a purposeful babelet??

well this is like the 20th posting i've done of leah. and i have other things to write about, but today was like "rite of passage day" in every little girl's life. bare with me.

okay, so.

after months of waiting...and calling her

Q-ball,

baldy mcbalderson,

mr. clean,

(in earlier, more hair-free days...5 months old)

leah finally has some hair.

(which by the way ben takes complete credit for. granted, he is the one who started brushing her bald noggin nightly after her bath, and he feels this is what stimulated the hair follicles. or something like that...ask him about it. i'm sure he'll tell you.)

however,

it's taking longer for the top to catch up to the back. most of the time she kind of resembles mr. stutz, my 7th grade science teacher, who had a combover that was out of this world.

exhibit A:


notice the side swipe? mr. stutz should have patented that little move. he could be a billionaire by now.


and here is the closest thing i have to the back of her hair, even though it's more of a side shot.

exhibit B:




i have to be honest here, and hope i don't offend the masses.


but i am NOT a fan of the baby mullet. i will call it the "babelet." and i haven't been a fan for years. it doesn't seem to matter how darling the face can be in front of the party in the back, i just can't get on board with it.

so my idea was to give her a little hair cut in the back, just enough so that it wouldn't hang over the back of her collars and stuff. giving the top a fighting chance in the race to the finish.

however, ben was completely against the idea.

like whoo doggy! AGAINST.

he was so dramatic about it that he could have physically thrown himself over her head of hair, yelled out "take me instead!" and i wouldn't have been surprised.

cutting this little girl's hair??? after it's taken so long to grow??? i should be ashamed!!

so i backed down. gritted my teeth, tried to calm down her flying hair when it drove me nuts and i saw visions of this little family swimming in my head:




but then today? i may have seen a little bit of the "mullet light."

because after about twenty minutes of trying to figure out what in the world i was even doing, i came up with a semi-finished product of how to work around the "babelet."

and here's the debut:








yes, they look more like upside down pigtails. and yes the back looks horrendous. but like i said, it took me 20 minutes and a whole lot of distracting her to stop pulling it out or arching her back while simultaneously yelling at me.

and it worked...for a few minutes. but at least i saw a hope of what could be.

i'm not sure yet that i'm entirely convinced. the pigtails are cute, but i also like the idea of a cute little round pixie-head until there's enough hair to go around.

any thoughts on the babelet??

the lack of privacy

can you see what this is?

if you guessed that it is my almost 1 year old daughter's chubby fingers reaching under the bathroom door,

you are right.

leah is in this phase where she follows me everywhere. there are times when this can be extremely frustrating...



like during mornings when caleb starts talking at the crack of dawn and doesn't stop. (even when...no, especially when i am on the phone. butting into all of my conversations. who is that, mom? they want to go where? what's wrong with their car? why are they taking it to the shop? and doesn't stop until i have answered all of his questions, or i just end up quickly getting off of the phone in exasperation.)

during afternoons when i have washed my fourth load of laundry for the day and see the looming pile of clean clothes looking at me on my bed (enter maniacal laundry laughing at me here.)

or evenings when both kids are falling apart at the same time, being hungry....tired...stinky & needing baths...and i actually at times break into a sweat for pretty much an entire hour of non-stop go! go! go!

or sunday mornings when i'm trying to get ready for church and not only are my kids crawling all over me, taking my hair brush. or picking up my make-up. or ruining my deoderant. and then feeling so guilty they burst into tears. but my husband decides to come into the bathroom and take a picture of me rinsing with mouthwash, and out comes this beauty:





or just for those times,



when all i want is

one

minute

to

myself.



but most of the time,

i said MOST,

i actually like that leah does this. that for the one minute that i have to myself, i have to set her across the room and try to distract her with toys, only to hear her just seconds later outside the door. banging, and yelling "ma ma maaaaa" and see her little chubby fingers under the cracks of the door.

because i know this will not last. soon she will become more independent and desire my company less. she will learn more words from the english language. words such as, oh how about, i wish you weren't my mom anymore! spoken by her older brother just a few days ago. (why do we teach them to speak again? remind me.)

it is an exhausting but rewarding time of life. one that teaches me patience, and selflessness, and the healthy kind of selfishness (you know, asking for something before you break down and set fire to that pile of laundry. that sort of thing.)

before i know it, i will have all the time in the world to exercise whenever i want to. whenever i want to! that i can shower without having to time it with leah's naps. that i can go through the grocery store without having to teach my talkative 4 year old the "quiet game" because his endless chatter has made me forget what i am making for dinner that night.

even though those things sound nice (well, fantastic really) right now, i know i will miss these times. when i am followed, begged, hugged, pinched, kissed, chased, smacked. when i am a teacher, a chef, a maid, a nurse, a comforter, a lecturer a snuggler.


a mother.


well, i will always be that. :)

but when the days come that i forget what this stage looks like,
her little fingers under the bathroom door,

or her little diapered bum helping slam the door open the second i turn the doorknob,

or her happy face when she is able to accomplish her goal and once again be in the presence of her mom,

well.

i'm glad i will have pictures to remember these moments.

my 3 valentines....

all you




need is





love.

memories....from the corner of my nose.....

this morning ben noticed caleb's pj's smelled funk. which is exactly how he put it, when he walked up to me with his nose all wrinkled up and said,

"caleb's pj's smell funk."

