If Don Johnson & Michael Bolton Had a Baby...

...he might look something like this. Our neighbor Michelle celebrated her 40th birthday, and her friends got together and threw her an 80s theme surprise costume party. I looked like a bad Dynasty knock-off, and Rob sported this excellent "business up front, party in the back" look. He took home 3rd place in the costume contest, bested only by these two:

Pretty obvious why they took top prizes. Everyone really got into the theme, and there was everything from Madonna look-alikes to Devo costumes. We had a blast, and in the immortal words of many a 80's teenager, it was totally awesome.

Temptress, Thy Name is Thin Mint

My head says, "No. Stop." But my heart says, "Yes, please. You worked out today - go ahead and crumble them on top of ice cream."

Oh, Girl Scout cookie. I wish I knew how to quit you.

Nap Nanny

 

I am always amazed at all the cool things that come to market after I need them, especially baby items. I just saw an ad in next months Parents magazine for this gem, called the "Nap Nanny". Riley slept in her car seat for the first 2 months of her life, and it was painful process (MANY sleepless nights) to break her of the habit. We made the move because one of Rob's co-worker's baby was doing the same thing, and she fell out of her seat as her Mom was carrying her upstairs for bed. We never carried Riley around unstrapped, but it was still scary enough to cause us to force a move to the basinet. The Nap Nanny would have totally solved this problem, and probably would have helped Connor sleep better during him battle with colic his first year. Its a little expensive, but I gladly would have coughed up the $129 if it meant more sleep for both myself and the baby. My other thought when I find something like this is, "Damn, why didn't I think of that?" Maybe I should work on marketing Connor's backwards PJs for all his fellow junior nudists out there...

Lovefest

The lovefest between Casey & his baby sister continues, and it is almost too cute for words. He still calls her "Shiny" instead of Riley, and he often refers to her as "my baby". I caught him cooing, "You're my little banana muffin," to her the other day, and she seems to bask in any attention he throws her way.  After viewing this picture a friend suggested Loreal could sell tons of mascara by featuring their eyelashes in a commercial, and although I'm biased I have to agree. I'm now searching for the perfect square frame to mount this photo in so that years from now when they're screaming at each other they'll remember the lovefest.

Cake is Good

Riley celebrated her first birthday on Sunday, and I think the most important lesson of any first birthday is that "cake is good". Riley was an excellent student. I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and she inhaled about 3/4 of one and a half scoop of vanilla ice cream. She received so many cute gifts, and later that afternoon impressed us by taking the time to play with every new toy. The best was when she took the thermometer from the soft doctor's kit she received from Nannie & used it as a bottle to feed her new baby doll.

I made a little video in honor of her first birthday, but it's about 3 minutes long so I didn't want to take up the space posting it here, but if you're interested you can view it by clicking here. I know I say this every time one of the kids celebrates a birthday, but I can hardly believe another year has passed so quickly. 

ATC Swap

For those of you out there who have little ones, I thought I'd pass along a cool swap that is being coordinated by house on hill road. Kids 4 and up create little art trading cards (must be 2.5"x3.5") and send them to 5 other children. Casey loves getting mail, and so creating 5 little masterpieces, mailing them out, and receiving 5 back in the mail is the perfect snowy afternoon project for him. The deadline to sign up is this Friday.

Steelers Win

I didn't really have a dog in the fight in last night's Superbowl, but the Steelers' win did give me an excuse to dust off my old Mean Joe Greene jersey. Hard to believe he wore it just 3 years ago here, and that he was an only child.

Polar Bear Invasion

Apparently, global warming has caused polar bears to migrate to Indiana. Either that, or our neighbor Tony has some serious explaining to do.

Snow Day

It started snowing yesterday around 2:00 pm and continued through the night, so it was no surprise this morning when we woke to find about 7 inches of powder on the ground and school cancelled. The boys have been desperate for a decent snowfall, and they certainly received their wishes today. We got out for a bit this morning while Riley napped, and I actually enjoyed being out in the snow (if you're unsure of my feelings about the weather, see my "Are We There Yet" post). Part of that may be the result of a friendly neighbor who snow-blowed our driveway so I didn't have to shovel it, but I think it was mostly due to watching how much fun the boys were having. They jumped, slid, crawled, stomped, and laid in the snow, and naturally Connor ate it by the handfuls. I'm hoping to drop Riley off with a neighbor this afternoon so I can take them sledding down the big hill across the street - they enjoyed going down the small slope of our driveway so much I can only imagine the fun they'll have flying down a real hill. As previously stated, I'm not a big fan of the cold or snow, but I am a big fan of my kids enjoying all the pleasures of childhood, and playing in the snow is certainly one of them. 

You Tackle People!

In honor of next weekend's Superbowl, I thought I'd post this video of Casey discussing the finer points of football.

Confession

I have a confession to make, and it's a tough one. I am totally, completely, inexplicably hooked on the Twilight books. This is so embarrassing - what's next, a Jonas Brothers CD? I blame my friends and co-book club members for getting me started. They're both hooked as well, and suggested that we go to a late show of the recent movie adaptation Friday night, and if I was going to see the movie I might as well read the book. Right? I'm a pretty fast reader, so I didn't think it would be a problem. But when Mindy dropped it off on Thursday afternoon and I realized I had to knock out 500 pages in a day, I had doubts. 

