Better Than A Baby Gate

I hate baby gates. But alas, they are needed in my house. seeing as we have a baby and all, and places/steps to keep the baby out of. I have a funky short stair case in our basement, that is impossible to gate off because there is no wall on one side. J LOVES to run to these steps and climb them as soon has his little knees and hands hit the floor. Its an exhausting game he likes to play and I was putting up barricades made out of the toy box and ottoman's to keep him from them. But he usually finds a way to get around even my best attempts. What is a mama to do?
Enter the Zhu Zhu Pet


My big boys love Zhu Zhu pets. They are mechanical little hamster rodents things. J has somehow developed a huge fear of the things. I'm not sure how. They big boys were playing with theirs one day, and J got panicked and scooted quickly away from the Zhu Zhu, screaming and with general fear/panic written across his face. This happened sometime ago, and I forgot about it. Until, last week, as the toy box was barricading the steps and J was standing next to it, the Zhu Zhu started making noise from the depths of the box. J freaked and made a bee line to my side. Hmm. An idea struck me and I experimented. I placed the zhu zhu pet on the second step, and J refused to go near the steps at all. I enjoyed 20 minutes of bliss sitting in the basement without having to get up a thousand times to get him off the steps. He just stayed away from the steps. (I'm wondering if it is wrong for me to capitalize on my baby's fear of a mechanical toy). But anyway, I tried it on the upstairs stairs and it worked as well.

So for now, my zhu zhu pet (named Rocky), is my new, very effective baby gate. I'm thinking about purchasing a couple more to make Christmas tree barricade.

On the Road to Organization

I might be on my way to organized. I'm afraid to say it, cause I'm famous for saying things like, "I'm really going to start exercising regularly." "I'm going to go on a diet." "I'm going to be organized." Well today, at least there is about 1% of my life is organized as of now. Last Saturday, I organized my linen closet (all by my self!). I so wish I had taken before and after pictures. It is a thing of beauty to me, and I want to live in it. I got rid of at least a dozen bath towels. I had to part with them, they didn't match my decor in either bathroom, and they were as old as my marriage. We prefer white bath towels that you can bleach anyway. Once I got rid of my collection of bath towels, the rest was easy! You can even find a wash cloth! Yippee!
And the biggest bonus, when you open the door, 5 floor mopping devices don't attack you. (I also threw out 4 mops--I have tried everything for my wood floors, and nothing does a good job, so I just stuck with the one the floor manufacturer recommends).
Its so exciting to have something look organized. I keep walking past it and opening the door and peek in. Just for a sense of accomplishment. AND it has stayed organized for a whole week! And it got me in the mood to do more. On Wednesday, I even turned down a friend's invitation to come play so I could work on my kitchen. Well, I did the kitchen and the whole great room and it looked GREAT! For about 2 hours. It made me sad to see the mess happen again. But that's what happens to a kitchen when you have a family. One day it will all be a nice, clean, organized space all the time, and I will be a sad, lonely, mama in her empty nest.
(But I can still try not to live in complete chaos right now right?)

Organized? Wha?

Me and the word organization are not two words that ever appear in a sentence together. I am not organized in the least bit. My words are not organized, thoughts aren't, I dream in unorganized craziness. When I see an organized home, I want to mess it up, just to mess with the organized person. Not really. But I would want to see what would happen if something got out of place with an organized person. I rebel against organization, I like to fly by the seat of my pants, unplanned and roll with it. Well, I should say, I USED to like to live this way. Lately, I find myself craving organization. My life is chaos everyday now, and I don't really like it anymore. In fact, things get a little too fly by the seat of my pants, and I feel like I'm doing everyone (including myself)a disservice by clinging to my old way of life. Now, thanks to pintrest and its plethora of pictures of beautiful-organized laundry rooms, I am craving to be organized, but where do I start?
By recognizing the organization that I have come into on my own and how it makes my life easier.
Such as,
-Only buying white socks for the kids, so finding pairs is easy peazy.
-Having a day designated to doing grocery shopping and laundry.
-Meal plans.
-making lists.

