This is NOT Connor

This is not Connor. I don't know who this is. But I know it's NOT Connor.


Connor doesn't want to be held every two seconds. Connor doesn't CRY all day long. Connor doesn't WHINE in between the crying spells. Connor doesn't refuse to eat his food, and then two seconds later, be crying and pointing at the food he just refused. Connor doesn't beg for a drink and then promptly throw it on the floor when it's given to him. Connor is a tough little cry that doesn't cry over every tumble or frustration. Connor sleeps nicely through the night. Connor doesn't wake up screaming at the crack of dawn (or before!), and then be totally inconsolable.

I miss Connor.

I also miss the calm, less frazzled mother I used to be!

For my sanity and Connor's tear-ducts, please pray these these canine teeth giving him so much grief break through SOON and leave us in peace!!!!!

That's How It's Done!

Jared came up to me last night as I was getting dinner ready. He stared at me for a few seconds, then used a deep voice and said, "Pretend I'm your dad, okay?" Figuring this could be pretty fun, I said, "Okay! Hey dad, I want some candy."

J: okay!
me: Dad! you're supposed to tell me I have to have healthy food before I eat candy.
J: Oh yeah. No, you can't have candy, you have to have healsy (that's how he says it!) food first.
me: (throwing a pretend temper tantrum) I WANT CANDY RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!
J: Okay! You can have some candy right now. (pause) See mom? That's how it's done!

And there you have it!

Livin' in the Wild Wild West

I don't envy Connor's future wife as she desperately tries to get a good night's rest despite his WILD thrashing in his sleep...
(this is what I saw when I looked down into the crib when I was checking on him before heading to bed myself...)

Have I mentioned I like to knit?

My big plan was to knit a Santa hat for Connor, but when I tried to make the pom pom for the top of the first hat I knit, in the white fun fur yarn I was using, it turned into a massive explosion of little bits of white threads EVERYWHERE. I had to vacuum myself off. I wish I'd have thought to take a picture! That hat, without a pom pom, looked very girly, so I figured I'd make Emily a skirt to match and it could be a cute holiday set. The hat, on Emily, looked like a nightcap or something, so I decided to call the hat a loss and move onto making a matching headband for the skirt. I'll toot my own horn and say they turned out completely adorable!!!! (I should add I didn't have a pattern to follow for ANY of the things I made, except the flowers, but the rest of it was all straight out of my own head...)







Even with small needles, the yarn was so chunky, the flower is pretty huge, so I'm still not positive it'll work out as a very cute headband, but we'll see!!!

Learning to Write

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how much Emily is starting to read and write already, and it's only been (almost) three months of Kindergarten! It's amazing! I've been trying to have her write a sentence or two every day telling what she did that day. It's just SO CUTE seeing her write out words phonetically (I think kids could learn to read and write MUCH faster if our words where spelled how they sound!).

Look at the writing she did in the card for her Gram's birthday:


left side: (Happy Birthday)
right side: (Jared, Connor, Emily (heart) Mommy, Daddy)

This was the front of the card, in case anyone's interested in seeing it (and NO, Emily didn't do this part! LOL)

In Case You're Ever on Jeopardy

If you rub it vigorously against your hair, and then stick it to the ceiling, it can stick there for three hours.

What is...a green balloon?


He was drawn to dumptrucks at two weeks old, and it is not at all uncommon to find him drawn to them, still, at 17 months old.

Who is...Connor?




It will happen in twenty days.

When is...The Nutcracker?
(I found this book for 50 cents yesterday!)


He actually suggested we put up the Christmas lights yesterday, totally on his own.

Who is...Dan? (And he even suggested we do the peak of the roof and around the garage door, which he REFUSES to do every year. It didn't actually work out that we DID, but hey, he was willing!!) I'll have to take pictures tonight once it's dark.

The kids are demanding this as I sit here typing.

What is...breakfast?

Better hop to it!

Enchanted

I took Emily to see the movie Enchanted yesterday. It was pretty cute! Dan would have ripped his ears off watching it if we'd taken him. There were several singing numbers in the movie... Emily was riveted. There were some odd parts as far as MY opinion goes, but Emily gives it a HUGE double thumbs up, and she's the one the movie's aimed for, so there ya go! I giggled out loud several times and enjoyed the romantic stuff, and it was a nice afternoon, just Emily and I.

Little Miss wanted to be dressed up, so this is what she wore:


Did you notice the pink camouflage tights? And the hand-me-down boots from her friend Rachel (which she wears with EVERYTHING lately...gotta love hand-me-downs!!)? And the gray sweatshirt because it was cold out, but her pretty Tinkerbell coat was too big and would cover up her dress (her words!)? I wish I was as confident to just wear whatever the heck I wanted like that!!

I REALLY enjoyed my afternoon out with Emily. It's not very often I get to just focus on her, and we had a lot of fun giggling and talking, and watching the movie.

