1st Grade!

This boy started 1st grade two weeks ago.  I was like what?   I have a freaking 1st grader?!  I know how cliche it is to say but my oh my how the time does fly.  He had a rough first day.  Poor kid fell at lunch and pretty much cried the rest of the time he was at school.  It was less about the hurt and more about being overwhelmed I think.  He has been a champ the rest of the time.  Well it has gotten better each day at least.  HA!  He is getting so big.  It makes me want to cry and shout for joy at the same time.  I have such conflicting feelings about him growing up.  Mostly I am happy though!  It has been a privilege to be his mother and to watch him grow.    

Lola has been doing a lot better having him gone all day long than I thought she would.  We haven't had any issues except that she thinks it should be a party all day everyday.  She wants to rock and roll all night and party everyday!  I want to rock and roll some nights and part of every day.

On a side note- Help a girl out with ideas for lunches to send with the boy!  What do you send?  Do your kids eat their lunch?  Because mine sure doesn't.  

  

Movie Project: Scalloped Shorts

I love quick projects!  I bookmarked this DIY scalloped short tutorial from Mandi at Making Nice In The Midwest like 3 years ago.  I love it now just as much as then.  It is great.  And fast! However,  I unfortunately never wear shorts.  But with our recent unemployment I had to get creative with the kids summer clothes.  So armed with the tutorial and a pair of jeans to make into jorts I made Lola a pair of scalloped shorts.  

I fray-checked the bejeezus out of them!  Even with that they frayed quite a bit in the wash.  The look isn't bad so I just trim off the long pieces and let it be.

I used a gatorade cap for the scallop and it ended up being the perfect size.

Here's a little closer look.  I love that they are a pair of casual cut offs that are spiced up.  I have ended up liking them so much that I may have to make a pair for me!

Movie/show:  A billion episodes of The Aqua Bats Super Show

Time Spent: Like an hour and a half- the fray check took forever!

Friday Fox

Oh my holy heckballs!  This fox sweatshirt from Supayana is perfect!  I want it for Lola.  If only it came in a 4T or 5T.  Ugh.. first world problems, eh?

Pretty Pots!

Over spring break we let the kids paint up a couple of pots and pick some flowers to put in them.  The kids and I each picked a paint color.  I figured that way they could paint their hearts out and we could have some coordinating new pots.  Can you guess what color I chose?  I can't help it!  I love black.  The kids did such an amazing job.  I love the fun abstract look of each one.  I think I am going to buy one of those huge terra-cotta pot and let them have at with the same colors.  Wouldn't that be lovely?  Now to keep the flowers alive.

On a side note: Any advice on sealing them?  The paint was an outdoor paint but I am wondering (probably a little late) if I need to use a sealant on them?  They were rained and snowed on and seemed to hold up just fine but I want them to last for at least a few years.  Any advice?     

   Oh I am into spring.  I love it!  

Heart Bombing!

We went out as a family to do some heart bombing ala Sheepish Knit.  I love Meredith and her lovely blog a little bit and by a little bit I mean a ton!  The wrapped yarn heart is the only one we made from yarn.  The kids had a hard time standing around and waiting for that one to be done.  The rest were cut out of pink and red felt.  

I wish we had gotten a picture of Lola's whole outfit.  It was so her!  A red and gold geisha style dress with black tights, blue chucks and a pink sweetheart sweatshirt.  Oh that girl kills me!

The kids wanted to put them on their friends houses so that is what we did mostly.  That is why our pictures were hurried and not so hot.  We had to be quiet and run as soon as they were done!  It is really cool to watch them get excited about doing things for their friends.

We had a lot of fun running around the block spreading some love in our neighborhood!  In fact, we had so much fun that I am going to plan some other stuff for us to do to spread some guerilla-style love around our community.  

3 good things

It has been a rough week so far over here.  Between the crazy snow and the crazy kids it has been exhausting at some moments.  Enter Jess from IROCKSOWHAT.  She is doing a 3 good things linky.  All you have to do is post 3 good things that have happened.  I am pretty sure I can come up with three good things from today.  I appreciate the reminder.  I definitely needed some perspective!  

So.....

1. The snow has stopped finally.  No shoveling today.  W00t!  My back and wrists can get a chance to heal up.

2. The kids didn't wake up screaming.  Yeah that is totally normal in our house.  I think that I have figured out Lola finally.  About time since she is freaking 4.  That girl needs time after she wakes up to wake slowly and quietly.  She needs extra time to be calm.  Since trying that out our mornings have been so much smoother.  Good thing because she and I were on the verge of a breakdown!  She be cray!

