The Little Performer

The Muffins are finally at a stage where they appreciate Dancing With the Stars, which allows Mumma a chance to watch the show more than I've been able to since the kidlets were born. Although they've loved music since the beginning, now they actually get into the show. Each song during the show's first hour last night was reason enough to bounce around the living room, twirling and stomping, laughing and having a blast.

At the end of each dance? The kids both applaud wildly and then...

#2 bows repeatedly and says, "Tank You, Tank You!"

Melting My Heart

J worked from home today so I was able to hit the gym this afternoon. The kids were relatively low-key and J was able to get a fair amount of work done while I was gone. When I came home, #1 was upstairs attempting a nap. It wasn't going very well, and I made the executive decision that #2 needed a nap, too (she's ever so stealthily trying to get away with not napping and she is far too young for that). I brought #2 up, kissed #1 and told them to have a good nap. I showered and they did indeed take a brief nap.

When they woke up, though, #2 was fit to be tied (I think she was still very tired and not ready to be awake and her world was being seriously rocked) and would not stop crying. The plan - pre-waking fit - was that I was going to take #1 shopping with me and #2 would play while J finished his work. I tried to calm #2 down and #1 was doing alright until he decided that he really needed Daddy to be in the room with us. Cue two screaming toddlers. J did come and hang out with us and #1 calmed down. When I thought that #2 was calm enough, I got ready to leave, packed up #1 and we headed out the door. J hung out with #2 and got her interested in some Brain Candy. She apparently was distressed to realize that #1 and I had left, but did eventually settle down.

Now...you may be asking yourself why I didn't just take both Muffins with me and leave J to work in peace. Simply put, it's very hard to take #2 to most retail outlets and it's absolutely impossible to take her to Target. We can get away with taking her to Lowe's or Home Depot, because she is in love with the race car shopping carts and loves "steering" around the store. We can even get away with going to the price club and plunking her in the double-seater carriage. She will tolerate either of those scenarios. But Target? I think she thinks she owns the place. She stomps all over the store - cute as anything, mind you - and J ends up getting quite the workout chasing after her. #2 refuses the shopping cart and, since Target doesn't have any double seater carts and because she rejects the stroller, too (so I can't even do my handy push the stroller-pull the carriage maneuver), we just don't bring her to Target. Don't even ask what it's like when it's time to leave the store. #1, usually is a dream to take shopping. Until today.

I made the mistake of allowing him to walk into the store with me, rather than carrying him. Then he pulled a #2 on me and downright refused to get in the shopping cart. He wanted his freedom and would not be convinced or cajoled into the cart. So...I left the store and then begged, pleaded and prayed that he would get in the van. Eventually, with the distraction of my cell phone, he did settle down enough to let me strap him in. He cried all the way home, but was happy about the prospect of seeing Daddy when we pulled in the driveway.

The whole point of this long-winded and, I'm sure, boring narrative of my children's shopping preferences?

When I walked through the door, #1 snugly in my arms and happy to be home, I hear a squeal of delight from the living room, "[#1!]" "[#1] home!"

It's the first time that one has so openly stated missing the other and it made my day and melted my heart.

Have A Laugh

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

Can You Tell She's Nearly 2?

The Muffins don't particularly enjoy having their diapers changed, so we're usually distracting them with a DVD case or something of equal appeal. The other day, I decided to let #2 play with a remote to a VCR that long ago went the way of the wind. When I was through with her diaper, I explained to #2 that the remote (which the babes call "mote") was only to be played with during diaper changes.

Yesterday, as I was changing my sweet monkey girl and she was fascinated with the remote, she became concerned that her brother was going to try and take it from her (which is actually a little trick she employs when I'm changing his diaper)...

In order to ward off her brother, #2 proclaimed, "No, my diaper mote! My diaper mote!!"

Muy Productivo

J and I are feeling super productive after this weekend. He's worked on several little things around the house which have added up to feeling like a lot has been done. We've been here nearly 6 1/2 years, but it's only now finally starting to feel like "our" home. We're busy cleaning, getting ready for Easter, and I'm just so pleased with all of these little changes around the house that I'm a very content chick as of late. I'm waiting to see if C notices any changes when she stops by on Tuesday, so I'm not going to give any of them away (there's nothing terribly exciting - unless you count the fact that, as I type this, J is steam cleaning the living room carpet for the first time since the Muffins were born - and God did it need it! - (he did the front room carpet Friday night) but I'm not going to let her cheat by checking out what I have to say here).

Tonight's dinner was pork tenderloin with an apple cider and cream reduction. Holy God was it fantastic! A made it last weekend when she was visiting so I had to see if I could replicate the meal. And replicate it I did! I'm so happy that I have more time to cook lately.

