the naptime embargo

Hello all!  So, my two year old has decided recently that he doesn't need a daily nap and it's driving me absolutely bonkers!  Ironically, this started coming on more frequently right aroung the time I finally got my 4 month old to start sleeping for a decent stretch around the same time he's supposed to be napping.  He's actually been refusing to nap about one or two times a week for a good while now, but it was only a couple times a week then, so I just overlooked it until now.  Now he just lays there playing in his bed or talking to himself quietly for a good hour or so before he finally nods of to sleep.  I really wouldn't even mind so much that he's trying to give up his afternoon nap (since he's getting a little older now) except that you can really tell the days he didn't nap much or at all...when I go wake him up in the afternoon after he's supposed to have been sleeping, he's seriously the crankiest little boy.  And then I feel bad for waking him up after he's probably just dozed off, but I know that if I let him sleep any later than that he won't sleep well that night, so it's really quite frustrating for both of us.  To be fair, ever since he was a little baby he's never really liked that dozing off sensation...he likes sleep, and when he finally nods off he'll sleep for a good three hours, it's just the getting there that seems to be the problem for him.  He's never been the kind of child that has to be held until he falls asleep or rocked to sleep every night, in fact if you try to rock him to sleep it just pisses him off cause he knows exactly what you're trying to do...and he's been like that since he was a baby.  This is the part that gets me- he'd much rather go to sleep by himself, but he doesn't like the feeling of going off into dreamland...I just really don't get it.  The worst part is that I know he still needs that rest in the afternoon and I know that he's tired when I lay him down for a nap cause he's always rubbing his eyes and getting cranky, it's just like he gets a second wind as soon as I lay him down in his bed...it only happens in the afternoon though, when I lay him down for bed at night, he generally goes right to sleep in no time at all.  I kinda feel like the bad guy, laying him down every day for a nap that I know he's probably not gonna take anyway, but I still do, on the off chance that he'll actually sleep and I'll have a happy, well rested little boy when it's time to get him out of bed.  

In other news, I'm supposed to be belly dancing at a local street fair in about 6 weeks...I'm trying to get a couple of my belly dancer friends to do it with me so that it's not just me dancing by myself all day...that would be very tiring lol.  I'm pretty excited about it...I haven't danced since the begining of my pregnancy with my daughter, so it's been a minute.  I've even already designed my costume to wear for the day, it's very pretty, in shades of turquoise, royal blue and purple...just have to get one more type of fabric and then buckle down and actually sew it.  Not sure if I'm gonna make a belt for the skirt that matches the top or just find a hip scarf that goes with it...the hip scarf would be more versitile cause I could wear it with more that just the one costume, but a matching belt would look more professional, which would be kinda nice considering I'll be dancing for tips.  At least performing in the fair is free, so really any tips I do make are pure profit, especially since the fair is so close to my house I could walk there if I wanted to (I don't want to, but the point is that I could)  As far as the dancing itself goes, I'm thinking one or two coreographed group dances (if I can get my friends to sign on too, hint hint lol) and the rest of them being mostly individual free-style dancing...I've found that sometimes the coolest looking dances aren't really coreographed, they just happen when you're playing around with the music. 

what's with kids these days?

