I Think I'm in Love or An Ode to Dr. Seuss

nook, nook
What is a nook?

nook, nook
It is a book.

It is a book?
A book, you say?
I do not understand a book this way!

You do not understand a nook?
Just click right here and take a look!

Take a look! Take a look!
Take a look at this ebook!

Kate has fallen completely in love...

So, Brian... please click the link above.



(really. check this out at nook.com)

Kermit the ... hunh?

For Family Movie night , I announced that we were going to watch "The Muppet Show", which the kids love. Ty said, "Oh! yeh! It has Kermit the ... the..sloth, I think."

I love how their minds work.

Frequent posting

I'm going stir crazy today, so I'm going to use my blog as a true web log and log what has been going on today.

Ashlynn asked Brian what time it was. "7:00," he said, "Why? do you have an appointment?"
Ashlynn, without skipping a beat said, "Yes. With my client."
"You'd make a good lawyer, Ashlynn," said Brian.
Again. No beat, "Yeh. I know."

Keepin' it real.

The family has been sick all this week. Ashlynn: Monday-Wednesday; Briggs: Wednesday- present; Brian: Tuesday-Thurday; and After waking us up every two hours last night, Ty finally came down with a fever (Don't you love those nights when you feel like your bedroom door is a revolving door. There are times when I feel like shouting, "Next!" or "Find an open toilet...if you can.). Thankfully, I have remained well. I'm taking large amounts of Vitamin C to keep it that way. Cause let's face it: when mom gets sick, it's not like she expects someone to take care of her, but is it too much to expect someone else to take care of the kids? Answer: Yes.

So I have had a kid home sick everyday this week, including today. At one point, I forced the boys to take a nap. They convinced me to let them sleep together in my bed (sucker). So I put them down, then sat down in the loft to keep an eye on them for 20 min. so they wouldn't mess around and keep each other up. When Ty was asleep, I went downstairs, thinking,"Surely Briggs will fall asleep soon and I won't have to worry about him."

Wrong.

Shortly after retiring to downstairs, I hear movement coming from upstairs. When I go upstairs to investigate, I find Briggs poking Ty trying to wake him up! Stinker.

Later, when Ty does wake up on his own, his fever is back. As soon as I walk up to him with the bottle of Tylenol, he sticks his tongue out, as if to say,"I aint takin' that!" Through a little cajoling, I convince him to open up and take the Tylenol. Then I walk away for 10 minutes.

10 minutes.

When I return, his cheeks are puffed out, his brow is furrowed, and there is red medicine and drool dripping down his chin and shirt. That little monkey kept the medicine in his mouth for 10 minutes! I was able to talk him down from a ledge and swollow his medicine with the promise of some ice cold apple juice.

Don't you just love it when the whole family gets sick?

Larry, the singing dancing skeleton, is a big hit with the neighborhood kids.

When Brian and I first got married it became apparent very quickly that we were incompatible when it came to one thing...

Holiday decorations.

You see, Brian grew up in a home and a neighborhood where everyone decorates like its Disneyland. There is literally bumper to bumper traffic in his neighborhood during the holidays because the lights are so awsome.

I grew up in a home where we usually had a Christmas tree, but it was always nailed straight into the floor. That's right, straight through the carpet and into the wood floorboards. (We obviously didn't want to be bothered with picking it up and redecorating it every time it fell down!)

So when Brian asked, "Aren't we going to decorate?" my perfectionism resisted. What?! I have to plan and coordinate decorations for every holiday!? What if it's not perfect?

So I came up with a plan.

"Brian. You do it."

So he did.

Then comes Ashlynn. And bless her little soul, if she didn't inherit Grandma Caroline’s gift for decorating. When the first of October rolls around, I can always count on her and her daddy pulling out the boxes of decorations I have accumulated over the years and “decking the halls”!

I find it a relief because I love the look of being festive, I just don’t want to have to make any decisions about how or where to put the festivity.

This year, I tried to help out with the decorating, though, and I’m pretty sure I’ve thrown everybody off (yeah, I’m starting to get puzzled comments from the neighbors). I don’t like scary things at Halloween because it scares my kids. So I chose “Nightmare before Christmas” style, and “decked the halls” with black, purple and orange for Halloween.



I used electrical tape to cover the red stripe in the candy canes.



This was Ashlynn's idea, to put Toot and Puddle, our ceramic pigs, with some fake pumpkins.

Go dodgers!...again!

Brian and Briggs were given another opportunity to go to a Dodger game, this time a playoff game! It was a great bonding experience for Briggs, with Daddy, Grandpa and Uncle Mark.

(Little side note. Big playoff games, especially when they win, are a little bit too loud for little Briggs.)

When he got in late that night, I asked him excitedly, "How was the game!"

His response, "I ate a whole Dodger dog by myself!"

Obviously the important things were covered.

Laughter

Papa swinging Briggs from Kate Rober on Vimeo.

Sometimes being a mom can be hard. But sometimes I remember to enjoy it. Then I remember why I chose this for my life. And I'm pretty lucky to have the family that I do.

Lately, Ty has discovered that it feels good to laugh. Do your kids do this? He will laugh at something, then just keep doing it over and over, even when the funny has stopped. You can tell it just feels good to him. It makes me happy to hear him do this.

I have also been enjoying laughing with my kids. How many times a day do we hear the same knock-knock jokes over and over (in my house... ALOT). Most of the times, when the kids laugh, it is kind of a fake laugh, but they are having fun. However, I've found if I laugh genuinely with them, it just cracks them up. They love that mom is laughing at them/with them and they couldn't be more tickled, so the fake laugh turns into a real laugh,which in turn makes me laugh because they are so cute.

Saturday night

It's a lazy night around here after a full saturday.

Mom: Ashlynn. Go upstairs with Daddy. Your going to clean your room.

Ashlynn (at full volume, running up the stairs): HERE COMES THE HEART OF THE PARTY! EEEYAAAAAH!

Why must things be so extreme around here?

Lady Gaga comes to mind "your up then your down! your hot then your cold!"


I guess I should go help them clean...

Have I Mentioned...

I get to spend my days with this little man?

So cute!

I might have to try this!