Confessions and Updates

So another blog I follow did a list of confessions - I loved it - we all have them, so might as well share them for the world to view?!

First off, sweet lil C had her 15 month well-child check up this week (yes, she is actually 16+ months, but whatever....I am so bad with getting those in!). She is in the 80% for everything - length, weight, head. And right on par with all her milestones - yay! Of course, most of the visit consisted of talking about how and when to potty train the little man, who clearly is ready but refuses to participate unless he is at daycare, oh the power.


Now on to my confessions:

1. My kids are not full vaccinated yet I do give them a flu shot each year - kinda a contradiction
2. Sometimes I cannot wait to leave for work in the morning. Given the option to stay home, I may still choose to work. Does that make me bad?
3. B-man sleeps with me every night, yet C is a crib baby all the way
4. My kids nurse for a LOOOOONG time - way past what many would consider is "normal" but really, what is normal?
5. I hate to wash my face so I just don't.
6. Cooking - so not my thing.
7. We may breakdown and move to the suburbs, so against everything I want, yet everything I want!
8. My patience level between 5:30-7 at night is small...
9. I hate to dust and just don't.
10. Given the opportunity, I would hire a cleaning lady in an instant. Actually, given the opportunity, I would hire people to do everything for me!
11. I am obsessed with Smiley in the morning!
12. Jersey Shore sucks me in every time!
13. I love to buy clearance shoes at Target whenever I can

I know there are more. But it is Friday morning and I have to run to a class. Lata!

Halloween, Tulsa, fall fun and more!

Okay - so I have been such a slacker with my postings, but seriously, things have been SOOOO busy lately! But before I launch in to how busy my life is (not really in a bad way, just in a it is what it is way), let's recap Halloween!

So for the past few weeks, B-man loved to talk about how he was going to be a pirate for Halloween - not sure where the idea originated from, but I thought, sure - how hard can that be too pull off? So here is my personal opinion when it comes to Halloween costumes - I refuse to spend a lot of money and I like to attempt to get creative by pulling things together to make our own. For me, it increases the fun and involvement of the family. So we reused the skeleton costume from last year for B and added on to it. Campbell and I were also pirates, which just required a little digging in to the closets!

Check it out!

Aren't they so cute?!!!!
We had a great time this year. Started off with a Halloween party at daycare, followed by a Monster March at preschool, the finally time for neighborhood trick-or-treating! We have an awesome block for kids - b/c there are tons of kids around and all the houses like to participate!

Here are a few other fun fall pics that I thought were cute too. A day of playing in the leaves.

 B loving the leaves

 Lil C exploring.....

Gotta love fall!

Okay - so back to the past month......

It all started out crazy with a phone call from my sister in law (you know, the other family blogger!) saying that she had scored VIP tickets to a taping of the Ellen show. Somehow, despite that fact that I have two kids in daycare, so money is tight, the trip worked out (THANK YOU MCCOOL's!). I went with my MIL, SIL, and future SIL and we had the BEST time! It was a whirlwind trip of seeing everything possible. Yours truly danced herself silly on the show, even winning an audience dance contest. Why not?!

Katie, Belle, Jessica, Me

So a crazy weekend in LA was followed up by a weekend that had been planned long before that to go to Tulsa for homecoming. It had been 10 years since I had really been back to campus (though I think I was in Tulsa about 4 years ago?). So great reuniting with sorority sisters and my BFF April! So glad Anne twisted my arm in to that one - so appreciate the generosity of others that made this trip an option for me (yay for miles, points, and good friends!). I miss these girls!

Kristi, KT, Me, Linz, Anne, Jamie, Breez, Laura



Me and April

From there I had a travel-free weekend, but work has been non-stop (it is priority registration afterall!) - which I love, but it is exhausting of course. Plus we had dentist appointments for the kids (Lil C had her first experience and did awesome, B-man got to finally sit in the big chair and I was not with him - he was a hit with the hygienists - such a flirt, go figure!). Daycare was closed in there too, which also added some stress to my life, but we made it thru. Oh yeah, not to mention - Happy 6 year anniversary to me and the Peej!

