WW: Pictures from Facebook

 

Think it’s time for his first hair cut yet?

 

Seriously mom?  Do you really think they’ve invented a
baby-proofing knob that can keep me contained?

 

Between the extra large bottles of baby wash being dumped one-per-bath, giant cans shaving cream being sprayed till empty, the 24 pack of handi-snacks being emptied and crushed in the entry, rolls of paper towels being unraveled to get at the “sword” in the middle, and this- I’m beginning to think that shopping at the big warehouse store isn’t worth it. 

 

 

Poker Face

 

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Seven Clown Circus

If you ever watch my kids, you should know. . .

June 22nd The Dada and I celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.  We are celebrating early, and going away this weekend.  This is HUGE for us, we haven’t been away overnight without kids in years.  To give you an idea how long its been- last time we went away, we only had 2 kids. 

I am fortunate enough to have my mom living close by, and also fortunate enough that she’s agreed to stay at my house for the weekend and watch my fab-five.  In preparation for her arrival, I’ve put together a list for her. 

Dear mom, thank you so much for agreeing to watch the kids this weekend.  Here’s a list of things that may help you out:

• You will want to take a really good shower Thursday evening as there’s a distinct possibility you won’t have a chance to take another until you go home on Sunday. 
  
• When CamCam sees people with crazy hair, he likes to cut it.
  
• “Little Hurricane” no longer asks CamCam to let him out the front door.  He can do this for himself now.
  
• On Thursday I will dust, vacuum, mop, catch up on dishes and catch up on laundry to prepare for your arrival.  On Friday morning it will look like I didn’t do a darn thing.  No real advice here, just a warning.
  
• If you hear the words “puppy walk” come out of CamCam’s mouth, be on alert- this means he’s going to get his stuffed dog and walk to the end of the road by himself. 
  
• Pretzels and Blue’s Clues are a magical combination that produce this effect:

• You may want to bring ear plugs as there will be a LOT of crying/screaming going on.

• When “Little Hurricane” gets mad he spits.  When something doesn’t go his way, he spits.  When someone upsets him, he spits on them.  When he’s looking out the window at his brothers and sister playing without him, he spits. 
  
• No matter how overtired CamCam and Little Hurricane are, they will refuse to nap.
  
• Noise is good.  If it’s quiet, investigate.
  
• My little boys love to use sweeping “you never” statements to get you to do things for them.  “You never cut me up an apple.  You never let me play outside.  You never let me do the wii.  You never feed me lunch.  You never play with me.” 
  
• My kitchen sink always looks like this:

I am told it does in fact have a bottom, but it’s impossible to find.

• I believe CamCam and Little Hurricane have a secret stash of markers and crayons that I cannot find, and they will write on things when you’re distracted.  Like couches.  Or beds.  Walls.  Blankets.  Windows.  Each other.
  
• When Little Hurricane is doing things he shouldn’t, such as dumping boxes of cereal and crushing them with a truck, or playing in the toilet, don’t count on Nolie or CamCam to clue you in.  They'll just sit there and stare at him with a “I can’t believe your doing this” look on their face. 
  

Most important of all, prepare to be bombarded with sloppy kisses, tiny arms thrown around your neck or waist, and lots of I wuv you’s.  You’ll leave my house on Sunday exhausted, but smiling from ear to ear. 

Thanks mom!

Long time no blog

Let’s say some night you have to run a bunch of errands, and your husband is working until 9PM so you have to take all five kids with you, and when you get home it’s after eight and you are beat and so you decide that even though you really should start putting little people to bed, you sure could use just 15 minutes to relax before you start that endeavor and so you start thinking maybe it’d be ok to just kill a little bit of time on the computer….. DON’T DO IT!

Because you’ll probably come up to this:

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

A Lesson In Cuddlies

All my kids have had cuddlies.  They each chose their own cuddly.  For a period of time they’d have a few different animals or blankies they’d be drawn to, but eventually they would end up with one special cuddly.  I LOVED that my kids had cuddlies because once a cuddly was chosen, they did a marvelous job of falling asleep on their own.  And if they woke during the night, often the cuddly would help them get back to sleep.

 

My oldest son chose this bunny.  It was actually a gift that my great-grandmother had given to my baby sister.  When I married, my sister was only 9 years old and she let me take this bunny to remind me of her.  LaLa liked to hold one of the long ears and suck his thumb. 

