See you next week....

Exhaustion

 Some days I don't know how I keep up. Playing the role of single mom to an energetic toddler, working two jobs, toting G to daycare, grandma and grandpas, errands, entertaining two rambunctious labs, amongst the every day tasks at home, has me wishing for more hours in a day. Except, then it goes without saying, I would just have more stuff to do. (Yes, I'm very aware that I have it good and that many others have much tougher schedules and situations) Unfortunately, I still have moments where I feel like I can't keep up. I feel the exhaustion taking over and I'm ready to CRASH. It is exactly these moments when Gavin comes over to me and says, "Mommy, play with me." This particular evening, he wanted to play ring-around-the-rosy. The "All Fall Down" part over and over again almost killed me. Seriously. It took every ounce of energy I had to get up again and again AND do it with a smile and enthusiasm. But it was all worth it. Because the day will come when he won't ask his mommy to play with him. He will be too cool.

I'll sleep then...maybe.

Chicka Chicka What?!

Why, it's Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! 

Even better, it's not even 7am yet.

I have been creating this tree for Gavin for the last two nights. It's nothing complicated. While walking through Hobby Lobby, I had a vision of creating a tree and somehow being able to put the letters on it...and I had NO idea how I was going to do it. I do this a lot. I concoct ideas and then am clueless as to how I'm going to bring them to life. But then I saw this brown cone shaped thingy in the "plant/floral" area. I honestly have no idea what you would do with it. But it looked good to me. Sturdy and able to stand alone. Then I grabbed some green pieces of foam to cut out some leaves. I glued a pipe cleaner to each leaf and then shoved it into the trunk. Wah-la! I have a tree. Now how the heck are we going to hook letters to it? Well, I had also picked up some glass marbly things to use as part of a counting game. (Perhaps I'll get to that next week) They came in this net-like bag. It's perfect. I shoved some pipe cleaners through it and wrapped them around the base and good golly, we are in business to hang some letters.  I think it turned out better than I imagined.

I also picked up these alphabet tiles. Came with two of every letter. Very nice for when we undoubtedly lose some. 

Not only did we play letter recognition, but we also did counting and colors.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

We also played with his felt storyboard set. I'm not a big fan. I like the storyboards as fun ways to "read" stories, but this one has all lower case letters. The b, d, and p could be interchanged. They are not sturdy and become misshaped quickly. Probably why I wanted to create another activity to go along with this book. But we will continue to use both, I'm sure.

See that backward e...Gavin told me it was a g. And honestly, it doesn't look much different than the actual g that came with it. Not to mention the w and m will be tough as well. Although, I do know it's good for him to see the upper AND lower case letters.

♫ A, B, C, D, E, F, G.....♫

Pizza Monkey Bread 2

We decided to make it again!
He was much better helper this time around.

Is it rolled enough yet?

Let's start dipping

Once again, mommy cut up the dough into pieces. G did the dipping and dropping into the bundt pan.

White sleeved shirt...bad idea.

A little letter time while it bakes.

Almost done!

A Spring Welcome

While driving to daycare on our first beautiful Spring day.

Gavin: (from the backseat in his most irritated voice) "Go away SUN! Go away. Waahh!"

Me: "Whaaaat?!?!

Then I notice that the shade roller is no longer on his window and the sun is shooting direct beams into his peepers. 

I'm on it!

Welcome Spring!

We really have been awaiting your arrival. 

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Don't worry buddy, you'll grow into it looooong before you partake in green festivities.

I think I heard *something*

I learned that the very second I hear Gavin stir I need to rush downstairs. Usually he gets up and starts yelling to me, "I wake up, Mommy!!" Today, he didn't. I thought I heard a creek through the monitor, but laid in bed listening for a few minutes. It was only 6:15am. Then I heard a door. Ok, he's definitely up, and he must be coming out of his room. Time to get up. So I came downstairs and popped in his room to surprise him. This is what I saw...

On a positive note, it's evident that he was up playing quietly in his room for a little while now. The negative....he's no longer in his room. Where is he?! Our home is not very big. So I call his name and listen very quietly.

