What do you want?

I'll be the first to admit that I eat out way too much. I haven't the time to cook. Heck, I hardly have the time to eat. If it weren't for frozen meals, I don't think I'd ever eat. I will say, though, that my kids (only Kendal at this point) rarely eats fast food. I do take the time to "cook" him meals. Its easy for him since he only eats cheese sandwiches and oranges, with the occasional cracker or two. Easy breezy. Anyway, I digress. yesterday i dropped by nathaniel's office for lunch. holly's lunch. i ate early, but she was hungry. it was about 1:30, and he hadn't eaten yet. so i offered to give him a ride to a drive thru somewhere close. he picked McDs. how many times have we been through McDs? probably hundreds, thousands of times in our lives. but this is how it goes when WE go through one now (i also do this at chick filet, which is another common stop for us): {approaching the menu board} me (driving): what do you want? nathaniel: i don't know. me: you don't know? why don't you know? how many times have you seen the menu? you have to tell me what you want before we get to the menu or i'm picking something for you (like a fish sandwich). nathaniel: i just need to look. me (getting louder and louder and speaking faster and faster): do you want a burger? lettuce? cheese? double? triple? chicken? grilled? fried? salad? WHAT DO YOU WANT??? nathaniel (as soon as the menu is in sight): geez. i'll take a number [13, grilled] with a tea. anyway, do YOU have to look at the menu to know what you want? (i understand that maybe you have to see what number it is, if you want a combo, but do you have to see it to know WHAT you want - i.e. a burger or a chicken sandwich?) am i asking too much? i always know what i want before i get to the menu.

k&h sitting around

this isn't an exciting video, and it is kinda long, but for those of you who'd like a little insight to the daily interactions between kendal and holly, here is about 2 and a half minutes of it during wonder pets. kendal is sick, so he's a little less hyper than usual, & holly is ALL about watching him now. of coarse, he still wants to play with her too. the doctor said to minimize his contact with her (since he has some unknow virus that appears like strep but has a negative culture) which is a joke (to keep him away from her). he wants to get inside her skin, so to speak - so this was the best we could do to have him close but not constantly licking her. yes, licking her. he likes to lick her hands and feet. and head. he likes to lick her head, forehead, cheeks, shoulder, whatever he can get close to. he just loves her so much. won't be long before she's licking back either i'm sure. too bad they won't love each other like this forever (well until puberty). i suppose that'd be too much to ask, 2 kids, 15 months apart, no fighting. he's gotten into holding hands lately too, as you can see in this video. and we decided that when kendal is sick, wonder pets should be on tv ALL THE TIME. thanks mom and dad T for the wonderpets DVD that he got for christmas. its been a life saver. and he feels all better today. fever is practically gone and so is the rash. his nose is still runny but not like it was. maybe he can get out of PJs today.

Then

when i first heard this song (and let me say here that i rarely listen to country...), i thought of my sister and rob. but as i listened more, i thought of me and nathaniel. funny that finally when i hear love songs like this, i think of myself instead of just my sister. finally. Then lyrics I remember, trying not to stare the night that I first met you. You had me mesmerized. And three weeks later in the front porch light, taking forty five minutes to kiss goodnight. I hadn't told you yet, but I thought I loved you then. Now your my whole life, now your my whole world. And I just can't believe, the way I feel about you girl. Like a river meets the sea, stronger than it's ever been. We've come so far since that day. And I thought I loved you then. I remember, taking you back to right where I first met you. You were so surprised. There people around but I didn't care. I got down on one knee right there. And once again, I thought I loved you then. Now your my whole life, now your my whole world. And I just can't believe, the way I feel about you girl. Like a river meets the sea, stronger than it's ever been. We've come so far since that day. And I thought I loved you then. I can just see you, with a baby on the way. I can just see you, when your hair is turning grey. What I can't see is how I'm ever going to love you more. But I've said that before. Now your my whole life, now your my whole world. And I just can't believe the way I feel about you girl. We'll look back someday, at this moment that we're in and I'll look at you and say, "And I thought I loved you then." And I thought I loved you then.

