Merry Christmas 2010

Anna-isms: "Christmas Edition"

Driving home from the mall the other day, we were listening to Christmas music on the radio. The song, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" came on. After the line, "all of the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names" played, I heard Anna repeat it, with a questioning tone: "All of the other reindeer? Used to laugh and call him 'James'?"

I like that better, actually.

Christmas Lights

Poor Jack was sick all weekend long. Finally, in an effort to still do something fun, but also not infect others, we decided to take early baths, get in our comfy jammies (I participated in this too, and Anna was quite displeased with her Daddy that he wasn't in his jammies as well) ate frozen pizza for dinner and then hopped in the car (with our festive beverages in hand: strawberry milk for Jack, chocolate milk for Anna and hot chocolate for Mama and Daddy) to drive around, looking at Christmas lights. The cold front was just blowing in as we were driving around, so the temperature went from 78 to COLD pretty quickly. It was fun. The kids oohed and aahed over every house with even the most minuscule lights up--until it got quiet in the car and both kids were conked out.

The kids with their "lovies" all snuggled up and ready to see some lights!

Dear Santa

Anna and I were up early this morning, so we used our time wisely. We wrote her letter to Santa and then, took it directly to Macy's to put it in the mailbox. Thank goodness for Holiday store hours because where else would we be able to go at 7 am on a Saturday morning for entertainment?

Anna's letter, as dictated to me (artwork by Anna)

Holidays in full-swing

Our tree with most of our presents wrapped and tagged under it (thank you very much)

These are the delicious little goodies that Anna and I made this afternoon. You might recognize them when you open up your goodie bag from us in the coming weeks.

Adventures in Car Sickness

She looked so cute today--all dressed up for school.


Too bad she barfed all over herself, her car seat and the back of the driver's seat of our car in the parking lot of the zoo today, right as we were arriving for a fun after-school excursion (looks as though someone has inherited her mother's car-sickness gene! Good luck with that one, Anna.).


The best thing though, is that this dress is virtual camouflage for vomit stains. She insisted on continuing our zoo visit, so I wiped her down as best I could, stripped off her vomit-soaked tights and away we went to check out the new African Forest exhibit (which is terribly cool, by the way). She was a trooper but it's hard to say whether the large horseflies were there to visit the rhinos' backsides or my puke-encrusted daughter.

"Who me? Do what? All over my dress? Why, I never!"

*Also of note: This is our second zoo visit in the past month and a half, wherein one of my children has barfed all over themselves and the car on the way there. Interesting, right? And also disgusting. Our car has taken a real beating lately.

Brilliant Use of My Time

Believe me, I could have made far better use of Jack's marathon nap today. Alas, I give you this.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Nothing of note

I'd really love to have fun, insightful blog posts for you on a regular basis, but I'm just plumb out of ideas, motivation & the brain power to put thoughts into words. Really and truly, Dora the Explorer has eaten my brain. Instead, I will pummel you with pictures of the kids. Again.

I had to get some pictures of him in these overalls that I scored, (while still pregnant with him) at the thrift store. They're almost too small now.

These were taken the day of Anna's Thanksgiving feast at school. She looked so adorable in the requisite white shirt and navy skirt. Then, for the program, the kids were dressed as pilgrims, but I thought that Anna looked more like a nun. "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" was circulating on repeat through my head the whole time.

My Anna

Say good bye to the old kitchen floor. As of Monday, it's history!

Yes, posing for pictures in the bathroom. You've gotta snap pictures when you can around here. There's also darned good lighting in that bathroom.

Where The Weird Things Are

We have some strange creatures living in this house with us--and no, not bedbugs--humans and animals. First off, let me tell you about Anna:

Hey, somebody's got to be the responsible one around here

We're having a little trouble figuring out what to get her for Christmas this year. We're fairly certain that a "big girl bike" is in order, but we want her opinion on it. On Saturday, after being couped up in the house together most of the day, we decided to make a family trip to Toys R Us to get some Christmas ideas for her (Jack is all but taken care of) and also to let the kids each pick out one small toy. Kevin took Jack and I took Anna. Jack was immediately enamoured with the trucks, ambulances, fire trucks...you get the idea. I took Anna up and down every. single. aisle at Toys R Us. There was nothing that particularly "blew her skirt up". Do you want to know what item she finally decided on? An umbrella. Sigh.

Every time it rains, she says, "Mama, I really need an umbrella!". And I always say, "I know! The next time I'm at Target, I'll get you one". Well, I'm not sure if you're like me, but Target does things to my brain so that I never walk out with things that I NEED. So, months and months went by with no umbrella for Anna. Imagine how shitty I felt, when my kid chose a practical item from Toys R Us? So, I coerced her into buying a My Pretty Pony (or whatever they're called) just because I couldn't stomach the idea of her walking out of Toys R Us with only an umbrella.

Next weirdo: our cat, Molly.

Very old picture. Turns out, we just don't take as many pictures of our cats as we used to. Go figure.

Molly spends most of her time inside. While outside, she's not a hunter, but inside, she likes to "hunt" things and then bring them to our bedroom as a gift. For awhile, she "hunted" Mr. Potato Head parts, from our toy cabinet. I'd walk into our bedroom on any given day to find Mr. Potato Head's nose in the middle of our bed. I only wish that I could've seen her running down the hall the night that she gifted us with Mr. Potato Head's mustache.

Well, Mr. Potato Head is in an undisclosed location right now, so Molly has had to widen her hunt. In the middle of the night, recently, I heard her tell-tale "hunting meow" that she uses when she's on the hunt. It's sort of a caterwaul, made more strange-sounding by the fact that she's carrying an object in her mouth, as she running down the hall. I heard her come into our room and then heard "plop" as she unloaded her fresh kill on our floor. I rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning, I awoke to find her gift to us: a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser. It's the gift that keeps on giving, the whole year through.

Last but not least, Jack:

Eating is hit or miss with him--especially at dinner. Homeboy will put away plate after plate of quinoa but may or may not eat pizza. For instance, here's how he ate the pizza that I made this week.

Little holes punched in every piece...like a mouse. I'm not even sure how he did that.

Halloween (finally!)

The kids were old pros at the whole Halloween thing this year. Anna was totally excited about Trick or Treating and I consider it a success that Jack allowed the head part of his doggie costume to stay in place for most of the night. Probably the best part of Trick or Treating was the kids using their best Trick or Treat manners--complete with Jack turning around after receiving his candy at each house, looking over his shoulder, waving and saying very loudly, "DIE!" (which translates into "Bye!"). I don't think that anyone was too offended by an adorable little puppy shouting death threats at them.

Halloween Preview (again)

The good news is that there are only 2 days left until Halloween. The bad news is that there are still 2 days until Halloween, so there might be even more "Halloween Preview"-type posts from me.

Today was Anna's Halloween parade at school. She's dressing up as Diego this Halloween. She's currently obsessed with Diego (and can re-enact complete episodes, which is amazing and sad) so we'll likely get a lot of mileage out of this costume. When she puts the costume on, she's star-struck at how much she looks like her idol. It's kind of cute. And, again, sad.

Pre, pre, pre-Halloween

Wearing their Halloween finest to school today.

My kids just can't be normal, when posing for a picture together

Who's this little boy and where did my baby go?

Also curious to know who this girl is and wondering where my baby girl went.

Wordless Tuesday: Ham Edition

My Former Favorite Place on Earth

To celebrate our 10 year anniversary, (which is next month) we had planned to go to Isla Mujeres, Mexico the second week in October. We'd booked our flight, hotel, grandparents for kid-watching and petsitter for cat-watching. Hurricane Paula had different plans for our trip though, as she decided to weeble and wobble precariously closely to Isla in the days preceding our trip there. Having survived Hurricane Ike here, we opted not to chance it and made a last-minute change of plans, deciding instead to head to Sedona, AZ.

Prior to having the kids, we went to Sedona almost every year. I used to say that it is my favorite place on Earth. It is still lovely, awesome, breath-taking and spectacular however, I missed my children. Although I might not admit it some days, I think that I've discovered that anywhere my kids are, is my favorite place on Earth. Now, if we could just pack up our family and move to Sedona? That would be Heaven on Earth.

Please enjoy our trip slideshow below. Most of what you'll see is Sedona, Jerome and the vineyards between Sedona and Jerome. Music by John Mayer.

Sedona 2010 from jurica on Vimeo.

Holding it together

It's probably safe enough now to let you know that, for the past 2 weeks, I've been a single mother. Last week, Kevin had a lot going on with work, so he was only home one night of the week. Then, over the weekend, he had to go on an impromptu business trip to California, which lasted all of this week. As I type this, he's (thankfully) on a flight home.

The past couple of weeks have gone smoothly. When it's just me and the kids, we get it done--early to bathe and early to bed. Even though everything went smoothly, it was still very tiring and frustrating at times. So, with this being my last night of single motherhood, I'm pretty spent--both physically and emotionally.

Just now, as I was bathing the kids, Anna looked up at me and said:

"Mama, why aren't you smiling?"

Me: "I'm just tired"

Anna: "Why are you tired?"

Me: "I'm guess I'm just ready for Daddy to get home"

Anna: "Mama, you really need to try to hold it together"

I think that I've "held it together" rather well, thankyouverymuch.

A Visit From The Poop Fairy

This child has now opened a child-proofed bottle of fiber capsules (don't judge) three times without adult assistance.

The first time, it was in the grocery store, the day I was purchasing the bottle of capsules. He was getting fussy and whiny and it was about time to check out. I scrambled for something to give him to keep him busy while I checked out. "Oh, look here, Jack! Take this bottle of medicine (that you surely couldn't open) and shake! shake! shake! it to your little heart's content!" I was busy loading up the conveyor belt with our groceries and I noticed that I wasn't hearing as much shake! shake! shaking coming from the toddler in the cart. I turned around to find that he'd taken the lid off and was struggling to bust through the foil cover on the top of the new bottle.