Hello all!  Kind of a slow day around the house today, nothing super exciting.  Hubby working overtime again, so kinda bored except for spending time with kiddos...and blogging lol.  Was outside earlier having a smoke and I saw some neighborhood kids walking down the street...nothing that unusual about it, they do it all the time saround here.  When I looked closer, I saw that they were carrying baseball bats...still, not that uncommon, especially since they were walking toward the baseball field down the street.  Then I saw the girl that was in front of the other two bend down to pick something up and toss it towards one of the boys that was with her...didn't really think much of it till I caught a glimpse of what she was throwing to him...it was a glass bottle she had found in the ditch! (to be fair, the guys who drive the garbage trucks around here kinda suck at their job, seriously I've watched them go by on their rounds...they routinely miss the truck with some of the garbage and they always release the claw that grabs the cans before the can is actually touching the ground,  which results in the can falling in the ditch, being half-way in the street or so far in the middle of your driveway that you can barely get your car out without moving the can first, but thats another post for another day)  After she tossed the bottle to the little boy, he actually swings at it with his bat...I wish I were making this up!  So of course the bottle breaks, and that's when I know for sure that it was definately glass...as they're walking past my driveway (the bottle breaking actually happened between the neighbor's driveway and my front yard) I stop them and ask them if that was a glass bottle they just broke...I know it was, I know they know it was, I really just wanted to know what they had to say for themselves.  The response?  Kid who actually hit bottle: "Um, I dont know...guys, was that glass?"  Kid who originally threw bottle: "I don't know, probably not...let's go play at my house."  Kid who watched whole thing: "It doesn't matter dude!  Let's go, I'm bored."  Seriously, verbatum...I really wish I was kidding.  Now, I know, kids are gonna be kids, but come on!  After they had run off, I went to go check out the damage and pick up the broken glass that was now in my yard and my neighbor's driveway so no one would get hurt or damage their tires (the neighbors weren't home at the time), and sure enough, glass...a glass beer bottle to be exact.  These are kids that are aged 8-11 that did this...old enough to know what glass is and that it breaks very easily, basically old enough to KNOW better!!  They broke this glass in my yard, where my young son plays, and on the neighbor's driveway where their young daughter (around the same age as my son) plays...they know that small children live here, but they weren't thinking about that.  To top it off, at least one of these older kids was barefoot when the incident occured, which is just sheer genius.  The girl who was involved is the oldest of the three kids that were there, and she's worse than the other two!  This is the same girl, who, several months ago, received an archery set as a gift, which in and of itself isn't that big a deal...I practiced archery when I was about that age, but my dad was with me the whole time every time I practiced at home to make sure I was doing it safely and we were practicing in the back yard...these parents have given her no suppervision or instruction about archery whatsoever!  She's practicing in the front yard, shooting towards other houses and cars no less, including my house, with nary a grown-up in sight!  Not even a car in the driveway...I know this because when I saw her doing it, I immediately went over to her house and asked her as politely as I could manage if she could move her practice to the back yard...this was after I'd pulled several of her arrows out of my front lawn, again, where my son plays.  She complied, thankfully, and I found out later from my mom and dad (seperatly no less!) that they had both seen her doing it previously and told her the same thing I did.  What I wanna know is, where are her parents?  Why do they feel it is appropriate to just let their daughter run wild through the neighborhood doing whatever she wants?  I mean, the broken glass was bad enough, but the bow and arrows are just plain unsafe without proper supervision...she litteraly could have killed or seriously injured somebody, let alone the kind of property damage she could have inflicted!  The only saving grace to that is that she lost all of the arrows on other people's roofs cause she can't aim worth a flip (seriously, there's probably at least three or four on my carport as i type this..and I'm sure as hell not gonna go up and get them down for her!)  What's with kids these days?

On a better note, I switched to my new bag last night after the kids were in bed...LOVE it!!  Plus, I got rid of all the junk I'd been carrying around in the old one for so long...it's amazing how much more room I have in the new one without all the stuff I really didn't need in the first place.  It's like my bag went from being 5 pounds to maybe one...so much easier to tote around with two little ones, I can even just toss a couple diapers and some wipes into it and be on my way!  Kinda freeing in a way, not having to lug around two seperate bags.  And it's super cute, which is a big bonus also. 

So I finished my sister's album the other day, and it was so much fun to make that I'm gonna make another one just for me!  I made sure to print out some extra pics when I printed out the ones for my sister so I'd have some for my album, and got a heart shaped tin that will fit the mini-book I already have cut out.  I can't wait to decopodge (not sure I spelled that right) the tin, just have to decide on what papers to use!  It should be another really fun project...hopefully it'll come out just as beautiful as the first one.  Well, that's all for now, gotta give baby girl a bath...I think she's about to start teething, she's been drooling all over the place lately. 

bus drivers!

