Happy Valentine's Day

A (surprisingly) relaxing weekend

This last weekend, Jess and Christine (and their babies) both came up from Houston and Columbia, MO, respectively (did I just use the word respectively in my blog??). One would think that a weekend with 3 women, a 3 year old, a 19 month old (who happens to get into EVERYTHING), a 6 month old and a 3 month old could get to be a bit hectic and stressful. Well, it may have had we tried to do, well....anything. We were smart however, and stuck to the original plan of really not doing much at all and I think that we were all ok with that. The weekend was primarily spent eating (clearly, it was not a low-cal diet as evidenced by the bag of chips),

drinking, napping (for everyone but the 3 adults, unfortunately) and taking care of babies.

Avery was in seventh heaven and wanted to be holding either Max or Oliver at all times.

At one point, I had to take Oliver from her so that I could walk out of the room and Avery's comment to me was, "Mom, can you please bring him back? I just love him so much." Yet one more reason to have another baby in the Holland house! :) Kidding. Really.

We did manage to venture out for a short walk near the beach.

It was a gorgeous day and it felt great getting out of the house.

And, I can't post without mentioning the thrilling Super Bowl win by the Packers! Jessica was kind enough to cook dinner while I (i.e., Avery) took care of Oliver and watched the game.

It was heavenly for both of us, as we each got to do something that we don't get to do very often - me, watch TV (and watch the Pack win) and Jess, cook in the kitchen without a baby attached to her hip! As you will see here, I have my Packers shirt on (thank you, Sara!). I'm convinced that wearing Packers shirts while watching the games is good luck - ever since I've started wearing them, they have won. It had to be because of that because, it was clearly not a result of my stunning beauty on this particular Sunday.

Overall, it was a great weekend and hopefully one that we can do again soon (except during the summer so that we can do nothing on the beach in 80 degree weather).

Smarty Pants

This post is actually about me, believe it or not. And, not only is it about me, but it is about something ridiculously embarrassing that I said last night at the dinner table. Clearly I wouldn't share this if I had more than 4 followers, but it is such a classic Whitney-ism, that I had to tell you all....

So, the other morning, when Josh went out to start my car, he noticed that I had NPR on the radio and he made the comment when he came in that he was so impressed that I was listening to that (rather my usual country, pop, etc. music). So, at that point, I felt the need to impress him even more and tell him, "you know - there is some crazy stuff going on in Egypt right now - people are not happy." At which point, he asked me why (note - he already knew the answer, just as most of you probably do) and I had no response. But, that isn't the point of this story, so we'll move on.

So, LAST night, on the way home from work, I listened to NPR again. And, as we were eating dinner, I exclaimed to Josh, "Did you know that Mobama Borack isn't stepping down? He just isn't going to run in September!!!!???"

At that point, Josh bursts out laughing.

CLEARLY he doesn't realize that apparently, the president of Egypt, Mobama Borack is a distant cousin of our own president Barack Obama....duh!

Success (kind of)!

Avery officially stayed in her bed for 10 nights (and, it really only took about 13 nights to do it)!

However, my plan nearly backfired for 2 primary reasons:

1. Turns out, she is deathly afraid of "the bear" (aka, Chuck E. Cheese- I guess he kind of does look like a bear) at Chuck E Cheese, which in turn, has caused her to not really want to go to Chuck E. Cheese after all. Note to self - next time we try to bribe our child, we may want to pick a prize that she actually wants and will want to work for.

Anyway - we did end up going this last weekend and, although she nearly had a nervous breakdown on the way there for fear of seeing the bear and having him talk to her, we made it in the door. However, this was only after I convinced her that the bear was, well first of all, a mouse. But, second of all, a machine that stays on the stage and does not walk around. We had a good time, although, I have to say, Chuck E. Cheese is nothing like I remember it. It has definitely become more, shall we say, "rough" in terms of clientele. I think that Avery put it well when she stated, "Mommy, there are a lot of ladies with babies in their bellies here!" Too bad they were babies themselves, but whatever. That's another topic.

2. The night after she obtained her 10 stickers, I find her out in the hallway about 5 mins after we had put her to bed. When she sees me, she exclaims, "Mommy! I'm a lucky girl. Do you know why? Because, I got 10 stickers, so I don't have to stay in my bed any more." Clearly, I had to explain to her that wasn't really how it works. And, in the next breath, I told her that we would immediately be starting another chart and this time, she can go ice skating at the end. :)

Although, I have to say, I've been wondering if I should take a different approach and if I should take something away that she loves each night she gets out of bed. However, the only thing that I can really think of is that I could make her wear pants every day following the night she gets out of bed. But, honestly? I'm not in the mood to have an absolute battle every morning over this, so I think that we'll stick to wearing dresses and ice skating....

Ode to Al

Poor Al – he hasn’t gotten much attention on this blog lately, so I figured I’d dedicate a post solely to him. He really is in a fun stage right now. He has starting talking more than ever, but unfortunately, not in complete sentences yet (or more than 1 word sentences, for that matter), so it is harder to write about things that he does or says, as half of the time we don’t even really know what he is saying (or doing for that matter), but just a few of the cute Alex’isms…

1. He LOVES the phone – whether it is the real house phone, my phone or his toy phones. Every time he sees a phone or hears a phone, he puts his hand up to his ear and says “A-LOW?” I had to spell it that way so that you know just how it sounds.

2. Whenever you ask him a question and he doesn’t know the answer (like, Where is Daddy?), he turns both hands up so that his palms are in the air and shrugs his shoulders and says, “EYE-O?” As in, I don’t know?

