can you guess who?

this was a bit tricky. when bubba was a baby we took his picture in a slide at a local park. then when pooks was born so close in age, nanaw wanted a picture of him in the same slide. and now, with peanut again being so close in age, nanaw INSISTED that we get a pic of peanut in the exact same slide. yes there are a few months difference in ages. yes i had to convert the pics to black and white to help hide the inconsistences that were distracting (mainly the shadows. each kiddo was photographed at a different time of year at a different time of day).

so it begs the question, can you correctly guess who is who?

say "hello" to my little friend

by little i mean the walking cast that goes almost up to my knee. when i walk, i feel like The Terminator. B even came up with this robotic noise that he makes while i take steps. great. to make an extremely long story short, the orthopedic doctor (whom specializes in foot/ankle injuries) is making me wear this for the next two weeks. he was very disappointed in my lack of care and wishes that either urgent care or my regular dr office would have referred me to him sooner. he thinks that the "walk on it-no don't walk on it-walk on it with a brace-no, better walk on it without a brace" crap that i've been doing for the last month only hindered my recovery time.

imagine that.

huh, who woulda thought.

so i have to use this lovely honker of a boot for 2 weeks then go see him again. if the swelling and pain still hasn't subsided, he will run an MRI. he thinks that i have a grade 2 sprain on both the inside AND the outside of my ankle (is that skill or what?!) and that combined with my ''loose'' ankle joint is obviously, causing my pain. so no running, extended walking, etc for 2 weeks. i am allowed to swim and i am encouraged to play balance games on my wii. is this a sweet doctor or what? prescribing video games? holla!
---------------------------
ahem, okay so on to the kiddos:

first of all, i have some pretty kickass blog readers. most of you (if not all of you) guessed the baby pictures correctly! it was pooks, bubba and lastly peanut. you sure can tell that they are brothers!

so onto other things.while gone over the weekend we managed to finally bring back a few items that we had been storing in my in-laws garage since we moved. (you know, almost 8 months ago.) one of those items was bubba's bicycle. he was too little for it when he received it on his 2nd birthday but now he's just the right size. except for now he is also a little bit older and more stubborn. example? oh you know...how he refuses to call it his bicycle. "its a motorcycle mommy and i gotta wears my helmet". even when not moving. even while not understanding how to pedal. even when every adult within a 20 feet radius tells him he doesn't have to wear the helmet unless he's actually pedalling. he insists. here is one picture i managed to get while still at the IL's and sadly, his helmet was at home.
how cute is he? i can't wait until he can actually pedal because, i'll be honest, i do NOT have the patience to teach/explain over and over and over and over how to pedal. he gets it. he knows to pedal forwards, to the front--however you want to explain it but he just looks at you and goes "i can't." without.even.trying. makes me mentally go "AAAAAAAAAAAHHH."

so a few days ago i mentioned how peanut had 2 toofers pop up, well i tried get a picture but that's not happening as of yet. they just aren't up enough yet to capture. but here is a super cute pic of him from when i was attempting to get a shot of the pearly whites:
cutie pa tootie!

and lastly pooks. *sigh* he's biting. again. he thinks it's hilarious no matter what you do. and i mean no matter what you do. time out? doesn't work. biting him back? (gently! i'm not a lunatic) brought on tears, i totally hurt his feelings but alas, doesn't work. yelling? doesn't work. being sent to his room? doesn't work. getting his toy taken away? brings on the waterworks and an apology but less than 15 minutes later he bit again. i'm kinda running out of ideas for discipline. i've never had a biter before.
that picture, is totally unrelated to this post. it has nothing to do with biting at all, i just thought i'd share his sad/pouty look. (he was upset because B was watering the flowers and he got sprayed.)

anyways i'm signing off to go work on a couple craft projects. a no-sew fleece blanket for peanut and an apron for myself. should be interesting!

slacker!

i have been majorly slacking, i know. it's been crazy around here. we were out of town on friday and saturday so of course sunday was a catch-up day. and the weather finally isn't 100+ degrees so we've been spending our mornings at the park and evenings outside playing. i'm slowly trying to prepare the boys for the 4th of july. last year all the fireworks and blackcats scared the bejeezies out of them so we've been talking about that, noticing the tents, etc. we tried s'mores last week and they know that we'll do that again on saturday. i love the 4th of july so i really want them to enjoy it as well.

in other breaking news: peanut had TWO teeth break though his gums yesterday. that officially means that he was 7.5 months old when he got his first tooth pair of teeth! what a big guy, right? he is a drooling mess but i guess that's to be expected if you're popping them up two at a time.

well i will update with pics later tonight, hopefully. i'm on my way to the orthopedic specialist to figure out what the heck is wrong with my ankle.

as promised....

