Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Halloween 2009

Snow White's Shoe

Yep. It's a two blog entry week. Been a crazy one. Just wanted to leave you with a picture of what I had to pull out of Luke's nose with tweezers today. It was so far up there, I had to use a flashlight to see it. If you're wondering what it is, it's Snow White's shoe.


M


I'm thankful he put the shoe in his nose toe first, that way I could grab the heel with the tweezers??? (I know, I'm grasping here....)

"A Man Came Over"

Don't even know where to start with this story. I guess at the beginning.


As I sit here typing this, I can't help but laugh. I've told you in past entries that I've been having a really difficult time getting the twins down for a nap. I really think it would be so much easier if they didn't share a room, but I just don't have the type of house where I could separate them, and besides, they would HATE it! They can't stand being separated, even for a few minutes.

Well, the other day, I told them it was nap time and I put them in their room and closed the door. I heard them in there singing Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs. (What can I say? We've gone to A LOT of birthday parties this summer) Soon, they were laughing and I would hear a few things crashing on the floor (probably books that were on the bed since everything else has been CLEARED out of the room). Then I heard Luke playing with the door, opening it, then quietly closing it, he must have thought he was being sneaky. I so desperately wanted a little "space" that I just ignored it.

After about 30 minutes, it got really quiet, so I figured they were sleeping. I gave them a few more minutes to fall asleep "hard" before going to check on them, only when I went to open the door, it wouldn't open. Then I hear Luke, "Mama! open the door!" I tried again. Nothing. Somehow he locked the door. I have no idea how he did it. It's a french door handle with a twist lock that is really hard to turn! At first I started laughing because they were both on the other side of the door at this point asking me to unlock it. I didn't have the little tool to unlock it from the outside, so I tried to teach them how, "twist the little piece that looks like a coin". Then I hear Luke in his 2 year old little voice, "No!"--- "Come on Luke, I can't open it from out here, please twist the coin." ----"No!, Let me out!" After a few minutes of this, and trying to open the door with a coat hanger, I realized, I needed the tool.

I called one of my neighbors who said she didn't have one. So, I ran across the street to my other neighbor's house, then another, then another. Nobody had one! I ran into the house and called a contractor who works on several houses in the neighborhood thinking he was around and I knew he would have the tool. Then I looked out the front door and saw a couple neighbors walking up my driveway with their tool boxes. Oh, boy, embarrassment is starting to set in at this point. Why is it that the house is always the messiest it can possibly be when things like this happen??? I know my neighbors were thinking "how do these people live like this?!". But in my defense, I do have 2 two year olds with about a million different toys (2 of everything) everywhere!

After trying several different tools, my neighbor, Jon, opened the door. Luke and Ashley just looked at him like, "who are you?!" Then they got scared. After a couple minutes they calmed down, and I walked my neighbors out. The twins wouldn't stop talking about it. They were so excited to tell their dad when he got home from work. And everyone else who would listen. I thought it was bad enough that they locked themselves in the room until, the next day when Luke was telling perfect strangers, "Dada went to work. Mama locked me in my room and a man came over".

M

I am thankful my children got out of their room safely and am glad it was their bedroom and not another. After all, that room is probably the safest room in the house since I have completely stripped it! Also..... I guess I got a little "space".

Enough Said

Ummmm.. I'm thankful that I just bought 5 gallons of Clorox from Costco??

Lazy summer days

There's nothing like a lazy summer day eating a popsicle on the front porch. And that's what we've been doing a lot lately. It has been SO HOT!

I know, I know, it's not just the hot summer making me lazy with keeping up the blog. But I have an excuse! I haven't been able to get on the computer for awhile during the twins' nap time because we switched them over to big beds and they DON'T sleep! All they want to do is run around their room and be destructive. Just this weekend, Brent had to put locks on their dresser drawers and I had to remove all shelves and pictures from the walls. When I say destructive, I mean DESTRUCTIVE. Take a look at what they did with a few diapers that were neatly packed.

Oh, and they like wipes too.

And books.....

And clothes.....

And toys, and blankets, and sheets and pillows and pictures and anything else they can reach.

