Where do they come up with these things!

Emily our three year old daughter is in love with anything Dora. Swim Dora Doll, Dora Sheets, Dora Backpack you name it I think we have it . Well the other day we were shopping and last year she had PJ's with Dora on them. Background- This summer she saw the old Dora PJ's that are a tad to small considering she has grown 6 inches. So needless to say they did not fit. I promised her if we saw new Dora PJ's I would buy them. Well guess what my own baby elephant did not forget and the other day in Meijers guess what Dora PJ's. Except this was not pants/ shorts it was a nightgown. She has never had a nightgown. She is our freezing cold child. So nightgowns are not a good option. Oh no she saw it she had to have it! So I purchased it for an outrageous amount of $ for 3 year old PJ's. took them home washed them and we were happy as little clams. Fast forward a few days later Zach my other three year old, Emily and I are reading stories before bed. Zach asks Emily " WHERE ARE YOUR PANTS EMILY?" I about lost it half way through Green Eggs and Ham when Emily responded in her three year old know it all voice.... "Zach this is gown. YOU DONT WEAR PANTS". End of conversation. Hubby laying on the floor of the room just about peed his pants. AHH from the mouths of babes.

Bedtime Bribes

We have two children who just hate to go to bed. Once they are in bed they are down for the count but convincing them to stay in bed is another story. With summer time here the whole it is getting dark out theory is out the window. Last night a prime example. After Zach finally decided swimming in the pool is fun when I told him time to hit the bathtub and then PJ time at 8:20 Pm he turned around looked at the sun still shining and stated but mom it is still daytime we dont go to be during the day and proceeded to jump into the pool.( Life jacket on!) Ok so we have been working on getting them to go to bed and stay in bed. I have finally found a bride that works! YEAH! we have created a sticker chart. Each night they go to bed reasonably well ( for us that means only getting out of bed 4 or 5 times to ask for something) they get a sticker. The other night. Zach was on his last time out of bed. Hubby eloquently stood by his bed and told him that his sister has gone to bed and is getting a sticker. If he does not stay in bed no sticker for him and she will have more stickers than him. Let me tell this did the trick. Peer pressure worked perfectly! He went to bed and Hubby was all smiles as he told me what he said. I only hope that our little plan that we have hatched continues to work. If all else fails we will swim till 9:00 Pm until they are so exhausted they will fall into bed. When winter comes that will be another story!

Summer has arrived

Well we are hoping summer has arrived. We have endured a long cool spring but the weather has finally turned for the warmer and the kids, Hubby and I headed to my parents pool. If you are not familiar with my life. My parents relocated to Michigan from Ohio last fall. They found a cute little house just 5 mins from us with a bonus an in ground pool. This has been a treat since my parents never thought they would own a house with a pool. The kids are super excited. So yesterday while hubby was watching the kids they had an outing and purchased life jackets. Emily's is princess and Zach is spider man. Oh boy were they excited when I got home. Emily practically ate dinner in hers. So when I mentioned going to swim they were practically tripping over each other to get up the stairs to get their suits. The water was chilly but that did not stop the Emily. She was right in there and swam all around. Zach was a little more timid but enjoyed going down the slide and jumping off the diving board. We had a good time. I will post pics here later. We are hoping for some nice hot weather to warm things up to being the enjoyment of the pool. Any local friends just let us know when you want to swim!

Weekend Trip

If you were wondering where we have been the last few days it has been a whirlwind of excitement in our house. Last Friday the 12th I packed the kiddos up and with my mom we headed to Ohio for my cousins bridal shower. Yes Zach was invited mind you the only boy there. I dont think he minded much. We also had the chance to visit the outlet mall close by and ride the train. Fun times. We also visited with my friend forever Michele and her family. The kids thought is was fun to enjoy someone else's toys. We were fortunate enough to stay with close family friends who had a dog. Which Zach and Emily feel in love with. Zach even told hubby when we got home that he would like a "Molly dog like in Ohio" We will be working on this over the next few months. The kids cracked me up over the weekend. Where we were in Ohio is very rural and what I call cow country. It was warm so the windows were down and the farmers were spreading manure. Well the kids did not enjoy the smell. We dont have that smell here in MI. So when asked what that smell was I responded the fresh country air. Well Emily took this to heart. When Zach commented later in the weekend. "It is stinky here" Emily in her know it all fashion responded. "Zachary it is the fresh countryside". Who says they dont listen! All in all we had a great time. The kids rode great in the car( What did we do before DVD players? I feel for my parents) we enjoyed visiting with some people we had not seen for awhile and Hubby enjoyed a few days of solitude!

Do they love each other?

Today as I was getting ready to head out the door for work this is what I overheard the kids saying to one another:

Zach was curled up in a ball on the be and Emily was stepping on him saying "Zach you are just like a like a lump of dirt. " I

I responded no he is not he is your only brother and you had better love him. She just looked at me like I was nuts. I told Zach to remember this when she is in High School and want him to defend her for something. Tell her no way this lump of dirt will help you. I keep telling myself someday they will love each other! Aww sibling love at its finest!

