Fun with Grammy & Grampy

Yesterday we spent the day with Grammy and Grampy. I feel like it's been forever since we've been down there but it was a very busy day for us. After lunch, Mom stayed home with Katie to nap and Dad, Owen and I went off to Boomerangs. It's an indoor play space. It was so cool! There's a huge climbing structure and a big blow up obstacle course and games and a parents room with massage chairs! Anyway, here's Dad enjoying himself in the massage chair. I tried it but I think it actually injured me. Here's Owen being followed up the wall by admiring girls. The one with the longer hair kept chasing him around calling him Luke. She wanted to play Star Wars with him and told him, "I'll be Princess Leia and you can be Luke." Then she ran after him calling, "Luke!" for about 10 minutes while he thoroughly ignored her until finally she lost interest and went away. Here's Owen enjoying a game of Air Hockey with Grampy. Owen kicked his butt! Here's Owen going through the blow-up obstacle course. If you can believe it, I actually raced him a few times. Nothing like a blow-up obstacle course to make you feel old... and heavy. :) After we exhausted ourselves and Owen, we headed home.

Here's Katie eating her cereal, and Buster realizing the benefits of staying nearby. After she was happy and fed, and we were all rested, we headed to Mamma Mia's for dinner and then to Bobby's basketball game. What a game!! It was a great game, very close, and it went into overtime. Owen and Katie were exhausted! Lucky for me, I sent them home with Grammy and Grampy for a sleepover and I went back to my own house for the night. Needless to say, they didn't get the best sleep and they're a little off right now. Katie fussed a little more than usual at bedtime tonight and Owen... well, I put Owen to bed and came in here to blog. When I just walked out to check on Dan I found this. And Dan answered my glare with, "He wanted to watch Cops with me!" Do you see what I'm up against??

Uh Oh!

Katie discovered the stairs. It actually happened a few days ago, she made it up 5 steps before I pulled her down. She hasn't gone up since then thankfully. She just tends to crawl over to them and bang until we come back down. I guess I should just pull out the gate and start blocking things off. Ugh! Babyproofing is such a pain!

She also had her first big girl bath last night with Owen. Pretty cute stuff. The "current" kept pulling her down towards the faucet end of the tub. She seemed to enjoy herself though. Owen actually didn't want her in there. He likes to stretch out and "swim" while he's in the tub.


That's it for today. I just dropped Owen off at school and put Katie down for a nap so I'm rushing upstairs to try to get a nap myself. Lately they've both been making it a habit to wake up before 6am so my days are revolving around when I can sleep. Goodnight!

The Cow

Yesterday I had my first event representing Cabot. It was so much fun! We were at the Home Show in Boston. Anyway, I managed to get a blow-up cow to bring home to Owen (much to Dan's dismay). We're still on the fence about how long this cow will last...
Here he is holding the cow...

Checking out the udders...

getting ready to body slam the cow...

being body slammed by the cow...

getting ready to throw the cow down the stairs...

waiting with the cow to go to the store... he thinks we're bringing it in the car with us.

Here's a cute picture of Katie, on Daddy's lap where she is always happy.

One last thing to share. We were walking through BJ's and this man walked by with his new baby(probably about 2 months old). So I said, "Owen, look at the little baby," and Owen replied very loudly, "I like our baby better."

The finished product...

Here's the finished robot...



Now I have to go because Owen just came in and told me "the robot's feet got all messed up." That lasted about 10 minutes.

Chaos Reigns

Ugh! I keep wondering if anything more could go wrong today. It's not even big things, just little things like accidentally dumping a bunch of Gerber puffs all over the floor. You can't blow the dust off those things! They're so light that when you have them in your hand and try to blow them off they just all go flying again. Yes, I follow the 5-second rule. Don't judge me. Anyway, things have been a little crazy today and I'll admit, I've been a little cranky. Also, it's our 4-year anniversary so I think I started the day with a sense that I deserved a good day... unfortunately, the kids don't care what day it is. So here's a quick video of Katie's room. It's a mess because she and Owen decided to pull out every toy she owns. Here you'll see her going after her favorite toy, a little ball that jingles, which was lost for a few weeks.


