Slowly but surely

We’ve been in our house nearly 2 years (end of March will be 2 years) and it’s still in the “development” stages. Things keep popping up that need our immediate attention (this, this and this to name a few) and so the fun decorating stuff continues to be pushed back.

However. I got my bonus last week. And my mom gave us a really cool end table thing awhile ago. And today Matt picked up a lamp. And hooks for the curtain rod for the curtains my mom gave me along with the cool end table thing. And so, two small things may be crossed off our list:

Pretty good representation of my full library: Comics, classics, and fantasy. *coughnerd*

Classy Curtains for a Classy Family *coughposer*

At some point we’ll get new bedding, new blinds, and side-hooks to finish the curtains.

Some day.

Of puppies, space doctors and re-discoveries

I have written at great length of the many MANY stuffed animals that have taken over our home. They are currently residing in a toy box in the basement play area, another toy bin in the upstairs family room, a giant bin in Jaden’s bedroom, on her bed, in her brother’s bed, in our bedroom and scattered throughout the house.

I thought we’d gotten things under control until, in the effort to remain completely honest because one of you may break into my house in order to fact check my story, I really thought about it and wrote out the above list.

Wow. I need to change direction in this post. No, I don’t. It’s fine. I can still say what I was going to say because the majority of the stuffed animals are hidden away in toy bins so my point remains:

If you hide all of your kids’ toys, they will “discover” a long-lost friend every couple of weeks and become attached to that friend and that friend alone will make every thing better.

Jaden’s current Best Friend is a little stuffed puppy in a space suit that her grandpa got her through some Disney Rewards thing. It’s the pink one on the right. Her name is “Rosebud” and presumably she’s from the Air Buddies franchise which I refuse to watch or own because, well, if you’d seen a preview for any of them, you wouldn’t have to ask me why not. Jaden loves her and will always love her. Until she discovers another toy in the basement. This week she has carried Rosebud with her around the house, to gramma’s and into bed. She’s fashioned a little kennel for her out of an old bottle nipple dishwasher cage thing and took the leash off her teddy bear backpack/toddler harness to use on Rosebud.

This morning Matt took Rosebud away after Jaden refused to put her ever-loving shirt on. Immediate emotional break down and cries of “ROSEBUD! ROSEBUD!” filled the house.

I’ve never seen Citizen Kane but the joke was not lost on me.

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Matt and I sent off Jaden’s application for the New Math and Environmental Sciences Immersion school (or whatever the hell it’s called) a couple weeks ago. It’s one of those public magnet school things. We decided on this school because forming a good math and science foundation is so important to an education, particularly for girls (studies show that interest in math and science falls dramatically in girls around the age of 12. Or so I read somewhere a while ago.). Even more particularly for a girl who tells her parents: “When I grow up, I’m going to be a space doctor!” and “When I grow up, I’m going to be an astronaut!” and “When I grow up, I’m going to be an astronaut, a doctor and…….um….a grown up!”  To which said parents reply, “Better work hard in school and get that scholarship, kid.” Oh, just kidding. We certainly thought that but stopped talking after, “Well, you know, you have to work really hard in school, especially in math and science.”  and then high-fived each other for getting that application mailed in time.

At some point we’ll kick each other for encouraging this when she decides, at age 22, to join the circus instead. For now: SPACE DOCTOR!

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My awesome, wonderful, brilliant and gorgeous cousin is going to have a baby ANY DAY NOW and back in November I co-hosted a baby shower with her mom. Some aunt or person on her husband’s side gave her a big box of books with the instructions “Take what you want and do whatever with the rest.” She gave us the rest. WHOO! BOOKS! Books are much like stuffed animals: when you have roughly 100 kids books, they get scattered all over the house and kids forget and re-discover them all the time. Jaden’s current “discovery” is Eric Carle’s The Secret Birthday Message. Like all of his books, this one is uniquely constructed with pages cut out into shapes. It reads like a scavenger hunt of shapes. And it’s SHORT! Which makes for a great bedtime story. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE reading to her but the longer the story, the less time for cuddles and reviews of the day (She’s started asking me how my day was and what I did, much like I ask her. It’s awesome.). And less time for mommy’s Rock Band. Ahem. ANYWAY, last night after we read the book, she sent me on a quest to find different shapes in her room:

“Look to my dresser. Find the rectangle. Open it and find the clue. Bring me the clue and I will tell you the next one.”