i'm not dieting, but i have lost a few pounds. why is it, then, that my pants are tighter? no matter what i do, the belt area is tighter and tighter and tighter? UUGH! i hate pants. can i just do elastic now? here's to mom pants. (just kidding. i'm just glad i can wear PJs 90% of the time. today, though, i'm going out to lunch, which requires me to wear something other than PJs. and it must be my dryer, because not only are my pants getting tighter, they are also shorter. and i know i'm not getting any taller...)

is it the older he gets... or the angle of the camera?

here is yet another set of semi-bad pictures of kendal, but what i think is funny and unique about these is that here, kendal looks [more like] his dad! maybe it is the faces he's making, maybe it is the angle of the camera. boy can he make some funny faces! what i was trying to do was to get a cute picture of kendal and holly to send with the easter cards. fortunately, i did get some good ones (thanks to nathaniel who was helping me by getting their attention). anyway, here is one that isn't so good... but what i think is funny about it... is the MONSTER teeth showing in kendal's mouth!!! (here they are zoomed in.)

the random cat story

yesterday mom and i went to clayton to visit katelyn. i took kate a box of produce, it was in the back of my car. when we got there, kate came down and got kendal, i took up holly. mom went ahead up the stairs (she has to hold on, can't tote a kid.) i opened the hatch so the food wouldn't get hot. my windows and sunroof were cracked, but not very much. kate went right back down and got the food. she locked my car and came back up. after about 1-1/2 hours, we all except mom went to the playground. i parked, kate took kendal to the swing, i got the stroller out, got holly, and we went over and joined kate and kendal. kendal loves to swing and aparently he likes to slide too. we stayed there for about an hour. my windows and sunroof were cracked, but not very much. when we were done playing (it was getting late), we went to get in the car. strangly enough, there was a gray cat sitting on the console between the front two seats. kate opened the passenger door, and the cat ran out.

bad picture day

i was trying to get some cute pictures of kendal on st. patty's day (incidentally, he thought it was funny to put his socks on his hands) - and nearly EVERY picture i took of him turned out horrible! these are so horrible that they are funny. and if you're wondering what he's doing with his mouth... he's eating cereal (even trying to pick the cereal up with socks on his hands. yes, the socks were clean). the older he gets, the harder it is to get him to look at the camera and smile. he used to be such a ham. now... he wants to hold it, or he is too busy doing something else. such a little busy body he is. he even had that "talk to the hand" pose! here are some cute ones of my little blue eyed baby girl. she was wearing a pink knitted dress that was grace's.

dude.

this was way cooler when i was little.

a new look for p.e.t.a.

saw this tshirt at www.teeful.com and couldn't resist posting it. if i were more of a tshirt wearer, i'd order one. yes. i would like to order a nice juicy steak.

sit down!!!

when i was growing up (and maybe i've blogged about this before), but there was a bridge that mom called the "sit down bridge." it was before 401 was 6 lanes, before capital was more than 4 lanes... and it was really just a single lane underpass. it was also before seatbealts were required. (i.e. LONG TIME AGO!!!) well this morning, it took nathaniel an hour to get to work. you know - rain - slows the world down. i asked him why - he said traffic. i said "wrecks, or just slow?" he said "wreck at the sit down bridge." how funny is that. the bridge that is there now isn't the same one as the original, but he even knows it now as the sit down bridge. lol.

holly and grandma

lately, holly has been chunking up. (i.e., she's getting a layer of fat beneath her skin.) last night, i was holding her in the bed and started squeezing her arms and legs. they were so soft. not only is her skin soft, just to squeeze them now is soft. you can hardly feel the bones anymore. anyway, when i was squeezing her arm (her lower arm in particular), it reminded me of the way grandma's arms used to feel. kinda squishy. boy i know grandma would love this little girl. especially 'cause she looks like me. (which means she looks like dad.) i wonder what dad looked like as a baby.