They also put toys in the toilet and marker on the walls, not to mention the whole "bologna sticks to the wall, Mama!" stage. (oh, and have you ever stepped on a piece of bologna barefoot before?!) I have....

The first half of the summer has been filled with lots of fun. Birthday parties, picnics, slip and slides, snow (yes, snow), the beach, popsicles, watermelon, swimming and much more. This summer is whizzing by!

It's hard to explain how much they have changed since they turned two. The best way is to say, they turned TWO. They fight, they laugh, they talk, they run, they jump, they climb, they fall, they have temper tantrums, they joke, they hug. They tell me they love me. And my heart melts. I am so in love with them. One second, I'm ready to put them on ebay and the next, they're cuddling in my lap. But I wouldn't trade a minute of the rough times, the good times are just too good. They're just awesome. I am so thankful that I am able to stay home with them during the day and experience all of this.

Here are some pictures from the first half of summer.

Until next time....

M

Easter 2009

I guess from the looks of this picture, I'm out of the running for "Mom of the Year" huh? Seriously, they were only on the Easter Bunny's lap for about 5 seconds. I told the photographer I wasn't looking for the "perfect" picture, just to take it as soon as I sat them down. Ashley immediately punched the Bunny in his glasses (notice how crooked they are??) then quickly squirmed her way out of his arms onto the floor. The photographer took 3 quick pictures and this was the only one where Thomas the Train was not in Luke's face. That was it, 5 seconds max. Oh also, in case any of you noticed and were wondering, No, I did not match Luke's shirt with electric blue shoes. Those are his Thomas the Train water socks that he wears out to the sand bar that he INSISTED on wearing. Not only are they T.A.C.K.Y. but they're about 2 sizes to small. I'm not one bit surprised they reacted this way. At least they got rid of the Easter Rodent and we now have a real Easter Bunny!



The week started out with an Easter Brunch at a friends house where all the kids painted eggs. Talk about a MESS! They had so much fun. Even though Luke's hand was green for about 2 days. He's definitely a boy. He was actually the only boy at the party. All the girls would dip their eggs in the cups and wait. Luke would dip one egg in about 3 different colors until it turned out to be some sort of a weird brownish green color. He didn't care. It was just fun!



On Saturday we went to an Easter Egg hunt. There were 11,000 stuffed plastic eggs! They ran around picking them up. Again, Luke was all boy. Ashley picked up one at a time and looked around. Luke would pick up as many as he could at once and run to get more. They got and ate a lot of candy. (although Luke did NOT like the black jelly bean!) At the Easter Egg festival, they had bounce houses, so of course Luke and Ashley wanted to get in one. However, I was the only parent out of the hundreds of parents there, that had to actually climb into the the bounce house to get my child out. Ashley refused to let anyone else have a turn. Brent just stood there laughing! I could have killed him! A little help would have been nice!

Easter Sunday was really laid-back. Which is a first around here! Usually when we get together with my family, something crazy happens, but this year, we just went out to brunch and all the kids did really well. We had a great time. I'm looking forward to heading up to the Disney Resort to have brunch with the characters. Hopefully we'll be able to all get together soon to do that.

I am thankful that I live close enough to my sister so our kids can get together and play. They have so much fun!

Jackson, or as we like to call him, Jackass

I've written about Savannah and how wonderful she is. She's doing really well, actually, she's doing too well! After today I was ready to kill her and Jackson, or as we jokingly like to call him, Jackass. It's hard to tell who the instigator is sometimes, but it's usually Jackson. The two of them have always gotten themselves into sticky situations. LITERALLY. There have been many times, where we have had to give them baths to clean an unknown sticky substance off their fur. We should have known the day we brought Jackson home, he was going to be Trouble. One of my friends just told me that he puts "Marly" (from Marly and Me) to shame. He really does, I should write a book about him.

As a wedding gift to Brent, I bought him a tiny little Alabama dog collar and told him to pick out his puppy (since I already had Savannah). He always wanted a chocolate lab, but we heard from many people that chocolate labs tend to be more "hyper". hmph..... So he decided to get a more gentle, calm, trainable, BLACK LAB. Riiiiight...... So enter Jackson. Luckily, we were living in an apartment at the time.....

