The Promise

It's late and we leave for the U.P. bright and early tomorrow morning, so this will be short. Last night, we had a breakthrough in our relationship. It seems that in Jen's haste to postpone our ante-bedtime discussion, she promised that she would no longer be crabby in the morning. This morning, she was true to her word. This will be a subject of later blogs, I'm sure, and I wouldn't call her a morning person just yet, but she really impressed me this morning.

Nolan, on the other hand, didn't impress me last night. He woke up at 3:00am...and when I say "woke up," I mean he "woke up." He looked like he had just main-vained a mug of espresso (or is it expresso? Sorry, I'm a diet Rockstar fan.). He finally went back to sleep somewhere between 6 and 8am. I don't know when because I think I fell asleep while he was still crying in my arms. In any case, Kyan was up at 8:30am. I thought the day might begin with a game of rock, paper, scissors to decide who would get up with the kids, but, in part because Jen had already demonstrated her lack of crabbiness, I sucked it up and got up. It turned out to be a really fun morning.

I made it a point to play with Nolan while Kyan played by himself in the kitchen. I really feel like Nolan hasn't received his fair share of the attention from Jen and me, and I began today to make a concerted effort to spend more solo time with Nolan, rather than trying to play with both of them all of the time, as Kyan often demands and receives more of the attention when we play with "his" stuff. This sounds harsh, but it actually went over very well with all of us. Jen might argue that I'm jealous because Mr. Pie seems to be sort of a Mama's boy, and she might be right. I think Kyan was born with the "Daddy's boy" gene, but Nolan is going to take some work. I know, I know - we shouldn't be competing for the favor of the kids...but what a sweet competition it is.

P.S.: The boys and I completed Christmas shopping for 7 people tonight in less than 2 hours. To put accomplishment in context - when I grocery shop, I don't use a list; I go up and down every aisle in the store and figure out what I need as I browse.

Christmas Ham (Gravy)

Ok so has anybody ever had Ham Gravy before? (I'm not talking about Olive Oyl's ex ). No? Well I know it was a first for me today and make that a last as well. We had a ham for our Christmas dinner. Mick was busy in the kitchen while I slept after we opened Santa's presents. (I worked last night) Mickey starts saying he's going to make some gravy from the drippings. I tell him, "your making a ham not a turkey" He responds with "yeah I know, haven't you ever had Ham Gravy" in a tone like you can order it off of any American chain restaurants menu ("I'd like that topped with Ham Gravy please!") "Um No" I think he then said he used to make it all the time. This was coming from somebody who stared at the hams in Meijer last year for about 45 min trying to decide if the butt or shoulder is the one your "supposed" to get. So anyway he made Ham Gravy. After all my teasing him I had to try it, I dipped my finger in it and felt my ankles swell from the sodium rush. This brings a question to mind. An average human Na level is about 138 so why is a pig so darn salty, is their level like 590? Anybody know? Does the manufacturer add all the salt? (google search) Ok so I can't find what I'm looking for and don't really want to know to much about the animal I just ate at dinner. Over all the dinner was great without the Ham Gravy. (Ham Gravy..............that could easily be a Dr. Seuss title) MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Another Woman!

Mick and I have an awesome relationship heck I've known the man for more than half my life.... but I am not getting all that I want out of Mickey. Sometimes he just doesn't perform the way I want him to :( This touchy subject is honestly the only thing we argue about. He is a very busy guy and I just don't think he has time to fulfill some of my needs. So I have decided to do some research and introduce a 3rd party to our relationship. I'm going to start off slow, initially I was thinking of once a month but I am considering biweekly depending on how she preforms. I have used the local yellow pages and am waiting back on hourly rates. I cant wait to have a good house cleaning once or twice a month!!!! C'mon get your head out of the gutter!!!!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!

As some of you probably know, I am more of a morning person than Jen. Every now and then she'll ask me "How can you be so god damn cheery every god damn morning?" The pictures below are all of the explanation I need. It boils down to this: Every day when I go to sleep, I can look back on the day and, regardless of my shortcomings in other areas [insert penis joke here...I know you did], I can honestly say that, with regard to the fam, that day was the best day of my life. Every day. It's like Groundhog Day, but I don't have to fix anything.

Now, I can't say that everyone else in the family feels the same. There are some days when Jen might go to bed thinking that day was one of the worst of her life. This usually means I forgot to pick up a sock in the living room or that I didn't pick up her dishes from the family room. But even Jennifer, who never got out of bed before 11am when we dated in high school, is susceptible to spontaneous "cheering up" by the kids when they wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7:30.