Being the fabulous creative mom that I am (read in a very sarcastic tone), I decided to make a recycling bin robot with Owen today. Truthfully it was just because I was sick of listening to him ask for a transformer and trying to explain that we couldn't buy him toys constantly for no reason... especially in our current budget situation. Anyway, it has yet to be finished but here is a picture of the robot chaos on the couch.

And one last note... this is what I see behind me as I sit here trying to write this post.


That's Katie climbing my chair (with her tongue out, as always) and Owen inside the toy hamper. Yup, chaos reigns in our house today.

What a day!

What a historic day! It was neat explaining everything to Owen as we watched the inauguration on television. I told him, "years from now people will ask you where you were on this day." It's such a great feeling to be part of history.

Anyway, I know it's been a while since my last post but there's not much to tell. Katie's cute habit of making raspberries while she eats is not so cute anymore. Seriously, it's disgusting. And it doesn't help that Owen is usually behind me laughing hysterically. We had a fight with the sweet potatoes this afternoon... I did not win, although I had a lot less evidence on my face.

All about Katie

I just have two cute things to share with you... we've started barricading Katie in the living room using pillows, etc. Here's a picture of her playing dead after I caught her breaking through a barricade.



This video shows how she truly feels about green beans (my favorite vegetable).

UNCLE!!

I've finally accepted my fate as a mother... I truly understand now that my children will run my life for the rest of my life. I think the first sign of this was yesterday in Target. I was looking in the baby girls section pushing Katie in the stroller and Owen had wandered into the next section. I discovered this when he loudly said, "Mommy look! This is for boobies and you have boobies!" as he held up a very large black bra. I didn't even flinch. I just said, "You're right" and kept walking even as he touched every bra we passed exclaiming over how soft they were. I wasn't embarrassed at all!

The second sign was Katie eating dinner. Here she is winding down from her loud protest of the dinner I tried to feed her. I've only given her homemade baby food up to this point so I'm not sure if she's protesting the store bought stuff or the actual flavors. Needless to say I gave up and she promptly ate a huge bowl of oatmeal and prunes. PRUNES!! I'm going to have the pickiest, most regular child around.


This is her having a snack of Gerber puffs after she enjoyed her prunes. The picture was just too cute (and too gross) not to share.

So much for Family pictures

Katie had her first knock on the head this morning. Actually, I think the fact that she has lasted this long without any bumps or bruises says a lot... especially when you consider Owen in that fact. Anyway, she fell over and scraped her head on the laundry basket. All she wants to do these days is stand up so it's no surprise that she's falling a lot as well. So in the following video you'll notice the big red bump on her forehead... you'll also notice how absolutely adorable she is.

Naked Baby Bottom

I've told you before how much Katie loves her baths. Seriously, she soaks me every time I giver her one. She's a big splasher. I think we had our last bath in the baby tub today because she kept trying to stand up in it. Here she is eagerly anticipating getting into the tub.



This morning was another example of how much Owen adores his little sister. He was already awake when she and I came downstairs. He had curled up in the chair and was watching Curious George. When I came down I sat Katie on the floor to play and got Owen some cereal. He promptly sat on the floor with it just so he could sit back to back with his sister.



It lasted for a few minutes before she decided to crawl away. So he went after her and cuddled up to her like this...



I think when we finally get in to have their picture taken, the photographer will have no trouble posing them. :)

Quick update...

I'm sorry! I know, I'm totally embarrassed by the amount of time that has gone by since my last post. We've been really really busy. But, I think it shows my devotion to my blog that I'm sitting here writing right now instead of in bed. I woke up at 5:05 this morning so Meredith could drag me to a 5:45 spin class, and I just got home from Monday night Yoga. Needless to say, I'm exhausted! Anyway, here's some quick pictures of Owen to satisfy your cravings. He's really gotten into his Tag reader lately. It's great, he'll climb up to the top bunk (we use it only for quiet time and reading, not for sleeping) and hang out for an hour just listening to stories. I love it!!



Nothing new on the Katie front, except she eats like a horse. She actually ate cereal with prune juice mixed in today! Ewww! I'm glad my kids don't expect me to eat what they eat. That's it for now. I promise I'll find some time and cute pictures for tomorrow!

