a sense of style?

After much chasing and wrestling I finally got Gavin zipped up in his footy pajamas.  He much prefers to be naked, so this much fight from him about putting clothes on is not unusual.  After he was dressed he wandered over to Logan (who was still slowly working on pulling on his jammas), picked up his socks (the ones Logan insists on wearing to bed), and then...Gavin ran (okay, toddled) off down the hall with them!

Logan (of course) threw a minny fit and insisted I get his socks back.  To avoid a full on melt down (always possible before bed no matter how small the issue) I chased down Gavin and caught up with him in the living room....where I found him trying to put on Logan's socks!

Gavin smiled at me - happy to see his awesome Mama whom he knew could help him out.  And, of course, I caved.  I pulled Logan's big ole socks on Gavin's feet over his footy pajamas!  If that wasn't funny enough he then walked over to the back door, picked up one of his shoes, carried it back to me, and sat on the floor with his foot out.  Laughing, I complied again and put his shoe on over the sock and jammas.  Then, he got up, went over to the back door, picked up the other shoe, and returned again!  I, once again, complied, and this was the result:

Nothing like editing pictures to show you that your son has something totally gross stuck to the bottom of his shoe!

Add a bulky, super stuffed cloth diaper to this already stylish ensemble...

...and you get twenty some odd pounds of total cuteness that looks something like this:

Isn't this the perfect recipe for a future fashion icon?

Okay, maybe not a future fashion icon...

...but how can you deny the utter cuteness here?

Oh, that's right...you can't!  (Or at least I can't!)



Gavin is now tucked happily in to bed...minus the shoes.  But, he did keep the socks on...

A Belated Thanksgiving ~ Part II

My in-laws hosted our family Thanksgiving dinner at their house, but we, Justin and I, did the cooking.  Hey - their house is way bigger and it means I got out of the cleaning!  Of course this also means that I was up at 5:30 that morning getting ready and then getting two kids ready and then loading up the car and then driving the ten miles out to the house.  Two hours later all four of us were out at my in-laws house.  The boys played while Justin and I chopped, sauteed, and cooked dinner.  In between tasks I snuck in glimpses of the parade on TV and cheered with Logan as Buzz Lightyear and Spiderman made their appearances.  Gavin preferred to spread his toys out...right in front of the dishwahser and sink...to play.  Then dinner was served and both children actually ate and liked the food.  Afterwards I took Gavin upstairs to play while conveniently letting everyone else do the dishes.

It was perfect.

The only thing I wanted was a good picture of my boys together on Thanksgiving and a nice, new, updated family photo.

Instead I got cheesy grins...

...a run-a-way baby...

...and one lone picture of me while I was fooling around with my camera.

There are no pictures of our family, no pictures of grandparents.  But there are pictures of Gavin playing the piano and stuffing undecorated Christmas cookies in his mouth.

The truth is my kids and my self and my family just weren't up for a photo shoot on this holiday.  But that's okay, because those cheesey grins are pretty awesome too...

Sometimes not following the plan, leaving the agenda behind, is the best thing I can do.  It was all pretty perfect.

A Belated Thanksgiving ~ Part I

Yes, yes, I know...I'm late again on posting.  I couldn't help it.  I was having so much fun relaxing and playing with my children over this past long weekend that I just didn't feel like blogging about it right then.  But I'm here today, reading to remember and share all the little things we spent time doing over the past five days (yes, FIVE days...I'm a teacher who was on break officially at 3:15 on Tuesday afternoon).

This is the first holiday weekend in the history of EVER that Justin and I had all of the same days off from work.  That meant that starting Wednesday morning our little family of four was looking at five days worth of togetherness.  We started it off with a shopping trip to Springfield.  Logan wanted to see Santa Clause so we took him to the mall where he promptly stood six feet outside of "Santa's Village" and hid behind my legs with quick peeks around now and then to get a glimpse of Santa.  He would not for any reason actually get close to the jolly man in the red suit.  In fact, he's never sat on Santa's lap - he's always refused which is actually shocking because generally he is not afraid of anybody.  After we walked away from Santa he promptly told me that later "me and santa are gonna have a little talk in my room."  Okay, Buddy, whatever suits your fancy.

Next on the list was lunch at Hu Hot (or the "Mall Chinese House" as Logan calls it).  Kids three and under eat free there (Yay!), and I'm pretty sure they charged us for the wrong kid.  See, all Logan did was pick at his noodles while Gavin finished off Logan's plate and part of mine.  Logan should be able to eat free wherever we go since he hardly eats whenever we're away from home. 

