Another Week Gone...

Okay, so can there be two episodes of Another Week Gone? Because despite having the flu for the better part of this week (more on that later), I have a lot to share. This twice a week posting bit is really cutting into my chat time. We'll definitely be re-evaluating that decision as part of our New Year's Resolutions. Here's Part One, as Part Two is entirely made up of cute pictures of Grace at the museum we visited Saturday.

Milestones... really it should be microstones. Mark is hitting the new stages so fast I can barely keep up. Was it really just three weeks ago that I reported he had just started crawling? 'Cause now he's sitting up like a pro, pulling himself up onto boxes, and about to learn how to fly like Buzz Lightyear...


Okay. The directions on how to fly are somewhere
on this box... Just call me Space Ranger.

He hasn't quite figured out the whole flying thing just yet... but he's definitely working on perfecting the pose:

To Infinity... and Beyond!

It was about this time though, he realized that Woody was right...

You aren't the real Buzz Lightyear!
You're an Action Figure!



Buzz wasn't flying... he was... falling with style! Help!

Oh, we also saw "Toy Story 3" for the first time last week. Can you tell? Gracie loved it. I didn't think Mark was paying attention, what with all the drooling, cat naps and crawling under the coffee table, but apparently he liked it too.

Remember the tooth I bragged about in early September? Well, it never really arrived. We could see it, but it just sat there, hovering under the surface like an alien probe, silently waiting for activation from an alien ship. Or bananas.

I'm guessing when we tried mashed fruit two weeks ago, this tooth decided it had better erupt like Mount Vesuvius before we introduced tri-tip and Mark missed out. Sadly, I was not the first to notice the tooth. Nor was I the second. Or third. On second thought, maybe I should be eternally grateful to be the fourth person to learn of the tooth, seeing as how I still breastfeed Mark once a day.

Yes, Grandma Dee Dee noticed first, when he bit her. (A bite of pure joy at seeing her, I'm sure.)
Then Uncle Kevin mentioned it to no one in particular, when Mark bit him on the finger (at which point Grandma Dee Dee shared her story).
This comment was then picked up by my husband's radar ears. (Programmed to hear all things relating to his children, trucks, and new video game releases. Also programmed to 'selective hearing mode' when his wife begins talking...)

Alas, I was the fourth to know - and even then I didn't find out until two days later! I guess everyone assumed I already knew, and just forgot to share. I BLOG PEOPLE! I don't "forget" to share. Sharing is my digital mommy duty. If my kid has a tooth, and there isn't a picture, comment or video of it here... I missed it. Re-send the memo.

Moving on...

There is still another milestone to report. I KNOW, this kid is keeping me up at night wondering what he'll dream up next. Since he's gotten to be such a pro at sitting up, we moved him to the big boy chair... in the bathtub. This photo pretty much sums up his reaction:

You get to play in the water every day??? This is great!

He loved it. The whole thing. The water, the chair, his sister pouring water over his head... okay, we put a stop to that pretty quickly. But Grace did prove to be pretty entertaining with her splashing and playing about. He thought she was hilarious, and kept leaning over the bath chair to "pat" the water. So. Stinkin'. Cute. But just one picture here, because hey - this is the internet after all, and even obsessive mommy bloggers have limits.

Our last milestone was the dreaded flu. Mark got to throw up for the first time (yipee?) and I learned that being a SAHM does not include paid sick leave. Luckily, my awesome husband came home to rescue me just ten minutes before I crawled to the bathroom to bow to the porcelain god. My rescuer came down with the flu two days later, just as I was recovering, so I suppose the Lord was watching out for us in some small ways. If you haven't seen or heard from us lately, now you know why.

You haven't seen or heard much about Gracie this post, but don't worry, there are lots of cute pictures in Part Two. I will give you one fabulous picture though:

We're building a stuffing skyscraper!

Gracie helped carry in food to our local food bank yesterday. We delivered a few items to help needy families, and the staff just loved her. She was a bit shy at first, but the woman who helped us was great, and had Gracie play "blocks" with the stuffing boxes so mommy could snap a picture.


I was very excited to help out this year, and I really wanted Gracie to have a part in reaching out to help others. Our church has some events we'll participate in, but I would love for this to be an annual event for our family. We may not be rich, but we certainly can afford to lend a helping hand.

I hope your week was filled with fun, and not flu. I also hope that you would consider checking with your local food bank or church to see if you can help those who are struggling this year - many for the first time ever - to have a Happy Thanksgiving.

MoMo's World

Below is Kevin Clash. This man is at my house every day.

Sometimes twice a day, when I really need his help.

What? Oh yes, you know him. In fact, anyone with a child born after 1985 has probably had him at their house too. It's just you've never seen him all dressed up... and holding the Emmy that's peeking out from the corner of the picture above. The Emmy is for his work as a puppeteer on Sesame Street.

Sesame Street is in it's 41st season this year.  (You'd think they'd have learned their ABC's by now.) There was a time though, when Sesame Street wasn't sure they'd make it to forty seasons. In 1999, after thirty years of progamming, the producers found viewership declining. So, they did a study to find out why after all these years Sesame Street was no longer a top kids choice. You know what they found?

A child will start watching television the moment they can lift their heads to view the screen - parents already know this. They also know that it will keep their child occupied long enough for them to go to the bathroom in peace. And if it's a really great program, you can even blog on the computer and drink a cup of coffee.