The second time, he was on our bed and he located the bottle on my nightstand (I can't lie: fiber capsules play a big part in my life). I thought that the first time, (in the grocery store) was a fluke for sure, so I left him to play with the bottle while I put away laundry, only to turn around when I heard "pop" and he'd removed the lid.

The third time, child left unattended, again on our bed, with a full (and tightly-closed) bottle of fiber capsules still on nightstand (you'd think I would've learned by now). I was going about my business, likely putting laundry away in the kids' rooms (laundry also plays a big part in my life. Isn't my life resplendent?) when I noticed that it was very, very quiet in our bedroom. I went in to find Jack on our bed, surrounded by approximately 250 fiber capsules. He was throwing them up in the air like you see in the movies, when people win big in Vegas and dump all of the money on the bed and throw it and roll around in it. After I freaked out a little, I realized that he didn't put any in his mouth. At bedtime though, I noticed a little pile of brown, powdery stuff on my side of the bed. At first, I thought it was sawdust or something, until I realized that it was the contents of a fiber capsule, spread about our bed like a generous sprinkling of magical pixie dust.

*Before anyone flips out and calls CPS on me, all of our medications are located on a high shelf in our bathroom--out of Jack's reach. The bottle of fiber capsules has been relocated as well.

Anna: Star of the Week

Anna is "Star of the Week" this week for her class at school. We had to use this poster to tell the story of Anna. It was the best we could come up with, with just a few days notice. I'm kind of proud of it.

Patriot Day 2010

The kids were asked to wear red, white & blue to school today, in honor of September 11.

My Anna

My Anna. As she gets older, little nuances of her personality are really starting to present themselves. One thing that I'm seeing time and time again is that my girl has inherited my social ineptitude. She does really well on a one-on-one basis with friends, but you put her in a group of children and she either flips out, or she goes off to play quietly by herself. One of the first instances of this that I saw was this past May, when we went to the beach with a couple of other families. There were 3 little girls total, staying in this house. I noticed that Anna was often times the odd man out and you could see the hurt and confusion on her face. At one point, when the two other girls were playing happily with one another, Anna asked her friend, "Are you still my friend?". It broke my heart into a million pieces because I understood exactly what she was feeling.

I'm not a social person. A large party, with people who I don't know is hell for me. Fortunately (or unfortunately...I'm not always sure) my husband is a social butterfly and he loves, more than anything else, being among new people and making conversation. I can often times latch onto him and float along with him at a party but that tires us both out after awhile. In fact, I can remember many a party where I was most comfortable finding the family pet and spending my evening petting and visiting with the dog or cat (or Madagascar hissing cockroaches) and being perfectly content and happy. I foresee Anna doing the same thing one day. This past weekend, we were at a fun gathering at some friends' house. There were lots of kids Anna's age--all of whom she's played with before and also sees at school all the time. At one point, I looked outside to see all of the kids playing on the swingset, shrieking with delight. When I did a quick headcount and noticed that Anna wasn't among them, I started looking around for her. I found her inside the house, quietly looking at books in the playroom by herself. I was equal parts sad for her and proud of her for knowing her limits.

In a sense, I'm glad that I'm the way that I am, so that I can help Anna to cope (although, I don't always recommend the sitting in the corner with the family dog-technique for navigating social situations) because I don't think that Kevin understands where she's coming from. I understand what it feels like and I want her to feel confident and okay with the fact that not everyone is a social being and that it's better to be true to yourself, rather than to have to put on an act and be inauthentic and miserable the whole time--because that's not going to win you any friends either.

The song, "Still Fighting It" by Ben Folds runs through my head a lot when I think of my Anna:

Everybody knows
It hurts to grow up
And everybody does
It's so weird to be back here
Let me tell you what
The years go on and
We're still fighting it, we're still fighting it
And you're so much like me
I'm sorry

Jack's First Day of School

Jack started back to school today. He moved up a class and the drop-off didn't go so well. He was rather emotional. This new class is a little less coddle-y and more big kid-ish. It might not be a smooth transition for him.

Speaking of not-so-smooth transitions:

The morning of Anna's second day of school.

My children were a hot mess this morning. I'm very much looking forward to a day to myself.

First Day of Preschool

Book Rave

I just finished reading Every Last One by Anna Quindlen. I loved it. I plowed through the first 3/4 of the book and then realized that I was getting alarmingly near the end, so then I paced myself so that I could savor every morsel that was left. It's a surprisingly easy ready, given the subject matter and Quindlen's writing style really agrees with me. I get really tired of fluffy reads but can't often commit my brain to deep reads either, at the end of the day. This book hit just the right spot.

What we do in August

We play in the sprinkler/water the crispy grass. I am multi-tasking mother/homeowner!

We eat popsicles

in our diaper.

I got to go and visit my dear friend on the East Coast

and practice all of my baby whisperer skills on her 16 month old (oh, and the temperature hovered in the high 70's the whole time I was there).

We practiced taking "head shots" for the picture that we're supposed to bring to the first day of preschool.

Now that we've done all of that, you can leave now, August. We don't much care for you around here.