"I'm downstairs Mommy!"

In the scary basement. He's never been down there before by himself. He refers to it as scary when he looks down there....until now. Now he has discovered the home of his old toys! Time to buy one of those childproof doorknob-squeezer thingies.

And he brought Jazzy down with him.

He wins this time and I let him pick ONE toy to bring upstairs.

He's happy....I'm happy.

Now on to breakfast.

Me: "What do you want for breakfast today?"

G: "Pretzels and hotdogs."

Me: "How about pancakes?"

G: "How bout pancakes and hotdogs?"

Me: "Why do I even ask..." {shaking my head and smiling as I walk back to the kitchen}

Together we made peanut butter pancakes. Gavin is an excellent helper.... and taste tester.

Mmmmmm, Jiffy!

Time to get dressed for school??

Ha....nice try buster. Get up. It's go time.

Breakin' the Law

Yes, that's right. We're throwing a ball INSIDE the house. You got a problem with that?

We almost did. 

Someone here got himself into a slight little pickle...

From Mom

Dear G,

Tonight after screaming in the tub followed by a pajama war resulting from me not letting you wear your foul-smelling cow jammies, you reluctantly settled on wearing your batman cape with your Thomas pants. Afterward, you curled up next to me on the couch to watch Cars. It's easy to remember the trials and tears of a very trying day. Tonight, however, I quickly forgot that moments ago I was counting the minutes until bedtime and was instead wishing I could stay in this moment for much longer than you'll ever know.

Love,
Mom

Tickle Monster

 I absolutely love the Tickle Monster. This is one of our current favorites! He laughs while I read and interacts as I tickle him--although sometimes he just ups and runs away. This is a great book for story time OR bedtime.

The Tickle Monster has ventured in from another planet. His mission is to tickle those he encounters. He has traveled the galaxy and has tickled some of the best in our history. A master of rhyming, his purpose is to have you giggling with every word. You will be wondering which part of you he will tickle next. 

How cute are these?! The gloves leave room for your fingers for easy page turning and most importantly EASY TICKLING! 

   It's not only fun to read but it engages Gavin in a different way than some other books. He loves being read to and loved on (in the case by tickling) so he really loves it too! He has so much fun with it that sometimes we don't even finish reading the book. Instead I just chase him around the house with my tickle monster gloves saying "I'm gonna get you!" Just the thought of me getting him and tickling him throws him into hysterics! Too cute for words!   

The tickle monster is coming for you too!! 

Actually kinda scary view from a toddle perspective, wouldn't you say?

What to do on a VERY rainy day?

You find someplace dry...duh! I found someplace with all kinds of pets and it's free, people. Unless you MUST get some new balls and treats for your spoiled dogs while you're in there. I originally thought of going to see the HUGE fish tank at Bass Pro, but quickly remembered how busy it can be there and how fast my boy can disappear.

What's not to like? Super cute animals everywhere, right?

No mice or hamsters were running on the wheels today. But we saw LOTS of fish.

 This guinea pig was SO cute!

And his toys were pretty fun to play with too.

As previously mentioned,  we went over to browse for Chance and Sammy.

Walls of colorful stuffed toys? Um... no. No thank you on the massive amounts of stuffing that would most definitely be spread out over my living room carpet.

Likewise, no thank you on some Tuff Tires that I would bet money aren't so tough after a few minutes with my dogs.

Not even the bigger one.

We also saw cats to be adopted and dogs being groomed.

It was a nice half hour or so. I'll take what I can get. The end.the wheels today, but we have been known to watch (and squeal) at mice on s

A day in our life

I've been reading a few of these "day in the life" posts floating around the blog world lately.  They are very interesting.  I love seeing how others spend their day.  For us, each day is completely different.  If I only wrote one post regarding our day, I'd feel like it was totally misleading.  So...in an effort to have more things to blog about....I'm going to try (key word) to randomly post these a couple times a month.  Let's start with today...Wednesday, March 9th.

