Taking care of one kid

When illnesses went around the boys' infant day care room, they both seemed to get it at the same time. This is how I became a confirmed "rip the band-aid off" parent. Inevitably they were both going to get sick, so I may as well clean up puke/stay up all night with feverish babies/administer medicine all at once. It also meant the house could be de-germified faster and there was no waiting around for the other kid to get sick.

As they grew into toddlers, they actually... gasp... got immune systems (either that or they caught every possible bug EVER in the first two years of their lives). One kid may get something and the other kid never gets it. 99% of the time, Alex is the one who catches the bug and stays at home sick. This is not surprising to me as he is very tactile, touching everything and then putting it into his mouth.

Nate's pink eye is the first illness in awhile where he has stayed home alone. While Jon and I make a concentrated effort to get alone time with each boy, it is rarely a full day. After yesterday, Jon and I have an all new appreciation for Alex. Poor Alex, getting bossed around by Nate ALL THE TIME. I love love love Nate but that kid CAN TALK and he will not stop talking until he gets what he wants.

After just one day alone with Nate, I completely understand why Alex has become such a fast runner - he needs to get away from Nate's talking. I also understand why he's developed the habit of giving in to Nate's demands - it might be the only way to shut Nate up. And I also understand why Alex gets so cranky when we give him a lot of commands - yet two more people bossing him around?!

As the boys have gotten older, I've started to take for granted how much interaction occurs between the two of them that does not involve us. Having Alex out of the house amplified how much verbal interaction Nate needs and how much of that interaction Alex provides for Nate. It was a good reminder what a special relationship siblings have. And it was a good reminder how twins rule in every way.

Birthday weekend pictures

The best part of our birthday weekend is that the boys were so very excited it was daddy's birthday on Saturday and then mommy's birthday on Sunday. They thought it was also their birthday. Alex declared he wanted to be 34 just like daddy. Nate declared we needed chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and sprinkles.

Jon was nice enough to oblige the cupcake request, but the sprinkles were limited to the ones the boys ate. I tried really hard to get a fancy closeup shot of the cupcakes but little fingers kept getting in the way.


The weather was perfect on Sunday, sunny and warm. I wanted to go to the Durham Life Sciences Museum to spend time outdoors with the kids. You know you're a mom when you ask to go to a children's museum for your birthday. But really, can you imagine a better present than this???


Alex was super cooperative about taking photos. He also was super lovey-dovey, raining us both with hugs and kisses all day. You take all the sweetness of Jon and wrap it up into a 2 year old's body and you get Alex.


Nate was not the least bit cooperative about taking photos. He was pretty loud and defiant most of the weekend. You take all the feistiness and energy of me and wrap it up into a 2 year old's body and you get Nate.


I tried all week to get some photos of the boys together. I tried bribes, tricks, songs, whistles, toys, and they were having none of it. Then I ask them to pose with a tree? They loved it and went crazy. I will most likely frame the series of these photos as they chased each other around the tree and laughed and shouted and giggled.



Crazy little treehuggers. Who knew at 35 I would be blessed with something so precious to keep me young at heart and keep laughter in our home?

Pink eye, part two

Nate woke up with pink eye.

Can I tell you how excited I am that the pink eye waited until after Jon's birthday, after my half marathon, and after my birthday to show up? My birthday was spectacular - 77 and sunny. I've got tons of pictures to share but for now, I must get back to Mr. Pink Eye.

13.1 miles

I am very proud to announce I finished the Raleigh Rocks half marathon in just under 2 hours, 25 minutes. This pace of 11 minutes per mile is slower than I planned because HOLY HILLS and HOLY HUMIDITY. It is a really good thing I did not check out the race course ahead of time because I'm not sure I would have run it. And it's also a good thing I was so worried about rain (not a drop!) that I didn't worry so much ahead of time about the 99% humidity.

This is me before the race with two boys very distracted by a garbage truck. I asked Jon to take pictures because I went into a little mini-panic right before the race. I was feeling pukey because OMG I signed up to run 13.1 miles! Why??!?!!! What was I thinking??!!!

At the 2 mile marker, I had the best treat EVER in ANY race ... my husband and my sons. I got very choked up watching my two little boys cheering for me. Very very choked up. And I got choked up thinking about my husband getting up at 6AM on his own birthday to support me.

