I swear they just get sillier

Tonight in the bathtub, I started to see some behavior from Audrey that reminded of Zoey in that pre two-yro world. Zoey was just so adorable and cute and silly and fun and a little mini person that it made you want to have more. I definitely dont feel that this time around, being stressed out with two really can do wonders on your life. But it was just so nice to see some of that silliness and for Zoey, Audrey and me to enjoy it. It's important to step back and enjoy the kids and these moments. Sometimes I get so focused on getting things done, doing this, doing that, I just haven't been able to enjoy this stuff. Anyway, I have Audrey going to MMO in the mornings when Zoey is at school - I guess its allowing me to have a life again. It's nice to breath a little!!

So this is their latest sillythings.

Zoey. She asked for a donut all day long. Finally, I picked one up at the store tonight for her to eat with dessert. When we got home, she saw the bag and said, momma can I have my donut now. And I said, no Zoey, not until you eat your dinner. She said, oh pickles! She's also taken to saying "holy fish" in an exclamatory voice. I can do oh pickles, its the holy fish that sometimes concerns me....She got in the car the other day and asked me if I would play that Laurie Berkner song, the one that gives her so much joy(!!).....tonight at dinner, CJ and I were discussing what I need to pickup at Costco tomorrow. He mentions getting some granola bars that everyone will like. I say just tell me which ones you want since Audrey likes the nutrigrain (but no one else), you like the PB (peanut butter - audrey's allergic), and Zoey chimes in and says "and I like the chocolate chip kind". Yes, Zoey, thanks for the input!!! I swear, she is so cute...

Audrey. Bathtub tonight. Zoey got a washcloth, so Audrey wanted one. She doesn't know what to do it with though. So she was standing up and it stuck to her leg. She got a kick out of it, so she did it again and showed me. I giggled, so she did it again. Then I said, show Zoey. So she had to show Zoey. It became a 15 min routine where Audrey would take a washcloth and put it on her leg without it slipping down. It was just too silly. Then she looks at us and stops suddenly. Looks us both straight in the face and FARTS. Then slips back down in the tub laughing hysterically. Then sits in the tub trying to fart more. Of course, at this point, I tried to distract her since it looked like she might push out a poop instead!! She has these developing OCD traits. Over the weekend, she ate some applesauce and had to wipe her mouth after each bite. She is the messiest kid, and yet when she gets something sticky on her hands, feet, face, etc, she freaks out for a wipee. Then there's the skin imperfections. She picks, pulls, and nitpicks anyone's skin that isn't perfectly smooth or that scab or a bump. Then of course, there's the fact that every buckle has to be buckled. That's actually starting to fade (thank goodness!!)

Losing our shoes, keys and mind??

Last week, after losing the entire previous week to illnesses in this household, I was trying to reorganize and clean up. I found THREE of the girls shoes, all lefties, no matches. What the?? I thought for a minute there was crazy right footed elf stealing shoes from my children. I have since found two of the missing right shoes, but there is still some right footed elf out there with a nice stride rite....

Where do all the sippy cups go? I think they're worse than socks. I HATE having to keep track of sippy cups, but even worse, I hate spilt drinks! I go through sippy cup droughts, then all of sudden, I just find sippy cups everywhere....I've found them under all the seats in my van. In the shower. CJ pulled one out of our bed yesterday. Who is running around and putting these drinks all over the place? Again, I think it's a little elven-thief who is trying to make me go crazy. I swear, I have gotten Zoey a drink just to have her come find me five minutes later asking for her drink. And I look at her like, I just gave it to you - where did you put it? And she looks at me and says I dont know where it is...

Somedays, I really do think I'm going crazy.....at the park this week, my friend and I met a new mom. They had moved here recently and we chitchatted with her a while. When everyone was packing up to go home and put toddlers down for a nap, we noticed her looking for something. This began our half hour search for her keys. Everywhere. Everyone. Couldnt' find this poor woman's keys. Just as she decides to call her husband to come and help her, someone found them BURIED in the playground. (a little elf, no doubt) Even worse, she realized that she couldn't call her husband if she needed to since he just got a new cellphone and she didnt know the number and knew that he wouldnt take a phone call on his desk.

