open wide

If you holler out "let's go brush our teeth" baby Carmen will practically knock you down while running to the bathroom. She loves brushing, which is more like chewing, with her toothbrush. Andrew also took to brushing his teeth at a young age. So, of course, I snapped some pics of them in the bathroom taking care of their dental hygene.

nap time

Andrew doesn't really nap anymore. He's a bit of a hit & miss kid. Some days we do fine without & others he still needs one. For the most part though he's outgrown naps.

Carmen on the other hand usually naps for 3-4 hours every afternoon. You might think WOW! that's a long nap. Typically though that is her only nap of the day.

Usually that leaves Andrew with a lot of down time to himself during the afternoon. I work in some playdates with his friends so he doesn't get too bored. But he's always ready & eager to have Carmen awake. On this particular day he heard her wake up before I did. I knew about the situation when I heard both of them upstairs laughing & giggling. This is what I found.

I have never seen Andrew in the crib with Carmen before. He was kind enough to show me how he got in there. I'm thinking though that this was not his first time doing this sort of thing. (I guess it only counts if mom actually catches you in the act)

Mmmmm, pudding

This is what happens when big brother leaves his pudding cup unattended at the kitchen table. Baby sister (who knows how to climb very well) helps herself to some herself. Looks like she's really enjoying it.

What? You're not suppose to feed the dog pudding?

Don't worry I took the spoon away after I snapped the pics. Although I wasn't in the room the whole time so ????

Food fun!

I've always been a supporter of giving my children eating utensils from an early age. It's mostly pointless at the beginning. More often used as a banging instrument than feeding one self. Lately Carmen has been using her fork & spoon a lot more. It's cute to see her spoon up some yogurt or pudding with her little chubby hands. Of course, a lot of it falls off her spoon, making a fine mess on her highchair tray or even herself. But she's learning, that is the point.

Sometimes though it's best & easiest to just ditch the silverware and enjoy the food al natural. Carmen had no problem with this while enjoying her macaroni & cheese. I think she went beyond enjoying the food though and entertained herself (and the whole family). It was bath night anyway so instead of curbing such craziness I let her enjoy the situation.

All too often Martina gets caught in the cross fire of such antics. Not that she just happened to be walking by & gets pelted with food. Oh no, she's a true dog and knows to sit at the base of the high chair waiting for whatever gets flung her way (either on accident or on purpose).

I'm up!

I've been up since 2 a.m. this morning. Not really what I had planned for my day. Baby Carmen is what woke me up at such an hour. I should've known something was up with her when she didn't go to bed as usual last night. I settled her down to bed twice & she was still up fighting it tooth and nail. I was trying to get to bed early myself so I could get into my morning routine at 4:30 a.m. the next day. Jim was my hero though and stayed up with her until she finally went to sleep well after 10 p.m.

There seems to be no obvious culprit for her 2 a.m. wake up. I'm guessing it's that big ole nasty molar that has been trying to push its way through her gums. I'm not kidding its the size of a small marshmallow just sitting on her right gum. No tooth, just a huge swollen mass. Poor thing. Once she was up, she was up. For a child up at such odd hours she sure is a cutie pie. We had a snack, played on the floor & had some snuggle time. During all of that I flipped on the t.v. I had DVR'd a movie over 6 weeks ago and hadn't got it watched yet. No better time than now!

Carmen finally settled back down to sleep at close to 4 a.m. And now mama was up & wide awake. No doubt the thought of sleep passed through my head. But so was my day & my workout I had planned. I weighed the pros and cons of staying up vs. going back to bed for a few more hours. And, obviously I chose to stay up. My alarm goes off at 4:30 anyway. I feel fine....great....well, for now at least. This afternoon might be a different story.

Valentine's Day

We had, I think, one of the best valentine's day ever.....and we've had quite a few. For the most part it was just your average saturday. My dad called mid day & wanted to stop over for a visit. He enjoyed some time with the grandkids and then joined Jim & I for supper.

Later in the evening we went & saw a Christian comedy perform at a local church. We had been planning to do this for months, but I put off or forgot to get tickets. I wasn't too worried though. I figured I'd buy the tickets at the last minute. Because....umm, hello we live in Galesburg. Nothing sells out here. I was devasated to find out a week prior of the event that the event had sold out. Yeah, I threw a fit, even cried a bit. Then I put on my big girl panties & just dealt with it.

About 24 hrs. before the event I received an email from a friend who knew of my situation and pointed me toward a blog. This blog belonged to someone I vaguely knew here in town. We knew each other by face, but had never personally met. On her blog she was giving away and chance to double date with her & her husband & that included 2 tickets to see the comedy performance. You just had to submitt to her little contest she was running and you just might win. Well.....we won!!!! Ok, never mind the fact that we ended up being the only ones

who even entered the contest....WE WON!

After supper with my dad, we met Mark & Jody at the venue and enjoyed a great night of laughter. I have never laughed so hard & so much. My face literally hurt from smiling so much. The performance was put on by Tim Hawkins. Click on the links below (sorry I don't know how to post the actual clip) to see some youtube clips of his performance (the clip is not from that night, but he did perform this bit). Check out all his clips, he's great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK2OakMoW_c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crQ7Y2alDxI&feature=related

Once we were done there the 4 of us continued our double date & went to Perkins for coffee & desert. Even though we had first met that night we had no problem sitting & chatting with them for over 2 hours. It was great! An instant friendship connection! So a big super huge thank you to Mark & Jody who helped make our Valentines Day the best one ever.

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Tupperware Hot Tub Party

I ws invited to a Tupperware party recently. There were plenty of ladies there, lots of yummy snacks & drinks. We sat through the schpill about the product, did our ordering and then jumped in the hot tub. I bet the original Tupperware parties of the 70's/80's were nothing like this one. It was just some fun to top off the night. Getting in the tub was not so fun as the temps outside were well below freezing. We had to run out in our suits, screeching along the way then quickly emerse ourselves in boiling hot water....more screeching involved. Once we got used to the water it was very nice & relaxing. Veeeeeeeerrrrrrrrry nice! Veeeeeeeeerrrrrrrry relaxing! No kids to whine & complain. No husbands trying to make their own bubbles in the hot tub. Just some girl time. Listening to each other stories, giggling, having fun. I think all home sales parties should be this way.