Date night

I love when my mom calls me up and asks if she can have the kids for a few nights. Immediate response is always "YES PLEASE". It would be awesome if she took Amaya too but beggers can't be choosers.
For this little reprieve, spur of the moment we decided to go to the movies to see The Bourne Legacy. The movie theater by us has matinee Tuesday. All day all the movies are only $7. Perfect date night.
The movie was kinda long, took a long time to develop and was kinda disappointing based on the past Bourne movies. After 2 plus hours we walked out of the theater...into the pouring rain. We decided to make a run for the car and I got a muscle spasm in the middle of running. Get to the car and the door is locked. Get in the car and had a good laugh. At this point it has already stopped raining, lol.
It's the little things in life that make me smile. Like knowing u don't have to come home to as many kids and sitting in a car laughing at silly things with my husband.  I don't even care that the movie kinda sucked.

Beach adventure

This past Saturday I took Kayla to a birthday party at the town beach club for one of her classmates. It was supposed to be 100 degrees but never really felt that hot. About 2 hours into the party the sky got cloudy and it started to pour. Definite beach party ender.
They invited everyone back yesterday after work just for some pizza and fun since it was her actual birthday.  This time I took Elyse as well.
It was really nice because I haven't really socialized much with the parents in her Kayla's class and I'll be seeing these same parents until 5th grade because she's in the dual language program. We ended up staying way after the sun set and the gates were locked. Beach club members have a key to the gate but they forgot theirs.  The kids were fully ready to spend the night on the beach but we all squeezed through the gates to freedom. The kids thought it was a hilarious adventure.

Emotional blackmail

Elyse: mommy give me a huggie
Me: one secind baby
Elyse: if you don't give me a hug I'm gonna get mad a make a mess and then your gonna get mad.

Well, alrighty then. 3 year old emotional blackmail back by 3 year old logic.

Elyse after huggie: mommy, you smell like strawberries, bananas, and blueberries.

Best compliment ;-)

Amaya's Butterfly Birthday

Amaya's birthday was over a month ago but I had so much fun planning the party I just had to share. I decided on a bright multicolored butterfly themed party. Perfect timing because everywhere I went butterflies were in full effect for spring. Overall, it was a great party, but I'm glad it's the last big party I have to plan....until sweet 16's.

Butterfly made from Amaya's footprints and poster paint

 I found this idea on Pintrest from http://karaspartyideas.blogspot.com/2011/09/sweet-butterfly-1st-birthday-party.html.

 A pretty picture of the favor table set up by my bff Siobhan and buddy Cindy.

Party favors-mini terracotta pots with wildflower seeds and dirt to make your own butterfly garden. Hand cut butterfly decoration with Easter colored sixlet bodies, and butterfly pinata

 Cake table. I never got a better picture of the table and all my hard work but there were butterfly shaped pb&j and nutella and jam sandwiches, chocolate covered pretzels made with a butterfly mold, cereal snack bags tied in the middle with pipe cleaners to look like butterflies, my butterfly cupcakes, and the very inexpensive BJ's butterfly sheet cake.

 My cute butterfly cupcakes. Super easy to make. I combined a bunch of ideas I found online and on Pintrest. The cupcakes were boxed cupcakes but I made the buttercream frosting from scratch. Ideas from here http://thepersingers.blogspot.com/2011/04/butterfly-cupcakes.html and here http://www.quixoticpixels.com/blog/2007/03/its-my-party/.

Now on to Elyse's princess party.  Have a lot of fun ideas for this one too, can't wait to share!

Switcheroo

Elyse's 4th birthday is coming up and ever since I started planning Amaya's 1st birthday in April she has been asking for a Mickey Mouse party for herself.  I convinced her to do a Mickey and Minnie party and I spent the better part of this week looking for ideas and making a pintrest board with all of the great ideas.  I had the party all planned out in my head and just needed to get my supplies. I decided I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby about 45 minutes away just to see what it was all about. I had a whole basket full of Minnie Mouse inspired things when the kid tells me she wants a Princess party...I blame the giant castle pinata. So of course she threw me off my game and I was totally scattered. Kinda disappointed because I was really looking forward to putting together this party...lucky I still have another kid who wouldn't mind a Minnie Mouse party.

EBay

I will be spending this evening putting this wonderful pile of unwanted and un-needed crap for sale on eBay. I hate how ling it takes to post stuff, I need to find a better system. At least I will have the DWTS finale to entertain me.