See, us moms, we aren't going crazy....other people are driving us there.....

Audrey's next pair of glasses and some really big news

This week has been a rough one. EVERY ONE of us got sick. I mean really sick. The doctor prescribed me 4 different drugs yesterday, including an inhaler? Audrey is also on meds and is getting her 6th tooth in 7 weeks. CJ is better and Zoey is getting better. But ugh...I hate getting really sick. Our house was totally destroyed and shit just goes downhill fast. Not to mention, I got a new listing and closed a deal. So I had a lot of work to do and no babysitter and no energy. Wah, wah, wah. Suffice to say, things are on the uphill...

At Christmas, Santa left the girls a pamphlet to the Build A Bear Workshop. It's in the mall next to the play area. We go in and look, but since one bear will run you about $40 once you get it stuffed and dressed and accessorized....well, we've never bought. The girls needed some play time Wed since they had been cooped up so much. I took them to the mall to play, meet my crazy flight attendant aunt (mall is near airport) and grandma. While we were there, I decided to let them get their bears. WOW I thought they would have fun, but never expected that. NO WONDER parents are always shelling out the money!! Zoey of course picked out a Hello Kitty kittycat. Audrey went straight for Big Bird. They have this whole thing about giving the bear a heart before it gets stuffed, yada yada yada. Perfect for a 4yro - sucked Zoey right in. You would have thought the woman was god, never mind the nose ring and dyed hair!! Zoey is sleeping with Hello Kitty right now. Guess what she named her on her birth certificate - Hello Kitty! She goes with Zoey everywhere. I mean everywhere right now.....

After the stuffing, bathing, naming, etc. Then you can dress them. Buy shoes for them. Sunglasses, toys, strollers, hair things. Prom dresses, costumes. Oh yeah. All at $12 or more an outfit. Zoey's Hello Kitty is wearing $5 shorts. I buy Zoey $5 shorts! It was crazy. And guess what Audrey's Big Bird is wearing? Red satin underwear and pink crocs. Yep, shoes and panties. That's all that girl cares about. You know I really am going to have my hands full with that child...

Anyway, I managed to get them to leave after an hour. Both kids were so cute, they refused to let me carry their boxes with their bears (just like the petstore boxes). It's no surprise but Audrey had all of Nordstrom's cracking up! Especially when she decided to ride her box in the middle of the store....







OHHHH, some of the biggest news of ALL

Audrey PEED IN HER POTTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


On PURPOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Earlier this week, she took off her diaper and pointed to her peepee and wanted to go upstairs. Which is where her potty is. And voila. Sat and peed. Holy crap! Do you think we could get her out of diapers before 2? Ever since then, she has discovered Zoey's Dora seat that goes on the big potty. Today she spent 10 mins sitting on the potty looking at a book??!! She barely speaks, but uses a toilet! The same day she peed (monday), she also told me "no no momma" when I was trying to get something out of her hand. See, I knew she could talk. She just doesn't need to since her sister is never quiet! Actually she is a sponge of speaking lately. She seems to repeat everything I say now. So it will be very soon before she starts back on the cusswords....(see previous post)

Finally, Audrey has another set of glasses now. You will still see her in the pink ones, but we got her these blue ones in France. C'ez chic...

House for Sale or not?

Well, since our potential move has been pushed back a few months, I'm still gungho about selling our house. Only now I dont feel like we have to settle, we dont have to give it away. Which is good, since I'm kind of attached. On the other hand, I'm ok to get rid of it!!! I wouldn't mind selling and staying here. Wouldn't a beach condo with a boat be a nice lifestyle? I think that's why we moved here in the first place - not to get bogged down in some 90 year old money pit!! I am so done with 2700 square feet. It drives me nuts - we dont need all this stuff. We have 5 bathrooms - do you know what its like to clean 5 bathrooms on a regular basis - I dont! And it would be SOO nice to see my husband on the weekends if he didn't have to fix this or that, do the yardwork, etc.....there's a really nice beach community we drive past every time we go....Isla del Sol...doesn't it just sound nice?

Tell me what you think the house needs in the front as far as curb appeal. Some bushes are dead on the right hand side and we need some color. Maybe some green hanging down from the porch....

