May I just vent for a while?

I hate potty training!  UGHHH!! This is try number 2 on the potty training count down.  Try number one was in January, and after a week with no progress, I conceded.  But now we're on try number 2, and I don't think my mental capacities can handle a try number 3.  That and I'm completely disgusted by changing a three year old's diapers.  It is time to move on!  Someone convince my child that he needs to go ON THE POTTY!  Geez...he was doing pretty well, until today.  Maybe he has a stubborn streak.  I think he's trying to wear me down until I SNAP!  Too late buckaroo!  I already snapped, and **** it, you will not go to preschool in diapers!  Maybe I should do yoga.  Would that calm me down?  I need to go to "that pretty place" they talk about in those prenatal-first-time-mom pregnancy classes.

On a happier note, we celebrated Josh's birthday 2 1/2 weeks ago.  He was so excited to get his scooter!  He just 

couldn't stop talking in a really fast high pitched tone.  I was standing in front of him taking pictures,

and he was so excited, he just turned to whomever was closest and just starting talking really fast about his scooter.  With Josh's speech delay, this made for a pretty funny episode.  Most of the ti

me, I had no idea what he was saying, but I could definitely hear "scooter" (fuhuh, as he says) it in there a lot!  It was completely hilarious.  And I must've done a good job last year with his baseball cake cause that's what he wanted again.  Alright!  I can totally do a baseball.  White icing with red lines--done! 

Despite all the frustration, I guess we'll keep ya, Josh.  Yeah, we love you!

Happy Birthday Davey!

March 6, 2009 was the momentous 1st birthday for Davey.  He is such a cute kid.  He's tipsy on his feet, but by golly, you better watch out!  Davey has such a strong personality.  He does NOT like it when he doesn't get his way. Whoa!  I bet he'll be the kid that gives me gray hair.  He is always happy (except when he doesn't get his way--which is happening more and more) and he is low maintenance.  He's happier roaming around on his own than being held.  We are so grateful for you Davey!  You make us laugh!  

I was quite proud of the cake I made.  I have never seen cuter cakes than Jamie makes, so I thought I would try to rival her cute cakes with one of my own.  Although it's not as cute as Thomas the Train, I thought it was not half bad!  Davey didn't care.  He likes cake whether or not it's cute.

Who's ready for summer?

Hello to the world!  Guess what?  I turned on my air conditioner today.  Isn't that insane?  And, the funny thing is, I was one of the last people to do it.  Well, of the 5 people I was talking to at the park yesterday, I was one of the last.  Isn't February supposed to be winter?  Since when is winter in the 80's?!  Watch out summer, it's going to be a rough ride!

Davey started walking recently.  Like a week or two ago.  He just all of a sudden went and did it.  He falls a few dozen times a day, but it doesn't seem to bother him.  He doesn't have a long way to fall.  I remember when Josh was starting to walk.  He just held on to our fingers FOREVER!  He could walk at nine months, but he wouldn't let go of that one finger!  All of a sudden, the day after his first birthday, he let go and walked like a pro!  Davey definitely doesn't walk like a pro.  He's a trial and error kind of guy.  That's the way he likes it. 

Josh is a good big brother.  He loves Davey, but he is kind of  a brute.  He doesn't mean to hurt Davey during the tackle game or the jumping game, or the tickle game, it just happens.  Which reminds me, Joshua is starting to give up naps! No!  I love naptime; he's going and getting rid of my blissful quietness.  We'll see how long I can keep my sanity...

Where do all the birds go?

So, we all know that birds fly south for the winter. But, I've always wondered where they go. I mean, I see flocks and flocks of birds start their migration in about October, and they all just disappear into nowhere land. Well, I am here today to tell everyone that now I know exactly where birds go for the winter. They fly to Gilbert, Arizona where they eat all of my newly planted grass seed. These aren't the cute cuddly birds. I like bluebirds, and cardinals, and sparrows just fine, but these birds eating my grass seed aren't any of these birds. The birds littering my lawn, and all of my neighbors' lawns, and the community park, and all the streets, are big, fat, ugly, blackbirds. Actually, I think they're ravens. I don't know much about birds, but I vaguely remember an Edgar Allen Poe poem--something about how scary ravens are. I would imagine that these birds fit his description quite nicely. I'm totally not kidding though. These birds are everywhere! It's perfect bird hunting season. Shoot a beebee in the air, anywhere, and I promise that a bird will randomly drop from the sky.

Speaking of birds, I have recently discovered another Arizona phenomenon--snowbirds! Now, don't be fooled, snowbirds aren't actually birds at all, they are people! I know, it's confusing. This is the term given to senior citizens who, desperate to find a warm place on earth during winter time, actually move their residence here to Arizona to live out the duration of winter in the nice arizona warmth. They're called snowbirds because they fly south for the winter. May I just vent about them for a moment? I have nothing personally against senior citizens. They are very nice people, however, does anyone know what happens when, in a matter of 30-ish days, a city doubles in size, and all of the growth is due to the senior citizen? Well now, instead of taking 10 minutes to drive to Cost-co, it takes 20 minutes because not only are there twice as many cars on the road, but all of the new traffic is senior citizen, don't go too fast, enjoy the ride, brake too much, lookout!, traffic. Not only does it take longer to get to the store, it takes longer to get out of the store. The sudden influx in population means that the lines are twice as long, and it's not just that it's twice as long. It's twice as long filled with senior citizens. Again, nothing against senior citizens, personally, but when I have a screaming baby and a toddler running off, it's not exactly the perfect time for the 10 people in front of me to be lolligaging around. I need efficiency! So, snowbirds, sorry to say, although you are very nice, you're just congesting everything up around here. You have officially worn out your welcome. Please, just go back home.

