BT and LM

Not sure if I have posted about this or not but ..........I have always had this vision that my dogs and LM would be in harmony , playing together, laying together, etc. Up until now this hasn't happened. And now BT and LM are inseperable. They play chase in the house, outside, whereever. LM throws toys and BT retrieves. And now they are in cahoots with each other. When it gets quiet in the house and I all of a sudden hear giggling and don't see the two of them I know something is going on.
As I round the corner usually BT has something in his mouth and is ripping, tearing or eating it. LM is laughing hysterically......and when I round the corner all laughing, ripping, tearing, etc. stops . Both stop and look at me and very innocently LM says ; "BT doing it Mommy, BT , what are you doing?" as if BT was doing it all by himself and LM is suddenly appalled that BT would do such a thing. It's hilarious how he is shifting blame on poor BT now. BT has begun to paw at LM to play with him so I think they are beginning to be buddies like I had envisioned only a little more mischevious.

a forward from a friend......

I just got a forward from a friend. Talking about savoring every moment with your kids....I look around and everyone seems so busy, myself included. Guilty......of doing laundry or vacuuming when I should be playing trains or making faces at my babies. They are growing so fast and we'll never get this time back.....is it so important to be involved in so much? I keep telling myself that I won't be the parent running around like crazy but I feel I already am. I hate they are growing so fast.........I sometimes don't think it's fair that you change so much so fast in the first few years and then slow down ....you don't really change that much from 7 to 8 but from 1 to 2 you really change. I just wish I could stop time for a little while and enjoy every word, every expression , every second of them. Sometimes I still look at them and cry because I am so happy and can't believe God trusted me enough to care for these little beings and bring them up into the world. I hate that daddy is missing so much but I suppose that is the sacrifice we are all making for his work, our country, our world. He would miss almost as much if he were here working because he works so hard but I love seeing the smile on his face now when he can see them on the webcam. It's the best smile I have ever seen when he can see these babies or even hear them since the webcam isn't exactly going great from his current location. Oh well, I have gotten all sentimental now and I better get Miss G from her nap.

oh, the ortho bills......

Miss G has found her thumb and the look of sheer satisfaction and bliss on her face when she found it was priceless. With both of them being thumbsuckers what will I do....I better get a job to start paying for all of the orthodontics treatments we'll need :) She does also take a pacifier which is some relief.

LM has had a great two days potty training and even went to potty in the back of the van at the gym....didn't we look like rednecks. I refuse to subject him to big bathrooms right now until he gets the hang of it. He even went poop on the potty today.....woo hoo! I know there are many more long days ahead and every day will be different but he is doing a great job and I am so proud of him. Everything these days is : Great idea mommy! Great job Mommy! It's so precious. I am enjoying my time with him right now.

rubber pants and all....

Well, we are officially potty training.....yeah, he loves his new rubber pants but I bet he won't like it so much when they are wet or worse........ Wish me luck! I know the next few months will involve me running with a lug of a girl strapped to my chest holding LM out like a bomb to the nearest bathroom....or the back of our van. That's right I will be toting a potty around in the van. Public restrooms will be avoided at all cost....thanks to my dear friend Nanna who gave me this idea. So now in the van we have 1 sit n stand stroller, a potty, blankets, towels and papertowels ( never know) , many varieties of antibacterial products...wipes, foam , gel , spray and several bags of extra clothes for LM and Miss G who tends to explode herself from time to time. Don't forget the various sizes of ziplocs to put the exploded clothes into.....and one dog water bowl. Oh, and snacks ......and.......ha , who am I kidding. I have everything but teh kitchen sink crammed into that van....it's the best. We could literally live in it---and the best part---it's all hidden in various compartments in the van that I keep finding. So I guess I am spending a small fortune toting all this stuff around in extra gas but it's worth it to be prepared with the kids and I can't tell you howmany times my little secret stashes and preparedness have saved the day :) Ahhh, the things that excite a mommy.....organization and cleanliness---so simple these days.

it's not good to think........

