Bye Bye Babies

I look at pictures of the girls now and wonder where the heck my babies went and how they grew up so fast over just a few short years. We have no baby stuff at our home anymore - except for the ikea high chair and a booster seat. We're about ready to get rid of those, too, because the girls now have their own kiddie table for meals and drawing. It makes me a little sad, but at the same time, they are getting so much easier now and love to play together (most of the time). Here's a few photos from Easter weekend. There are no egg hunt pictures...we couldn't find the camera and thought we didn't bring it. When returning to the car, there it was sitting in the front seat. DAMN. Oh well, enjoy:





(See that? My head fits right through these arm things. It's like my head came straight out of nowhere!)

Pure Genius

My kids LOVE to color. I'm trying to figure just how many crayons I have purchased in the last year because I'm sure the tally is quite high. I'm not sure if this is true of all kids, but mine like to break them in half (or a million little pieces) AND take off the wrappers. It wasn't any fun picking up all the pieces and throwing them away. Then, wonder of wonders, I found a miracle. Crayola Twistables. Have you heard of them? Crayons wrapped in plastic goodness. If the tip breaks, just twist the bottom and you get more crayon. I love them and they last forever (unless you lose them, which we tend to do).



I am not an employee of this company and was not paid to tell you this. I am only passing on a tip that has helped me save in colored-wax-that-is-used-on-paper fun.

San Diego Bounceback

I took a trip down memory lane last weekend as I returned to what I call my hometown, San Diego. In high school, I was a part of the pageantry corps - flags and dance. Call it what you want, but we totally rocked. We had competitions. We won trophies! Trophies that I actually still have. It was an awesome group of girls and I made some lifelong friends out of the whole thing. Generally, I go down to San Diego once a year to visit some of my friends that I've had since 6th grade, but this last weekend was a little bit more than that. There was a pageantry reunion, and the plan was to go see a real live spring competition where the current pageantry members from my old high school were performing. My friend J, who was practically my first friend when I moved to San Diego, was hosting this soiree.

It was so amazing to see everyone after all this time. So incredibly amazing. Us pageantry girls together again. It's like no time had passed at all. Except a lot of us were married and some of us have kids. It's hard to find friends like that...ones that you almost forgot you had. And so great to get back in touch because, well, it's just nice to have friends, right? Anyway, it was so great. And at the competition, you could have seen us all go a little bit nuts and get excited when we saw that our old instructor was a judge at this competition. Talk about a blast from the past! I think he was a little shocked himself.

I have to thank J who put it all together, and I look forward to doing it every year! Not to mention the margaritas and carnitas - to die for. Anyway, here we are all together (hopefully more can come next year!):


And speaking of blasts from the past...while I was waiting at the airport to fly to San Diego, one of my college friends saw me sitting around waiting for my flight. That was so exciting! Congrats, Stace! You said you read this, so I had to give you a shout out. You are going to be a terrific mother.

On my plane ride home I had the pleasure of sitting by six older women who had been friends their whole life. I was in the window, and two of them were sitting next to me. It was so fun to listen to their conversation...they had been friends forever. One of the women didn't like to fly, so the turbulence made her a bit uncomfortable. Before I knew this, she had asked me if I was attending college in San Diego. Well, I laughed out loud at that one! Um, actually I graduated college about ten years ago, but a nice compliment none-the-less. When the turbulence hit, she was nervous, and I noticed that she was holding her friends hand. So, me not liking to fly much either, I told her this and said she could hold my hand too if she wanted. And she grabbed it. Quite hard. I talked a bit to her about my family and in the end, she told me I was a very sweet person for holding her hand. Believe me, I needed it, too!

I think this trip taught me a lot about friendships. People you've known forever...ten years...or even ten minutes. Kindness and caring mean the world, and without it, I'm not sure where I would be. Thank you, to all of my friends out there. I love you so very much...