things i hate about march

1. battle of the blues 2. sweet 16 3. elite 8 4. final 4 5. dipsy-doo dunkaroo 6. cinderella teams 7. the big dance 8. duke 9. carolina 10. pollen starts so my house gets dusty & my nose gets stopped up.

ramdom photo cd

i found a random photo cd today while trying to 'kendal proof' the bookshelf. wasn't sure what was on it, so i put it in my cd drive. most of it was anza borrego photos from march 2006 when we went. however, there was a sweet little treat at the end - here are some of them!

one of the few flowers melissa's ever grown. eatin' leaves! not sure where this is, or why i have it. but, thought it was cute! and proof that rob WAS home for some of the time! g always had loose pants. hope she's always got the problem of being tall and thin. so cute. i can't wait to get this swingset at my house. already decided that we likely will get about a 10 x 10 plot of sod to sit it on. it'll make for softer falls. a fresh tatoon! sweet little bubba. i remember when kendal was that small. and soon holly will be that big! this picture was the most interesting not because of me, but because of faith. holly is going to look a lot like her. she has the same jaws, chin, nose, and eyes. shape and color. i've been thinking lately that the center of holly's eyes are "flesh" colored, which made me think they were gonna turn. but, faith has that same fleshy center. so pretty.

(by the way, you can click on any of the photos to see them larger. much much larger!)

i am so addicted...

what's it for you?

the "what if" plan

lately, i've come up with a plan... you know... if i loose my job. this is kinda a far fetched plan, but really, i think it is realistic. and if i wasn't a mom, i don't think i would have ever seen the need for this - but, no matter where you live, no matter what you do, or where you go... there are never enough daycare facilities. just in this area, trying to find one for kendal - most places have waiting lists longer than the gestation period. really. you basically have to get ON the waiting list when you first find out you are pregnant (like at 8 weeks pregnant) so your baby can get in there when he/she is 4 or 5 months old. that is a long long waiting list. god forbid that when your child is 12 months old you decide that he/she is ready for daycare. you get put on a different sort of waiting list - basically that waiting list is for kids to either be pulled out of daycare, or move away. because, the kids moving up from the baby room get priority into the toddler room, so you get behind them in line. anyway, my point here is that with such a growing population, there isn't enough daycares around. and now i'm not even mentioning prices... when i was calling around for kendal's daycare, there was one that was like between $500 and $600 A WEEK that still had a 6 month waiting list. no kidding. that one was in wake forest (i didn't call any in raleigh, just ones in a 20 mile radius). most in the WF area were $200 to $300 per week (per child) and had 9 to 12 month waiting lists for the 1 year room. well in 1 year, he'll be 2. :) anyway, luckily, there are two small daycares near our house. the closer of the two did have a 6 month waiting list for the 1 year room, but the one further away (a whole 5 miles) - well they did have an opening in the baby room... and the owner was in the process of hiring a new toddler teacher, which meant within the month she'd have space for 5 new toddlers (the student teacher ratio for toddlers is 5:1 as required by the state). so actually by the time he started, she had a new teacher and he went right into the toddler room. kendal loves his new school. he's been there almost two months now. i love it too. his teachers are so nice, and so are the owners. i really feel like they care about him. he's almost always happy to get there, and always happy to see us come get him. he even says "school" now. so i've picked out a name for my to-be-daycare if it ever happens. caterpillar clubhouse childcare. and in each room i want to paint a tree mural on the wall so it looks like a tree house in every room.

