Gobble Gobble Wrap Up

Its been a lovely Thanksgiving weekend here in the mile high city. First, I need to announce the healthy arrival of our bud's Mark & Abby's newest little man, Heath. He's now 6 days old and is already a little charmer.

Uncle Kyky arrived at 7:30am Thanksgiving morning, safe and sound. We rushed him and Tim off to play a game of flag football with the neighborhood men while dude and I played with the other children and wives at the park. I kinda wished I was playing football, but we'll lobby for a women's tourny next year. Dude then sang Joy Joy Down in my Heart for 2 hours in his crib while we waited to head over to Oma and Opa's house for our big feast.

And a feast it was! Thanks to our Denver family for hosting us and allowing us to destroy your home. Friday we hauled out the 4 bins of Christmas decorations and went to town on the house. It's tradition for me... you have to decorate the day after Thanksgiving. No working around it. It was a little odd jamming to "Winter Wonderland" with our 75 degree temps, but I'm not complaining.

I'll re-cap the remaining weekend festivities in another post. Oh yes, there's more. Never a dull moment round here.

"Who invited the under 30 year old to play?" Ky took charge of that game.



Mommas and kiddos hangin tight at the park.

Dude played in the trees for about 40 minutes. Don't know what he was doing, but he was happy. Happy dude = happy Momma.

2 sisters and their amazing Mom

Abby, Mark and new big bro Nolan.

1/4 of our Thanksgiving table

Big cousin Payton with baby Heath.

The biggest Turkey of the bunch.

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without the annual "Turkey game."

If You Were a Mouse in Our House, You'd Hear....

Dude's in the tub Sunday night. He wants Tim's attention in the next room. "Come on Babe! Babe, where are you? Play with me Babe!" You now know my term of endearment for Tim.

This is new....when dude is in trouble or thinks he might be, this is an example of what transpires....
He's in the basement and I'm upstairs changing out of my work clothes. Said in his loudest possible voice...."Mommy! Come play wif me in basement! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" I say, "Mommy is changing her clothes and you need to stop screaming at me. Patience!" Silence for 2 seconds. He screams back, "Mommy, are you so happy?" He figures if I say I'm happy, he's off the hook.

First thing said when I woke him up this morning for day care. "Mommy, I so hungry. Go make ham n cheese tiya (tortilla) pease."

As we pass a McDonald's, I say, "What do you like to eat at McDonald's?" He pauses, thinks and says, "EeIEeeIO Mommy."

Tim and I are talking about something naughty that dude had done earlier in the day. Dude is playing right next to us. He looks up at us, gets a very stern look on his face and yells, "Stop talking Mommy, Daddy!" He then looks back down and continues playing. We both erupt in laughter. Wow are kids smart.

That's all for today. Fun times being a mouse in our house.

Thankful for a patient beau

I'm typically not nervous to tell my dear hubbie about stupid stuff I do. He's very even keeled and really doesn't let my "stuff" get to him. I lucked out BIG time in that department. However, Monday morning produced one of those few times where I was nervous to dial his digits and tell him about the latest of my antics....aka, the second of 2 traffic violations received in the past 4 weeks. Neither of which I deserved, by the way. Well, the first one maybe. But this time I "rolled" a stop sign on our street. $100. Bam! Just like that. Have a nice day "Mr. I needed to reach my quota for the month and figured this was a nice lazy way to nail unsuspecting people who really aren't doing anything dangerous or illegal." But he can. Because he's a cop. And he has a gun.

Lucky for me, my dear hubbie practiced patience and was extremely understanding and sympathetic. Wrong place, wrong time. Yup! Couldn't agree more. I'm oh so thankful for his wonderfulness. And from now on, I'll make sure to make a jolting stop at every stop sign and make sure there are no squirrels or rabbits that need to cross before I proceed.

Thankful for our Whirpools

This weekend, I'm oh so thankful for our trusty Whirlpool Washer and Dryer. Oh so thankful. Why? I'll summarize in 2 words...ok, maybe 4 words. Potty training - ATTEMPT at potty training. Big boy undies are super cool, especially when they have Diego, cars and Elmo on them. Turns out they're equally cool when holding 2 inches of pee. Cool enough that it doesn't even warrant a verbal cue that there's 2 inches of pee in them. It's normal, right? Why would that be bothersome?

