This & That

As usual, the fun never stops in the household of Gobbles.  I have so many snippets from the past few weeks but they're all jumbled around in my head.  Hubs and I survived our first extended solo trip without the kids, enjoying Epcot's International Food & Wine Festival to our hearts' (& tummies') content.  More on that later. 

I do think that 5 days may be just a day over the limit though, because the kids have been awful this week trying to get back into routine.  The Lil Lobster Roll was just out of sorts from a lack of Mommy snuggles last week.  Not that Pop, Grandmom, and Grandpop didn't give her adequate lovin', but I just think we both just missed each other so much.  Gobbles, with whom we spoke every day on the phone, was less affected, but the process of settling him back in has proven tough.  Especially because hubs has a 10/15 deadline at work and has been working until midnight every night, leaving the kids and I to fend for ourselves at bedtime.  Normally that's ok, but the house is still new to them, the weather's gotten colder (and we can't seem to get the heat where we need it), and they miss their Daddy so much.  Oh yea, and I spent the Sunday night before we left in the ER with my little man because he had such a bad case of croup that he couldn't breathe.  The pediatrician chalked it up to terrible allergies at our followup visit, but still these things are always scary.  If you're keeping track, that was Gobbles 4th trip to the ER in just over two years.  This kid should get a rewards card or something.  And we really are the "wait and see" type parents.  If we were paranoid every time he had croup or had a fever over 103 we'd probably have been there at least a dozen times.

After a night at the hospital there's nothing better than snuggling with your doggie.

Oh Spoonsie BEAR.  Don't look so sad it's ok! 

Mommy!  You and your Exagerrations!  I was fine with my grandparents - look how much fun I'm having!

Anyway, back to what's been going on at home.  Gobbles is digging his new house mainly for the swing set, where we go every day after work for a few minutes while the dogs do their business before dinner.  He likes the sun porch of course for puzzles and nature watching - three big dogs next door, the deer that frequent our yard, and the rogue Spoonsie Bear who wanders so far to the back corner of our acre property that it takes an army to get her back in the house.  There's also an owl that lives in the tree nearby, but only Hubs has spotted it, whooo-ing late one night in the moonlight on the roof of the sunporch outside the Lil Lobster Roll's window.  I heard him last night but couldn't see anything, just hoping he'd shush and not wake the baby! 

See Lobster - You grab it, then you SWING!

Uh Mommy?  How many times are you going to rearrange this thing before you find a swing layout that you like?  Wheeeee!

Well I'm just fine in here, thanks!

Nature watching?  Pshh!  I'll just sit here on my rock!

I LOVE Spoonsie's rock!  Great to jump from!

Gobbles' bedroom, three times the size of the closet he used to sleep in, is a bit harder of an adjustment for him, a dark shade of blue that requires two night-lights and sometimes a cracked door with the hall light on in order for him to feel secure.   But he does love the fact that he can fit his nightstand right next to his bed and can reach for his glasses or water any time he wants.  And that he has a whole bookcase full of books to choose for bedtime reading.

We're probably about 75% unpacked - day to day living is fine but the abysmal messes in the dining room, garage, and basement could really stay for weeks if I don't get the motivation to wade through the rest of the boxes.  We'll get there though - deadline is Thanksgiving for the dining room, and the Lobster Roll's birthday for the basement.  Higher on the priority list than finishing the house right now are two other things:

1) Halloween.  Gobbles told me last night he wanted to be a butterfly when I asked him.  I'm really hoping it was a passing thought because I don't care what he is, but I don't want him to look back as a teenager and tell me I ruined his life by dressing him as a butterfly when he was 2.  So table the costume until next week and hope they're learning about something different at school for his inspiration.  We need to get our decorations out too, because each evening as we drive down our street it's pointed out to me how all the mailboxes are decorated.  Mommy, look at the beautiful decorated mailbox! maybe we can decorate our mailbox too??   How can I say no to that?!

