A Little Craziness Update

I've been wanting to post about a few of the crazy things that happen at our home so now I'll bunch some of them together.

One evening L decided he couldn't eat dinner without his goggles on, and I figured it couldn't hurt right? Whatever makes the meal go down...



Yeah, I know.

A couple of days ago, I was in the bathroom and the phone rang. S has become very helpful so I asked him to please pick it up, which he did. Then I heard:
"Yes, my mami is here. She is going poopies."
I just about fainted with embarrassment, praying it was my husband and not the bank or someone with whom I'd have to be completely mortified. It was one of my friends who was gracious enough to laugh it off and try to make me feel better. Still - A lovely moment in my motherhood experience...Heh. At least his reading is taking off in leaps and bounds so I am distracted from the times he tries to embarrass me to death.

L has also become absolutely adorable. When he isn't screaming at the top of his lungs to get his way, he is charming and quite the little entertainer. He loves to sing and dance and talks non-stop; often making us roar with laughter. he loves doing puzzles and the other day he was doing one and talking to himself: "Mmmm, this one goes here. Ah, maybe not." Probably much cute if you were his mother, but I thought it was fabulous.

So there it is - a few of our latest crazy moments. Good times! :)

Urdhva Dhanurasana

That's where I feel like I've been lately - a little more than I'd like and a little more one-sided than desired. I don't know what it is but I have the hardest time when I feel like I don't matter and like all my efforts at reaching out and being kind are scorned and mocked. I wish I were gracious and better at letting things roll of my back, but alas - when I feel like I am bending over backwards and people don't reciprocate I get bitter. For some reason, I need to feel appreciated. I wasn't neglected as a child - on the contrary; I was very loved - so this "flaw" in my personality isn't blamable on my parents. Too bad, really; it's so much easier when you can make excuses like that. Maybe I can blame them for not being able to blame something on them?!? Surely someone in psychology has thought that one up! Of to search the DSM IV...
While I am searching, I think I will practice something my yoga instructor tries to instill in us: breathe through the pose. I'll let you know how my breathing through Urdhva Dhanurasana goes.

ETA: I just wanted to add that I truly love and appreciate all of you who have responded to my bitter rant here and in real life! I don't know where I'd be without you! And no, this was not about you, Tonya, you silly girl! I love you guys and am so grateful to have such wonderful friends and family in my life!!

A Formal Complaint

I would like to lodge a formal complaint.
I was somehow duped into believing that once we were done with school and settled down with a house and a real job; along with all the responsibilities would come the blessings of long-term stationary friends. Now, I am not certain if that remains true for other adults, but somehow we have managed to pick a city with many great educational programs and not a lot of other great things - or in other words, people come here for the degrees and the residencies, and then flee like rats of a sinking ship. Seriously, people! I am tired of having a perpetually red nose from crying over my friends who move away, so now I object to all the moving. I think we should revisit the idea of free travel. Once you cross this state border, there is no leaving. At least until I say it's okay. So there. Or, as an alternative, people who plan to move away should be really mean, or wear a scarlet letter of sorts so we aren't fooled into caring about them. Hmmm.
It may be a good thing that I am not in charge. I am, after all, a much richer person for having learned from and known all my fabulous friends who have moved (or are planning too.) I still wish they'd stay closer, though.

Time in A Bottle...

No, I haven't started drinking odd alcoholic beverages. (One confession a week ought to be enough!)
The title is a title of an old song that I had never even heard of before I met my husband, but which is absolutely beautiful. I thought of it today when we went to a friend's son's baptism. In our church kids get baptized when they are eight and this little boy suddenly seemed like such a big kid. He looked like one as well - no longer the little preschooler he was when we met this wonderful family. As I watched him get into the water with his dad (who was baptizing him), I totally teared up - it just seems like a few moths ago that we met these people and now as they are moving away, I am reminded of how fast time passes.
I refuse to think about their move, so quickly on to this: as I noticed how big A had gotten, I suddenly realized that my kiddos are growing like weeds as well. (A phrase that take son a whole new meaning in our humid, weed-overgrown state!) And it made me choke up too. How is it that the days seem so long and the weeks (and years) are so fast? What is the deal with the time warps? One day I am walking S in a stroller and the next he is reading short words. Can I please have a bottle for some of this time?!?

Coming out of the (Shoe)Closet...