I went to her dresser, opened the top drawer to put her medicine away and pulled out an imaginary slip of paper. I brought it back to Jaden, who was tucked under the covers, and held it in front of her to read:

“Now, look for the circle, open and bright. Kiss and hug the circle.”

I looked at her closely and said, “Is…it……your…FACE?” She smiled and nodded, her eyes most definitely open and bright. I kissed her cheek and hugged her tight.

Re-discoveries are the best.

Boy loves to shop

Jonas loves shopping. He loves sitting in the cart, throwing his head back and laughing at the balloons floating over the aisles. He loves pointing at the bananas and asking, “Mama?” He loves reaching for the giant bottle of balsamic vinegar when his mommy, stupidly, parks the cart in front of the mountain of glass vinegar bottles in order to keep him out of the way of the other people shopping for beans. He loves laughing at her silly voices as she push him quickly away from the “SHOULDN’T PARK YOUR BABY HERE” shelf (they really should put a sign there.).

He loves to throw the upper half of his body back over the cart seat and giggle when she pulls him back up again by his coat zipper. Over and over again as people smile at the goofy boy with the nap-mussed hair laughing his belly laugh.

He loves it when he’s in the check out line and his mommy remembers she’s making chili that night and has to go back to the bean aisle for three more cans. He loves perfecting his ninja skills by pulling a bottle of red wine vinegar to the floor because his mommy parked the cart in the exact same spot she parked him in just minutes before where she caught him reaching for the balsamic vinegar. He loves looking at her innocently when she says, “Jonas! It was 2 seconds! I turned my back for TWO SECONDS!” He loves ignoring the scent of red wine vinegar that wafts through the bean aisle while two employees discuss the best way to clean it up and his mommy looks all worried and concerned and all, “What now?”

He loves pointing at the mess on the floor and his mommy pushing him away with a muttered, “Let’s get the hell out of here before you get into anymore trouble.”

Jonas loves shopping.

Good

Y’know when you’ve got something awesome but you can’t share it because it’s not yours?

That’s what I’ve got going on right now.

Needed to get that out. (Don’t ask me what I’m talking about. Can’t say.)

Something I CAN share:

Matt and I have tentively set our date for our Big Anniversary/Honeymoon trip to New Zealand.

We’re thinking…Late October/Early November.

Now, who wants to watch our kids for two weeks?

Body Image

I worked out 9 days ago on the wii fit plus.

The body test said I needed to GAIN 22 pounds to reach a healthy BMI.

People.

20 pounds of muscle on this frame:

Seriously?

Then I got a cold. Kept eating because, dude, yay food, right?

Today, I worked out again. Took the body test again.

I lost 3.1 pounds.

You can see why I laughed so very hard when I was first told to gain 22 pounds in order to be “healthy”. I don’t gain weight, ok. Please don’t hate me. It’s who I am. The only way I’m going to gain 22 pounds is by getting knocked up again.

And THAT

Is

NOT

Going

to

Happen.

So, I got all “GOD! It’s like high school all over again! I’ll never gain any weight and everyone will think I’m anorexic! WAH!”

Then I wrote a big whiny post.

Then I deleted it because ya’ll don’t want to read that. (Speaking of “high school all over again.” There’s a reason no one reads blogs written by 15 year olds. Christ.)

Keeping this short:

I’m thin.

It’s who I am.

I got body image issues, too.

We all do.

So let’s all just accept everyone and stop pointing out the little thin girl whenever talking about healthy because just cuz she’s thin doesn’t mean she can walk up the stairs without panting.

Or that she doesn’t NOT want to have non-stick arms and legs.

Wait, what?

Stop looking at me!