2) Birthday Parties Galore.  I missed the part in the Working Mom Manual that said school playmates start getting invited to the 3rd birthday parties.  I suppose it makes sense because these kids have now been together every day for over two years, but I thought we could go another year with just our friends' kids. Apparently I was wrong - we have three 3rd birthdays (technically four since one of the parties is for twins) in the next four weeks.  Thankfully they are only two hours each but boy do they fill in your calendar.  In addition we have our priority October birthday party - our niece Princess Poozers turns 1 on Halloween!  We can't wait to go on the candy corn hayride planned for her party next week.  I miss my Poozers.

And speaking of October birthdays, hubs quietly turned 32 this week but we haven't had a chance to sing to him yet because of his nonstop work.  I was home with the kids on Monday and we made his favorite blackbottom cupcakes, which he's been noshing for breakfast all week.  I also got some finger paint and had the kids go nuts to make Daddy some art for his office.  I managed to snag a pic of my little baker Gobbles helping me out with the mini cupcakes, but was too busy trying to wash the Lobster's hands before she could get her thumb in her mouth to get a picture of the painting.  I've been terrible with taking pictures since we moved.

This is the way we add the cream cheese - Mommy NO licking the bowl!

The Lobster Roll has been going nuts with development, so much so that she's totally regressed on sleep this week.  When we were away I told hubs I was ready for number 3, then the universe smacked me in the face this week by having girlfriend wake up every hour or so around the clock to eat, cry, or snuggle more than she ever did as a newborn.  Thoughts of #3 tabled.  For awhile. I think it's the combination of us being away, the new house, being congested again (after recovering from a double ear infection 10 days earlier), and a growth spurt, and really hoping it will pass.  It could also be the fact that in the same two weeks all this was going on, she's started waving & clapping, she's started on solids - cheese, pancake pieces, and Daddy's Chili, talking up a storm - Momma, Dada, Ooooweeeowee, and Ahh-AH!-  and has been crawling backwards.  That's enough stress on a little girl to make her a bear at night, but somehow still always smiling during the day.

Don't forget my quality taste in baseball teams - my Uncle would be so proud I swiped Gobbles hat!

Yep Daddy, that was some gooood chili!

More Chili!  Gimme more!

I do say - who is that adorable baby in there?  Oh wait, that's me!  Helloo!

Gobbles of course is amazing me with his braininess too.  The stuff he comes up with is nuts, he now only has to hear a book twice before correcting me on certain lines and having it just about memorized.  We discuss his day at dinner every night, and he can tell me everything they did before I have to read it off the paper.  He'll tell me specifics about what each of his friends had for show and tell, or offer me additional tidbits of information.  Just last night, we were talking about these paper "pencils" that the teacher made with their names (because he can identify his written name!).  He told me he had to get a new one because Aiden ripped it.  I said, it's ok Gobbles it was probably an accident, I don't think he meant to do it.  His response, No Mommy, he ripped it a LOT, not just one time, so he did it on purfose, it wasn't an accident.  I was floored at the fact that 1-he knows that if something is not an accident, then it's on purpose (or purfose as he insists is the word), but 2- he could deduce that because it happened multiple times, there must have been intent, so his friend ripped it on purpose.

The other day I got a call from one of his teachers that he banged his teeth on a shelf leading to some bloody gums (thank god no need for a dentist though), and when I asked him about it on the way home he told me Well Mommy, I think they need to put those shelves up higher so I don't hit my mouth on them.  Between this and hearing about the malicious intent with the ripping incident (as well as ENDLESS negotiations during bedtime, dinnertime, and anywhere else he wants to make the decisions), I fear we may have a lawyer in the making.  Or what's chalking up to be a very difficult and stubborn teenager... Mommy, do NOT take the dogs out to pee. -- But Gobbles, how would you feel if told you you couldn't pee on the potty?  They have to go. -- Well Mommy, I would just go pee on the sidewalk then!

But who knows, the kid isn't 3 yet and he told me last week that he wants to be a Daddy and have his own babies.  I told him that's great and he can do that in about 20 years.  I am not ready to think about that.  Unfortunately, that same day he also pointed out to his father Daddy LOOK, I have a big BIG penis!  

Oh boy. I guess the task of bathing them together, which I just started in order to save time and sanity, will be ending sooner than I planned. And so it begins :)

Hey Lobster - the trick is to close your eyes when water gets dumped on your head!

And REMEMBER, DON'T put your head in the water, and don't try to drink the water.