Flashback Sunday or Recollections from Mammary Lane

image taken from AMNH website

We went to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC today. As we were getting ready to leave we slipped into the hall of mammals and I had a flashback to two years ago.

We were in the museum and my newborn (now two) was crying. My two year old (now four) was running around like a chicken without his head. I nursed my baby on the wooden seats with giant elephants as a backdrop. That is to say-I whipped out my mammary gland right there in the darkened Akekely Hall of African Mammals. How appropriate!

It is fun to link an institution as fabulous as the AMNH with such an amazing memory. I was exhausted and tired back then-I guess little has changed. I doubt I will ever get the chance to nurse again. So I am glad that I will always have the Hall of Mammals to remind me of my human-ness.

Up Dreams! and other alt. realities

My older son (4) got a bit annoyed with me today because I didn't know what and "up dream" was. It's an awake dream" he told me excitedly. (DUH MOM)

son : "I had another one, I was a power ranger and there was a girl"

me : (thinking to myself, a girl, why is he dreaming of girls he is only 4) "What was the girl doing?"

son: "she turned into a power ranger- we just transformed ourselves."

he danced merrily off to "up dream" some more.

Snow, Beautiful Snow!

I am so thankful for our neighbor coming and plowing us out. It gave my husband and I time to take the kids outside and go snow boogie boarding on their new snow boogie boards (thanks to their great aunt B and uncle M.). We had a blast, screaming and yelling as we slid down our little backyard hill. Now they are upstairs, warming up and getting ready to drink hot cocoa, with yes marshmallows in it.

There is nothing more precious than watching my children go down on their sleds with their daddy smiling, giggling and screaming! What fun!

Chrismakah

Yes, I know to some that that is anti-religious or whatever, but to us it is the fun word we use to celebrate this time of year. We celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas. Today we put up the tree, and later tonight we will light the menorah. Sometimes it is a tricky situation-as with my family who still are uncomfortable with all things Christian. But to me, it is a celebration of light, love and family. I enjoy both holidays with equal amounts of anticipation, cooking, and fun.

I can't expect my husband to give up a holiday never mind a religion he loves, and I know he doesn't expect me to give up any of my traditions either. I am sure through the years this will take a lot of working out. But I have faith in our love and think we will do what is best for our children. So family be warned-don't be so negative about that which you do not understand. Acceptance is key to understanding and love!

woman vs. latke!

In the quest for supermommydom I took today off to make the first night of chanukah a memorable one for my two boys ages 4 and 2. In this quest I even made it to pre-school and did the whole menorah spiel for all the other 3 and 4 year olds. Getting to the god/miracle of light part was hard for me, I gulped sputtered, the teacher tried to help by saying "god" (I wasn't sure I could even say "god" in the classroom-it is a non-denominational Y.) I whispered god and said the universe a little louder. Sweating in front of pre-schoolers is never fun!)

That over I ran home to put a brisket (yes I am a grownup now...I said brisket) in the slow cooker and started hand grating potatoes and onions. 10 potatoes later, a 1/4 cup of matzo meal, plus 3 eggs some salt and pepper I was ready to fry. And man now I know why I hate frying! Luckily I wear glasses or the oil would've went right into my eye. A few splatters later I learned my lesson plus a new one:

It takes a long time to brown a latke when you (are a baby) &have to lower the heat!

kidspeaque

I know this has been done before, but hell, my kids really made me smile with these two qoutes!

From the mouth of son #1:

"mommy, I feel bad-my heart is broken, but I still love you"

(we were driving home from school/daycare and I don't know why he said this)


From the mouth of son #2:

"I want to sleep with mommy's boob-boobs, they are hot"

(we were in bed and I was trying to get him to sleep, it was a cold night and you know the boobs are warm!)

Two Milestones- One Weekend

We did it, we have given up the sippy cup. I am really impressed with the kids. They did a terrific job. Tonight we celebrate by going to Mt. Fuji my older son has been requesting a trip there for about a month. I finally got smart and said "if you really want to go, give up the sippy and we will". He and his younger brother threw them in the garbage on Friday, and we made it through the weekend just fine.