When we were trying to housebreak him, we would take him between the apartment buildings and teach him to go there, only one night he ran into a neighbors apartment and pooped behind their couch. We had been searching for him for a pretty long time, because he was so little and black, he was hard to find in the dark. Then we heard someone scream. Brent and I looked at each other, like "oh no...." This girl, whom we had never met, came running out of her apartment screaming, "there's a puppy behind my couch pooping!!" This was only the start. Within the first month, he pooped in the bathtub, pooped on the wall, swam in the toilet, pulled a thick packing blanket through a tiny whole in his crate and climbed (YES CLIMBED) over a baby gate and tore up the the apartment. I have no idea how he did it. We used to have to put our garbage can on the counter, so he couldn't get to it, but that didn't always work, he's like Houdini! I'm telling you the dog is CRAZY! He had probably done all this and he wasn't even 3 months old yet. We finally moved into our house in Atlanta and he would sled down the hill in a baby pool, eat through the wiring in the wall of the unfinished basement so we wouldn't have air conditioning upstairs, and could somehow move Brent's extra-heavy pull out couch across the basement floor and block off the doggie door so Savannah was stuck outside in the rain all day. (See why we call him Jackass?) He doesn't do any of this to be mean, he's really a sweet dog, he's just, well..... Jackson. He had to have surgery twice on his shoulders and both times, the surgeon called us early and asked us to pick him up. Guess he didn't like being there in a kennel? My mom and sister had to pick him up once, still sedated! Brent and I planted beautiful azaleas in our backyard, and Jackson ate them, we were pretty ticked, but it was kind of funny, because he lost all the hair around his eyes after he did it. He looked like he was wearing goggles, but was just bald. I guess he was allergic to them.

He has a way of "introducing us to new neighbors". Like when we moved into our current house in West Palm. After our first night here, I woke up early, because I couldn't sleep well (being in a new place). I went downstairs and heard a loud SPLASH! I didn't think much of it, until I heard the neighbor (whisper yelling??). I guess she was trying to be quiet, because it was around 6:00 in the morning, but was trying to be loud enough for her husband to hear her, who was inside her house. I hear, "come outside.... come outside!" Then I hear another SPLASH! Then I hear Savannah barking. She has a specific bark when she's tattling on Jackson. OH NO!!! I ran to my window and what did I see??? Jackson in the neighbor's pool swimming with the NEIGHBOR! She swims laps in the morning and Jackson, being a lab, can not stand for anyone to swim without him. He decided to climb through our fence and jump right in and make himself at home. I started screaming upstairs to Brent, "Brent!! Jackson's in the neighbors' pool! come help me!" So I immediately run over to the neighbor's house, IN MY PAJAMAS, and grab him. I apologize a million times and drag him out of the pool. Then! He has the nerve to POOP in their front yard! I swear, I'm not making this up. Again, see why we call him Jackass? He did it one more time after that, so Brent built something to block off the gap between our houses.

Jackson and Savannah truly are escape artists. They have gotten out of the backyard several times. And they always go somewhere exciting. Publix, the Italian Restaurant, the nice Resort down the street. I guess they swam up the intracoastal got out on the resort beach, swam in their pool and walked through the lobby, that's when the manager called me. UGH. Well, today, the guy who cleans our pool let them out again. We live close to a busy road, so I always get really nervous. I was especially nervous, because this is the first time Savannah's gotten out without me since her surgery. We haven't introduced her to the water yet, because the water's been too cold for us to get in, so I was scared to death. I stopped everyone I saw while I was out looking for them. Even the mail lady. After about an hour and a half of searching for them, I drove back to my house, just as the mail lady was pulling in. She flagged me down. I jumped out of my car, and have you ever been around a horse in his trailer? You know the sound they make when the kick the metal door? Well, that's what I was hearing. I thought, what in the world is that? Then I realized... Jackson..... (Savannah was fine, she was on someone's front porch drinking water and the mail lady didn't see her) So, the mail lady backed into my driveway, and raised the huge heavy door to her truck, and who did I see?, Jackson. He's just standing there smiling and wagging his tail as he's crammed between crates (that used to be organized, until Jackass decided to go for a ride... See? Understand the name now?) Can you imagine getting your mail today with hair, salt water and slobber all over it? Ick.. She showed me where she found him, which wasn't far at all. Savannah doesn't move that fast and they always stick together. I guess she didn't see Savannah because she was on someone's front porch and Jackson was in the yard. But they are both home safe. Sleeping, but safe.