Family portraits

We finally went and got some family pictures done. Now the trick will be getting them out in Christmas cards. There's some super cute ones of the boys too. I tell you what...it takes a lot of energy to make two small children sit still, smile, and look at the camera all at the same time simultaneously! Whoa! There's a reason these things only go out once a year!

Guess what I taught Josh...

About a month or so ago, I was having a really stressful day. It was one of those days following a really bad night, so I was really tired. I decided on this day that I needed to move down Davey's crib mattress to a lower level. He had just learned how to pull himself to a standing position, so I didn't want him toppling out of his bed. So, after nap time ended, "operation: move down the crib mattress" began.

Josh can't go anywhere without me, so he was convinced he was going to help. Davey was crawling all around the floor, and very content, so I began by trying to remove the mattress from the crib. I lifted one end of the mattress, but I couldn't remove the mattress because the stupid bumper was in the way. By now, Josh was climbing up the side of the crib, trying to climb in on top of the mattress I am attempting to remove. Davey is crawling at my feet because he wants up. I tell Josh to please get down and I move Davey across the room. I start to untie the bumper. I can't get all of the bumper ties undone because all 6 of the ties are in knots. I'm tugging at the knots, Josh is "wrestling" me, and Davey's climbing over my legs because he wants up. After a good 10 minutes, I finally have all of the ties undone. Losing patience, I say, "Josh, go show Davey the toys" and they both leave the room.

Yay, time to work alone. The next step is to undo the four screws keeping the bottom of the bed attached to the crib. I take all four screws off without any problems. Then the boys come back in. Joshua is trying to show me something, and Davey's climbing all over my lap. Trying to stay calm, but losing, I try reattaching the bottom of the crib to the new lower level. I try the first screw, it falls out of my hand. I try again, but I can't line up the screw holes correctly, I try again and again. I can't get the screw in the hole correctly! I'm so mad! It's been a good 30 minutes since I started this project. Joshua is now running up and down the room, slamming into the closet door. Davey's crying because Josh closed him into the closet. I am hot, tired, frustrated, and annoyed that there's so much noise and I can't put the stupid screw through the hole! All I want to do is just yell at the top of my lungs for everyone to shut up and leave me alone, but I think to myself, "Self, I need to not lose control. I need to be more Christ-like. He wouldn't lose His temper, so I need to keep it under control." So, all of this energy from almost losing my temper comes out as, "JOSHUA!! I'm trying not to yell at you, so just GO AWAY!" Joshua stops dead in his tracks. He looks at me. and says, "Oh." and runs out of the room. Yay! I was so pleased! I was still livid, but so proud of myself for not completely losing it. So, here's the problem:

Joshua's favorite phrase to say when he doesn't get his way? "Go away, mommy!" Anytime he gets upset with me he reverts back to, "Go Away!" I've heard it an amazing amount of times today, "Go away, mommy!" or "MOMMY, go AWAY!" or "GO! mommy AWAY!"

Great...I can't even get mad when he says it cause I'm the one who taught it to him!

Halloween!

Yay! We have Halloween pictures! Joshua wanted to be Diego for Halloween, and if I was smart, I would've made Davey a little jaguar-type animal. Because anyone who watches Diego like we do knows that Diego doesn't go anywhere without his "side kick" Baby Jaguar. However, when we bought costumes, I wasn't thinking, and I bought the football player costume. So, you may be thinking, why is Davey sporting the Superman costume? What happened to the football player costume? Let me explain:

So, much to my dismay, we live in the desert. The desert is hot--very, very, very hot. Jay Golden Kimball might say, "it's hotter than h***" and he would be telling the truth. So, since Arizona's Halloween costumes come from the same place as Minnesota's Halloween costumes, let's just say that double padded, long sleeved, long pants, oversized knit double padded hats, are not exactly ideal costumes for the Arizona desert. Davey's football player costume was, in fact, one of those costumes. However, the hand-me-down superman costume, although long sleeves, is super thin and breathes like Egyptian cotton. So, since I would rather not have my children smothered in layers of padding and cotton, I put Davey in the cute Superman costume. I grew up wearing costumes over clothes, and even then we would still wear a coat on cold nights. In the desert, the costume is their clothes, no coat needed. The temperature on Halloween? 95 degrees.

So, Josh was Diego (definitely a favorite around here) and Davey was Superman.

Rich and I were both under the weather for Halloween, but we still walked the boys around the neighborhood. After 5 houses, or so, Joshua was excited, but very tired, and wanted to go home. So, we did one last street, and went home. We were out and back in about 30 minutes, walking a two-year-old pace. I bet this'll be the only one of those Halloweens until Rich and I are empty-nesters.

Josh had a great time, and Davey put up with us. Both boys went to bed early, and Rich and I laid around groaning about how sick we were. That is our exciting Halloween.