Mobility

Just realized there's a mobile app for Blogger. Probably should have realized that sooner...but it makes blogging so much easier :-)

Happy Easter

My mom is leaving me for 9 days..whaaaaaa. Just kidding. But seriously I am jealous. She's going to an all inclusive resort in Punta Cana, DR. While she's sipping Mai-tais on the beach, I'll be house sitting in NY, where the weather refuses to stay nice. I am looking forward to some nice quiet family fun with the hubs and the girls though. Hopefully they don't drive me too crazy...wishful thinking I'm sure.

I'm back!

Happy very late New Year ;-) This morning I woke up and realized that even though hubs has a cold, the kids have been healthy for at least a week. No coughing, sneezing, wheezing, puking, etc. Then the school nurse called to say Kayla was complaining about ear pain. Of course the doctor confirmed it's her 4th ear infection in 2 months. Poor thing missed the circus performing at her school today. Anyway, yesterday was Valentine's Day and although we didn't go anywhere I actually had a really nice evening at home. Elyse helped me whip up a nice romantic dinner with special treats for everyone ;-)

Elyse's hand and thumbprint Valentine's tree

Heart shaped meatballs ;-*

Yes, this is what Kayla looks like after a hard day at school...can you say CA-RAZY hair?

Picture perfect table, complete with "romantic" plastic wine glasses for all of us

Perfect way to end a day that started out with spilled milk in my car.

Showertime Antics

The other day I had to wait until Amaya's afternoon nap at 4pm to take my shower. I left Elyse playing while I hopped in thinking she would stay playing for the 15 minutes I needed. Like many of my assumptions when it comes to my children, I was wrong.
When I walked in I noticed that she had once again peed in the toilet and not flushed. This is the new weird habit of both my children. I have no idea why they do it. Anyway, I turned on the shower and flushed for her before I realized I had to go to. Once the water is on you can't flush the toilet because there isn't enough water pressure to have the water running and flush the toilet. So I left it just the way I found it, unintentionally of course.
Elyse comes in and says, "Mommy, you CAN'T leave your pee-pee in the toilet. It's DISGUSTING!! You HAVE to flush the toilet!!!" Gee thanks little miss perfect...
Then she pulls back the curtain and says, "I see your butt, hehehehe" I tried to convince her that there was something far better to do outside of the bathroom but she wasn't hearing it. She stayed there for the next 15 minutes as I showered and asked me questions, stole soap off my body to "wash" her hands, and generally harassed me.
Once I got out of the shower she proceeded to slap my but as I tried to get dressed. She even blew raspberries on my butt and yes, my butt-crack. I put my panties and pants on first to deter her but then she moved up my body and started touching my boobs.
Have you ever been man-handled by your own child? I'm sure most of you have...and now I have too. I need to start locking the bathroom door...

Isn't shopping supposed to be fun??

This weekend my mother in law wanted the girls to work in the yard with her and she realized they didn't have any "weekend clothes".  All of their clothes are pretty new and I prefer that they stay looking that way. So she told me to go buy them some sweatpants on her. I figured that should be easy enough...wrong. 
While Kayla was in school I took Elyse and Amaya with me to Wal-Mart. From the start Elyse told me she didn't want to go buy clothes-she just wanted to go home. So she whined and complained the whole entire time in Wal-Mart. And of course she had to use the bathroom. I HATE with a passion public bathrooms and this kid has to pee every time I leave the house no matter where we go.
The creative bastards at this particular Wal-Mart have the clothes section directly across from the toy section so of course Elyse was begging me for a toy. I didn't really find what I was looking for and about 40 minutes later Elyse was crying because she was hungry, tired, and toyless. So of course I went home empty-handed. No problem, I thought, we'll all go home, eat, relax, and hit Marshall's in the afternoon. 
Marshall's of course didn't have anything either.  Nothing I was looking for I mean. Elyse of course found a heart shaped coin purse, a cardboard hello-kitty box, and a clear plastic jewelery box. She found all of this while she was running away from me in the store. She's that kid that when you turn around for one nano-second you lose her but if you look hard enough you might see her sneakers peeking out from underneath one of the clothes racks and hear her devious giggling.
Anyway, I'm trying to leave and Elyse is throwing a tantrum because she wants her found treasures. "Please Mommy, please. I neeeed them.  But I LOVE them!" Mind you, one of the boxes is broken and cost $10. I had to pick her up and carry her out of the store crying hysterically while also pushing Amaya in the stroller- Amaya, the "baby" who didn't cry or complain during either of my 2 trips.
So, not one but 2 tantrums and no clothes.  Sitting in the car, getting ready to drive home I suddenly remembered why I like shopping on the internet and why that may be the only form of shopping I do for a long, long, time.

Snow Day

Every day as the temperature drops lower and lower I long to pack up my crap and drive right back down south to Florida. I don't think a winter will pass for the rest of my life without me thinking about my wonderful Florida "winters" with desperate longing. It doesn't help when we are barely through fall and it frickin SNOWS! The hilarity and irony of this happening the year I move back to NY are not lost on me. While I stayed inside nice and warm Kayla and Elyse went out and played in the snow.  Two years ago Kayla got to play in the snow and made a snowman but Elyse was too young and has never seen snow until now. She was in heaven. It took about a week for all the snow to melt and for that whole week she was in love.

She threw herself in it, ate it, licked it, kicked it, stomped in it, and pretended it was all kinds of interesting things.  She is definitely going to enjoy the winters here way more than me. The "snow dog" however, wanted nothing to do with the stuff.  He was very confused to say the least.  It took me a whole 24 hours to convince him to go out and poop. I actually had to throw on my boots and sweats to walk him up the road because he refused to go anywhere near the snow.  Apparently nurture won against nature...

Happy Halloween

This halloween I didn't have the time, energy, or funds to make costumes so the girls were witches thanks to Mima. According to Kayla she was a good witch and Elyse was a bad witch. When I tried to correct Kayla, Elyse corrected me because she wanted to be the bad witch...makes perfect sense.  This was my first experience putting make-up on them. Have to say I kinda enjoyed it, it was like they were little dolls. This was also our first year trick-or-treating in the cold weather. It wasn't too bad though. They had a blast and it was fun to see all the houses decorated. People in Florida never really seemed to get into all that. They got plenty of candy, which I of course raided at the end of the night ;-)

Happy 5th birthday Kayla

Can't believe my first born is already 5 years old. It's been so amazing watching her grow and change over the past 5 years. She is definitely an interesting kid and it's been a great journey.
She wanted a Tangled birthday party ever since Elyse's birthday in July. I did what I could on my limited budget with lots of help from my mom and judging from the picture she was happy.  Either that or she's a really good actress.

Like my hand-made Rapunzel tower?

The Do

Amaya has been congested for a few days so last night I had to run the vaporizer. I gave her a bath and washed her hair before bed. When I went to check on her in the middle of the night the humidity from the vaporizer made her hair dry a little frizzy. She looked like Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Suess' Cat in the Hat. Makes sense because all of my kids hair is always CRAZY!!

Sharing is Caring

I've been trying to teach the girls to share for some time now. Sometimes, they willingly oblige and sometimes they just are downright greedy and selfish. Glad to say that this week we are making progress...one of them has graciously shared their germs. Hallelujah!! So glad they were thoughtful enough to make sure we would all suffer together. I'd like to be able to give credit where credit's due, but I can't figure out which child was so generous.
I feel like we have been sick for the past month though.  It's like the same cold keeps going round and round, where it will stop...I wish I knew :-/

Week in Review

After Monday's incident at Wal-Mart I was hoping my week would get better. Not so much...it was a roller coaster of a week. 

Kayla started taking the school bus home. It took her until Wednesday to realize when it was her stop. She would sit there in la la land until they had to actually call her name to get off.

 

Tuesday she threw the worst tantrum because she didn't want to leave her grandparents house. She screamed and cried the entire 40 minute ride home. It took all of my energy to ignore her. Then she accused me of not caring about her. I just kept wondering where was the "return to sender" option on the last year of my life. Before all that happened I fed the baby solid food for the first time and she loved it. Always enjoy their first reaction to real food

Wednesday while I was cooking dinner Ricky found Kayla cutting Elyse's hair with a pair of children's scissors. Thank God he checked on them when he did because there was already a good amount of hair there. Even though he caught her red handed, Kayla tried to tell me Elyse did it to herself.

Thursday was my birthday...whoo hooo, not. This is my last year in my 20's and I'm hoping the year ahead is a good one.  Not feelin the whole getting older thing that keeps happening...it kinda sorta sucks.

