Haircut!

I missed the curls even before they were gone, but it only took one 90 degree day to convince me that Kai would be much more comfortable with a "summer" cut.




Still cute!

Why the Kitchen is Still a Mess

Last night I was babysitting for a 4 year old girl (did I tell you I got a very part-time babysitting job?). So I was babysitting her and marveling at how well-behaved she is when it dawned on me: Of course she is wellsbehaved. I'm playing with her. I'm not multitasking or putting away laundry or talking on the phone. I'm playing. (Her little brother was already asleep, which helped).

I decided to spend this morning playing with my kids. We played Dragon (where I am the dragon), we blew bubbles, rode bikes, and ran through a sprinkler (the kids, not me). We drank hot chocolate (the kids were freezing from the sprinkler) and ate lunch and now they are napping - asleep. Getting Jett to take a nap meant I had to promise him I would sleep next to him the whole time, but that's fine. Here I am in my bed, laying next to my sleeping child who did not yell, scream, or hit all day. Sleep, little guy, sleep.

Kai is TWO!

Today was Kai's second birthday. All I wanted was a nice quiet day to celebrate him.

Unfortunately, our day was really noisy. The whining, the yelling, the sound of Jett's hands slapping my legs because he was so angry that I let Kai turn off the TV when he wanted to turn off the TV, silly me.



Yes, so Jett woke up at 6:00 am, crabby on Kai's birthday. At one point, before any of us were even dressed, he had knocked Kai over, kicked him, kicked me, hit me, and called me "bad mommy". So I picked him up and put him in Kai's crib, which he promptly climbed out of. That's when Charlie told me I shouldn't be angry, so of course I thanked him for his sage advice and snapped right out of it.

With Jett whining about the sky being blue and Kai whining from hunger, I scrapped the special waffle breakfast and doled out Life cereal, the usual. As I slammed the bowls down on the counter, somewhere in the back of my head my rational voice reminded me that despite the general grumpiness, we had to give Kai his birthday presents this morning rather than tonight, because I knew already that the boys would be going to bed early. I sucked it up, salvaged what was left of my birthday spirit and handed Kai his presents.

Kai was very cute.





Jett was very excited for Kai to unwrap the present that he picked out for him, I wonder why.



It had that symbol - a picture of a baby face with a slash through it - that Jett understands to mean that no babies can play with it. (Don't ask me - I wasn't the one who let Jett pick out that particular gift for Kai). Jett seemed almost too excited to point out that, "No babies can play with this, Mama. No babies can play with this!" I would say that was very strategic gift-giving, wasn't it?

Thankfully Charlie had the quick wit to tell Jett that Kai isn't a baby anymore. He's a little kid now. What?! Not my baby?! Bite your tongue, Charlie Johnson! Jett was shocked too. He exclaimed, over and over, "You're not a baby anymore Kai! You're not a baby anymore, Kai!" Jett seemed genuinely thrilled by it. (Kai, you are still a baby to me, you sweet thing).

Sharing the race track went ok.



At one point I plunked the boys down in the chair to watch a movie so I could clean up the chaos of the morning. They sat so quietly that I took the opportunity to record Kai's feet, his fingers, his hair. Ah, the baby-ness of my sweet baby. I soaked it in. I started to relax.





But then we went outside to ride Kai's new tricycle (love it!).



We were outside 30 minutes and Jett spent the entire time yelling at me because I pushed Kai over some speck in the sidewalk that he wanted to ride over first. It was insane. I guided the boys back to our front door in order to go inside and start their naps, when Jett locked me out of the building. (Not really - I had a key to the door, but it didn't work the first 5 times I tried it, and Jett was certainly trying to lock me out anyway). OMG. Kai and I played it calm and practiced on his new bike a few minutes before I finally wrangled the door open, but I didn't feel calm. I felt like screaming.

When I finally got the door open I picked up Jett, took Kai by the hand, walked them to the car. I strapped them in their seat belts, put the bikes away, drove the car around to the alley, went upstairs and got the diaper bag and school things, and dashed back to the car. Kai fell asleep in 5 minutes, but I had to drive for thirty minutes before Jett drifted off.

Then we were on to the second part of our day - school. Today Jett's class took a field trip by walking to a neighborhood park. Kai and I joined them because I knew Kai would love it. He loved it, and so did I.

Really, he loved it.

Keeping with the pattern of the day, Jett knocked over some kid (who wasn't even in his class) and hit him while he was down. Jett's saving grace (and mine) is that his teacher saw it and not me - so she handled it. I would have been mortified, except I was beaten down so much already. (Oh Kai, it's your birthday and I'm spending all of my energy on Jett!)