That is milestone number one. Milestone number two was getting a babysitter. My husband and I finally after 4 years went out to hear live music together (without the kids). We got a babysitter I could trust, and went out-excited like two people on their second or third date in love together. We were giddy! We saw Phil Lesh and Friends play at the Nokia theatre in NYC. What fun. Too bad we didn't get there earlier. It would've been nice to walk around NYC a bit - but it was fun hearing good music and dancing just the two of us in a sea of of people.

Mamma! Did you take my kodachrome away?

So this is how busy I have been. I went to my kodak page to order photos because there is a great deal on 120 photos for $15 (and 10 cents thereafter) I realized I hadn't uploaded any pictures in a long time, but apparently it has been an entire photo free year. I had over 600 pictures to upload from 10/06- 10/07. And I still had to get the red eye out!

Money is a great motivator. I have until 10/15 to finish the job.

UPDATE: I certainly did not save any money-I don't know where I got the extra savings at 10 cents that was NOT true....oh well at least I have a years worth of photos!

Reading Is Fundamental(LY IMPOSSIBLE)

What is with all the "I am reading this now" ads on other blogs? Who has time to read anymore? I tried to get a book out of the library and unfortunately had only enough time to pick out a 14day only book before my four year old dropped his lollipop on the floor (sold at the library-go figure). He dropped to the flour and started screaming b.c. I refused to get another one - we were basically thrown out....I won't finish the book in 14 days, I'll be lucky if I can find all 14 of the kids books to return before their due date...

Today I went to Borders to get someone a gift. I spent an hr. in the kids section only to have meltdown #2 occur at the new paperbacks table (my fault he hadn't napped or eaten lunch yet). We paid for the gift and split, me sans book for myself-S'okay I couldn't afford one anyway.

At least I got to read the paper today. My son napped in the car and I read some articles-yippee I won't be illiterate forever!

Financial Rollercoaster Race

You know, when I first started this blog I thought it would be an amazing creative outlet for me. I thought perhaps I would actually write more, be humorous and that I would gather an interesting collective of people who liked what I wrote. Instead, it has turned into a sporadic posting site. I can't even look at other peoples blogs and comment.

My life is that crazy. I don't work out, I don't write. All I do is work, take care of the kids and sleep. I am not really sure how other people are managing this? I have written about this before, but I haven' t really come to any great understanding as to how I am supposed to cope with it. I feel I am open to change and I am asking myself and the universe to allow for change in a positive way. Still I feel stuck. I feel upside down. I feel not myself. I feel like a parent caught in a financial roller coaster race that I am destined to fall out of again and again. How do I keep my act together under these situations? I don't know how to save more money, I don't know how to make more money and I am not sure if that is even the answer. Really, I want to work three days a week and spend more time with my kids. I love them so much and I hate how my day is so rushed with them. I feel like we have to just move move move all the time during the week. By the weekend we are trying to catch up with laundry, cleaning, cooking, sleep and grocery shopping. Where is the time for fun? We do work really hard at having fun on both sat. and sun. but it takes its toll on my husband and I.

I miss my friends, I miss having energy, I miss feeling well slept, I miss a lot. But I wonder who are these women who have the time to blog? Do they work? Do they have nannies? How are the rest of the populations surviving that are in a situation like mine?

I really wish that I could change the life we live write now, to have more time for family and friends. I need to spend less time worrying about work and money!

weekend o' fun

Favorite part of today:
getting into the canoe with the kids (for the very first time!)

funniest part of the day:
watching my 2 year old imitate his older brothers transformaton half nekkid around the back yard.

scariest part of the day:
me screaming at the kids because they never napped and I needed to count to ten or have a beer.....

most fabulous part of the day:
hearing my four year old play the piano and make up songs as he went a long.

other most fab part of the day:
getting to snuggle with my husband while the kids watched Sun. morning cartoons! (this has been something we have been waiting for!

BESTEST part of the weekend (in two parts):
Seeing my best friend after almost a year of not getting to see her! Plus, finally getting to meet (and like) the man who got my best friend prego! (she looks fabulous!)

I miss her already!!!!

and I don't even have a pic.

We Are Back

Dewey Beach Delaware-greatest vacation EVER.



