Children's Museum

Before leaving to go to the Children's Museum, Carter turns to the dog, pats her on the head and says, "You have a fun day, doggie.  You be good doggie while we're going."

   
So yes, we finally made it to the Children's Museum on Friday to "See George".  This was Reese's first time there and she loved it.  Carter has wanted to go for quite a while because he's seen it advertised on PBS.  I must say, the actual George exhibit wasn't as good as I was expecting, but the kids still had a blast seeing everything at the museum.

Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba Bad to the bone

Are my kids just inherently BAD?  I guess this is a question a lot of parents ask themselves over and over again...or I'll let myself think that so I feel better.  But seriously, it does seem like some days they are just LOOKING for ways to cause trouble.  Carter has been giving me a run for my money this week.  His attitude has been absolutely awful and he's pushed me almost to the edge every day.

Derrick was asking me yesterday where his toothbrush was...he keeps an extra one in our downstairs bathroom for getting ready early in the morning.  I've told him repeatedly that Reese really likes to climb up on Carter's stool in the bathroom and "brush her teeth" with Daddy's toothbrush.  But he still leaves it there so I figure, it's fair game.  Well, yesterday it was MIA and this morning it finally turned up, really dirty and hiding in the bottom of the kids toybox...wonder how it got there...REESE!

Every Friday I have a play date with the neighborhood kids here.  Carter has somehow managed to stay accident-free for the last three or four days, so when he asked me to wear his underwear this morning, I couldn't really say no.  But I knew it was a bad idea.  So about halfway through the play date, as he is climbing up the ladder on our swing set, he urgently says to me, "I have to go."  And even though I leaped up and RAN to him as fast as my sleep deprived self could manage, alas I was too late.  He had peed all over himself and it was running all down the ladder, right next to where all the other kids were playing of course.  So...not...cool.  

We took a break for some snacks.   Another little girl had brought the snacks today and she brought an industrial jumbo size bottle of juice.  As I'm opening Reese's cup to pour some in, she quickly walks over and drops a handful of grass and goldfish crackers into the open bottle.  Oh My Gosh....I was like, Wow I am so sorry...total embarrassment.

So you can tell me all you want that my kids are cute and that should make up for their bad-ness, but really, it doesn't!  They are just bad and sometimes it does drive me crazy.

Smiles

When he helped me carry in the mail yesterday, there was a rubber band holding it together.  Carter said, "There's a strangle on it, Mama."

Reese was fussy tonight while I was getting her ready for bed.  Carter pipes up from the other room.  "Your daughter is a trouble-maker, Mama."

To Derrick a little later he says, "You're a pie-eater, Dada."  If anyone knows what that means, please let me know.

Last night was a gloomy, rainy night so I was searching for ways to distract two very summer-weather-spoiled kids.  They loved playing with the Halloween box.  Don't plan to use these this year so this is not a spoiler.

I asked Carter if he thought Reese would fit into the pumpkin costume this year.  He got confused and thought I meant the plastic pumpkin bucket he's holding in this picture and he tried to stick it on her head.

Derrick gave me a much-needed break from the kids this morning so I could go for high tea with Dena and Kristy.  It was WONDERFUL!!!  We so need to go again soon.

Potty training has been a real bear.  We did 6 loads of laundry in the last 3 days because Carter was having so many accidents...but we press on.  The greatest motivation to train sooner rather than later is obviously to save money on diapers, but I'm not sure we are really saving any money right now due to all the extra laundry.   Today was a dry day though, thank heavens.  I hope we have turned a corner.

SALT

Wanna be really disturbed?  Take a look at this little presentation and you too might be ready to swear off all restaurants...FOREVER.  I mean seriously, how do they pack so much unhealthy stuff into a single meal?  It is disturbing and disgusting.  We eat out so rarely these days...this is partly why...

30 Saltiest Foods Slideshow

Summer, please don't end!

I am way too fond of summer to see it come to an end, even though this summer has been fairly brutal with the temperatures and lack of rain.

The kids have been LOVING the outdoors every day and the garden is flourishing this year.

Some great recipes we've canned from our bountiful tomatoes are: Tomato Bisque, Garden Salsa, (with green peppers instead of the jalapeños), Tomato Sauce, and pickled eggplant.  I've also done two different batches of Bruschetta, with THIS recipe being the best.

