Terrific Two!

I know I've shared this before, but I do not believe in "Terrible Twos". I love two-year-olds. Love them, love them, love them. Really, how could you not?

Two cute!

Two funny!

Two lovable!

Working on our Words

I finished reading "Simplicity Parenting". I will admit to skimming through some of it, but overall I loved what the authors had to say. I won't go into a whole critique of the book, but one big idea I took away was monitoring the words we say.

The author borrowed the idea from, if I understand right, the Buddhists. However, the book was quick to mention that all flavors of all faiths teach the same idea. The Buddhists just put it simply.

Are they true?

Are they kind?

Are they necessary?

Imagine a world where everyone tried to monitor their words based on those 3 simple rules.

Weekend Away

I think I've mentioned on here before that I'm not one of those moms who needs constant "me time" or really any sort of consistent "me time" for that matter. However, once in awhile I get to a point in my life, well, a point in my mood, when I "need to get out....now!!!!! Several weeks ago I had one of those moments and I just needed out. Problem was, there was no way I could get "out" at that particular moment in time. I'm not very good at scheduling my meltdowns and this one happened right before a major performance of my husbands. Oops. So, I decided to give myself something to look forward to. We tried to go see some dear friends 4 hours away, but a last minute decision was made not to and the weather confirmed that decision by being nasty. So I planned something that I had been wanting to plan ever since we moved here almost 4 year ago. A trip down to the Cities. And to add to the fun I called my favorite sister to see if she wanted to meet us there. And the rest, as they say (when they want to be completely predictable) is history! Here I am with my favorite sister at the Minnesota Children's Museum. A blonde and semi-red head..yeah, we are seldom taken for sisters. The lighting wasn't particularly fantastic and there must have been a "puffy-eye monster" lurking somewhere, but here's the one and only picture of the two of us that weekend.

My sister's youngest drawing a picture.

Veronica was not sure what the goat was doing on the roof, but Brett assured her that goats do indeed like to jump on the roof. That's Emma in the background riding a....uh...rooster, I think.

Cousins, minus the one that was at my feet not wanting to take a picture. So really, this picture should be called siblings + 1 cousin.

Lauren (who's 1 year older and a couple inches taller than Emma), Emma, and Gigi are posing with the cool headbands that Jocie made for them.

Doesn't she look cute and ready to swim? Oh yeah...him too. Only one of them went in the water, and it wasn't the redhead in the pink swimsuit.

Weekend recap: Children's Museum, Mall of America which of course included the American Girl Store, Legostore, Rainforest Cafe, we had ice cream for lunch because we couldn't find anywhere to eat in the food court and the sitdown restaurants were full, after walking what felt like 20 miles in one day we went back to the hotel and swam (I sat and watched my feet swell, that was a new experience), the kids watched a movie and the adults had a drink and chatted, we slept, woke up to a new 2-year-old, ate at the IHOP, went to Mass at our bishop's former parish (lovely!), and drove home. Turns out my sister headed to the zoo after breakfast...I always new she was the crazy one.

Needless to say, we had an absolute BLAST! It was great reconnecting with our niece and nephew and always fun seeing my sister.

Birthday Week

The new 2-year-old carrying the bag of fun she bought with her birthday money.

Modeling a jacket set she got from one set of grandparents and some bunny slippers she got from the other.

My two youngest (for now) have birthdays 4 days a part. Here's Gigi modeling next to the contraption we built together from some TRIO blocks she got for her birthday.

The big 5-year-old with her birthday cake. I went simple with the cake this year since Brett was out of town. The five is just pink sprinkles.

I've promised myself, and my lovely readers that I would spare them details of diapers/potty training accidents, etc. They may be a big part of my day, but a part that doesn't add to the joy of my readers. So, all I will mention on the topic is this. I wasn't planning on even starting the process with Veronica before the baby was born. I've done this plenty of times before to know that I did not want to be dealing with a newly potty-trained kid and a newborn at the same time. Well, in her way, which is the only way Veronica does things, she decided she wanted to use the potty the day before her birthday (which happened to be the day we were going on a whirlwind weekend away). Lovely. So, there ya have it.

Art

I'm not artistic. Not at all. My parents brought a picture I drew of a cabin and a tree and it looked great for a 4-year-old. I happened to be 11 when I drew it. Really, this isn't one of those topics where I'm looking for a "oh, I'm sure you do fine" response. Really, I'm awful. It's not my thing. Give me a script that someone else has written and I will get up on stage and perform it for you. Give me a song and I will sing it for you. Those are my "creativity". Not art.

My children happen to love art. My husband is a great artist. He can draw, he can paint, he can do it all. Luckily for the kids, they do stand a chance in the artistic world.

I was convinced awhile back that children need to be exposed to "real" art supplies. Not just Crayola and Roseart (I'm always suckered in with the sales and always regret the quality later), but real stuff. I was so convinced that I took myself to a craft store (scary place for a lady who doesn't "do" art) and purchased some high quality colored pencils, pastels, and water colors. I'm ashamed to say that they have sat in our "craft" box for almost a full year, plastic still on, seals untouched.

Today I decided enough is enough and I brought up all of the good quality stuff and let the kids at them. I showed them, in my limited way, how to use the materials and set them free. I had printed off some Valentine's color pages and also supplied blank white paper.

For 2 1/2 hours the kids sat at our table and created. Sometimes just coloring/painting in the lines, sometimes free-handing a picture, adding glitter where they saw fit, etc. They had a great time and I'm now left wondering what in the world took me so long to let them dive in.

Thank you, kind sir.

It is so nice. So very, very, very nice when the comment received at the grocery store is a compliment from a nice man waiting in line behind us. Thank you!

Do-over

A few things this morning:

1. I would love a do-over on my sleep last night. Wow! Quite a night! Pretty sure naptime will be needed early, but it isn't going to happen that way...bummer.

2. Very soon we will have both a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old in the house.

3. The almost 5-year-old is counting in "sleeps" to when we get to see some super fun cousins and way cool Aunt!