continue the home-made gifts in house.  For right now, we make really cool ornaments for the tree.  ;-)

What is your favorite family tradition during Christmas time? 

In Your Face!

Ever had that "what the hell is wrong with you" feeling about your own child?  Lately the hubs and I have been dealing with that with the noodle.  I don't know what is going on in that little brain of hers, but she will not get it through her head to stop screaming, spitting, spraying water, hitting, poking, etc. in the babies' faces!

Take for example this weekend...we're playing blocks inside and everyone is happy.  Ella decides that she really wants that tower Karlie just built and tries to take it from her.  Karlie snatches it back, holds Ella by the shoulders, gets as close to her face as possible, and screams "NO, NO ELLA, IT'S MY TOWER!!!."  To which much crying ensues from both parties, because now no one is playing blocks (Mommy's solution because this is the second time it has happened).

Fast forward an hour.  We're outside playing/hanging lights.  Karlie has the hose and she is cleaning off her turtle that was muddy.  I say, "Make sure that none of that water gets close to the babies.  Just clean off your turtle and then turn off the water."  To which Karlie replies, "OK Mommy" in that super sweet 3-year old voice.  Two seconds later, the hose is aimed directly in Maggies face drenching her completely.  More crying from both parties, because water is done, Maggie is soaked, and Karlie is in time out (Mommy again).

Bath time.  Everyone playing and having a great time.  They're splashing, they're acting like fish, it's all good.  Until...Karlie dips down, puts water in her mouth (tasty right?) and spits it DIRECTLY in Maggie's face.  More crying, this time only from Karlie because she is done playing in the bath (Yes, Mommy again).

20 minutes later.  I'm finished mopping up the bathroom and walk through the living room.  Here are Karlie and Mags playing on the floor.  Karlie has a straw and is poking it repeatedly in Maggie's eye!  In her eye with a straw!!!!  And Mags is taking it like a champ!  Can you guess what happens next?  Yep, more crying for the noodle.  Spanking and bed time.  (Yep, Mommy - can you see a pattern here?)

OMG!  All in the same day!  What am I going to do with that one?

A REALLY Big One

"That was a really big one!"
"It won't come out!"
"Silly poop, it's in my pee!"

Just some of the gems the noodle has come up with lately.  BUT....it's official!  We are potty-trained!  All the way, I'm talking about.  Daytime, night-time, going out in public - ALL OF IT.  FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

So lots of people had been pressuring us for a while to get her trained.  Well, I have my own way of doing things.  I read all of the books, and lets not forget that little psych degree I have, but regardless, I know my kid.  She wasn't ready.  She regressed so much when we brought the twins home that every time we tried to train her, she just wasn't interested.  But now that the twins are older it was a breeze.  They don't get babied so much and so she doesn't think she needs to be either.  It took a solid month, but wow, we don't even do pull-ups anymore.  Woo-hoo!!!!!

I think it was the old-school training pants that did it.  My sister-in-law gave us some cloth ones, and they really seemed to do the trick.  Pull-ups are just too much like diapers - the cool alert and learning designs just don't do the same trick as being soaking wet.

ANYWAY, we are one down, and two to go.  Diaper free is the way to be!!!!

378lbs and Counting

Despite the blight on my tomatoes, bugs on my squash and bean plants, and of course my ever so helpful babies; we have grown 378 pounds of food so far in my little gardens.  Can you believe that?  This is my chart - which may seem a bit ridiculous to some (super high tech I know), but I wanted to see how "worth" the effort gardening was going to be.  So, every morning after picking I would log what was what - for example 2 large cucumbers equaled a pound, 10-12 okra equaled a pound, 2 large tomatoes equaled a pound, etc.  Definitely not a fail proof method, especially since my girls tend to pick and eat- completely ignoring mommy's logging method, and obviously I guesstimated quite a bit, but I don't think it's a gross over-estimation by any means.

So, just in case you are wondering, my garden is still kicking.  We are picking tomatoes (which have jumped back now that it's not 120 degrees out), okra, cucumbers, wax beans, green beans, peas, bell peppers, basil, Swiss chard, collards, lettuce, radishes, carrots, and hopefully soon winter squash (that was just planted so it'll be a while).  I fully anticipate the collards and Swiss chard to go all winter long too.  Isn't gardening in Bama crazy?  Actually, I think the reason that everything has done so well is because it had to have an extreme will to live - babies and their feet are not so attentive or forgiving to tender little plants.  Add in a couple cats and dogs and I'm surprised everything wasn't trampled to death back in May. 

In all seriousness, the only things original in the big garden now are the pepper plants, the okra, basil and my big, beautiful German heirloom tomato plant.  Everything else has done it's thing, been yanked out, then re-planted with something else. 

I've decided that you must have a tenacious personality to garden; unless of course you are my sister who grew an entire crop of tomato plants without planting anything (Trac, are you kidding me?)  Regardless, I'm feeling a little proud - not too bad for a city chick on a 1/4 acre lot, and very blessed.

"Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness."