We Can Hardly Wait

My sister is flying out to visit next week and we are all sooooo excited - Garrett especially! Can you tell by the count-down chain hanging on his dresser?!? The topic of discussion about 13 times a day is...how many days until she comes...how many hours is that...is it after one more Sunday...will she be here in the morning...if she's here around dinner-time, can we eat early that day so she comes faster??? You know...all those questions that a mom just loves to answer over and over and over! It's pretty cute though...he is getting her room ready for her...complete with enough artwork to completely redecorate her dorm room when she goes home if he has his way and makes her bring all his pictures and decorations back with her!

I love how excited he is...because secretly I'm just as excited...though I don't have the artwork to prove it! Maybe I'll spend the afternoon doodling with him instead of vacuuming her room!

Hymns Made of String

I've been trying to decide what my favorite thing is to share this week...sometimes it's too hard to pick just one thing! But here it is...

After we moved to TX, I was desperate to find some nice Sunday music...all you UT people don't realize how good you have it, having entire radio stations dedicated to a great variety of music on Sundays!!! I did a little searching and came across this one..."Hymns Made of String" by Chad Woolner. It is the most peaceful and perfect music to have playing on Sundays - though I generally have this playing every day of the week on my other favorite - my under-cabinet cd player - in our kitchen!!! I love it! It is just an acoustical guitar (my favorite sound in the world) rendition of many of our church hymns. Anyway, check it out - even if you're not into churchy music...it is so peaceful and soothing to listen to! You won't be disappointed!

Life is a Highway...

So, we bought Garrett the 'CARS' soundtrack for Valentine's Day and it was a hit! He loves it and listens to it all the time! It's so fun to have a CD that he loves and that doesn't involve any baby voices singing along about a froggy going courtin' or a whale down by the bay! Just kidding, we have our fair share of kids cd's but my kids get a healthy dose of mom's music too...in fact the other day in the car, Green Day's "I Hope You Had the Time of Your Life" was just ending and Garrett informed me that that was his 2nd favorite song...he then proceeded to tell me that the classical song that came onto the radio station I had switched to was his 3rd favorite...so I'm not holding much sway to his hit list right now...but I love that he is interested in all kinds of music! I love hearing him sing his primary songs in bed at night as he's falling asleep too! And can I just say...there is nothing cuter than your 5 year old singin' along with 'Route 66' and belting out 'Life is a Highway'! It is just so funny! And it is a great family dance party CD...Ethan loves it too...especially when Garrett goes bouncing by or if he's in my arms and we're shakin' our groove thing!

Our Weekend & my late Friday Fave

This weekend has been absolutely beautiful, after the rain of last week, and we decided to put our garden in. Well, at least some of it...I'm still trying to decide just how many tomato plants I can cram in our small space! :) I'm trying my hand at heirloom tomatoes this year...and I'm excited to see if they're any different than regular ones! They're supposed to taste fantastic...so we'll see how it goes! I really don't know how you can get any better than a fresh from the garden tomato anyway...so it will be interesting to compare with our little crop last year!

I absolutely love planting a garden...keeping up with it is fun, but nothing beats actually planting all your plants and seeds!!! Steve kept laughing at me because I kept raking our little garden over and over...just because I LOVE the dark brown color of freshly turned dirt! I know, I'm a little weird, but I love it! Maybe I'd feel different if I had a HUGE garden to work in...but our little Houston-style raised bed garden keeps things on such a small scale that I am finding joy in all the little things! Lame, I know!!!

So, on the same note as gardening...my favorite this week is my herb garden. I love being able to just pop outside and pick a fresh sprig of whatever I need in the middle of making dinner! And honestly...so much better than dried herbs!!! Now that being said...my herb garden is nothing spectacular. It is only 2 longish planter boxes that I keep on my back porch, but I love it all the same! I do have to admit though...I left them outside during one of our freezes last month...and I'm still trying to nurse a few of my plants back to health...a real feat for a total rookie who completely lacks the green thumb gene, but slowly, I think I'll be able to save most of them! There's no shame in buying a replacement basil starter, right?!?!?! And I vow to take better care of them all this time around!!!

Mother of the Year???

Let me just recount my latest and lamest thing that I've done...

Today was Ethan's 9 month check-up...and let me just start by saying that 3 weeks ago when I made this appointment, I made sure to schedule it well before Ethan's regular afternoon nap. But of course this week, the kid has upped his nap time considerably, thus making my 2:00 appointment a VERY poor decision on my part! Oh well, he'll sleep in the car on the way, right??? Uh, no...not today!

