Success

Party was a success. I am tired and putting my feet up and uploading a boatload of pictures. I am pretty sure I have about a thousand pics this month alone.

Catch you in a couple days, Good night.

F.I.V.E.

That's the way we spell "a big huge no longer a baby and quite grown up" kid. Holy cow, he's old. Little Man turns 5 years old today. We are so excited for him. Five seems like such a big age to me. No real reason why, I suppose. But a kid through and through.

Well, this is a fun way to start out your birthday, eh? Yah, for some reason, some call it asthma, a small cold turns into this. But no worries, we have so much planned for today that the albuterol might actually benefit us in the long run -- nothing like jazzing a kid up on his birthday, with a party and halloween with trick or treating. We will hopefully crash tonight without as much as peep.

Little Man has come into his own this year. He has started to read, learned to ride a bike, started kindergarten, is very imaginative, loves to climb, loves his little sister and brother, curious about EVERYTHING, has quite the ability to reason and problem solve (sometimes to his parents' dismay). He is more than ready to play sports (or something simliar). He loves all things "boy" - superheros, star wars, robin hood, and the list goes on. Everything is "AWESOME".

.... and now, I have a party to get together and also have to head to work for a bit, so the rest will have to wait.

ready set go

Do laundry. I have a party to get ready for and all I can think about is the 5 loads of laundry that I still have to do! I sure wish we had planned to have halloween on saturday. hopefully next year it will be on a sunday! :)

Apparently I am too busy to even capitalize. what's up with that?

Squeaker Says

I have coughses today... but my kneeses are okay

Uh, croupy and awake quite early. :(

Busy day too - off to check out his teeth at the dentist after a faceplant at his 3 year old checkup.

Party prizes preview

As the halloween carnival/birthday bash creeps up on us, I am finally able to check stuff of my lengthy 'to do' list.

Here is tonight's small feat.

Highlights

- Little Lady stopped her blissful sleeping through the night thing in lieu of waking every 2 hours at night since she is not eating during the day. Also, does not eat when I am at work -- not unhappy, just holds out for the "real thing". Smart cookie, that one!

- Squeaker is THREE and is doing quite well. He is a bundle and a half of energy and we are happy when he does not nap because going to bed in the evening is soooo easy that way. At preschool, he is a different kid and not in a bad way, just in a non-squeaker way. We are working on that.

- Little Man is anxious for his birthday and exhibiting every negative behavior seen at school, on tv, or whatever he can come up with. It is exhausting! We are considering a trade or checking on our return policy for this one. On the other hand, he is exuberant and eager to learn and loves school and really really really wants to do karate now that we forced him to take an introductory lesson.

- I am doing okay. This month I have found has filled up very quickly and I can't believe how little time I have to sit on my couch eating bon bons. It is the beginning of the tend as my mom points out. The beginning of a crazy "go here go there" life. I am in the midst of preparing for the big birthday/halloween bash and also getting my ducks in a row for adding on another day at work. All this excitement leaves the house a total disaster so I am also trying to figure out how to fix that little problem. ;)

Once I upload some birthday prep pictures, I will post... limited time at the computer these days.

Celebrate, Celebrate, have a good time

It is time to celebrate. We are having a birthday party for Little Man this year. He is turning FIVE after all. FIVE. FIVE! What the heck?! Since when are we the parents of a full grown KID. Not a baby, not a toddler, not a preschooler... a K. I. D!!!!! Yikes! He is quite excited to have friends again, so a party it is. Check out these invitations:

Squeaker's Big Day

Today, our little monkey, our very cute (and loud squeaker) turns THREE! Three just kinda snuck up on us.

Happy Birthday my big boy!

What to do for our Wild Things....

So, should we see the movie or not??? My source tells me that it might be a bit scary and difficult to follow for my boys. I read some reviews and saw more about the "scary" parts and it seems that it may indeed be a tad scary... especially for our Little Man. I am not quite sure I want to forgo the movie however, because it talks about being angry and frustrated and that is EXACTLY what we are dealing with at home! It might be a great teaching tool. Or maybe I want to see it enough that I am willing to scare my kids??? The movie is part of our birthday celebration for Squeaker. I don't think he'll get scared. He does quite well with scary things... at least, much better than his brother*. If you have seen it, and read this before we go tomorrow morning and want to talk me out of it, now is your chance!

*examples of "scary" movies for LM: Tale of Despereaux, Great Mouse Detective, Land Before Time, Toy Story 2, Lion King, Snow White, Sled Dogs... "scary" most often means "nervous" and he doesn't handle "nervous" well.

All the way rolly polly

Ugh. So, Little Lady is quite clever and is now rolling front to back as well as back to front, which means... she rolls across the floor -- luckily in one direction only, so we can still find her after being left alone for 30 seconds. ;)

Rolly Almost Polly

Well, Little Lady can roll over. Sigh. She is so adorable when doing it, too. Double sigh. She rolls from her back to her tummy... which seems to be the hardest way to go, but she is sure determined. I LOVE IT. And, if I was a good mommy, I would have some awesome video footage, but I did manage to charge the camcorder after she rolled... that is a start!

