Martha freaking Stewart

I love to cook.  I would rather bake than cook a meal anyday, so I love the holidays.  It's my excuse to bake things to give away as presents.  But for all the baking I've done I've never tried to do a traditional sugar cookie where you make the dough, chill it, roll it out, cut with cookie cutters then frost.  So I decided that this year is the year to do it. You know, since I don't have anything else going on like studying for a major certification test, finishing out year end stuff at work, two small children who's idea of helping is to create a disaster in the living room....nothing like taking on a major baking project. 

Carrie and I made the dough on Saturday night.  Trying to explain to a three year old why you could only make the dough and not actually bake the cookies was a bit challenging.  So first thing Sunday morning we got out some of the dough and rolled it out and Carrie used the cookie cutters to cut out bells, angels, candy canes, gingerbread men and Christmas trees.  She thought it was great, I had so much fun watching her have fun, and Jerry loved the trimmings of cookie dough that were left over. 

We baked the cookies and I took on the task of frosting them.  This was a first for me and even though they may not look as nice as hers, you can just call me Martha Stewart. :)

Stay tuned...I still have to frost the bells, angels & trees so I am sure I'll take more pictures of my handiwork!

Update on the experiment

Operation Real Christmas Tree seems to be a success so far.  Thought I'd put that out there since I know all of you have been dying not knowing whether or not it was working ;)  It's odd....I think I sneeze more at work than I do at home sitting two feet away from the tree.  Perhaps there's something to that....think I can claim worker's comp and get some down time away from the office?  Sick building syndrome maybe?  Hmmm....

Now if we can just manage to get the ornaments on the trees we'll be doing well.  I imagine that will happen this weekend, along with trying to finish Christmas shopping, starting the Christmas baking (with these cookies and my attempt to make them look like the picture), trying to find something to wear to the annual Playgroup party...oh yeah, and somewhere in there I'm supposed to be studying for my HR certification exam!! 

The $21 Experiment

Pretty much everyone who has spent any time around me knows about me and my infamous allergies.  I swear I am allergic to myself sometimes just because I sneeze for no apparent reason.  My sinuses are, as a general rule, congested and miserable.  I've had surgery to help this little problem out, which actually reduced my problem somewhat, but it's definitely still around.

Enter the real Christmas tree.

This has always been a bone of contention in the Reeves V house.  As I've mentioned before I am freakishly allergic to the things.  If I get around them I start sniffling, then sneezing, then the eyes get swollen, you get the picture.  It's not fun to be around for anyone.  Because of this my family always had a fake Christmas tree.  I see absolutely NOTHING wrong with this.  Actually, I think it's way easier than the real version - you can get the damn thing pre-lit for crying out loud.  You pop that sucker out of the box, set it up, plug it in and WHAM - you have a beautiful 9 foot tree with gorgeous white lights all aglow.  A real tree means unraveling a thousand feet of lights, seeing which ones need to be replaced, then stringing the suckers on the tree.  And then you have to reverse the whole process once Christmas is over.  Yes I sound like Scrooge but for someone who's allergic to these things, none of that process is fun.  Jerry's family has always had a real Christmas tree.  And don't get me wrong - I love the tradition they have of taking the whole family to pick out the tree and cut it down at the tree farm, etc.  They have some wonderful family memories and pictures from those experiences - just ask Rhett ;)  It was a lot of fun this past Sunday to take the girls there for them to run through the tree farm and look at all the trees, but literally within about 5 minutes of riding home with the real tree I told Jerry I could already feel the tickle in my nose. 

So Jerry's been doing some research and apparently Leyland Cypress trees are hypoallergenic.  While we were at said tree farm on Sunday I said "Fine.  Let's do a little experiment and get a small one and see what happens.  Worst thing that can happen is we put the thing on the back porch because I can't be within 20 feet of it.  Needless to say we now have our very pretty fake tree in the living room and our "kid" tree in the den.  It went up last night and I have to say that I didn't sneeze once while we were in there watching TV. 

Perhaps we'll be able to have a live tree next year after all.....I'm just not sure I'm ready to give up my pre-lit tree though :)

Christmastime

I love this time of year, even though it feels like the stress level shoots through the roof!  Having kids at Christmastime is the best.  They are in total awe and wonder at the lights, the trees, presents, etc.  It's so much fun!  Of course, we have yet to put up our tree....that's this weekend's project!  We just got back into town the Sunday after Thanksgiving, then I had to turn right back around and drive back up to Atlanta Tuesday for my class on Wednesday.  So there's literally been zero time to decorate for the holidays.  Hopefully we'll remedy that soon....

I had a GREAT time shopping with my mom on the day after Thanksgiving!  She recently had shoulder surgery so I wasn't so sure she'd be able to go all out like she usually does, but she was a trooper and hung in there all day long (with the help of a little Lortab I think!).  People think I'm totally nuts going shopping the day after Thanksgiving with all the other nutjobs out there...but for me it's more about having uninterrupted time with my mom than marking stuff off my Christmas shopping list (although everyone that knows me knows I LOVE being able to mark stuff off a list!).  And a huge thank you to Jerry and Ken for watching the girls all day long while we were out running around!

All that shopping got me to thinking, though....exactly how did we get from Christmas being a religious holiday to one that we go out and spend gobs of money on the people in our life?  This in no way is a religious rant or anything...I'm just truly curious as to how it all evolved.  I guess I could Google it and find out.  But it just made me think that it was sort of silly to go out and spend all this money at this one particular time of the year.  Don't get me wrong - I love buying stuff for my kids and seeing their eyes light up when they get the toys they've wanted.  And I enjoyed a very blessed upbringing where I was never left wanting for more, and so did Jerry.  And we have the means to buy pretty much whatever Carrie or Anna may want/need (at least for now....get back to me when their wish list starts to include things such as "new car")  I love buying things for the people in my life that I love.  I do it to show them that I care about them and I love the feeling of giving to others.  But there just seems to be so much pressure to buy, buy, buy, spend, spend, spend that it gets a lot of people in trouble financially, not to mention the whole premise behind Christmas gets lost. 

