Missing my mother

I missed my mom today. She is so far away in Wyoming. It's not that I don't miss her every day, but I was particularly reminded today.  I took the kids to the park this afternoon and we had fun. I watched them play on the swings and obstacles and then Karina decided she wanted to take a walk. This particular park, a favorite of ours for their awesome playground, has a trail that we never explored. So that is where we headed!

It is neat! There is a collaboration from the library (didn't I just mention their awesomeness the other day?), City of Gahanna, the local high school art department and some other sponsors. As you walk into the woods there are little plaque like things with some young person art with a short poem they wrote. Beside that on the plaque thing (name for this thing?) is a question directed towards children that had to do with the poem. It is very interactive, colorful and fun. So we walked and read and talked then they got tired of talking, asked me to stop reading and ran ahead. Ruining the romance of it all, that is their favorite. We went to the creek the path ran next to and skipped rocks.

We had fun but I would have loved to do that with my mom. She would have went to the park with me and walked through the woods.There are a ton of raspberry or blackberry bushes there. She would know what they were and when they would be ready. I'm sure she would have been happy, or at least willing, to go back with me when those berries would be ready. We could walk through the woods with the kids and pick and eat (gasp!) berries and I could complain about my week and she would listen. She wouldn't complain about being hot or tired. She wouldn't say how gross that creek water is or how icky it is to eat berries you find.She would listen to my crazy, lofty future plans and goals and be a realist and supporter.

I always miss my mom but especially this time of year. She was always so willing to do stuff with me. I can't wait till she and Steve come back for the wedding. I hope I' not crazy busy and so stressed that I don't get to enjoy her company.

End of a chaper

The kids and I went to the library Sunday. It was impromptu. We were driving and started talking about books or something so we drove by to see if the library was open yet and it was! So we went it. Before we did that I made rule we can only get a few books since we didn't bring a bag.  My first stop   at the library is  to the info desk. I always a fine to pay. ALWAYS. Today's was a whopper. $20! Another reason to limit the number of books we get.

The kids went to pick books; no one listened to my rule about just a few books. I should have given them a specific number. Like two. Two books each is good. They stacked about 12 each on the table. As they picked I went wandering for good read alouds for us. And then I looked around and got caught up watching them. In the young readers area. Not in picture books with me. It really hit me. I sat down and started sorting their books and almost cried in the library. Right there at a small table, in a small chair I had to fight back tears.  

We have spent countless hours in the libraries of Columbus. They are fabulous. From baby story times to rainy days it has been a source of renewable, free, quality entertainment. Entertainment that goes home for continuous enjoyment! And now it is yet another marker of my children's growth. Or a smack in the face reminding me I don't have babies anymore. 

Karina is going to kindergarten next year and wis beginning to learn to read. Jr is reading fluently at this point. He developed so much this year in first grade. Board books went years ago. Picture books are next and it will continue this way I know. Doesn't mean I have to be ready.

Oh look! the list of favorite books on the side of this blog reflects how much they have changed. The updated list would include Fly Guy and Desperaux  not little baby books anymore. Sigh.

Spring

Spring is officially here. Technically. But there is snow in the forecast for this evening. It's the end of March. I'm over it. I'm excited for it to warm up. I'm really excited to start our garden. I'm not sure how this will turn out. I've only had my own garden once and that was vegetables. This year we are doing flowers and some veggies if space allows.
We are not certain what we will plant yet. We went to Home Depot and picked some green Zinnias and other green things. I want to get some Dahlias in white but beyond that I don't know. I'll try to go to a nursery this weekend. I'm trying to stick to greens and whites for colors.

This represents my inspiration. ...never mind. Pictures not working.
Below is what I've already purchased. Again, I'm not sure how it will turn out. The arrangement above is clearly professional but it's the color scheme I was imagining.

    

I wouldn't mind more colors but sal is pretty set on keeping all the froofy, girly stuff away. I'm cool with that.

Grandma and I also worked on the dress a little this weekend. I did a terrible job of basting some pieces and the kids played with pins and buttons. Jr had all the spare spools of thread "training". He couldn't tell us what for. They appeared to be training for battle.

