Socks Without Partners

After weeks of searching for a pair of socks every morning, I finally tackled the kids sock drawers today. And after adding in the socks from four loads of kid laundry, I have 26 socks left.

26 socks. No matches. Red, green, purple, blue, pink, black, tan, polka dotted, frilly, with characters & of course, plain white. Every size from 6-12 months through 4/5 years (which is so kindly printed on the bottom with grippy plastic).

Did the washing machine claim some? Are they under the couch or behind the crib? How could we lose 26 socks?

26 socks without partners. So sad. I feel bad tossing them, so I will give them another month to find their mates before I give up. Maybe now that they are all together they will have more luck.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm...

Having two little kids does make life interesting. There are things that make you laugh, things that make you crazy, and things that make you go "hmmmm".

1- Peanut Butter & Jelly & Provolone Sandwiches. The Tumbleweed's latest lunch creation after I made her PB & J and she had wanted cheese. She added the cheese right in and was totally satisfied. She even made it again the next day.

2- Weird things in the clothes hamper. Mixed in among the dirty clothes in the Tumbleweed's hamper I often find toys, hair bands, crowns & magic wands, My Little Ponies, clean clothes... but lately a few strange things have found their way in - a sippy cup, a box of raisins, crayons and several hot wheels cars. All of these courtesy of the Dandilion who probably didn't realize he couldn't get them back out after he dropped them in.

3- Two pairs of socks at the same time. OK, so this was fashionable in the 80's, but how does a three-year-old know that? More than once in the past few months the Tumbleweed has come out of her room with two pairs of socks on.

4- Toddlers wearing big shoes. The Dandilion loves to wear shoes. Mostly other people's shoes. Any shoe without a foot is fair game. Somedays he wears daddy's running shoes, sometimes my slippers, but most days he goes straight for the Tumbleweed's closet and comes out with the first two he can find. (Which usually leads to a shoe hunt when it is time to leave the house).

That's all I could think of right now... I am sure there are more :)

8:43

Why is it that no matter what time I start to leave to take the Tumbleweed to school, I always turn on the car to find out that it is 8:43.

Seriously. I started out aiming for 8:30, figuring that if we are in the car at 8:35 it would give us plenty of time. When that didn't work, I started aiming for 8:20. No luck, still backing out at 8:43. Would 8:15 work? Nope - I just had two kids in the car sooner and found myself running back in more times for forgotten mittens, books, drinks, lunch, etc and still left at 8:43.

One day I aimed for 8:00, and we got to school a half hour early.

I think I need to set all of my clocks back 10 mintues. That way when the clock says 8:43 we will still get to school on time.

The Dark Ages

Grrr. My computer isn't working AGAIN. While we diagnose & repair it, I am stuck sharing The Eagle's computer. In the cold basement. Brrr.

It is funny to think back to the days when I didn't have my own computer, kept my files on a disk and took pictures with film. Not so these days. Without my computer I don't have access to my pictures (particularly difficult for a busy scrapbooker) or my calendars & contact info for the activities & classes we have each week. You don't realize how dependant on these things you are until you don't have them.

I have also had to plan my computer time differently. Since I have to go down to the basement, I am out of earshot of the kids. This means it isn't wise to be gone for more than a couple of minutes. And without fail, as soon as I make it down all of the stairs I hear "Mommmmmmmyyyyyyyy" and have to run back upstairs. So, that leaves the evening as the best time to use the computer, but that is when the Eagle uses it.

Maybe now I will finally read "Never Check E-mail in the Morning" and substantially reduce the amount of time I waste on my computer every day.

"Mommy's Working"

A few months back I decided to get a little more serious about scrapbooking.

Now, those of you who know me would say "you weren't serious before?" Well yes, I took it seriously, but it was a hobby. I bought supplies, made "to do" lists, took lots of pictures, kept ticket stubs and from time to time would sit down and make a scrapbook page or two. I didn't really have many expectations and certainly didn't write goals for myself.