3.  I finally got my knitting in the round to not be twisted.  4th times the charm.  And I am loving it!   

Embracing change

We have been doing a little adjusting around here.  That is probably the biggest reason for the lack of posts.  OH and we lost a set of rechargeable batteries so we have been switching them around to all of our electronic devices.  Obviously the computer mouse has been getting the short end of the stick.  Rechargeable batteries are crazy expensive!  I know they save me money in the long run but damn! 

Anywho... back to adjusting!  Nicholas, my fabulous husband, just got a new job and has been working a boat load.  That means 60-70+ hours most weeks.  That also means that I am now a SAHM.  YAY!  I feel like I have to pinch myself whenever I think about it.  I don't think it has really sunk in yet.  I have worked since I was 16 non-stop.  This last week we have been adjusting to never seeing Nick and to me being home full time.  Not seeing Nick has been rough for me and the kids.  He is part of my happiness.  That is not to say that my happiness depends on him entirely.  But he is by far my favorite person in the world.  He puts a smile easily on my face.  I am not trying to sound whiney!  I am so grateful for the sacrifice he is making for our family.  He amazes me more everyday.  I miss him though!  Whine whine whine!  I will say that the time we have together has been extra special.  We never fought much before but we haven't at all since he started 2 weeks ago.  The kids go nuts for him every time they see him.  It is freaking cute!  I think the four of us are already appreciating each other more.  Lets see how we feel a few months down the road!    

The whole point of this is to say that we have had some major changes in our life the last bit.  I am trying to learn to embrace change.  Which has never been easy for me!  Really who is it easy for though?  If you adjust well to change please give me some advice on how to accept and love it!

It's Friday- we're in love!

I love my kids!  And they love me and their dad.  But you know my favorite thing about all this love?  Those two kids love each other so so much!  It does my heart good.  We might be bad parents in some ways but we have got to be getting something right.  At least one thing- HA!  I am not sure how it happened but Nicco is Lola's champion and Lola is Niccos' biggest cheerleader.  They fight really fierce but they love even more fierce.  I never thought I wanted children but I am glad that our Heavenly Father shook his head at me and sent me them anyway!    

Thankful Thursday

That is Lola.  I am grateful for that little girl.  Lola kicks ass!  For real that girl is a firecracker.  She is stubborn and a little crazy.  And hilarious and tender hearted.  She has had to over-come some very difficult things in her short life.  Well really just one.  Lola was born without fingers or a full thumb on her left hand.  She does have little stubby fingers and most of her thumb luckily!  She has amniotic band syndrome.  Which essentially means that a piece of the amnion wrapped around her fingers and they just never developed in the womb.  It is also what causes cleft palates.  Unfortunately she has already had to deal with kids being mean.  She is three!  It breaks my heart.  Fortunately all that happened was some missing fingers.  Other people have not been so lucky.  

I think that is why she was blessed with a her crazy personality!  This experience has made her more compassionate and kind.  She accepts people with no question.  She doesn't take no for an answer!  Lola is completely fearless.  She is smart and can figure out a way to make things work.  She uses her left hand to her advantage as opposed to a disadvantage- which is what most people see it as.  I am so glad I get to call her daughter!    

a little update

We have officially been in kindergarten for 3 weeks.  So far so good.  Nicco seems to love it.  Truth be told I think that he has a little tiny crush on his teacher.  I am so loving that!  It is his first crush on someone outside the family.  I was his first or so I like to think.  Sigh....  He gets moony eyed when he sees her.  Talk about great motivation for him to work his tiny tail off!  I don't blame him for loving her because she is gorgeous and nice and fun.  She is pretty much the epitome of Kindergarten teacher.  He has learned how to write his letters up through M so far.  Numbers up to 4.  His 4's are the stuff of legends!  They are so good.  I am a proud momma! 

Lola has started getting into a little routine without Nicco.  She still misses him while he is gone.  She is pushing through and handling it better and better every day.  It is a little sad when we pick him up- she runs up to hug him and he runs from her.  It upsets her a lot.  He is her everything!  She gets him back though so I can't get too upset with the boy!  That girl always gets her revenge ;).  