So then this weekend.....got to go to South Bend and experienced something we all thought was just a dream. TULSA BEAT NOTRE DAME! WHAT? Yup, and it was amazing. Of course, I forgot to bring the camera, so am waiting for pics from friends, but will post soon. Just remember, a hurricane has a lot of power, especially a GOLDEN HURRICANE (couldn't help it, sorry!). Oh hey, gotta love Facebook, a picture just arrived!

Kelly, Chelsea, Me, PJ, Tony @ Tulsa vs ND in South Bend

Final Score!

Hoping for things to slow down to a normal pace again..... while I loved my three crazy weekends, I hated not being with my babies....looking forward to some family time (especially since my husband has written off ND.....family Saturdays are back!). Okay, this momma is tired. Happy halloween all.

just don't feel like it

Sorry I have not posted anything lately. I just don't feel like it! The bug will hit me again someday. Probably once I have a new camera since mine went kaput. Keep on looking for more soon. Halloween may inspire me.

Pirates and Peacocks and addy!

B loves these two words and totally uses them out of context which makes me laugh, A LOT!

Examples:
B likes to wear my yoga mat (it has a long handle on it) around his body and tells me, "This is a pirate, Boom Boom." Yes, more like this is a bazooka! Not sure where he learned that.

B had something in his mouth and I was like, oh do you have a hair in your mouth? His response, "NO WAY! It is a peacock!"

B playing with some cheap plastic army men from who knows where. Me asking him - hey what are those? His nonchalant response, "a peacock." Oh really?

Insert those two words for just about anything that he does not know the response to or does not agree with my choice of words. Pirates and peacocks - two new favs.

Lil C on the other hand, well she is such a daddy's girl! Every evening when we walk in the house I open the door and she bursts in yelling, "Adddddy, Addy!" and runs to the kitchen (where daddy is graciously cooking dinner!). And in the morning (she is currently my early riser) she will wake up and after a leisurely nursing session, jumps out of my arms and runs to our bedroom door, opening it, waking PJ, and saying, "Addy, Addy!" Sometimes we get a omma but usually she just likes addy.

My little man is 3!

We had a great time celebrating B-man's 3rd birthday recently - my god, where have the years gone? He is such a little man now!

We had a tie dye party with our friends - awesome!

Of course, gifts were the only thing on his mind....

The gift I swore we didn't need, ended up being his favorite!

Enjoying a little pizza

The DEIGO cake - the one thing he HAD to have for his party!

His new motorcycle!

The biker babe!

Went to Chucky Cheese the next day to have more celebration and fun!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Just a bit of a mess. Oh well.

Thanks family for joining us and as always, taking care of us!

Family Dinner

Where to even begin? So we all know that eating together as a family has benefits abound (eat healthier, connections as family, less chance of obesity, more talk as a family, lack of stress and tension) and my guess is that a lot of these benefits really come in to play later, but setting the standard and expectation for family dinners starts when our kids are young. And while I appreciate that, I can't help but laugh at our family dinner situation - and when you have a 1 and 3 year old, I guess a 15 minute family dinner is all you can expect!

So after work I pick up the kids and my husband heads home to start dinner. By the time we walk in at 5:30, dinner is almost ready, so we play outside (ideally) until it is ready. We are all hungry, so sometimes there is a bit of whining (and wanting snacks and such) but we are fairly consistent in cooking dinner each night (healther, as mentioned above, and way cheaper - though it is time intensive!). Finally when dinner is ready (and sometimes it can feel like an eternity) we get started. Lil C goes in her high chair and she cannot shovel in her food fast enough, but inevitably, that shoveling turns in to throwing food to the dog, knocking over her milk cup to the floor, and general whining to get out. In the meantime, we are trying to get B-man ready as well - and usually he looks at dinner and says, "I not like that." And our response is, that is fine, you don't have to like it or even eat it, but you do have to sit here with us. And often he will then take a few bites (but that is all we ever get most nights, just a few bites) though thankfully we usually can get him to at least try his vegetables and drink some of his milk (we do NOT believe in forcing our children to eat what they do not like, though do expect them to try it NOR will we ever force our children to sit at the table for hours on end - just not our parenting philosophy. If they don't eat, they don't eat. I also will give a snack later b/c dinner time and snack time are totally different to a child, regardless of if they ate or not!). We have taught B to ask to be excused when he is finished. Positive there!

