And THAT would be my birthday present

Yes, yes....extravagant....but my husband thinks I am worth it!

PTG VS ATG

Giving birth the The Girl completely flipped my world. I have become a totally different mother and wife. There is something about adding that second child that just changes everything. It reminds me of the speech Uma Thurman gives in Kill Bill (with a bit of creative license)....

"Before that strip turned blue, (creative license ensues) I was a mom to one. I was your mom. I would have a fall birthday party planned and in place my spring. Before that strip turned blue, I would have feed you all homemade and organic foods and had a place for everything and everything in its place. For you. But once that strip turned blue, I could no longer do any of those things. Not anymore. Because I was gonna be a mother to two." (end of creative license)

But I do want to be that Super Mom I set out to be--I really do. I want to have a house that is clean, organized and efficient. I try to get inspiration from the things around me. For example, I watched Jon & Kate Plus 8 last night scouring for organization ideas from her. But the show--as interesting as it is--really never addresses specifically how she handles 8 children all day long. However, she did make one comment that reverberated in me. Kate said, "I am never behind because I refuse to fall behind." I am always behind anymore. I cannot believe I ever had it together enough to plan an entire party months ahead of time. Now, I forget to send out invitations, much less plan the menu. When we went on vacations, not only would I have all activities mapped out, I would pre pack up to a week ahead of time. ATG (after the Girl) I pack the morning of. And kids activities--forget about it. With The Boy, I had activties lined up almost every day--including reading time, music time, art time, and imaginary play time. With The Girl, if Elmo doesn't do it with her, it isn't getting done.

Maybe I am too hard on myself or maybe I am just lazy. But I'm trying real hard Ringo....I'm trying real hard to be the Super Mom. (ok, ok My apologies to Quinten Tarantino) I still manage to send out home made Christmas cards every year. I just redid The Girl's room in fairy theme--hand making the decorations and painting the pictures on the walls. I joined PTO. I let my child sleep in a cardboard box because he uses it for his clubhouse and wants to camp out on weekends. I make dinner at least 3-4 nights a week (maybe more). I drive a mini van and I even manage to clean the bathtub time and again.

I suppose in the grand scheme of things, all of us do our very best. No one is perfect. No one is broken either. We just do our best, muddle along and pray that one day our children will not drag us onto Oprah and talk about what bad parents we were. Although a free trip to Chicago would not be that bad...

Another Science Lesson

The Girl developed an attraction to a plastic giraffe today. She played with it all morning and even took it to nap with her. When she got up, she wanted to bring it with her. So, during diaper changing time, I made small talk about said giraffe. It went a little something like this:

Me: So, what is your giraffe's name?
The Girl: roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Me: No, what is his name? Not his noise....
The Girl: What? His name?
Me: How about Bob?
The Girl: No, not Bob! (laugh)
Me: OK Larry?
The Girl: Not Larrrreeeee (laugh)
Me: Sue?
The Girl: No.....(laugh)
Me: Is it a boy or a girl giraffe?
The Girl: What?
Me: Is your giraffe a boy or a girl?
The Girl: I dun know. It a giraffe!

Goodnight to me---forever?

Me: You are my little baby boy. (hugging The Boy goodnight) Even if you are big. Look at you--you are like a giant. How did you get so big?

The Boy: I will always be your little baby boy. Now matter how big I get, I will always be your little baby boy and also your big boy. (putting his hands on my shoulders and giving me a serious look) And if you die, I will always remember you.

What a goof....

Things I love

A tribute to love on Valentine's Day

my husband

my kids--snot and all

cheese

movies--even sucky ones

I think I love my netti pot--but I am still not sure

crafts

finding a really good sale

pay day

vacations

car rides--long ones that require napping

eating out

napping on the beach

waking up on the beach

Disney World--it really is the happiest place on earth--really!

chocolate chip ice cream

the smell of industrial glue

my body pillow

long showers

salsa

cilantro

blue

green

John Taylor

collecting sea shells

planning my kids birthday parties

Yoda

baby feet

kittens

Pottery Barn

shorts

yoga

when a new magazine comes in the mail

picnics

painting the wall a new color

Coca-Cola

Dr. Pepper

Cherry Dr. Pepper from Sonic

our wedding picture

shade

rocks

sleepy medicine

store credit

catching fireflys

getting my point across

As I write this, Wow Wow Wubzy is singing, "Love, love, love.....love is all around..."

