More Videos!

These are the frogs that we would see outside on our porch every night. Alex was up late, so we took him out to see them. My favorite part in the movie is when the frog is hopping toward Alex and it freaks him out a little. This is a little long, but hopefully mostly entertaining!




Alex loves dip and he wanted to try some of our oil and vinegar dip.




This one cracks me up. The funny things our kids do. He was doing this the day before and I'm glad I recorded it because he hasn't really done it much since then.
Watching this again tonight, he may be saying sheep jump jump, but it sounds like shee-baa-baa, which it much funnier. So I'll just continue to think it's shee-baa-baa!

The most laughing I've done in a while

Today I was bored, so I decided to watch Wipeout online on ABC. I expected to roll my eyes and little and maybe giggle a little. But I was full on gut busting laughing through almost the whole thing.
Jon and I are going to watch it tonight and I'll probably laugh through the whole thing again it was so funny.

My favorites:
-the mommy girl
-the nicknames they had for the finalists
-the commentary
-"and again, that ramp is NOT an obstacle"
-watching people fly off of the big balls
-the guy who let his friends choose what he was wearing
-the old woman who sounded umm... ya... when she was trying to climb up the ramp and then up to the cookie cutter thing.

And tons more! It may be dumb, but it's hilarious and so silly you can't help but laugh. So go and watch it and enjoy a good laugh!

And this is what Jon made!

Jon entertained Alex outside while I had my crafty time. He and Alex put together Alex's new toy that we got off of our favorite website, craigslist!





Here are the highlights!


climbing up to go down the slide. Hard work!



trying to figure out how to get his legs to go down the slide



not quite getting it...



Wrong way buddy!!!
Good thing it's not very tall! (Jon took these pictures and when I saw this one I busted up! So funny!)



getting it right this time



YAY! I did it!




*This is me adding stuff in the next day* We went to the park today with a group- I'm sure all the mom's thought I was great hanging out with Alex on the toy instead of sitting and talking. I was hanging out with Alex because if he couldn't handle a 1 foot high slide, I wasn't so sure how he would do on a 5 foot high slide. After about 6 tries, he finally got to the point that he could do it by himself really well. Which I'm sure will make the park more enjoyable.
I'm sure those that were at the park and also read my blog noticed that Alex is wearing the same clothes. Well, Jon put him to bed in his clothes (very typical of Jon ;) ) and since he was already wearing clothes this morning, I just left him on him. What a great mom I am!

Look what I made! (and a preview for Janel)

We had our first crafty special interest group today and I made some adorable little clips. I don't have girls, but I am one. And I have bangs that get in the way and don't go all the way back in my ponytail, so I figure some cute clips will come in handy. The next thing I'm going to try is putting wider ribbon on those little bendy triangle clips. Those ALWAYS need to be cuter!




The middle ones in this picture are really light brown and pink NOT GOLD and pink! yikes! They are my favorite of all of them, so you know they have to be cute!





This is for you Janel! Hope you like it!

Sickness! Can we get a sick sack?

In honor of Jon being sick today and Alex throwing up early this morning and having diahrrea (but otherwise acting like his normal self. I told you... weird.), I am going to give you get a brief peek into my life when I was in high school.
I had a group of 5 close girl friends and we did some funny things in our day.
To this day, I have fond memories of something we started doing for each other called a sick sack.
It started with Jen being sick and, being the good friends we are, we wanted to take her some things to help her feel better.
As things always are in high school, the budget was tight. We went to our usual variety store- The Dollar Store. We were able to get Jen a princess coloring book (of course, in truly mature high school girl fashion, we all had our separate disney princess personas) and wrote captions on all of the Snow White pages, since that was Jen. She got a nice box of crayons to go along with her new coloring book. "Heaven" (Minute Maid Grape soda. I miss that stuff!) was an obvious choice as it was the staple at all of our get togethers, a can of soup to cook at her own free will and I remember a baby bib or baby eating set??? I don't remember exactly the reasoning on that one, but I KNOW there was some kind of inside joke behind it.
I think there may have been a couple of other things in the sack- perhaps Jen can add something in the comments.
We threw it all in a brown paper grocery sack, quickly colored on it, and took it over to her. It was really fun to see her laugh at the weird little things she got and to bring some joy to her sick day.