My family decided this year to only buy for the kids in the family rather than even swapping names of the adults and buying for just that person.  I thought this was a great idea.  Maybe in the future we'll take it one step further and perhaps adopt a charity or a needy family in addition to the kiddos and "pay it forward."  I know it sounds cheesy, but it's just how I'm feeling these days.  I am planning on setting aside an afternoon very soon to have Carrie help me go through her toys that she no longer plays with or has outgrown and pick out some to donate.  It's important to me that she grows up learning that not everyone has everything they need or want and that we have a responsibility to give back.  I'm not sure how this whole process will go....I'm thinking probably not so well :)  But I figure if I start now perhaps it won't be so "painful" for her in the future. 

I know this post is a little all over the place.  Sorry!  That's what happens when I have a bunch of stuff rattling around in this head of mine....

Priceless

I've got no words for this....

Feeling renewed

I feel like I just won a hard-fought battle....I just officially submitted my first grant proposal application to the National Science Foundation.  I never thought I'd really get to do this sort of thing since I didn't go the PhD/faculty member route.  I don't think I'd want to do it full time or anything, but it really is a lot of fun as far as work goes (yes, I am a nerd.  I fully admit it).  I'm not under any delusions of grandeur that it will actually get funded; I am sure the competition is fierce, and this is my first stab at this, although my boss is also the co-PI with me on it.  It would be awesome if we did get funded - it would mean almost $750k over five years, which we could definitely use.  And it would give me an outlet for the research/dorky side of me to continue doing that type of work. 

Woo hoo!

You just never know....

What sort of emails you will get from Carrie's teacher on a daily basis....here's today's:

FYI
Your daughter is the mom and Joshua is the daddy and they have one kitty, Lauren but no kids! :) they have been holding hands all day today! :) it is so cute!


Oh dear lord.  I thought I had a few years before this!!

so tired....

And amazingly it's not because Anna's on a sleep strike.  She has actually been sleeping quite well this past week (cue the reversion back to no sleep).  I was terrified she was going to not sleep on Tuesday night.  As it turned out Jerry and I both were scheduled to be out of town at the same time, so Lizzy was a rock star and stayed with the girls.  I was a complete and utter wreck.  Not because I wasn't confident in Lizzy - that girl can handle my two girls no problem (after being in a room with 16 three year olds even my two kids seem tame I would imagine).  I was afraid they were going to act like total freaks while she was there.  As it turns out they were both quite well behaved :)

No, I'm just tired and worn out from life in general.  I know that sounds whiny.  I get that.  Work is just incredibly stressful right now.  UGA & Georgia Southern are trying to get three new engineering programs....which of course just happen to be the same ones we have at GTS.  Everyone's running around totally stressed out and part of my responsibililty here is to try to talk everyone down from the ledge.  It's a little exhausting playing psychologist all day then having to do my normal work at other times so I don't fall totally behind. 

Then there's the SHRM class.  It's definitely something I need to do professionally, but trying to read 200+ pages of material each week and take notes on it and do the practice exams and so forth is a little daunting.  There's a reason why I haven't scheduled my SPHR exam yet - and I probably won't tell anyone when I do schedule it so if I don't pass it's not such a public failure :)

I'm just glad it's Friday.  Maybe the girls will let me sleep in till 7am tomorrow.....

Busy busy

Things are hoppin' in the Reeves house, as usual.  Jerry's travel seems to be out of control (and by that I mean he's gone at the most inopportune times which conflict with my schedule).  My travel is about to ramp up; I'm going to be heading to Atlanta once a week through the first week in December for a test prep class for my SPHR certification (that's Senior Professional in Human Resources for you non-HR people).  I passed the PHR test in 2008 so it's about time for me to go ahead and get the next level.  And besides, as one of my friends said jokingly, I need to add a few more letters after my name.  I suppose credentials can't hurt in an economy like this!  It will mean more study time for me, which starts this weekend.  Not only do I just want to get it done to be done, but I also don't want to have to pay the $375 fee for the exam more than once!!

Anna seems to be sleeping better, thank goodness.  Of course now that I've said that I've jinxed myself.  We've been trying to put her down a little earlier and she's responding to it for now, so we're going with it.  She does have her two molars on the top coming in, so I'm sure that won't be without some fuss.  She's finally started saying "Mommy!" too!!!  It's so cute, and nice to hear after months of nothing but "Daddy daddy daddy..." (no offense, Jerry!)

Carrie's just being Carrie these days...I just got an email from her teacher that had me crying from laughing so hard in my office.  Here it is....

Kristy,

I just wanted to give you a heads up about Carrie today at lunch. She refused to eat any of her lunch. She told me she didn’t like soup or grapes. I was like well you had them yesterday and you ate them all up. It was so cute. I felt bad and told her only this once would I make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She was so excited and ate all of it and was very proud of herself for doing so. She wanted me to write you an email to tell you that she doesn’t want soup and grapes anymore. But then again it might change by Monday! :) I hope you have a great weekend!

I truly have zero doubt that my child actually said to her teacher "Miss Stephanie, will you send my mommy an email telling her I don't want soup and grapes for lunch anymore?"  What a goober!

Ugh

Okay, so I've obviously been quite remiss in updating my blog.  It's been a whirlwind these past few weeks.  So much so that I've barely had time to sleep...oh wait, I don't do that anymore because ANNA DOESN'T SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT ANYMORE.  I don't know what this is.  She started waking up literally 4-5 times a night again right around her first birthday.  I was still nursing her at that time.  Granted, we backed off of that and are now no longer nursing, which probably didn't help the situation, but DEAR LORD.  I cannot operate well on 1.5 hours of sleep, which is what I had last night.     

I literally just called the doctor to schedule an appointment for her this afternoon.  I was sure that they would laugh their heads off when I told them why I was bringing them in....I believe I said something like "I want to make 100% sure that there's no medical reason why she is acting so crazy.  If there isn't, then I honestly don't know what we'll do.  Jerry suggested perhaps letting her sleep out on the back porch, which, after last night, isn't sounding like such a bad idea.