i asked and you delivered! woohoo! i enjoyed reading your comments on the previous post; honestly i didn't even know that some of you read the blog but i love it! i'm glad that our day to day shenanigans can make others smile (and look forward to seeing their own babies grow up!).

so as i promised, i'm going to try to post more often. shouldn't be too terribly hard. i'll have to lay off facebook for a little bit in the evenings but it's for the best, probably. facebook is an addiction, i swear.

but, i digress.

here are a few pictures from yesterday. every afternoon this week, we've spent about an hour in the kiddie pool (after their naps) lounging until B gets home. the boys are getting so tan! i swear bubba is darker than B! anywho, here they are:

showing off their ''bee-bo's"

see that? right there? that's brotherly love at it's finest!

peanut was roaring...not the most flattering picture but hilarious nonetheless

okay, and a small disclaimer before you scroll to the next pic: i find it hilarious. B finds it equally hilarious. however you may not. i, the mother of 3 under 3, am in a bikini. consider yourself warned. (i must also note that i am *only* seen in a bikini while on my super private back deck in the middle of a weekday, with my children.)

how you can tell which babies are breastfed:

um yeah, peanut the camera is up here! like father like son i guess. [insert eye roll here] you should have seen him while in the fitting room while i was trying on swim suits. talk about being confused! he kept thinking he was going to be fed and was getting slightly ticked off!

psst....

you.

yeah, you. the one right there reading this blog.

i assume you are reading this for one of the following reasons:

a) you are interested in keeping up with us or you're family and feel obligated to be reading
b) you are nosy and hey, there's nothing wrong with that. hello this is a public blog on the internet...you're allowed to be nosy. heck blogs practically encourage that!
c) landed here by mistake and now you're stuck reading. kinda like looking at roadkill. or an episode of the hills.

just sayin'.

anyway, my point: if you have been here before, then i know. i may not know you per se but i know you're out there in the inter webs reading. how do i know? cause of this little baby:

this is my little friend, i call feedjit. okay...everyone calls it feedjit. it's just what it's called. i didn't pet name it or anything but regardless, it's a live traffic feed. it lets me know how people find my blog. i don't have it listed in a search engine (i like a little privacy from internet whackos) so this tells me how people land here. could be from here, or my facebook page but usually it's a direct link.

i know that they directly typed in b-u-b-b-a-a-n-d-p-o-o-k-s-.-b-l-o-g-s-p-o-t-.-c-o-m or they have the page bookmarked. in the last 24 hours AT LEAST 21 people have viewed this blog by direct choice. they have taken the time to type or bookmark our page, which flatters me! seriously, it rocks. so my question to my loyal readers is this....

where the heck are my comments people!?

can you give me some feedback? some love? can you let me know that you're out there in virtual land giggling with me. or at me, i'm okay with that too! you take the time to visit, can you let me know what you think??

please??

let me try to break it down for you.

*sigh*

i "work" with very small people all day. very small people with small vocabularies. and even smaller understandable vocabularies. i blog because it gives me the chance to "talk." it's a little bit of freedom around naptime where i have a chance to use real sentences and correct grammar (most of the time). i can ramble on and on (and on) with the best of them. when you leave a comment, it's a non-verbal adult conversation for me. comments are my little social interactions that i get to have throughout the day.

let me just say that lately, there haven't been too many comment social interactions. are you bored? do you have a question? comment? complaint? do you like more real life stories (btw, i have a few to share) or prefer pictures?

here is your chance to let me know what you like about visiting our little blog. i blog as a way to vent, unwind, brag, share memories and stories and so that one day (hopefully) my boys can read this and see what we did and how much i enjoyed it too. but i do have readers. i realize this. so do you have a question? something you wonder or are curious about?

i'll make a deal with you. i'll try to blog/update more often if you comment more often. and in return i'll answer any questions you have about us, me, the kids, the dog, blogging, baking rolls--whatever. just leave them in a comment or e-mail me at [mom2tictacs at gmail . com ]

mmm...s'mores

there is a first time for everything and today the boys tried s'mores for the first time...

first bites...a little apprehensive but then pooks realized it was ''chokyet" (chocolate) and ''meeshmels" (marshmallows) and that was all he needed to know!

first bite must have gone well because they were licking their plates by the end!

and peanut? he was suppose to eat apples but he didn't want that so just milk for him!

by the end bubba was already saying ''i yike smores. i want more s'mores mama. please??"