Just wanted to share some Jackson stories. As crazy as he makes us, he really is a great dog. Everyone kept telling us he would calm down when he got neutered, or when he turned 5 or when he turned 8, well, he's nine and still hasn't slowed down one bit. The only time and I mean the ONLY time he's calm and gentle is when Ashley's around. I don't know what it is, but he is like a different dog with her.

I am thankful I got my dogs back, even though one of them had to embarrass me by coming home in the back of a mail truck.....

"Bus!!"

Wow! I feel like such a loser! My friends are able to keep up their blogs really well, and here I am struggling to get an entry in once every 6 weeks! It's impossible to sit down at the computer these days. Luke and Ashley demand A LOT of attention (I'm hoping it's just their age). Luckily, they have discovered "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse". Ashley's just like her dad in that she'll watch tv all day if I let her. Luke doesn't last that long. So, while they're watching Mickey Mouse, I'm able to go to the bathroom, or pick up the kitchen or run outside to get the mail. But that's about it. Then it's back to "Up Mama! Mama sit on floor! Mama, swing outside with JaJa and YaYa!" The only "real" break I get is during their nap. And that's when I start dinner, do the laundry and pick up more! We've also been going out a lot more. FINALLY!! I can take them out and do normal things with them by myself!! YAY! We go to MyGym a couple times a week, the library for reading hour, Pottery Barn Kids does a reading hour and the grocery store a ton! In a nutshell, we're busy around here, but having so much fun!

They keep me laughing all day long. I love listening to them talk. They still do their "twin speak" but can communicate with me as well now. Sometimes, if I can't understand what one of them is saying to me, I ask the other to translate, and they do! Luke's favorite word is "NO!" Half the time he doesn't even mean it, I think he just likes to say it! It's really fun to listen to them and watch as their minds develop. They talk NONSTOP! Ashley calls Luke "Gook" (yes, gook....) and Luke calls Ashley "Asha". Everything has a word now. The other day, we drove by a trailer park, and Luke got really excited, and pointed to one of the trailers and screamed "bus!!". Brent and I cracked up. We said, "that's not a bus!! That's someone's home!" (he's obsessed with anything that mechanically moves. Cars, trucks, buses, boats, trains, airplanes, etc.)

What's been going on since the last time I posted.....
They can both count to 20. They can sing the alphabet. Ashley loves to tell stories. If someone asks her what Santa brought her for Christmas, she will tell you, and I mean she will tell you EVERYTHING! (a horsey, an elmo kitchen, a doll, a dog, etc.) She also likes to tell people the story of how she "rode a horsey.. on a carousel... didn't want to get off.. and cried". It's hilarious. Luke also tells the story, but never admits that he cried for some reason... hmmm. They are as sweet as can be right now. I love it when they run to me with their arms spread out and let me catch them. They love to hug, me and each other. Luke is still my cuddler. I hope he stays like that for a long long time!

There are also the days, when I'm about to lose my mind. They are definitely TWO! And it's TWO times 2!! UGH. I was hoping they wouldn't give me a hard time, but they do. They test me constantly. At times, I wish I didn't teach them how to count, because if I warn one of them to stop doing something and start counting to 3, the other one usually finishes the counting. Example, me-"Luke, sit down! 1.....2....." Ashley-"3!" And they both laugh. But overall, they are good children and keep me laughing more than frustrated.

I still can't believe they are 2! The past couple months (and years!) have flown by. We went through Savannah completing her chemo and going into remission (yay!) Christmas, Luke's first haircut, Birthdays and a trip to the zoo! Here are some pictures taken since my last post!

I'm thankful for a healthy and fun 2008 with my babies! I am excited to see what 2009 will bring us. So far, each year has gotten better and better!