Then we were on our way to Target - the real reason for coming to Springfield that day.  See, I had found a little 4 foot Christmas tree there that was on sale that I just had to have!  I wanted it for the boys' bedroom - a tree that they could decorate.  We have a huge tree that we put up in our living room, but it is one of those "fancy" types...you know where all the ornaments follow a color scheme and everything matches and it perfectly placed.  Not really a "kid friendly" kind of tree.  In the meantime I have this tub of ornaments that never get put out and I thought they would be perfect for the boys to use to decorate their own tree.  Once we had the tree purchased and one fit by Logan (over not getting a toy while we were there) barely averted, we headed to Barnes & Noble for coffee and snacks, and then we were on our way home.

Of course when we got home the first thing Logan wanted to do was put up his new Christmas tree.  So we did!  That's the great thing about vacation...no time schedules to keep, no rushing about.  And up the tree went!

Gavin had little interest in the actual tree, but the box was fun times...

Before we knew it the tree was up and fluffed and it was time for dinner...much to Logan's disappointment.  He was ready to decorate!  But we made him eat, bathe, and get his jammies on before the decorating could begin.

When it was all finished both boys were very pleased with the outcome (not that Gavin would stick around for a picture though...you know places to go...).

No doubt about it...it was a great first day to our Thanksgiving weekend.

Driving Lessons from a Four Year Old

Scene One:

I had just picked up the boys from day care, and we were headed home.  I was stopped in the left lane at a red light when a semi pulled up in the right lane and proceeded to turn right.  This is what I hear from the backseat:

Logan:  Mommy!  What is the truck doing?
Me:  Turning.
Logan:  Mommy, the light is red!  Tell him to stop!
Me having no clue how to explain a "right on red" rule:  I can't.  I guess he's just being a bad driver.
Logan:  He has to stop!  The light is red!
Me:  He's already turned.  Don't worry about it.
Logan:  But the light was red!

This went on for at least two more minutes before he finally dropped it. 
 END SCENE ONE

Scene Two:

We were coming up on the same stop light as the previous day, and as I went through the interesection the light turned yellow.  Of course I kept going.  From the back seat I hear:

Logan:  Mommy!  Slow down!
Me:  What?  Why?
Logan:  Mommy, that light was orange.  You need to slow down!
Me unable to explain the "point of no return" rule:  It's okay.  I can drive through the light when it is yellow.
Logan:  But Mommy, yellow means slow down and stop for the red light.
Me:  I know, but I had time to drive through still.
Logan:  No!  You have to slow down.  Yellow means slow down!

This went on for at least five more minutes before he dropped it.
END SCENE

Clearly this means I will have nothing to worry about when he turns sixteen and starts driving his own car right?  RIGHT????

The Car Seat Dispute

Gavin is 15 months old now, and if he hasn't hit the 22 pound mark yet, he's very close.  This means one thing to me:  it's time to get him in a different car seat. 

This is the easy part.

See, Logan currently rides in a convertible car seat.  We have one in each car.  All we have to do it readjust the seat to fit Gavin.  Each car seat can actually be placed rear-facing too which is even better.

So EASY!

The not so easy part:  What do I do with Logan now?

Logan is probably only 35 pounds...soaking wet.  This means he is still too small for a backless booster.  But it does mean that he is big enough for a high back booster.  But still, I know he would be safer in a five-point harness.

This should be an easy decision right?

WRONG!

My checkbook is crying out in pain at the idea of buying TWO* more five-point harness car seats.  See, backless boosters are cheap, cheap, cheap!  I can buy two for less than the price of one five-point harness seat.  And while high back boosters are more expensive than backless boosters they're still cheaper than five-point harness seats.

My cheap side and my mom side are waring with each other BIG time.  There's a part of me that wants to call a compromise and go with the high back booster, but....that mom side of me wants to keep my child SAFE!

Okay, okay...this really is a no brainer, but still!  Ugh...

Get ready to cry Mr. Checkbook, because you're buying two more (more) expensive car seats....


*YES!  We need TWO!  Justin and I are both responsible for dropping off and picking up the kids, and I don't want to mess with switching seats from car to car! 

Remembering Halloween

Logan was a "hunting guy" (as he called it)...

...and Gavin was a mummy!

They made quite the pair.  Both excited for Halloween...for different reasons of course!

Logan was excited to show everyone his "vampire" pumpkin...

...and Gavin was just excited to get to stick his hands inside the pumpkins again!  (Don't worry - they weren't lit yet!)

My three handsome boys!



Mimi and Papa came over to join in on the Halloween fun.  We left Gavin with them and a bowl of candy to pass out, and Justin and I took Logan around the neighborhood for some Trick or Treating.

As much as Logan enjoyed Trick or Treating, it is still not his favorite part of Halloween.  He couldn't wait to get back to the house so that he could help pass out candy!  He and Papa passed out candy and took turns wearing the "scary" mask.

Because it was a Monday night it didn't take too long for the crowd to die down, and before we knew it, it was after seven and we had two very sleepy boys on our hands!

Everyone had a great night, and that is what I call a successful Halloween!









Remembering the time we carved pumpkins

This post is part of my "Remembering October" series...considering it's mid-November now it is about time I get around to finishing up these "October" posts!