My ride to work today...

Started off with Avery asking if I had my iPd and as soon as I said yes, Alex screaming out that he wanted to listen to "Baby You're a Firework."  I then explained that Avery asked first, so she gets to choose her song, so she screamed out that she wanted "California Girls."  Then, Alex got mad because even though Avery asked for the iPod, she didn't ask to hear an actual song, so he thought he should get to listen to his song first because he actually asked for a song.  And, then it all started...

Alex:  "Avery, you're a poopy head."

Mom: "Alex, don't use potty words.  I don't want to hear it again."

Alex (laughing):  "Avery, you're a pee head!"

Mom:  "ALEX!  Stop with the potty words." 

Alex (laughing hysterically):  "Pee, Poop, Poop, Pee!"

Avery (laughing) and spelling the words instead of saying them:  "P-O-O-P-Y!!!!"  "P-E-E!!!"

Mom (singing): "California Girls, they're unforgettable...." because at this point?  I've lost the poopy battle.

This is my life, people.  This is my life...

Fashionista...or shall I say, Fashionisto???

Ok, seriously?  I remember going through a phase with Avery when she started having an opinion about what she was going to wear.  You may remember - the outfit of choice was pretty much any dress or skirt...as long as it was "spinny."  And, yes -the phase was annoying, but not horrible.

Al on the other hand??????????  Oh my lord.  As I'm sure you can understand, at his age, he is growing like a weed.  So, at the beginning of every season, I have to go out and buy him an entirely new wardrobe.  And, every fall, that new wardrobe has consisted of a bunch of khaki type slacks (in khaki, blue and maybe grey), maybe one or two pair of jeans and then maybe one or two pair of sweatpants/comfy pants for the weekends.  If you go back and re-read that, I said nothing about "baseball pants."  This is unfortunate, as this is ALL he wants to wear.  What exactly are baseball pants you ask?  Basically, athletic pants - most of which have a stripe down the side (see below)

I mean, I'm not kidding.  We have EPIC battles in the mornings while trying to get dressed.  I have tried a number of different approaches and none of them work - he wears freaking baseball pants every flippin' day.  And, in case you missed it, let me state it again - I didn't buy any baseball pants at the beginning of the season, so yes!  I have had to go out and purchase all new pants for the kid which inherently means that he now has an entire drawer of pants that he basically doesn't wear.  Why?  Because my kid is the kid who looks like a freaking gym teacher every day when he goes to school.  Oh - and, not only does he insist on baseball pants, but he also insists on a short sleeve t-shirt.  Yep - you guessed it!  NO short sleeve t-shirt were purchased at the beginning of the season.  None.  So, not only does he look like a gym teacher, he looks like a nerdy one who wears t-shirts that are too small on him because they are from like 6 months ago.  Oh - he also wears basically the same 3 short-sleeve t-shirts over and over again, which...you guessed it!  Leads to the exact same outfit being worn more than once in a week.  I can't even handle it, people. 

And, some days, if we are really lucky?  He busts out his trusty sweatband (and for whatever reason, on this particular day, rubber gloves)....

Or!!!!!  Wait for it.......

Snow White's headband (which, yes, he wore to school and kept it on all day).

Lord, help me.

East Coast Thanksgiving

As you know, we typically spend Thanksgiving in TX with my side of the family.  However, given that we are spending Christmas in TX this year, we thought it was a bit much to fly the entire family all of the way down there 2 times in one month.  So, for the first time in 35 years (yes, I was kind of sad when I realized this), I spent Thanksgiving away from my family.  It's ok though.  While I was sad not being able to see them and while I did miss our family traditions, we had a nice weekend at home on the East Coast and potentially started a few traditions of our own. 

Avery had no school on Wednesday ( I swear, this kid has had more days off than on during the month of November - I'm pretty certain we deserve a discount on tuition for this month), so I decided to take the day off as well in order to have a girls' day with my daughter.  And, what better way to spend a girls' day with your daughter than to shop?  Don't get all excited - you know me and know that there is no way this was Christmas shopping that was on the agenda because, seriously?  Why would I do that a month early when I can do it 1 week prior to Christmas and as a result, spend a fortune in shipping?  Actually, it was just the opposite...I figured, as long as we were getting together with Josh's side of the family for the holiday, it would make sense to bring along birthday gifts for ALL of their birthdays, which happened to be in March, September and October of this last year.  Don't worry - this is how the entire Holland side rolls, so it really wasn't a big deal.  So, birthday shopping it was.  We had a great day until Avery started to point out the fact that Alex was getting a lot of things that day and she hadn't gotten anything.  I pointed out the fact that Alex was getting essentials like mittens, "baseball pants" (more on these later) and a hat and that she was getting to spend the entire day alone with Mommy and really, what could be better than that????  She failed to see the value in this.  Regardless, we had a very nice lunch together and then managed to end the pouting when we found (and bought because I caved) her first pair of wedge shoes.  And, if you are wondering if I'm a bit nervous that my daughter can be completely won over by a pair of wedge shoes at the age of 5?  Yes, I am.  It's scary. 

