we're baaaack!

If anyone is still out there, we're back! The past weeks have had us super busy with 6 grad papers, 4 doctor appointments, 2 ear infections, 21 breathing treatments, 1 possible case of RSV, 6 Christmas parties, 3 days of crazy gift shopping, 2 days of wrapping, and 3 days trying to dig ourselves out from under the piles of gifts we received this year!

For the first time, Bugman enjoyed opening his gifts, rather than feeling frustrated that someone gave him a new toy with paper on it. Bitty was even a fan of ripping (and eating) his gifts. Bugman's big gift this year was a train table, which he is enamored with. Bitty enjoys being the Godzilla of the train table, knocking over (and eating) everything. I'm not sure who is going to get more enjoyment out of the train table... Bugman, Bitty, or Daddy!

couldn't resist this one!

Check out Santa's newest elves here!

Ten On Tuesday

1. My mom and I took the boys to visit Santa at the mall yesterday after school. We thought that if we went early we would beat the line, and we did. Things didn't go quite as planned. Let's just say we have a picture of Bitty Bug... alone, on Santa's lap. Better one than none!

2. Daniel finally got his infected, ingrown toenail fixed this past weekend (paints quite a lovely picture for you, I'm sure.) He said that the experience with a podiatrist was MUCH less traumatic than his previous experience at the family doctor.

3. We are attempting to finish all of our Christmas shopping. I think I have all of the little kids finished (after hours of online shopping for some safe toys for the itty bitty ones). All of you grown-ups on our list... we're struggling here. Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what is on your list!

4. Perhaps this info is a little late, but Bitty has TWO teeth! They popped up a few weeks ago. We're fairly confident that he is working on a third on the bottom right.

5. Bitty is also SUPER DUPER close to standing on his own! Although we're terribly excited to see him developing so well, its also sad to see him getting so big :( You know his 1st birthday is coming up (in March).

6. Through Daniel's job, we adopted two children for the holidays. I requested girls (with visions of pink, ruffles, and BOWS dancing in my head). One of our little girls loves trucks and cars... go figure! It was still fun to shop for the two of them, and know that we are making their Christmas a little brighter!

7. Both of the boys woke up Saturday morning (and by morning I mean 2AM) with nasty colds. By nasty, I mean congested, runny nose, yellow snot bubble blowing colds. They seem to be on the mend, thanks to the Vick's Vaposteam Daddy picked up at the pharmacy. Its pretty nifty stuff. All you have to do is put some in the humidifier and it creates soothing vapors. We've notice a ginormous difference in their sleeping and breathing.

8. Bugman is becoming a 'little daddy' at Miss Kim's house. When I picked the Bugs up yesterday, another little guy had a piece of animal cracker on his face. Bugman was sure if was a "booga," and promptly found a Kleenex and wiped it off for him.

9. I have a new pet peeve. THESE! OK, so perhaps its not the shoes themselves, but rather the parents of the children wearing them. Why, oh why, would you let your child(ren) SKATE THROUGH THE GROCERY STORE ON A SATURDAY MORNING?!?!?! Its enough to make you want to trip them with your cart full of babies...

10. 6 SCHOOL DAYS UNTIL WINTER BREAK!! (not that I'm counting or anything!)

pass a little common sense my way

...also known as, what I've learned by default.

Recently, I've learned three important rules of living with a 2 year old:

Rule #1 - Do not buy white shirts (with a horse logo) for your 2 year old.

Rule #2 - Do not let your 2 year old eat M&Ms in the back seat of the car.

Rule #3 - Do not let you two year old eat M&Ms in the back seat of the car while wearing a white shirt.

its beginning to look alot like christmas...

