The Naked Chef

My life is always hectic. Always loud. Non stop motion, noise, messes, hugs, kisses, crying, laughing, sillies.

I was on the phone with Sheena today and we were doing the usual sort of conversation you have when you have small children in the vicinity of where you are when you are on the phone.

What happened with the teacher...hold on...No, you can't play in the sink. Go over there while I finish talking...ok, what was I saying? Oh yeah the teacher conferences?

Oh, they were fine. They talked about...HEY! Please do not bring that chair over here you are not playing in the sink! What were you saying, Sheena?...Anyway, she told us what we needed to do during spring break.

Oh, nice! I can't imagine when...Ok, stop screaming at your brother for 2 seconds, PLEASE? Oh fine HERE play with the water while I finish this call.

Meanwhile I was making it extra hard on myself because I was preparing two large pots of soup while talking on the phone and watching my children. It's sort of like multitasking if you were multitasking normal things while playing dodgeball. So after I finished the call with Sheena, I snapped this picture and texted it to her. Just so she could get a visual to go along with all my distractions and interruptions. Sheena's copy included the full moon. I edited for the World Wide Web.

 

Adam and the Giant Fish

Adam had a fun play day with Dad today while Owen was at school. They went to the mall, had lunch, went to the park and discovered some huge metal fish statue that they allowed people to climb through. A picture sent my way means I have an excuse to play with my new photo editing app again.

 

Culinary Breakthrough

Owen is not what you would call an "adventurous eater." He will pretty much only eat things from the following list for dinner:

• Nuggets
• Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches
• Meatballs
• Salmon Patties (no bun)
• Hot Dogs (no bun)
• Teriyaki
• Spaghetti (extra Parmesan)
• Quesadillas
• Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
• Crackers - Saltines, Oyster, or "Turn Around" aka: Ritz

It's so boring feeding him the same thing night after night. I even stooped to a low level when I used a Chuck e Cheese commercial as a bribe, telling him the only reason we haven't been yet is because he won't eat pizza. This past week though, we have officially tried and liked 4 new things!

1. Orange Chicken (fried rice is still a no-go.)
2. Tuna Casserole (probably his least favorite of the bunch, but he ate it with minimal complaining.)
3. Minestrone Soup (he told me he would only eat the beans but after I made him taste the noodles and the veggies he announced that he actually liked all of it!)
4. Pizza (an unplanned trip to Chuck e Cheese happened when a Daddy and Me date went down the toilet after they showed up at Owen's favorite arcade and found it completely shut down. Long story short: Boy in tears, Dad tries Chuck e Cheese arcade instead, Boy is happy, Dad orders a pizza, Boy eats whole pizza, Boy announces he "loves" pizza.)

I have big dreams of the boys in high school and eating me out of house and home. I just want to make a huge dinner and have the boys and their friends gobble it all up and say, "thanks Mom" before they run back out the door. I have faith it will happen. I have faith that the days of "Just 5 more bites. No, BIG bites." and "If you eat that I have something really special for dessert!" will eventually come to an end. This week was my first glimpse of it.

Tonight as Owen was eating his minestrone, I was imagining this future way of life and said, "You know Bud, someday you are going to realize your mom is a really good cook." He answered, "Well Mom, I already know that." Awwwwwwwwwwww.

 

Daddy Needs Glasses

When I met Steve, he wore glasses. Then he got his fancy LASIK surgery and has had 20/15 vision for the last 10 years. However, he is officially in his mid-40's now and with old age comes cheap drugstore reading glasses. Good thing I work for Walgreens now. Mama gets you 20% off those babies!

 

Flumaggedon 2013

Hooray hooray the last week is over. I have officially made it through the worst stomach flu I have had in years. It lasted a full five days and Adam was lucky enough to get it too! Poor baby. I have spent today washing every linen, dish and doorknob and bleaching every surface I can reach in the hopes we won't see any sign of this bug again. We also got a chance to get outside for a bit...something Adam and I desperately needed. And I got a chance to download an iPad photo editor and play around for a bit.

This is Adam playing with his lawn mower. All he wanted to do was push it up the driveway and down the driveway BY HIMSELF. And Owen entering the arena as BuhBuh Ray Dudley. His current wrestling hero.

 

 

The Artist On Canvas

Sommer took both boys to the Children's Museum today and texted me this photo of Adam at work. She said his favorite song, Baby Beluga, was playing over the speakers. Beats taking a nap! Hopefully the afterglow of a good day will carry us through this evening and the no nap monster won't rear it's ugly head...