When LaLa was around 3, he was staying at his grandparents house and he lost his bunny.  They searched their house high and low and never could find it.   About a week earlier one of the ears had fallen off, and I hadn’t had a chance to sew it back on.  I gave it to him and for like a year he went around with this yucky, ratty, hairless ear, sucking his thumb.

 

Little Miss had a blanket for her cuddly.  When I had her, we lived in a townhouse and one of our neighbors made this for her.  It actually was very scratchy, I don’t know why she took to this one.

When she was just over 2, we were at the mall and she fell asleep on my shoulder holding her blankie.  I didn’t realize that she let go of it until we were in the car.  The mall was closing, but I ran though as much of it as I could trying to find her blankie.  I called the next day and no one had turned it in.  I’m sure whoever found it thought it was some yucky rag.

 

 

Nolie had a blankie too.  He called it “blue-one blankie.”  This was a blanket that I had knitted for him when I was pregnant.  He liked to pull the strings on it while sucking his thumb, so eventually “blue-one blankie” became a strangulation hazard.  It was replaced with three “white-one blankies” and eventually Nolie settled on one of those which he still carries around.

 

Little CamCam has a blue blankie.  It was a gift from a friend of mine, actually it was for Nolie.  CamCam is my only one who doesn’t really carry his cuddly around during the day.  Once in awhile he’ll go grab it, but mostly he just uses it when it’s bedtime.

 

Little Hurricane chose a bunny.  When I was pregnant with him, I was at the Gap and Little Miss picked out this bunny.  I didn’t want to get it because we have SO many stuffed animals, but she convinced me because it was so soft. 

He liked to suck his thumb, and then put the bunny in the crook of his arm while holding the hair in the back of his head.  Very complicated cuddler. 

 

 

 

This bunny was ALWAYS with him.  He called it his “beee”. 

 

 

 

 

Last week we were at the mall, and I gave him his bunny.  At some point he must have thrown it, because when we got to the car I realized it was gone.  The mall had just closed, but I ran though everywhere we had been to try and find it.  I banged on the doors of 2 closed stores we had been in, only one let me in. (I hate you Sears!)  I called for 2 days, but noone had it. 

Fortunately I knew the brand and size of his bunny.  I’ve been through losing cuddlies before, and so I had looked into getting a backup for him months ago.  But I never bought it.  So onto Amazon I go, when what do I see?  

NOT IN STOCK
availibility:  unknown

You’ve got to be freakin kidding me.  I did a massive internet search, and found only one site carrying the bunny in the correct size.  Or, I could buy the same bunny, 3” larger from Amazon for half the price.

Now, if you have a child who looses a cuddly, and you are actually fortunate enough to have a chance at replacing said cuddly with an exact replica, TAKE IT!

Not me though, I bought the larger/cheaper one.  I didn’t think 3 inches was that big of a deal.  It took 6 days, and his bunny finally came.  The week had been hell, and I was so excited when it arrived.  Little Hurricane opened the package and when he pulled off the tissue paper said “my beee!”  He pulled it out, sucked his thumb, and tried to put the bunny in the crook of his arm.  It was too big!

He took that bunny, stuffed it back in the box, put the tissue paper on top, and handed it to me. 

Try again mom.

I’ve been trying to force this thing on him yesterday and today, and I think he’s finally starting to accept him.

I just hope his old bunny isn’t “toy story 3-ing” his way back home, only to find out he’s been replaced.

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Mom’s Book Shelf put me in her list of favorite blogs last week, and I wanted to say Thank you!  If you’re not familiar with her blog, go check it out!

 

Will Work For Diapers

I have 2 toddlers in diapers full time.  Little Hurricane is small for his age, so he’s still in a Huggies size 3.  This is good for me, because the genius diaper companies charge the same amount for every size pack of diapers, but give you less and less as the sizes go up.  Size 3 still gives me a reasonable amount of diapers.  If I buy the small pack it will at least last the week.

CamCam is a size 5.  Lots less diapers.  CamCam also has a sensitive butt, so his delicate little behind will only tolerate Pampers Cruisers.  He can not use Luvs, not even regular Pampers.  Outside of designer diapers, which I’m sure must exist somewhere (what else would the rich and famous buy, right?) Pampers Cruisers are the crème-de-la-crème in the diaper world.    Which, naturally, equals more money. 