3. He calls Avery Day-Dee and Deacon Dee-Dee.

4. He LOVES feeding Deacon every night. Both he and Avery come down in the basement with me to get his food and then they both carry his food to the mudroom every night together. And, for whatever reason, at one point, Avery said that she thought that the basement smelled good. Not sure what child would think that a musty, nasty basement smells good, but whatever…this is about Alex not her, so we won’t attempt to figure it out. :) ANYWAY – because of that, anytime we go down to our basement (or any other basement, as I’ve come to find out), Alex yells, Yum! While walking down. Weird, but cute.

5. He LOVES brushing his teeth. Every morning, I yell out, Who wants to brush their teeth? And, he yells (VERY enthusiastically), “YEAH!!!” so, I give him his toothbrush and then he proceeds to run around with it and then I proceed to say, “Alex!! Don’t run with your toothbrush in your mouth” and then he still proceeds to run with it and I yell….you get the picture. Point being, I lose many battles. Anyway – he brushes and then comes to me with his mouth wide open yelling “AAAHHHH!!!” so, then I brush his teeth and then he gets to put the toothbrush in the drawer all by himself. Simple pleasures at 18 months, I guess.

6. His favorite past time is taking everything out of my spice cabinets and then walking away. Awesome. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tripped over the freaking vanilla while trying to cook. And, then there was the time when an entire thing of rice vinegar got spilled. Oh - and, then the bread crumbs out of the pantry (note – these are extremely slippery, so avoid walking in a pile of bread crumbs whenever possible).

And, yes - half of the reason I included this on my list was to show all of you my spice cabinets - one of the many things I love about my kitchen. You have to admit they are pretty cool!

7. He loves giving hugs. Even to skulls at the Children’s Museum.


8. He will go to just about anyone who wants to hold him. In fact, just this last weekend, we pulled up to a friend’s house and my friend’s husband came out to the car – Alex has never met him, but held his hands up for him to take him out of his car seat. A bit different than his sister was at that age!

9. He is talking a ton. Some of his favorites are:
a. Cracker
b. Mama (or Mommy)
c. Dada (or Daddy)
d. Ba-Ba (for his sippy of milk)
e. Bye-Bye (which we have just recently mastered and no longer sounds like Ba-Ba)
f. Bar (for fruit bars, which he loves)
g. Moon
h. Car
i. Doggy
j. Boo-Boo (which he points to often and says every time I get the mederma out for it)
k. Mo (which is No, but with an M for some reason)

10. And, probably the coolest of all of his traits is that he LOVES his big sister. Loves her. She can get him to laugh easier and louder than either Josh or Me. He is also very into copying everything that she does, which often times results in both of them running around the house, jumping on things, etc., but it is really fun to watch them interact together. She is so good with him and I’m pretty certain they will be life long friends....as long as she doesn't choke him to death in the mean time...

The Dead Gingerbread Man

Yes, I know that the title of this post is disturbing. But, not nearly as disturbing as the story that goes with it. There is a hallway outside of Avery's classroom where the teachers will often times hang projects that the kids in her class have done so that EVERYONE at daycare (including parents, children, teachers, etc) can see how cute they are. So, of course, I always seek out Avery's to see what she has done. Well, the other morning, as we were walking in, I noticed that the project hanging was a picture of a gingerbread man that the kids had made and attached to it, the teacher had written what each child said happened to the gingerbread man at the end of the story that they had read that day. Most kids said something like, "He went to the playground to play with his friends." Or, "He went to his grandma and grandpa's house."

What did Avery say happened to the gingerbread man?

"He got sprayed with bleach and died and went to the hospital."


WHAT?????????? Who is this child? Where have we gone wrong? Does she need therapy???? Do WE need therapy????

When I asked her about it, she just kind of laughed and really couldn't explain why she said that (quite frankly, I don't even know if she knew what it meant, as I don't think that she understands the concept of dying). Well, after talking to her teacher, I now understand. Apparently, after making the gingerbread men, the teachers had them hanging on a clothes line that hangs near the tables where they eat lunch. And, every day before and after they eat, the teachers spray down the tables with bleach water (the bottles of which sit right below the clothesline). So, the teacher said that when they were spraying the bleach water one day, she made the comment that she should be careful not to get it on the gingerbread men becuase it would hurt them. Now, did she say that he would die???? No. So, still not sure where that came from and for all I know, she still may need therapy, but I at least feel better about where the concept of bleach came from.





Oh - and, in case you are wondering - I requested that the dead gingerbread man story be removed promptly. I'm pretty certain some parents have already given us a weird look and have sheltered their children from mine as they walk by, so it didn't escape everyone, but hopefully most...

Cake (or lack thereof) and Stickers

Scene: Josh, Whitney and Avery cleaning up in the kitchen after dinner last night

Whitney - Where did that last piece of cake go?

Josh - Oh, I thought that it looked good, so I ate it last night.

Whitney - You thought that it looked good, so you ate it????!!!!! I have been thinking about that piece of cake ever since lunch and you "just thought it looked good, so you ate it????"

Josh - Yep. Sorry!

Avery - It's ok Daddy, you can still have a sticker.

Josh - Thanks, Aves.

Avery - And, Mommy, even though you have a bad attitude right now, you can have one too.

I just hope she doesn't think that this sticker giving goes both ways because she will NOT be hearing, "And, Avery, even though you have not stayed in your bed ALL WEEK, you can still have a sticker..." any time soon.

Good thing she has absolutely no problem falling asleep (and, staying asleep through her brother screaming, running around and crying) on the couch, but can't manage to stay in her bed for more than one night at a time.