Carter is going to be running in his first race with me in a few weeks.  He seems to be pretty excited, however I'm not entirely sure he understands what the heck it's all about.  It will be cute to see what happens.  The kids run is a 100 yd. dash.  His training, so far, has involved wearing my Nike headband around the house.  Oh yea, he's ready to kick some butt!!

Freinds

We had a great time catching up with old friends last night.  12 adults and 12 kids - it was a blast.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate the whole time.  We had rain for only the second day this entire month.  But the kids still found ways to run off their energy!  :)

Friday Play Dates

Carter and Reese really enjoy having friends over every Friday morning to play.

Carterisms

Carter has been saying some of the silliest things lately, here are a few highlights:

At dinner the other night, "Dada, are you pooping?"

Laying in be last night, "Hippos are too big to fit in cars you know, Mama?"

On the swing in the afternoon.  "What a beautiful butterfly.  It's yellow and black.  I love butterflies and ladybugs.  I don't like flies."

Right after his bath yesterday, "I want to just stay naked for a few days."

When I asked him what he liked best at the zoo, "Elephants and giraffes and elephants and giraffes and elephants and giraffes!"

Great idea

So gonna use this easy and cheap idea (black ribbon around mini pumpkins) to decorate for fall this year...thanks PB Kids!

Walking is pure joy...

She's on the move now, folks!

Garden Wars

Organic gardening certainly has its plusses and minuses.

Plusses: obvious health benefits.
Minuses: B-U-G-S!!!

I have fought pillbugs, squash bugs, vine borers, attacking bees, and tomato horn worms. Squash bugs are a newbie to our garden and I have developed a particular kind of hatred toward them. Check em out here. They totally obliterated my zucchini this year, and I normally have about 20 zucchini in my fridge on any given day of summer. No, this year I got 1!!! 1 stinking zucchini and now all my plants are dead. That as well as the other 2 kinds of squash I planted, delicata and white...they really loved devouring those too. So today, I decided, enough is enough. I win, you lose you rotten stinkin' bugs. I went out there with a giant black trash bag and a pair of gloves and I ripped out the wasted remains of ALL my squash plants. Squash bugs were fleeing left and right, not happy that I was tearing up there happy home. The bees weren't too thrilled either. Apparently they really love landing on squash flowers because I was literally getting attacked. This was actually my third attempt at ripping them out because each time I try the bees are just dive bombing me.

So after I get all the squash in the bag, I'm off to the tomatoes. I'm particularly sad because I think at least 2 of my plants are getting the tomato blight again this year. Grrr. I have been picking about 4-5 pounds of tomatoes per day. This too can prove to be quite a challenge. Derrick has the plants so packed in that there is literally this "maybe" 1 foot wide "path" for me to squeeze through to pick the ones in the back.  I'll affectionately refer to this path as "The Gauntlet" from now on.  So I'm venturing down The Gauntlet with tomato plants on either side of me, 3 or 4 feet high, brushing up on my legs and arms. I'm always watching for the nice big juicy horn worms because honestly, the last thing I need or want is one of these suckers crawling up my leg.  Derrick pulled one off last week that looked JUST LIKE THIS...all the creepy little white eggs on it and everything.  Yea, I might be having some nightmares about this dude later tonight.   The thing about horn worms is, if you have tomato plants, you know they are in there, somewhere, just waiting for you to lean over and come eye to eye with them and completely freak you out.  Today, I fortunately did NOT see any tomato worms...the killer bees and squash bugs were more than enough for me for one day.

Duck in Gate

Our baby gate has had issues for at least a year. It doesn't fully lock which I know is a major issue since it's the one at the top of the stairs. Derrick has tried 3 times to fix it and last night, finally solved the mystery. He found a little toy duck that Carter must have somehow crammed down inside it that was preventing it from closing all the way. CARTER!!!!

Reese's latest accomplishments are waving bye bye, giving high five, playing peek a boo, and WALKING. Yes she is officially walking now and has all but given up on crawling all at once. Look out world, here she comes!