Happy Love Day :)

A Science Lesson

The scene: We are watching some show and beavers are on...PBS versions of beavers that is.

The boy: It's a dam!
Me: That's right. Who made that dam?
The boy: Beavers make them.
Me: Why would they do that?
The boy: They make them to stop the water from getting from this side to that side.
Me: But how do they build them?
The boy: They use their teeth and they eat through a branch and then they pile those up and it blocks the water.
Me: oh, ok

The end.

Boogie Woogie Blues

I have been sick since last Friday and not really in the mood to write, soooooooooo I want to share what I made a couple of weeks ago.

Look! A pretty picture for the girl's fairy themed big girl room.

I am slowly transferring everything over to

faith,

trust

and pixie dust

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The fruit of my womb

I love Duran Duran. Ever since I was 10 years old and Seven and the Ragged Tiger was out. The Reflex was the first song I ever heard and man, was I hooked. To this day I still have all of my albums, 45s, and a really old scrapbook barely holding on to the tattered interviews and posters from Tiger Beat and BOP magazine.

So, it is only natural that when their new album dropped in November, I would get it. And listen to it. In the house, in the car. And since my children are always with me, they listen to it too. I have to admit, I love it. My children picking up on Mom's musical tastes--who wouldn't love that? But that seems to have backfired a little bit. My children have an intense admiration for the title track of the album, Red Carpet Massacre. At first, I enjoyed playing it and watching them dance along. It was really cute when the girl started singing the lyrics with that sweet two year old tone to her voice. It was awesome when the boy would pump his fist in the air like a little Simon LeBon. The problem is--it is the only song they want to listen too. When the next track comes on, all I hear is "ed asser!" coming at me from the once innocent babe behind me. If I do manage to get through another song on the album, the boy will start asking the girl, "You want to hear Red Carpet Massacre, right?" and with his prodding, eventually there will be a chant of sorts hurdling towards me. "Moe ed asser!" the girl demands. Since I won't be able to listen to any other tracks in peace, I relent. Good thing I like that song!

Enough already

I am sick and tired of comments like "They had one kid with autism. Why didn't they stop?" or "They should never have had another child." First off, a lot of people have no idea that anything is wrong with their child until they are older and already have siblings. And second--whose business is it anyway? Are you really going to tell me that my girl does not deserve to live because her older brother has Asperger's? What a crock. Not only is that stupid, but it is basically saying my son should never have been born and for that--shame on you!

No, no one has said this to me personally, but I was following the blog of a family with 6 autistic children. http://www.autismbitestheblog.blogspot.com/ It is shocking and insane what some people are telling them. More than one person has had the gall to say they should have been sterilized. Sick.

Autism is not a curse--it is a way of life. Does it shake you to your core? yes. Can you overcome it? yes. Does every parent face challenges parenting? aw hell yes!

So, shut up everybody and keep your ignorant opinions to yourself. If you are going to be a turd-go lay in the yard!

She likes a clean bowl

I have decided a new nickname for the girl will be The Biscuit. You remember The Biscuit--from Ally McBeal? Geniusly played by Peter McNicol, The Biscuit had many quirks in his personality, but, his best was the toilet remote...One day Ally heard the toilet flushing itself. Running out of her stall perplexed, she found the biscuit entering the unisex bathroom, remote in hand. After giving him a look of "What in the hell?" he explained matter of a factly, "I like a clean bowl." The girl, just like The Biscuit, prefers no floaties, paper, particles or odd colors in her bowl. And as a potty training toddler, she is enamored with the way the toilet works. You fill it up, you flush. You fill it up some more, you flush again.


A quick Google search confirmed for me that toilet remotes actually do exist. This one is attached to the toilet--kind of defeats the purpose. Nonetheless, it does have some handy options, such as turning on music when you are doing your business (where it comes from exactly is still a mystery) and my personal favorite, the backside wash. In case you are unsure of which button turns that function on, just look at the buttons carefully for a nice behind getting a geyser looking surprise!