Happy Father's Day!!

i have to wish a "happy father's day'' to my daddy! i could not ask for a better daddy and papa for my kiddos. seriously, you rock and i love you so much! and to b ''happy father's day" to you too, you do a wonderful job with our boys and we all love you more than words can say. whether you're giving baths or mowing the lawn, you make the boys have fun with any activity.

thanks for all you do guys :)

pictures...

from the past week or so :)

on sunday we went with nanaw and papa to visit grandma great who turned 91 this week! we also sporadically decided to drive a little further and visit nanaw phew phew and great great grandma. i really thought i took more pictures, but i guess i didn't. well that and my lens was SUPER dirty (blame pooks-it's covered in itty bitty fingerprints!). but the ones i managed to get are pretty cute.

with papa and the birthday girl
(grandma great is papa's grandma!)

all the boys playing at nanaw phew phew's house

peanut with great great grandma b

then yesterday i set up a little pool out on the back deck. with the heat index it was close to 100 degrees and the pool sounded blissfully wonderful. the problem lies in the fact that there is one mommy and three kids...i am not wild about the idea of taking 3 little ones to the public pool by myself. is it more fun? yes. but is it about 10,000 times more nerve wracking and stressful. trying to make sure that both older boys stay close by me in the shallow end of the pool, that there is no fighting, that they don't get pushed, splashed or dunked by someone else; that they don't slip, run or climb the waterfall --all while holding peanut--not going to happen. the pool is just too crowded for me to feel comfortable.

but i digress. ahem.

long story short, we bought a little pool for the back deck and spent an hour yesterday and an hour and a half today enjoying it. the boys LOVE it. even peanut went nuts, splashing and giggling, he just loved it. i didn't get any pics of him in the water (because i was holding him) but when he wasn't in the water he was jumping around in his exersaucer.

showing off their new fish squirters; they were all named Nemo

bubba acting crazy

peanut hamming it up in the exersaucer and his new bucket hat

admiring the pool from afar

and lastly a picture of B blowing out the candles on his birthday cake last night:
(btw his cake was suppose to look like 2 playing cards...let's just say i decorated the entire thing in less than 5 minutes while trying to keep 2 toddlers fingers out of the frosting all while listening to an infant scream. 'nuf said!)

Happy Birthday B!

from being just a little guy yourself.....
to having little guys of your own...
b you've come so far in your 27 years, and we love you!!! hope you had a happy birthday!!!

a little family time!

B is working every.single.day in a row from june 8-26 without weekends, some days working 12 hours at a time (6am-6pm). he's tired, the kids and i miss him and it sucks. plus his birthday is wed and then father's day is this weekend and he has to work then too. i know that there are a lot of dads that work even more than this, but it's not the norm for us. thank the stars for that!

when B came home early today (think...like 1pm?!) bubba said "hi daddy, i miss you". it was so sincere and (despite what b said i did NOT tell him to say it!) heartfelt that in that instance i was like ''we are getting out of the house and doing something together. now!" so after a nap, a round of diaper changes and a refill of sippy cups we were out the door. the boys have been unpatiently waiting for Petco to open up. for the last 2 months at least every time we drive by the construction site with the ''coming soon'' sign they ask to go see the puppies. so we did. except there weren't any puppies. we saw fish, turtles, lizards, ferrets, hamsters, birds and other small rodents.

afterward we walked through the new Bed, Bath and Beyond and stopped for lunch at one of my *favorite* restaurants. this was the first time ever that peanut sat in a restaurant highchair. it was also the first time he ever ate baked potato (which we mashed up, obviously). overall, it was a hit! here he is looking like a big kid:
and i wouldn't dare forget bubba and pooks who chowed down on pb&j sandwiches, cheetos, applesauce and sweet tea.
after dinner we took the kiddos to the park where they played for a bit then we walked on the trail that goes around the park. the boys like going on nature walks. or as they call it ''goin questing." really we are looking at leafs, sticks, bugs, bark, berries and the like. they had fun but mama's ankle was sore afterwards! as we were leaving i couldn't resist capturing one pic of all my boys.
please ignore the porta-potty ;) it kinda ruins the moment but oh well.

a trip to the park

this evening B stayed home with peanut so that i could run to the store with the little dudes. on the way, we made a little 15 minutes pit-stop at the park. it was so nice out...77 degrees and a light breeze. it's rained all week on and off so this was a welcomed break. it amazes me that with all the fancy schmancy city parks around here, this park is by far the boys favorite. it doesn't have rubberized mulch, no real playground equipment, no special swings or fancy splash parks. in all honesty, i think it's exactly the same as it was when i was a kid playing at that park! it still has wooden play equipment, an honest to gosh merry go round and a HUGE metal slide. here are a few pics:

pooks had high goals of sliding down the big slide by himself

yet half way up he remembered that last time, he didn't actually like the big slide...
back down he went!

the boys however tend to favor the merry-go-round. they jusst want to go fast! fast! fast!
bubba

pooks

tonight the majority of their time was spent digging in the sand. pooks is a little too short to work the gears but he doesn't let that stop him.

bubba was working hard (with his leaf -that he felt the need to bring home)

all in all, it was a great evening. peanut passed the time sitting outside with his daddy and jumping in his new jumperoo. (pics of that to come tomorrow!) gotta love lazy weekends :)