We had a fabulous time. It is nice to be home, but I think 2 weeks away would've been better. Today was my first day back at work, and I have to say-I wished I was at the beach! Sunburn, swimming, dolphins, sand castles, ice cream, moon rises and sunsets. Count amongst it all shooting stars, Dogfish Head beer, showering outside, getting my sons to love the ocean as much as I do, being with family-what could be better? Oh I guess moving there. Wish we could do that too! I really really think that Dewey Beach is a fabulous vacation for families. Everything is within walking distance. Rehoboth is only 2 miles away-with boardwalk fun including a great "funland" where it is easy for little kids to win prizes. Also if you really like cheesey fun Ocean City Maryland is only 20 min. away. A little bit further down the road is Assateague Island where they wild ponies roam the island, including the beach, parking lots and marsh (be careful where you put down your towel or foot if you know what I mean....)

Good eats and a great beach, what more could you want?

Yea, It's Vacation Time

It is 9:30 pm my 4 year old is still awake, I haven't finished packing yet and neither has my husband. But who cares because tomorrow we are going away!!!!!!

VACATION IS ALL I EVER WANTED, VACATION IS ALL I EVER DREAM ABOUT!!!

See you all soon!

Wonderful Weekend

What a fabulous weekend- went to the Jersey Shore for some funnel cake and fun. There is something to be said about the boardwalk on the Shore. When it gets hot you can always go into the ever clean, cool wonderful world of Jenkinsons Aquarium. I swear I think all of Point Pleasant is owned by the Jenkinson family-including th e 20$ per day parking lot (If you don't get there early enough you have to pay the big bucks.) All and all it is a great time. The water is clean, the beach is fun and the kids, well they are still getting used to the sounds and screams of the ocean. The baby likes the lake by us better-less noisy, but he still had fun-at least in the aquarium. We all ate ice cream and funnel cake-too hot for taffy and fudge this time around!

The boardwalk, is great cheesy fun, there is a rides section (also owned by the Jenkinsons ) that we did not go to this time around. It was just too hot. There is also a lot to be said about people watching there. There are some very interesting exposure ratios. - not exactly eye candy, but worth giggling over. I am still getting used to the Shore being a LI girl myself, and I must say, having kids makes you appreciate a fun boardwalk all over again.

Sunday we spent hanging around the Burg. We hung out by a beautiful secluded stream bed. The baby learned to say salamander after I got excited over finding one (but could not catch it). We saw lots of trout, and a crayfish. My older son really loved wading in the cold water and climbing on the rocks. I am really glad we went down there to check it out. The dragonflies were stunning in their electric blues.

Wow I must be mellowing out in the heat, no rants or raves-yet. My political self seems to be taking a summer break! Must be from work, needing a thought break!

Fourth of JULY 2007

I always feel like if it is a holiday I am supposed to post. But about what? Fireworks?




It is cold and raining here, but people are still setting off fireworks. Luckily the kids are totally pooped and slept right thru it. Before they went to bed we watched a little Godzilla Vs. Mechazilla. Totally hysterical. The baby wouldn't watch he brought me book after book to keep from looking at the screen. My older son loved it, but got so hopped up on all the shooting that I was glad when it was over to calm him down.

Earlier in the day we went to the upper lake and fished. The kids had a blast. It was so cold I had trouble finding worms, (my other title is mommy the worm hunter...) the worms were kind of just stunned, and not wriggling. Each kid caught a fish or two as did I and my husband. They are small so throw them back in. I tried to find frogs, but again it was too cold. Even the turtles were hiding. We did see a hawk fly overhead and my older son found a baby bird hiding in a tree. Its momma was nearby freaking out so we left to give the baby a chance to fly home. Kinda the prologue for the movie! (Baby who is part godzilla and part something else goes back with his mother(?) godzilla who defeated mechazilla...after telepathically being told "it is the only way" by one of the people inside the dead mechazilla. It sounds confusing, but is a lot of fun.

Easy Wind

To keep up with the theme of funny things out of the mouth of babes-I have heard a choice few lately and am willing to share.