Because of the crowds and the hills (THE HILLS!) I didn't hit my runner's high until 6 miles and by that point, I realized hey! I'm almost halfway done! I was expecting some tough times around miles 7-10. To my utter joy and surprise, at mile 7.5 they had a drum circle. This was my favorite band EVER in ANY race. And right after the drum circle, we ran through the outdoor art installations at the NC Museum of Art. I will definitely be taking my boys back there for some photos.

There was then an enormous downhill trail so steep they had a speed limit sign posted for bikes. Running down the hill was fun but then I realized we had to go all the way back up. HOLY HILLS! Almost everyone walked up the insane hill but I kept on truckin'. I was afraid that if I started walking I wouldn't be able to start running again.

The top of the hill was 9 miles and the crowd had spaced out significantly. This is when I hit my wall, when I did not want to run anymore. And that's when I thought three things:

* I have three boys waiting for me at the end. I can't disappoint them.
* I have to get to the end and I can either run it or walk it. I'll disappoint myself if I walk it.
* I told all my friends, my family, my co-workers, and my blog community that I was running it. I can't disappoint them.

I blasted Jamiroqai's Canned Heat (song from Napoleon Dynamite dance sequence) and kept on truckin'. And when I saw my three boys at the end, I waved and cheered and then sprinted to the finish. (Puffy red face brought to you by southern humidity.)

It was an awesome run for my last race in the 30-34 age group. I truly could not have done this without Jon's undying support through the crazy idea, the training runs, the motivation, and the race-day support. Each year he is in my life, I marvel more at our luck in finding each other. I hope we get to celebrate every birthday together for the rest of our lives.

Now I need to go stuff my face with cupcakes.

Red River rising

Today my thoughts are overwhelmed with the flooding in Fargo-Moorhead. Last night the Red River rose to its highest level in over 100 years. The river is expected to crest sometime tomorrow. While Jon's family's homes are in the safest (flood-wise) area of Fargo, there's no telling what could happen with this unprecedented level of flooding.

The American Red Cross is actively involved in relief efforts and is taking donations here.

My hope is go back to regularly scheduled blogging over the weekend about Jon's birthday (tomorrow), my half marathon (tomorrow, but could be cancelled due to lightning), my birthday (Sunday), and potty training exploits (Days Without Accident: 10).

Close call

The first two years with both boys in group care completely kicked out butts in the illness department. Alex and Nate seemed to catch every bug that came through. I can't even make a list because if I did, you would stop reading because it would be *that* long. And the co-pays! We put $150 in our monthly medical budget... just for them... and we easily blew that budget item almost every month of cold and flu season for two years.

Then this cold and flu season came and with a couple of minor exceptions, we have all been very healthy. Since NOVEMBER! The boys have been fighting off illnesses left and right while it seems everyone else has been creamed. With Jon and my birthdays this weekend, we have been waiting for the shoe to drop.

So OF COURSE pink eye is going around their classroom this week. And Alex woke up this morning with a tiny bit of gunk in the corner of one eye. Jon and I shook our fists and cursed and made the first available appointment this morning.

But Alex does NOT have pink eye!!! It's just the mucus draining from his sinus cavities into his eyes. Gross, but better than pink eye. There's still plenty of time for double pink eye to hit our house before our birthdays but at least for this morning, I am ecstatic.

A present for me! And the boys!

Yesterday in the mail, I got an awesome 35th birthday present from my friend Beth. She sent a gorgeously framed photo of the Obama inauguration. The photo came in a large box with a ton of packing peanuts and I thought the boys might love playing with the peanuts. They did.

How big was the box? Big enough to wrap and send a preschooler through the mail! Anyone want a package?

The boys had a blast pretending it was snowing. There were no fights over peanuts because there were an insane number of peanuts for both of them.

The peanut throwing seemed endless. And let me tell you, they loved every second of it.

At some point, the boys decided to dump the entire box of peanuts on the floor. And I captured this snippet of the mess on video. You know there are a lot of packing peanuts on your floor when a kid decides to swim through the peanuts:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

If you're thinking to yourself this looks like a fun activity, let me NOT recommend it. It took me and Jon 45 minutes to clean it all up. I clogged the Dyson a couple of times, but fortunately Jon learned all about troubleshooting Dyson suction problems during our hornet infestation.

Wow!

People have quite a bit to say about potty training! There were so many comments I thought I would respond today.

Yes, I do know the cheerio trick. You know how I endlessly research things! I even bought the colored targets from Babies R Us as a special target treat. Problem? Nate likes to reach in and touch them after he's peed on them. (Thanks, research.)