Busy Weekends Begin

It seems that our weekends have started to fill up. Thus begins that stage in our lives when our weekends are full of fun and adventure, planned and executed according to our calendar. This morning we are dividing and conquering. The two boys are off to the movies with GaMommy, I am off to work, and Daddy has some yard work to do. We have a few weeks before we are inviting people over to celebrate LM's birthday, people we hardly know. People I am not quite sure I want to see the disaster that is our home.... yet. :)

I have so many errands to run, and after last nights "quick" grocery store trip with the three kids... I have decided to wait until I am sans kids (or at least some kids) to finish up those errands. Our purpose was to get out of our clean house to go gets some beer for our game night with some friends. Little Lady was tired and needed a nap, Squeaker did not nap despite our best efforts, and Little Man did not nap long enough and was way too excited about his friends joining us for the evening. All I needed was beer. I hauled the three kids into the store with nice gentle reminders to walk nicely in the store and stay with me. Little Man was half walking half running ahead to get in and get out. Squeaker was walking with his eyes looking everywhere but in front of him and I am pretty sure he walked into every single shopper and their cart in the entire store. Little Lady cried the whole time and even the cashier tried to coo at her to no avail. Ahhh... the glamorous life of parenthood... and I looked like a such a lush just going in for beer with my 3 kids -- Why yes, I did need it that badly. :) Funny thing is, it seemed like a good idea at the time - silly me. I was about ready to open up a bottle in the checkout line, and I don't even drink beer!!!!

Boy, that was a tangent. Anyhow, working on the weekend is a nice escape, extra moolah, and it means we are off and running every Saturday! Let the games begin!

Decided

* working more starting in November.

* to give up the fight for Squeaker's nap and let him be a zombie the second half of the day. This one should be a post of its own.

* wording for invitations to Little Man's party

* Little Lady is the best baby... 2 nights in a row she has slept from 8pm to 6am- granted she won't know that I have opened my big mouth

The "How much do I want to work" dilemma

Working one day a week has proven to be just enough to throw a wrench in the week. I spend half the day catching up and getting into a "groove" (or whatever it is that makes me not feel flustered). Then the school day is over at 2. It really isn't working for me. And I greatly dislike bringing my work home with me since I would much rather devote all my attention to my busy little ones at home. So, I decided I either needed to work more or less. (less = not at all). I decided that the extra money is nice, and I like what I do, so more work it is. Now that LL is getting bigger, I feel more comfortable leaving her in someone else's care. So, the search for daycare for an infant returns... wish me luck. Once I find that, I need to decide how much I want to work.

What I would love is to work full time and be at home full time... uh, that is not happening unless I clone myself and the technology just isn't there yet (although someone can dispute this, I am sure). So, do I work 2 days a week? 3 mornings a week? or what?

Fall is here

Finally. and Suddenly. We went from 90 degree weather to 65 degrees. Crazy! But, it is nice, since it is October after all. And, you know what I don't miss -- raking leaves. I am sooooo glad we are in California this fall. Last fall was all new and exciting, but now that we are mostly settled in, I am really appreciating those hours a day spent raking in years past. And, yet, amazingly, I have no free time. It doesn't help that I am completely exhausted. My dear LL is sick. Snotty sick. So, sleeping in the horizontal position leads to several wakeups a night due to the inability to breathe comfortably through that tiny little nose. We are great friends, the 'boogie-sucker' and I. :)

Hopefully the next few days will allow us to catch up on some much needed sleep and perhaps then give me back some brain cells so I can keep up with this blog!

Looking forward, I see lots of party, halloween and birthday prep going on. Perhaps you can help? First order of business, finding a cute birthday/halloween party invitation to copy. My favorite right now is making a mummy by wrapping the card in gauze. I am sure there are more creative ideas out there, but as mentioned above, lacking brain power at the moment. ;)

Terrible Mommy

So, usually, I send out a photo slideshow to friends and family... where I have to narrow down 300 some pictures to a reasonable number to view -- say 40-60. Sometimes I exceed that cuz my kids are so dang cute, but this month... a whopping 25 pictures. And, I have no excuse whatsoever. My new camera works and has been with me most of the time. My only excuse is that I am lame. This month will be more exciting, I am sure. I mean, come on, two birthdays... what more could you ask for. HOLY COW... BIRTHDAYS!!!!! When did this happen. We just moved here and just had birthdays. We are going to be 2 and 4 forever. No way anyone around here is allowed to grow up into a KID... aughhh... 5 years old seems old to me. Like the end of a child, toddler, preschooler, etc... and now a full fledged KID! Yikes. I am the parent of a Real Live KID.

Anyhow, I need to go tag some 300 or so items for the upcoming consignment sale while LL sleeps, LM at school, and Squeaker glued to the Great Mouse Detective. Have you seen this... so cute.