Wet kisses

How delicious are open mouthed baby kisses? I just got my very first one just now,

and it was Bliss. ;)

I'm still wiping off my lips though.

Barricade

I wondered how long this chair would keep Ty out of the kitchen.

It only took him about 20 minutes to figure out that there was a big hole he could easily fit through.

He finally made it to the other side when I had my back turned. I wish I had taken a picture of this very proud little boy after he had crossed over. His face was priceless.

Hello!!! (again)

I drive my girls to school every morning, and every afternoon I pick them up. Every day it's the same routine.

A friend of mine drives the same mini van as me, same color and all, except for she has a little sticker on the back of hers that says NUT. I need to ask her what that stands for one of these days.

Every morning she drops her kids off at school, and every afternoon she picks them up.

Every morning and afternoon we pass each other.... day in and day out.

For the first few weeks of school I would give her a cheery wave every single time. We're friends, right? Friends wave. After a few weeks of this I started to wonder, am I being totally obnoxious? Is it really necessary for me to wave every time I see her?

It reminded me of when I would go running around the cemetery in PA every day in preparation for my half-marathon. There was always at least one other person there running in the opposite direction as me. The first time we'd pass each other we would make eye contact and nod hello, but every time we passed each other after that it was a little bit awkward...I can't say hello again. Do I smile even? or do I just ignore their presence all together? Sometimes I would look up in the trees like I was bird watching, or I would act like I was looking at the grave sites along the side of the path.

It's also kind of like when you run into an acquaintance at the grocery store and you say "Hey! How have you been- Good to see you, " and then part ways, only to run into each other again in the cereal aisle... Do you pretend you don't see them? Or do you continue your conversation from a few minutes ago?

I decided that it wasn't really necessary for me to keep waving, and that I had maybe been overdoing it a little. I began driving right passed her without giving my cheery wave. It felt so unnatural. It's not like I could pretend I didn't see her. We are the only two in the whole school with the same exact van. So I decided to do a modified wave,(barely raising my hand from the steering wheel) every 2 days or so, but NOT in the morning AND afternoon on the same day. That would seem way too eager.

After a week or two of doing the modified wave, I started to lift only my index finger. More like a 'yo' then a hello. A peace sign would maybe have seemed a little less unfriendly/obligatory.

Does she even think about her greetings to me every morning? Does she stay up passed her bed time blogging about it? Does she even HAVE a blog? Does she...ahem..... read this blog?

At any rate, this morning I decided that I, as her friend, am entitled to wave at her however cheery and however many times I want to throughout the day. I'm sorry if she thinks my jazz hands, and my bed hair and makeupless, early morning face frighten her, or seem too obnoxious for her taste, but the modified wave/finger lift just isn't going to cut it anymore. Not for this minivan sisterhood.

She should consider herself lucky that I don't honk.

Cursive

Tia is really into cursive writing lately. She thinks it looks fancy and royal...so the other day she had me sit down and fill an entire page with cursive words so she could use it as an invitation to the 'royal ball' that her and her friends always play when they get together.

"Dear Princesses," I wrote "Please come to the ball at the castle. There will be many princes there. There will be dancing and royal music. You will be picked up in a royal carriage. Wear your prettiest dresses."

When Tia saw the page filled with cursive words she said "That's beautiful Mom, good job!"

When I looked at the page, I actually laughed. My cursive writing is a joke. If I didn't know I was the one who wrote it, I would have thought it came from a third grade classroom....(Why do we need to know how to write in cursive anyway?) but she hung it on the fridge and was proud as could be.

In walks J from work...

Tia excitedly showed him her princess invitation. Wasn't it beautiful?

"Who wrote this?" J asked, and then chuckled "Was it you Mom?"

I wasn't about to admit it.

"This looks like third grade handwriting."

Hahaha. I KNOW, okay? Who even writes in cursive these days?

What I really wanted to know, was could he do any better? I gave him a pen and a pad of paper and told him to get writing. I walked out of the room and came back a few minutes later.

He had written a total of 4 words, because he had forgotten HOW....and just as I suspected, his cursive was even worse than mine.

Don't dish it out if you can't take it, babycakes.

Tears

Ever since Ty began crawling we've held a contest every night before bed. We set Ty down on one side of the room, and then J and I, or all 4 of us will kneel on the other side of the living room and see which person he will crawl to.

It has never been a contest really.

There is only one person that Ty has wanted every single time.

One person that had truly captured his heart,

One person that made him smile and speed-crawl like no one else could.

Me.

Two days ago we held the same contest,

but something unexpected happened. His eyes betrayed me, fixating on someone else.

With a smile on his face as bright as the sun, those tiny little legs speed-crawled in another direction...right into the arms of his Daddy,

four times in a ROW.

Talk about major (major) heart break.

You know you're a stay at home mom when,

well maybe I should rephrase. You know you're a LAZY stay at home mom, when your child wants you to inspect their 'clean' room, and you tell them to go take a picture and bring the camera back to show you, so you don't have to get off the couch.

There, now it's out in the open.

I just had to laugh at today's episode, because this is the first picture they took of their 'clean' room.

Really? Did they really think this was clean?

"Guys!" I said (while still sitting on the couch, even though their room is literally 2 footsteps away) "This is so messy!" Then I started pointing out the details in the picture, and giving specific commands. They would do what I told them, and then they'd come back in and look at the next thing I was pointing to on the camera, and then back to their room to clean it up.

After they swore they had finished everything, I asked them to take another picture:

Better, but still random things on the floor. Pick them up please!

Here is another picture Hayley took. Again, I had to laugh because what did she expect me to say. Oh, that looks real nice. Good job?

I sent Tia back in to clean that area of the room, and Hayley took a picture of her a few minutes later READING A BOOK, not cleaning. (She gets sidetracked just like her mom) Busted.

And here was the last picture she took. I sent them back in to pick up the marker and the sock, and then we called it a day...because I was exhausted. ;)

A million and one pictures of Ty and his bear.

Grammy, this post is 'specially for you.

Most of you probably didn't know that Ty's left eye is 2/3 blue, and 1/3 brown (look a little closer) This eye, along with the star shaped birthmark on his bumcheek makes him a very unique little boy.

Sometimes we refer to him as 'the chosen one'.