Children are like Dogs

Well, at least mine are......and here are few points to examine......

My children lick windows.

They chase laser pointers.

They play fetch.  And will even obey the command "sit" before you throw it.  Aaaannndd will even obey the command "drop it" when they bring it back to you.

Obedience training is necessary for both dogs and children. And it's the same basic principles for both.

They mark their territory.  There are marks all over the walls, pee in my carpet (I have cleaned the spots I've found, but potty-training toddlers are sneaky and I'm pretty sure I missed a few spots), bite marks on my furniture and pen marks on my furniture.

They destroy things when they're bored or made at you.

Sometimes a leash is the only way you can be assured they won't run away.  Yes, we used a monkey-back-pack "leash" with Landon while I was pregnant.  He is super fast and impulsive and I was too big to run and catch him.

Just Some Every Day Life

Here are a few glimpses of some Every Day Life....

Riding on a boogie board thru the house while we packed for vacation.  Seriously provided for over 20 minutes of entertainment for them.

PB&J!!!  See it on her face? 

On her tummy?

On her thigh?

On her toes?

On her booster seat?

Who doesn't love this face?!

This is her "smile for the camera" smile.

Building a tower of diapers, random hats and all.  

Jillian likes to climb onto things, perch, and observe Landon.

To Remember #8

1.  Jillian licks windows.....like a dog.
2.  Jillian is still quite obsessed with shoes.  Anyone and everyone's.
3.  Josh was driving around with the kids when he suddenly heard Landon yell, "Dad!  Stop the car!  I have a truck in my bum!"  He had been playing with a hot wheels truck and somehow managed to get it under his bum while strapped in the car seat.
4.  Jillian says, "Wha-dee" for "water."  We went to the Aquarium, and what did she continuously yell out?  "Wha-dee!!!!"  We went to the pool, the beach, the lake, etc, and she constantly yelled "Wha-dee!!!"  She L.O.V.E.S. water.
5.  My children love to "Roar" at one another.  Jillian hasn't quite figured out when the game is okay to play though......she's even tried to play it in the middle of Mass.
6.  Jillian is quite the instigator and antagonist (she gets it honestly.....from her mother.....who got it from her mother.....).  One time at church, an older British lady even commented, "Oh!  She's naughty!  Look at how she's putting her foot on her brother's leg, and she knows he doesn't like it!"  I think my favorite part of this event was how the lady said, "naughty."  :)
7.  Landon has become quite the staller at bedtime.  One time he said, "But....my story says, 'When mommy leaves, I get scared.' " (this is from the tv show, 'Super Why').  So I said, "How about we change the words of your story?!  Now it says, 'When mommy leaves, I go to sleep.' "  He looked at me with an expression that said, "Touche mommy, touche."
8.  For quite sometime now, Jillian has been sooooooo MAD about having to go to sleep at nap time and bed time that she launches anything onto the floor that's in her crib.  She SCREAMS and cries and begs.  E.V.E.R.Y. time she's put into her crib.  And suddenly, last week, she decided that she wanted to cuddle with her babies and a blanket.  So much now she doesn't want to rock in the rocking chair, but points to the crib.  If Josh or I rub her back and sing while she lays down, she looks up at us and says, "night night!"  One time I persisted with the singing and the back rubs (just to see what she would do....yes, I was antagonizing a bit) and she looked up at me and said, "Mama.  I want to go night night."  Then waved bye-bye to me.  Sheesh! At least she's not screaming anymore.

OUR Birthday

It's been a crazy couple of weeks....okay....month.  So I'm just now getting around to posting about my and Landon's birthday.  We have the SAME birthday, so I refer to it as "OUR Birthday."  

We had a party for Landon at the house where the kids got to eat frosted cookies and sprinkles.  Not sprinkles ON frosted cookies as I had envisioned.  Sprinkles were a side dish to the cookies as it turned out.  

Then, on OUR birthday, we went to the Georgia Aquarium as a family!  Kids under three are free, so Jillian was free.  You get in free on your birthday, so BOO-YA, two more in for free!  All four of us got in for the price of one!!  And my Uncle Paul is an Atlanta cop so he got us some free parking in one of the safer parking decks in the area.  Of course I packed snacks and drinks and skipped the over-priced snack bar, so the whole event cost us one ticket price.  (Can you tell how excited I am about this??  Awesome birthday present to me....an entire family outing for the price of one!)  On top of the price, we went in the afternoon on a weekday, so the place was practically empty which made it way more enjoyable!

After the aquarium we went for dinner at my parents house were we shared a cake my Nana made.  

As always... here are a few pictures to help document the events!

The preschool partiers, eating their cookies and sprinkles.

Yum, sugar!

Honestly have no idea why these two sassy girls were so frowny.  But here's my interpretation of the picture---

 Evelyn was a bit overwhelmed when she arrived.....so many people, sprinkles NOT on the cookies, etc.  And Jillian was also overwhelmed with so many people, plus, she was given a cookie with Chocolate frosting, when clearly the vanilla frosted cookies would have been less of a fashion disaster (notice the chocolate all over her shirt).  They held hands to cope with the anxiety.