Karina sorted all the buttons. She found an earring in the box of buttons. Just one. Of course I had to wear it and take a picture.

I still have it on. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Grandma wanted us to stop coming over to "work". We are not very productive.

Once a week she says

What a joke. I said to myself, and everyone actually, that  I would try to update this once a week. Then the end of week one came and I realized nothing interesting has happened. Same with week two. As it turns out there is really not too much that I have to talk about. If you know me well you know this is also funny because I don't ever stop talking.

So here is a brief rundown of what has been happening:

• I am on the quest for new work shoes. Comfortable, stylish and cheap all in one?
• Karina turned 5
• We went to see the Lego movie
• I ignored the emails about the fundraiser auction basket for preschool 'cause I don't have the time or money
• Big Sal also had a birthday
• I skipped the gym last Thursday
• I put of signing Jr up for baseball to the point it is now too late unless I want to pay a late fee

So pretty much nothing worth blogging about. The thing is the internet is the one place you can make yourself look awesome! I need to dig deep within myself and find my wit and snark and sarcasm skills. (I gotta have them somewhere under all this blah). Then I have to take pictures with my camera phone and use great angles and lighting. I must make sure to share frequently so it looks like there are amazing things happening to me daily. If I can figure out how to get pictures from my phone to the computer I'll do that. If it requires using a USB cord it might not happen though. That seems like a lot of old school work.

Updates coming soon.

This thing looks old and dated and the info on the side bar is clearly incorrect. As are those pictures but oh look at those CUTIES! My little babies. I might just leave it like that because I miss those sweet faces so.

TWO YEARS!

Blogs last forever. The beauty of the internet. Or maybe the curse. Depends right?

 It has been two years since I posted anything here. Looking back it is kind of fun to remember those moments of our lives. Not much has happened since then but there were things I wish I had written down to remember in the future. I do have thousands of pictures though thanks to camera phones and my Instagrtam addiction. Memories are a little stronger with journal style entries though. Something big that did happen since April 2012 is Sal and I got engaged. This is a rather big deal no? My dear little brother suggested doing a blog instead of a wedding website. I'll have both because I am an attention whore and instead of creating a new blog I figured I'd just use this one. It's easier than making a new one and well, I'm honestly pretty lazy.

So. Here you have it. I'm back to blogging. I have surely made this statement before so no one hold their breath. I'd like to chronicle the wedding planning. It is really quite tedious and the wedding industry is a huge racket but I'm totally feeding into it. I do have plans to do much of it myself though. and by myself I mean with the gracious help of loved ones. I will be sharing those projects here for anyone that is interested.

 My crazy DIY plans:
- Grow my own flowers
-Make my own decorations
-Do dy own papers stuffs ( invites, menu cards, programs, etc.)
- Make the flower girl dress
-Make my attire! Super excited for this one! I cannot, cannot justify spending $1000ish on a dress to wear one day when I can, with my wonderful grandmother's help, make a one of a kind dress for a quarter of the cost.

 Many things I will not be attempting. Food: no way, leave it to the pros. The bar? Yeah, I don't want those problems. Cake: I want to do this myself but I don't have time. That is unreasonable, sadly.

 I know a wedding is about the marriage and the whole uniting of two lives. I'm really thankful that we have that opportunity when so many are denied it. But I'm not going to lie. I want the big party too. How often do you get a chance to get together with all the people you hold dear and have a great big dinner and dance and celebrate? If I offened anyone with my IT'S MY DAY nonsense I apoligize. I'll try not to be a brat. And hey, this is better than flooding your Facebook feed and Instagram and other social networks with my prattle. You at least have the option to ignore me here.

 There will still be cute pictures and stories of the kids though so you can come for that too. They are still super cute.