And, yes  - that is my glass of wine in the foreground of this photo.  Even a girls day out with a 5 year old isn't complete without a glass of savignon blanc at lunch...

Later that day, we picked up Alex and got him a much needed haircut.  This was his first time in a real barber shop and I have to say, he handled it quite well.  He wasn't too sure what to think about the clippers, but he sat still and took them like a man. 

We didn't do anything too special during the day of Thanksgiving.  I was bringing over 2 apps and a pumpkin pie (one of my traditions that I forced upon the Holland household), so I spent most of the day cooking while Josh took the kids to the playground.  As it turns out, he ran into about 5 of his other Daddy friends - all of whom had clearly also received the "get the kids out of my hair so that I can cook" message from the wives.  And for those of you thinking that I'm being high maintenance or even possibly mean by wanting my children out of the house for a bit?  This would be why....

As soon as Alex returned, he was doing what he always does and playing with this ball in the house.  I was in the middle of doing something and I'll admit it, was flat out ignoring his, "Mom!  Mom!  I lost my ball!" announcements, until I finally looked up and asked him what he was talking about.  It was at that point that he explained that he had lost his ball in my pie...I mean, really?  All I could do was laugh (and later convince everyone that the ball was in fact clean..ha!). 

We spent Thanksgiving dinner/VERY belated bday celebration at Josh's parents' house.  It was very nice - both food and company were great. 

The next day was our big Holland outing!  We did a bit of research and found a super cheap hotel room right in in the back bay area of Boston for the night on Friday, so off we went.  It was a great trip!  We got up there in time to walk around the city a bit

take the T,

see all of the street performers in Faneuil Hall (including the crazy lady pictured below who requested a dollar per song, which happened to sound like she was dying, had no words, and lasted for literally 5 seconds).

swim in the pool at the hotel and have dinner. 

The next morning, we had breakfast and then went to the Children's Museum (where Avery got selected to go up on stage with Arthur!). 

Everything worked out quite well.  I will say that it became very obvious that Alex was a bit more Josh and Avery was a bit more me on the trip.  Alex spent the entire time being very wide-eyed and almost a bit scared of the big city and all of the people and continuously asked when we were going home. Don't get me wrong, I think that he had fun, but he was clearly out of his comfort zone.  Avery had a great time and LOVED seeing all of the people, lights, etc.  The only downside of the entire trip was the realization that we were all staying in the same hotel room and as a result, we were all going to bed at 8 pm.  Oh, and we were all watching PBS Sprout beforehand.  Ah well.  At least I had my ($15!!!!!!!!!!) glass of Malbec to get me through it...

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Halloween, Hurricanes, Noreasters, oh my!

Seriously?  2 weeks ago, you would think that the world is ending if you lived on the east coast.  So, first, we get Hurricane Sandy.  It started blowing pretty hard on Sunday night and was ok, but not great on Monday morning.  But, all schools and offices were closed due to the potential storm ahead. Smart idea. First of all - let me say that what we got in NO WAY compares to what NY and NJ got and I consider us very lucky because of it.  However, what we did get?  Actually, what we didn't get?  Was power for a good 3 days.  And, for those of you on a private well and septic like us?  You know what this means.  No shower.  No toilet flushing.  No washing dishes.  AKA, Stinky people, stinky toilets and messy house.  Take that back - we did use Josh's parent's house for a shower on Tuesday (as they are smart and have a generator) and we did use water THAT WE PURCHASED to flush our toilets.  So, really, we had somewhat stinky people, really freaking expensive toilets and still...a messy house.  Anyway - as I said, work and school were closed on Monday.  But, then, my office opened on Tuesday and the kids' schools opened on Wednesday.  Mind you, we still didn't have power on Wednesday morning.  I decided that mornings were FAR worse than evenings without power.  Evenings were kind of fun - we ate via candlelight and walked around with flashlights the entire night.  The kids loved it. Mornings?  Sucked.  I mean, simple things like feeding deacon, finding an outfit in my closet (that doesn't need ironing, which is hard to come by), warming Alex's milk (yes, he's 3.5 years old and still drinks warm milk in the mornings - cut him some slack.  It's good for him, so I say drink more milk..), washing my face, etc. was  impossible, really dark, really cold, and really annoying.  Well, FINALLY, on Halloween day, we got our power back.  Mind you - I was supposed to host Halloween at our house and we were all going to go around our neighborhood for trick or treating, but I just couldn't deal.  I needed to clean up and just relax, so for the first time ever (like, seriously), I actually cancelled a social event. Quite grown up of me if I do say so myself.  Here is a video of the wind.  You can't really tell too much, but it was pretty bad.  Trust me.