Outside the aquarium, hanging out in one of the Police Cars.  SOOOO cool to a three-year-old!!  He even got to press the buttons for the sirens.

One of the first big windows we stood next to.  They were quite amazed to see all the fish swim by.  See how Jillian is a few feet back from the glass??  She was very nervous every time these giant fish swam by and would step back from the glass. Landon of course felt no fear. 

This is at the super big wall of the big tank.  It's got raised and tiered seating here because so many people stop and look for so long.  As I mentioned before, there weren't too many people when we were here, so we were able to get a bunch of shots of JUST our kids in front of the glass.

Landon talked and talked about seeing sharks.....and here's one UP CLOSE!

She got over her fear of the big fish.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture.  

An attempt for a picture of Birthday Mama with kids...... I just wanted one picture from the whole day to document I was there since I was the one behind the camera the whole day.

And the last picture, as we're leaving.  SOOO  T-I-R-E-D.

An attempt at blowing out the candles together.  It's tough to do with an excited, overly-drooly three-year-old.

The best shot of us, on OUR birthday.

And the best comment all day.......when we told Landon to tell Uncle Paul about the Aquarium he said, "We saw a dinosaur.  And that kid said "fat."   Whhhaaaa????  True, the other overly-outgoing kid Landon made friends with at the big tank did say "fat."  An apparently memorable comment.  But there were NO dinosaurs.  There were sharks, stingrays, penguins, whales, dolphins, sea horses, crabs, otters, Nemo and Dori fish, but definitely no dinosaurs.  Geeezzzzzzz.

It was a good birthday for us both!

iHoM ~ Quotes for the BIG Picture

Another iHoM post......

These are some of the quotes I use to remind myself 

of the BIG Picture of Motherhood.

Motherhood is a discovery

of the Mystery

of a new human being.

~ Agnes M. Perry

from her book

"Your Labor of Love"

Never lose sight 

of the eternal destiny 

of the child ..... for this alone

gives meaning to your vocation

as a mother, nurturer, and teacher.

~ Agnes M. Perry

from her book

"Your Labor of Love"

For your child's sake,

you must become a Saint

so that he will have 

the best opportunity

of becoming one too.

~ ... i have no idea whose quote this is, but I like it

iHoM ~ Cardinal Joseph Mindszentey

"iHoM" = in Honor of Motherhood

As a way to recognize Mother's day this year, I thought I'd post some things related to motherhood.

Here's the first post of the iHoM series.........

Cardinal Joseph Mindszentey wrote this about Mothers.
I find it most inspiring!

The most important person… on earth is a Mother.
She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral.
She need not.
She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral –
A dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body.
The angels have not been blessed with such a grace.
They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring new souls to heaven.
Only a human mother can.
Mothers are closer to God the creator than any other creature.
God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation…
What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this: to be a mother?


When I read this quote, it reminds me that what I am doing, day in and day out, every hour of the day, every second of my existence 
(mothering children), is all a Vocation.

It is all a grace-filled gift, even the moments I can't see the grace or gift in!
To have cooperated with God the Father Almighty, the God and creator of the Universe, to have cooperated with Him to bring a new and eternal soul into the world is an AWE-filled gift.

Let us all be thankful for the gift of life,
the "yes" our mothers gave to "join forces" with God
in "performing this act of creation" so that we may have life!

Mommy Vacations

At this very moment, as I write this blog, my kids are eating their dry frosted flakes off the floor.  Several aspects of this scene are a bit out-of-the-ordinary for our house.  First, I'm typing a blog post before 9am.  I normally type my posts while my kids are napping or down for the night; and I'm normally still attempting to wake up enough to THINK at 8:20am.  Second, my kids are eating sugary cereal, which is a rarity around here.  Third, there's no milk in the house, thus they are eating the rare cereal treat dry. Fourth, I didn't say a word or even raise an eye-brow when the kids got down from their chairs and started to eat Jillian's portion of cereal off the floor (after she threw it and dumped it).

Why??  Why is this Thursday morning's events so out-of-the-ordinary?  Because I'm taking a GLORIOUS Mommy Vacation.

A Mommy Vacation.......something I came up with a little over a year ago.
It was a terrible week.  Landon was terribly sick, Jillian was just over 2 months old, and I was sleep deprived.  I was still trying to provide healthy food, have limited tv time, and do chores around the house .  I was miserable!!  I decided it was pointless..... my toddler was sick, my infant was whiny, and I was in a bad mood.  So, I took my Mommy Vacation.

For several days we watched tv, ate whatever was easiest to get to/pop in the microwave, etc.  After a few days, I was ready to take on "normal life" again.

Every once in awhile, it's just "one of those days" where I simply don't feel like fighting the mess, fighting the food battles, doing chores during nap times, etc.  So I take the day off.  I have a Mommy Vacation.  We watch more tv than normal.  I surf the web more than normal.  We eat more junk food than normal.

My Mommy Vacations keep me sane.  Being so busy all the time, going so many places, having so much to do.....it drives a lot of stress and restlessness.  Every once a while, we just need a vacation day.

And, as the Mom, I get to claim today as a vacation day.  Sanity will return!!!