Friday the 13th

I woke up this morning at 8:30 to quiet. I could hear the Sal Jr and KJ playing and laughing quietly together. They normally wake me at 7-7:30ish pleading for me to wake up and feed them because they are starving or want to watch tv or one did something to the other. Today there was none of that. I woke up when I was ready ( awesome since I got off work at midnight and went to bed an hour later). I laid in bed a while and couldnt figure it out. I assumed there had to be another adult in the house. Sal must have had the day off and just didn't tell me. But I did not hear any grown up voices. I took my time going downstairs to greet them. I looked all around the second floor. The bedrooms were still clean, nothing had been broken, nothing had been dumped, no signs of destruction anywhere.
I went downstairs and the television was off. The refrigerator door wasn't hanging open. I couldn't figure it out. Then I rounded the corner and found them cuddled up together playing the iPad. I must have left it in the middle of the hallway last night. That makes sense, I used it for light to creep in and check on them while they were sleeping. They must have woken up around the same time this morning, come out of their rooms and on their way to mine found the iPad.

Tech babysitter? The iPad does everything!

Karina

Karina is probably like most other children in the world but I was not prepared. Sal is pretty laid back. As a little little one he was my into things like she is. If she is not monitored constantly trouble happens.

Since we moved last weekended some of our things are still in boxes. While I was showering the other day she found my make up. Covered herself with it too. She actually did fairly well. I don't wear makeup at all really so I was impressed she knew what it was for.
Then today as I'm cleaning up the play dough she got in the new carpet she walks by me and smells like a grown man. I roll my eyes and ignore it for a second to make her clean up all the toys she dumped from their baskets and the dirty clothes she also dumped. She says "I don't feel very well mama" really? Just pick up the toys. Don't give me excuses using proper grammar. She did pick up the toys. It took five minutes of her writhing around in pain clutching her belly to move 5 stuffed animals 3 feet. Then I go to investigate the smell coming off of her. I find a small bottle of aftershave sitting outside of a box. She screwed the lid back on to hide the evidence. Thanks.

As I type this she is giving her brother "shots" with a liquid medicine syringe she also found that. He probably needs
the medicine to immunize himself from all the spit, farts, coughs and sneezes she purposely planted on him.

I forgot to mention she was half naked through all this. A tiny summer dress she put on and that is all. I can't keep underwear on her. I'm going to stick her in the shower now before I start gagging.

She has been a puppy the last four days. She steals my coffee. She tears her room apart looking for the perfect outfit. She destroys my closet looking for heels to tromp around the house in. She cries like she is hurt over everything. She dishes way more on her brother than she can take. She is spoiled rotten and probably knows. There is so much personality in this gal. She is going to rock my world for sure and I can't wait.

Bed wetting

Before going to sleep I check on my kids, tonight I have found that the BOTH have wet the bed already. And are still asleep. Being the negligent mother that I am, I'm going to leave them, pee covered in their beds.

Now, before you judge me consider the alternatives. I could try to strip their wet clothes off, put them in clean ones and bring them to my bed without waking them. Or i could do all that, change their sheets and put them back in their own beds, still trying to not wake them. Or I could wake them up, make them change their own clothes while I change sheets. That last option would surely result in crying. At least one would probably cry if awoken at any point in all that.

So instead I've opted for what I consider to be the simplest option. Leave them be. What will likely happen is I will wake up in a few hours as one of them tries to get on my bed. This child will probably be naked as they strip the wet clothes off and never make the effort to find dry ones. That lid will be waking me up because he or she needs space. Why will there be no space in my queen size bed for a little person to join me? Because the other one will already be there having snuck in while I was deep asleep.
I would be willing to bet money I wake up with a nude preschooler on either side of me.

Is it wrong? Maybe. Will they develop terrible ammonia burns or rashes? Not likely. Will I get 25 more minutes of sleep? Yes. And did I just waste half of that typing this post on my tiny iPhone keyboard. Absolutely.

Good night!

Confession

I have a confession to make. I am a crazy mama. 70% of the time I am nice and happy. The rest of the time I am a lunatic. I go around shouting commands and threatening punishments. This side of me typically shows when we are running late or in a hurry. Or when I am tired or upset. Normally in the mornings before preschool. The problem seems to be that I don't deal well with stressful situations. I get very anxious and take that out on my kids or the people who I should show the most love. Not insanity.

