mommypalooza™ ~ a daily dose of mommy mayhem.

Now that’s MY kinda eatin’!

I fixed some barbecue ribs, baked beans and baked potatoes for dinner tonight.  Saying that Will enjoyed the potatoes and beans is an understatement.

I finally have a kid that likes to eat like I like to eat.  I just know this dude is going to be down for J. Alexander's anytime of day when he gets more teeth in!

I entertained the idea of pureeing some of the ribs to see if he liked it but then thought there might be too much sauce on the ribs and he may get turned off.  Plus, when you eat ribs, you gotta eat really EAT ribs.  There's no pureeing in barbecue!

So I saved part of the baked potato to serve him for lunch tomorrow. We'll see if he still loves it.

As if we’re not already busy enough.

Nathan attended a free preview class this morning for SpanishFUN, a preschool age program that teaches Spanish using fun songs, fingerplays, etc.

Although he can count to ten and DEFINITELY knows what his favorite insect, a mariquita, is (thanks, Grammy!), I think the class will be good for him.  It'll meet every Monday for the next month at Beanology which is also cool for me since that means Will and I can spend some quality time over hot tea or cocoa!

After today's preview class we came home and had lunch and Nathan and I sat at his table reviewing colors, numbers, jugetes, and discussed the meaning of 'si o no'.  He also kept asking me how to say random things that came into his mind like how to say 'eat', 'all finished', and a few other phrases. 

Then we reviewed numbers 1 to 10 in Chinese.  Yep, that's my multi-lingual kid.

So he IS learning something!

I was cleaning off the kitchen counters a moment ago when Nathan walked right up to me and said,

"Mommy, I know what eh-stinked is.  It means dinosaurs aren't around anymore."

To tell the truth, I wasn't even really paying attention to him but when he began to walk off, and I re-ran what he'd just said over in my head again, I realized what he was really saying! I stopped, walked over to him and grabbed his little face and just smooched it everywhere and told him that of course he was right.  Extinct does mean that dinosaurs aren't around anymore.  And, of course I also reiterated that he is such a smart kid, etc. and he took it in stride.

The whole thing caught me off guard but I am so relieved that he's paying attention to his teacher!  It also just made me realize how his little brain is learning new things everyday and that means he's changing by the second.  It's bittersweet.

I’ve won, yet again.

It's been a long time since I've won something.  Well today that all changed.  Yesterday while watching the news I found out that the station was giving away movie tickets randomly.  All you had to do is email them with your pick for what should win the Oscar for best picture.  So, of course I was like, hell yeah, even I can do that!

I emailed them my name, phone number and that I thought Little Miss Sunshine should win out of all the contenders. Don't really know why I picked that movie since I haven't even seen it, but I also haven't seen any of the other pictures up for nomination. Quite honestly, I didn't really care.....I just wanted some damn movie tickets.  I do, however find it quite hilarious that I voted solely based on what movie title I liked the best, not really what I think should win. 

So today I get an email notifying me that I was one of the random winners of a pair of movie tickets good at Dickinson movie theatres.  Sa-weeeet!

Now if I could only win a babysitter so that my wonderful husband and I could actually go somewhere together, like a real date! If any of you get the scoop on a babysitting giveaway, let me know.  I'll be all over that!

Will & Mommy

Just a cute pic I came across and thought deserved a place on my blog.

Not your typical Snow-dude.

Nate and I were trying to make good use of the naptime that Will was enjoying so that we could go outside and play some.  We ended up with a skinny snow-dude and snow all over our backs and butts from the series of snowball fights that we had.  It was so much fun.  

Then we decided that the snowman maybe wanted to go out golfing after it warms up so N8 loaned him his very favorite golf club while N8 borrowed one of Daddy's.

I've realized that our snowman is somewhat of a cross between the Grim Reaper and Frosty but it's kind of a cool look that's growing on me.

Then N8 decided he wanted to put his golf club into the ground and throw snowballs at it.  Talk about FUN!!

Brothers being brothers.

Will has recently become so interested in climbing into bed with Nathan in his fancy race car bed. I am sure it's only a matter of time before they start having slumber parties in N8's room. 

I managed to snap a few photos the other day of them together.  They were having such a good time gettin' all cozy in the bed.  And, for some reason, N8 has started to close his eyes in virtually every picture I take of him now.

Reward your kids with Chuck E. Cheese

Chuck E. Cheese's has a cool reading rewards program that will yield your kiddo ten free tokens just for reading!  Get the download here.

Not a planned bathtime.

WARNING: this post qualifies for TMI status (unless you're a mommy!)

This afternoon after feeding Will some organic carrots for lunch and while Nathan was still at the table finishing the Gala apple that HE was so proud to pick out the other day at Target, I headed up to Will's room to change his diaper.  I could no longer stand the smell.

Now, normally I would just change him downstairs in the living room area since I usually keep an extra set of diaper changing supplies there.  But I remembered from earlier before we left to our La Leche League meeting that I looked into my little box where I keep everything and noticed I was out of diapers. Soooo, anyway I thought I'd head up to his room, change him and then bring a few diapers down here for the box.

Ugh.  If it had ONLY been that simple.

I opened him up and the poop. was. every. where.  I immediately all but ripped off his cute little turtleneck that Auntie bought him last month and turned him on his tummy and it was all the way up his back up to his hairline!

For a split second I thought of Nathan and that maybe I should yell down to him what was going on so he wasn't wondering that the heck was taking so long but then I just thought he'd eventually figure out something was up and would come upstairs looking for us.

I was right. He arrived just as I was getting the water warm in the tub and when he saw the gold and brown poop on Will and was like,

"EWWWWWWW........ WILL-YUM!"

Anyway, all turned out well.  I finished bathing Will, changed him, cleaned out the turtleneck full of poop, and we all headed back downstairs to go on with the day.

I suppose I better bring down those extra diapers to keep down here like I had originally planned on.  The only other sucky part of this situation is that Will and Nate looked so cute in their matching turtlenecks that Auntie got for them and TODAY was the day I actually dressed them specifically so I could take a pic of them and post it on here for her.  That plan's gone to crap - no pun intended.

You want hockey? You got hockey.

Today was Nathan's first day at his sports skills class at The Little Gym and he had a ball.  Janelle's son, Darren, is also in the class and we like him....even though he is a K-Stater.

So, what you need to know is that Nathan has been looking forward to this first day of class FOREVER!  I only wish we would've waited to tell him about it until the day before class so we wouldn't have had to hear, "can I go to Little Gym today?" every single day for about the past month!

Anyway, I picked him up from preschool at 11:30 and we came home and had lunch then packed up and headed over to make it there by 1:15.  On the way over he asked if he was going to get to play hockey there. I replied that I didn't know what to expect for his class but that it wouldbe fun and he'd need to listen to his teacher, etc.

So after watching them romp around and have so much fun, 60 minutes later the class was over.  He came bouncing out and Mr. Greg (the teacher) proceeded to give us a rundown of what they focused on today and what their theme was - Safety is a Ball. Then, he gave us an overview of what they'd be doing and guess what? For the next four weeks their focus will be HOCKEY! Nathan was thrilled!

They're also doing four weeks on baseball (if I remember correctly) and the last four on GOLF of all sports! I know he is going to have such a good time.

His favorite part of the class? The funny noises Mr. Greg makes while giving out hand stamps.