Who Would've Thought...

that I'd have a kid that likes to eat frozen corn and peas. (Olivia)

that I'd have a kid that wanted to escort a letter to her grandparents with the mailman. (Bea)

that I'd have a kid that would enjoy timeouts. (Olivia)

that I'd have a kid that would be completely potty trained by three (and that includes getting up to go in the middle of the night, folks). (Bea)

that I'd have a kid that her caretaker would call the "daycare bully". (Yes, sweet Olivia)

that I'd have a kid that is the biggest negotiator and has the "it's ok, we can just get a new one" attitude. When do I teach her about money NOT growing on trees? (Bea)

that I'd have two little kids that make me smile and laugh every single day, especially when they say "i love you, mom" or "i missed you, mom". (Bea and Olivia)

Changes. Always happening. Always funny and sweet in their own way. And always learning experiences for me. I love them 24/7 and will always miss them when they are not with me.

Mother's Day is Just Around the Corner

No time like the present to proclaim what I MUST HAVE for mother's day this year. It's hard work, this mom business. And while it is still two months out, I can just picture myself at the end of that beautiful day in a nice, hot bath eating some delicious truffles from Truffleman Chocolate and Candy Co. Like I said before...bites of heaven. He's not just my brother, but the maker of the best truffles and caramels ever. No joke. Don't believe me? Try them yourself.

Husband, are you out there? Can you hear me?

The One About Having a Baby Again

The last week (well, make that two) have been hurting my brain just a tad bit. Along with starting a new job (WHICH I LOVE, by the way), our house has been through quite a bit of heartache, hard times, battling the baby - as you can see, I just can't find the correct words with which might fit below.

I've been sick for the last week. Olivia was sick prior to that (I'm quite certain she got me sick), and has picked up another round of cold, part 2 (just how MANY strings of the common cold can there be, I ask???). Josh was sick this last week, but it appeared to be more like a sinus infection/fluey-type of thing. Bea had it bad. And when I say bad, it was almost downright unbearable at times.

She started to come down with something right after we hit up Monterey a couple of weeks back. Then she got a fever and had the worst breath I had ever smelled. I instantly thought "Yeah! Here we go with another sinus infection! My ever so lucky child with her never-ending sinus infections! WHOOPEE!" NOT. As all this was beginning to happen, I was starting at my new job and feeling completely stressed about the situation at home. A doctor visit capped it off as being no, not a sinus infection, but a tonsil infection. Tonsillitus, to be exact. Oh, lord, is that contagious?? Sometimes and sometimes not. We start her on the bubble gum medicine which seems to be the cure for pretty much everything.

Four days pass. She's not getting better. She's completely stopped eating. She's stopped talking. She's not herself. She's taking two naps a day and sleeping a VERY long time at night. She'll only drink milk. She'll grunt and hum instead of using words, and cry on a dime. She's a baby again. I can't figure out what she wants and what she needs or how she's feeling and what exactly hurts. She just won't tell me. It was like having a baby all over again, but a much larger one that was harder to deal with. Where did my little girl go? I missed her, and her voice.

So now the doctor puts her on some stronger medication, in which Josh had to force down her the first night. She's on that medication for two doses. Her face and lips swell up and her eyes look puffy and she seems worse. Oh dear god, is she allergic to the medication? We end up at urgent care last Saturday to try to find out. Nope, she's just in the worst of it, they say. Keep giving her tylenol (fever-all, in our case, since nothing will go in the mouth we have to go in with something the other way...the joys of having a child in times like these).

So, seriously, the kid is just not doing well and on Monday goes back to the doctor. She's got some kind of mouth infection. Her tongue is completely white, she has sores all over her mouth, and it looks like her gums are taking over her teeth they are so swelled up. Guess this is why she's not talking, huh? It hurts TOO DARN MUCH. So, I don't blame her. She's a cranky mess. She'll wake up from a brief nap and scream her ear off for an hour. I was beginning to lose my patience. Fortunately, this story does have a happy ending, at least.

Grandpa watched her for three days. On day three, when she was just missing her normal routine and seemed bored, he decided to take her to the zoo. She snapped out of it and started talking, and has been on the mend since. Gradually getting better, and now eating. She is again amongst the land of talkers. And has continued to talk my ear off ever since. Thank goodness. I was beginning to think we would have to teach her to talk all over again, but no.

Gosh, how I missed that lovely little voice....