Example: Last night I got off work at 11:30 pm, was asleep by 12:45. Sal the same. Except he worked 5am-4:30 then worked on the house till 11 picked the kids up from my moms and met me at his house. He is off work today and told me last night he'd take the children to preschool. So I'm like- Sweet, I get to sleep in!
Wrong. We both woke up and I ended up taking them to school. He slept ns extra 15 minutes and then relaxed t the house for a few hours while I ran errands.
This morning I was mad. So mad because I was tired, we were already late (daylight saving was like 3 days ago and my kids(otherwise known as my alarm clock) are still sleeping in) and there were no clean clothes.
So I flipped. I yelled at Sal, for lying. I yelled at little Sal as KJ for ignoring me or moving too slow or not eating their breakfast or whining, everything.

They are not the problem. In this situation I am. Sal didn't lie. He fully intended to wake up and let me sleep in. After getting up at 5am and working 11.5 hours at his day job and then 6 hours at the house, doing physical work at both places how can I be mad? I really have no right. He clearly worked harder than me. The kids are just kids. They move slow, they whine, they do all of the things kids do. I've been a mother for over 5 years. This is not news to me. Instead of expecting my children to magically act perfect I need to accept that they are perfect the way they are. Perfectly normal. For now. Until I ruin their sweet little selves with my lunacy. Scaring them forever with my shouting.

I know what I need to do. Doing it is the hard part. I could avoid a ton of stress with a little preparation. Picking clothes out before bed. Setting my- real alarm clock and sticking to it. Having all of our belongings by the front door and breakfast already planned. These little things could potentially make a big difference in my mornings. Or I may just find something else to be stressed about. Equally possible.

The house

Buying a house is pretty awesome. At first. Then all the trouble comes. Closing was January 27th. Work began the 28th and it is now March 12th and we are no where near ready to move in.

I'm anxious. Sal wants to rent his condo by April 1, that won't be too hard. The problem will be finding a place for all of our stuff till the house is ready. We can sleep at our moms houses, we've done that/been doing that. I'd hate to have to rent a storage unit. We can't really move stuff to the house in the condition it's in.

We went over there to work on it yesterday. The weather was beautiful and the neighborhood was filled with kids playing. I hope we meet some families with kids aged close to Sal and KJ. The 'hood is great and soon hopefully, the house will be great.

Loser!

I am a loser. Not in the sense that I don't win anything, or that I'm generally uncool. Even those these each may be fairly true they are not what I mean. I am referring to actually misplacing things. Everything.

My biggest beef is with keys. I have a uncanny ability to lose keys. Just last week I lost three sets. One of which has yet to be found. I lost big Sal's keys twice. The first time I swore try had to be locked in the car. So I called a locksmith and paid $130 for the car o be unlocked. They were not there. Finally after days of searching and just before be we're going to have a new key cut ($250ish) Steve, my moms husband, found them in a pair of shoes. The first reaction of a typical mother of small children would be to blame them. I asked them if they had seen them, they hadn't so I knew they had nothing to do with it. I'm not, however a typical mother, I am a loser.

I thought I lost my checkbook yesterday. That's a problem for a number of reasons. I found it though so its all good. Now I just have to mail the check. Getting that done may be a feat as well.

It's been pretty much a year since I updated this. A lot has changed. A lot has not. Jr now prefers to be called Sal. In fact, he rather hates being called Junior. I'm working on training myself to call him Sal. Karina likes to go by KJ. Sal is five years old already and KJ is three. Time flys!

KJ is Miss Imagination. She is always playing and telling stories. She has an imaginary pink doggy and pink kitty. They are her pets. She knows they are not real, but Sal does not like her to pretend. He is all about reality. Somewhat the opposite of his little sister.

Sal wants to know how things work. Real things, like cars, ad non real things too. He asked me last night how does wishing on a star work. He wanted to know how the wishes come true. I told him they have to be reasonable and you have to do what you can to help them but he was having none of it. His wishes are reasonable he says.
Sal loves video games and TV. He also likes to play when someone plays with him, someone who is not KJ. It bothers me that he doesn't like to play much. He also doesn't like to draw, color or read, unless being read to. I e
Are these two things connected, his non imaginative-ness and his dislike of all things not gamer? I don't know. I wish I could be around more to play with him. It would help if I were not so lazy when I am around, but that's kind of a me problem and I'm working on it, thank you.