The sick sack tradtition carried on and I have recieved and written "post cards" on the sick sacks from airplanes.
And when I miracuously got sick (after Jen had been sick like 5 times. She was ALWAYS getting sick and I have some kind of super immunity apparently) and got my sick sack I was thrilled.
And amazingly enough I still have a Little Mermaid book (not of the disney sort) with things crossed out and changed and pictures commented on (like "put some clothes on" and singing changed to "babbling"). I read this book to Alex at least once a week. Of course, I read him The Little Mermaid instead of my name that is written in and The Prince instead of the name "Shall" that is written in (ahh... remember code names?!), but I still read 16 instead of 15 for the age her father allows her to see humans and I still think about how the maiden in the book that The Prince was going to marry looks like "Shall's" girlfriend at the time. And Alex loves the book. It's probably because it rhymes and has fishies (named Kim, Jen, and Em) in it, but I love remembering that time in my life and how fun it was.

Jon didn't get a sick sack today, but he did get to watch Alex for a few hours while I was out and about. Sorry honey! I'm a horrible person, I know. In my defense though, I did bring him food and juice and medicine and stayed awake entertaining Alex at 7 am. I feel really bad that Alex didn't take the full 3 hour nap that I was planning on him taking and that Jon had to deal with him for 4 hours instead of just 2. He got to play World of Warcraft in bed though, so maybe it was an okay deal for him.

I have made Jon a sick sack before though when we were dating and he loved it.

So next time someone you know or one of your kids is sick, make them a sick sack. Stick random stuff into a brown grocery sack and when they pull it out, explain some random reason of why you got that for them. It will make any sick person's day.

Some recent videos

Go Utes as motivation to get out of the crib (he just started saying Utes really well and we couldn't be happier!)




Way too excited about stabbing the watermelon (he's shouting "I did it!" in Alex speak)




Why is teasing your kid so hilarious? I laugh every time I watch this! Pay attention to how fast he starts shoveling the ice cream in as soon as he gets a hold of the spoon.

When it comes to fevers, my kid is weird

Alex woke up from his nap this afternoon with a fever of 101.3. He was acting a little sad, so we sat and watched a movie and cuddled with his monkey, who, along with his sheep, is his new favorite pal. During the movie he was sharing his milk with his monkey (complete with sound effects) and would stop and randomly give him kisses. He loves that thing.
We then ate some dinner (he loved the steak and garlic mashed potatoes we had!) and he ate everything on his plate, as usual. We then all played for a bit and he acted perfectly normal and was having a great time, not acting like anything was wrong.

I took his temp again before giving him some motrin and putting him to bed and it was 101.7. But he was just as happy as could be. Weird.
And, strangely enough, most of the time when he does have a fever he acts like there is nothing wrong with him. So I have a strange kid that even when he should be sick, doesn't act like he's sick at all.
Which leaves me to wonder what the heck could be wrong with him. No idea. And I imagine he'll be just fine in the morning. Weird.


I also found the sleeping solution! I was kind of thinking that Alex was throwing his little fits upon going to bed because he loves being up and with us so much. He likes having our full undivided attention. I think he just realized that we're still around and wants to be playing with us rather than sleeping and thus, going to sleep will interrupt that time. So at nap time today I told him that he was going to lay in his bed and go to sleep and mommy was going to go lay in her bed and go to sleep. And he was fine with that and layed down quietly and happily. I'm glad it only took 3 nights to figure that out rather than weeks!

I have some movies from this month that I'm converting to smaller files to post and I'll see if I can get most of those posted in the next few days. Movies are always fun and we've got some great ones!

The 50 cent juice was gone, but...

I did find these cute little onsies for $1 each!
I LOVE the little girl ones. I think they would make some awfully cute baby gifts, so I may go get some more.

Since they are hard to read I will interpret for you. From left to right they say: pollution stinks, be nice to your mama, 100% certified natural baby, go green live laugh, lil tree hugger, and it's a beautiful world. Yes... I am a little on the crunchy side. But in a really cool way. ;)

They had others there, so neighbor friends that read my blog... go to Wal Mart. Get the cute $1 onsies!

Oh and I got myself a hat that says More Trees Please. Just because I'm dorky like that. And because it actually looked good on me, which is a RARITY for me and hats.

Thanks for letting me share my day to day purchases with you. I'll be here all week!

Bedtime Woes

Jon and I were absolutely bewildered last night when Alex woke up screaming and then wouldn't go back to sleep even after we went in to retrieve the binky for him (he throws it out of the crib when he's upset), give him some teething tablets (cause the kid never screams like that after we've put him to bed), take him some milk, and read him another story. *side note- we only did these things because the waking up and screaming was so unusual for him, so we thought something was wrong.*
Eventually, he went to sleep on our bed with me laying next to him and singing to him.