On a good note, work's going rather well.  I got a new title - Assistant Director, Human Resources & Career Services.  I'm a little overwhelmed at everything that I am now responsible for, but hey, it's a little more job security, right?!

Big day

Lizzy took Anna to the pool yesterday and she apparently had a very large time:

That's Anna asleep in the wagon on the way home....

Annnnnnd here's the dirty look Lizzy got when they arrived and she woke up:

Did I have twins and someone forgot to tell me?

Anna at 11 months:

Carrie at 11 months:

Long time no post

I can't believe I haven't posted here in almost a month.  Shame on me!!

There's been so much going on in the Reeves household.  Anna started walking about two days after she turned 11 months.  Granted, it's not like she's sprinting around the room just yet, but she will take 10 or 12 wobbly steps then either do a face plant or plop down on her bottom.  Carrie was all "MOMMY!  Anna's walking like a big girl!"  Yes, yes she is Carrie - and you have ZERO clue about how this is going to totally turn your world upside down once she does get the hang of this walking thing.

We are busy preparing for Anna's first birthday.  I just cannot believe it's been almost a year.  Sniff.  She's growing up too fast people.

Anna has also started drinking whole milk.  This is met with mixed emotions for me.  I am so very glad that she's drinking it like a champ, especially since I'm heading away this weekend for my girls' weekend.  However, on the other hand it makes me sad to think that our nursing relationship is quickly going out the door.  I know this is probably my last child (notice I just cannot bring myself to say that Anna's definitely my last child), so I know this will be my last nursing experience.  I have to say that I never in a million years thought I would be so committed to this.  Before Carrie was born I just kept saying "Lord please let me at least make it to three months!"  Being able to make it a year with both girls has truly been a blessing, both emotionally and financially.  I do have to admit that never having to buy a single can of formula has been good on the wallet!  More than that though I feel like I've been able to provide my girls with a great start, one which will hopefully keep them from getting Crohn's.  I know that there's no guarantee that they won't get it just because I breastfed them, but reading several medical journal articles that cited the relationship between nursing and incidence rates of Crohn's was enough for me to commit to it for as long as I could go.  It will be oh so nice to get my body back, though, and not have to get up at 5am to pump!!

Carrie just started her new three year old class yesterday and loved it.  This transition went WAY better than the transition to the two year old class last year.  I think a lot of that had to do with Jerry being gone, me about to give birth to Anna, and just chaos in general.  There was so much going on in Carrie's life at that time; it was a lot of change for one little girl.  She is truly a little girl now - no more baby.  She continues to have meltdowns on pretty much a daily/every other day basis, but we still love her for it ;)

That's about it for us these days.  I am heading out of town this Thursday for my girls' weekend.  I am looking forward to some bonding time, some drinking time.....and some uninterrupted, sleep as late as you want time!

Holy Meltdown, Batman

Lizzy had the pleasure of witnessing one of Carrie's best meltdowns to date yesterday afternoon.  I was simultaneously amazed at the sheer anger that was coming out of the child and also somewhat embarassed because Lizzy wasn't the only one witnessing the meltdown - I think the entire neighborhood was out at that time and just kept staring at the little girl in the driveway who's mommy must be ripping her toenails out with a plier because really, that's the only thing that could cause such an uprising, right? 

Nope.  Apparently me picking up Anna can do that as well.  Who knew? 

I had just been thinking the other day how it seemed that Carrie's jealousy seemed pretty tame.  Apparently I spoke too soon.  When I got home yesterday she came running to me and I picked her up and said hi, gave her a big kiss, asked her how her day was, etc.  She then wriggled out of my arms, moving on to the next thing on her agenda.  When she did this I went over and said hi to Lizzy and grabbed up Anna who, by now, was about to blow her top because she had seen me and if I'm not immediately sitting down to feed her the instant I get home she flips her lid.  That was the wrong thing to do I guess because Carrie came flying back over to me screaming at the top of her lungs "I WANT TO HOLD YOU MOMMY!!!!  I DON'T WANT ANNA!!!!"  After that no amount of talking, holding, cajoling was gonna work and she was in full scale meltdown mode for the next 15 minutes.  No joke.  Poor Lizzy was sort of speechless, but did ask me if there was anything she could do, to which I replied "I don't think there's anything anyone can do at this point - gotta just let this one run its course."  She was eventually fine but made it very clear that she didn't like the idea of me paying any attention to Anna when I first get home. 

While it's sort of funny to think about the tantrum now, it really does rip my heart out when she says stuff like that.  It gives me a severe case of mommy guilt.  I would love nothing more than to have loads of dedicated time for each girl but it just doesn't happen that way.  And do I usually go right to Anna when I get home?  Yes.  That's probably because she does start freaking out when she sees me, and I'm sure Carrie's picked up on that and has thought "You think you can freak out and get Mom's attention little girl?  Watch this."  I try to make a conscious effort to do things just me & Carrie because I know it's hard for her to understand why a lot of Mommy's time is taken up with Anna now.  It's just hard to balance everything, you know? 

So go the trials of parenting two kids I guess....

10 Month Pics

My mom noticed this before I did....I called to let her know I updated the pictures on our Picasa site last night to include the beach photos, but it also included Anna's 10 month picture.  She sent me an email today telling me to look at the two girls' 10 month pictures because they practically have the exact same facial expression.  Take a look for yourself:

Um, yikes?

Hilton Head!!

So I am FINALLY getting around to writing about our very first family vacation.....a whopping thirty minutes away from the house :)  Seriously, I think that was probably a good starter vacation for us.  I have zero clue how our friends Anne & Ryan did it with two children in tow, one being brand new.  They came all the way from TN!!

At any rate, we started off on Monday morning attempting to get 4 adults, 4 children and 1 dog out the door.  I think we started doing this around 7am when our two munchkins got up....and I think we were all 8 successfully at the beach house around 2pm.  Sad, I know.  It's utterly ridiculous just how much STUFF you "need" for a week at the beach. 