5:00am: Alarm goes off
5:00:20am: Hit snooze...multiple times.
5:20am: Actually throw legs over the side of the bed to stand up.
5:25am: Let the dogs out. (wait for them, because if I get in the shower with them outside they start barking like maniacs and who wants to be woken up by their neighbors dogs at this hour.)
5:35am: Shower.
5:50am: Attempt to get hair partially dried before Gavin opens his door.
6:00am: Start making breakfast wearing bathrobe and damp hair while Gavin jumps all over the kitchen. He is really into jumping lately.
6:15am: Set up breakfast in front of TV (I know, not cool--it will backfire later) so I can finish getting ready for work.
6:30am: Coax Gavin to hurry up and finish so he can get dressed. (getting 2yr old dressed takes much longer than it should)
6:45am: "PLEASE pick out a shirt Gavin"...we have to go soon.
7:00am: Get dogs out one more time, get coats and shoes on, and TRY to get out the door!
7:05am: Realize Gavin's shirt is SOAKED from playing with squirt bottle while I was getting ready. I now rush to change his clothes.
7:15am: Drop Gavin off at daycare. 99% of the time this is very easy process.
7:30am: Arrive at work
7:30am-3pm: Work. It's always interesting in Testing Services. (That would call for another blog completely)
3:30pm: Get home to let dogs out and discover backyard is a MESS. I mean swamp. You could swim back there. See previous post.
3:50-4:00pm: Desperately try to get dogs inside without completely trashing the kitchen floor. Check and double check gate to living room is shut before even opening back door.
4:30pm: Pick little man up from daycare. I have to make him leave because he wants to keep playing. Then he wants to go to Pressly's house. Anywhere but home. {sigh}
4:50pm: Arrive at Petsmart. Looking at animals should distract and entertain him for a bit.
5:00-5:30pm: Chase Gavin from rabbits to guinea pigs to birds to cats....play with lots of animal toys...pick out some balls for our dogs.
5:45pm: Finally get home for the day and get started on dinner. There is some leftover noodles in the fridge that I'm bringing back to life with some Alfredo sauce I have handy. We also are going to try some fried green beans.
6:00-6:26pm: Listen to tantrum because I won't let him eat at the little crayola table in front of the TV. (recall that it's only for breakfast when I need to get myself ready--good thinking mommy) He even threatened me he was going to go night-night. Foolish boy, at this point I'm counting down the minutes.
6:26pm: Reluctantly eat cold dinner at the dinner table. I win.
7:00pm: Relax with some Dora and talk to my mom on the phone.
7:45pm: Gavin decides he wants a bath. But it's bedtime! We were going to skip it tonight. But I'm not going to argue anymore with him. Not over a bath--that HE WANTS to take. Although I've come to realize that it's merely a toddler tactic to delay bedtime.
8:00pm: Jammie's and two stories
8:15pm: Sing Twinkle, Twinkle, exchange lots of tickles and turn out the lights.
8:30pm: Wish I liked wine and had some in the house.
8:45pm: Settle on watching the remainder of American Idol in a zombie-like stare.
10:15pm: Take the dogs out for their last time of the night.
10:45pm: Remember that all of Gavin's cups are dirty and dishwasher needs run. Start it.
11:00pm: Crawl in bed and dream that G doesn't wake up too early.

Mission Clean kitchen floor-FAIL

 Tis the season to love your dogs the most as rooster tails fly when they chase balls and each other around the yard. The moat around the deck aids in a slight paw washing as they come in for chow.

The new bookshelf

Every single day, we play this game. It's a game called "dump-all-the-books-in-the-house-absolutely-everywhere-after-reading-them-and-then-want-mommy-to-pick-them-up-because-attention-has-moved-on-to-trains-or-blocks." The game is not so fun anymore. I reached my breaking point and decided we need organization. The books need a place of their own. So daddy picked up this little ClosetMaid 9-Cube Organizer at Target while he was home. Gavin insisted on helping get it assembled. He is a marvelous helper...usually. It may have taken a little longer, but they did it together.

 And the shelf is working like a charm.