So we get there...early I might add (I guess those New Year's resolutions might just be kicking in...too bad it's late-February!!!) Anyway, we get in...he gets measured and weighed and we head back to the room with a completely naked, tired (but peaceful) little boy. We get into the room and I go straight for the diaper bag to grab a diaper to cover the little guy before anything happens...and low and behold...no diaper - not even where I keep the emergency one tucked in with the changing pad!!!!!!! I know I have diapers out in the car, but how am I supposed to get them with a now super cranky, wailing baby and a 5 year old who finds the whole thing hilarious!

For a split second I even considered sending Garrett out to the car to see if he could grab one...but then I wised up...how could I send him outside, without me, into the parking lot?!?!?!?! I still strictly enforce the hand-holding strategy whenever we're even close to running vehicles! I'd just have to wait it out...our lovely and gracious pediatrician just bursts out laughing when she walks in and gladly (well hopefully gladly) held the now HOWLING baby boy, covered only with the paper pad thing they put down in the scale, long enough for me to bolt out to the car and grab the beloved diaper! Needless to say, Ethan was not happy for the rest of the appointment and fell asleep - exhausted and traumatized - in the car on the way home. Poor kid!!!

Oh, and you'll be happy to note that the diaper bag is now completely bulging from me cramming so many diapers into it...determined to never have this happen again!

The Magic Disappearing Toys

This morning, my boys slept in...well, after waking up for an early-morning feeding, Ethan decided to immediately go back to snoozing! Yea...I jumped right into my Monday morning cleaning routine (does anyone else torture themselves on Mondays like this!?!) I was actually excited, thinking I'd get a head start on some of these jobs that are easily neglected (or worse, completely abandoned) once my boys are up and running!

Garrett woke up and after eating his breakfast, I sent him up stairs to get dressed for the day. He runs upstairs and after a bit I hear him playing in his room with his legos...GREAT...one kid ready for the day!!! Now I can tackle the rest of my chores without little hands helping me clean the sinks! Honestly, I'm pretty excited about the chance to get these things done! Anyway...about 20 minutes later (well, I'm estimating...it was actually 2 bathrooms, a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, a quick wipe-down of all my cabinets, and a kitchen sink later) Garrett comes downstairs and informs me that he doesn't have any shorts to wear! I love just thinking about him sitting up in his room playing legos in his boxers (his new undies of choice!)!!! It just makes me laugh! But then, mid-sentence about his lack of clothing options...he proceeds with the following conversation...

G - '...no shorts mom and I have disappearing legos.' (said as a firm fact!)
Me - 'What???'
G - 'Yep. My astronaut, my alien, and Construction Bob (yep, he let me name that one) have disappeared!' (again said as fact...with no thought to the fact that maybe, just maybe he misplaced them)
Me - 'hmmmm...maybe we can look for them...I bet they're somewhere in you're room'
G - 'Nope...they're gone. The last time I saw them, they were with all my other legos and now they're not. They're gone.'

I love the thinking of kids...especially this kid! He always makes me laugh! Well, laugh and be frustrated...as cute as his 'disappeared' theory is...we're working on being responsible for our things! He lost his watch last week while we were running errands, a fact which he was very sad about! And we've had Lightening McQueen playing hide-n-seek in the grocery store the week before...which I still can't believe we found him again! But needless to say, we've stopped taking toys ANYWHERE until we can learn this lesson!!! (any advice would be appreciated!) But for now, he's back upstairs playing legos again...maybe he thinks they'll all disappear if he doesn't keep an eye on them! Fine by me - if it lets me get back to my cleaning!!!

Anyway...sorry for the random and scattered post...I really don't know what any of these things that I've now written about have to do with each other...but there you go...my thoughts for a semi-productive morning as a mom!!!

Friday Favorite

This week's favorite is a great book!!!

"Mommy Made (and Daddy Too!): Home Cooking for a Healthy Baby and Toddler" by Martha and David Kimmell

My sis-in-law let me borrow her copy when Garrett was young and I just bought my own copy to use with Ethan - although, I should have bought it alot sooner!

I know I have been through the whole feeding thing before...but this book answers so many questions, has so much advice, and just makes sense! I feel like I am so often in a rut with what I feed Ethan...I mean, can't he live on cheerios and bananas alone??? :) It walks you through making your own baby-food (with pretty tasty recipes I might add), but even if you aren't on board with the whole food prep thing, it is just a GREAT resource for what to feed and when.

I love it and highly recommend it!!!