Once we were finally there, though, we had a great time!  It was nice that Carrie and Cora had each other to play with...until they both thought it would be great fun to bolt from the tent to the water without any warning.  Good times.  Seriously though, those two girls had so much fun in the water.  Later in the week Jerry got a boogie board for Carrie and she was riding waves by the end of the week!  She was such the little surfer girl, carrying around her boogie board with the leash attached to her wrist. 

Anna loved the beach and the water too.  She'd just crawl all around, eat a fistful of sand, and keep going.  She loved playing right at the edge of the waves and wasn't shy about letting you know how she felt about you picking her up out of the water. 

Lizzy came with us to the beach - thank goodness!!  That meant that we actually got to sneak in a few minutes here and there of actually being able to enjoy the beach.  And she babysat for Carrie, Cora & Anna one night so the adults and Greta went out to eat.  It was so nice to get some adult time with our friends without having to explain for the 5,000th time why someone couldn't go in the water alone :) 

All in all I think it was a great first attempt at a family vacation.  Perhaps next year we'll be a little more adventurous and go somewhere that takes a bit more planning....and perhaps not!!  I will post pictures to Picasa soon!

Family Photos!

I will soon blog about the adventure that was the Reeves Family Vacation 2010 to Hilton Head, but I had to go ahead and link over to Kate Carmack's website.  Her family lives near Jerry's parents and during the summer between her junior and senior year she babysat for us on a number of occasions for Carrie.  Unbeknownst to me, she took pictures of Carrie to practice what she loved - photography.  AMAZING pictures of Carrie.  When I saw them I immediately had her take some 2 year old pics of Carrie last year, and now she's taken more.  So far only Anna's pictures are up, but they are just so good....if I can say that about pictures of my own daughter.  I can't rave enough about Kate; she has clearly chosen a field that she loves and is great at. 

So take a peek and enjoy!! 

Reeves Family Dance Party

This is a new tradition in the Reeves' household, as in just started in the past week or so.  If I am recalling correctly it started when one night when Jerry was desperate to entertain Anna while I was bathing Carrie.  I come out of Carrie's room and hear Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow" blaring and my 9 month old be-bopping on Jerry's lap.  The kid was having such a great time.  So now it's been a nightly ritual:

Last night was no different.  Jerry was entertaining both girls while I was doing laundry or cleaning up or something....I went over to the kitchen table to see what they were listening to, and this is what I found:

Too much party for the littlest Reeves

Truly ridiculous...

I don't usually write about non-family stuff on here that often, but here goes....

I consider myself a fairly intelligent person.  Hell, Georgia Tech let me earn two degrees from there so I can't be half bad, can I?  I am also not a true tree hugger in every sense of the phrase. I do my part by recycling, being cognizant of electricity/water use, etc.....but I'm also the first to admit I refuse to switch to cloth diapers or the more environmentally friendly disposable ones because let's be honest here - my time can currently be better spent in ways other than washing out and sanitizing cloth diapers or cleaning up the messes that the environmentally friendly diapers can't contain.

So what is it about the oil spill and BP not being able to get it under control that I don't understand?  

I don't even live there and this is just pissing me off more and more every day.  I mean, it seems to me that prior to drilling for oil a mile below the ocean surface that they should have had a plan in place in case something like this happened.  And from my limited knowledge of the situation I understand that there was a part that was supposed to kick in and turn it off - but that malfunctioned?!  Where's the redundancy?  Then I got even more mad when I saw a link yesterday and one Jerry forwarded to me today that shows freaking video feed of the oil just gushing right out into the ocean.  If they can get live video feed why can't the fix the stupid leak? 

I am sure there's a reason that it's taking this long.  Probably not a good reason, but a reason nonetheless.  And I'm also sure there's tons of science to be considered when attempting to fix this without causing even more damage to the environment.  BUT COME ON PEOPLE. 

Of course, Jerry's using this as the perfect excuse to lobby for a Tesla...

Sibling Rivalry

I knew it was coming but I guess I didn't anticipate it to rear its ugly head so soon!  The interactions between Anna and Carrie are truly hilarious for the most part.  I am always catching Carrie saying stuff to Anna that we've said to her.  For example the other day she was pitching a toddler fit to end all toddler fits, so Jerry calmly removed her from the family room and put her in her room and told her that when she's ready to listen she can come out....well, the other day I'm cooking dinner and the girls were playing in Anna's room and I hear "You aren't listening to me!" from Carrie, then the door shuts.  Five seconds of silence then "Are you ready to listen now?"  I thought I was going to pee in my pants....

All of these funnies seem to happen when I'm trying to cook dinner.  I suppose that's a function of me having to turn my back for 2.8 seconds to do something.  Last night Carrie and Anna were playing in the kitchen with stuff while I was cooking, and Carrie happened to have some paper and crayons and was sitting in the floor happily writing letters and drawing bugs.  Anna was playing with some books but decided Carrie's paper looked way more entertaining so she crawled over and started yanking up pages.  Carrie didn't take kindly to this at all - "ANNA!  Stop messing up my paper!!"  She'd get up and relocate herself and start coloring again, only to have Anna keep following her to various parts of the kitchen and continue to screw with her stack of papers.  Anna was laughing the entire time, and Carrie was very obviously getting pissed.  "ANNA!  STOP FOLLOWING ME AND LEAVE MY PAPER ALONE!" 

I didn't have the heart to tell her that she'd better get used to this cause she's got a life full of this coming, and it's only just begun. 

And am I a bad mommy for thinking this was hilarious?

Bittersweet....

I am having a tough time with the idea that Carrie and Anna are so "grown up"....keep in mind they are only 3 and 9 months, people!!  I don't know what I'm going to do when they actually do hit some major milestones like graduation, wedding, etc....ugh. 

Carrie had her spring pictures made at school and they are ADORABLE.  They are also proof positive that she is no longer a baby....she's definitely a little girl.  I already knew this - heck, you should hear some of the conversations we have.  They are a riot and she makes me laugh every single day.  And she has opinions on EVERYTHING.  I even got an eye roll the other day - she asked me what we were having for dinner and when I said pork tenderloin she definitely rolled her eyes at me.  I suppose the eye rolling thing is genetic cause I'm pretty sure I shot my mother more than my fair share growing up (although not about what she was making for dinner - sorry Mom, I had to!)