Hello all!  So, today I'm coming home from the bank, minding my own business, waiting at a red light when all of a sudden my car gets bumped forward!  I look in my mirror to see that the school bus full of kids that was behind me with its bumper against the back of my car!  So I pull into a parking lot near the light to check out the damage, the bus pulls up alongside me and the driver opens the door to ask if I'm ok, which I was and thankfully so was my baby, who was also in the car with me.  There wasn't any damage to the car (not that it seemed that important to me at the time, I was just glad my daughter was alright), and at the time I was too shaken up to be mad that it happened, but I have to admit that now I'm pretty miffed!  I mean, we were stopped at a light people!  How hard is it to not hit the car in front of you?  Plus, this was after school had let out, so the bus was FULL of kids! Like elementary school kids too...they had to have been SO freaked out, I know I was.  But I got the bus number and the school district it was from, so come Monday when they're open again they will be getting a phone call from me to complain about this.  And it's not even a vindictive thing; I don't want to get the driver fired or anything, I'm not trying to sue him or the school district, I just feel that the district really needs to know about this for the safety of the kids!  I mean, this time it wasn't a big deal, but what if it had been?  What if it'd been more than just a bump, what if it'd turned into a full-on crash?  All the kids on that bus could have been injured...I mean they have seat belts on the busses, but come on, how many kids do you know that wear a seat belt on the bus to school?

Anyway, on to a different topic.  I got a new purse today, it's purple mock croc with silver hardware and pretty darn roomy...should make a super cute "mommy purse".  I realized the other day that the last new everyday purse I bought for myself was before my son was born...he's now 2.  Needless to say, it was time for a new bag.  I'm actually kinda surprised that the old one has held together this long...maybe that's why I didn't realize until recently just how long it'd been in rotation.  And I love how getting a new everyday bag litteraly makes you go through all the crap in your old one to get rid of the stuff you've been carrying around needlessly.  Personally, I'm really bad about holding onto recipts for stuff I know I'm never going to return anyway...you know, like Taco Bell reciepts from six months ago, things like that.  And you always find cool stuff that you forgot was in there too, am I right?  Last time I cleaned mine out I found my favorite shade of lipstick that I thought I'd lost at work, some earrings I'd forgotten I even bought (seriosly, still in the packaging from the store!) and this really cool clip that you can use to hold a bottled drink hands-free (it's pretty cool, can clip on a purse strap or belt loops on pants).  Really glad about that last item, seeing as with two kids in tow I really need that extra free hand sometimes :) 

Speaking of the kiddos, my baby girl learend to roll over!  I'm so happy about this!  I think she learned it earlier than her brother did, but it's been a while, so I'm a little fuzzy on when he actually did it...I know I have it written down somewhere though lol.  To be fair though, when he was this age the house we were living in didn't have a lot of floor space for him to get regular "tummy time", so it took him a little longer.  She's getting so big...she's about to move up to the next size diapers!  Actually, the ones she's in now are already a little too small, but I don't know anyone with a baby younger than her to give them to and they're only a bit small on her, so I'm just using up the last few I have on hand.  Luckily, I already have a couple packages of the next size up on hand here at home, so I don't have to run out and buy them in the middle of the night or something.  Anyway, I guess that's about all for now...oh!  I finally finished my sister's mini-album!  I haven't been able to get to the post office to mail it off yet though, so I still have time to take some pics to post here before I ship it...as soon as I figure out how to add a photo to a post lol.  Until next time!

happy v-day!

Happy Valentines day all!  Hope it's been a good one so far!  It's been a busy day in our household...day school for my son, work for hubby and my dad's birthday...whew!  Made a lasagna (from scratch!) for dad's birthday supper...mental note:get ingredients the day before next time, as it takes a LONG time to make it (ironically, not a whole lot longer than just baking a frozen one, but I digress).  Super tasty!  Hubby should be happy too, he really likes my lasagna. 