My husband happens to be the engineering type personality and is or used to be extremely organized. His system for laundry is so great, that I submitted that responsibility over to him years ago. His spaces (his closet, dresser, garage and shed), are organized and pretty to look at (at least until I am cleaning up for guests and just shove all the superfluous junk laying around the house into his beautiful organized spaces and then it looks like the rest of the cluttered mess that is my house). He's just better at it. In fact, he is the one who will, upon me asking him to help put away groceries, start purging and organizing all the cupboards and pantry. (I should re-work my grocery shopping so he's home all the time when I bring them home, it would make things easier, right? If only.) He has offered to organize the linen closet, and I will angrily say "NO THANKS!" Taking it as an insult to my homemaking skills. As if they are stellar, and I am actually good at it.
Maybe I should start there. Ask for his help. It is his strong suit. And that linen closet is bad. You can't open it without stuff falling on your head...and you can't close it all the way, due to the vacuum just thrown in there. Yes, I think that's a good jumping off place.

Birthday!

The Cake! Because my awesome sister convinced me when Q was a year old to do themed birthday parties, I now do them every year. Every birthday party, I always get stressed making the cake. I ask myself why I do it every year, but when its done, I'm mostly happy I did it, and I will continue to make them themed cakes, till they ask me not to. I do enjoy baking and planning the cake, but I always am rushed when it comes to decorating. This time was no different. I did learn from my mistakes and I made my own icing and that is ALWAYS worth it. With B's monster truck cake, I used canned icing and it was a certifiable cake wreck.








This is the first taste of cake our J has had, and he loved the icing. When he made it through the layer of icing to the cake, he spit it out like and looked at his hand like, "what the...?"
Scott made the food which was yummy. He grilled marinated chicken and made sandwiches with feta cheese and bacon on top, on a ciabatta roll with some fresh spinach. It was delicious. It was also hilarious, because we were in the middle of a snowstorm with some really heavy, wet snow and my precious Scott was out back grilling chicken. I felt bad for him. He is a man dedicated to good food. If the food were left up to me, I would have tossed it on the griddle inside and crossed my fingers that it turned out OK.
J got some cute toys that he played with that day and loved. However, he has not touched them since. He continues to enjoy racing me to the stairs to climb them, and opening my cupboards and emptying them. Also another of his favorite activities is opening the lazy susan and pinching his fingers in there, multiple times a day.
The best things in life are free, right?

It was a fun day! I am still in shock that I have a one year old!!

He Made it a Whole Year

My bitty baby is now a year old. He survived the year, something on occasion ,I wondered if he would. Cause with the two big boys constantly in his face spreading the plague and H1N1 germs, one of them picking him up and dropping him on his head, a spill out the front door thanks to a big brother, another whom thought it was funny to push him over when he got to a standing position, I thought the idea of him NOT making it to his first birthday was a slight possiblity.
Exhibit A: After falling out the front door.


But thank you Lord! He's still here. And he's so cute.
Exhibit B: Cute!


I find myself when I scoop him out of the carseat, or the crib so thankful that God has blessed me with my third little boy. His soft little head, and giant blue eyes make me want to kiss him all over. And I do. He'll only tolerate the kissing for a short time, so I will kiss him all I want for now.
I'm sad a little. He was so teensey compared to the other two, now I think he surpases them both at a year old.
Today we went to lunch with Grandma (B, J and me). To celebrate a little early, I let Gram give him her ice cream cone. It was hilarious. I usually save sweets for the first birthday, so this was appropriate, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. We'll see how his stomach enjoys it in a little while (the kid is lactose intolerant).
Exhibit C: First Icecream.