Not that I do that.

The original Sesame Street episode was designed for children age three to five. But television viewers were often much younger, and finding their entertainment elsewhere. So, Sesame Street added a new segment at the end of each episode, aimed at their youngest viewers. And they chose the monster that appealed most to that age group.

That's right. Elmo. Kevin Clash is the man behind the Muppet, and has won multiple awards for his work. The job was originally offered to another puppeteer, who turned it down because "it was too cutesy." Bad for him, good for Kevin.

My daughter LOVES Elmo. Or rather, "MoMo". (Apparently they are chummy enough to use informal names.) Elmo is three and a half and has stolen my daughter's heart.

Grace didn't watch television until she was nineteen months old. I wanted to wait until she was two to introduce television, but quickly realized that t.v. was invented solely to help nursing mothers occupy their toddlers while feeding their infants. So, I got three DVDs from the library and showed them to Grace. Clifford was too old/complicated. Baby Einstein was too young/boring. But the Elmo video?

The Elmo video was like giving her a dose of chocolate flavored Benadryl. She sat there with a huge smile posted on her face and didn't move for 45 minutes. We were both hooked.

Why do kids love Elmo so much? Well, after a lot of Elmo observation, I have come to the conclusion that Elmo is the ultimate optimist. No matter what happens, he seems to be able to just chuckle and shrug it off. He slips on a pile of apples at the grocery store? He just stands up and chuckles. Computer won't co-operate? He just says "Please?" until Computer works. I think the worst thing I've ever heard Elmo say is, "Drawer is not being very nice today."

Now who wouldn't love a guy like that? Elmo doesn't yell, throw tantrums, steal toys, hit, bite, or do any of the other things toddlers are prone to do. He doesn't get upset when things don't go perfectly. It's no wonder Gracie loves Elmo. He's the most well behaved three year old she's ever met!

So, once a day (okay, sometimes twice) Gracie gets to watch her beloved "MoMo", and mommy gets 45 minutes of uninterrupted time to do whatever needs to be done. Because Gracie loves Elmo. And you know what? I love Kevin Clash.

Good Morning Sunshine!

I am not a morning person. My favorite quote about mornings is "If people were meant to just 'pop' out of bed , we'd all sleep in toasters." This, I'm certain, is why God has chosen to bless me with two early risers.

The other night, just as I crawled into bed, my son woke up crying for a meal. Now, when I say "just crawled into bed", I'm not exaggerating. The timing was perfect enough to even elicit a chuckle from my husband due to the irony. Yes, maybe I'd been overly optimistic, hoping the baby would skip the late night feeding on this particular night - but sometimes he does, so I always hold out hope...

"Okay, okay," I thought,"hopefully the late night feeding means he'll sleep in a little later in the morning since his little belly will be full." Isn't it cute how we moms try to convince ourselves the payoff for our sacrifices are just around the corner?

Fast forward to 3 am. (Trust me, it seemed really fast at the time.) Now, little man has gas and is screaming for us to do something about it. Hubby's alarm goes off at 4:30 am, so I do my best to quiet the baby so my hard working husband can get in his last bit of sleep before having to go to work and pretend like he can function on half the amount of sleep he used to get. Three-thirty, and the intestinal trauma has passed (literally) so a tired Mama heads back to bed.

"Maybe the kids will sleep in 'till almost eight today, so I can get some rest..."

It's been known to happen.

Why are you smiling?

FOUR THIRTY A.M. My daughter wakes up crying out her new morning greeting, "Poo-poo, poo-poo." Ever since we've started potty training, this has been her mantra. I stumble out of bed and go to get her. We head to the potty chair together. She's already gone pee, so we're just going through the motions at this point. Luckily, even though my daughter is prone to waking up early, she's not a morning person either. We both sit there in a mostly catatonic state, her on the potty, me on the bathroom floor leaning up against the cabinets. Who says being a mom isn't exciting?

Finally, she breaks out of her stupor and stands up. I lean over to help her stand and get her Pull-Ups ready. When she is finally dressed and ready, it is then that my cotton sleeping pants rip right up the middle of my backside. Trust me, I couldn't make this stuff up. I had been in a sitting position on my knees, leaning forward to help her... and when I sat back after helping... well, there just wasn't enough fabric to hold it all in I guess. This day was shaping up to be just FANTASTIC.

I was way too tired to get upset. In fact, I almost laughed, as this is just the kind of thing that happens to us mothers all the time. Murphys Law says anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Mommy's Law says anything that can go wrong will arrive covered in peanut butter and jelly, with a full diaper, dragging a blanket that's seen more dirt than a John Deere. Oh, and it must receive a full body hug immediately or the world may come to an end.

After almost an hour of snuggling on the couch, the sippy cup of milk sat empty next to me, my husband had kissed me goodbye and left for work, and my daughter was finally ready to head back to bed. I kissed the top of her head and she immediately lay down in the classic baby position - with her butt straight up in the air, and her face down in her blankie. I headed off to get just a few more hours of sleep before my little ones awoke with more energy for the day than I've had all year.

I lay down in the classic adult position: falling straight into bed and sleeping in whatever spot I'd hit the matress. After all, in the baby position there would have been a draft.