Potty training twins can provide some ahem... interesting logistics. What may seem to be a simple solution for potty training (PT) a singleton may not always work for twins. While Alex is not in underwear yet, he does sit on the potty. You can probably guess that Alex's highest interest in the potty comes when Nate is on the potty... hence the reason we have TWO little potties. I've listened to so much fighting the last three years that I am NOT going to endure fighting over the big toilet.

When going through the PT process, Jon and I have one overriding goal: get both boys into underwear full-time with a minimum of frustration, arguments, crying, and battles. All of our decisions are based on that goal. Some decisions may seem to be crazy (letting Nate pee standing up at a little potty when we know it will make a mess), but there are many influencing factors behind the decisions.

First influencing factor: Nate's new to PT. Since he is so new to using the potty, he runs to it 15+ times a day claiming he needs to use it. He actually uses it 4-5 times a day. For the 10+ times he doesn't do anything, it's nice for him to have a little potty he can use (or not use) himself. Once he learns better control and understands when he really does need to use it, we'll move to the big potty.

Another influencing factor: Nate's DO IT MYSELF attitude. Every PT book out there says to train when the child is cooperative and eager to please. If we waited for Nate to be eager to please, we might be sending him off to college in diapers.

Last weekend, we asked if he wanted to wear underwear and he was really enthusiastic about it. PT has been relatively easy so far, so I feel like he was emotionally ready, but Nate is still very independent, opinionated, and stubborn. The few times we have tried to force him to sit, he asks for a diaper or refuses to sit and has an accident. He does not want help with ANYTHING. And have I ever mentioned he is a really big crier??

So, we go back to our overriding goal. (And yes, we know he's controlling us but we're taking a gentle approach to PT.)

Last influencing factor: Our downstairs bathroom is a tiny half-bath tucked under our stairs. It contains only a toilet, a sink, and a stepstool. With just those items, it becomes a VERY close fit with a child and parent in there. Alex always insists on checking out Nate's potty action, and Alex is very very very grabby.

Jon and I agreed we would both slowly go insane if trapped inside our half-bath 15+ times a day with Nate perched on a stepstool and Alex all up in our business. So again, until Nate gets better at recognizing his body's signals, we'll keep him on the little potty.

It's interesting to me as the boys grow to see when the twin dynamic comes into play and when it does not. When I think about PT one kid, the decisions are easy - put him on the big potty. But in our house, there's always a second kid running around exactly the same age. And as much as we are focused on training Nate right now, we are also laying the foundation for training Alex.

I have no idea if what we're doing is right, so we're taking it one day at a time. Sometimes it feels eerily like the newborn phase.

PS. Nate peed sitting down all night last night. Then just to keep things interesting, he wrote in pen on Alex's chair.

PPS. Our thoughts are with Jon's family in Fargo, where 10,000 people are sandbagging the Red River in hopes of preventing a catastrophic flood. Similar flooding in 1997 looked like this, so if you could think happy thoughts too, that'd be great.

The problem with day care

I love love love our day care. The boys are truly loved there by many people and they are getting an excellent education. One slight problem has arisen in their room in the last week, let's see if you can guess...

The way the tiny potties are designed in their room, they need to teach boys to pee STANDING UP. And Nate is so stubborn that when we try to explain why he needs to sit at home, he goes into a lengthy explanation of why boys stand and girls sit. (Hint: it includes the phrase, "The pee shoots out and hits the door!")

After one week in underwear, Nate's aim is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. After each use of the potty, we have to clean up pee all over the potty, the floor, underneath the potty, at Nate's feet, THE WALL, and his socks, pants, and shoes.

The worst part for me is that I have no idea how to help Nate learn better aim because I've never peed standing up. Not sure where to tell him to put his hands or how to stand or what to do! It is maddening!

And we have to go through this all over again within the next few months with Alex...

Springing

My entire life, summer has been my favorite season. Since moving to North Carolina, spring has been edging in on summer as my favorite. Spring explodes in North Carolina. First there are tiny buds...



and then blossoms start to peek through.



My favorite warm weather clothes for the boys haven't yet been stained or ripped or lost...



and the boys are still excited at the novelty of being outside (even if you can't tell it from their fake "cheese" faces).



The one downside of this spring is we'll be joined by a new item in the backyard, at least until someone can make it up the deck stairs with more advance notice...



PS. I was interviewed yesterday on HDYDI, in case you don't get enough of my blah blah blah on this blog. I saved a good story for that post!

