Video link

I finally updated my video link in my sidebar. I just can't figure out how to get better quality!! After hours and hours, I give up.

And speaking of budgets...

If you were absolutely guaranteed a very comfortable retirement at 55 years old if you just stuck to a clothes and shoe budget of $200 per year from now until then, never ever going over, could you (would you) do it?

Not that that's my situation at all, but I'm trying really hard to change the way I think about money and all the stupid crap I spend it on.

Wednesday wanderings

1. Madeline got a 100% on Rockband, singing Whatcha Whatcha Whatcha Want. Now I don't feel as good about my 100%.

2. I went to Trader Joes to get something I could only get there and I picked up some mac and cheese for the kids in hopes that they'd like it and we could add it to the very short list of easy lunches they'll eat. It has more sodium than I like, but, oh well. Anyways, I bought a box of single serving packs for $2.50. When I was at Smiths on Monday, I checked their price for the same exact thing- $6 bucks! Unbelievable.

3. We did the carousel again this weekend. It's 2 bucks and she loves it. This time we were the only ones there.

4. The Disney Channel has brainwashed Madeline into KNOWING that she REALLY REALLY WANTS to go to Disneyland. We are hoping to go this Spring, but we can't even mention it around her unless we want to listen to her ask about it for days and days.

5. Here are a couple more horrible-parents-who-grab-a-camera-instead-of-getting-their-one-year-old-down climbing pics:

Try not to laugh at his outfit. I dress him once a day, after that he gets scrubs.

6. Maison had his first car wash experience today and he DID NOT like it. Poor little guy.

7. I think I have stayed away from Starbucks for almost 2 weeks. Well, at least one week. I'm not sure, but I'm doing lots better since their eggnog is gone.

8. We went to Dennys with my parents and the boys last night. Madeline ate chicken nuggets dipped in ranch dipped in applesauce.

9. Today I gave Madeline nuggets, ranch and an apple for lunch. When she was finished, this and one seed, was all that was left of her apple-

and she had used up all of her ranch eating the apple and needed more for her nuggets.

10. Lastly, a mean sister pic-

Wednesday wanderings

I'm going to try a new thing. I won't promise that I'll keep it up though, I'm just not that reliable.

There are a couple of blogs that I like to read who do 10 on Tuesday posts, and I love that it's a place for them to log random happenings from the week. I'm one to completely copy someone else's good idea, so I'm going to start it here too. But, I'm going to do it on Wednesdays and not commit to any number of items.


Here we go-

1. My favorite facial feature this week: bubble bath beards

2. I'm loving Tuesday night TV- The new season of Biggest Loser, followed by the new season of Housewives of Orange County.

3. Thor (and a couple of other guys) took a few hours last week and got all of the leaves up from the backyard and trimmed the neighbors' trees that are invading one corner of our property. I can't get over the difference it made. I didn't even think it looked that messy before. Now, with the clean yard and the beautiful weather, we've been out there tons every day.

4. I sorted through my books again. I already don't keep any fiction that I've read, so I didn't have many of those, except the growing stack of ones I want to, but haven't read. Now I'm trying to think seriously about my non-fiction books since I don't ever open them- I use the internet instead if I want information about anything. It's strange how hard it is to get rid of books that I like.

5. I am trying to cut down on my computer time because it is eating away my 'me time'. There are just so many things i want to put here for rememberies sake, and so many interesting people to read about, and so much to learn, and so many pictures to make beautiful, that I end up stuck on here forever and it's taking the place of things I used to do, like read and watch movies, and shower regularly. :)

6. Two notable Madeline phrases from the week- 1. Yes Sir, Mommy! Yes, Sir! 2. Mommy, that f-ing (she didn't censor) car scared you? Mommy, daddy say f-ing too. OOPS!

7. We took the kids on the carousel at the District, which is very pretty. Madeline LOVED it. It was her first carousel ride. It was on Saturday evening and there was only 1 other family on it. I hope they don't shut it down. I only had my phone with me, so I used it's camera.



8. We've watched Horton Hears a Who so many times that Madeline knows a lot of the words and says them along with the characters. And she'll even quote them when it's not on.

Status

Since I've decided not to update my Facebook ever and to update my Myspace rarely, I'm going to post my current status here. Because I'm very happy about it.

Jessica is going to take a nap.

There. Be jealous. Thanks.

Step 1 to a more organized me

I've ordered a new calendar. My old one just wasn't going to do the job I needed it to do. Although it was free. From the water district. So that kinda counted toward my save more money goal. But the squares are only like a half of an inch. I used their last years calendar for all of my last years dinner planning, but now they've shrunk it. And I want to plan so much more this year.

I am so excited. I think my new, big calendar will be the answer to all of my problems. I must not have very big problems...

Our One-Year-Old Maison

Ok, little buddy. You are 1 year old. 1 YEAR OLD! My breath catches when I think about how fast you are growing up.

First your specs. 22 lbs, 5 ounces. 29.5 inches tall. Doc says you're average in height and weight. Your noggin is pretty big, and you use it as a weapon whenever you can. You have eight teeth now and your molars are on their way.

You're not walking yet, but you climb, climb, climb. On anything that leads to something higher. You can move fast on your hands and knees. I love hearing your hands slap, slap, slap, on the floor as you "run" to me.