The evening was slightly better. We had chocolate cake and Kai blew out his candle before we even started singing - he knew just what to do! We lit it for him four times, he liked it so much - and then we lit it again for Jett. Candles are a hit! So you know, there were some sweet moments in the day.



The boys went to bed early and fell asleep fast and tomorrow is another day. Happy Birthday, little kid Kai. We love you.

Of course they did.

And the winner is....

Stacey! Stachay, Stacey, you won! You can thank Jett, he drew your name. CSN should be contacting you shortly. Enjoy!

I had written more, but then our internet connection went out. Now I'm blogging on my phone, which is no fun. So I'll write more in the next post. In the meantime, I want to thank everyone who enetered by leaving comments. It was fun to hear from my friends who read this, and exhilerating to see comments from new readers. Thanks! It was fun!

Five weeks away from the big 4.

Do you know how hard it is to plan a birthday party for a soon-to-be four year old who 1) has parents who were broke one month ago and have not yet recovered 2) wants to invite his entire preschool class of 20 kids 3) wants his party to be at a bowling alley and 4) 20 kids at a bowling alley costs $300!

Add in the lack of a backyard and well, it is really hard to plan a party for that. Everyone says, "Have it at a park!" but it's not that simple. What do you do if it rains? Rent a room in the park building? You might be able to entertain 20 four-year-olds in a small, empty room, but I start to hyperventilate just thinking about it.

I'm thinking of buying a couple of bubble machines and letting the kids run around on the sidewalk outside our building. If it rains we can just move the bubble machines inside. You know the kids would love having all of those bubbles in the house.



P.S. The giveaway ends Tuesday at noon.

Performance Art

I had a happy mother's day, and I hope all of you did too.

At one point Kai turned off the TV, brought me one of his books, and sat down in my lap. He chose a book (and me!) over TV - a dream come true! Then when I was putting Jett to bed he told me that I was his bestest mom in his whole world and that Dad was his other best friend. Man, I love those kids.

Here is a short video of what I saw when I walked out of my room this morning. I taught him that. Isn't he great?



P.S. You can also still enter the giveaway.

$60 Giveaway!

Last week Jett was playing on the rug in front of the couch when he said, "Mom we should get a new rug."

"What?"

"We should get a new rug. A red one, with blue. One that looks old."

What? Is my city kid going all Americana on me now? What is he going to to want to start changing next, our track lighting? Please.

Don't worry. There is no way I start soliciting his opinion on our interior design. Negotiating with Charlie is bad enough.

But perhaps you'd like to involve Jett in decorating your home. (Giveaway Alert!)

Like I mentioned in my previous posts, CSN Stores will send a $60 gift certificate to one of my readers. All you have to do to enter the drawing is leave a comment on this post. To get TWO entries in the drawing, leave a comment AND follow me. I'll put all of the names in a hat and have Jett pick the winning name at random. The contest ends Tuesday at noon. That's 12:00 CST. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday.

I should say that csnstores.com sells more than just home furnishings and decorations. They sell pencils and car seats and litter boxes too, and lots more. There may be shipping charges or in the case of Canadian readers, international fees, for certain products.

You all know that there are only about 2 people who read this blog on a regular basis, right? So your odds of winning are really, really good. Good luck!

Thrifty Shopping

So now that I've told you all about Charlie's job, and my very-part-time gig, and the upcoming GIVE AWAY CONTEST, I can get back to the stories.

A couple of weeks ago we had a really great Saturday. I took the boys to T-ball in the morning while Charlie went to soccer. Then after lunch we took the boys swimming at Welles Park. Then after that Charlie and I decided to drive an hour north to Gurnee to shop at Children's Clothing & Toy Consignment Sale. I had very high hopes, and I felt like shopping. You can imagine my delight when the boys fell asleep on our drive north, and then kept sleeping when we pulled in to the parking lot, and then kept sleeping as Charlie agreed to sit in the car with the sleeping boys while I went in and basically had the entire place to myself. (It was about 6:00pm by then, and the savvy shoppers had long since left).

Oh, how I enjoyed walking around in that flourescent-lit warehouse by myself. I pawed through racks of kids' clothes (and scored a coveted Buzz Lightyear t-shirt, some cute plaid shorts, a very cool swimsuit that is too big for Jett, and a couple of other summer items). There were tons and tons of shoes, most of them brand new and still in the department store boxes. I found sandals for Kai that are all fancy and full of ankle support and toe protection and unlike anything I've ever found at Target. And they only cost $15.

Two of the best things I found were two toddler-sized backpacks for $1 each. They look cheap and flimsy and they say "Nickelodeon" all over them, but the boys love them. Jett wears his to school every day and has shown it to his teachers at least twice already. Kai also wears his to school every day, and holds his while he sits in his car seat. If he drops it he yells, "Backback, backback!" until I pick it up and hand it to him.