some great memories I have had floating through my head today.......
Paris.....at night
London......anytime
Prague......at Christmas
A great concert........U2, Big Head Todd, Dave Matthews, or just a good song that makes you feel it in the pit of your stomach......the memory you have that is associated with that particular song.......
Ireland......green everywhere....laughing at daddy driving on the wrong side of the road. A B&B in the middle of a field .....sheep everywhere and the nicest little couple ever.
Plaza Mayor in Salamanca......at night or early in the morning
Dixie---a fall morning anywhere in the south....the smell of the air....deer coming out of the woods and peeking around to see what's going on......cotton fields.......fall festivals where everyone meets and congregates complete with livestock competitions...
My babies smiles and hugs....nothing better than that..
A familiar hand brushing the stray hairs out of my face..........listening to baby girl stretch.....LM saying cheerfully "Hi mommy" as I enter his room in the morning and love you mommy as he says goodnight.
The happy bark of my dogs and seeing them grin as we go for a walk or swim.........the dogs jumping off the dock at the pond at home.....nothing better than a doggy belly flop......or if you're beau just swimming in circles because you fell in while looking at and pawing at your reflection...wow, great memories and lots to be thankful for. Man, I am blessed! I know I use that word a lot but it's so true. Great friends, great family............

The second round.......

The girls













The four little munchkins













Tela and LM













I'm going to eat your arm....

....you all know that LM has a friend Bear and they are 4 days apart. Now our little girls Miss G and Miss J are 11 days apart and we got them together today. They are so cute together and kept grabbing each other's hands and we even got the boys to get a picture with them. Miss G as you can tell looks like a gargantuan compared to Miss J.

LM has been so sweet lately....I caught him saying "Be still Miss G. ....let me put your sock back on.....BE STILL G.....I'm trying to help you put your sock back on". It was hilarious....he loves to see her, touch her and very protective of her just as we hoped he would be.
We are all doing well and staying very busy right now. Lots going on so hopefully it will settle down some. We have our final soccer day tomorrow and it's been fun. Each week LM has gotten better and I don't mean he has turned into David Beckham but he is at least listening a little better an dnot running off to watch the skaters. We'll see how it goes !

sweet boy......

while on the floor playing with Miss G today he jumped on my back and I rode him around. Then we started doing zerberts , he did them on myhead and then out of the blue came up and very gently kissed the tip of my nose.....I melted. How sweet !

I can't sleep.....

Our little Auburn tiger

.....because I moved Miss G into her own room tonight. She has been napping in there but it's killing me to be without her, just like with LM I will check in on her every few hours and look at the monitor to watch and see if I see her chest rising and falling. It's ridiculous I know but it's a rite of passage that says she is now no longer a newborn but an infant or whatever, she is growing up .....and too fast I tell you. Man , how did I get so lucky as to have two such great , beautiful kids. We are truly so blessed......but no joke , we sure do miss daddy. Sometimes I miss him so much I can feel it in my chest and it hurts to breathe.....okay enough sappy stuff...check out the pic of my sweet baby girl.

Don't eat my poo poo

...so for the faint of heart if you get grossed out easily then please refrain from reading this next segment.........
We attempted another pool afternoon today after nap. Miss G and I were sitting by the back sliding door watching LM play. Then he wanted to get in the pool.........but with no swimsuit so we settled on a diaper or big boy wear (toddler speak for underwear--just so youknow, Mommy and Daddy have big boy wear too and he loves to point that out) . The only problem with this is he didn't want to wear the diaper. I contemplated this and told him no , he had to wear something. At this point an all out fit and ripping off of the diaper ensued. Some battles aren't worth fighting......I would rather let him run around naked as a jaybird like a little redneck baby than fight with him on this one. Soooo, as you all well may know we are "working " on potty training. We are taking our time with it and he has lately been telling me every single time he peepees or poo poos in his diaper or before he does it really........which is good and means he is aware of it.
As I knew it would happen he decides to peepee in the yard.....well, I look out and the poor little guy has poop on his leg and is squatting in my yard by the door. This story will emberrass him so badly one day....anyway as I was saying him squatting a little with a look of terror and amazement at the same time. Mind you he has never even attempted to poop on the potty. As I realized this he looked at me like uh,oh I'm in trouble. So I very calmly praised him and told him what a good job he was doing to poop outside of the diaper but maybe we could go and finish on the potty. I began to wipe his leg off when the dogs start wandering over. Now, we do have poopeaters unfortunately, especially the labs ( and if you are a lab owner you know what I am talking about--they will eat any kind of poop) but they have never even bothered a diaper.....but they ran over anyway and started inspecting it. LM knows they aren't supposed to eat poop.
As they approach he puts his hand out in the get back /stop stance and says "don't you eat my poopoo". I laughed so hard I almost cried. He was very upset that they were going to eat his poop possibly. Then we came in and used the potty and were successful and he received several poopoo treats. So that was our big event of the day! Not really there is more but that was definitely our most entertaining.