OK, it's time for a confession: I am a closet fan of Sex and the City. Most of the people I know find this show deplorable so I try to keep that on the down-low to avoid too many comments on how that makes me morally questionable. However, I went to see the movie last night and loved it so I had to get it out of my system and share! (I'll refrain from revealing the identity of my fellow closet fans, but I just had to mention I wasn't at the movies alone! :)
I sometimes try to justify myself by explaining that the main message of the show is quite universal - we search for love (sometimes in the wrong places) and we are happiest when we find the real deal, while remaining true to ourselves. I tune out the occasional swearing because it is in a language different from my native one and somehow that never seems like swearing to me. Beneath all this though, is the fact that I adore the clothes and the shoes on this show. I can't help it - the dresses are just so lovely. And the shoes...Sigh. Plus, I am a sucker for a good love story. So when you combine the wardrobe and the story, I am sold. There it is. I am out of the closet!

Recent Lesson Learned

In the past two days I have learned some interesting lessons that I thought I'd pass on to save you the trouble of learning them for yourself.

Lesson 1: Sippy cups are magical. They claim they can contain a certain amount of liquid; for example 9 ounces. However when that water leaks into your bag and is absorbed by your wallet and its contents, it seems to be much more than a mere 9 ounces...Magical, i tell you.

Lesson 2: Fingertips bleed a lot more than you'd think for such a small body part. And on a personal note, I apparently get queasy from seeing my own finger sliced open. Go figure.

Lesson 3: There is a cap of 75$ when you fill up at the gas station. I heard this on the radio this morning and thought it was a joke - until I went to fill up today and the machine shut off at 75$ exactly. (My tank wasn't full....)
I am guessing the gas station owners once upon a time decided they'd be willing to lose 75$ and not a penny more if someone filled up and drove away without paying, but now this no longer gets you a full tank of gas if your car is big. Which may be more nauseating than the finger slicing. Maybe they are keeping the cap at 75$ to avoid people having heart attacks at the pump!

And finally, Lesson 4: The harder something is to clean up, the more likely your kids are to get into it.
Say for example you ate your lunch while your kids were playing in the next room. In this room there are bins of Legos, a potted plant and the wax pot you forgot you still had in there from last night's waxing. Which of these items will your two-year old choose to play with? Easy - if only the bins of Legos were in the room, those would get dumped out. If it were the Legos and the plant, the plant would inevitably be dropped/pushed/chucked - whatever it took to spread the dirt.
And if you were stupid enough to leave your wax pot out, that would be the target. Incidentally, baby oil cleans wax up fairly well - even off of tables, carpets and children. Of course you'll have to deal with the sickly sweet smell for the rest of the day, but it beats sticky any time!

Rainy Day Fun

Last week the weather was crazy! for a few days it was pouring rain and the rest of the week it was in the high 90s with high humidity (!)
One rainy morning we had spent a few hours cleaning (read: I was cleaning and the monkeys were un-cleaning) - partly because it was pouring outside and partly because I was too tired to think of anywhere to go. Around 11 I was on the phone with my mom and she could hear the boys bouncing off the wall so she totally shamed me into going outside with them. I caved, threw on our raincoats and ventured into the wet yard, where at least 2/3 of us had a great time. L managed to turn on the water in the hose and splash himself so he was unhappy and insisted we be "all done outside! Watch a show now."

I got a few shots of the monkeys enjoying the greenness of spring though:





It reminded me to get back to my Danish roots and spend more time outside - even if it's raining. I didn't grow up with 300+ rainy days/ yr for nothing, right?! (OK, I don't know if it ever actually rained that much, but it seemed like that at the time...)

"So You Think You Can Dance" saves the day

All day long I have wanted to write this grumpy post about stuff that was bothering me. I decided to watch Fox's So You Think You Can Dance first, though - and that just saved you from reading my bitter rant.
Instead, I will second what my friend Amy wrote on her blog - that this show is so much fun and the dancing is fantastic. Last year, my friend Sarah and I actually got to see the dancers when the tour came to our state and it was absolutely incredible! It makes me want to dance again! (Since, incidentally, I do think I can dance...) And it puts me in a fabulous mood. So in case any of you need a little uplift, here are a few of my all-time favorite performances:

Sara and Jesus; "Vagabonds"

Heidi and Travis; "The Bench"

Lauren and Neil; "Good and Evil


There are many, many more, but these were the first ones that came to my mind. Feel free to send me links to your favorite ones - I would love to see them.

And, by the way - did any of you avid watchers notice that the song at the beginning of the show has changed? For the past three seasons, I have never been able to get anything other than "shubidoobidoobi-DANCE" out of it. FINALLY, this year, I can hear that they are singing "So you think you can - dance?" Which, I guess makes sense - but it's nice that it's clear and audible now. This from the girl who for years thought Mazda's theme was sum, sum, sum. I had to see it spelled out in the commercial to finally get it. (Still sounds more like sum, than zoom to me but whatever!)


ETA: Here are a few dances that I was reminded of by you guys and which I love as well:

Dominic and Sabra, Hip Hop

Danny and Lacey, Samba