LauraC's Mom Confession #1

I just started reading the parenting book "Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Lunchbox: Cut Yourself Some Slack (and Still Raise Great Kids) in the Age of Extreme Parenting." I fell in love with this book in the introduction. I rarely even read introductions! The goal of the book is to help moms reach a realistic mothering balance instead of constantly striving for perfection.

So far, I love the book. When I'm finished, I'll write a full review on my other blog. In the meantime, this book has inspired me to start a series of Mom Confessions about my imperfect parenting.

Confession #1:

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and they called early to reschedule. The only slots available were this afternoon (need to work) or 30 minutes early. I promised to be there early, then Nate had a complete meltdown because he didn't want to go to school. I told him I was in a big hurry and if he went to the car right then, I would give him M&Ms. Alex practically knocked Nate over running to the door to get his M&Ms.

I bribed my kid with candy to stop having a tantrum.

Why we did not potty train earlier, by LauraC

Even though Nate has been in underwear only since Saturday morning, he is not ready to be anywhere except home and day care. He sits on the potty about 15 times (no exaggerating here) for each time something happens. Every 10-15 minutes, he thinks he needs to go. At day care, they gave up on writing "T" ("tried") on his sheet after the first morning.

Between the two boys, they own four pairs of shoes. Two pairs of shoes is not going to cut it for potty training. He needs one pair for his feet, one extra pair at school, and extra pairs at home in case of accidents or if any of the above pairs are in the wash.

We needed to go to Target for some backup shoes, yet Nate was clearly not ready to go to Target. And Target is far enough away that we needed to grab some food for everyone on the way.

We went to Chick-fil-A because I knew they had stepstools for kids in the bathrooms. We sat by the bathrooms because we knew it was going to be bad. Nate wanted to go in the potty five times while we ate. Nothing happened.

Then we went to Target. He wanted to go in the potty three times while we were there. Nothing happened. (Fortunately Alex was there as a sizer. I tried shoes on him to narrow down the choices so we could quickly try them on Nate. Twins rule.)

Eight trips to the potty in 90 minutes. At some point, I convinced him to wear a pullup so we could get the shoes and get out of there. He still wouldn't go in his pullup, so he was doing the "need to pee" dance throughout Target.

I don't know what we were thinking trying to do a booty camp with both boys this weekend. Thank you Alex, for refusing and giving us this beautiful gift - only dealing with potty training one kid at a time. And you better believe I bought enough shoes to get Alex through potty training too.

Nate vs Alex: video game edition

The Dora Clickstart game has a few different games to help kids learn how to use a computer. In one of the games, you use the arrow keys to make Dora jump across stones in the water to reach letters or shapes.


Nate hit a wrong button and made Dora jump into the water. He figured out his mistake and jumped and jumped Dora across the stones until she made it to the hot air balloon.


Alex hit a wrong button and made Dora jump into the water. He laughed hysterically, then proceeded to make Dora jump into the water approximately three thousand times in a row, laughing uncontrollably each time and yelling, "Oh no Dora's in the water AGAIN!"

I thought he would get tired of it after fifteen minutes but nope. Just more giggling and more Dora falling in the water.

When life gives you lemons

Weekend forecast: 40, rainy

Actual weather: Drizzling cold rain all weekend from Friday night to Monday morning

Lemonade from lemons: ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO!!!

(That's a potty training sticker reward chart.)

Nate went all weekend in underwear only! We did many happy potty dances!

How to make a book from your blog

One of the most frequent questions I get is how I put together my "blog books" so I thought I would detail the steps I use to create them. First let me remind you what my blogbooks look like:

To avoid unnecessary work, I had hoped to use the software program BookSmart available on Blurb. However the Blurb software doesn't support my blog.

This left me with the option to self-publish my book. I decided to go with Lulu. All they require is for your book to be in Word format. (I work with PCs so I did not research any Mac options.) They already have custom covers created, and they store your finished book on their website for future orders. They also happen to be local as they are located in Raleigh.

Here are the steps I take to create my blogbooks.

Step 1: Choose a time period to copy.

Having worked in the software industry for so long, I am a fanatic about backing up data. Every month, I back up the past month of blog posts to Word. You may choose to do this more often or less often. Monthly works for me as I group this into my list of month-end chores: change contacts, review previous month expenses, fill out flexspend reimbursement, etc.

Step 2: Copy that time period of your blog to Word.