So in October, I decided to approach scrapbooking differently. I printed out a calendar, planned out my projects, and assigned due dates. Now self-imposed due dates are great, but I needed some outside forces with deadlines to help motivate me as well. The first thing I did was plan to make some birthday gifts - that would provide a deadline of the recipient's birthday. But I needed something else, so I decided to look at some of the scrapbooking magazines for contests. Instead I found "Calls for Submissions"

These calls had specific assignments with deadlines. Perfect! I could pick a few of these that would help me get pages done for my family and then do them before the deadline and submit them to see if they might be published. Wouldn't being published be a great bonus for doing more scrapbook pages?!? I put a schedule together and got to work.

Just about a week after I submitted my first layout, Creating Keepsakes e-mailed back asking me to send in my layout! How's that for increased motivation? Now since then, I have submitted numerous layouts and none have been picked up. But that's OK, because I still have more layouts done in the past few months than I had in the Dandilion's first year.

Anyway, I started to do a little more research about freelance scrapbooking and found out about "Design Teams". This is a group of designers selected to make projects for stores, manufacturers or websites. I found a few with reasonable deadlines, made a few more layouts and submitted them.

In mid-November I got a phone call - I had been selected to participate on design team for a scrapbook store in E. Bridgewater for 2009. Now this isn't a "paying" position, but I do get the latest supplies to make project samples from and a discount at the store. That is more than I had before!

Being on a design team has been a great challenge for me too. Being given supplies, and needing to "create something" is tougher than it looks. Usually I select my supplies based on the photos & theme. Now I am doing the reverse - starting with the supplies and picking a theme & photos. Very interesting.

And the best part is that now, when I sit down at my scrapbook table I can truly say, "Mommy's Working". Even if it is while the kids are sleeping.

No Nap Strikes Again

The Tumbleweed fell asleep on the family room floor at 5pm. But she was "not tired!" Tomorrow should be fun --- she'll probably be up super early and be very grumpy at school & gymnastics. Goody.

Less Ice = More Ice?

The temperature is finally above freezing. Yay, the snow is melting! What a perfect time to make ice cream? Well, that's what the Eagle & the Tumbleweed are doing right now. Mmm... homemade Oreo Cookie Ice Cream.

The warm weather has inspired a little "spring cleaning" around here. We are tackling the piles in the basement that have built up of the past few months. So far I have uncovered a few missing items (specifically some mittens), discovered that the Tumbleweed brings home way too many art projects from school, put away the Halloween costumes, and organized the shoes, coats & purses/backpacks.

Maybe tonight I will finally take down the Christmas tree & put out a few Valentine's decorations... Why am I always two holidays behind?!?

We're Out?

How could we let ourselves run out of pull-ups? With the new "no-nap" plan we have been going through them at half the pace (the Tumbleweed only wears them to sleep), yet we completely lost track and didn't even notice using the last one last night.

So tonight she is sleeping in underwear with a waterproof mat on the bed... should be interesting...

The Experiment Results: More laundry & a shopping trip for more pull-ups

19 months

The Dandilion had his "18 month check-up" today. He was 23.5 lbs and 32 inches which means he is on the small side of average. It was a fairly uneventful check-up because he didn't get any vaccinations. We have to go back for those because he had a bit of a cough this morning and the nurse practitioner thought it would be better to wait.

To note a few other things he has been doing lately so I won't forget...

-'singing' his version of "ABCs" and "Twinkle Twinkle"
- moving chairs over to the kitchen counter to get his own food, cups, etc
- running & chasing with the Tumbleweed
- responding to the TV
Blue's Clues "Notebook", singing the end song
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse "Oooo Tooodles", "Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot diggity dog"
Dora "Backpack"
- wants to "color" any time he sees a writing utensil
- mimicking everything (he even attempted to mimic burping)
- answers questions with enthusiasm "good!" or "yes!"

Little Mommy

So my morning routine these days has me taking a quick shower while the kids eat breakfast, since the only way to safely leave the Dandilion alone is strapped in! This works pretty well and the kids are usually pretty well behaved for those few minutes. I don't know what I will do to fit a shower in when this doesn't work!

The Tumbleweed is usually my "watcher" and comes & lets me know if there are any problems, but after seeing how I deal with the "problems" (usually something that drops on the floor) she has started to take over as "Mommy". Yesterday, I came in to find that she had given the Dandilion four pieces of bread out of the refrigerator because he said "mo toat" (more toast). This morning she was serving grapes (because they had both eaten what I had put out), which she had pulled a chair up to the sink so she could wash them.