My life of late has become a flurry of emails, text messages, phone calls and appointment wrangling. Mom's sort of, kind of, a little bit on board with finally talking about looking at new places to live (which, of course, means selling her home - and that's nothing less than ginormous), and I've become the point person to coordinate viewings, etc. It's really a complicated matter that deserves its own entry, but it's consuming a great deal of my time and emotions lately (you know, because the family member who has toddler twins and is trying to get pregnant again and trying to plan for a small, though meaningful, Easter celebration followed three weeks later by a second birthday party involving the in-laws has plenty of spare time on her hands). Suffice it to say there are boatloads of emotions running more than a tad on the high side and they're all trying to swallow me into the maelstrom that is moving an elderly relative who can't really imagine letting go of something so dear.

I enjoy the long sentences, eh?

In random news, our address was selected for a survey for the US Census Bureau to collect data for the Bureau of Labor and Statistics about household income, education levels, health, and "other important subjects." While I wasn't too jazzed about doing it, I thought it wouldn't be too terrible and awful, but I didn't realize (because I didn't read the letter fully) that it involved more than a one-time Q&A with a representative from the Census Bureau. Hello...the guy calls here once, then checks in with me for three more months. Then I get "an 8 month break" and he calls back this time next year for four more months to track any changes to our information. Maybe I should just ask him to move in?

Alright - this was supposed to be a quickie just to say hello and tell you that I've been thinking of you and wish you were here and all that jazz.

More later on how I'm living in my own personal sandwich.

Have a great week!

ps - Geraldine Ferraro is an ass and I wanted to post a long rant about the hubbub surrounding what she said, but time got away from me. The candidate Ms. Ferraro supports is not where she is today based solely on her own merits, so the former Vice Presidential candidate needs to step the hell off.

Chocolate Gets Me Through Some Days

Cadbury Mini Eggs...my favorite Easter candy.

(Although, my all-time favorite is the little Russell Stover bird's nests made of chocolate and coconut with mini jelly beans as the eggs. Can't find them anywhere locally for the past couple of years, though. Oh wait! Here they are!)

What's yours?

Life, Recently (In Bullet Points, Of Course!)

• Elton John was good. C's man, Jeeps, gave her tickets to the EJ show at the Verizon Wireless Arena for Valentine's Day. C invited me to go and it was a nice night. It was a pretty mellow show for the most part, which was fine with me. It was just the man and his piano and, let me tell you, he's making a mint off of this tour. The ticket prices were outrageous, but he did perform for ~ 2 1/2 hours straight and came back for autograph signing and a two-song encore. Sometimes, though, I feel like a little old lady. As nice of a time as we had, I missed being home with J and the kids. (Plus, the Verizon sucks as a concert venue. It was built to be a sports arena and the acoustics are muy terrible for concerts. We saw barenaked ladies there years ago and you could barely make out a thing they said. That said, it did work out better when it was a solo performer and one instrument - except for the songs I wasn't familiar with...then I couldn't tell what the hell he was saying.)
• I'm getting really tired of Cirie on Survivor. Was she really a favorite? She's running the game and is driving me nuts.
• Mom stayed with us for most of the week because she fell last Sunday trying to remove some snow from her well cover. Her left knee already gives her problems and no one wanted her to be alone in her house. It worked out well and the Muffins were in love with having their Nana here. She got some much needed rest and her knee was doing much better by the time she went home. I'm feeling...overwhelmed isn't the right word, but I suppose it'll do...anyway, I'm feeling significantly more pressure to get Mom out of her house sometime this year and I have a post brewing about that that I need to find the right words for. I'm struggling with finding balance between my desire to care for my mother and my husband and children.
  
• We bought a wet vac last night and J is having a blast (I think) using it in the basement. We've had issues with seasonal wetness downstairs since we've been here, but with the intense snow this winter and now a ton of rain coming down, the wetness is kicking into high gear and J is trying to get it under control so we can work on redoing the finished part of the basement this summer. Hopefully, our plan will work. I would love for the Muffins to have a larger play space.
• I think I developed some form of Stockholm Syndrome about winter. I'm very used to the snow and don't mind it at all. Now that it's been milder and we're getting rain, I almost feel fooled by Mother Nature. I don't like the ugly end to winter. The dirty snowbanks and the debris of winter is depressing. Plus, some of our snowbanks are massive. For a while there I didn't think they'd fully melt until June. Now, maybe, we're looking at late April. And, damnit, we have to lose an hour tonight. Daylight is overrated. Ugh.
  
• Tomorrow marks one month until the Muffins turn 2. I cannot believe my babies are almost 2! Where has the time gone?! I'm planning an Elmo themed party the Sunday after their birthday for grandparents, Godparents, C and Jeeps and J's sister and her family. I'm hosting Easter in a couple of weeks, too, so I need to get cleaning!
  
• For the record, I will not vote for Hillary if she is the nominee.
  
• I really want noodles.
  

Yay!

Go on over and congratulate Oro on the arrival of her little man, The Chieftain!

I've been frantically checking in with her blog since Friday and am so, so thrilled for her.

Congratulations, Oro Family!