The Beach

CJ took me and the girls to the beach sunday night to let them play and for us to get a drink and relax. I'd had a 100plus fever for 2 days and was finally feeling better. But the kids were driving us nuts! So we caught the sunset, pina coladas, and some sandy children. Here are the photos.... Is it just me or does Audrey just always look like a little pistol??!!

Old Photos

You really should feel bad for this cat...










I've been meaning to post this one of Audrey for a while. It was taken back in July. She has such a mischevious look on her face - and she was - two seconds later she flashed me!!

Updating photos...

Zoey holding a guinea pig......

Zoey in the sunlight heading to the beach....
















Another photo from France, this was in Honfleur. By far, one of my favorite towns....













Eating ice cream at the park, New Years Eve.....

A thought to ponder

Are the muffins just as healthy if they are cooked or not? I'm curious - I'm fairly certain I could get the girls to eat them all BEFORE they go in the oven. But afterwards, not so much! It's not like chocolate chip muffins are the healthiest thing in the first place!!! Of course, Audrey takes a flinstone every day now - Zoey refuses....

I mean, in Audrey's case something is better than nothing. She had SIX teeth cut through in the last 5 weeks - I just noticed her trying to eat the wood of my desk...

Contradictions

I think I'll revise this over a couple days, but it came to me while jogging today....


Things I swore I'd never do, but have:
- ask another girl if she's got her panties (!!)
- drive a minivan - yep, I went from cool Audi to sparkly blue Town n Country...but hey, its got a rear dvd entertainment system, stow n go seats, 4 sets of captain's chairs....
- put my kids in a *gasp* stroller - turns out I've got 3 of them....
- get married!
- let my kids watch Barney
- move back home

Things I swore I'd do, but haven't
- go to law school
- join the peace corp

Things I've done, but never in a million years would I imagine that possible.....
- discreetly nursed a baby while standing in checkout line
- saw the Reverand Horton Heat (the HEAT baby) when I was 6 months preggo (well, I guess in some ways that's not SUCH a shocker)
- stopped drinking alcohol?!
- drink regularly from sippy cups (probably related to item listed above)
- love 3 people so unconditionally

Ringing in the NEW YEAR

Well, as I sit here with my cup of brownie mix and a spoon, it's hard not to reflect on the changing of the guard. Bringing in the new, saying goodbye to the old. Hold that thought, need more brownie mix....You know, these things will never make it into the oven. I think my husband is eating his with frosting. Anyway, 2006 started out really really bad. In a matter of two months, I lost 5 real estates deals - I wont tell you how much money. It was ugly. And depressing. But I seemed to have finished the year with a BANG and will be starting this one with a new contract. Not bad. And everyone thought that people were done buying real estate in FL!! Actually with 1000 new residents every day or every hour or something scary, well we dont have to worry about that. Especially not where we live - 3 blocks to the water and 3 blocks to downtown. Smart move. Maybe we'll actually sell our house this year and see some of that profit.

What else. Well there was that emergency surgery I had. Who knew a simple birth control appointment could send you to the hospital? Although, it was nice to have a night in a bed all to myself for some peace and quiet!!

What else did we do? We went to WA twice this year, GA twice, and FRANCE once. Not bad at all. Maybe this year, we can make it back to Cali. I find myself missing CA sometimes. I miss a few of my friends, the mountains, the pedestrian lifestyle and my husband MOST definitely misses the snow. But so do I. Zoey is old enough to start skiing, and if we stay in FL, the chances are high that she might end up like her momma - a flatlander, someone who should never strap on skiis. And I think that might depress her father.

