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As a mom of three small children I often find myself covered in stickers. A lot of stickers don’t scare me – it’s when there are only a few that scares me. Odd as it sounds, a few strategically placed stickers are much more obvious than a pants leg covered in them. I hope when people see me out and about in public and notice the stickers on the back of my shirt or the butt of my jeans or the (fill the in the blank…)… I hope they see a mom who loves to play with her kids and doesn’t mind getting sticky.
Sometimes the stickers I unintentionally wear have messages on them such as “The Best”, “Super”, “Terrific” or something similar. These are the ones that usually end up on my rear and I wonder if people think I’m applauding the appearance of my a…. backside. My butt has been known to carry many messages and I’m sure I only know about half of them. The rest I may not want to know.
The other day, my darling daughter, who is usually the culprit, saved me from leaving the house with a humiliating message on my rump. Ladies, you know those feminine hygiene stickers they put in the crotch of a new bathing suit? yes. that’s the one. Apparently one was stuck to my butt and we were walking out the door when Gracey said “Mommy, you have a sticker on your butt… I like your sticker!” I started to just say thanks and blow it off because she would say that about a tiny scrap of tape….. THANK GOD, I reached behind me to see what sticker she was referring to. Can you imagine seeing me walking through the mall with the message “Warning! Do not remove! This is for hygiene” stuck on the butt of my jeans? (or something to that effect)
Two very important lessons: 1)ALWAYS listen to your children and 2)ALWAYS make sure the hygiene stickers make it to the trashcan
Sheer Genius
Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 5:29 pm. Add a comment
I think my child is a genius. I mean, we may be talking the next Albert Einstein here. He is so smart and so young to be able to grasp the complex concepts I see him mastering every day. For example, the other day he picked up a comb and brought it to his head and mocked combing his hair. How is it possible that he understands what a comb is for? As if that isn’t proof enough, yesterday he was looking at a book and then got distracted with something else. I told him to “put that down” and then said, “Mathew, bring the book to mommy and I’ll read it to you.” And that unbelievably intelligent 13 month old walked right over the book, picked it up and brought it to me as he climbed in my lap.
He loves books and will almost always sit still enough to have one read as long as he can turn the pages. He especially likes books with “touch and feel” pages. I just can’t get over how smart he is and how much he understands. And then I catch myself wondering at his genius and laugh as I realize that 90% of other 13 month olds can do the same thing. It isn’t a high IQ (though I’m sure his is through the roof) that brings about this new knowledge but the natural progression of things.
But I still like to ponder the possibility that my child is ACTUALLY the smartest 13 month old in the history of the world. It is so easy to assume the best about our children and I hope that never changes. it makes me consider how God expects the best of me and how He believes I am the best, the most unique, the smartest, etc… and He thinks the same of you. Even when we fall short of our potential, God still reaches for the best in us. Still believes the best for us. Yet many of us struggle to believe Him period. Not believe in Him, but believe HIM. Believe His word and His promises. Believe that if we “delight ourselves in the Lord He will give us the desires of our hearts”.
I believe God takes great delight in each one of us and that He celebrates the smallest of our accomplishments.
Itchy Itchy Fourth
Posted July 4th, 2009 at 2:21 pm. 1 comment
We’re having a few people over today for burgers and swimming and really looking forward to relaxing in the backyard…in the 100 degree heat. 
Poor little Mathew has a rash and won’t be able to play outside with us which means I won’t be playing outside much, either. Which is fine because I enjoy having one on one time with my little guy. And I’ll get to play while he is napping after lunch.
Mathew has eczema pretty bad and something has set it off – I think it was the shredded cheese I let him eat the other night. My child has allergies that do strange things – for example, if ice cream gets on his skin and stays there more than a minute or so, he’ll break into hives wherever the ice cream touched his skin. And if he eats carrots and mushes them on his skin he will get hives there, too. Not all milk products affect him, or at least not to the same degree. I’m going to have to start writing down what he eats every day and then writing whether or not he has a runny nose and if his eczema is better/worse.
I’ve found a few things that seem to help with the eczema but am looking for miracle products if you know of any?
Weekend in Vegas?
Posted July 3rd, 2009 at 2:03 am. 2 comments
Hubby and I got away for THREE glorious nights without the kids. We traveled to Sin City with some friends and did our fair share of sinning…. and had a blast. It’s the first time we’ve gotten away since bringing our children home and we were like kids in a candy store! It was fun to just be us and have a small break from being anyone’s everything.