After the pool excitement

Summer fun in the sun

BT don't drink my pool water












fun in the pool













My little man













Sweet baby girl














We are having a heat wave here in WA. It's breaking 80+ degrees. So we broke out the pool for the second time this summer. At which point we discovered we should have purchased a bigger pool this year but it will work for now. We put little man's slide on the end and he slid into the pool and had a great time. He was even kind enough to share the tiny pool with Miss G for about half an hour. She was our little bathing beauty in her swim skirt and cute hat. She really liked the water and didn't fuss at all. We of course did the complete redneck thing and put her baby tub in the pool....all we needed was Freebird playing and a dog hanging in the pool with them too :) Anyway, they had fun and we'll probably do it again today. Enjoy the pictures :)

Sweet BT

What a sweet boy to lay on the bed with my babies and not move an inch even though LM was crawling all over him and G laying on him. He started by laying with Miss G nose to nose. Miss G is starting to scoot herself on her back on the floor. She is really strong and won't be long before she can roll to her side. LM is such a good big brother and very gentle with her. We are recovering from a summer cold....or Miss G and I are recovering. We definitely have nothing exciting to report....daddy appears to be doing well in his new location although I am sure he would rather be back home.....we would prefer that too!

I feel as if my little writings on here have gotten very generic.....I will try to improve because I am boring myself lately.....guess I am just too tired to be funny or cute right now. My brain is definitely not working at full capacity. We have an IA spouse meeting Friday night so that should be interesting to see if anyone shows up. I certainly hope so.....it would be nice to meet other people going through the same thing we are going through. It's always nice to meet other moms with whom to swap information. Gotta go get these kiddos dressed. But why does my daughter always look like a deer in headlights....is it the flash before the picture actually takes.

Thomas is in my bed.....

Yeah, it's my new man since daddy left....I found he and Mr. Mcqueen tucked safely away in my pillows tonight as I put the "pretty" or "unnecessary" (as daddy calls them) pillows away. Yeah, I had two men in my bed tonight. One hot little guy with racing logo all over him and one blue cheeky train. (If you have kids you will get the cheeky reference) I just wanted to let you all in on my little secret....daddy, no need to come home I have found my soulmates. What more could a girl ask for? A blue little sassy train and a hotrod. ;) Maybe little man thought mommy was lonely...didn't he know that I have two snoring geriatric dogs in my room at night and a little girl who snores just like her daddy.....here is a pic of the kids as LM decided he needed to get in sister's bed and check it out...he just wanted to check on his old stomping grounds....notice her grabbing his shoulder. She has been grabbing at both of us lately and it's so sweet. She get so excited and gives this big gummy grin.

the latest.......

Miss G in her latest pictures. She looks so grown I can't stand it. It kills me she is growing so fast much faster than her brother. LM was a total string bean for months and then he never really got chunky like she has. She looks like she is 8 months old and he looks like a little boy....where does the time go?

Seriously........are you kidding me?

I know I say those two things A LOT.....but itmust be a lot when my LM--the two year old looked at me and said them after I asked him to do something. He even used it in the right connotation and inflection in his voice. It was all I had not to crack up and explain that he wasn't supposed to talk to mommy that way. He is also saying " hey, don't you push me" when I touch him or give him a little nudge through a doorway or something and "hey, don't you talk to me like that". Man, I am getting mine is all I know....my parents always said I would and here it is but gosh I love that kid.
On a different note Miss G grabbed my face today and thought it was hilarious and smiled so big. That's our big accomplishment today. Not bad for a random Friday in August :)

Is it bad......

that I really don't care that Miss G projectile vomited on me about 3 hours ago and I have yet to have the time to change nor do I care b/c I am so tired. Just wondering if that is normal behavior for a mommy....definitely not normal behavior for any sane rational person who isn't sleep deprived. Woke up at 5 am this morning to LM yelling "mommy, get boogies out of nose". Apparently he was stuffy......and now I am trying to catch up on laundry and The Closer. Just love Ms. Brenda Lee Johnson's accent. Baby puke....out!

phhhhttthh

This is especially for daddy since I can't figure out how to compress these videos and send them in an email.....Miss G saying phhhttthhhh for the first time and me sounding like a total moron trying to get her to talk :)