My girls. Well, when you're only 1 and 4, a year changes you ALOT. Zoey really lengthened this year - she looks so skinny to me. She lost her babybelly. She loves to wear dresses and things with flowers. Last year I discovered a brand of clothing called Keedo. www.keedousa.com They are of course her favorite clothes. Perfect for our climate, light, breezy, and beautiful colors. She's just such a girly. She seems to have gone out the princess stuff now, and is right back to where she was before - obsessed with animals. Mostly kitties. She loves those my littlest petshops. The bugs, the kitties, the snail. The snail. A funny story from France. She had one of those little toys in Paris - it was the snail. She was obsessing about the snail - it went with us everywhere. On our way to the Louvre one day, it had taken us about 3 hours to make it a half mile since her sister wasn't cooperating in the stroller. We passed a small cafe and Zoey goes momma I'm hungry, can you get me something to eat in there. And her father goes no, they eat snails in there honey. Youre snail wouldn't like it. She of course had to verify this with me, and quite frankly, it was the truth. That bullet was dodged (dont worry we had like a grocery bag of food for her to eat in the stroller - she just didn't want it). However, she did lose the snail that day in Paris, never to be found again. We did of course tell her that someone probably ate him....and before you go thinking we're bad parents, I just found her a replacement snail....

Then there's the little one. She's currently getting FIVE new teeth - mostly molars. ARRR. The mindnumbing brutality of teething is something that I can NEVER get over. I guess we were lucky with Zoey in that she got most of her teeth early. So by the time she was one and half, she was cute, fun, smart and just soooo amazing. That is in fact how we ended up with baby number TWO. It's a good thing we dont want anymore kids. Audrey is cute, smart, fun and so amazing as well - only most days, the teething issues will really put her and us over the edge. I sold my maternity clothes. Yeah, I mean it - I'm done. I dont really want to go through the "baby" thing anymore. Neither does my husband. I'm ready for the next step. Fun things like more traveling, owning a boat, eating a meal in public, going on a date with my spouse. These aren't huge things to ask for (well maybe the boat...). Oh, this paragraph is for Audrey. Well, she's adorable. All 30lbs of her. Yep, a 30lb one year old! Zoey only weighs 37lbs and she's 4. The ped assures me that's she is proportional - and she is - her height AND weight are both in the 90%s. She seems to have some early budding sports abilities. Not ones seen in her sister. It's kinda cool. The other day, she was kicking a ball around the backyard. It never left more than 12inches in front of her foot and she never missed it. The control of the ball had me in awe. I played soccer for years and could never do that. Plus, for her speed, she was running. Impressive to say the least. So, I guess she's going to be our little sports player. I hate to typecast my kids so young, but its just that her sister would rather pick flowers in our yard. They are both so much like my husband and myself separately - its kinda funny. Not only does Zoey look like me and Audrey look like CJ, but their personas seem to also reflect us. Of course, being our kids, they both have traits of the other person too...but still, some of the similarities are uncanny....

Our health in 06. The girls spent most of 2006 in a doctors office! Zoey had her adenoid removed and tubes put in her ears. We discovered she was suffering hearing loss due to retained fluid. We just did the surgery in Nov - she has a follow up hearing test next week. Audrey was put in glasses, after a brutal few weeks which involved discussions of scary possibilities like cancer, blindness, etc. It's wasn't good - but glasses, well, not so bad. Nope, she's not sick, going blind or anything too tragic. Just has a little problem focusing...Not to mention that she is doing splendidly with wearing them! And of course she is soooooooooo cute and stylish. My husband took to working out heartily again, and I finally went back to running. I think you can say this family is active. In the last two months, I have currently done 2 races while pushing the kids in the double stroller. No I dont expect to win, but they do enjoy the excitement and I enjoy the motivation. And as for my husband, I think he's feeling pretty good about himself too. Funny story, a couple girlfriends came over one day this month and were commenting on my husband's upper body strength. Words like large and buff were being used; there might have even been a hot. I think I mentioned something like yeah, you should see his butt!

Our plans in 2007 - more success in our jobs is the obvious top priority. Paying the mortgage is always nice. Things will depend on some large plans we are currently developing - nothing I can divulge now. But stay tuned. Otherwise, I would like to be a more organized mom in 07. A full time job and two kids and a 2500sqft house kinda has me overworked, overbeat, and worndown. Not right at the moment, since I've eaten like 3 whole brownies during this post. But I'd like to keep things more organized, stable and by all means, healthier!! More running, lots more running for me. I'm loving it. Especially with this little invention called the IPod!

I would like to make a toast in closing to the family and friends that made 2006 for us. Thank you for the love and support you give us, each of us!! May 2007 bring you joy, peace and good health....

Hugs and kisses to all...