Yesterday was a milestone...he did run to the bathroom when he had to do his business and did it proudly. We danced, we sang, he put stickers on his potty chart, he got to color with markers on said potty chart and we even baked cup cakes to celebrate. One accident (oops we call it) followed that. Today we had one glorious moment with the little red potty and then we found him soaked to the core without a care in the world. Progress comes with penalties I guess. Thank you Target for selling mass quantities of big boy undies for very little money. And thanks to the washer and dryer for making them brand new again and keeping our home sanitary. Say prayers folks. This might be a very long potty road.

"Hooray for Wylan! Go Bears game!" (is what he's saying here)

Thankful for our Buddy Sam and his Club

Dude and I visited one of our very favorite places yesterday. A place that makes me happy and, due to my enthusiasm, makes dude happy too. Sam's Club. Where else can you develop Christmas card photos, play with life size Mickey and Minnie Mouse dolls, strum the keys of a digital baby grand, read huge puffy kids books, eat endless free samples of culinary goodness, watch kids shows on ginormous tvs, purchase 150 rolls of toilet paper in one package and order 2 slices of pizza for a buck twenty? We try to go at least once per week. Sam's Club. It brought some thankful to my day.

Side note, is it bad parenting that the man in the booze section knows us and gives dude a sucker each time we come in? Cheap wine. Really, you can't beat it.

I Can't Get No Satisfaction

Leading up to Thanksgiving, I wanted to share with all my loyal blog stalkers some things I'm thankful for. I'll start by clarifying that yes, I'm incredibly thankful for family, friends, health, my hubby, my little dude, a roof over my head, food to eat and all the obvious life essentials. I would like to take this opportunity to focus on the little things that add "happy" to my life throughout my daily routine.

Today's thankful moment: As I'm sitting in bumper to bumper to bumper traffic on poorly designed, 2 lane Highway 225 this morning, KBCO decides to play a song that brought "happy" to my mundane commute. As I jam to the lyrics "I can't get no.....satisfaction...cause I try, and I try, and I try and I tryyyyyy. I can't GET NO! SatisFACTION, I think back to a childhood memory that leaves me grinning, ear to ear and break dancing in the driver's seat.

When my little brother (not so little anymore) was 3 or 4 years old, he would haul out our poop brown, Fisher Price record player, put in this particular record and do his toddler version of Michael Jackson's signature break dance moves. His mouth would be in a wide open state, arms up in the air with his little hands pointing down. He would put all his weight on his tiny toes and start moving his chubby little self around in circles. Next he'd hit the deck like a bag of weights and start a move that I can't even begin to describe. Somehow his body would go in a circular motion with his legs moving faster than the speed of light. The record would have to be played again and again, until his energy finally escaped him.

That was my thankful for today. Music and fond memories of things I so wish I had on DVD.

Our New Red Cars

We didn't blow our budget. These cars only cost us a mere $10 and produced a gleeful 2.5 year old little boy. He wore them all afternoon, racing his little feet around the carpet like he was on a track. Surprisingly, he didn't ask for dad's helmet - he did sport the huge man sized helmet last week while he rode his big wheel around the driveway. We got lots of smiles from passers-by that afternoon.

It was an 8 inch snow producing weekend here, so we stayed bundled indoors. Our only complaint revolves around the lack of nap time this afternoon...this happens about once per week these days. So incredibly sad for mom and dad. Is it truly that time in life already for the little man? Naps are just so so sweet and we're hope hope hoping that he doesn't completely forget his love of afternoon slumber.

"Karen's" Denver Experience

My cousin Erin and I grew up seeing each other a few times a year and giggling a whole lot with each visit. Her quiet nature and my not-so-quiet-and-often-obnoxious nature clicked. There were 3 of us the same age, but our counterpart Sarah lived in CA, so we had to settle for a dynamic duo most of the time. Once our college years hit, we didn't see much of each other. Time does that I guess. I ran into her on Michigan Ave downtown Chicago 4 years ago and that was really the last time we spent more than 2 minutes face to face. Until last weekend! We met up on the social networking phenomenon site, Facebook, and she booked a flight without any hesitation. Brave girl!

We spent 3 full days enjoying what Colorado has to offer...Daniel's Park overlooking the mountains, bonding with neighbors and exposing her to the chaos that is life with children, spa services up in breathtaking Evergreen, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, shopping in quaint downtown Littleton, the blessing of teaching Sunday school and even a baby shower for Abby (no she didn't know her, but bless her for being a trooper). She got a whole lot of QT with dude. Half the time he called her Erin and the other half was Karen for some reason or another. He adored her and put on a show the entire weekend. I'm pretty sure she was totally exhausted by the time she left Monday morning. Probably still sleeping actually.