As for Owen, we asked her how he was doing and she said and I quote..."Great. They own this place!" Glad I renewed my membership!

 

Flu Bug

Testing out my new blog posting app. Will it be the coolest thing ever and allow me to document every waking moment of our lives so that Owen and Adam will one day have more snippets into their past than they know what to do with? Maybe. Maybe not. Only time will tell.

The past three days I've been down with the stomach flu. This is the sickest I have been in forever. Adam cam down with it for about four hours the first night. He was very sad and clingy and I enjoyed our four hour snugglefest.

He's doing much better. I'm still stuck in bed. We are crossing our fingers that it avoids everyone else!

 

Welcome To The 90s Mr. Banks

I am the proud owner of a new iPad! Steve and Owen surprised me with it today and because I was sick and not wearing my glasses, when Owen held it up in a clear plastic bag and said, "Mom! We have SURPRISE for you!" I thought it was a Subway sandwich. Owen's look of disappointment by my reaction made me take another look.

Steve absolutely loves his. I'm hoping it will replace my iPhone addiction because being addicted to your phone is embarrassing. Being addicted to an iPad is productive. Right????

 

Dentist

The boys took their first joint trip to the dentist today. Owen was his usual perfect patient. Adam was...not as easy.  No crying but a lot of protesting. He finally somewhat agreed to the hygienist using a manual toothbrush but there would be no real cleaning today!

Bringing Something That Starts With "A" For Show & Tell

And I didn't even tell him to do it!

Art Direction

I mentioned in a previous post how much Adam has been enjoying drawing and how he only wants us to draw Big Bird, Ernie and Bert.  I thought I'd post an example of our work as an illustration of what every piece of paper and every magnadoodle drawing ends up looking like.  This is Steve's rendition of the ensemble cast of Sesame Street.  We have the chosen 3, but he managed to add Elmo, Cookie and Oscar to the mix.  If you want to know what Adam is "in to" these days...You're looking at it.

Little Bam Discovers Inflatable Slides

Poor Adam,

He's always sort of having to do whatever Owen wants to do.  He's taking soccer lessons right now along side Owen and really doesn't seem to enjoy it...but since we have nothing better to do while Owen runs around at practice for an hour...we are doing it.

Today, Owen wanted to go to "The Jump Place" as our family outing.  Adam has hated the jump place in the past.  Too much trying to jump and walk on uneven and bouncy surfaces when he's just barely learned how to walk himself.  Add a bunch of older kids who are literally bouncing off the walls, and it's just not his jam.  Today we tried it again and he lasted about 20 minutes before he was completely done with the place.  As a last ditch effort, I let him try the big slides.  It's a little nerve wracking because adults aren't really supposed to accompany these kids on the structures.  I could have gone in to rescue him (of course), but I couldn't make it any more fun for him...that was up to him.  So, we put him in the bounce house and Owen directed him to the ladder.  After figuring out how to climb up an inflatable ladder that is moving and shaking because of other bouncing kids, he slid down.  Up and down all by himself.  Then he went again.  And again.  And again.  This was about the 6th or 7th out of 19 or 20 times.

Dang Cute

Silly Brothers

Sometimes having two kids is tough...Double the mess.  Double the noise.  Double the nail clippings.  Double the tantrums.  Double the fighting.  Double the early mornings.  Double the picky eaters.

But sometimes, it's double the cute.

Bronco Season!

My life revolves around my kids.  There is really nothing (except work) that I prioritize over my boys and the days are filled with their interest, toys, television shows and music.  My interests are reserved for working hours or after the kids' bedtimes.  I'm not claiming to be perfect...I can sneak in a few Facebook checks here and there, but nothing that requires any significant time or attention.

Last football season, I remember wanting to watch a few Bronco games but the kids would never let me watch for longer than 2 minutes.  This season, I have managed to watch the majority of a couple games and I'm LOVING IT. 