A month ago my almost four year old son was visiting with his Nani and Poppop. While playing in the back yard he asked my husband "who is that" referring to the Virgin Mary statue in their yard. My husband said, "you know Mary, like on my chain" J walked up to the statue to have a closer look pronouncing I'm bigger!" and ran off happily to play. Leaving his Poppop and father laughing hysterically.

The same son loves Pigpen songs by the Grateful Dead. His father has been playing them a lot lately on the CD player and on his guitar. The other day I am sitting in the living room when my son J walks in singing a line out of Easy Wind: "ballin' that jack and drinkin' my wine" I burst out laughing as I could NOT believe what I was hearing. My son just looked at me and said "it's Pigpen mommy!" It would be pretty funny if he starts singing that at school!

Pig Pen singing Easy Wind

The baby (almost 2) is really getting good at his sentence structure. He likes singing his songs and repeating everything his brother says. So, I am sure I will soon have some funny things to write about what he says. Suffice to say they will be happening sooner than later as he noticed I had my period today (godforbid I should go to the bathroom alone-ever). In case any of you are eating I won't repeat what he said.....

Drowning in Puke and Poop Version 2.0

Oh my god, let me say that the virus in its second wave has hit the household. First, Crusher (almost 2 years old) at 4:30 am Monday morning-day of my 11 hour shift. Second, Steamroller(almost 4 years old) hit hard at 10 pm. By that time the baby is awake and bouncing off the walls yelling: "Look puke, puke! Throw up! Puke!" and pointing to all the pukey places on the couch. I hope to upload the video of this to you tube, because damn if my kid isn't hysterical!

The baby stayed home with my husband on Monday. By the time I was getting ready to go to work, he was done puking. After my shift was over I arrived home around 9pm, both kids asleep, plenty of downtime to discuss my anxiety dreams from watching the Sopranos season finale the night before. (I couldn't sleep I kept tossing and turning about Janice...) When all of a sudden, 10pm rolls around and Steamroller gets bit by the bug. At this point I am running on very little sleep and I realize that I will be getting even less sleep now, especially when my son says to me "Mommy, when I need you, I need you" after his third or fourth episode of projectile vomiting.

Let me just say that hearing the big guy puke up bile at 1 am was terrible. He and I slept on the couch together. Anytime he stirred I woke up fast, bucket in hand to catch the B rated monster movie bleck. It was like a horror movie including his moans and gags.

good god! what was this vomit virus creator thinking?
Version 2.0 is mad fast, furious and basically gone in 4 hrs. That is, four hours of vomit. The next day getting the kids to eat anything has been difficult. The baby just wants to drink. Hence the drowning in poop part, or rather....diarrhea that spills OUT OF THE DIAPER...GAG!!!

On this very same day the dryer repair man arrived (gracia a dios!) and fixes our dryer-in time for poop round 2, 3 and 4. I run a load of towels and we all nap (not the dryer guy he left....) I wake up 2 hours later. A nap well appreciated, and go downstairs to check on the towels. And what is that? My olfactory senses are exploding: GAS LEAK! Great. I call the gas company, they arrive and 3 citations later I learn we did indeed have a gas leak from the dryer repair man who messed up the hose. The new repair guy turns off the gas to the dryer so that the leak would be temporarily fixed. We will be lacking a dryer until the next repair person arrives tomorrow to fix the hose. (But at least we still have hot water.)

I am just hoping that tomorrow this doesn't turn out to be a huge problem. So I can finish the wash. I also hope that the kids have some solid poop tomorrow. Because daycare has the 3 strikes your out policy on diarrhea. Please please please let the cheerios work!

A years worth of blogger

The baby fell asleep singing his favorite night time song. I don't know how to sing it in French, but it is the same song as brother john is sleeping. He was pretty funny singing it. The baby is usually very funny. When he is just about ready to fall asleep, but is fighting it, he will say "poop poop" it took us a while to realize that this was just a ruse. We used to get up and look. Now he says it, we ignore him and he goes right to bed. He also loves to wake up at around five and sing: Nookie nookie nookie, nookie nookie nookie! at the top of his lungs until we get up and get him milk. I guess I can't call him the baby anymore, he will be two soon. I still gotta come up with hip blogger names for them. Oh The Crusher is the baby and Steam Roller is his big brother. I forgot.....this comes from how they wake us up in the morning