BPA is everywhere

So we've probably spent at least 12 hours canning some of our vegetables in the last week. We have done 2 batches of salsa, tomato soup and eggplant. Tonight Derrick was asking me, do the lids for the cans contain BPA? Typical cans do contain it and I never even thought of our canning lids having it also. A quick search on Google and, sure enough, all standard metal canning lids do contain BPA. I found this very disturbing since you would hope after all the hard work of gardening organically and canning our own food it would be safe to eat. They said it is not as bad if you keep the jars vertical all the time and leave a little space at the top so the food isn't actually touching the lid. Jarred baby food was listed as a major concern though which I never ever even thought of.

Yucky Veggies

I was helping Carter with a magnet game he has yesterday. It tells you to find different color fruits and vegetables, etc. Anyway, it told him to find something green which happened to be a vegetable and when he stuck it in the slot it said, "Vegetables make you strong." And he shot right back, "I spit them out!"

Hilarious

Devil Child

I came back from an early morning run today to find Derrick feeding Reese breakfast. This was not a bad thing, only that it was 6:45 am and she "normally" sleeps till around 8. Plus she hardly slept at all on the drive back yesterday so I was just expecting her to be in bed still. I didn't notice until Derrick was leaving for work a little editing he did to her shirt which previously said, "Daddy's little angel"

NJ Visit

We had an awesome visit in New Jersey for the last 5 days. We met Nani and Pop Pop at Dutch Wonderland on Wednesday and the kids had a blast. Carter and Reese both rode on the log flume...he loved it but she was a bit scared of the big drops. Carter really loved the whip ride. This was the first ride he did all by himself.

We also visited Johnson's Farm...always a favorite. They have a great kids area there now that we had to drag Carter away from. He just couldn't get enough. Reese enjoyed watching the sheep and goats. They were putting on quite a show for her.

Instruments of torture

When I first found out I was pregnant with Carter, I swore I wouldn't be one of "those parents" who buys all the gear and gadgets and TOYS for their kids. My house wouldn't be overtaken by a rainbow plastic jungle, my garage wouldn't be overflowing with every kind of wheeled transportation method ever invented for children, my bathroom wouldn't have twelve toothbrushes, 20 bottles of soap, hair wash, body wash, bubble bath, baby oil, baby powder, butt paste, my car wouldn't be filled with crumbs, car seats, forgotten toys, sippy cups and random articles of clothing. Well, let's just say you shouldn't judge until you experience it yourself.

The thing I fought hardest was strollers. The stroller is perhaps the most important piece of gear you buy but also the biggest space hog, other than a crib I guess but that is pretty much non-negotiable. So we started with three strollers when we had Carter. The umbrella stroller, the stroller his car seat clipped into and the jogging stroller. Now I think most parents will agree that to actually jog with a jogging stroller is rather masochistic...particularly on the hills of Pittsburgh. Something that used to bring me such joy, running, has now become a torturous endeavor when I have to go out with the dreaded jogging stroller. Granted, it does get you in REALLY good shape.

Well, I REALLY did NOT want to buy yet another stroller when we knew #2 was on the way and I resisted and resisted but finally caved and bought the "brown beast" on Craigslist for $60. It was a jeep double stroller and everything about it was a challenge...especially pushing it. So after surviving the first year with 2 kids and the Brown Beast, I couldn't take it anymore and finally bought a decent double stroller. The kicker is, it is a double Jogging Stroller. My question is this...are double jogging strollers actually meant to be used for jogging? I mean, yes I know they are able to go faster than a regular conventional stroller. But seriously, who the heck can enjoy running with a 30 lb stroller, a 35 lb toddler and 20 lb. infant. That sounds like the most insane form of torture. So no, I have not used the jogging stroller to go jogging yet and I do feel a little bit guilty about it...just a little.

Outdoor adventures

Carter and buddy Tyler got a kick out of riding the jeep together yesterday morning. They actually just sat in it and laughed most of the time but at least they had fun.
Reese decided it was more fun to push her car than ride in it. Typical of my crazy girl.

Remote control

Derrick was trying to teach Carter to drive a remote controlled car last night. He kept telling him to push the button up to make the car go forward. So Carter lifts his arms straight up in the air holding the remote over his head and says, "Like this?"