I got a blogger app so I'm going to try to keep up to date with all that is going on with us but, I make no promises.

Damn it!

When I told Jr it was time to head to the bath he got very frustrated and said "damn it" while slamming his fists on the couch. Immediately I told him that is not ok and we do not use bad words like that. I sent him upstairs to get ready to get in the bath. I grabbed some pjs from a basket and followed a moment later. When I hot to his room o heard him crying and telling KJ what a bad boy he was. Then I asked him why he was so upset. (i Don't believe anyone has ever told him he was a bad kid) he proceeded to tell me he does bad things like steal toys from people and say bad words and take KJ's toys. - While he was listing I thought of a few more (hitting sister, etc.) but decided not to mention them at that time ;)

It was heart breaking. Also slightly amusing. I tried to tell him he is not a bad person for saying bad words, and if it makes him feel so bad not to do it again. He was hysterical so I dont think any of it sunk in.

He had a long day and took it out on himself.

He also has newly discovered allergies. The picture shows his puffy swolen eyes, the result of tears and leaving the allergy medicine at someone else's house. He wanted me to take his picture bit refused to smile. The end was rough, but Daddy says they had a good day visiting family.

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Karina got her hair done!

What do you get for a 2 year old girl that doesn't need anything? A trip to the salon! Every time we have taken Jr to get a haircut Karina wants one too.

She got a trim, all sorts of fun smelling product and a pretty bow! She enjoyed it, I wonder if it foreshadows her future!

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Birthday pictures!

Karina's Birthday was February 25th. She turned two! We went to Raising Cane's with Grandad and Uncle Salim for dinner that day. The next day was Saturday, party day! Karina had her first hair appointment that day. She went to Cookie Cutters, a children's place. Sal's mom took her. She got her ends trimmed, they put product in it and then styled it with a big, pretty pink bow! I will put those pictures up later, I lost them...

I made her a tutu earlier in the week but she didn't get to see it till the day of the party. I worried she may not like it but that wasn't a problem. One of her presents was a new pair of shoes. She got high top Twinkle Toes. The most glamorous, sparkley shoes I've ever seen. They even light up! She loved them!

Just to be sure he didn't feel left out, and becasue it was hard for Grandma April and Grandpa Steve to resist these awesome shoes, Jr got a new pair of sneakers too! Batman Converse All Stars! They are even better in person! The picture doesn't show it but there is a Batman on the outside of each shoe.

She had a butterfly cake with sprinkles all over it. She liked it very much but hardly ate any.

The next day we went to Magic Montain to continue our celebration of her. The kids had a lot of fun. They liked palying games much more than the gym part of it. They were kind of scared of being alone in there so I had to follow them through.

Then they turned in their tickets:

And finally they got to pick their prizes! We spoiled them and got candy :)

We ended the day watching Megamind. We had a great weekend!

Karina's birthday weekend

She was a princess and had a great weekend. Pictures to come!

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Pizza

After a lovely day we made a pizza tonight. Jr said he wanted sausage pizza. That sounds fine, right? Wrong. When we tried to crumble it and put it on the pizza he got very upset. So we ended up putting two full sausage links on the pizza. Haha. He also didn't want any cheese so he had a sauce and sausage link pizza. The rest of us had pepperoni pizza, with cheese. KJ put a few extra slices of on a few places, but that's ok.

Jr really at it that way too. Silly boy!

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We've been busy!

I'm back in school for my last quarter! Jr and Karina are doing well. I will update more later... I think.

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Karina

KJ is a tough girl. No doubt about it. She picks fights with her brother everyday. That is the bad side of it. The good thing though is that even under two years old I don't worry about her being bullied. Almost like I can just tell she will not put up with it. Jr though, I worry about him. He is a little more sensitive.

Anyway thinking of the nature vs nurture argument one must think of Karina. (Minus The 'anyway' that sounds like the being of a school paper- ack!) Karina loves to fix things. She is always playing with the toy screw driver. She also love dinosaurs and trucks and cars. At the same time she enjoys baby dolls, nail polish, accessories and girly stuff too. If she has a preference I'd almost say it is towards the boy stuff. I'm a nurture believer myself. Having small children makes me really believe it.

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