You've been Boo-ed!

We finally mapped out the electrical stuff in the house. This has been the hold up in finishing up the walk-in closet in our bedroom. The house is 20 years old. The electrician must have been on something when he was wiring the house. Outlets and switches are randomly connected to breakers. A few breakers have one or two things linked to them. Another breaker or two has about ten things linked to them. Half of the nursery is on one breaker & the other half is on another breaker with R's big boy room. Our room, but not our bathroom, is connected to a breaker also servicing various parts of the downstairs. It really does not make any sense at all.

After all that A went out and ran an errand while I stayed here with the kids. R escaped his crib again. I didn't give in and after a while there was no noise coming from his room. I went up there to check on him. He hit the lock on his door again. I used my pick lock expertise to break into his room, again. Some how I did this with out waking him. I could only crack the door open a little because he fell asleep right there. I got it open enough to know he was ok.

After A cam home I ran out and did my errands. I had to go walk a friends dog and get a few things. It took going to two stores to find orange paper bags for my MOMS Halloween party next week. Going to the two stores wasn't a waste because I found a few Christmas presents and snow gloves for R. I ran to the mall to find him a hat and a scarf. Looks like I am going to have to order his snow boots and snow suit from Old Navy. This being California, the land with 1.5 seasons, no one seems to sell those items even though we have Big Bear a few hours away. I got L her ornament and ordered her piggy bank. I'm done shopping for her. I just want to get R 2 or 3 more toys since his birthday is that month, too. Then I am done shopping for him (birthday & Christmas).

I finally got around to putting out the "BOO" bags I made. It should be interesting to see if people keep it up. I picked someone who had decorations up and another family that I know has kids. I've had my bags for a week or two now. Kinda got a late start on getting them out, but our street isn't very big.

Off to bed. It's calling me. Before I know it R will be up. We're doing family day at Bates Nut Farm tomorrow. I should get some good pictures to post.

T.G.I.F.

It's finally Friday. Today was a pretty uneventful day. R actual slept in until about 7am. That was nice. Would be even nicer if he could go until about 8am. Last month I joined a MOMS club. All the other moms I have met are pretty nice and R gets to play with some other children. There are a few other ones who are his age. October's calendar was pretty uneventful. This month has flown by in a blur that I can't remember if I have done anything with the group. Today a bunch of us met up at a park. It was nice to get out. R enjoyed himself. He slid down all the slides, sat in the swing, and played in the sand (we brought 2 shoe fulls home). I was pretty sure that after lunch he would take a nice long nap. Boy was I dreaming today! Nap was a no go. He escaped his crib 3 times! I think he escaped the first time because he needed to go potty. He fell asleep in his high chair while A & I ate dinner. It was a late dinner, so R had already eaten, but of course he had to have what we were eating, too. We made it through the day with hardly any tantrums. YAY!!

Oh something funny happened today. I was trying to give R a snack but as usual both dogs were wanting the snack, too. I told the dogs to "sit". Well they sat, but so did R. I think he hangs out with the dogs way too much, lol. At least they all listened to me!

Here is a picture of the cutest brother & sister team...

Add lock picker to the resume...

According to Moms Salary Wizard I should be earning $624,413/year for the area we live in. I guess that's suppose to be an average 40 hour week and everything else is over time. The pay includes such jobs as housekeeper, daycare center teacher, (institution) cook, laundry machine operator, facilities manager, van driver, janitor, psychologist, and chief executive officer.

After today I can add lock picker and nurse to the above mentioned jobs and my resume. R figured out how to climb out of his crib not too long ago, but he never really felt the need to utilize this talent. In fact, I think he's known how to do it long before his first great escape. Yesterday morning he escaped. Today he escaped twice. This is not where the nurse role comes into play. He sleeps with his door closed. He can reach the handles, but can only open a few doors. This is where he did not think his plan out completely. In his attempt to break free he ended up hitting the lock on his door. He knew I was on the other side so there was no panicking. In fact I think he thought it was some what amusing. He's locked himself in the bathroom before, so this is nothing new to him. Mom to the rescue!! I tried a bobby pin, but no luck. I found an old card and was able to help my little guy break free from the confines of his room.