Nicco has made friends easily.  I however feel awkward on the playground waiting for him.  It is weird that you can stand next to someone practically touching and not speak.  Some of the moms even ignore you if you speak to them.  What the hell?!  I swear it is like high school all over again!  And I am the geeky eyeglass wearing band geek- head gear and all.  Oh well- their loss cause I am rad!  K?!  Rad!  Why is it so hard to make friends as an adult?  Or is it not hard and I am just making it hard?  Why can't we just become friends automatically like kids?  They can both like a rock and all the sudden they are besties.  That has not been my luck as an adult.  I have made some great friends online!  Maybe I don't translate well in the real world.  That could be it seeing as how I am wicked awkward in person.  Like it might not be endearing but just creepy awkward.  I like to think that it is endearing but I might be just fooling myself.  Maybe I try too hard.  Desperation is a stinky cologne and all that. 

 Oh well I am not changing.  I have tried to be anything but myself in the past to please people and make friends.  That sucks so bad.  Nothing is a bigger blow to your self esteem than that- when you decide you aren't good enough without having to be told that by someone else and then it not working out.  You get rejected twice!  Once by yourself and then a second by the other person.  BOO!  I am over it.  I refuse to be anything but me from now on.  If you don't like me then screw you! 

Deep for a little update I think.  That topic has been nagging at me though.  I needed to work it out apparently!        

Little Reminders

I had to share this because I feel like I have a lot of short comings as a mother.  I sometimes yell and get told that I am mean.  I am far from perfect but then I will get a reminder that I must not be totally screwing up my kids.  You see that picture right there?  Yeah they did that without me prompting them.  My babies truly love each other.  They are kind and loving towards one another.  I would go as far as saying that they are each others favorite people.  Granted they also really don't enjoy each other at times.  They fight like cats and dogs or like siblings really.  But they turn around and make up and are playing again like little angels 5.5 seconds later.  They make my heart swell!  Life can be rough at times.  We are in a rough patch right now.  Things don't always go my way but I have a happy little family and kids who love each other.  

Plus rough patches have a way of smoothing out eventually.

We are in kindergarten!

Today was Nicco's first day of Kindergarten!  It went off without a hitch.  No tears were seen.  By me or the boy.  I felt a little guilty about that actually.  Most of the moms were crying.  Not me.  I was dry eyed.  All I felt for him was excitement.  Is that bad?  I think that it helped that they lined them up and took them in without an opportunity to think about it.  Rip it off quick like a bandaid!    

 My boy at his school in line.  He looks so big with his back pack on! 

Hugs before school!  I was afraid Lola would have a rough morning.  I was right.  She missed him big time!  Plus I realized that Nicco and Lola spent a lot of time playing with each other.  They pretty much only needed me to regulate and distribute snacks.  I am going to have some plans for entertaining her.

 Happy little family!  

Sad Lola!  This is the moment when she realized that he wasn't coming home with us.

I will say that I am feeling a little nostalgic already for the days when we could come and go as we please.  I have to come to grips with the fact that our lives are now run by school schedules.  And it will be for a long long time!  I am a grown woman with a child in school.  WTF?!  I feel a little old.   

Lola is a human name, right?

That is my sweet little Lola.  Lola is a family name and I love it!  I wanted to change my name to Lola when I was younger or add it in as my middle name.  The best thing about it is that it fits her perfectly.   She is a Lola and the Damn Yankees song is pretty accurate.  Whatever Lola wants Lola gets.  I have always been so happy with our choice but recently I have noticed that a lot of people name their pets Lola.  Did I give my daughter a dog name?!  Is this going to scar her?  And I am not exaggerating!  It is a freaking popular pet name.  I can give you two examples off the top of my head.  Leigh-Ann from a 

Freckled Nest has a Lola.  Oddly enough her Lola likes to eat paper and so does my Lola.  Weird.  And also Jessica from Don't Call Me Jessie just introduced her new cat named Lola.  WTF?!  All I can hope is that the pet named Lola trend goes away.  Far away!  I am not sure if that will happen.  I do know one thing for sure- my baby is so much cuter than any animal!  Take that pet owners with pets named Lola..... yeah that was not very good smack talk.

My Pants.... A Haiku

I wrote a haiku.  I haven't written a haiku for years.  Years and years even.  As a matter of fact I am not sure I have ever written one.  I had to look it up on the world wide web to find out what a haiku was actually.  Now I know- and knowing is half the battle!  In case you are interested it is a Japanese poem consisting of 17 syllables.  Line one is 5 syllables, the second is 7 syllables followed by a third that is again 5 syllables.  They are usually about nature apparently but I was inspired by the girl baby.  She says some interesting things.  Funny girl!  