He then proceeded to wake up at 7:30.
Which he has been doing all week, when he's always been an 8:30 boy. I'm thinking it's the bright morning sun, so since I didn't put anything on his window before he went to bed, I just may sneak in there and do it tonight. Jon and I don't do 7:30 am well.

The saga continued tonight when Jon put him to bed. I put him to bed last night, which only occasionally happens (I have an awesome husband!), so I was thinking maybe he was being weird just because I put him to bed. Well either it wasn't me or I just messed things up because he screamed when Jon went to put him in his bed.
And he screamed in anger for at least 30 minutes before giving up. There was no way we were going up to help him out. He's been going to bed perfectly fine for over a year. He knows to lay down and go to sleep. He was just mad that his screaming wasn't bringing us to him. And I'm really really hoping this doesn't become one of those battle things. Having a screaming toddler every night is not my idea of a pleasant end to the day.

I guess we'll see what the rest of the week holds and hopefully he'll figure out pretty quick that bedtime is bedtime.

Oh and quick brag about my deals of the day. I found Alex a new pair of nice looking sandals at Wal-Mart that were $14 for $4! I also found some veggie/fruit juice (like V-8 Splash) that was $2.50 for $.50. I plan on going back and getting some more of that tomorrow because it was such a good deal. That's less than a thing of apple juice would cost me! Hooray for Wal Mart.
and yes, I am totally giggling at the thought of Wal Mart haters rolling their eyes at me being happy about shopping at Wal Mart.

What? Try some free stain remover? Wasn't I just complaining about stains?

I opened up my Parents magazine today and found this for some free Zout!
Everyone needs free stain remover right? Especially those with messy children like myself. Enjoy!
www.TryMeFree-Zout.com

Jon's Journey Through Dad-dum

A photo story.
































Last Father's Day













It's been a good couple of years! Thanks for being such a great Dad!

Thanks to both of our dad's as well. We were talking today about the things that we love about each of our dad's and I told Jon that I didn't think that I would have seen the same qualities in my dad before having my own child that I do now. Thanks for being so great Dad and for being such a good example of things I want in my own family. I couldn't have asked for a better dad. Alex thinks both of his grandpas are pretty great too! We love you!

Alex can wear the same shoes as mommy!

I LOVE my reef flip flops. I've had my black pair for about 5 years now. So after Jon misplaced his flip flops, I told him that he needed to get a pair of reefs because I love mine so much.

So when we were up at the outlet today, Jon found some brown ones (he put them on and said that they were scratchy between his toes. I hope that's just because he hasn't worn flip flops in a while. And they should wear and soften a bit anyway). I got a pair of brown ones very much like my black ones because black just doesn't go with everything. And I almost got Alex a pair of black ones just like mine. Yes. They have Reef flip flops for kids. I think they even have them in as small of a size as 2/3 (Alex is in a 6/7 right now).
I think maybe next summer he can have some, but we just got him a couple of pairs of flip flops which should hold up through the summer.

We could have been a whole family of Reef flip flops. How cute!

This also reminded me of the shoes I will be purchasing for Jen and Chandler's future baby, whenever they should decide to have one of those things.

I know, I'm totally ruining the surprise .
I saw these about a year ago and knew that's what I would be getting Jen one day. So Jen, there you go. I expect you to be just as thrilled about them when I actually give them to you and no, you cannot go out and buy them yourself before I do. Sorry.

However, I know you'll be wanting those Reefs for your kid too, so I will let you purchase those yourself.

Diaper Deal!

I embarrassed my poor husband tonight at Target. In my defense, I was going to go without him, but we ended up meeting up and going there before dinner. It wouldn't have been as embarrassing if they had more lanes open, and I felt bad for holding up the line, but we did get through it all pretty fast. Jon was just embarrassed to be standing there while I did my coupons and 10 separate transactions.

So right now there are 2 Target coupons out, each for $5 off (one in the form of a $5 gift card) of a pack of Pampers diapers/trainers and a pack of wipes (180 count or more is specified on one coupon, but not the other). To sweeten this deal, I paid $5 on ebay and got 20 $2 off of 2 pampers products manufacturers coupons.

I did separate transactions with a pack of diapers and wipes each, used the gift card coupon FIRST, then the other 2 coupons. Sometimes the gift card coupon wouldn't pop out a gift card and the cashier would just take the $5 off of the transaction, leaving my total to $3.77. Original price was $15.48. If the gift card does pop out, I would pay $8 something and then use that $5 gift card on my next purchase. It all works out in the end.