Oh wait, I forgot diaper companies are tricky.  Same money, less diapers. 

I have one in pull-ups at night.  Pull-ups are about $10 a pack and have all of like 6 pull-ups in them.  Completely ridiculous. 

And then of course there’s wipes.  I go through a crazy amount of wipes.  Part of it’s my fault- I realize that the only thing between my hand and all that yuckiness is a flimsy little wipe.  So I like to double up.  The Dada saw me do this once and told me to just use one, I was wasting wipes.  So I told him he could wipe the poopy butts with his one-wipe-covered-hand instead of me doing it if he’d like. 

He hasn’t brought it up since. 

But the majority of my wipes are used by Little Hurricane.  No matter how high or hidden I keep the wipes, Little Hurricane can get to them.  He LOVES to pull them out of the container.  He likes to wipe furniture with them, he likes to “wash” the floor with them.  If you do not have hardwood floors and have also never been fortunate enough to have someone wash your floor with baby wipes, you may not realize that the two form a deadly combination. 

Quite literally. 

That wipe leaves some sort of film on the floor that turns it into an instant sheet of ice.  Walk over said spot while wearing socks and you don’t stand a chance.  And he really likes to wash the stairs.

He also likes to throw them.  Every week I lose at least one pack of wipes to this.  He pulls those little buggers out of the pack as fast as he can and throws them across the room.  Ever seen that show Minute to Win It?  On that show they have this one game where the contestant has to pull all the tissues out of a box in under a minute. 

Little Hurricane would ROCK at that game.

I caught him on the tail end of this one the other day.

 

Throw, throw, throw

Brand new box of wipes all gone, look at the joy on his face:

The aftermath:

So to everyone that’s ever asked, yeah, it’s pretty expensive having multiple kids in diapers. 

Surviving a 2 year old, Round five

It’s Official!

Today Little Hurricane turns two.

My furniture,

dinners,

walls,

and sanity may never be the same.

 

Toys are SO last year

Little Hurricane is a sophisticated toddler.  He wants nothing to do with those little baby toys.  Nope, he’s going right for the big stuff.     

No little learning toy with blinking lights and sounds for him.

Laptops are WAY cooler.

And who wants to beat on a little plastic drum or bang on fake piano keys when you can have the real deal?

Little Miss’ flute is so much more fun.

Why would he waste any of his time playing with a Handy Manny tool set when he has this?

How many babies do you know that get to play
with an air compressor?

Don’t even get me started on the fake plastic food and kitchen stuff.  Lame.

You can actually eat what comes out of this baby.

And what about all those silly toddlers still messing with their sippy cups? 

Babies.

Well, maybe he’s carried it a bit too far.

Balls, Balls, Balls

Little Hurricane LOVES balls.  He’s obsessed, really.  Give him a ball to play with and he’s entertained for hours. 

His favorite thing to do is throw the ball at people.  Then when they get knocked upside the head and say “Ouch!”, he laughs and laughs.

And does it again.

He has a little bit of a mean streak in him, I think.

He also loves to throw balls at the tv.  When The Dada or I freak out over a hard ball being thrown at our only television, Little Hurricane thinks that’s hilarious as well.

The other day he was throwing this small but hard bouncy ball around the room.  He started throwing it at the tv, and I went to go take the ball away from him.  But then it bounced over the tv and landed behind it.  I went back to my cooking, figuring that was a good place for it to stay.

A few minutes later The Dada points to our living room and says, “Look, do you think that’s a problem?”

Hmmm, I’m betting I will be in the market for a new television pretty soon.

Our Little Dancing Machine

Ever since he was a small baby, “Little Hurricane” has LOVED music.  He loves to sit and listen to music, he loves to ride in the van with music playing, but most of all, he loves to dance to music.

When I’m out at stores, I won’t even realize that they have music playing until I see “Little Hurricane’s” shoulder start bobbing up and down. 

Here at home he’s always dancing.  He dances to the music that plays during a show or movie, he dances to the radio, he dances every time The Dada’s phone rings. 

And the older he gets, the better his dancing gets.

I’m curious what kind of career this could possibly translate into?

Wish I could go back in time and give these to me:

 

 

 

 

 

Little Hurricane was on a roll this morning!

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