Future Model?

At Emily's request yesterday, I curled her hair with a curling iron and some hair spray. She wanted to looke extra nice because it was Thanksgiving, as well as her Gram's 50th birthday. It took about a half hour, and after a few seconds of looking in the mirror and grinning at herself, she turned to me and said, "I'm SO posh." (A word she apparently learned from her Kindergarten teacher!). Oh, I laughed so hard.

After a few more glances at herself in the mirror, she asked if I would take her picture. SHE chose the poses,and would have continued, but I ran out of space on the memory card!

Life's Little Tidbits Part 5

The Knitted Square

I found a pattern online for a knitted square with a baby footprint pattern in the center. The idea is that you knit multiple squares and then stitch them all together for a blanket. I don't have time in the near future to knit multiple squares for an actual blanket, but I was anxious to test out knitting at least one square! I dug out some "scrap" yarn and got busy. Isn't it cute?


The flash washed out the pattern, but shows better the color I used:


The Weigh-In

There was a scale at the Science Center that let you weigh yourself and see what you would way on all the different planets, and also on the sun. I wasn't getting on that scale for everyone in the room to see, but Emily was willing! (by the way, she weighs four pounds less on our scale at home, so I'm DOUBLY glad I didn't get on the scale at the science center!! LOL)


The Footprint

Emily laid down in an impression of a fossilized dinosaur footprint at the Science Center and discovered she was the exact same length!

Creepy Crawlies

More Science Center fun!

This picture makes me think of that movie, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." LOL


If I saw a bug this big that was ALIVE, I think I would have a heart attack and die. And if I survived the experience, I don't think I'd ever be the same again...


Emily, the brave girl, saw a worker letting people hold the giant cockroaches and she wanted to do it, too. She didn't freak out holding it (despite the look on her face!), but was really afraid she'd drop it, so held completely still; wouldn't even smile. LOL




There was a display case of examples of meals people in other countries eat REGULARLY. Eggs and honeybee larvae, anyone?


Oh, the things you can see and do at your local Science Center!!!

(on a random sidenote, for some Thanksgiving laughs, check out Valerie's list of jokes here)

Always Do Your Best

Dan and I tell the kids this ALL THE TIME. When they're unhappy with something they've created (drawing, painting, Play-Doh sculpture, etc), we ask, "Did you try your best?" When they reply, "Yes." we continue with, "Then you should be very happy with what you've created because you can't do any better than your best." When/if they complain they can't do something, we remind them to just try their best, because sometimes it takes some practice to get something just right. I think Em's got the idea down.

We took the kids to the Science Center over the weekend, and we watched a science demonstration about liquid nitrogen. Emily got called up on stage to blow up a balloon for part of the experiement presentation.


She tried her very best to blow up that balloon. She really did.


It was at the point that her face was purple and the balloon was blown up to about four inches in diameter that she needed a breath. She forgot to pinch off the end of the balloon to keep the air from blowing back out... She was ready to try again, but for the purposes of the show, they needed to keep things moving at a steady pace, so the "teacher" got a new balloon and blew it up herself.

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...

Who's the craziest family of all?

OURS IS!

Emily and I had WAY too much fun with mirrors yesterday... I didn't even realize I took so many pictures, but I'm sharing them all anyway because they represent just how much fun we were having and how SILLY and CRAZY we are. I was laughing so hard taking these pictures I had tears running down my face!!!!























Connor's turn!




Jared refused to let me take his picture. PUNK!

My turn!
First, I gained 100lbs


And then I lost 150lbs


And then I lost my body


Hurray for mirrors! LOL

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas...

Sales ads in the newspaper are full of holiday decorations on sale, and the ads themselves are decorated in Christmas ornaments and holly images. Other members of the websites I'm a member of are discussing what they plan to purchase, who they plan to buy for, what they want, etc. I've been trying to work on home-made Christmas cards to send out, and Emily's been talking non-stop about The Nutcracker ("Is today a Nutcracker day?").

The baby and I went to Costco the other day and there's one whole section FULL of Christmas decorations, gift ideas, and wrapping paper. One particular display caught our interest, as there was a big red "try me" button right in front of it. SO, we pressed the button and got to enjoy a holiday light and music show. Three white trees (sold as a set) play Christmas music, while the lights on the trees change colors between red, green, and blue to the beat of the music. Connor enjoyed it so much (okay, fine, WE enjoyed it so much...) that when the first song was over, we pressed the button again and listened to another one!

This morning, I woke up to the sounds of Frosty the Snowman. The kids had decided to put that movie in for themselves, and when Frosty was over, they put in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go!!

Sweet n' Silly

I had to show off Emily's hairstyle from yesterday at it drew TONS of attention for her, and I figured it was worth bragging on myself over. LOL

Isn't she sweet?






And now here's where things got a little silly!