Fast forward to Friday evening and me cooking dinner, serving dinner, eating dinner, and giving baths all one-handed while trying to finish the last 3 chapters of the book before the movie. It's truly a wonder I didn't shampoo the chicken and saute one of the kids, but as we pulled into the theater parking lot I put the damn thing down with only 20 pages to go, and I was addicted. Why didn't I just give up and see the movie without finishing? Because it was good. I hate to admit it. I had no interest in reading these books, they were for teenage girls not 33 yr-old moms. I had no interest in seeing the movie (I haven't seen a movie in the theater in about a year and a half - I think I would have agreed to go see "Ishtar" if they asked me) but I have to admit I now see what all the fuss was about. It's taken a great deal of will-power to not go across the street first thing this morning and grab the next book, New Moon, from Mindy, but I suspect I will have it in my hot little hands by nap time today.

 I suppose what concerns me about my newfound fanaticism is not what it says about the quality of the books, but what it says about my taste level in literary entertainment. I guess underneath the poopy diapers and minivan there's still a bit of teenage girl left in me, and since I'm not going to stop reading now, I guess I have to be OK with that. 

Hi, my name is Jenny, and I like the Twilight books.

The Birds

Last week we experienced a strange phenomenon in the form of about 1000 blackbirds setting up residence in our backyard. I don't know if you've ever had that many birds on your lawn, but I can attest it is super creepy. Like, Hitchcock creepy. I kept waiting for Tippi Heddron to run screaming across the yard. I've yet to get a decent answer as to why they were here in the dead of winter, but thankfully they've moved on now and I can set foot back there without fear of having my eyes pecked out.

Motivation

I have been contemplating signing up for the Derby mini-marathon, and I think this shirt might just provide me with the motivation I need.

Are We There Yet?

We took a quick trip to Kentucky to visit Rob's parents over Christmas, and before we left the city limits the boys had posed the above question about 56 times. It drove us both batty, but today I think I can relate to how they were feeling. As we move into January, I feel like I have been strapped into a car seat for a 100 mile road trip with no end in sight, and I myself am wondering, "Are we there yet?".

I am not a winter person by nature. I'm not a big fan of snow, hate ice, despise wind, and if I didn't have the need to own gloves, scarves, or wool coats I'd be just fine. Yet here I am in a city that, although sunny and bright, is logging a high temperature today of 28 degrees. We all have dry skin and cabin fever, runny noses and chapped lips. And even poor Casey (pictured above napping on the couch in a position that fully expresses how I feel about the weather this time of year), who has missed 3 of the last 4 Fridays of school with some sort of ailment and who passionately loves to play in the snow, looked longingly out at the backyard this afternoon and sadly said, "I wish we could just put on a little jacket and go play on the swing-set." Me too. 

Are we there yet?

brothers.

I took a few quick shots of the boys yesterday in Connor's room because the light was so pretty in the morning and I love the color we painted his walls. I also wanted some new shots to use to practice with on my new computer, and I came up with this poster. I think I'm going to enlarge it and frame it in their bathroom since we also used this color in there, and since it's a rare example of the two of them getting along, I feel it definitely needs to be displayed. 

Fun Is Bowling

There is a bowling alley across the street from Mall St. Mathews in Louisville that has a big sign out front declaring "Fun Is Bowling!". I've always been fascinated by that sign, it's such a definitive statement, like it's commanding you have a good time while bowling in case you were maybe thinking "Fun is NOT Bowling!". Personally, I've always been a bit more "Fun is Drinking Beer While You Watch Football!" or "Fun is Not Having to Wear Weird Shoes and Stick Your Fingers in Dirty Bowling Balls!". Anyway, now anytime I think about bowling I think of that sign and that bowling alley, and so I was thinking about it today as we loaded the kids up and headed over to a local bowling alley. I bought a package of games at the Mom's Club auction this fall and wrapped them up for Rob at Christmas because he's mentioned frequently that maybe it would be something fun to do as a family. And you know what, fun is bowling! We actually had a really good time, even though we're all pretty pitiful bowlers. The alley had the lanes set up with bumpers for the kids, and they have these ramp contraptions that the kids can roll their balls down instead of having to roll them by themselves. Casey & I tied the last game with a 78, Connor rolled a very respectful 105, and Rob beat us all with a 130.  

Hi. I'm a mac.

Santa left a huge surprise under the tree for me this year in the form of a new 15 inch MacBook Pro. I was hoping for a MacBook, but had no expectation of receiving the literal "Macdaddy" of them all. I've only had a few minutes to play with my new toy, and already I'm smitten. Rob loaded this bad-boy up today with tons of cool software, and I can't wait to get some photos loaded on here and really start messing around. I guess this answered the question of whether or not I've been a good girl all year long.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

From our family to yours, we hope that you have a safe, healthy, and very merry Christmas.

Dancing Aldermans

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Mothering From the Floor

Our family was hit with the dreaded stomach flu this week, and I've spent the morning mothering from the kitchen floor. You'd be amazed at how well you can care for children while laying on the kitchen floor, as long as milk refills and snacks are limited to 1 per hour, and as long as your 4-yr old cooperates by bringing diapers and wipes for the little ones to you. This has been a particularly nasty strain of the virus, striking Casey first last Friday and then slowly making its way through the rest of us. Thanks to a few doses of Zofran and ginger ale, I've kept down some toast and crackers and feel like I'm on the mend, and praying that everyone else is too.
And it has made me realize that no matter how old you are or how many of your own children you have, when you're sick you still want your Mommy. I would have hated for mine to be here and risk catching the bug with us, however I would have given anything last night for her to sit by my bed, push my hair behind my ear, and bring me chicken soup and a Cherry-Limeaide from Sonic (Why? Dunno, just sounds good. I don't even know where a Sonic is in this God-forsaken city). Oh well, I'm headed back to the floor to do some mothering of my own, to push hair behind some little ears and tell them everything will be alright.