My role as a nurse... We needed to run out and grab a few items for dinner tonight. When I can, I like to go to Henry's. Their fruits and vegetables last longer and are better priced. Plus it's just a neat store to go to over all. It's not the closest grocery store to us, though, but worth the drive. Back to the story... They have little carts for kids to push around. R does not care to sit in the cart seat when we go shopping. I blame it on a 3 hour trip to Home Depot a few months back. So we (a friend was with us) got R his own little cart to push. It was cute, I wish I had my camera. The cart had a pole going up with a flag that said something like "Shopper in training". I think the cart could have used a few bumpers on it and heel guards. Eventually we figured out that if we weighed the cart down with items R could drive as crazy. He eventually figured off that he needed to listen to mommy when she told him not to goof off. I'm not too sure how the events played out, but he ended up hitting his head on the wheel of his cart. Melt-down magnified by 100 because it was also nearing nap time. Poor little guy had a dime size bruise on the side of his forehead. Nothing like a mommy's love and a pacifier to make him feel better.

R's vocabulary is starting to take off. He shrugs his shoulders and says Idon'tknow (yes, all 1 word), our dog Sammy is Mam, I'm momma, A is daddy or poppa (sometimes), his grandfather (A's dad) is Bob (yes, R has called him by his name), & more is mo. Sometimes he will say milk. He can say duck, truck, yuck and one other -uck word (use your imagination). He's tell you bye & wave when you leave or if he just doesn't want to be bothered by you. Oh, yes, he has one other phrase... Oh Sheeet (again, use your imagination). There's more, but I'm feeling lazy at the moment. Lets just say daddy has learned that he really does have to watch what he says around his little bukaroo!

L is quit the talker. She made several new sounds today & I could swear she said "momma", but it was probably a fluke. Nothing really new in her world. She sleeps, eats, & poops.

Some of you know that Sammy was having some mysterious mouth issues. We took him to a doggy dentist because the regular vet was clueless. Sammy wasn't acting himself. We thought this might have been age, even though he's not anywhere near old. He was also doing this weird jaw crunching or cracking and stretching. It's really hard to describe it. It's one of those things you have to see to understand. He ended up having 1 seriously infected tooth pulled and two impacted molars that didn't have roots. Boxers have jacked up mouths - extra teeth, extra gum skins, just issues all over. Oh & he also had some cyst biopsies which came back normal. He definitely has his personality back and his breathe isn't as offensive anymore (think rotting fish), but he still makes that noise with his jaw. We're wondering if it's a behavior. It's almost like nails going down a chalk board. Everyone, the vet, the dentist, several breeders & us are all baffled. Maybe TMJ. It's really rare in dogs, but Sam could be one of those rarities.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program...

I won the sewing machine battle!!

When I was pregnant with R I had this crazy idea to make his crib set (quilt, skirt, bumper, and curtains). I had really good intentions. I couldn't find anything I liked that wasn't outrageously priced. Things were going well with the bumper, but went down hill fairly fast with the quilt. The machine just did not want to cooperate with me. I lost count how many needles I broke. I never could figure out why they broke. A's mother was kind enough to finish the mess I started. She did a wonderful job and managed to break no needles. Grrrrrrrrr!!! Fast forward about two years (I still have curtains to finish)...

R is about to move into a big boy room so L can get out of my room and take over the nursery. The theme for his room is "Cowboys". I went to the local feed (horse store) over the weekend and purchased several items to decorate his room with. I'm so excited and want to get moving on this project. Then I went to Jo-Ann's fabric store and purchased several yards of soft, not super furry, cow print fabric and red bandanna print. I'm using the cow print for curtains and part of the blanket. The bandanna fabric will be on the blanket, too, but I also purchased a roller blind that I want to cover it with. I have a vision...

Tonight I made the blanket. I'll probably make a second one. It only took me 2 hours, shouldn't have, but it did. In the two hours I cut, pinned, sewed, pinned some more, tried to convince a 60lb dog that it wasn't his blanket to lounge on, sewed some more, ripped out stitching from half a side, re-pinned & re-sewed. Yes, in 2 hours I only had to rip out 1/2 a side and did not break any needles!! I won!!

Cow print side...

Bandanna print side...




Close up of bandanna print...