Okay, so we get the kids set and are trying to sit down and eat ourselves, but then there is milk on the floor that needs cleaning up, someone wants more of something (if we are lucky), or someone else is having a fit about god knows what. FINALLY we sit down to eat, usually a good 5 minutes after the kids get started (not ideal though it just seems to be how it works out, no matter how prepared we are with everything we think we need!) and just when we get situated, they are both done, at different times of course. But them being done brings on new things, like wanting to be held, go outside, do this, do that, whatever... so normally I finish eating first (we always say, mom and dad are still eating so you either have to wait or you can join us) and then we head off to bath time.

Total dinner time - 15 minutes.

Huge gratitude to my husband who cooks and then starts the clean-up process, both which take much longer than the actual dinner. My hope is that we are creating a standard with our children that family dinners are important and someday someday we will actually all sit together for more than 5 minutes and enjoy each other's company.....not quite there yet.

One step behind...

Do you ever have times in your life when you just feel like you are always one step behind? Argh, that is totally where I am right now, and part of the reason this blog has gone unupdated for weeks and weeks (besides two really mini posts, nothing substantial!). Gosh, earlier this summer if you asked me how things were going, I would have replied - Great - all is well and we are just moving along in a great way. We are feeling good about life, family, work, etc.... But then things started moving to fast for this mama and I have yet to catch up. So let me complain just for a minute, and when I say complain, maybe it is more just about sharing so you can get an idea of the craziness.

So let me start with work - I love love love my job and I also love love love my friend Amanda, but goodness, when she went on maternity leave this summer, I got to do her job, which I also loved, but coupled with my job, it was a lot. That was the start of my downfall. Then we had our wonderful family vacation to Seaside - planned before I knew A was having a baby and unfortunately very poorly timed with work events - so off to Seaside we went (and my god, it was fantastic!) but coming back to work, I felt even more behind. Backing up to vacation was the start of a summer program and the continuation of my job, A's job, and school getting ready to start.... well, I am still just one step behind. Then to top it all off, the kids got sick. And i mean S-I-C-K! Fevers, coughs, runny noses, gooky eyes, and whining galore. Oh, and no sleep for any of us. So I took a few days off work (and thank goodness I have a fantastic husband who shared in the caretaking of sick kiddos) and we got them better. But then I got sick too. And slowly, very slowly I am recovering. Oh - and added to all of the above, my new volunteer responsibility with my sorority in which I am involved by being something called a RFM specialist (don't ask - confusing to explain - I'll just share this - RFM stands for Release Figure Method - and as a RFM specialist I am assigned to a college campus during recruitment and work with the Fraternity and Sorority Advisor on release/carry figures and quota - totally different than how most of us experienced those things in college recruitment).

I am starting to feel like catching up is on the horizon - though I just want to get thru this weekend for sure. Preschool started for B-man this week, though due to sickness we missed the first day, so today is his first day. I am SOOO excited for him to do this - I think he is just at a perfect age and needing a bit more structure and learning in his life. He still goes to daycare, but they take him to and from preschool a few mornings a week (OMG - how perfect is that?!). And this weekend my little man turns 3 - so we are having a HUGE party with friends this weekend - complete with a bounce house (borrowed from my great friend A, mentioned above), tie dying shirts, pizza, a Deigo cake, and sidewalk chalk! And then for the family portion of the party, B-man is jazzed to go to Chucky Cheese (get the Aleve ready!). After that, I have one more RFM campus and then I think life begins to slow down and we will be back in to a routine.

Maybe that is what was missing for the past couple of months - a routine. I don't do well when things feel chaotic in my life - it makes me feel chaotic and stressed. So, a routine will be good (and getting my house organized will help too - seriously, no quicker way to see my anxiety level rise than to have a messy house!).

Will post some pictures soon - but oh wait, my camera broke - big thanks again to A for sharing her old one with me until I can get a new one (or ask for a new one for Christmas from a generous mom or dad?!!!).

Okay - the McCool's are busy, but we are surviving.