Daddyo was more relaxed than I’d seen him in a long time; he wasn’t thinking about his job or constantly fielding calls from his office. He had so much fun and loves to play Craps (which, by the way, he is very good at). In fact, the last night we were there we stayed at the Craps table until about 3am and we had to be up at 5am to catch our flight home. The downside was the ride home and the afternoon trying to stay awake and spend time with the kids. The upside is we won enough money between the two of us to pay for our trip!!!
Nicole and I were acting like silly teenagers shopping for prom dressed in the weeks before we left – we hit every store we could find to buy our “perfect vegas outfits” and I was more coordinated on what I would wear every day/night for that trip than I have ever been before in my life. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. Here we are in the front yard about to leave for the airport:
Once we arrived we headed out to walk the strip and check out all the hotels. Nicole and Chris hadn’t been before and we were excited to show them the crazy layouts and designs, etc….. they were excited, too. I don’t remember the “card flappers” being out during the day before but they were there in full force that afternoon. Our initiation to “Sin City” was being bombarded with stacks of “business cards” with x-rated photos of women for hire. It was gross. And sad. And mostly just gross.
Anyway, “New York New York” was one of the first hotels we stopped at and Nicole wanted to ride the roller coaster. I used to love thrill rides but as I’ve gotten older I’ve turned into a big fat chicken. And you can tell by the look on my face that I was NOT thrilled by this ride:
But I don’t think i was as afraid as Chris:
I don’t think I’ll be doing that again.
We went to downtown Vegas which was really neat – so different than the strip and I assume when waitresses/dealers/etc… get too old and wrinkly to work the strip they end up downtown.
The best night was by far the last….and not because we won the money although that helped. On our last night in Vegas we went to see Wayne Brady. If you aren’t familiar with him, he used to be on that show with Drew Carey “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” where they did a lot of impromptu comedy. His show is very similar and he uses several audience members on stage. Since Nicole got us tickets 4th row, center stage! we were excited and perhaps a bit apprehensive. Well, Daddyo has no apprehention whatsoever – he was ready to go and being silly and talking big about getting himself onstage:
For those of you who haven’t had the privilege of spending time with my uninhibited husband, you should know that ‘embarrassment’ is not something he truly understands. It’s like it never occurs to him to be embarrassed about anything which is both a blessing and a curse when you are his spouse. 
As soon as the show started and he saw what the volunteering was all about he got REALLY quiet. Suddenly his desire to take center stage vanished and was replaced with super glue on his rear, holding him firmly in place on the seat.
We enjoyed the comedy and I was hesitant about the end of the show because there were some bad reviews about his singing. not that he couldn’t sing well but that the audience wanted more of the comedy. When he started to sing I remember thinking, “oh no, here we go….” and little did I know….
Wayne sings many “old school” songs and one in particular is a collection of choruses from popular 80’s dance music. His dancers are even ‘performing’ the dances we all knew way back when and it was a lot of fun to watch. But the dancers onstage weren’t nearly as entertaining as the one in the seat beside me. Before he started this song, Wayne joked about growing up in the 80’s and encouraged the audience to “feel the music”. “get up out of your chair and dance if you feel it…if you’re moved….blah blah blah.” Daddyo was moved. With very little encouragement from me, he stood up and began the worst performance of “white man’s overbite….got not rhythm….redneck…….”. It’s important to note that in this rather small theater he was the ONLY PERSON out of his seat. Everyone was cracking up.
Everyone. And by everyone, I mean EVERYONE… including Wayne Brady. At one point, Wayne stopped singed because he was laughing so hard and pointed at my crazy husband and said, “you are the $H@T! You’re getting a free Tshirt!” I almost peed my pants.
After the show, daddyo asked us if he should try to get Wayne to sign the shirt. My response was simply, “what have you got to lose at this point?” Thanks to his inhibitions and willingness to act like a nut, we go to meet Wayne Brady, which was pretty darn cool:
Posting…
Posted July 3rd, 2009 at 1:47 am. Add a comment
Why do I have such a hard time getting the eloquent posts from my head to flutter out through my fingers as my latest blog entry? I think I’m just lazy. And busy. Crazy busy.
Mathew is full throttle walking and unstoppable. He thinks it is just hilarious when I say “no” and has the determination of a mule. I absolutely LOVE this stage but rarely have time to sit for more than 5-10 minutes at a time. Believe me, when I have those precious minutes I don’t want to start writing because I know as soon as I get going I’ll be interrupted.
Excuses, excuses, excuses. Not that I’m too concerned…. it’s not like i have much of a following after months of rare appearances in the blogosphere.
Here comes a whirlwind of updates and “catchups”.