"like mildew-y or something?" i asked. "cause that would be weird since they're brand new and i haven't even washed them yet, let alone wash them, forget about them and dry them a couple of days later. plus after having to throw away a bunch of clothes due to mildewy-ness, i thought i'd broken myself of that habit." (yeah, it's nasty. don't judge.)

"i don't know. just...." he scrunched up his nose again, "funk."

i called caleb over to judge for myself. took one whiff, and almost threw up. not because of the smell, which was pretty funk but not because it was overpowering or anything, but because i was immediately thrown back into my life 2 years ago.

"he must have wet his pants a little last night and not have woken up. i could recognize that scent anywhere!" i called to ben.

for those reading who don't know (or didn't read the private grouphomies blog), two years ago we were living in north carolina, living in and managing a group home for troubled teens. one of these kids in particular was not just a regular bed-wetter, but also had severely poor hygiene, and would marinate in her pee-soaked clothes, bedsheets, carpet, you name it for days. weeks sometimes. i wish i were exaggerating.

not only did she reek of it, but her room reeked of it. not only did her room reek of it, but the entire hallway reeked of it. not only did the entire hallway reek of it, but the entire downstairs pretty much reeked of it.

it was a smell that has unfortunately been forever burned into the memories of my nostrils.

the stench that we thought we should somehow bottle up and put into mace spray, knowing that it would ward off attackers from miles away.

miles!

we would become billionaires while simultaneously ending sexual assault around the world. a win, win.

so the slight smell i picked up on caleb's pj's (which as a side note, is like the second time since he's been potty-trained that he's actually had an accident and it didn't even get on his blankets or anything, so it really was slight) took me back to those days.

and i realized that for those readers who followed us through those days may be interested in how the kids we lived with for several traumatic months have turned out.

so i decided to write a little update on each of the kids to let you know how they're doing. some are success stories...some are not. some we have kept tabs on...some we have not.

it will be coming in the next couple of days, and due to confidentiality reasons for the clients (we don't need them google searching us to read about themselves, get angry, hunt us down and show up on our doorstep, do we? nope, at least not until we have mass-produced that mace spray and are ready with it to thwart off the attack.) will be posted on the private group home blog.

if you'd like an invite, leave a comment to let me know. there are some entertaining stories on there.

as a side note,

re-smelling that potent scent on caleb's jammies made me once again grateful that we survived that year, and that i am now only having to occasionally catch a whiff of what haunted me for months.

i learned many things throughout that year, and one that specifically came in handy today?

the recipe for:

how to get the pee-soaked smell out of clothes.
(also works for mildewy-ness, by the way.)

• fill up your sink/washer/bowl or whatever with warm water.

• add 1-2 capfuls (depending on the amount of clothes, or how long they have marinated in the scent) of Pine Sol.

• let soak for a few hours, overnight is even better.

• then wash in the washer with detergent like a normal load.

• do the sniff check before you dry them, to make sure the scent has been ridden.

• if not?

• repeat the process. then dry.

• if so?

• just dry.

you're welcome.

sliders and swingers.

these kiddos love the slide.

and i have to admit, so do i.

they also love to swing.

and if there were more than just the baby swings that i can only fit one of my arms into,
i'd probably be joining them on those too.


we love the park.

for the record, at almost 11 months she...

• walks about 10-12 steps at a time, but usually prefers about 4-5 before she busts down to her speedy crawl.
• waves bye-bye.
• can clap! clap! clap!
• says mama, dada, duh (for duck), ba ba (for bottle), ni-ni (for her blankie) and baaaaah! (for BATH!). does the sign for milk and almost has "all done" down.
  
• is still obsessed with the bath.
• dances. this lady can shake it like a polaroid picture.
• sings in a lovely, high-pitched voice.
• loves licking any metal object.
• has conversations with the baby einstein puppets on the TV screen.
• loves reading books.
• cracksup her brother with her headbanging skills. which is awesome since they share a room and she keeps him up alllllllll night. (anyone have any suggestions for this?)
  
• irritates her brother by destroying pretty much anything he builds, wants to play with, or that gets in her way.
• loves to get into the dishwasher, and open up the tupperware cupboard to throw every lid and bowl out.
• has two bottom teeth.
  
• also loves our bookshelf, she takes the books down in masses, then sits in the pile and looks through them individually as she jabbers away in her baby language.
• has pushed my creative geniuses to the edge trying to keep her away from the computer, the computer charger, the DVD player and the cable box. don't even get me started on the box fan.