Still working on the mini-album for my sister...it's taking longer than I had hoped, mostly because I'm only working on it durring naptime and after bedtime.  But I have gotten a little over half the pages done already...I'll work on it some more after this post :) .  I just found my paper trimmer again, so cutting out all the teeny tiny pictures for it should be a LOT easier this time...I'm using the index print size from my photo printer, so the pics are literally postage-stamp size.  I seriously got a crick in my lower back from being hunched over for so long when i cut out the first batch of pics, also had to print out some more pics as not all of the ones i wanted to include got printed out the first time, plus was running very short on pics.  That added about another hour onto the project.  My computer and the photo printer weren't talking to each other and it was the first time for me to use the software that came with the printer, so there was a steep learning curve as I've only ever used a memory card plugged directly into the printer to print my photos ( and my mom made it look SUPER easy cause that's the only way she's ever used her printer.  Bet if it were straight from the memory card I'd be the one making it look too easy lol).  Anyway, I have high hopes that it will get finished tonight so that I can mail it out tomorrow, a day late, but oh well...I'm sure they'll love it anyway.  I'll be sure to post some pics of it when it's done, assuming I can figure out how to do that lol.

I have a follower!!  A very dear friend of mine checked out my blog, the first person besides me to read it lol.  To be fair though, she's the only person besides my husband that I've told about it...guess I need to start mentioning it to people, at least if I want anyone to read it.  By the way, J, I would LOVE to join yall on a stock-up trip, give me a ring and we'll talk about a day and time when you wanna go back up there.  We'll probably need to take my car though, cause of the car seats.  SO stoked to have readers now! 

Well, that's about all for now...gotta give baby girl a bath, then (hopefully) finish up my sister's mini-album...more trimming of tiny pics, but at least I have my trimmer now to do it instead of cutting them all out by hand.

bloggies and bathtime

Well, I visited one of my favorite blogs today called down to earth...perhaps you've read it.  It's this awesome blog about simple living, something I really can't do right now, but seems like it'd be up my alley.  I love how the writer, Rhonda, and her husband do pretty much everything for themselves...we're talking baking, cooking practically all meals from scratch, raising their own vegetables, raising chickens (or chooks, as they're called in Australia), canning and preserving, even making their own laundry soap and cleaning products!  Actually, I use several of her natural cleaning recipes and ideas here at home...I just can't bring myself to use most commercial cleaners in my home anymore, with small children running around and putting almost everything in their mouths, who knows what kind of harmful chemicals are in those things!  I've found that warm water and plain old baking soda can get almost everything i need to clean around here sparkling and clean, plus baking soda acts as a very mild abrassive for things that are really stuck on and gunkified (highly technical term there lol).  And if something needs to be more sanitized than that, white vinegar works wonders!  I've never really been a huge fan of bleach...it's absolutely horrible for the environment, not very safe around children plus, it just plain stinks!  Anyway, back to the point.  Down to earth has been nominated for a bloggy this year (yay!) in the category for "Best Australian or New Zeland Blog".  If anyone reads this before voting closes (Feb 20, I beleive. Don't quote me on that though), definately check out Rhonda's blog and vote for it!  Just the way they live so simply and with such a minimal carbon footprint is down right inspiring, the blog itself is written beautifly (I think anyway) and they're both such good and genuinly caring people (not that I've personally talked to or met them, but you can just tell by her writing and responses to her followers questions and comments). 

Here around my neck of the woods, fairly uninteresting day...made a quick trip to the grocery store to get gluten-free ravioli for supper tonight (would have LOVED to have made them myself, but alas, it takes me a long time to make pasta since i don't have a pasta machine...well, not one for food anyway, mine's dedicated to polymer clay lol).  Amazingly enough, both kids were very well-behaved in the store (to be fair, my 3 month old daughter pretty much slept the whole time like she usually does, but hey, I'll take it where I can get it), especially considering it was super crowded so it took a little while to get around to everything we needed.  I really wish there were more stores in our area that carried gluten/wheat free products...as it stands, the only two that do are larger chain stores (one of those being the ever-present Wal-mart), the smaller local chain (and I mean like, three counties local) where I'd rather spend my money only has a few items on the shelves.  They usually run a little bit higher price-wise, but it's WAY closer than the two big chains, which saves me gas, plus I know that my money is helping boost the local economy instead of lining some no-name corporate CEO's pockets. 

