Boys!

Alaina, Kayla and I went to the mall Sunday morning. She was such a good girl, we went down and got her a small ice cream cone at Runza. We sat down beside a table with six older high school boys sitting at it and I had two trains of thought run screaming through my head at the same time.

the first train was . . .

I'm too old to tell if they are good looking anymore. The only phrase that comes to mind involves the evil adult phrase "What a nice looking boy!" (Blech!)

And the second train . . .

Its going to be so much fun when Alaina is old enough to be embarrassed by her mother in front of the opposite sex.

But for right now she just chatted happily while the boys tried to ignore the lady with two little girls at the table next to them.

Bugging me?

Alaina and I had a quick entomology lesson this morning. This HUGE praying mantis was hanging from one of the parking signs when we pulled into daycare. I scrambled to think about what I could say that would be a good fact about the praying mantis, but I could only think of one thing when I saw it.

And that fact is something I won't share with my child until much later in life.

So I picked one other thing that I notice about bugs.

Look at how still he is.

She's a girl mommy. (How did she know?)

She's sitting so still because its chilly out. When it warms it, she will move away.

Yep and then she'll turn into a boy.

and that is where I lost control of the conversation.

Oh, Alaina, girls don't turn into boys.

Yes!

Nope. Girls stay girls and boys stay boys.

I'm not going to touch the variations that modern society have made to that statement either.

It's amazing how many topics I can find to avoid in three minutes.

Biter Brenneman

Alaina had an incident report yesterday. She bit another kid. Apparently he was pestering her so she decided that turning around and biting him was the best solution for peace.

And the best part?

She bit him on the stomach.

Anyway . . .

We had an interesting adventure in eating out last night. I've learned its almost easier to find fast food that is MSPI friendly than restaurant food simply because in fast food places everything is cooked in oil, restaurants use butter.

We went to Granite City and I jealously watch Jeff eat a blue cheese bacon burger while I had pork with pork au jus, some sauteed potatoes and a delicious combo of sauteed almonds, garlic, tomato, onion and spinach leaves on top of the pork. I am definitely going to try making that topping at home!

Wordless Wednesday

Jeff's lesson . . .

So last night was my last night working during the week at Younkers. I was at first excited when I came home because Alaina was in bed already. Jeff was wearing his usual I-just-got-left-home-alone-with-two-children-under-the-age-of-five look, but it was anything other than a usual night for Jeff. I asked Jeff last night if it was a good thing that I'm quitting.

I'll let you guess his answer after I tell you the story of how his night went.

After I left for work, Kayla slept just long enough for him to feed Alaina and himself. Alaina had an english muffin with grape jelly which she somehow got all over her hair meaning she would need a bath on a non-bath night. Then Kayla woke up about three seconds into Alaina's pony ride with daddy.

Three seconds after Jeff picked up the crying Kayla, Alaina announced that she had to go potty. Jeff set the baby down in her boppy pillow (still crying because he couldn't calm her down) and took Alaina to the bathroom, where she had just pulled her pants down when her "potty warning" expired.

I can just see the look on his face when Alaina peed allover the floor, can you?

Of course Alaina slipped in her 'accident' so Jeff undressed her and deposited her in the tub and proceeded to clean up the potty with paper towels. Meanwhile the baby was still crying and continued to cry until I got home.

Do I even need to ask if you can guess what his answer was?

And is it any wonder the baby slept all night without waking up once?

Green with Envy!

I am so jealous!

Jeff is home right now . . .probably sleeping away! He has two extra weeks of vacation that he has to use before the end of the year, so he's taking a few extra days off around the holidays, and the next two mondays.

So he has three four day weeks!

SO NOT FAIR!

I'm really lamenting the fact that I am required to use a full week of PTO to start off my maternity leave. I understand that it makes people think twice about taking a short term disability leave unless the REALLY need it . . .but can't they make an exception for maternity leave? When you are having a baby, you really need that extra week for sick time for you and baby!

Anyway . . .

We had a busy weekend. If I didn't mention before, Kayla is growing like a weed, which is evident in the fact that she now takes 5 oz bottles to daycare. Needless to say, I'm now struggling just a little bit harder to meet her needs. That plus the fact that she screamed for most of yesterday with what I hope was the end of the tummy tantrum brought on by the evil piece of cheese I ate Thursday.

Saturday we drove up to Omaha for a birthday party for a one year old. It was nice to see a few faces I haven't seen in a while, but I appreciated going home. A short nap was taken, and then Jeff took Alaina to Champions Fun Center for his company's family night.

I sent the camera with them and Jeff sat down to show me all the picture he took, only to realize he'd only taken three, one of which was of a friend and their child.

I'm going to guess Alaina consumed about two cups of sugar while out with daddy in the form of cotton candy, snow cones and even more. She came home wired to the hilt, streaked in dirt, sporting a fresh bruise on her knee and had blue cotton candy stuck in her hair.

Evidence of a great time!

I can't wait to take both girls next year!

Crazy Friday.

I was so frustrated that I yelled at both of them. They didn't even see it coming.

I just wanted things to move a little faster, but the oven was taking forever to heat up and I needed to leave for work.

So I yelled. Actually it was more like I hollered.

Right before I tossed it back in the fridge.

HA! You thought I was talking about the girls!

Nope! Much to the questionable relief of my sanity, I'm talking about the roll of Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookie dough that I didn't have enough time to cook over my lunch hour, even though I desperately wanted a cookie.

And the next victim? STILL not one of my girls. It was . . .

A can of pop.

Needless to say I was a little frustrated that I hadn't had time to finish my soda over lunch, so it is still sitting on my table at home.

Waiting and deflating.

I guess I was the definition of Freaky Friday today.