At one year J:
-Eats well, only table food. When he doesn't want to eat, the food gets thrown on the floor in a violent fashion.
-Sleeps through the night. (although last night he woke up at 1 am to celebrate his birthday a little early).
-Takes two solid naps most days.
-Is constantly on the go. Climbing stairs, crawling everywhere, pulling up to stand.
-Says "uh oh" consistently after he drops something (all of my boys have done this as a first word of sorts). And that's it. A few weeks ago, I thought he said 'ball', but he hasn't said it since. He does say "bye" sort of, and "Dad", but not consistently.
-Claps his hands on demand only sometimes.
-Does "so big" only sometimes.
-Favors Daddy.
-Loves music. He dances when his groove comes on the radio, and after you sing him a song, he sings one back. Its really cute, and I keep trying to get it on camera/video, but he's camera shy.
-Is quite extreme in his reactions to things. Goes from zero to crankfest in 3 seconds.
-Continues to be high maintenance from the hours of 4pm till bedtime. Which is my most favorite time of day.
-The kid is fearless! (except he is now afraid of the bathtub and I can't figure out why). He crawls up the playground equipment across the street and goes down the slide head first without stopping. I'm scared at what he'll do walking!
-He's a blessing! Although somewhat unexpected, he was probably the most healing gift God has given me. The day I found out I was pregnant with him, God removed so much anger from my heart. In an instant. His name means gift of God, and he truly is a gift. All my kids are gifts. I know. I was desperately trying for B and Q. God's timing with J was perfect. He was born just after my mom was finishing chemo, so she could be around to help, and so I would be able to go to appointments with her without lugging a newborn, or trying to find a sitter for 3 boys. He has been a delight (most days)
I am shocked that a year has gone by. I do miss my tiny baby. I cannot bare to post a picture of him as a newborn, cause it gives me the fever. And I know that makes me crazy to want another one.

Pinterest Observations

So after being on pinterest a while now, I have noted the following:

1. What is up with owls? Who died and decided they are the 'in' thing now?
2. Same thing with all things S'mores? S'mores are good and all, but really?
3. I am not in any way fashion forward, nor do I care to be. Nor do I want to spend time dreaming up outfits and searching them on the Internet. I just bought a pair of 'skinny jeans', that's about as current as I get.
4. Ruffles are apparently in, as well as boots. (I have to admit that I have recently bought several ruffled shirts to go with my skinny jeans, I hope I can pull it off).
5. Grey is the new wall color of choice. (I happen to like this one and will most likely be painting my whole house this color shortly).
6. Tiny animals are all the rage.
7. People have too much time on their hands if they are decorating their laundry rooms. I should take a picture of mine and post it on there, just to get reaction.
8. I wish I could get remarried so I can do all the cool ideas out their for weddings these days. (Relax, I'll just marry Scott all over again, after all, he IS my best friend and all;)
9. Mason jars are 'in'. Good thing too, cause I own a lot. (does that make me cool?)
10. I also found out thru Pinterest that Janet, does not like buttons. She's weird.

I Just Joined Pinterest

I have been wanting to 'join' pinterest for a while. I get on there and look at every one's pins at least once a day, and its interesting and fun. Well, I finally bit the bullet and clicked on the "request an invitation" link. Request an invitation? Like its some exclusive club that I have to pledge for. Irk #1.
Then when I filled out the 'request form', it put me on a waiting list. Irk #2. Really, a wait list for this exclusive club, pshaw!(if that's how you spell it). After I got that message, I was greatly displeased and thought, whatever! I ain't joining.
Then I was looking on pinterest and really wanted to pin something I saw, but alas, I could not. For I was not a member. So, I whined to Shay who sent me a private invitation to join. This when I got irk #3.
When I got Shay's invite to pintrest, I could immediately sign up (its all in who you know!). Well, when I went to sign up, there's NO way to join if you don't have a gosh darn Facebook or Twitter account (and shay, I actually e-mailed Pinterest to find out). I believe my words at this news included expletives. Bad words I can't type. Or abbreviate. But you get what I mean.
Then I was all set NOT to join Pinterest just on principle. But it happened again. I was looking at something cool and wanted to 'pin' it, and I couldn't. So what did I do?
I joined freakin' Twitter. I'm that desperate to join Pinterest.

I'm even more convinced now that Facebook will somehow rule the world and take it down with one fell keystroke one day. (I'll send a tweet when it happens).