Because this is supposed to be a blog about our daily lives, I'll provide an example from today that explains why I can wake up happy every morning. This morning, Jen got home from her first 12 hour night shift at 7:30am. The kids had been awake for about 30 minutes (much to my chagrin). Jen didn't walk in and go to bed; instead she got breakfast ready for the kids and got Kyan ready for school so that I could dick around for longer in the shower and quickly press my collar (because Jen says I look like a tool when it's wrinkly). This followed the 30 minutes of Kyan playing with Nolan in the bed (yes, tsk, tsk, both were sleeping with me by this morning) that I awoke to. Even though I didn't get much sleep, it's hard not to smile when I wake up to both sets of dimples smiling at me. I digress. So we (Kyan, Pie & I) leave to bring Kyan to school. There is a spontaneous rendition of whatever song contains the "Ba-rum-pa-pum-pum...," followed by a slight motion-sickness scare from Kyan as we pass the football stadium. I drop him off at school, realizing that I forgot his book bag and his slippers (his teacher would point out that I forgot his snow pants when I picked him up). Pie and I went to the mall, where I realized that I'm not a very efficient shopper. Before we left, Pie and I played in the front seat of the van for about 20 minutes after I unsuccesfully tried to get him to eat. He sucked on my nose. We picked Kyan up. After missing our exit while talking to Alltel, we made it home at about 1:00pm. Here Jen stepped up again. I was tired, so Jen woke up (note that she had to work tonight at 7pm) and took Nolan so that I could nap for a little while. <--Lucky for you, Honey, I picked a favorable day for you to post my first "log". -- I'll fast-forward through dinner because this is already really long (and by now Jen is probably the only one still reading). I put Nolan to sleep - pretty easy night - then sat down to read to Kyan. We read 3 books, then Kyan asked if I still had a headache. I said I did. He told me to sit up and lean forward on two pillows (which he handed me) and informed me that he was going to give me a massage. It consisted of him rubbing my shirt and my hair for about 10 minutes while we were both totally silent...and it got rid of my headache (after tylenol and Jen's massage failed). More importantly, seeing the look in his eyes when I told him that his massage had fixed my headache cemented in my mind that today was the best day of my life.

Gotta go...cat's scraping on Nolan's door...Friday he gets a bath Honey!

Reindeer Photo Shoot!

Bubble Bath Extravaganza!!!

December 7th is now officially "Day of the Super Dad"

So Mick has been showing off some daddy skills around here lately. He got Mr. Pie to go to sleep by himself around 7:30. The boy slept until 6:00 the next morning!!! I woke up to him crying, looked at my alarm clock and then pinched myself,"I have to be dreaming!" NOPE he slept for over 12 hours straight!!!! Ok, so if that wasn't great enough, I got a call at work from the 3 men around 9:30, turns out Kyan made it though the night with out a pullup!!! So Mickey shining with daddy skills! I say, "I would have been impressed if I came home to all that and the house was clean!" Then I'll call him Super Dad!

RECAP!