Friday was the icing on the cake. I went outside to get something from my car and my dog chased a skunk under my car, who in turn, sprayed him in the face. I highly recommend you never let your dog even look at a skunk. The dog was in the house for two seconds before I realized what happened and the smell is still lingering. Of course this was at 10pm at night when the temperature had dropped to 45 degrees. I left the poor dog outside for the night. I set up a bed for him but I'm sure he was so confused he barely slept. My wonderful aunt let me bring him to her house and helped me wash him the next morning. Skunk spray is so strong the smell can last up to 2 years. Seriously hoping that doesn't happen or he will live in my aunt's back yard for the rest of his life.

Ended the week on a high note though. My bff came for a impromptu visit Sunday and I got to see her and my godson. Probably won't see her again for some time so that was nice.

Manic Monday

Kayla has officially started school. Today was only day 3 and it was a crazy one...
Amaya woke up at 4:30am for a feeding and again at 5:50am. At 6:40am I was in that state of sleep where you're not awake but you're not asleep when I heard "MIMA! MIMA!" followed by crying.  I spent the next 5 minutes trying to detach my boob from Amaya's mouth without waking her up. Get upstairs and I see my mom dressed and ready for work with the exception of rollers in her hair, giving Elyse a quick bath. She had peed in her sleep and was drenched in pee. My stepfather was leaning over the tub warning me it was broken, something I didn't comprehend until I decided to take a shower 10 minutes later. It is only 7am. My mom and Sam race out the door and I rush to throw all the sheets, pillows, and stuffed animals in the wash, make breakfast and jump in the shower. Then I realize, the knob to the water is broken and will not stay on or turn. Somehow I managed to jam it on and turn on the water by holding it in and turning real quick and tight. It was scalding hot but I didn't have time to mess with it. It's 7:20am and Amaya is awake already. I was able to get out the door with all 3 kids and no more incidents or crying (miracle) by 8:06am and made it to Kayla's school 10 minutes early ;-)

After school I decided to go to Wal-Mart for a few odds and ends. This is where my day gets really good. Both kids are exhausted and whiny because they have been up for so long. Elyse is having a break down because she just doesn't want to walk and I can't find a cart big enough for the 3 of them. I put her on the handles of the stroller, which I used to do with Kayla when Elyse was a baby. She was eating her snack of grapes when all of the sudden she starts choking. Simultaneously she falls to the floor and starts running away screaming, gagging and choking, while the stroller flips down to the ground with Amaya still in her car seat strapped in. Now I have a crying frightened baby and a choking 3 year old who decides it's best to run away from me while choking and spewing Hawaii Punch colored vomit all over Wal-Mart. Some lady is standing there looking at my freak show horrified and saying "She's choking!!" It was something out of a tv show. The woman must have thought I was a nut job. I had to run after Elyse, thump her back, pump her stomach, and cup her vomit, all while Amaya is screaming her head off and Kayla is excitedly giving me a play by play of what's happening..in the middle of Wal-Mart.  It was pure madness. 

And that was my Monday. I can't wait to see how the rest of my week goes...

Catching Up

It's been 4 months since my last post and so much has happened since then. Too much for this blog so here's a quick review.

• May:
• Started hemorrhaging when Amaya was 2 weeks old, wound up in ICU and got a blood transfusion.
• June
• Amaya turned 1 month old
• Contemplated killing myself almost every day trying to deal with 2 bored kids and a very needy, demanding infant.
• Got a second opinion on my medical issue from my old gynecologist, found a blood clot on my uterus. Got the blood clot removed after much procrastination.
• July
• Decided to spend a whole month in NY to get a break. Amaya turned 2 months, Elyse turned 3 years old.
• Ricky lost his job, we decided to move back to NY- ROAD TRIP!!
• August
• Amaya turned 3 months old
• Living apart, very stressed
• September
• Have had a string of bad luck-lost my wallet with a $200 gift card, someone drove into Ricky's side mirror (Karma maybe?), Jada fell backwards down the stairs and was limping for 3 days and Amaya turned 4 months old.
• KAYLA STARTED KINDERGARTEN!! Very momentous occasion. 

Now that we're pretty much caught up I can get down to the fun stuff. Hope to go back to blogging on a regular basis ;-)

Breastfeeding Through the Eyes of My Children

Yesterday
Kayla: Mommy when I'm a grown-up like you can I feed my baby with my grown-up boobies?

Today
Elyse: Mommy, is the baby eating you?
Me: Uhm, yes.
Elyse: Hey, why are you eating my mom??

Annnnd Happy Birthday Siobhan ;-)