Then there's Anna.  Ugh.  I feel like every day when I get home she's grown more and more.  She pulls up on everything in sight and refuses to sit still other than to eat, and even that's hit and miss sometimes.  I really think she'll be walking before she's one.  She does the whole "Mamamamamama" and "Dadadadadada" thing although I highly doubt she knows what that means.  My goal with her was to at least make it to 6 months with just breastmilk and I've far surpassed that.  I really didn't think I'd be able to given that I'm working outside the house 5 days a week this time around instead of 3 days a week like I did with Carrie, but amazingly enough I've been able to keep up with my little piglet.  Jerry said one day to me "You're almost to a year then you can stop!"  That's going to be a sad day for me....yes I'll be glad to get some more sleep in the mornings since I get up at 5am to pump before going to work, and I won't have to lug the pump to work with me anymore, but still.....

I think it's just getting to me because I'm 99.9% positive that we're done with the babies thing.  When you are a teenager you think life moves at a snail's pace and you just live to get to the next milestone.  Then when you have kids you start looking for the pause button and it's nowhere to be found. 

And now I think I'll step away from the computer since I have tears in my eyes while sitting at my desk during lunch :)

Craziness

I haven't posted here in awhile, and it's largely due to all the nuttiness that has been our lives lately!  Just before my last post we had traveled to Atlanta for my mom's birthday.  We attempted to surprise her, but that didn't work out :)  She wasn't buying Ken's story of "but I need to get the AC in the van fixed so you need to work from home" story, so we caved and just told her the munchkins were coming for her birthday so she'd better work at home that Friday!! 

The next weekend was Carrie's 3rd birthday party.  Whew.  That was exhausting.  We had a great turn out, complete with plenty of kids and bounce house and tire swing madness.  I was seriously questioning why I even bothered with the bounce house since the kids seemed so excited about the tire swing.  However, as only 4 of them could fit on the tire swing at a time, the bounce house was tolerated until they could get their turn.  There are pics of the party on our Picasa site.  My grandparents even came down for the festivities, and I was so excited to show them the new house and have them there for Carrie's party. 

Anna's doing all kinds of things these days.  We've gone from sort of crawling around to "OH MY GOD I HAVE GOT TO GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B AS FAST AS POSSIBLE OR CARRIE'S GONNA LEAVE ME BEHIND."  She's pulling up on everything in sight and does not want to sit down at all, any time.  More than once she's gotten herself stuck underneath our main coffee table in the living room because she's trying to crawl on the boards underneath it and explore.  Jerry and I predict she'll definitely be walking before her first birthday, if not before.  Solid food continues to improve.  Bananas are always a favorite.  She'll tolerate carrots, but also really likes apples, broccoli & avocado. 

Carrie's in a baking class on the weekends with some of her friends from school and she seems to love it.  The woman that is doing it is also a teacher at her school.  I say she is a very brave woman to have these toddlers in her home to cook and paint.  Not sure I have the patience for that, but Carrie loves it.  And, double bonus - the parents get to drop the kids off and then head over to The Dispensary for a beer or two!  We're also going to sign Carrie up for a gymnastics class for the summer.  I was so excited to hear they had one where the kids go in the early evening instead of smack in the middle of the day, so I can actually enroll her and take her myself.  I can't wait to see how this goes :)  Stay tuned...

In Love (Again)

Yes, I'm in love again.  This time with our new nanny, Lizzy!  She's been with us two weeks and I'm once again in heaven :)  Not that there was anything wrong with Joan; not at all.  She was great with Anna....it was just the combo of dealing with both Anna and Carrie in the AM and PM that was going to be dicey.  She had a hard time carrying Anna in the car seat, and that was without trying to make sure Carrie didn't fling herself out into the street at the house or school.  Kayla and I both have been known to have to go darting across the yard, Anna in hand, behind Carrie who's decided it's a fun game to try to run away from whomever's watching her at the time.  NOT COOL.  But we are keeping Joan on our babysitter list for date nights and so forth, so we were able to end on amicable terms. 

Back to Lizzy - the name may sound familiar because she used to be Carrie's teacher.  As in on March 26th she was Carrie's teacher and on March 29th she became our nanny.  Yes, it provided for a tiny bit of drama at school, but everyone's over it now (I think!).  Lizzy made sure everyone there understood that it was her idea to approach us regarding a nanny position once she heard we were looking.  I personally think they were just sad to see her go, and who wouldn't be?  She's been an amazing teacher to Carrie this year, and now will be hanging out with Anna teaching her all kinds of things.  Yes, Jerry and I did stop to ponder the idea that "hey....if we hire Lizzy we're basically taking from one kid to provide for another."  We have full confidence in the other teachers in Carrie's class to carry on the quality care Carrie was getting in her class, not to mention Lizzy was already spending half the day in another classroom. 

I feel like we are getting settled back in and can mark the nanny thing off our list, hopefully for good!  Heck, Lizzy did a far superior job to me in packing the girls' things for our trip this past weekend than I ever could have.  The house looks amazing when I get home (I'm sure Lizzy gets frustrated when she comes the next morning and finds we've undone all her hard work!).  Both girls are happy as can be (or as happy as a three year old can be) And remember what I said when Kayla left that I doubted that we'd find another nanny that would text me during the day and send cute pictures of Anna?  Perhaps I spoke too soon:

Welcome to the family Lizzy!!

Bedtime conversations

Some of the best/funniest conversations we have with Carrie happen at bedtime.  Take last night for example.  Jerry was messing with me and telling Carrie that I had to go to "school" today....this was actually my driver improvement course for getting in that wreck (if I took the class the ticket was dismissed and no points).

Carrie:  You're going to school tomorrow Mommy?
Me:  Yep.
Carrie:  I want to go with you!
Me:  The school I'm going to isn't much fun, honey.  You'll have more fun staying here with Daddy & Anna.
Carrie:  It's not fun?  Don't you have any friends?