random stuff

1. who tells katie couric her hair looks good like that? uugh. i can't even watch her anymore. with her hair short and that deep deep voice, its like shes turning into a man. 2. huggies overnites have saved my days. for a while there, kendal was soaking through his diapers every night (after he started sleeping on his belly). i'm a die hard pampers user, so it was tough making the switch to huggies, though only at night. but, its been worth it. 3. speaking of diapers, i did a soaker comparison between the size 5 pampers baby dry, size 5 pampers cruiser, and size 5 huggies overnites. they all held 24 ounces of water without overflow, but when squeezed with light pressure, the baby dry easily let go a nice stream of water. the cruiser let released some less, and the overnight barely let a few drops out. i'm convinced you could absorb a lake with a jumbo bag of them. 4. i saw a pair of sheep today, i thought that was cool. 5. i like the way our yard is still whiter than most of the other yards in the 'hood. guess that means in the summer we really do have a cooler spot. wouldn't know it from our electric bills! 6. kendal and holly have the same chin when they cry. i don't like seeing them cry, but i do love seeing their flat chin. it is so cute. 7. i've been car shopping, and i had finally narrowed my choices to 3 vehicles. turns out one of the 3 have been discontinued. what a bummer. it was the least expensive of them. 8. i'm really excited that my friends tina and chris are pregnant. i can't think of any couple who would make cooler parents (who aren't already parents, anyway). 9. my sister got a pair of birds today. how cool is that! i think she should name them pete and repeat (for nathaniel), or... magnum and pi. (by the way, kate, they are budgerigars - from australia, and in the US for some reason are grouped with parrots, though they are not parrots at all (parakeets, small parrots).) cute birds though, after they are a year old, the males' beak where their nostrils are will turn purple or blue. the females' beak stays beak colored (white/tan). FYI! 10. holly's appetite has finally back up to normal. kendal's is getting there. 11. kendal has a pair of jeans with dinosaurs on them, and though they came with a shirt that matched (with a plaid dino on it), nathaniel always pairs those jeans with an orange striped shirt that jon and shannon gave him for his birthday. whenever nathaniel dresses kendal, it is ALWAYS in those pants and that shirt. too bad those pants are almost too small. when i asked nathaniel what he was going to do when those pants didn't fit, he said he was going to go buy another pair in the next size up. haha. 12. during my whole pregnancy with holly, i hated shrimp. well, i'm totally making up for it now because i can't get enough of them. 13. kendal can say backpack and watch and he knows what to do when you ask him to set his drink back up (because it is knocked over). 14. nathaniel's nose is runny today. even worse than kendal's. 15. kendal is an expert sitter-upper now and when we put him to bed (in the crib), he sits up and plays and plays. he arranges his stuffed animals and his blanket, then he'll lay on top of them, then he sits back up - repeat. he's also become an evening pooper now, so we have to keep an ear open for the grunts. no one likes to sleep with a dirty diaper! 16. made a cheesecake today, wasn't quite as easy as the one alton brown made on good eats. hopefully it'll taste good. that is, if it ever gets done. its already cooked twice as long as the one he cooked... and it still isn't done. 17. bo had three teeth pulled today during his dental cleaning (both upper molars plus one of the upper premolars). then he ate a bowl of food when he got home. poor cat. i put hot water on his food and let it sit so it was soft. the doctor said the root was exposed with the premolar! apparently some cats are just predisposed to mouth rot, just like humans. no wonder his breath stinks! 18. speaking of bo, we've upped his antidepressents now to 1 whole pill (10 mg/d). he seems to be doing ok. he is just a big cat, requires more pill than most cats, i suppose. 19. holly is really strong. she reminds me of naomi, the way she already likes to stand and hold her body straight and all. her neck is way way stronger than kendals was at this age. 20. hum. last one. what can i say. i got a new project at work last week (last wednesday) and i haven't even looked at it yet. need to get on it. it is just this type of "not a rush" project that turns into a "need it next week" project that i haven't even started! ok! that's it!

Sunday Morning Laugh

If You Give A Mom A Muffin

By Kathy Fictorie

If you give a mom a muffin, She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She'll pour herself some. Her three-year-old will spill the coffee. She'll wipe it up. Wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do laundry. When she puts the laundry in the washer, She'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer. Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper. She will get out a pound of hamburger. She'll look for her cookbook ("101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger"). The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail. She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow. She will look for her checkbook. The check book is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old. She'll smell something funny. She'll change the two year old's diaper. While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring. Her five-year-old will answer and hang up. She'll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee. Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup. And chances are... If she has a cup of coffee, Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.