Then today, Owen took it to another level when he actually got into watching the game with me!  The day I get to sit down on the couch with my boys with a big pan of nachos and loud couch refereeing will be my nirvana.  But today, Owen got one step closer to that ultimate goal by getting fairly interested in the game.  He reminded me that he would prefer if I don't scream too loud and scare him.  He pretended to tackle his stuffed animals and ran around the room like a football player.  Then at one point, he disappeared into the garage and came back wearing his "football helmet" and carrying his football.  It made me so happy!  He's staring to "get it" but more importantly, like it!  He tossed the football around with Nana for awhile and then Nana tagged him in the face with the ball.  He looked a little dazed and then as any sport minded kid would do, he problem solved.  He decided to use Bunny as a face mask.  The obvious choice in this situation, right?  He had a helmet...but not a face mask.  He had a bunny...problem solved!

Showing & Telling Something Red, Blue or Yellow

Train Art

Owen made a little sculpture out of train set pieces the other day.  He actually had something a little different and I wasn't paying attention until he said..."Look, Mom.  I made a man."  Before I looked at it, I saw that he moved a couple pieces around and then said, "Ok, now it's you, Mom."

I'm not sure what he changed in order to make it "me" but I loved it!

I Love His Face In Glasses

My Best Staycation.

I can say without hesitation that I admire a woman who can stay at home with her kids full time.  I find it to be one of the hardest jobs in the world.  I also admire single moms who do it all without regular help because I imagine that to be nearly impossible.  I also admire full time working moms who have (in my opinion) a MUCH harder job than full time working dads.  So basically, being a mom is hard work regardless of what your situation is and I respect all of them.  Well, I respect all good moms.  :)

I feel incredibly lucky to have the job situation I have right now.  I work full time for a company that has been nothing but flexible with me over my almost 13 year career there.  They understand that telecommuting is a normal and viable way for employees to work in the day and age of WiFi, webinars and email on your phone.  So I work in the office 3 days a week and home 2 days.  This schedule allows me a massive amount of flexibility that some working moms do not have and I feel VERY lucky.  I can go grocery shopping during the week in the middle of the day and cut my time there in half because I'm not fighting the weekend crowds.  I can take my son and pick him up from preschool a couple days a week and more importantly, I can be there for his show and tell day with all the other parents who are invited to attend those days.  I gain 4 hours back with my kids because I don't have to make that 60 minute commute to and from Bellevue twice a week.  

Those are some of the benefits of my stay at home days.  Some of the benefits of my in office days are being able to interact with my co-workers on a regular basis face to face.  I get to dress up and put makeup on and wear high heels.  I get to go to board room meetings and hear adults argue back and forth instead of toddlers.  Sometimes, I even get to solve those adult fights and that makes me feel important.  I get to drink Starbucks while dorking out on Excel.  It's a whole different world and the combination of my work life and my home life makes me feel very fulfilled.

Since we have chosen to use a nanny as a childcare provider, we are at the whim of her availability.  I should probably find a few back-up childcare options but between Sommer, Steve and my mom -- we haven't ever really been in too much of a bind.  Probably the fact that Steve and I never go on vacation helps since I always have enough vacation to stay home with the kids if Sommer is unavailable.  I should work on taking more vacations too...

So, Sommer took a long vacation last week.  Timing wise, it was the same week that Steve was taking his ATP test which required his full attention and lots of time to study.  As we were planning the week, I started feeling frustrated that we couldn't use the week to take a family trip.  The thought of 10 days at home doing the same old thing over and over seemed like a big waste of an opportunity.  But I couldn't figure out where I could take the kids that made any sense traveling by myself and it was Owen's first week of preschool (I liked the idea of getting to be able to take him and pick him up all week.)  So I accepted the fact that I would be taking a 10 day "staycation" with my kiddos at home.  However, I'm not going to lie...I really expected the week to be hard.  

The 10 days were the most fun I've had with my kids in a long time.  We had so many "new" activities the days went by much quicker than some of the long summer days.  They went to their first soccer practice which was adorable.  Owen started preschool so we found our new morning routine eating waffles and getting our playtime in before school started.  Adam and I got some quality 1:1 time every afternoon which we've never regularly had.  I got to experience "nap time productivity" again which I haven't had since Owen dropped his naps over a year ago.  Preschool really agreed with Owen and he came home everyday in a great mood which led into happy and calm evenings.  The kids woke up happy, went to bed happy and were happy in between.  Which made me very happy.  Tomorrow, I go back to work again and I'm actually very sad about that.  I would like one or two more weeks - just like this one!

So I apologize to my kids for thinking the worst because you are the reason my staycation was the best vacation I've had in a long time.  I love you guys!!!

Just Your Average Mom n' Bubba Grocery Run