Well that is it for tonight, I just realized that I have been writing here for about 1 year now! I can't believe it. A years worth of blogging....crazy. I can't say that I have had time to check out new blogs, I love the Crazy Hip Blog Mamas random blog pick. It is fun, but I haven't seen anything fabulous lately-I guess because I have been too busy to really get a chance to read them. I miss Blogher That was a very informative site, but I found that a lot of the women there link only to their friends, and very rarely will add a new person onto their site. In fact I found it very cliquish in that sense. Which is kind of sad really. I am rambling now, I guess it is time for bed. Oh and I just checked out the True Dad Confessions, I think I will stick to True Mom Confessions It is way more interesting. Plus I don't have to read about shaving balls and blowjobs. One guy did say, another guy would get more bj's if he washed and shaved his balls more often and....hung out at the Y.

That is it for now!

Rant and Roll

What to write about today? I have about 30 min. of free time. I should be outside gardening but the damn mayflies are eating me alive. When the hell do they go away. Bluesman took the kids out to pick up fuel for our party tomorrow and pizza for dinner. I am listening to one of my fav. cds: New Olreans Funk Everything on it is fabulous, I don't think there is one song I don't like all by various artists from NO. Anyway, I really am tired-so I don't know what to post. So I guess I will write about fun kid facts:
The other day my baby looked out the window and said "bluejay! look!" I was totally impressed by the fact that my 20 month old son knew the giant blue bird scarfing down seed was a bluejay.

Today my older son (3 1/2)lied to me....he came upstairs and said "Mommy I finished my lunch are you happy with me?" Of course I said yes, then the two brothers had a potty fest. The big boy on the grown up potty and the baby sitting on the little one. My older son must've inspired the baby because as soon as the baby heard the older one peeing he said "noise momma noise" grabbed his penis and peed away on the little potty. A big fuss was made, we went down to the kitchen and what did I find in the garbage? The older guys lunch. Man was I pissed and broken hearted. The first big lie, said to make me happy. Where am I screwing up? Anyway a "real" punishment was had, not a little lame time out on the steps, but a sit in your bedroom and think about what you did/guilt for making mommy so upset punishment. What happened in the end? "Mommy what does lying mean?" I don't think I got very far....all and all he is a great kid, so it just hurts so much when I have to be all upset with him. I can't stand yelling at him! Plus, my babies are growing up!

Fire Island Lighthouse

We went to the Fire Island Lighthouse today for my mom. She is moving from LI (where she lived her entire life) to New Olreans in 3 days. The move is huge for her so I figured I would take her back to Fire Island and we would visit the lighthouse which my older son refers to as "Bebahs lighthouse" (Bebah is my mother). It was an important trip because the ocean has always been an important part of my mothers life. She grew up on Long Beach LI and spent most of her summers at the beach. She also used to volunteer at the lighthouse on Fire Island. My son also really wanted to go back and visit and kept asking my mom when she was going to take her. It was a great day. Besides the traffic to and from LI it was really terrific. The sun was out, the sky was blue. Hellicopters and boats and even diggers were part of the trip. My kids enjoyed seeing the lighthouse and walking around it. Hearing the kids on a school trip yelling down at us from the top of the lighthouse "hello people down there" the baby turned and waved to them. We saw lots of birds on the walk including redwing black birds and yellow warblers. The water was cold and the baby freaked out about having sand on his hands and feet. He was also scared of the water. However my oder son had a blast and was running back and forth to the water, collecting shells and digging in the sand. Even the baby eventually got over his fear of the "noise mamma, noise" from the waves crashing and enjoyed a blue shark kite blowing in the breeze. It truly was a nice day with my mom and the kids before she leaves.

My mom had a terrific time-until we got home and had to deal with the medicare fiasco. They aren't paying her MD bills b.c. they screwed up her info. So now she won't go to the Dr. b.c. she is angry that medicare isn't paying her MD bills. It is horrible. So beware sucky government DMV healthcare system. If my mom gets sicker b.c. of your incompetent behavior we will SUE THE PANTS OFF YOU!!!

Other than that, a thousand blessings for a picture perfect day at the beach and all before memorial day weekend!