My Pants

written by me

My pants are stupid

I will wear my underwear

and that is it today

We are cutting edge all up in this hizouse! 

Lolas first haircut

So Lola decided to cut her hair. This is the first time I have had to deal with something like that. Nicco never cut his hair. I think that he loved the compliments about his long hair so much that he became very attached to his hair at a young age. He thought that having short hair made you a girl. That is probably my fault. Kept his hair long until he was old enough to have an opinion of his own ;). Not too mention that I told him I loved it every day.  Anywho... The other day I noticed that Lola had been too quiet for a minute too long. That is a common problem. When I called her name she came running up the stairs- with bangs. Yeah. So we told her not to cut her hair anymore and that scissors can be dangerous if used while not supervised. She told us that she wouldn't cut it again. To say we are a bit naive is a freaking understatement. Our first indication that we shouldn't trust our mischievous, conniving little 3 year old is that she wouldn't give up the location of the scissors. She was not about to show us to her secret stash of stuff.  She is keeping her mouth shut. That stash contains one of about all my pairs of shoes too. I should probably do some P.I. work and follow her...

SO continuing on.  The next day we got in the car and I noticed a little more of a "style" to her locks. Girl cut her hair again! Our conversation went a little like this:

Me: Lola did you cut your hair again?

Lola: Uh no

Me: Lola I can tell you cut your hair. Did you cut it?

Lola: Uh no

Me: I know you did. So did you cut it again?

Lola: Uh yeah

Me: You did a fabulous job but don't do it again!

And she actually totally rocked her haircut!! No whack job! I have heard some stories and seen some of the horrible things that kids do to themselves with scissors. Massacre. But my girl gave herself some bangs and some nice layers. It does need to be cleaned up a bit but really she kicked some serious booty. Both pictures are of her new 'do. I am a pretty proud momma! How do you get upset when all you feel is pride?

my boy baby is growing up

These are my first flowers from the boy baby!  *Tear*  He handed me one flower to start and then proceeded to hand a whole handful to the girl baby.  It was so sweet that he gave a whole bouquet to his baby sister but I couldn't help but want to knock her over and steal her flowers and run.  I resisted and was rewarded with two more flowers for me.  And just me!  My Nicco is so sweet!  He is an actual little person now.  I can hardly even call him boy baby anymore.  But I won't ever stop!  Even if he begs me.  He is funny, charming, kind and eager to please!  I am in mad love!

Adventures in Bathrooming

I have a little tale for ya'll.  It starts outside the Winco bathroom......

I needed to use the restroom and of course when the two littles heard me say that they decided that they need to go as well.  So I got them out of the cart and started for the woman's bathroom.  Nicco wasn't having it!  He wanted to use the boys potty and about refused to go in the ladies.  I being the great mother I am dragged him into the ladies amid screams.  We get in there and of course the large stall wasn't available.  As a matter of fact it was taped off with red caution tape.  Which is a little disconcerting.  Was someone murdered in there or what?!  The other two were in use so we had to wait a minute.  Nicco decided to brave the caution taped stall and ran in pretty much 3.2 seconds after I told him to not go in.  However, as luck would have it whatever was behind that tape scared the pudding out of him and he shrieked and ran out.  Which saved me from having to go in and find a bloody corpse.  At the same moment Lola ran into one of the now opened stalls and locked herself in.  She wouldn't let me in for nothing!  The other stall opened up so Nicco walked in and started crying because there was still toilet paper in the toilet.  I don't understand the issue since he doesn't even sit to pee.  (a fact that I am totally jealous of)  SO I move him out of the way and flushed it for him.  Finally Nicco got done and opened the door.  By this point I am really needing to get in there.  He didn't want to wait for me outside the stall so I started using the facilities with him in the incredibly miniature stall with me.  He immediately started asking about my anatomy.  Awkward questions that I didn't want to answer!  The boy knows just enough to be able to ask those awkward questions that I feel need a full on sit down explanation.  No good.  The whole time I was sitting atop the toe-toe it was flushing.  What is up with the automatic toilets flushing when you are on them but not flushing after you stand up?!  I get finished and we try to open the door and we can't get it open without me straddling the crazy flushing toilet.  It took a few seconds but I finally shoved Nicco out of the stall and was able to extricate myself to the steady whoosh whoosh of the possessed toilet.  