First I navigate to the lower right toolbar on my blog that says "Blog Archive." See how I have it set up by month (2009 March, 2009 February, etc)? I click whatever month I want to copy, let's choose February 2009. When you click February 2009, it puts all of February's posts on the screen at once.

Starting at the heading "Saturday, February 28, 2009" I highlight ALL of the text/entries ... including photos... on all of my February entries. While the text/entries are selected, you right-click to drop down a menu and choose "Copy." You then pull up Word and paste it all.

Voila! You now have a Word document of your February entries! Save the document. I create one Word document per month because the photos and text take up a lot of memory.

Step 3. Create one big honking Word document for your entire blogbook

So... you probably notice blogs post the latest post at the top of the page. While this is good for reading the blog, this is bad for copying it into Word. Each of your Word documents will now be in reverse chronological order. It's up to you to decide if you want to put it in chronological order or not. If you do (which I did), then you need to put all the posts in chronological order.

Wait! It's not as bad as you think!

First open the first Word document of your series. (If you're starting your book in January, open the January file.) Open a second Word document. Then proceed to copy entries from the first Word document into this new Word document in the order you wish them to display.

This is literally the longest part of the process. This is the part you can do while you're waiting for American Idol results. The good news is you can do it in small spurts or big spurts, whatever time you have. Just remember to keep clicking Save as you do this.

While you're going through and copying each entry over, this is the time to remove any extra wording from your posts. If you look at the latest post on my blog, you'll see an entire line that says "Posted by LauraC at 8:39 AM 9 comments Links to this post." Since this shows up for every single post, you may want to remove it.

At the end of this process, you should have one Word document that is your entire blogbook. But you're not quite done yet.


Step 4: Format your blogbook

This is vitally important.

First you need to decide what size you want your blogbook to be. Lulu offers many different sizes. I choose 8.5 x 11 because I've got around 300 pages for each year of my blog. Once you've decided what size your book will be, go to Word and set your document margins to be the same size as the book you will be printing.

Once you have set the margins, it's time to Format your book. I did the following to mine:

* Created a new blank front page with "Laura's Mommy Journal" printed on it, followed by a blank page so that Page 3 would start my book. If this is unclear, open any paperback book.

* Put in page numbers at the bottom for easier reference.

* Make each post header consistent with the font and size I wanted.

* Corrected any spacing issues with photos. Optionally centered some photos.

* Inserted page breaks at the end of posts that so I wouldn't have situations where the Post Title was at the bottom of a page and the Post Text was on the top of the next page.

* Corrected typos and misspellings (I set my options so Word would underline it for me).


You can pretty much go crazy at this point, deciding how you want your blogbook to be formatted. If this is your first time doing it, I recommend trying it for one month of blog entries and playing around with options. At any point, you can view the Word document as Print Preview to see how it would look once printed.

Step 5: SAVE SAVE SAVE

Frequently save your work! Your time is precious!

Step 6: Upload to Lulu and print.

This step takes 10 minutes. Once you have the Word document, it is so easy. You log in, choose to create a new book, upload your book, choose a cover, and print. That's it. In 5-10 days, your blogbook will show up on your doorstep.

*************

So that's all it takes to create blogbooks. If any of this is confusing or you have more questions, feel free to email me offline or post a comment. I'm planning to update this post with clarifications. And I have backup copies of my blogbooks so I can email them to anyone who'd like to see them in case any of this is confusing.

Very long Friday gumbo to warm me up

* Our spring weather is gone and it was 38 this morning. The forecast is rain and cold all weekend so we are considering a second at-home potty training boot camp. Wish us luck!

* I wrote a post yesterday on HDYDI about my pregnancy super power - the ability to sleep a ridiculous number of hours in a single bound. Again, the comments are a riot. I did not mention my second pregnancy super power - no stretch marks. Maybe I got two super powers since I carried two babies?

* Tomorrow I will post my instructions on how to create a book from your blog. I promise. I've already written it; I just need to publish it.

* For my giveaway, I put everyone's name in a hat..... and the winner is LONDON! (Today is a lazy day or else I would have posted pictures.) Thanks everyone for listening. I still encourage everyone to check out the Planet Money podcasts as they continue to explain everything that is happening during this financial crisis. Recent topics include what would happen if we let AIG fail and what the unemployment numbers really mean.

* Today is the 9 year anniversary of the day Jon and I met. We talked a lot about this last night. Within the first few months, he became the best friend I have ever had and vice versa. From the beginning, we've always understood each other in a way no one else has. And from the beginning, I've never been able to imagine a life without him in it. (It just took me a long time to figure out your best friend should be your husband.)