But even the backpacks don't compare to the tent. It's an indoor playtent, and it cost $6. Jett empties all of his toys in to it and then crawls in himself, and expects Kai to do the same. Kai does of course, and then the tent gets jostled around, and Jett gets pissed and I fold up the tent and we try again later. I guess they really have a love/hate relationship with the tent. Or maybe just I do.

Anyway, the first night we had the tent was the best night for it. It was a late night, but a good one. Did I mention that after shopping we took the boys for pizza? We ended up eating pizza at 8:00, which is their bedtime. It was a really fun dinner, and an easy drive home, and the boys were still wide awake when we got home at 10:00. After I put Kai in bed, I walked out of his room to find the Charlie had not gotten any of my telepathic messages, because while I was putting Kai to sleep, Charlie and Jett put up the tent. Then Charlie had the fool sense to suggest to Jett that they sleep in the tent that night, in the middle of the living room floor. Jett was over the moon and Charlie was the best dad in the world, and I for one, got a great night's sleep. Here are some pics.

One grateful Jett


One good dad


Happy happy!

Big News X 4!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. We've been busy over here and I have a lot to catch you up on. Four things to catch you up on, to be exact. Four things, and maybe a picture at the end if you're nice enough to read all the way through.

1. First up, Charlie's got a job. Hopefully this is the start of better things for us. It wasn't exactly what we were hoping for, in that it is only guaranteed for six months, but it could get extended up to 18 months, so cross your fingers. It's kind of bittersweet in a few ways. First off, the boys miss him. They ask about him all day and Jett in particular talks about missing Charlie when he's at work. On the other hand, they run to him when he walks in the door at the end of the day; they really give him a hero's welcome, which is fantastic. On a practical level, I'm frustrated with what will be our new insurance. It's expensive and none of our doctors accept it so we've had to find new ones. Our state-subsidized insurance is affordable and accepted everywhere we go. But at least soon the pharmacist will stop yelling, "MEDICAID!" every time we pick up a prescription. Seriously, does she have to tell the entire store that we are using MEDICAID!? As if handing over that xeroxed sheet of paper instead of an insurance card isn't embarrassing enough. Ah well, those days will soon be over. Moving on...

2. My new gig. I'm working towards becoming a Local Child Care Coordinator (LCC) for Cultural Care, an au pair agency. I'm honing my grassroots sales skills as I work as an agent for another LCC. And when I say I'm honing my grassroots sales skills, I mean I'm trying to figure out what that means and then do it. That leads me to item number three....

3. Twitter. My work with Cultural Care inspired me to set up a Twitter account. You can see my latest tweets over there on the right side of the screen. My goal is to tweet information that is relevant to parents like me, including information about child care and au pairs. You can witness my technological fumblings at twitter.com/RockRockSilly. Come and follow me and see how I manage. It'll at least be entertaining to see my rookie mistakes.

4. Finally, the Give Away! Coming up this week, I will be giving away a $60 gift certificate to csnstores.com. They found me and offered to send me something to review (and keep) or to sponsor a "give away" (something for one of you to keep). I chose the give away! So stay tuned and keep an eye out for the Give Away post so you can see how to enter the contest.

Also, in case any of you are suspicious like me, I also wondered who they were, how they found me and why they'd want to give up $60 worth of merchandise so easily. So I did a little research. I looked them up on the Better Business Bureau, and the BBB gave them an A+. Then I looked for reviews of their sites online, and found that most of their customers are happy with their experience. Then I read some articles about blogs and giveaways and companies that do giveaways, and I learned enough about it that I wasn't scared of it anymore. Finally I went to their websites, and liked what I saw. They sell a lot of stuff. A lot of brand-name stuff. A lot of good-looking stuff. I still don't know how they found me, but after all of my research, I'm glad they did. A give away! For you! I'm psyched!

Whew, that's a lot of stuff. Now I'll give you what you really came for, Mom. A picture! Sorry the lighting is funny, I took it with my cell. If I hold it just right, I can pretend that the lawn goes on for miles....

Walking anywhere with the boys is an exercise in patience these days because they can't walk two steps without stopping to blow the dandelions. I'm trying to just let go and enjoy the simple pleasure of it, but it is taking forever for us to get to the park these days. We didn't make it more than one block all week! Tonight we had to park our car three blocks from our condo. Normally, tomorrow morning I'd strap them into the stroller and push them to the car, but our stroller has a flat. It's going to take us forever to get anywhere tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Thanks for reading this long post, especially after my long absence! Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and stay tuned this week to learn how to enter the $60 Give Away!