I start knocking on Lola's stall and begging her to open the door.  She says "NO I peeing!"  Finally after I was considering bodily harm or kung fu-ing the door down she informs me that she is done and opens the door.  What I see when she opens up the door was not something I was expecting.  The girl was buck naked!  Like head to toe naked- as naked as she was the day she was born.  I get huge mommy points for my reaction peeps!  All I did was gather up her clothes and tell her that it isn't okay to get naked at the grocery store.  At that point I was beyond done!!  There wasn't a counter at the sinks so I had to pull the diaper changing table down and set her up there and start dressing her.  Of course she was wearing tights which are a freaking pain in the shorts to get on.  As I am getting them on her the diaper changing deal starts creaking and sloping under her weight.  So to save her cute little behind I grab her out of the air and have to pull up her tights with her in my arms- no easy feet I tell you!  We finish getting dressed and head over to the sinks.  Which were so hard to work that I almost didn't wash any hands.  I had to touch the little black spot to get them started.  Then wash and rinse as fast as possible because they turned off after about 5 seconds.  Repeat 3 times.  And for some reason the water starting made Nicco freak out!  It scared him real bad.  Mind you that we have used automatic sinks before.  This isn't our first rodeo!  After washing hands he runs over to the Xcelerator hand dryer and gets it going.  That thing is the MacDaddy of all hand dryer.  It blows air so fast that I have to stand behind the kids so they don't blow away.  He has used one before but guess what?  Yeah it scared him. I am raising a fraidy cat apparently.

We get done and come out of the restroom and my sister tells me that she heard me struggling but decided not to come in.  I think that at that point I would have been totally within my right to leave her there and make her hitch hike home!

Not a fun experience!  It did teach me a lesson- NEVER go grocery shopping with out the man fellow again!  One parent per child keeps things under control.     

Lola had a birthday shout hooray!

Okay so this post is wicked late.  My baby girl Lola turned three a couple of weeks ago and I can't just let it go by without saying anything.  She is so so awesome!  She is a spitfire already.  You know that song whatever Lola wants Lola gets?  Yeah that is pretty accurate.  She is kind and funny.  She is already dealing with something that no one should have to deal with and she handles it beautifully.  As a matter of fact I think that she has the personality she does so that she can handle it.  She loves her big brother so much and it makes me so happy!  She is a free spirit- hence the picture from fall because that is the most recent picture of her with clothes on.  Girl hates being restricted!  She is a perfect fit for my little family and we love her so much!  So happy super belated birthday little one!    

Here comes Santa Claus!

We went and saw the big man on Saturday.  And by big man I mean Santa Claus.  Can I get a what what?!  I have always thought that sitting in a huge Ace line waiting to see Santa with two tiny children sounded awful and so I never have.  But this year they had Santa at Nick's union party.  So I figured what the hey?  Best part was that we got there late so there was no line!  Bonus!!  They both handled it beautifully.  No tantrums on Santa's lap for us. I wonder if missing out on pictures of the wee babes crying on Santa's lap was a mistake though.  That is a classic Christmas image!  

  I had to include this first picture of Lola because it is so cute!  She freaking ran up to Santa and said "Santa!  I love you!!".  There was none of that stranger danger crap at all.  She was beyond thrilled to see him.

After the huge hug she became awfully timid.  She told Santa that she wanted a Barbie and when he asked her if she wanted anything to go with it she told him she wanted Christmas.  Get it guy?!  She wants a Barbie and Christmas to be here already!!

Nicco was way more shy than Lola.  He told him his name- that he wanted a plane- took the bag of treats and hopped down without looking back.  The best part with Nicco was the clowns.  I wish I had gotten a picture.  He was scared shiz-less of them!  I had to drag him over to the clown and then hold him while the guy made him his penguin balloon animal.  And the face painting?  Forget about it!  He absolutely refused to do that.  We learned something new about Nicco that day.  To be totally honest I get the clown thing.  Clowns are creepy.  The whole painted on smile with a real grimace underneath thing is a tad on the creeper side.  Anyone else afraid of clowns?  How about awesome screaming pictures with Santa? 

Fun in the Leaves

Yay for Autumn!  We raked up the leaves and this kids of course jumped in them!  On a total random side note- I found out that I burned about 400 calories raking said leaves.  So I pretty much need to be constantly raking leaves the rest of my life to compensate for the food I eat!  Any way..... back to the cute kids!  They built castles and piles and all sorts of stuff.  It was so fun to watch them!!  Such a great fall day.  Perfectly chilly and beautiful sunshine.

Lola has an covered oreo face!  He he!!

Aren't they doll babies?  I think so!