Everyday you take more unassisted steps, but you're not walking yet. Unlike your sister, you're taking it little by little. You step away from what you're holding onto without thinking and take a few steps, then you realize what you've done and drop to the floor to crawl instead. The first time you took steps on your own was on your birthday in front of everyone. It was only 3, then 3, then 2, but it was exciting. I think our gasps and applause scared you a little bit. And you didn't do it again for a couple of weeks.

I have me a momma's boy on my hands. You have only recently started to go willingly into certain other people's arms, sometimes. Gma, GG, Daddy and Jen are the only people I can think of right now. If I walk past you, you throw a fit. If I set you down without distracting you, you throw a fit. You throw lots of fits.
And you have started hitting. Which is really nice. I'm sure you're learning it from your sister, as she is still not very nice to you. Although, we did have a nice little playtime on the swingset the other day, where she pushed you nicely on the swing, and held onto you on the slide.

Bedtime with you is easy. Bath, pj's, bottle, bed. I rock and cuddle you for a few minutes while you play with my hair. And you usually go right to sleep once in your crib. But you still wake up once or twice most nights, and it makes me very tired. Doc says it's probably your teeth getting you up, which is what I figured. Your sister never slept when she was cutting teeth either. I seem to get about a week in between teeth. Tonight's already been rough and it's only ten o'clock.

Sleeping with you is dangerous, which is why it never happens. You headbutt, pull my hair, scratch and pull at my face, bug daddy, and squirm, squirm, squirm. The only time it's even possible is if you have one side of the bed all to yourself.

Meal times can be tough, unless I'm feeding you bananas or avocados. You're pretty picky and sometimes won't even try something new. I don't know how you know that you won't like it. It seems to be a texture thing. If I put whatever it is in your mouth, you'll open your mouth, stick your tongue out and let the food just roll back out. And if you are eating, when you're done, you immediately wack the spoon out of my hand, or start flinging your food off you tray.

You are still the smiliest baby I've ever seen. And you have the best smile and laugh. All it takes is a little tickle to get you laughing (you are so, so, so ticklish). One time daddy was throwing cheese on your tray and you laughed so hard food was falling out of your mouth and you could barely catch your breath. And you're quite the little cuddler. Mostly when you're tired or waking up, but you give hugs on command anytime.


By the way, that's dirt on your face. You decided it didn't taste all that great, but I'm sure you'll try it again.

Hang in there little buddy, soon you'll be walking and talking and some of your major frustrations will go away. New ones will probably replace them, but we'll just cross our fingers and hope for the best. I love and hate to see you growing up, my sweet, cuddly, dramatic, super cute little man.

LOOOSER...

This evening I realized that I haven't left the house since I did my grocery shopping on Monday.

It's probably a good thing, because me getting out of the house usually costs money. Although it would have been good for the kids to have gone for a walk or get over to the park. We have a backyard and a swingset- that's kinda like a park, right?

I want to pull my hair out.

Or cut my ears off...

So, on the Parenting website I found this article:

Why Kids Repeat Themselves

What to do when your child is stuck on "replay"
By June D. Bell, Parenting

It was cute the first few times Sasha Sokoloff of Mountain View, CA, toddled around with her toy camera and insisted, "Everyone smile!" But when the 2-year-old squealed her demand for the tenth time? Not so much.

When you chortle and clap over preschoolers' new words or phrases, you can bet you'll hear them again and again. And no wonder: Kids love the attention. But here's the problem -- they're not very good at reading subtle negative expressions, like exasperation, so they don't realize that incessant repetition can get very annoying.

If you're living through this, try these ideas:

Explain how you feel about the repetition. Do it in a way your child understands: "Honey, it's funny the first three times, but after that I get tired of hearing it."

Give her a new audience. Tell her she can say it to her stuffed animals or into her toy phone. She won't get the same reward (your attention), and she just may run out of steam.

Tune out the annoying phrase. If she doesn't get a reaction, she'll likely drop it.


Answering her doesn't work. Ignoring her doesn't work. Telling her to knock it off doesn't work. Maybe I'll just try the ear thing.

Dinnertime

Tonight's dinnertime was pretty representative of most of our dinnertimes, except tonight we didn't have to fight Madeline to get in and stay in her chair. We've been better about sitting at the dinner table to eat and she must be getting used to it. Either that or she was really hungry.

First off, the soup I made was too spicy for her. So she ate her grapes and a piece of hawaiian bread while I made her a fancy microwave chicken quesadilla. After finishing her grapes, she said, "I want grapes. I want grapes. I want grapes." 400 times, while making this face...

After getting her fancy replacement dinner to her, she said it was too hot. When it was cool enough for her, she took a bite and insisted she was done. And then after every single other bite, she insisted she was done. And she demanded ice cream. And orange juice. Finally she was done enough to get down.

Then Maison dumped a cup of milk in my lap.

The End.

A Fall post, late

The kids had such a blast playing outside in our leaves. And we got our leaves raked up. Thanks Ian!

Ian decided to surprise Madeline and rake up a big pile of leaves for her to jump in. Thor helped out with the leaf blower. The kids didn't take into account that the ground was still under the big pile of leaves. Ian almost broke his butt, but Madeline didn't seem to notice at all.

Thor had been waiting for all of the leaves to fall off of our tree so he could do one last winter lawn mow and suck them all up with the mower. Usually Fall gets here and the leaves slowly fall off, but then after one blustery night, we wake up and all of the leaves are off of all of the trees in our neighborhood. Not this year- after lots of blustery nights and even snow, we STILL have leaves on our tree. And in our grass. And on our patio...