Thanks for coming out Er! It was great hosting you - let's not wait 10 more years to do it again.

Red Rocks on a clear, 65 degree day.

Tallgrass Spa in Evergreen. Aveda heaven.

Happy feet.

Abs on shower day. Baby boy due any time now!

What Does Dude Do at Day Care?

The ride home from day care Q&A always goes a little something like this....

"Dude, what did you do at Miss Lesa's house today?"

"Ahhhhhh. Play toys."

"What else?"

"Ahhhhhh. Wylan time out. So naughty."

"Why did you get a time out today?"

He grins, his best sheepish grin, looks at me with a slight head tilt and says "Hi Mommy."

Then we blame the other children. "Ahhhh.....Logy get time out. Michael get time out. So naughty."

"What did you have for lunch today?"

"Ahhhhh....milky."

"What did you EAT?"

"Ahhhhh.....mac and cheese. Ahhh...waffles.....Ahhhhh....milky."

"Go to Wylans house now, yeah!!!!!!!!!"

I did ask Lesa if he eats mac and cheese, waffles and milk for lunch every day and of course he doesn't. And he doesn't get time outs every day either, but on a given day, someone is in time out, so this must really hit home with our little man. He just doesn't get the concept of not tattling on himself. In fact, the first thing he told me Tuesday was, "Wylan push Gavin - so naughty - get time out Mommy. Sit on carpet and cwy, wah wah wah!"

God bless Miss Lesa. For so many reasons.

This photo has zero relevance to the post, but a post without a photo just seems so drab.

Why am I the Way I Am?

Because I'm this guy's daughter. This is the 2nd round of photos, of himself, that he has sent to the dude. Dude hides them everywhere, so Papa's ugly mug is strewn about our house, in every nook and cranny. Pappa may be 1,000 miles away, but he's always close to our hearts, our cookware, our sock drawers, our dvd collection, our toy boxes, in books, under couch cushions....you get the idea. So, when I hear a loud, exuberant, "Pappa in diapers!" I know that dude has just come across a token of Pappa's love. Brilliant huh?

Halloween = The Very Best Day of Dude's Whole Life

Really, truly, yesterday was probably the highlight of our dude's young life. His first twick o tweet experience proved to be all that we talked it up to be...and then some. The first house we hit gave him his very favorite candy in the world - M&Ms. He rang the doorbell, despite the fact that they were standing there holding the candy out for him, said "Twick O Tweet" in his very sweetest voice and proceeded to stare at the candy and the lady like she has just given him a trillion bucks. He showed me the candy, asked me to open them and then yelled "Tank you!" to the lady. He ran down the sidewalk to Tim and said, "Next house, mo candy pease!"

He had to ring the bell at every single house, said his coined Halloween phrase, insisted on saying "hi" to their couches, puppies and lights (whatever he could see in the door), said "Tank you" once for every piece of candy they gave him and insisted on closing every door himself. Tim and I laughed the entire night. Dude was in his element. Photos below document Halloween activities, starting with pumpkin carving Friday night. Hope you and yours had as rad a weekend as we did.

Brady at least touched the goop. Notice the absence of dude in any of these photos. His dainty hands wanted nothing to do with the slime. Shocker.

"Tim, what should we carve?" "I don't know, a face? A scary face?" " Ok." The extent of our pumpkin carving creativity. I only punctured my finger once.

PR added pumpkin slop "hair" to her pumpkin the whole time.

Our buds Lisa and Bill host neighborhood kiddos for costume photos every Halloween. Cute bunch eh? We're crazy lucky to have such awesome neighbors.

Little Allison wasn't so much diggin' being a flower. She looked cuter than a button though!

Our neighbor was Mrs. Pirate, so dude thought that was quite rad. He stared at her a good minute trying to put two and two together.

Miss Lisa hid her candy and couldn't find it, so Claire gave dude some of hers. Sweetie.

Dude and his girlfriends sport their matching masks. They came off 2.5 seconds after this photo was taken.

Oma & Opa hosted all of us for home made soup last night. Cutest kids in town. Dude is screaming"Arggg Maitee!" That scary scary ghost is PR. Thanks Oma and Opa!