We talked a lot about the things that have happened over these nine years, what changed, and how much we've grown: a surgery for a cyst on my hip, his back problems and surgery, September 11 evacuation of downtown Chicago, double unemployment, my El train crash, marriage, my hearing loss and surgery, moving to Raleigh, twins, and creating a home and family together.

We agreed we would like the next nine years to be much calmer and to contain fewer surgeries.

We met on a Monday morning at work and that Friday was St. Patrick's Day. Our entire work team (30+ people) left at noon to drink at a bar and watch March Madness. We were at the bar for 14 hours, drinking beer, hanging out, yelling at a tv, making ridiculous bets, and talking.

To me, this sums up how much our life has changed in these nine years. If someone gave me fourteen hours on a Friday completely to myself (no work, no kids), the VERY LAST PLACE ON EARTH you would find me would be drinking green beer in a bar for all fourteen hours.

Singing in the car

Goddess started a new weekly feature called Theater Thursday and it's a perfect excuse to post this video of Nate singing in the car. Nate sings all the time. He sings songs he knows. He makes up songs. He sings just to hear himself.

Last year at my request, the grandmas bought the boys Cozy Coupes for their birthdays. The age recommendation started at 18 months, so I figured the boys would be scooting around the backyard in them all summer by themselves. Nope. Not even close by a long shot.

Have I ever mentioned North Carolina has a lot of hills? (Oh yeah, yesterday on my other blog....) Have I mentioned our house is on a hill, which means our backyard is a pretty big hill?

Jon and I spent ALL last summer pushing two toddlers UP the hill in those coupes, chasing them down the hill, then pushing them UP the hill again. We've been cursing those Cozy Coupes and anxiously awaiting the day the boys figured out how to push themselves UP the hill. It finally happened this week with our spring weather. I can't even tell you how excited I am.

(PS You can see the vegetable plot, the herb plot, the rain barrel, and the tree house in this video.)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sometimes, 2 year old DO IT MYSELF is awesome.

(PPS. I'm drawing a winner for my giveaway tonight. The contest ends tonight at 5PM EST!)

The shortest boycott in history

Chris Brown dropped out of the Kid's Choice Awards.

I promise I'm not turning my mommy blog into an activist blog

In my much wilder younger idealist days, I was an avid boycotter. I didn't just boycott the mainstream stuff, like boycotting Gilette for testing on animals. I once boycotted Target because they sold a pink tool set for women that I considered sexist and a step backwards for the feminist movement.


I boycotted TARGET. Anyone who knows me in real life knows that is like me boycotting chocolate.


As I've aged, I've lost a lot of those idealist attitudes and have come to accept life is not perfect. However I have always kept the attitude that my purchasing power can be used for good. Now I'm boycotting again, and this time I am boycotting for my children.


Chris Brown is still on Nickelodeon's ballot for "Favorite Male Singer" in the Kid's Choice Awards.


This is simply not okay with me. At all. What does this teach children? It teaches them it is okay to punch your girlfriend repeatedly in the face, put her in a headlock until she is nearly unconscious, bite her repeatedly, threaten to kill her, and it is all okay if you can sing well.


No, it is not okay. This is not a message I want to teach my children. And I will not support a corporation that thinks this is acceptable. We are now boycotting Nickelodeon and Noggin. That's right: no Dora, no Backyardigans, no Yo Gabba Gabba.


I know most people would not go this far, but you can help out by contacting them on this issue. I already wrote them an email, signed an online petition, and will be writing them a snail mail letter at this address:


Nickelodeon
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036

If it were just the VMAs, I wouldn't be so worked up. But this is the Kid's Choice Awards... KIDS! Kids vote for this award, kids watch the show, kids navigate to the Nick website and see his bio.

The new car

When we lived in Chicago, we had no need for a car so neither of us owned one when we met. After four years of no car, Jon got a job that required a car. He bought our Toyota Corolla and before I was allowed inside, he gave me a list of rules. No greasy food or chocolate in the car. No drinking dark liquids in the car. I had to track the mileage every time I filled up and calculate the MPG.

When he told me all of this, I literally laughed out loud because I thought he was joking. He was not joking. But eventually I wore him down. And when I got pregnant, all bets were off. Because when you carry twins, your husband better let you eat whatever you freaking want in the car.