 Halloween was great.  It started with a party at Avery's school.  Man - when they ask for parents to help at this school?  They aren't messing around!  I feel badly for the head room parent, as she had to do all of the planning.  But, even those of us who didn't do the planning definitely had our fair share of jobs when we got there.  Somehow, I managed to sign myself up to lead the group in a craft.  As most of you know, I'm not what is known as "crafty," but it worked.  We made cute little mummy bookmarks using popsicle sticks, tissue paper and googly eyes.  They were cute. 

Oh, and I also signed myself up to make the "sweet" treat for the class (I'm involved like that). Of course, I did this prior to realizing that we were about to lose power for 3 days.  So, the faces and stems were assembled via candlelight the night before and they were supposed to have green leaves, but I figured the kids wouldn't mind and the other parents would cut me some slack knowing our situation. 

 

 

I took the rest of the afternoon off and brought both kids home for some much deserved TV/down time before trick or treating.  I have to say - I was slightly bummed this year, as it was the first year that I couldn't "force" the kids to dress in coordinating costumes.  They each actually had their own opinions as to what they wanted to be.  Avery wanted to be an asian princess (because she saw it online as I was searching) and Alex, as you may imagine, wanted to be a baseball player.  While they weren't coordinated, they were still pretty cute in their costumes (clearly Avery was done with photos at this point).

 

 

 

 

 

Oh - and, I can't forget mine and Josh's costumes.  Granted, we didn't wear them on the day of, but more importantly, we wore them to a Halloween party the weekend before...

A pumpkin and the pumpkin seeds! 

Unfortunately, I've decided that our town is just not a trick-or-treating town.  First of all, all of the houses are really far apart.  Second of all, the houses that are there are occupied by people in their mid to upper 80's who are done with kids and want nothing to do with them coming to their house all throughout the night asking for candy.  Ok - that's not really true.  But, there are a lot of old people around us and even those who aren't old don't want to participate for some reason.  But, whatever.  At this age, the kids really just want to run around at night - they don't care about the quantity of candy.  So, they had fun.  Mama?  I was pretty bummed about the lack of candy. So, next year, we're finding a new spot.  And, next year?  Even though Alex doesn't like candy, I am going to threaten a time out when we get home if he does what he did this year and says "No thank you" when offered the candy bowl.  Hello????  There are butterfingers staring me in the face and my kid is turning them down??!!  Unacceptable.

So, just when we think we are in the clear weather-wise, in comes a NorEaster. I have to be honest - we did keep our power and had no damage, so it was fine.  However, 3 solid days of terrential downpours and heavy winds just got really annoying - especially given what we had gone through the week before.  It seems as though we have gotten back to normal, so let's hope it stays that way for a while...

International Day

It was international day (as you may have gathered by the title of the post) at Avery's school today.  All grades learned a dance from a different part of the world and performed it.  As you can imagine, everyone looks forward to the kindergarten dance, as "they are all just so cute." 

Yeah - they're cute.  Except for when it is the morning of the dance and a certain Kindergartner has created an image of a dress that she wants to wear as her "American Dance Costume" and somehow, thinks that because she has this image in her mind?  It will just magically appear in her closet.  They were supposed to wear red, white and blue for their square dancing performance.  Mind you, I've known about this for a good two months, so one would think that I would have figured out a costume well in advance, but nope!  Come on people - cut me some slack!  We've had hurricanes to deal with around here.  I can't be running out and buying my kid a bandanna and a cowboy hat (even if I have known for 2 months). 

ANYWAY - she wanted to wear a dress, but I had to explain to her that she didn't have a dress that was red, white and blue, so that wasn't an option.  My lord.  We discussed this for a good 20 mins this morning, which was awesome because, as it turns out, I barely have enough time to brush my freaking teeth in the morning, much less argue with my 5-year-old fashionista daughter.  ANYWAY...I won.  She wore white and blue ( I couldn't find any red).  And, was pretty darn cute...

Dynamite

A bunch of posts started, but not yet finished. So, in the meantime, another video of the H kids...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Pledge Allegiance

In honor of our upcoming election, we thought that this would be a good time to share with you Alex's love of our country...

 

Day Out with Thomas

Ok, I think that this will officially be my last "catch-up" post.  I do believe that we have finally made it to the present day, so be expecting more timely posts from here on out.  Or at least more fall-like posts. 