We (and by 'we' I mean 'I') usually put up the Chrismas tree the day after Thanksgiving. This year we were a day late. I am not one to climb into our attic on my own, and this happens to be where we keep all of our Christmas bins and trees. To be funny, Daniel decided to let me get everything out of the attic. Now, our attic is a door inside Daniel's closet that is very dark, and very scary. Many things could live in this dark space... ghosts, bats, serial killers... the possibilities are truly endless. This being said, until Daniel finally gave in at about 9:00 last night, nothing came out. So, today was the day, and we have a tree, lights, ribbon, and the new star Alex picked out from Target (our favorite place to frequent). We have yet to put any ornaments up yet. Perhaps it will happen tomorrow, or perhaps we will have a Christmas without ornaments, in this house, you just never know what may, or may not happen. Alexander did manage to partially decorate one of his two trees. He has a small white tree that holds all of his baby ornaments and lives in his room, and a miniature green tree that he is allowed to decorate and touch. He had a great time putting his jingle bells on, but about halfway through he realized that the jingle bells were the perfect size for his pockets. He managed to stuff about 6 ornaments into each pocket. They were then emptied onto the end table, and by bedtime, were scattered across the livingroom floor. I guess we have two trees to decorate (or not)tomorrow!



Kellan and Daddy were very busy today too....

OUCH!

Now that Bitty is mobile, it seems that he is constantly (and by constantly, I mean every 10 minutes) falling down and hitting his head on something. The crawling doesn't seem to be much of a problem, it is the pulling up and cruising (yes cruising... again, mommy is fearing an early walker.) I don't remember Bugman being covered in bumps and bruises until after his first birthday, but perhaps I've just forgotten. Yesterday we had our first big, ugly bruise.

I had the day off to take The Bugman to his eye appointment and was getting ready in the bathroom. Bitty was playing in the playroom, which is pretty babyproof, or so I thought. Apparently he decided to pull up on, and then to attempt to crawl over, Bugman's firetruck. There was a pretty loud bang, and then very loud crying. I found Bitty in between the firetruck and the toy shelf. I scooped him up and checked out his noggin. Everything seemed to be fine. Bitty went to Miss Kim's for a few hours while we went to the eye doctor, and when I picked him up, Kim commented on the ginormous bruise on this forehead. She asked if I had noticed it, because she didn't think he could have gotten it at her house. The long slanted bruise was obviously from his fall earier, as it looked like the edge of the shelf. Poor Bitty :(

almost normal

Ok, so calling our family 'normal' may be taking it a bit far, but as of Monday, we are a little closer to what I would consider to be so. A few posts back I had to delete some potentially exciting news because it was not official yet, and apparently there are a few readers out there that either worked with Daniel at Rey Rey, or know someone who worked with Daniel at Rey Rey. I was repremanded firmly for attempted to spread some NEW JOB info before all i's were dotted and t's were crossed. Well, now I can spill the beans (in case anyone didn't know, or figure it out)... Daniel has a new job! Better yet, his job title now includes the word "engineer!" He started this Monday at Leis Medical in Vandalia. From what I understand they do something medical and the man behind the company had the last name Leis. I'm an amazing wealth of knowledge aren't I?

For our family, this means no more 12-9 shifts, no more single daddy in the morning, no more single mommy in the evening, and we may have some clean laundry occassionally. We've even managed to sit at our kitchen table 4 nights in a row. The four of us were able to head the 'book store' to play with the 'twain' together. Well, Alex played with the train, Kellan slept in his carseat, I caught up on some gossip magazines, and daddy read about bartending (ummm, yeah, I don't know.... maybe he's already decided he needs to escape from us and become a bartender by night? Perhaps he's planning a 'stock the bar' party for our nonexistant bar? Maybe it was the first thing he saw when we walked in?)

Perhaps with our new 'normal' life, I'll have a little more time to update you all with Bugman and Bitty stories and pics! I have quite a few antecdotes to share, and pics on the camera just waiting to be uploaded... and unfortunately grad work to finish tonight... perhaps tomorrow? Stay tuned...

Whose swing is this anyway??

halloween in pictures... better late than never

Ten on Tuesday... a day late!

First, a few photos of The Bugs...

1. Bitty is beginning to climb... into his carseat, into the swing, into his bouncy seat. Bugman was not a climber. I am not looking forward to the trouble we are going to get into!

2. I turned around yesterday and saw Bitty standing up, holding onto the

gate with one hand. I feared he would let go and walk across the room. Is it wrong to wish he would stay stationary for the next three years???

3. Keeping up with our Wednesday visits to the pediatrician's office, Bitty went last Wednesday. The verdict - Croup and an ear infection (sound familiar?) He had a dose of steroids and came home with an antibiotic.