On a side note I have started Christmas shopping for the kids. I've only started thinking about it for everyone else. I'm almost done with there shopping. R & L are getting some winter clothes for our ski trip after Christmas. So far for toys, R is getting a wooden CH-46 and a truck. L is getting the twilight turtle that beams stars onto the ceiling, a nice towel set, and a hand-knitted doll similar to this. R got a piggy bank for his first Christmas, so it's only fitting that L gets one, too. Since she was born in the year of the pig and she's my princess, I found this piggy bank. I also want her to have another Barefoot Dreams blanket. I just can't decide which one. They all look so yummy!! She has 1 so far, but a girl can never have too many blankets! I was thinking about getting them some wooden blocks to share. R is so much fun to shop for. It's a good thing his birthday is a few weeks before Christmas! A & I talked about maybe getting him a quad for his birthday. I know he would enjoy it, just not sure if I want to buy it. I discovered over the summer that Toys R Us has a wonderful line of Home Depot toy tools. These are R's favorite toys. He loves to imitate anything that daddy does. They have a few things online that I have been kind of eying. He has the tool box with a few tools, a hat, and tool belt. Just like daddy!!

Oh, before I sign off for the night and debate about washing the pizza from dinner tonight out of my hair... R started his 2nd session of music class (7 in a session) today. The last session there were several girls in his class. Today there were only boys... 4 of them. He had fun. It poops us both out. It's gets the three of us out of the house for a few hours. L sits in her seat and watches or naps. She does really well during his classes. The place where the class is held has a baby scale. I weigh her every week. Today she was 13lbs 9 oz. That's only 3oz less than what R was at 4 months and 1 day. She will be 4 months in about 5 days. Mot sure what her length is currently. She looks bigger than R did at this age. Maybe she's shorter? Or she wears the weight differently? We shall see next Monday when we pay Dr. R a visit.

Has anyone seen my sweet little boy?

Yes, we've entered the terrible two's... and they are very terrible. I've heard the three's are even worse. I sure hope not. If there are, someone, PUHLEASE, get me one of those all white rooms with soft cushions for walls. It's like R is possessed. One moment he's giving me hugs and helping me clean and the WHAM, melt down tantrum with a head-ache inducing shrill. Add the two-year molars to the loads of fun we are already having.

On a positive note, though, it seems R is ready to start potty training. I guess the "new" term is potty learning. Eh, I prefer to call it potty training. I wasn't planning on pushing it until after the new year. I'm still not going to push it until then. For now I will let him do his own thing. Earlier this year Grandma H (my mother) bought him a little potty. I even bought him some big boy potty training undies. He'd occasionally show interest in it, but with only 1 success. Things changed sudden this past week. He's made an attempt to try & potty several times a day. They are obvious attempts, too (grunting involved, lol). He's had several successes!! He's getting M&M's as a reward. I know he knows the feeling, too. His diaper has been dry before a few of his successes. The other times I don't think he's been able to get to the potty in time. I keep telling him that mommy isn't going to wipe his butt forever, lol.

Update on L. She has her 4 month check-up early next week. I found R's 4 month form. He weighed 13lbs 12oz. I weighed L about 2 weeks ago & she was about 13lbs. I'm betting she's going to be about 15lbs next week. I'll post a recent picture of her then. I've got to keep you all coming back some how!

Well I need to get going. L is hungry (what's new?!). R needs a bath & mommy needs him to go to bed. Tonight I think I might unwind by working on one of my ten million projects I have going on. I have several scrapbooks going on, but one of my high priorities right now is getting R's big boy room set up. It's cowboy themed. I found some really cool fabric for his curtains & blankets. That will only be relaxing if the sewing machine decides to cooperate with me.

Into the blue...

Welcome to my world! I am married to a wonderful U.S.M.C. pilot, "A". A and I have two kiddies,"R" and "L". We plan on adding more to the clan. We also have two dogs, Boxers to be exact, Sampson and Raider. We are currently living in Temecula, California. It's just north of San Diego.

I'm hoping to be able to stay up to date with this blog for family and friends. I'll write about our family and military adventures, the quest to update the house we bought earlier this year, the kids and what ever miscellaneous adventures I get myself into.

To end this blog, since everyone has awoken from their naps, I would like to thank Lauren K. for the title of this blog. A is always up in the blue and my hair (waaaay back in the day) used to be blue. Now back to my cleaning...