Another first

Sunday was a rainy drizzly day so I suggested that we take the kids to a movie. The kids have never sat in a movie theater and I thought now was a great time to try. So Hubby agreed and I found the movie UP playing at the local theater. Local as in twenty minutes away. Dont you love country living. Little did I know that at 4:00 PM the sun would break out and the evening would turn out nice. Oh well the kids had it in their heads we were going to the movies where they could eat popcorn til it ran out of thier noses. So we bought the tickets, took a potty break and I smuggled in sippy cups with apple juice. Sorry theater my kids dont do pop and I dont do bottles of water for 2.50 a crack. Popcorn I will pay out the nose for at a theater but not water! So we settled into our seats and for the next 102 minutes my children were amazed. It brought tears to my eyes to see them actually understand and ask me questions. They are such smart little boogers. When it was overed I praised both of them and Zach said he liked it and Emily said it was to scary! Overall for the first outing I was pretty proud not to mention when it was over the elderly couple in front of turned around and said they were so good for being so young. Made up for my Saturday night apology.

Dance, Outdoor bathroom habits and the weather

We had a busy weekend. I guess I could say this every weekend during the summer months... I think it is summer here in Michigan I am still waiting for warm weather! Today just stepped out of my car at 2:40 PM it is a whopping 62 degrees with a stiff wind and drizzle. Ok enough about the crummy weather. I am writing about the weekend. Emily and I had the opportunity to attend a local dance recital on Saturday night. Emily has recently been talking how she wants to be a ballerina and this mommy is very happy about this. I have been biding my time until she is old enough for dance class and it is almost here. I only can hope she enjoys it as much as I did/do. Our goal was to make it intermission. This was a lot since it was an hour and half first act. She did well until about four dances left then she got antsy. We did manage to tick the people off in front of us so before we left I had to do the I'm sorry for my child's behavior, she's three and has never been to anything like this before. So humbling! She talked about the little girls dressed in pink and when asked if she would like to dance on stage next year she replied "oh yes mommy" ahh pure bliss now I only hope she is excited come fall. While Em and I were doing girl things Zach and Daddy were having fun boys night bonding. They were riding go carts. Hubby was so proud when he talked about how Zach was egging him on to go faster. He was all smiles. Then he informed me that I missed a milestone in my sons life. I looked at him and he announced that Zach peed standing up outside. You thought the smile was big about the go carts! Hubby went into detail about how the arc was and the distance. Is there a contest somewhere I should be enrolling Zach in I was wondering as he was telling this story! Zach even asked Hubby when I was going to be home so he could tell me the news unfortunately I did not make it home before he fell asleep so the next morning he was all stories as I heard it blow by blow from a three year old how he peed outside. So our Saturday was deemed a sucess. It was different having just one child to deal with Hubby and I agreed and we decided we need to do this more often. HMM do you think he is ready for Emily peeing outside??

Dog Sitting

Well work is slow and my life is in cruise control right now. Nothing very exciting happening. I guess we should count ourselves lucky. We are going to dog sit starting tonight til Sunday for my parents. The kids love it when Smudge the dog comes to visit. It also reminds me why we have a cat. Dogs are a lot more work granted they are loyal, etc... I like my cat that I feed water and take care of the litter box and if she wants attention so be it. The kids have asked for a dog before but Hubby and I are in agreement it would be nice, we have enough land but man dogs are a lot of work. So for the mean time the kids can enjoy Nana and Popo's dog and we will remain dog less. But a cute little dog that fits in my purse would be fun!

Blanket Crisis!

If you dont have young children you will not understand this but if you have small children you will totally sympathize with me, nod and shake your head and smile. Sunday my mom and I took the kiddos shopping for a bridal shower gift for my cousin. We have decided to make a road trip to Ohio for the shower next weekend and with my crazy schedule this was good time to go. So of course Zach and Emily had to take their special items, a somewhat dirty pink bear at least I think it is pink for Emily and a small blue blanket for Zach. I allowed them to take there because I was hoping they would fall asleep in the car and it is much better when they have theses items. Well like a mother in a moment of weakness I allowed them to take them into the store. You have to understand the plan worked they fell asleep and I had to wake them up to go into the store. This equates to not happy children so in a moment of weakness I allowed the blanket and bear to shop with us. That was the mistake! Needless to say the blanket was nowhere to be found when we arrived home. Luckily we only went to three stores, but in my parental attitude it told Zach sorry about your luck you chose to take the blankey you are responsible for it sorry I am not going to try to find it. Then I pack their bags and send them to Grammy's house. Sorry Grammy for having to put Zach to bed with no blankey. Anywhere fast forward to Monday. The mommy guilt is starting eat away at me and I decide I should at least call the three stores to see if they have it. Low and behold the first place I call. The woman says does it say wish upon a star? Oh my goodness there is a God I replied. So guess what I got the pleasure of driving back to the store to pick up the blanket oh did I mention the store is about 35-40 mins away not a run around the block. But I have saved the blanket and the crisis was averted. Isn't being a mom great!

Gardener's Folly

I am officially done planting things for this year! I do not have the greenest thumb so me planting anything is feat itself but since purchasing our own home and now since we have added on we need to take pride in home ownership somehow in my mind this translates into landscaping. Now please take note neither Hubby or my families are that gardening oriented so when I mentioned last year lets landscape in front of the new front door the look I received was not the best but we muddled through the experience and this year the perennials that I planted actually returned bigger and better. I was impressed. Every morning I look out my bedroom window and marvel that something I planted actually did what it was supposed to . So with a little experience I decided to plant another bed along the deck this year and it does look nice so I added just one more by the steps as you come up to the front door. There are many more possibilities down the road but for now I will continue to water and take pride that maybe I will be the one in the family who will turn a new leaf over and become a novice gardener. Hmmm dont hold your breath!