Another new thing she's doing at nighttime if I'm putting her to bed is running through all the usual procrastination tricks - one more story, gotta go potty, I need some water, etc.  By the time I finally get her tucked in and am just at the door and telling her Sweet Dreams, I hear a little voice say "Mommy, will you rock me like a baby?"  How can you say no to that?  So I go to her bed and sit on the edge, pick her up and rock her like a little baby for a few minutes.  Those are some of the best minutes of my day.

Mover and shaker

That would be Anna, who's now crawling a full two months before her sister ever even thought of crawling.  She's not full-on crawling, but is doing the military crawl, which has proven to be enough to send Carrie into fits of "MOMMY!!!!!  SHE'S STEALING MY TOYS!!!!!"  Sure, Carrie, like she's going to round up all your toys and you'll never see them again.  No, m'dear....that won't happen for at least a few more months.  Ah, the joys of sibling rivalry.  I never got to experience that - I was the only child so I didn't necessarily have to share my toys/books/etc with anyone else (at least until my cousin Brandy came along and we grew up so close to each other that we may as well have been sisters).  

It's so much fun to see Anna and Carrie interact with each other.  Anna just looks at Carrie like she hung the moon.  Carrie, not so much, but she does have her moments of just giving Anna kisses for no reason other than she loves her little sister.  And they really have started to play together, as much as a 7 month old can play with anyone.  I have no doubt that it will just get more and more interesting as the days go on!

Solids

Anna's starting the process of eating solid food, but not without a fight.  It's weird territory for me because pretty much as soon as we put food in front of Carrie she ate it like she'd been starving her entire life and there was no looking back.  This kid has a clear preference for milk, though, and so it's been a little more slow going.  We've tried bananas which were met with a lukewarm reception, sweet potatoes were met with a weird face, and squash was just plain spit out.  Jerry, Kayla, and I have all tried different ways to get her to eat and she'll take at most 2 bites and be done.  Joan (the new nanny) did get her to eat an entire cube of sweet potatoes but over the course of an entire day.  Then all of a sudden last night it was like she decided this eating solid food thing wasn't so bad and ate all of her bananas, even opening her mouth up wide for another bite each time.  Hopefully this is the start of a trend and not a one time event!

(and yes, she has clothes - this is just the easier way to do food these days!)

I'm making my own food again this time around which is way easy (and way cheaper).  This website is a wonderful resource for anyone looking to do the same.  Super Baby Food is another great book to help get started.  And my sister-in-law gave me a few wonderful books when I did this with Carrie that have all kinds of yummy recipes for kiddos just starting out on the solid food track (thanks Aunt Alston!), which I am happy to report I've managed to keep up with throughout all the moves we've had since Carrie was born.  I dusted those off this weekend and will be putting those to good use very soon.  For now I think carrots or apples are up next on the list of foods to try. 

Oh, and we finally made a decision on Carrie's third birthday party.  This castle will be in our backyard, along with potentially 16 other screaming 2 and 3 year olds.  Invitations will be going out shortly.  Everyone please say a small prayer for us. 

"That" moment...

You know how you always hear about someone's kid making some sort of really loud, highly embarassing remark out in public?  Well, we had one of those on Saturday....

It was a nice day so we were sitting outside at Jim N Nicks, a yummy BBQ place near the house.  We were out running errands and Carrie just busted out with "I want some lunch.  Let's go to Jim N Nicks."  (and that's not a joke - I think that's pretty much verbatim what she said).  So we went. 

Now, I am the first to admit I watch a lot of crap TV when given the opportunity.  Hey, I could be addicted to a lot worse things.  One of the guilty pleasures is The Biggest Loser.  If you watch anything on NBC then you've seen the promos for it, and apparently so has Carrie.  And she's been paying attention.  There's a guy on there that is, obviously, overweight and has really curly hair. 

Anyone want to guess where this is headed? 

So we're sitting outside and she spies a man coming up the front walk that is, yes, a bit overweight, but has the exact same hair as Daris on The Biggest Loser.  So she busts out with "Mommy!!  He's on The Biggest Loser!!!" 

I'm pretty sure the guy heard what she said, although I can't be totally sure since I had pretty much slunk down in my chair as far as humanly possible.  It takes a lot to mortify Jerry, and I could tell by the look on his face that he was just that. 

She keeps us on our toes, that one.

Ya think they're related?

Carrie at 6 months

Anna at 6 months.

Yikes.

Whoa!

How is it possible that my baby is almost three years old??? I cannot believe this and actually am in pretty strong denial about it. She does things that I still don't think she should be capable of doing yet - telling me a stop sign is an octagon, the bed is a rectangle, counting to 20, singing her months of the year song, you name it. Of course, then she goes into full on toddler mode (aka pitching an almighty fit) and I'm all "yep, she's three!"

So now I must get started on the party planning. I'm thinking of just doing it at Island Playground and inviting her friends from school. It's a one-stop shopping sort of thing. I write a check and someone else does all the work. Sounds great to me. But then I sent this link to Jerry and he's all excited about doing this instead. I wonder if he realizes this is a toddler party and not an adult party?! I know she'd love to have her very own bounce house in her backyard, but it just sounds like extra work for Mommy & Daddy to host people at the house (not to mention make sure the house is looking decent).

I looked at the options and I know she'd love the Disney Princess one, but then read on there "your princess won't want this to end!" Yeah, no joke. It'll be like WWIII when they come back to tear that thing down and I am left to try to explain to her that no sweetie, we don't get to keep the Disney castle as our own personal play yard.

What to do, what to do?

M&Ms and potty training

Let this be a warning to parents everywhere about the pros and cons of using M&Ms as a reward for going to the potty...