Gave the kiddos baths today...it really baffles me how my son has done a total 180 on his opinion of baths recently.  Seriously, six months ago when I'd bathe him he'd scream and cry so much you would have thought I was torturing the poor little guy...and all I was doing was trying to keep him clean!  He'd pretty much been like that from the first time he ever had a bath, so, in order to keep a little bit of peace in the household, I'd literally developed a system to get him all washed up in as little time as possible.  I did this for a little over two years, so I had it down to a science lol (hint: if you have this problem with any of your children, bubble bath is your best friend! It's fun, smells nice and since it's soapy water anyway, you can just scrub 'em down with a washcloth.)  Every once in a while, I'll let him take a shower like a big boy with his daddy.  I actually think that this is what helped turn around his opinion about baths...see, my son (like me) really doesn't like to be in water at all, he especially doesn't like water in his face (just like mommy).  But in a shower, water is everywhere...you can't help but be in it.  He cried A LOT at first when he realized that he couldn't get away from the water, but since he had daddy there to hold him, he gradually got more used to it cause he knew nothing was going to hurt him with dad right there, so water didn't seem so bad anymore.  Fast-forward to today: I'm in the kitchen, cleaning out the sink so I can give little man his bath.  He's in the other room playing and I haven't told him it's bath time yet cause I don't want it to be a fight trying to get him to take one.  He hears the water going and comes running into the kitchen, stripping down as he's coming my way.  By the time he gets to me he's ripping off his pull-up with one hand and trying to take his shirt off with the other...I look down at him and he's got this big grin on his face and he says to me "Mommy, I want a bath!".  You can imagine my shock...my son who, for the past two years has cried bloody murder the second his little bottom hits water actully WANTS to take a bath!  So I plunked him in the sink before the water had finished filling up, just in case he changed his mind and decided to run from me.  And it went really well!  He still doesn't like water in his face (then again, neither do I), but today the only bath time tears were when I tried to take him out of the bath, and I'm just fine with that. 

first post EVER!!

Hello all!  I'm new to blogging and this is my first post ever, so bear with me :)  I guess I should talk a little about myself, so here goes...I'm a SAHM with two wonderful kids, a boy and a baby girl and I've been married to my awesome husband for almost 5 years.  There's not a whole lot to do for fun where we live, so I figured I'd start a blog cause, well, what else do I have to do?  Not exactly sure what all this will entail, but it'll probably be a little bit of everything that I'm interested in (which is A LOT by the way) or whatever random thoughts i happen to have that day. 

Speaking of random thoughts...I happened to watch a documentary the other day about the broken state of our education system...perhaps you've heard of it, it's called Waiting for "Superman" .  VERY informative little film there.  It really just hurts your heart to see these smart kids routinely getting the short end of the stick and no one in "the system" seems to notice or care...seriously makes me want to homeschool my kids! Anyway, if you've seen it already, you know exactly what I'm talking about...if you haven't seen it yet, watch it, especially if you have little ones. 

So, on to other things...I've been in a sort of "crafty" mood as of late, probably has a lot to do with the fact that it's just been to dang cold outside to do anything but stay in the house.  I've been crocheting a lot of little dish scrubbers lately...they're nice, quick and easy little projects, and the best part is that once you get the chain and first row of SC done, you really don't even have to count stitches on the little buggers anymore.  You just keep going until it's the size you want it to be, do a little edging and you're done!  Great for when you really just want to finish a project quickly, but can also be set down at pretty much a moments notice.  That last part is what makes them so awesome for me personally, seeing as how I often have to set down a project to run after a boisterus 2 YO lol.  Also been getting started in digital scrapbooking...got a program around Christmas time, haven't been able to put it down since!  In fact, I've been inspired by a scrapbooking show on the local PBS station to alter an altoids tin and create a mini album to go inside of it...I plan on sending it to my sister and her kids for Valentine's day (They live in a different state and I only get to see them every couple of years or so, (Actually, this past year we've seen them about 3 times, but this is highly irregular) and I figured it'd be a nice thing to let them know we're thinking of them.)  Hopefully I can get it finished in time to mail out, not really sure how long it'll take to get there from half-way across the country.

Well, I guess that's all for now...gotta get some sleep so I can get things done around the house tomorrow, plus the kids get up fairly early...well, at least the younger one does lol.  Also gotta at least get started on my mini-album so I can get it finished in time to mail to my sister...I'll be sure to take some pics so I can post how it turns out.  I'm SUPER excited to do this one!