4. Today is Wednesday... we did not go to the doctor.

5. Kellan is going to be a pea for Halloween. Alexander is going to be a carrot. Peas and carrots, carrots and peas... could it be any cuter?

6. The Bugs' album from their photo shoot with Tracy is up. Just go to her website or blog, click on proofs, and type the password bittyandbugman (all lowercase, no spaces), and check out all 230 pics!

7. I have been very busy looking at the boys pics, over and over and over and over...

8. I have been very busy making my colleagues look at the boys pics over and over and over...

9. The B&W pic of Bugman walking down the gravel road (featured in the blog) made our music teacher cry (yes Tracy, you are THAT amazing!)

10. We are going to The Funny Bone Friday evening with Jessica and Travis, to see Heywood Banks.

in love...

I've been anxiously awaiting a sneak peak at the boys photo session from last week. (By anxiously awaiting, I mean checking Tracy's blog ~97594 times per day.) To my pleasant surprise, when we arrived home from school today their were, not one, but two posts featuring the boys. Check them out here and here. Have you ever seen anything this gorgeous? Of course we've always thought we have the cutest kids around, but I'm pretty sure these pictures validate it! (So perhaps we're slightly biased.) Mommy gives herself props for the perfect fall outfits (thank you Baby Gap!)

ten on tuesday

1. Our photo shoot with Tracy was rained out last Tuesday... but it was nice to have the day off anyway to spend with the boys and catch a little R&R. We were able to reschedule for last Friday after school. We had a great time at Cox Arboretum... especially The Bugman, who, literally, ran for 2 1/2 hours. I know I can't wait to see the pictures, and I'm sure you can't either, so I will let you know when they are posted. While we wait, check out Tracy's website and Blog. If you look closely, you will see some members of our family already adorn her website (think August 4, 2006).

2. The Bugman has been under the weather. We went to see Dr. Cata last Wednesday, for what we thought was a little wheezing. It turned out he did indeed have a little wheezing, but also had croup, and an ear infection (apparently the ear infection he had a few weeks ago reared its ugly head again). So, we left with a huge dose of steroids, antibiotics, and breathing treatments. He is doing much better, but still has a fairly nasty cough.

3. Bitty has now become ill as well. He had a mild fever last night, and sounded a little horse on and off today. The pediatricians office thought I was joking when I said we needed our own room. If Bitty goes to the doctor it will be our 5th visit, and 7th appointment in about 6 weeks. Seriously.

4. OK,I had to delete this possibly exciting news. More to come later!!

5. Leanne packed up all of the boys toys that were made in China. She likes to think she is just being cautious. It may also be that she is a little crazy.

6. This being said, their are no toys left in our house. Ok, so we have books, some Hotwheels, and some Lego Duplos. Other than that, its very slim pickings.

7. I found the coolest magazine for The Bugman. He is getting a subscription to High Five for Christmas (in place of the 'Made in China' toys that he will not be getting). It's the toddler version of "Highlights for Children," which I read when I was little.

8. The Bugman is super psyched about Halloween this year. He LOVES 'punkin heads,' and is constantly pointing them out everywhere we go.

9. The Bugman asked to go to Target today... perhaps a sign that we go there a little too often?

10. Bitty is starting to grow some hair. Not much, but still, its hair.

Here is a little video of The Bugman naming

his ABCs. I ran out of memory before he

finished, but you get the idea.

and the official stats are...

weight - 15lbs 6oz (15th percentile)

height - 25 3/4" (25th percentile)

head circumference - 44.4cm (70th percentile)

As suspected, he's a little guy with a ginormous noggin... but hey, the Gerber baby had a ginormous head too!

ten on tuesday

In an attempt to get better at posting, I'm going to try a few blogging tricks I've learned. So, here it is, our first 'Ten on Tuesday.'

1. Bitty Bug officially hit the 6 month mark last Thursday. I'm not sure when 6 months passed by, it doesn't seem that it could have been that long. He is a commando crawling king, and is starting to pull on the rails of his crib (so he can peek out the bedroom door, and see what we are up to.)

