Rug Burn and Some Spaghetti Sauce to Match!

The rug burn occurred as Liam was running into the living room and took a nasty spill. The spaghetti sauce from supper just made the whole look more complete!

Pooh is Potty Training!

Yes, that's right. Liam has Pooh using the potty chair regularly now. Liam uses the booster chair that he refuses to use at the table and sits next to Pooh while he is going.

Accidents, Accidents

This is what happens when your bigger brother closes the clothes dryer door on your finger. Sorry the photo didn't work so close-up. It bled for quite a while and sure left a mark! But we are still proud to say that neither of our boys has ever been to the emergency room except for the peanut allergy incident!

The Boys

In case you have forgotten what the boys look like after a week or more without pictures posted -- Connell is the squinty one by the way! When looking at these photos, it reminds me how absolutely funny it sounds when people tell me that my boys look so much alike. Connell is a carbon copy of Ray and Liam looks very much like my baby pictures. I hardly think that they look like brothers which is what my mom also responds when people say the same thing to her.

Problem Solved!

I didn't find the lost cable, but I found another that I was able to make work. Here is a photo of one of the BINGO cards that I made for Ladies' Night Out. The set has 10 total cards and I laminated the cards and each of the 75 little slips to draw from the envelope. The headings are "Familiar Brands" featuring Evenflo, Similac, etc. "Secret Luxuries" with massages, silence, etc. "Words to Describe our Husbands" with supportive, fatherly, handyman, etc. "Baby Bummers" with poopy diapers, teething, colic and "Dreaded Chores" that really doesn't need any explaining! If anyone out there wants to use them for a similar Ladies' Night thing or perhaps even a baby shower, just let me know. But there are only 10 cards...

A Damper Has Been Placed on my Blogging

The cable that connects the digital camera to the computer has been misplaced (and oddly enough my brother-in-law in Oklahoma is experiencing the same problem right now) and so I cannot transfer any photos over. I'm guessing that one of the boys knows something about it, yet they are not revealing any information.

I had Ladies' Night Out this week (8 of 11 showed) and we played a couple of games of "Mommy/Wife BINGO" that I created and with Jennifer's stellar BINGO-calling abilities, we had a blast. Katie and Jennifer were happy with the $10. pots each of them won. The night took a turn for the worse as everyone groaned after I introduced that our next big activity would be a book discussion. I provided the 380 page novel and sticky notes to mark pages and will email the discussion questions and then we will discuss it at the coffee shop on the schedule in May. I guess reading is out of the comfort zone of most in the group. I thought that I wouldn't resort to reading in my life either, but Nov. 23rd that all changed. Incidentally I chose the book All Is Vanity by Christina Schwarz for everyone to read since that was the first of my 35 books and it somehow turned me on to reading. Not to mention that its themes are PERFECT for our group of ladies. Hey and since today marks 9 weeks since I began reading and I have completed 35 books, I guess I am reading a novel every 1 3/4 days or so.

Oh, and in the last 10 days I have read the following...

She's Come Undone -- Wally Lamb 5 stars
The Secret Life of Bees -- Sue Monk Kidd 4 stars
Like Water For Chocolate -- Laura Esquivel 3 1/2 stars
The Da Vinci Code -- Dan Brown 4 stars
Lucia, Lucia -- Adriana Trigiani 5 stars

Sesame Street Live

Ray and Connell went with Connell's preschool to the Target Center to "Sesame Street Live: When Elmo Grows Up" earlier today. They got to ride on a school bus together and have lunch in their seats as they watched the 90 minute production (that includes a 15 min. intermission though). They had a great time!

One of the Three "R"s

Well, Connell has started to show a big interest in writing (or should I say 'riting to make it one of the three "R"s). Although his letters are barely recognizable, I am simply happy that he wants to try. Part of the fun is crawling upon the phonebooks that I set up to try and get him to "table level". ("Booster chairs are for babies" and even "baby" Liam hardly ever sits at his -- he sits right at the table now with us even though it is tough for me to accept that we are through with boosters altogether! :-(

Connell enjoys his "workbooks" with Care Bears, Scooby Doo, Pooh, etc. as he traces the letters/numbers and tries to create them on his own. Of course copycat Liam is always close behind trying to imitate big brother!

Loving Brothers

This time Liam was the one trying to be loving towards his brother as I took a photo. Connell doesn't seemed to pleased to be caught on film.

My Last 5 Novels

Here are the 5 novels that I have read from Dec. 29th until now. I have now completed exactly 30 books since I started reading on Nov. 23rd.

"Baby Love" -- Catherine Anderson 3 stars
"The Memory Keeper's Daughter" -- Kim Edwards 4 1/2 stars
"We Were the Mulvaneys" -- Joyce Carol Oates 4 stars
"Before You Know Kindness" -- Chris Bohjalian 4 stars
"Fortune's Rocks" -- Anita Shreve -- 5 stars

Playing Doctor

Connell got a doctor's bag for Christmas from Santa (that included a stethoscope, instrument for looking in ears, injection giver, blood pressure machine, thermometer and a fake band aid). He enjoyed playing with the items from time to time, but his interest was really piqued today after coming home from preschool. Apparently they had a new doctor kit at preschool and when they arrived, Miss Theresa pretended to be sick and all the kids got to work on her as doctors and nurses. Then Connell wanted us all to pretend to be patients and so with Ray out with the gang (Brian, Joel and Tony) tonight, Liam and I got to take turns being patients all evening.

The Boys Sporting Their "Tats"

Here is a picture of the boys sporting their "tats" as Ray calls them. They got the tattoos with a Cars movie theme from a friend's birthday party that they attended on Saturday afternoon. The boys had a blast at the party and were tickled pink (or should I say blue since they are boys) sorting through all the goodies they came home with. Oh, and the orange splotch on Connell's right arm is simply some squash that he had for supper. Nothing like a little squash on your arm to bring attention to your tattoos! The biker babes will be flocking to him!

My Backyardigans Obsession

I think I realized today for the first time that I am absolutely obsessed with the children's show "The Backyardigans" as I told friend Vicki (while exercising at the mall) about how our day is being planned around the 1 pm "Race Around the World" episode. That episode is probably my ultimate favorite though.

I think that the creator (Janice Burgess) is a genius -- if you haven't seen the show, it takes 5 animal friends (2 African American ones and 3 Caucasian ones) who act out an entire scenario together in their joint backyard (they pretend that they are in various parts of the world and in different time periods as well). The part that is simply ingenius is that each show has a music style theme (some of my favorites are zydeco, ska, reggae, Italian tarantella, tango, disco, punk, and oh the list goes on and on) and there are 4 songs from the style throughout the show. The cartoon characters' dance moves are professionally choreographed as well. The messages are usually pretty good as well teaching social skills. I allow the kids to watch this show mostly for music appreciation although I know that I get more out of each episode than they probably do. Ray also was kind enough to download the CD albums from the shows which has given us a 36 song CD with some of our favorite songs from the shows. We listen to it in the car and also dance around the living room while listening to it.

2008

Happy New Year to everyone!

The boys were in bed before 6:30 pm, I went to bed at 9:30 pm and Ray was there about 10:30 pm. But the boys and I were up bright and early at 6 am to great the new year!