For five years, we had the Corolla and only the Corolla. We made it three years with twins with one car. We spent a LOT of time together. If we needed to go somewhere with the car, either everyone had to go or you were stuck at home. Since I telecommute and Jon travels, I am ALWAYS HOME. After our Thanksgiving road trip, we realized we needed another car, one with a little more space. A family car.

When Jon and I started car shopping, it quickly became apparent we would never be able to compromise and both be happy. We went to a car show and I almost had a heart attack when he sat in a sedan. When you are married to someone who is 6'4" and you ride in a Corolla, you NEVER get the armrest. I wanted a car where I got the armrest. After much discussion, we decided to NOT compromise and the new car would be my car. MY CAR! In the end, we bought a silver Honda CR-V. A family car yet still relatively fuel efficient.

Yesterday at lunch, Jon and I took the maiden voyage in the new car. We drove around with the sunroof open. We programmed NPR on the radio. We went to Sonic where I ordered cherry limeade and cheese tots. Jon said it was a good reminder the new car is MY CAR because no way would the maiden voyage in his car include staining fluids and cheesy greasy foods.

Jon installed car seats and we picked the boys up from day care in the new car. Nate was super excited and got in like he owned it. Alex talked a big game about the car, then had a complete freakout over the sunroof. He cried and cried and yelled, "I no like the sunroof!" I told Jon I was not backing down because we are going to be driving around with the sunroof open all summer in MY CAR. Eventually Alex stopped crying.

It was gorgeous again yesterday so we all ate dinner outside. I played with the boys while Jon cleaned up. Before going inside, Alex climbed into my lap, put his arms around my neck, kissed my cheek, and said, "I like the sunroof."

That's my boy.

Avocado!

Sunday was another perfect day where we spent most of the day outside. It was also a day of labor. Jon moved the rain barrel from the mosquito-y side of the house to the garden side of the house. I expanded out my vegetable plot so it is twice the size it was last summer. I'm still tired today thinking about all the digging, stone setting, and dealing with southern red clay. Then I hosted a moms-night-in potluck for my moms group and we sat on the deck all night.

Through most of the day, the boys played on their own. This led to some spectacular fights. A couple of times, Alex picked up a bat and chased Nate yelling, "I'm going to hit you Nate Case!" (And each time I said, "That's time out Alex Case!") But it also led to some spectacular playing together.

As I was setting some stones, I heard the boys yelling in the playhouse. I turned to find them each on one side of a playhouse window, leaning in and out shouting, "Avocado!" then giggling hysterically. Again and again they leaned through the window, shouted "Avocado!" and laughed.

When they talk about twin language, I think I finally get what they're talking about. The entire scene made no sense to anyone but them but I couldn't help but laugh along myself.

One of the best days ever

For breakfast, we ate the Pop Up Pancakes I saw on What A Card's blog. They look so fancy for something so easy (and cheap) to make. Right when they came out of the oven, I covered them with nutella, strawberries, and bananas. Next time I make them, I will halve the recipe because 12 was just enough for the four of us.

Then we spent all morning outside. All morning.

We went inside briefly to pick up our NEW CAR!

Then we went back outside for the rest of the day. All day.

At the end of the day, we ate Goddess' strawberry ice cream on the deck.

In my version of heaven, every day will be 75 and sunny. Every day will start with nutella and end with ice cream.

The eating streak continues

Alex has continued on his eating streak, surprising us with the quantity and variety of food he will consume. Last night for dinner, he ate an entire turkey burger, baked beans, mashed sweet potatoes, strawberries, and grapes. He also surprised us by telling us he loves raw tomatoes and then popping an entire cherry tomato in his mouth.

He then spit it right back out and said, "I no love this."

We'll be taking our meals outside for most of the weekend as the forecast is 80 and sunny. We'll see tonight if Alex likes PW's pineapple grilled shrimp. I hope so because we're planning to bbq them all summer!

You must listen to this! I'll even incent you with a giveaway!

I know this is my mommy journal and I have another journal for non-mommy stuff. But I believe this is a hybrid issue, one that does cross over from non-mommy stuff to mommy stuff.

We are pretty screwed with our economy and we have to do something to fix it.

You probably already know this. I'm sure we all know someone who has lost their job or is being furloughed or is struggling to make ends meet. And I know a lot of us have opinions about what should and should not be done to fix it.

As I mentioned last week on my other blog, my favorite NPR show This American Life did a show this weekend on failing banks. TAL explained in laymen's terms how banks work, why they are failing, and why we HAVE to do something to fix it. After listening to the podcast, I feel so strongly that everyone should listen to it that I am hosting a giveaway, detailed later in this post.