Back in August, Thomas the Train made his grand appearance in Newport, so I took the day off and took both kids (I'm a self-less mother like that).  I'll admit - other than the actual Thomas the Train, which I thought was pretty good, the event itself was somewhat cheesy.  Of course, the kids didn't notice as they were too consumed with the way over-priced Thomas paraphernalia that was for sale.  It was at this point that I had to remind Avery that we don't just buy something to buy something.  I mean, really?  There was no other reason that she wanted a fleece blanket with Thomas all over it - for $25!  The child could care less about Thomas, but for whatever reason, she felt the need to just BUY.  I have NO idea where she gets this from...

 

 

Anyway - it was pretty cool.  They turned the Newport Dinner Train into Thomas and when it was our turn, we hopped on board and rode on him 15 mins down and then 15 mins back - perfect amount of time for a 5 and a 3-year-old.

While on the train, a guy came down the aisle and passed out a ton of stuff to keep the kids busy - crayons, legos, coloring books, etc.  I believe that Avery's comment was, "Mom, we get so much stuff on this trip!" I was hoping that this would take care of the need to buy something, but I soon realized I was wrong as we were walking by the Alex and Ani store later and she exclaimed that she wanted a bracelet!  Mind you - these are not bracelets worn by kids.  They are worn by adults and adults only.  Again, not sure where she gets this from...

 Back to Thomas - both kids loved riding on the train.  However, Alex was a bit confused as to why Thomas wasn't talking to us.  I explained that he was clearly shy around all of these people.  From there, each kid got a balloon.  A dog for Avery and a butterfly for Alex. 

It was a gorgeous day, so we decided to take a walk through Newport and then have lunch on the deck of a restaurant right on the water.  It was great.  The kids got lunch.  I got lunch and a glass of wine.  It was the perfect setting. 

Afterwards, much to my dismay, they spotted the arcade.  Oh my god.  I will NEVER again enter one of these places.  So, first of all, we go in and of course, they have the case with all of the prizes that you can win with the tickets that you get from the games.  And, of course, they have the biggest prizes that require like a gazillion tickets right in the front and of course, half of them were balls.  So, as you can imagine, Alex was going nuts and didn't quite understand that there was no way in hell we were going to play enough games that would get us enough tickets for one of the balls.  So, once we got him distracted enough to leave the case of balls, we all played a couple of games until I nearly had a panic attack. All of a sudden, I realized that here we were in this nasty, germ infested, dark arcade while it was gorgeous and sunny outside.  I couldn't deal. So, we left and ended up with (after MUCH discussion and near meltdowns) a bracelet, a ring, a plastic snake and a car that was broken, so it wasn't even in the case to be sold.  However, the girl gave it to us for free after witnessing Alex nearly having a meltdown and me having a panic attack.  I may try this approach more often now that I think about it...

Overall, it was a really nice day with the kids. The only downside is that I now go around the house singing the theme song to Thomas..."They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight..." in a very loud, obnoxious operatic voice and the kids (and Josh and probably Deacon) want to kill me.  I love it...

   

"You'll have to ask your father..."

Alex (who mind you, isn't even in Catholic school yet), while driving to school today:

"Mommy, does the Body of Christ poop and pee?"

Swim Lessons

Not to brag, but I'm pretty certain that Josh and I definitely do it right when it comes to the kids learning how to swim.  I mean, first of all, well, we have them in swimming lessons which will ultimately lead to them not drowning, so that is clearly a good thing.  But, more importantly?  We are NOT the ones who are forced to get into the pool with them to teach them.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing things with them and teaching them things.  However, being forced to get into a cold pool at 8 AM and to attempt to be all "YAY, Avery!  Good job!  Move those arms!  Kick, Kick, Kick!" is really not high on my list of things to. 

However, it appears as though it is HIGH on Grammy and Grampy's list of things to do, so THEY took them!  It was fabulous.  Two men who are retired school teachers and who have also been life guards for years agreed to teach swim lessons to kids at Josh's parents club's pool.  Last year was Avery's first year and this year, we decided to have Alex do it as well.  It really worked out well for everyone.   Not only did both of them get far more comfortable in the water AND Avery legitimately was swimming for a good couple of seconds on her own by the end of the summer, BUT every Wednesday and Friday of this summer?  I didn't have to drop them off at daycare.  Now, again - I enjoy spending time with them and dropping them off.  But, damn!  That reduced my commute time by a good 30 mins, which was definitely a plus. 

 

 And, while it worked out well for everyone, let's be honest - the real reason that it wasn't us in the pool is simply because we aren't members at the club.  So, maybe we are the losers in a sense, but at least I'm a dry, warm loser who got to sleep and extra 30 mins two days a week this summer!