2. The Bugman knows all of his uppercase letters. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but it is reassuring that we are doing something right. He also asked me to write the letters ALXE the other day. (By the way, he know more letters than some of my students... scary, but true.)

3. I recieved all the possible points on my first round of papers for my master's class (woo hoo, go me!)

4. Daniel is the Contact Management Rock-Paper-Scissors champion. He will be representing his team in the building wide competition.

5. I am sewing the boys Halloween costumes this year (because I'm crazy). Does sewing one pair of sweatpants (and a hair scrunchy) in 8th grade, constitute me as a sewer???

6. The Bugman has been getting up at 5:00AM. Enough said.

7. The Bitty Bug has been getting up at 5:00AM. Again, enough said.

8. Max fell down our stairs this morning, which was quite tramatic. He appears to be uninjured, but I anticipate he may be sore tomorrow. I wanted to carpet our stairs and bedroom for this very reason. I was vetoed.

9. Bitty Bug has his 6 month appointment tomorrow, and both boys are getting their flu shots. I will post Bitty's official stats tomorrow.

10. The boys are getting their pictures taken next week by Tracy, who did Aunt Ashy's wedding. Mommy is super duper excited!!!

and... what's a post with a photo...

charge the battery, mom

If you'll recall, back in July, Bugman got a new pair of wide shoes for his chunky toes. Well, we knew that it was getting close to time to make another purchase, and I had been surfing the web for an attractive pair of shoes in a size 7.5, x-tra wide width, with Velcro. This was no small feat. Well, before I could find the perfect shoes, Bugman outgrew his current boats. How did we know? Today we had great plans to go to the park after nap time. All was going as planned until I crammed (I mean delicately placed) Bugman's feet into his shoes. Let's just say he was less than happy, and limping around yelling 'boo boo.' Off to the mall we went. 90 minutes later, we had the only pair of size 7.5, x-tra wide width, Velcro shoes in the place. Not necessarily the shoes I would have picked out, appearance wise, but they serve their purpose, and the limp is now gone.

We did manage to take a family trip to the park, although a little later than planned. I was ready with the camera, but after one picture (taken by daddy), the battery went dead. Hmm... maybe I should charge it a little more often!

We've once again been MIA for awhile. We have a great excuse though... (1) Our computer broke and (2) I started my grad classes last Monday. Oh, and did I mention I'm doing my grad classes online... and that our computer broke?

Anywho, we're back!! Labor Day weekend, we took the boys up to Wegerzyn Gardens. It was quite a trip, and I was pretty sure we were going to be shot at on the way there (apparently it was not a good idea to take the Mapquest directions instead of the Metro Park provided directions... Mapquest was unaware of the ghetto.)

We found out when we got there that it was the last day for the water to be on, so we lucked out by finally getting up there the day we did. We had been rained out of several playdates over the summer.

a little nervous under the waterfall

climbing through the stream

resting on a bench (the coolest benches I've ever seen)

checking out the fish pond with daddy

our little spelunker

the perfect pot for a bitty bug

another of the cool benches

tired and hungry... time to go home

As you can see we had a great time playing in the water and the caves, and found a few little spots to snap some pics of Kellan OUT of the stroller!

I will get some video or pics (maybe both) of Kellan this week. He is officially a sitter, and a creeper!!!

old macdonald had a farm....

EIEIO!! Last year we (actually, I) thought it would be a GREAT idea to take The Bugman to the Montgomery county fair. He was just learning to identify farm animals and it seemed like a logical step. Well, let's just say that he slept through the entire fair, and Daniel and I each gained about 10lbs in two hours (gotta love fair food!)

We decided to try again this year, now that The Bugman is 2. What a difference from last year! He was in awe of the animals and was so excited to even pet a few. I think his favorite part was baaing back at the sheep (at the top of his lungs, I must add.)


And of course, being the happy baby he is, Bitty Bug was content in his stroller... as long as someone stopped and flashed him a smile once in awhile!

its a birthday contest!

Check out the gals over at Mommin' It Up. They are hosting a fun contest in honor of Jenny's big 3-0 birthday! (I'm glad that I still have a few years left until that one!!) I'm hoping I win the milkchic nursing cover... how fun!