Here's the deal. I'm angry, so very angry about the state of our economy. I'm angry at homeowners who took out loans they could not afford. I'm angry at banks for getting paid higher percentage profits for risky loans then getting bailouts when those high-risk loans defaulted. I'm angry at the previous administration for not doing anything when the housing crisis started last year. I'm mad that large portions of my tax money, my 401K money, my 529 money, and my personal investment money are gone.

But after listening to so many Planet Money podcasts, I believe doing nothing is NOT an option. If we let banks fail, taxpayer money will be used to reimburse people through FDIC insurance. If we don't let banks fail, our money goes to banks and homeowners. It is a no win situation. We're going to pay one way or another. I think the best thing we can do as a country is accept we have to do something, accept that people are going to be angry, and move on to fix things.

Here are the details of Laura's Planet Money Giveaway:

Step 1: Download free podcast and listen. It is only free until Sunday so download it now! Or you can stream it live for free.

Step 2: Come back here and leave me a comment on something you learned in the podcast.

Step 3: One random person wins $25.

To further entice you, I will share my favorite part of the podcast. A common misconception of this crisis is the banks need more money to loan more money to stimulate the economy. The following graph is discussed in the podcast, which shows Household Debt vs GDP:

Note there are two years where debt is 100% of GDP: 1929 and 2007. 1929 = stock market crash and beginning of Great Depression. You can find great stuff like this on the Planet Money blog.

The deuce has landed! The deuce has landed!

Please trust me when I say I have no intention of detailing every step in the potty training process. It's just that this is a really good story.

After Alex's recent potty breakthrough, we have not had any further progress. I started to think it might have been a fluke. Last night I went over to a friend's house so Jon had the kids on his own. Alex started talking about how he needed to poop. Jon wanted to encourage him so Jon asked Alex if he wanted to sit on the potty. Alex said no.

It happened to be time for the boys to clean up all their toys before heading upstairs to bed. Jon told Alex he either had to clean up toys or sit on the potty. Alex chose the potty and ended up going #2 on the potty!

I find this hilarious because Alex really hates cleaning up toys. Apparently he hates it so much he would rather potty train than clean.

And as expected, Nate was very jealous of all the praise and attention. This time it manifested itself in Nate patting Alex on the shoulder saying, "That's a really good job Alex." as if he were a parent praising Alex.

PS. I wrote a post yesterday on HDYDI about my secret bed rest confession. I have really been enjoying the comments.

PPS. I'm planning a post on how to bind your blog into a book. I had hoped to have it up by now but the deuce landed!

The problem with pictures

I find this age to be very difficult to take pictures of the boys. It used to be that they moved so fast I couldn't focus fast enough. Now they either ham it up for the camera or tell me they don't want their picture taken.


I will not be deterred.


Perhaps this year will be full of pictures of Alex's crazy faces. He displays more creativity in this effort each day.

Perhaps this year Nate will object in every way possible to photographs of him.

I will not be deterred.

Once in awhile, I get a good shot. One that shows Alex's kind eyes. One that catches him in a non-cheesy smile. One that captures his post-nap bed head and the constant battle to keep food off his face.

And sometimes, I look at a picture and my heart falls out of my chest.

Oh no, I will not be deterred.

Snow day fun: three stages

Stage 1: Quiet!



Stage 2: Fun!



Stage 3: Ruined!

Snow! Again!

We got three inches of snow last night.
Which means the whole town is shut down.

Best part of my month so far: the boys shouting "snow!" when I told them it had snowed overnight.

The second best part of my month so far: the boys being ready to go inside after 30 minutes in the snow because they were cold. That's my boys.

In like a lion

We're supposed to get another snowstorm tonight. Last night I was complaining to Jon about it since our birthdays are at the end of March. I said, "If March comes in like a lamb and out like a lion, then how bad will our birthday weekend be if it's snowing on March 1?"

Jon looked at me like I was insane and told me the saying is "In like a lion, out like a lamb." Jon declared he was right because he grew up in Fargo and has much more experience with winter weather than me. He also argued that perhaps in Florida, March does come in like a lamb, which is why I was confused and WRONG.

Obviously, this argument was going nowhere so we consulted Dr. Google. And I was wrong.

How did married couples resolve disputes before the invention of the internet?

And how lame will Nate and Alex think we are when we tell them we grew up with no internet?