We started in earnest to potty train Carrie around the Christmas holidays. I had high hopes of it happening before Anna was born, but that was a bit more than I was willing to take on while Jerry was gone. So Christmas seemed like the perfect time since we would be home more than usual and could throw her in big girl undies and see what happened. And that's precisely what we did, basically. Put her in them and said "Okay kid, tell us when you need to go!" It took a few times, but honestly after a couple of days she really got the hang of it. The big thing was getting her to poop in the potty. She wasn't really having any of that, at least until I decided to do what I didn't really want to do and offer M&Ms as a reward for pooping in the potty. I didn't want to go down the path of giving food as a reward....but I also didn't want to continue buying two sets of diapers.

The M&M trick was an instant hit. Overnight she decided that pooping wasn't that bad. She would announce to us "I need to go poop and then I get 5 M&MS!" This was before her butt even hit the toilet. It got to the point she was obsessed with it and wouldn't let anyone else in the house go to the bathroom alone (and I am not kidding). We had a cheering section each time one of us had to go to the bathroom and she'd run into the kitchen afterwards and announce "You get 5 M&Ms Mommy!" Thanks, Carrie.

I told her teachers at school about this one day and they decided to implement this at school as well (only the kids would only get 1 M&M). So while we've slowly backed down on the M&Ms and are now not doing any, the school is still doing them.

Flash forward to the past few days of daily reports for Carrie. They indicate on the report whether or not she peed/pooped on the potty. The girl was pooping like FOUR times a day at school, but not at home. Then yesterday Miss Lizzy wrote this on her report:

"We've had to limit Carrie to one M&M a day because she's trying SO HARD to poop each time she goes to the bathroom :)" (and yes, the smiley face was on the report)

That's my overachiever. Kid's gonna blow her colon out because she's determined to get a freakin' M&M. I want to tell her that, with her mother's history in this arena, she'd better not be doing anything to screw with her GI tract. I fear the pull of the M&M is far stronger than that, though.

Oh what a night(s)...

The past couple of nights have been WEIRD around the Reeves V household. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning Carrie decided it would be a fantastic idea to come snuggle with Daddy at 5:45am. I wasn't even aware that she was up and at 'em until I left the bathroom after getting ready and heading out at 6am. Apparently it only got more crazy yesterday morning because Jerry was telling me all about how Carrie and Bailey started wrestling each other and chasing each other around our bedroom at about 6:05am. All the while Jerry's trying to go back to sleep and convince Carrie to come back to bed and snuggle with him. From the sounds of it, it didn't happen. Good times :)

Then last night Anna went to sleep at 8:30, woke up at 9, went to sleep at 10, woke up at 11, then went to sleep for good at 11:30. That's not the weird part for last night. The weird part is the 2am "Daddy I'm done with my nap" discussion between Carrie and Jerry. Really? This is the first time she's ever done this, this getting up truly in the middle of the night and padding all the way down the length of the house to our room. I don't think she even realized I was still in the bed; I think she really thought it was time to get up and start the day because she went straight over to Jerry's side and was all "I'm done with my nap!" (in a whispered voice, of course). Jerry gently explained no, you are most certainly NOT done with your "nap" so let's go back to bed. He took her back to her bed, tucked her in, and when I left at 6:15 they were still asleep. You know it's been an interesting night when you tell your husband bye and he just says "Where are they?" As in - where are the kids? Are they in their beds where they should be???

sigh.

So I know I haven't posted much lately. I've spent the better part of the last two weeks or so trying to convince our nanny, Kayla, that she'd be making a ginormous mistake by leaving us to move to Greenville. It's my own selfish reasons of course that I don't want her to go. But family duty calls for her, and I can't help but respect that. I hate that it's happening now and not in January when Anna would be enrolling at Carrie's school, but still :) So she'll be moving soon and her last day with us will be 3/12. I haven't told Carrie yet...I'm just not sure how to break it to her. With Carrie this could go one of two ways - she could either act like nothing's wrong when Kayla doesn't show up on the following Monday morning....or all hell could break loose. There could also be a combination of the two, which is probably the most likely scenario. Kayla has, in the short time she's been with us, really become like part of the family. I can't explain how Anna lights up when she sees her. For awhile there, there were only two people that could even think about touching Anna - Mommy and Kayla. Anna's gotten better now and even handed out some smiles while we were interviewing potential nannies this past weekend (of course, she also pooped all over Jerry at the same time, but oh well!). But will the new nanny send me texts every so often to let me know how Anna's doing, every now and then throwing in a cute picture to help me get through my day? Probably not unless I specifically ask. Will I want to go out to dinner with the girls and the new nanny if Jerry's not in town? Who knows....

So we're on the hunt again for a new nanny. Hopefully this will be the last time we have to do this since Anna should be at Carrie's school in 2011. Everyone cross your fingers for us!

My thoughts exactly

I usually take a quick glance at CNN and Fox News in the morning to see what sorts of news stories are going on so I can sound at least halfway knowledgeable should any of the topics come up in casual conversation throughout the day.

This morning I came across this article

It literally brought tears to my eyes. I was having this exact inner conflict last night after Carrie went to bed and Anna was hanging out with Jerry. I was putting away toys, freaking that I couldn't find any more of the barn animals that went with Carrie's little barnyard or all four cupcakes that go with her cupcake set (chances are, they are in one of her many "purses" that she's commandeered, which are really Clinique bonus bags, but that's a whole separate post). I kept thinking "Anna's not going to have all the pieces to play with these toys when she gets big enough!" And I was also thinking, good Lord my living room looks like a Toys R Us showroom gone horribly wrong.

Who freaking cares? I bet they don't, so why should I? I have to keep reminding myself that in a very short period of time I'm going to wish that I had all that clutter in my living room. And for you moms out there, if that article wasn't enough to bring tears to your eyes or at least make you stop and think, take a glance at this. I dare you to watch it without having a full on breakdown :)

Carrie's Book Club Selection for February

Every night Carrie gets to pick out a book or two for one of us to read to her before bedtime. She has a ton of books to choose from on her desk, including some from Jerry's childhood, although there are a few tried and true ones that she generally sticks to.

Last night I was cleaning up after dinner and hanging out with Anna while Jerry was getting Carrie ready for bed and doing the bedtime story duties. I just poked my head in there to see what they were reading, cause it's just really cute to me to see them both cuddled up on Carrie's bed reading together.

