Love and hate

Love
I grew up in a small New England town. A place where we never locked our front door, road bikes way past dusk and knew just about everyone we'd run in to on the street. My Dad was the local dentist and his office was right uptown. Every day at noon the town's emergency alarm would sound. Letting folks for miles around know that it was lunchtime. When I happened to be in my dad's office I would need to cover my ears. That's how loud it was. But, even though my ears might disagree, it is one of my many fond childhood memories. We now live in a town where the very same thing happens. Granted we lock our doors and never let the kids out of sight, but that trusty alarm sounds every day at noon. We are close enough to the center of town that we can hear it in our house (if no kids are yelling or the TV is not on). Granted, even though this is the same alarm they use to indicate you better hussle to the basement cause a tornado is near, I still enough hearing it.

Hate
Delivery windows. Don't they drive you nuts? We'll be there between 10-1. Um, ok. Why don't you just fess up and say 1. They never, ever come on the early side of the range. So you spend time off from work just waiting. For nothing to happen. Then when they do come you're already agitated and perhaps a little bitchy. Well, gotta go blog friends...HA!, they're here.

My Bluejacket Boys

This past weekend my in-laws took IA for a visit to their home in NW OH. That meant WA got the VIP single kid treatment for two whole days. Highlights included a trip to the Lego store (where he picked out the StarWars X-wing fighter), a trip to the zoo (where he jumped in every spring puddle around) and, best of all, a Columbus Bluejackets game. You can see my boys were happy indeed. WA had an absolute blast of a weekend. And so did I:).

Scrabble greatness

Tonight WA got to play a little Angry Birds. I was getting ready for yoga and left him to geek out on his own. When I came back he had somehow opened and started a game of Scrabble. I play a lot and he's seen me in action a few times. It was bedtime and we put the iPad aside. Once the kids were snug in bed, I got the iPad back out only to discover that WA was beating the computer! Too funny. Even though it was a 4 year old randomly putting letters together, I like to think Scrabble greatness runs in the family:).

Reconfirming the jackpot

It's often the little things in life that make you feel lucky. For me I've always felt blessed...from hitting the parental jackpot to having a brother I love dearly to an awesome sister-in-law(emphasis on the sister part) to in laws that I love to a husband that has the best sweet side. In the jackpot of life though, the kids are clearly my "Mega Millions". Life is life because of them.

We moved to Columbus in large part because of them. So that they could be close to their paternal grandparents, attend great schools and get a taste of small town life. Yesterday my neighbor and her two kids (friends of WA and IA) knocked on our door. They came baring gifts.

What an awesome Valentine's surprise. Once again confirming we made the right move. Jackpot!

Barbie

Barbie is gross. Last night I was getting WA's Valentine's Day cards in order and I couldn't really believe what I was doing. Now, a little backstory for you...WA, IA and I went to Target a couple weeks ago to pick out Valentine's Day cards for their new friends at school. We got to an aisle full of every kind of card set you could imagine...from Pokemon (that's still big with the 3-7 yr old crowd??) to Mickey to Puppies and Kitties. I let both kids pick out what they wanted to give. IA picked, you guessed it, Dora. WA mulled it over a bit more before deciding he wanted Spiderman for the boys and Barbie for the girls. His quote "Oh mom, the girls are going to love that.". Wanting to encourage the independence that comes with making their own choices, I went with it. Now, fast foward to last night. I discoverd that the hideously pink Barbie cards came with glitter tattoos. Here's a list of the tattoo images...a high heeled shoe, lips, a purse, a poodle and the profile of a woman with a high ponytail so severe I get a headache just looking at it. Eeegads. No wonder girls have such problems with body image..this is what they have to deal with even at the tender age of 4. Honestly I was a little embarrassed to include them. I'm not entirely anti-princess or even anti-Barbie, but this blatant girly girlness really drives me nuts. It's so just so thick.

I am so not ready for IA to hit the princess/Barbie stage.

Ayudame!

A couple weekends ago we had a series of loooong snowed in days. As with many parents, in parts of the country getting hammered, I let my kids watch a little more TV than they might normally. Hey, sometimes sanity gets top billing. Life returned to normal after the storm(s) and we got back in to our groove. About two days later, IA was in my room attempting to put on one of her dress up costumes. She was fussing and getting frustrated when all of a sudden, in nothing short of a shriek, she let out a loud "Help, help, AYUDAME!". Oh man, I could not help but chuckle at that one....all the while cringing because I knew that Dora had taught my little girl, in just a matter of a few short days, her first Spanish word. What does one feel in a situation like that? Embarrassment? Yup. Hilarity? Yup. Pride? A little. Mommy guilt? Most definitely.

Missing them

I'm at work totally missing my babies. Do you ever get that primal urge just to see yours? Man, I've got it bad today. I've already watched IA's "pep-a-yoni" video 3 times (I will try to post it here at a later time, if i can figure out how to do so) and gone on a Starbucks run. Nothing is taking away that feeling, so I've resigned to watching the clock count down to 5.