I have 10 coupons left to use and I'll be going back probably later this week to get some more diapers and wipes. I'm wondering if there is any way that I could take my excessive amounts of wipes (180x10!) to a store and exchange them for packs of diapers... hmm...

And another happy note is that we then went up to the outlets to exchange some shoes we got for Alex (his feet decided to outgrow the 5's I just got for him in April) and I got some sweet deals at GUESS. They had 50% off of already marked down stuff, so that was great. The funniest thing though was finding bermuda shorts that fit me in the girls section. They were actually a little big (the 16's) because they had a TON of stretch to them and I probably should have tried on the 14's, but it was 9 and Alex and Jon were done.
I also finally found me a cute pair of denim capris. I have the hardest time finding cute capris and even bermudas. My huge problem with capris is that since I have really short calfs, they always end up at a weird length on me. So I was really happy to find cute ones (I did have to try on about 10 pairs though). They are a bit tight, but I'm hoping they do the same thing that most jeans do and stretch. I'm just going to have some skin tight jeans on for a couple of months.

By the way, Papaya is a GREAT place to shop for denim capris! They had 10-15 different styles which is more than I have seen anywhere! They have a really crappy return policy though. You only have 14 days to exchange them and they don't do cash or CREDIT CARD returns. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen. Basically, if you spend money at Papaya, the money is there permanently as you will only get store credit for anything that you return. So I did have one other pair that I wasn't totally decided on and was going to get, but didn't because of their lovely return policy. And maybe it's just the outlet that has that return policy, but it was really weird to have such an extreme policy.

It was a fun night out with the fam and good thing I had fruit snacks or we would have had an interesting time with Alex. I'm so glad I have Jon to go shopping with... it's great to have him entertain Alex for me. Alex greatly takes after his dad and HATES shopping. I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned before that if I even wander into the clothing section at Target Alex immediately gets upset. He knows.

Oh, we also decided that Alex would like to try out one of those little mall rides that they have. I guess we should have found one that people were already using so that he could see what was going to happen because when we put the money in and the voice came on saying to stay with your child, it freaked him out. He wanted out of that thing ASAP! We tried to show him that it was fun to ride and he would have nothing to do with it. Oh well. I'm sure in a year he'll begging to go on the things.

Why I love white clothing

one word. BLEACH!!!
I have the hardest time getting stains out of his other clothes. Of course, they are all food stains. I use a stain cleaner called Totally Toddler, scrub with a toothbrush on stains, then let it soak in detergent and Biz, wash and they are still there. I currently have 3 shirts that I have washed about 4 times following this process and there are still stains on them.
As for the white shirts that had stains on them, I dabbed bleach on the trouble spots and 1 wash later they were gone. I LOVE that!

This brings me to another thing I don't understand. Fabric bibs. Why do they even make them? We got a ton as gifts and when we don't have a clean plastic bib handy, we grab one of the fabric ones. I now have 3 bibs that I have washed over and over following the usual stain cleaning ritual (I even spray right after taking the bib off) and they are still gross and stained.

My conclusion last night was that the fabric bibs are for the sole purpose of wearing constantly and catching drool/spit up. My experience was that all of the bibs were too big when we had our reflux/spit up issues going on (these fabric bibs are really just now fitting him at 19 months. But then, Alex has always had a bit of a chicken neck) and most of the time the spit up landed further down on the belly and not directly under the chin. And for some strange reason, I always felt like it was an accessory similar to a bandanna tied around a dog's neck which was just weird for me.

Maybe with the next baby I'll give the constant bib thing another shot seeing as how when I went back to rebox some of Alex's smaller clothes there were some prominent yellow stains from the spit up that the heat had brought out, even though they were clean and pretty when I put them in the box. I am not looking forward to having to rewash baby clothes and trying to get all those yellow stains out. Ugh. Is that a good enough reason to avoid having another baby for a while? Maybe not. But Six Flags is!

One more way to make mommy laugh

Be standing naked in your crib when she comes to get you up from your nap.

and let her take pictures of you

and repeatedly, with much excitement, point out and say penis (just pronounced pee at this point) while thoughtfully looking out the window

and when you're sick of it, make a good face to get mom to stop taking pictures

oh and other good news... I found the 4th season of The O.C. to download, so I'll all set!

The O.C.