Public Service Message

People, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE clean the ice and snow off the tops of your cars! Seriously, just take the extra few minutes to do it so you don't hurt someone. And if you decide you don't want to clean off your car, please don't go driving around at high speeds... like, on the highway! Dan was driving along minding his own business on Route 3 North yesterday morning when a big sheet of ice flew off the roof of a car in front of him, broke in two and smashed into his windshield. Thank God he wasn't hurt.




*** For those of you who have been listening to me harp on this, I promise this is the last time I'll mention it... tomorrow, everything will be back to the usual stories of my kids and how cute they are. :)

A Special Treat!

In honor of reaching 100 views of my blog (yes, probably by the same 5 people) I'm treating you all to a special extra post today. I gave Katie a bath in the sitting up side of her tub for the first time today! Now, I have since found out that Dan has done this with her before, but I thought it was a milestone. :) Anyway, here's how much she enjoys her bath.



And here's what happened when I left her wrapped up in a towel, alone on the living room rug. (It was only 2 minutes!!)



Lately I've also noticed that Owen no longer just smiles for pictures. Now he poses like a superhero in every one. He's constantly telling me to take pictures of things he builds, etc., and then he'll pose next to it. Not sure what I've created here... hopefully not a future WWE wrestler. Ugh.

Where does the time go??

I can't believe how fast time seems to get away from me! I could have sworn I blogged just yesterday, but apparently it's been a few days. Also, Owen's Kindergarten paperwork came in the mail today. If that's not a recipe for depression I don't know what is. What happened to my little boy?? All of a sudden they want me to send him off to school with big kids all by himself! And they have recess with first graders! The big, scary first graders! Anyway, in my sadness about this I just don't have much to say today. Here's a video of Katie playing with the person she most adores in this whole world. They actually had been doing this for a good five minutes before I intruded with my camera.

a rare picture of mommy...

Here is the face that my husband gets to enjoy every day...



In my defense, Owen had just called it "blue rooster hair" and Dan snuck around the corner thinking it was funny to take a picture. Also, it wasn't the easiest of mornings since Owen decided to act like a monster and Katie decided to stand up constantly instead of napping. Can you read all of that on my face?

Anyway, Katie seems to be more aware of her tongue today. Dan was trying to get her to stick it out for the camera. Clearly she doesn't like it when he sticks his tongue out at her.


Pay no attention to the laughing in the background. :)

My child has gone crazy...

I'm so glad that I was turned on to Freecycle. I don't even remember how I heard about it, but I'm glad I did. This is by far the best free thing I've ever gotten... did I mention it was free?!

Katie is getting so tall these days! We've already moved the jumper up one level and last night I moved the crib mattress down one level. It's a good thing because she spent some quality time last night standing up in the crib... unable to get down. Like the sitting before, this was again, lots of fun had by all. :) The crib was another thing! It was handed down to us from one of the twins. We used it for Owen and now he's sleeping in the bunk beds that also used to belong to the twins. I love living in this world of generous family and friends and freecyclers. Anyway, here's another video of Katie trying to remember how to stand up.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009! I hope everyone had a nice New Year's. I climbed into bed (where Owen and Dan were already sleeping) at 11:53 last night. Sounds depressing but it isn't. We had a fun night at Meredith's up to that point. It was actually quite exciting with her friends Adam and Lisa visiting with their kids, one of whom cartwheeled down the stairs and promptly had to visit the ER. Thank goodness for Kevin. :) Anyway, today Katie decided to reach another big milestone when we weren't looking. She pulled herself up to standing. Actually, Dan said she'd done it before and he just assumed I'd noticed. Anyway, I quickly went upstairs and lowered the mattress in her crib so she wouldn't dive out of it when she stood up. Is it just me or is she growing up much too quickly? I'm already finding myself in tears all the time because Owen's a big boy now and rarely needs me, all I need is for Katie to become a teenager overnight. Seriously, this parenting thing is heartbreaking sometimes! Anyway, I think I've said before how much Katie adores Dan. They have a cute little game they play and I managed to catch it on video this morning...

I'm going to leave you with that for now. I have some more fun stories I think I'll save for tomorrow... providing I remember to blog tomorrow. Till then...