Then I saw/heard what Carrie had picked out for her evening book.

"Bicycling and Bicycle Maintenance"

Needless to say, this would be one of those from Jerry's childhood. She had insisted on being read to from this particular book last night, and I almost peed in my pants when I heard him reading to her from that book. In fact, it was so hilarious that Anna and I hopped up on the bed and joined in. I learned some very valuable lessons, such as "if you see exhaust coming from the back of a car, it's probably about to move so watch out!" And do you know both of those kids sat so still and listened to every word that Jerry read? I guess that's just proof that it doesn't matter what you read to your children, you just need to read to them.

Two of my new fav pics

From Anna's christening on 1/10/10:





Can I just keep her and Carrie at the ages they are at now please?

So yeah....

Just in case anyone wanted to know what almost $10k worth of damages to a Ford Expedition looks like, here ya go:



(I am choosing not to insert here what I think Jerry's saying when this photo was taken!!)




All I can say is at least the car did it's job and crumpled in the front so I didn't get hurt, and thank goodness for insurance!!





However, my car looks good as new now:

Ew....

Our house has been a germfest for the past few days. It all started on Saturday. It's about 8am, Anna's still asleep, Carrie's snuggling in bed with me, Jerry, and Bailey (yes, the 85 lb dog still sleeps in the bed with us). About 8am, Carrie turns to me and says "Mommy, I don't feel really good" followed by throwing up in bed. Fun. A few hours later and we find out Anna has it. Thankfully both girls got over it after a day of rest, relaxation, and Disney movies.

Then came Monday. Both Jerry and I came down with the crud. Jerry was feeling better by the end of the day Monday, but I ended up being out Tuesday as well. Not fun.

Then today....Carrie wakes up with a totally crusty nose which sent her into hysterics because she thought it was bleeding (not sure where she got that) and coughing her head off. Got a call from Kayla....she's been throwing up all night with this crap, so she won't be in today. Jerry graciously decided to run interference today since I had meetings at work. So right now I believe he's at home with one sick kid, one well kid that had shots today, watching Lion King at last check-in. He's such a great daddy/husband. And just to give you an idea of how great he really is, here's an excerpt of my last conversation with him:

Jerry: You didn't tell me what I was getting in to

Kristy: What do you mean?

J: Anna just had the biggest poop of her life. Not only did it fill up her diaper, it ran down her leg and filled up a sock. A SOCK. How does one fill up a sock with POOP?

K: (laughing) I don't know honey. I'm sure you handled it just fine though.

J: Yeah, but while I was wrangling poop I had Carrie yelling at me "Daddy, I want a snack!" I couldn't believe she could think of food at a time like that.

K: Well, she does have a one track mind about food.

J: Oh, and then after I finally got Anna halfway cleaned up and we were in the middle of bathtime, cause after an explosion like that I didn't have a choice, Carrie tells me she has to go poop. Really? REALLY?!

K: (laughing again) So did she go?

J: Yeah, I just let her go on her own and she did fine. There's too much poop in this house.

K: I'm sure you are doing great, dear. I have no worries.

J: Yeah, well I promise they'll all be alive when you get home.

Something tells me Jerry will be more than happy to go to his client dinner in Savannah tonight!!

Feeling Like a Heel

So here I was whining about not having time to get my house in order, finding places for all of my material things, when the earthquake in Haiti hits. Nothing like a real tragedy for you to get your priorities in order. Perhaps that was God's way of telling me "Quit your bitching - you are alive, you have a wonderful family and a roof over your head that's not crumbling around you."

This weekend will be spent with a little more focus on family and a little less focus on the mess in the house...

Chaos Part II

I. Do. Not. Like. Feeling. Out. Of. Control.

There. I said it. Not like those that know me don't already know this about me. I'm a control freak. I admit it. But I just feel so freakishly out of control right now and that freaks me out further. Sometimes I wish I could just go with the flow, but then would that really be me? Jerry's much more that type, which is probably a big reason why we get along so well.

We don't have anything going on this weekend so I'm hoping to take some time just to sort out all of my stuff and get back on top of things. Although....are you ever really on top of things after having kids???

Chaos

I feel a little bit like I'm living in a lot of chaos right now. It's not a bad problem to have, since I think the majority of the chaos is caused by the fact that we moved, but still....my OCD tendencies do not lend themselves well to this feeling of being out of control. Jerry just called me and said he couldn't find Carrie's hat and mittens anywhere for her to take to school for when they go outside to play....they are sitting in the Envoy from when I picked her up yesterday and they never made it from the car to the house. So now I have visions of my poor child freezing her petunias off outside. Thankfully the coat she has today has a giant hood on it, but still I feel like a bad mommy. I'm sure the teachers at school are wondering just when we're going to get our act together (or perhaps they are just used to it and I'm not the only one? Who knows?)

There are still a bunch of boxes in Anna's room that may or may not actually need to be in there. I haven't been able to find a spare minute to go scavage through them to see what's in there, so there they sit. I'm sure Kayla's wondering what the hell they are still doing in there (perhaps I should have her scrounge around in them to find out what's in there!)

The kitchen counters drive. me. insane. Only one counter, really. I've dubbed it the "Command Center." There was, at one time, about FOUR laptops on the counter. Thankfully that's been reduced to one, but there are all these wires everywhere. Wires for the external hard drive. Wires for the camera to the computer. Wires for charging our cell phones. I've designated an entire drawer in the kitchen for nothing but wires.

Our Christmas tree is still up. Not that big of a deal since there were never any ornaments on it (just had to have it up for the kiddos!) and it's artificial, but still. Ready to move on from Christmas.

I have a feeling a lot of these things will be rectified in the next 24-48 hours seeing as how Anna's baptism is on Sunday and we'll be having a lunch gathering at our house on Sunday afternoon. I just hope no one opens the doors what will be the office, cause if they do it'll be like the cartoons where all the stuff comes flying out and buries the poor unsuspecting soul.