Its 0630 (I think, too tired to actually realize real time) Mick brings me a crying baby. Pie nuzzles up to me in bed but isn't interested in eating. I try to swaddle him and make him think going back to sleep is a good idea. BB disagrees with me, mick rolls over and I see a head bob across the foot board. Oh man Kyan is up too :( I still try to convince Nolan to sleep. Mick tells me (as if I don't already know, just in denial) Nolan wants to get up. Kyan is hungry and our day, no matter how much I want to lie to myself, must begin! 0730 The big guys head down stairs for breakfast as I search for my eyes on the night stand and I pick up Mr. Pie. I look at him and wish I could absorb some of his cheerfulness, why can't I be a morning person!? Kyan eats his usual two packs of instant oatmeal and some other stuff (too tired to notice, I promise..it was healthy and edible) Mick is indulging in the OJ we bought yesterday,he's been complaining about his OJ deficiency for about a week now. (a half hour later he complains of heart burn....I call it Karma!) Mick takes a shower and I get Kyan dressed, pack his school bag and help him brush his teeth. Now its my turn to take a shower.....hope this wakes me up! 0830 the big guys head to school. And Nolan and I call our friends Melissa and Gavin to confirm our play date. 0900 head out to CVS and then to play date. 0945 Thank god I made it to Melissa's I know she has some strong #%% coffee bound to wake me up! Here I just get to relax and chit chat a bit. Usually I have to leave by 1145 to pick Ky up at preschool but Its Monday and mick volunteers. So instead they meet me at Melissa's. 1235 we head to lunch at a place Melissa suggests (good call on the french dip Melissa) By this time I have a great deal of energy from the 3 cups of coffee! We make it out of there just in time for Kyans 3 year well child check up at 2:00. In comes a med student....here we go. Seeking medical care for your children in the University of Michigan health system can be bitter sweet. Ever want your ped. to pay extra attention to you? The past 2 appt I've had for the boys have been lead by med students....to make a VERY long story short, we got out out there at 3:35!!!! WHAT THE.... Ok, must hurry and call the lab for my drug screen for new jobby job, they are only open until 4. Drug screen cancelled, something about a water line breaking. I asked the lady if I could just come pee in a cup, I told her I carried purell. She says to me, 3 people just peed in the toilet and well.....I say Ill call tomorrow. Now we drive to my dr. and drop off a form I need from her for my job, kyan unbuckled...carry the car seat in...hand them a paper....walk back out... carrying car seat...."come on kyan" buckle kyan in then mr. p. This routine of care seats, unbuckle, buckle, unbuckle buckle is a killer. 4:00 hhhmm there's the mall (I need to exchange Kyans slippers that I bought to small) We get into JC Penny (me chugging along with the car seat...why am I carrying this thing??) "Come on Kyan" Get to the shoe depart. WHAT? they only make the slippers up to the size I bought! And I don't have my receipt! EEERRRRR! Of course we cant go to the mall and not play at the indoor playground! "Come on Bud!" We play for about 25min....kyan is now on the verge of breaking, lack of nap is NOT a good thing for him...Me too, my caffeine high is dissipating. I need to play my cards right to get back through Penny's and to the car without him having a tantrum! There is no way I could possibly carry the car seat with a 20lb Pie and a 35lb 3 year old kicking a screaming! "Look I want to go up that!" up the escalator we go, walk around the bedding department, down the escalator we go (again on the verge of breaking, you really need to pick your battles....I just want to make it to the car) 4:40 we are in the car and both boys are ZZ ZZZ ZZZ within min! On my 10 mile drive home I envision sleeping in the driveway just so I can get a nap in too! Yes, this is what I'm going to do, I cant wait!!! I exit to find a traffic jam because of 3 stop lights not working....here goes my shut eye :( I decide to drop off a Bday card for my bro at the local post office on the way.....I'm not moving in all this chaos anyway! 520 I'm rounding the last corner and cant wait to shut my eyes in the driveway! WHAT... a solicitor is at my door and approaching the vehicle (damn, have to remember to buy that no soliciting sign) I donate $5 bucks to help keep the Great lakes clean (I'm such a great citizen....tired but great!) Mick calls and tells me he fell asleep in his car in the parking lot waiting for the bus, he got a 3+hr nap....IM SO JEALOUS. and now I feel really bad for keeping Pie in bed this morning and taking an hour of sleep away from him. Ok so now I attempt to bring both kids in and I'm unsuccessful with Mr. Pie. He starts screaming as I walk in with Kyan on my shoulder. I lay kyan down and again try to convince Nolan that his nap time really isn't over.....I promise, its STILL Nap TIME!!!! No luck. Kyan wakes up 1/2 hour later while Im talking to auntie wind. 6:00 Bath time and a talk with Grandma Debbie. Dunk both kids and then its Supper time. Kyan goes out to eat at "Mommy's Kitchen" and Oh Look! Mommy is the waitress tonight. The boy orders EVERYthing on the menu. Chips and salsa, apples and PB, ramon noodles (baked not fried), raisins, ice water, Hot cocoa, and second hot cocoa after baby brother spilled it all over "Mommy's kitchen's" floor:( don't worry it wasn't hot just warm cocoa at this restaurant. Then a second order of Ramon noodles. I'm so glad I was never a real waitress!!!!! This kid has me running my butt off and he's only 3 and I know I'm not getting a good tip! I put Nolan to sleep while he finishes. 8:00 story time by the Christmas tree. Read 3 books then its potty time. We brush our teeth. "SSHHH " don't wake your brother . Kyan climbs in bed and requests a call to daddy at school to say good night. I run down stairs to get the phone. Up the stairs...SH&% the baby's crying! Kyan talks to daddy while I rock Nolan back to sleep. 8:30 tuck Kyan in and get the computer to blog about never ending day! The forecast looks like tomorrow is going to be another crazy one!!!!

On The Eleventh Day Of Chrismas, Mickey Cut a Tree......

As you can see Mr. Pie was delegating all the hard labor.

Because The Chicks Dig It!

Here you go mom, this is a result of the screams you heard over the phone tonight! Kyan fell and smacked his face on the fire place ledge! OUCH! The picture doesnt really show how puffy it got. I will admit, I freaked!