• still is our little sweet pie, our fabulously sassy ray of sunshine. she has adopted so many nicknames (lee lee, chunk a lunk, miss pee pee pants (given to her by her brother) and sugar booger are a few) that i have to make a conscious effort to call her by her real name so that she recognizes it.

and we all adore her.

a punishment and a present

just because i haven't posted anything in a week, i thought i'd punish myself. and the consequence is......







you get to see what i looked like on christmas morning. which is why there weren't any pictures posted of me from that morning in the first place.

sporting my old, broken glasses, make up from the night before, and hair that would scare medusa, i am holding up the christmas presents from caleb.

you might be able to tell (but just in case you can't, because this picture ain't gettin' blown up to the ginormous size of the others i post), he purchased some girlie hair things. one of them is very, uber sparkly. the other is a set of flowers. both are attached to those soft, spongey-like backs, much like this:



with less princesses.

but the only problems i've run into, are these two:

1) caleb thinks they're earrings, not hair things. at first i thought i'd correct him, then decided against it. why? well because...

2) he actually really, really wants me to wear them. ben said as he picked them out in the store, caleb's #1 goal was to get his mom something that would make her feel pretty for church. i know, it's really sweet and completely melted my heart.

that being said, for the past couple of weeks on sunday morning, caleb has come bounding through the door carrying these bejeweled lovelies asking me which i would like to wear for the day. which ones match my specific dress.

and it's kind of nice to be able to wrap the soft rubber bands around my ears, and then pull my hair a little bit around them so that all the church masses see are some mismatched flowers, or a hint of pink sparkly.

not that i care all that much what others think about it. because making him happy is so much more important, but it is nice to be able to tone them down a bit. the sparkly ones are reeeeeeaaalllly sparkly.

after about an hour of wearing these at church, they actually start to hurt my ears. so by the time i make it to primary (which is where my calling is), the "earrings" have now been wrapped around one of my finger to look like a "ring." since caleb sees me in there, he has asked why. and i'm able to keep the sweet 4 year old dream a live by telling him that more people can see them if i wear them on my finger.

and to watch him nod his head, beam proudly and give me his signature "thumbs up"....


well after that, there's nothing anyone can say to convince me not to wear them.


maybe i'll take a picture of them this sunday for your visual pleasure. (but without my glasses on, because those are seriously hideous.)

sun, sun sun here it comes...

doesn't this little picture make your day?


it sure makes mine.

happy friday everyone!

lurkers de-lurk!

so i hear that this is de-lurking (aka blog stalking) week. i outed myself on a couple of blogs today, something i thought i'd never do.

so.

now it's your turn.


okay readers,


knock, knock....


who's there??


(p.s. that picture was taken the day that i spent barfing in california. believe me, it's a good thing that my face is covered. now if i can share that with you, can't you share something with me?)

ben finally takes the plunge.

for ben's big 3-0 birthday
(about 6 mos ago, ahem.)
he was given the gift he asked for.

to jump out of a tiny plane and plummet himself to earth with only another human being and a little backpack which would (hopefully) contain his life line to return him safely home.

also known as skydiving.


he couldn't wait.

i apparently was experiencing some anxiety about this because last night i had a dream that i was skydiving, and our parachute flew off, so my tandem rider said to me "don't worry! we have a backup!" and pulled a string to reveal 3 different colored balloons. and i yelled back, "THOSE are supposed to help us??" as we careened to the ground.



so today, he left all common sense on the ground and took the plunge! (and i phoned our life insurance agent to make sure those on the ground would not be left destitute)

and here are the pictures to document the event...also known as temporary insanity.



the location:

airport terminal, casa grande, AZ

the spectators:

me, (no picture)

one very excited 4 year old,




one very un-interested 10 month old,

since i don't own photoshop, and am without the ability to draw a little circle with an arrow pointing out the tiny dot that dropped out of a plane, for the next couple of pictures you are going to want to pull out your magnifying glass. or your grandma's bible readin' glasses.

can you see the 30 year old dot?

here he is getting closer...

and closer...

and closer...(right about here was where we could pick up on him WHOO-HOO'ing)

and just when i could have taken a completely AWESOME picture, my camera went out of focus and i got the 30 year old looking like this instead...

and this...

i mean seriously! that could have been a money shot! oh well.



the 30 year old kissed the earth he thought he'd never see again,
(actually he just took a breather for a second)




then un-attached the person attached to him...


de-robed the gear...





and smiled proudly.


the kids embraced joyfully,






and i called our life insurance agent and took his policy back down to a monthly payment we could afford.

happy birthday my 30 year old man!
here's to a new decade full of hot women, riches, success and happiness!



or...
being married to me, student debt, living in an apartment
and putting up with the 3 of us everyday!

(pick door #2 ben! pick door #2!)