Yes. I've been watching The O.C.
Does that group me into the teenager group? I feel a little weird knowing that my sister watched that show religiously in high school, and here I am, a 25 year old enjoying The O.C.
Is it any surprise that my sister got me started on One Tree Hill too? Another high school based drama show that the 25 year old me actually really enjoys. And watches religiously.
So I just finished season 3 of The O.C. today. And I can't find any torrents of season 4 that will work. Yes. I download tv shows illegally. I have netflix though, so if I wanted the DVDs, I could get them... but I just don't have that much time to wait for DVDs of a TV show when I have so many other movies on my list to catch up on. (It's been a long time since we made any effort to see movies and we are on the cheapest 1 at a time plan at Netflix).
So maybe this is a far cry, but if any of you random people in Austin own or know someone that owns The O.C. season 4, PLEASE hook me up! Now if that didn't sound desperate...
You know how it is though. The season finale of your favorite show just ended and there are so many dramatic things going on and you are faced with the prospect of waiting all summer agonizing until the premire. This is like that excpet that I shouldn't have to wait all summer. The show is already out on DVD, but I can't find a way to get it.
I just want to watch it and be done, but don't want to rent 3 seperate discs in order to watch it. I'm cheap and lazy.
And apparently, quite desperate and pathetic. Ahh... what watching The O.C. will do to a person...

umm... potty training?

I just got Alex up from his nap. He's usually wet after his nap, so I went to change his diaper. Well he was dry, so I thought hey may as well try taking him to the potty (Alex loves to sit on the potty and wipe. He thinks it's one of the greatest things ever). I decided to mix things up and have him try standing and going potty like Daddy, so I got him a stool and stood him up there and he actually peed in the potty! I was so amazed! I think he was a little amazed as well.
It probably was a by chance thing, but I do think that it at least helped him realize that he can pee in the toilet.

Fish Sticks

Alex does not take after his dad in the area of fish sticks. Jon detests the things. Alex devours them.
Today for lunch I made him six fish sticks and they were gone in about ten minutes. I upped it to six today since he easily ate five the last time I made them.
I love that they are easy to make, which is a must for lunch time around our house. And this is about the only way he gets his omega-3's since the kid spits out both avocados and tuna fish, which, oddly enough, are both things that Jon loves. (Okay, he doesn't love the tuna fish, but he does eat it for lunch every day.)

Really though, I'm just glad that I have a kid that isn't terribly picky about what he eats. We did the picky/not eating at all thing for a while and it drove me crazy, so I'm VERY happy that he eats so much now. I can even get him to eat green beans these days which he was VERY opposed to for MONTHS.
Don't ask me how I do it. The kid sways with the breeze. I will say this though... anything with dip is our friend (fish sticks have dip!). Even though some meals (like the bbq chicken for lunch on Thursday) he ends up just eating the dip. Hey, ketchup is nutritious right?

After 8 days, my ears are finally unplugged!

There is hope in the world after all! I was thinking that the draining thing would take a month (that's what a website I read said). I was so relieved today when I was blowing my nose and heard some pretty strange noises in my one remaining ear that was plugged. I can't quite describe the noise... it was kind of like a loud, high pitched gurgly/bubbly sound. Remember yelling at your friends underwater at the pool? I would say that it was somewhat similar sounding to that.
The good news is that with that sound, my ear became unplugged and I could FINALLY hear again. I was so sick of feeling like I was under water and having a hard time hearing people and gauging how loud I was talking.
So I guess my sinus blockage is clearing, which is a wonderful thing. I am still loading up on decongestants/expectorants and drinking a lot of water because my nose is very stuffy and I have a lot of mucus to thin and get out, but I already feel TONS better than I have been.
Eight days was a LONG time, but I'm glad that it wasn't three weeks!

Twin Packs

As in food packaging.
Here is what drives me crazy about it. On the boxes they say there are 12 of something, but really, you're only getting 6. You have to either just know, or look carefully at the bottom of the box where it says, "six twin packs".
Who opens a twin pack of something and doesn't eat both of them? Isn't the 12 thing a little misleading? You're only going to eat the stuff 6 times, not 12. Don't claim there are 12, just say that there are 6 twin packs.
Pop tarts and swiss rolls (ho-hos) are the two that I have had encounters with in the past week. There's also those Nature Valley granola bars (the crunchy ones) and cupcakes. The cupcakes are really obvious that you are getting 2 though. I'm sure there are others that I am missing.

So the twin pack thing got me thinking about twin pops popsicles. You can break the thing in half and share, or save the other half in the freezer. There are 2 sticks after all.
So do they label the popsicles as the full amount of halves or the amount of actual popsicles before they are broken apart? Does the bag focus on there being 12 actual popsicles or do they focus on there being "technically" 24 popsicles?
I may have to do some investigating on my next trip to the store.