PS I know that I've been rather delinquent this week. I promise an update and some photos tomorrow!

so THIS is what they were talking about

I would say that about 6 months ago, I insisted Alexander had begun the 'terrible twos' stage. Although he continued to be an angel in public, and for the sitter, we did have some meltdowns in the privacy of our own home. I really thought this would be no big deal, and the vast majority of the world would never even know about our little rotten one... and then he officially turned two.

The big two year birthday weekend was a busy one, with our b-day shopping/ice cream on Friday, party on Saturday, and then a family reunion on Sunday (with eating at 1:00, which happens to be nap time). Now, that was a jam packed weekend for me, and I'm quite a bit older than 2. They weekend went by without a hitch, even with our missed nap on Sunday. Monday started out just like any other Monday, and then I decided to go to the grocery.

I typically do my grocery shopping in the AM before Daniel heads to work, or late at night after he gets home. This particular day I thought I would just take the boys along, especially since we didn't need much.

First I must paint you a picture, because, while this seems quite normal to me these days, and I can't possibly be the only mom that does this, I do get some awkward looks. Imagine this... one cart, one toddler (in the front seat), one car seat (in the basket of the cart), and groceries piled UNDER the cart. Seems reasonable to me. Apparently I'm the only one trying this (although again, I can't be the only mom who takes two small children to the grocery alone... right?)

Our trip was going quite well, then we hit the cereal aisle (did I mention it was 7:30 PM? and Alex had missed his nap the day before?) Kellan was of course being the best baby ever (he is also not two yet) chewing away on a fabric octopus rattle. Bugman decided that he needed a box of cereal. We didn't need cereal, seeing as there are probably 7 boxes of cereal in our basement (they were on sale, OK). I calmly told him that we had cereal at home and it was not on our list today. (He is my 'helper' when we shop and holds our list.) I thought the matter was resolved, and we turned the corner to cruise the next aisle.

I was mistaken, wails of 'CEREAL, CEREAL' came screeching out of this child. No big deal, I'm sure by the end of the aisle, it will be fine. Again, I was mistaken. By the end of the next aisle the entire store is filled with shrieks, and screams from one little two year old boy. Then came the stares. Not the 'look at that crazy mom with food piled on the bottom of the cart' stares, but the 'it sounds like she must be beating her child' kind of stares. I had to make a decision, leave, or stay and finish (we were almost done at this point.) I decided to finish. This decision came at precisely the exact moment I saw blood trickling out of Bugman's nose. As if things couldn't get worse, I had no Kleenex in my purse. I took a deep breath, and asked another woman in the aisle if she had a Kleenex. She didn't. So there I stand, wiping my son's bloody nose on my shirt in the grocery store.

To make the rest of a long story short, we left with one more sippy cup that we don't need, and a little boy pretending there was something in it to drink.

This week, I'll be going to the grocery alone.

better late than never

I am finally getting to posting Alexander's 2nd b-day pics. After his party, I got so busy trying to get ready for school, I have been a slacker on the blog. Yes, it is once again time for school. Only this year we are opening a brand new building, which means a lot more work before the year officially begins. My favorite part of my new room... THREE FLOOR TO CEILING WINDOWS!! Anyone who had been in my previous 'cave' knows this is a big deal.

Alexander started his birthday celebration Friday morning with a brand new tricycle waiting for him in the livingroom. Mommy and Daddy had put it together the night before. Perhaps I should say Mommy put it together, Daddy took it apart and put it together correctly (Hey, I try).

We went to Toys-r-Us where The Bugman picked out his first Hotwheels cars, and then headed over to Graeter's for some icecream. Of course, a couple of the new cars came along.

Saturday was official party day.

Playing Peek-a-boo with 'Ashy'

Playing in the pool.

Playing with new toys.

A Blue's Clues Cake

Learning to hit a Pinata.

A lot of candy for two kiddos.

After the pinata festivities were over, and there was a dog head hanging from a tree, and a body on the ground... I began to question this whole pinata thing...

We did manage to get a picture of Bitty Bug and his little cousin Jacob wearing matching shirts. And when I say little cousin, I mean 6 weeks younger. Shorty and his cousin are about the same height, although Kellan wins in roundness!