Starbucks and I are setting some boundaries

in our relationship.

we've made a commitment, and i think its in both of our best interests to keep it up. from here on out, on payday (well B's payday) i'll be putting $30 on my Starbucks gift card and that's all i get for 2 weeks, until the following payday. while i love me some Starbucks, its an expensive love/hate relationship.

i love going, i love the smell--even going through the drive thru--that yummy coffee smell wafts out that little window and makes me inhale the expresso goodness with a smile on my face. i love the friendly baristas, even the one who is kinda crazy and talks in a different voice/accent everytime i go. i love the cute cups with the matching green straw...almost like a little beverage accessory. most of all i love that i can go to starbucks and suddenly my name is Shannon again. to them, my life is a mystery. kids, no kids? it doesn't matter. i love settling down in one of the overstuffed arm chairs with a good book and a iced vanilla latte in my hand. i love that Starbucks is always dependable. they are open everyday--even most holidays. whether i'm having a great day or a ''just kill me now'' kinda day, they are there for me without judgement. enjoying that latte, on some days, is like my lifesupport system. its my caffeniated IV drip that gets me through the day. i love the energy boost...i crave that boost some days.

i fully admit that i'm addicted to starbucks, and i see no problem with that. everyone has a "dirty" habit and starbucks is a hell of a lot healthier that gambling, drinking, or smoking. heck a venti latte provides 35% of the calcium that a person needs for the day and is full of protein. its a healthy addiction...well almost, if you ignore the fact that my venti love has 270 calories...

but i hate that my one cup of sweet coffee goodness comes to $4.08 a cup (well for my latest love). it's an expensive habit esspecially given the economy and recession. and trust me, B points out just how many times that $4.08 shows up on our statement! i hate that there isn't a Starbucks on my side of town so some days i find myself looking for an excuse to visit that drive thru.

well i recently discovered something: if you register your starbucks giftcard online and use it to pay, you get syrups added at no extra charge. that means i save .30 cents off of each of my loves. now you may be thinking "woohoo, 30 cents" but if I buy 8 iced venti vanilla lattes in 2 weeks, i've just saved $2.40 my friend. figuring that i really do buy 8 drinks in 2 weeks--that adds up to a whole 'nother beverage that becomes FREE each month, with a little change leftover.

so we now have a visitation guideline. for $30 i can visit starbucks roughly 4 times a week...i can do it. i can learn to really value and appreciate those 4 visits. they will mean more to me now right? i won't take them for granted.

a case of the monday's

*sigh*

i am not even going to post about everything that happened today, but it was definitely a monday. since becoming a stay at home mom the days all kinda run into together. is it thursday? tuesday? i usually don't know and unless one of the kids have a dr. appt scheduled or if grey's anatomy is on...it doesn't really matter.

but today was the kinda monday that you dread. you know its a monday.

first off peanut slept like crap last night. up at 3am, 4am, 5am, 6am and finally sound asleep at 6:30. i had/have a killer headache and just when i think i'll get a solid 2 hours sleep the older boys are awake by 7:20am. peachy.

then at 7:40, we had a slight garage door malfuction that resulted in some damage to the pacifica. great. called around and that'll be about $300 unless we can find a new rear spoiler and brake light at a salvage yard. add that to the list of things i wasn't planning on.

after breakfast i had to get bubba dressed and ready for his very first dentist appt. the potty training is going awesome, i should add. he's wearing real underwear daily now, and is usually accident free. he hasn't had a pee accident in 3 days! even at naps and overnight he holds it, then tells me. woohoo!! going #2 is a problem and i'm not sure how to fix it...he just won't go in the potty. he gets completely embarrassed, hates being cleaned up, hates pooping on his ''Cars" underwear but still won't go on any of the pottys. i don't know what to do about that. tomorrow i'm gonna watch him like a hawk and hopefully (cross your fingers) i'll recognize the signs and get his bootie on a potty.

oh and the dentist appt went well. he sat like a big boy, the dentist checked his teeth and everything looks great. no cavities, he has the all the teeth that he is suppose to have and he's to come back in 6 months for a check up and flouride treatment. aside from the fact that i hated that dentist office and will never go there again, all was well. i HATE that they talk down to him. well i hate when anyone talks down to him. i get that he is not even 3 yrs old, but he's pretty mature and understands quite a bit...so when you realize that he's able to understand basic commands and ''gets it'' stop acting like he's stupid. no he's not going to fall/jump out of the chair...does he look like he is? he's not even moving. when he asks ''whats that?" and points to the overhead light you don't need to look at me to answer the question...tell him its a freaking light! and when you give him a sticker for being such a big boy, don't tell him that the "little tooth is sitting on a toothbrush" tell the truth...the tooth is SURFING on the toothbrush...just like the sticker shows. he gets it, he knows what surfing is, he knows what water is. idiots.

we're all still adjusting to tito's re-homing. the boys naps were all off because they woke up so early, and they all fell asleep at different times so i didn't get to nap. my headaches are still bad, despite doing what the doctor said. btw, i don't think that i ever updated--they think my headaches are a hormonal imbalance and i was supposed to stop taking my mini-pill and they *should* go away. yeah well, its been over a week and i still have a headache. thanks.

pooks is teething and therefore not eating very well. you cannot bribe the kid to sit in his chair for longer than 5 minutes. you can buckle him in and he'll scream. i even tried letting him sit on his knees in the big chair at dinner and that didn't work either. he kept climbing down, feeding food to rascal, screaming...ugh. total all day today i think he had a bowl of oatmeal, a cup of soy milk, 2 mini hotdogs with maybe 2 bites of macaroni, a cup of diluted apple juice with a few cheddar rice cakes, and about 5 bites of a pork stir fry that b made for super with a sippy of water. if you know pooks, you know that isn't normal. usually the kid eats non-stop all day...or wants to eat non-stop. i know he'll be fine, but a cranky 20month old doesn't make your day any easier. then at bed time he's started this new habit of kicking me while i attempt to get him dressed. he thinks its hilarious, i think its painful.

i had a bad day.

peanut is doing better, i think he had a tummy ache last night...kept pulling up his legs and crying. he slept virtually all morning and went to bed tonight without a hitch. here's hoping that tonight isn't a repeat performance of last night. i sure hope not! the one positive about today's post that i wanted to share is peanut is now smiling ALL THE TIME and has even started giggling. of course, he only giggles when you make a complete fool out of yourself trying to make him giggle (ie- me singing backyardigan's songs while making silly faces). he has also started mimicking us..when we stick out our tongue at him, smile or frown, he'll do the same back. its very cute! here are some pics of the fat lil man getting a bath. i think its getting to the point where we won't be able to bathe him in the sink anymore!

a little smile at daddy

...and a giggle.
(i love all his chubbiness! he has little man boobs!)

we survived...

well, we are surviving.

tito was adopted on saturday and it was really hard for all of us. i know its best for him and his new family sounds great but that doesn't make it any easier to cope. going over his routine with the lady from the humane society, giving her his favorite toys, removing his ID tag with our address, then watching her leave with *our* dog was REALLY hard. i was crying, bubba was crying, pooks didn't get it--he was just carrying tito's dogtag around all day saturday. rascal initially didn't seem to bothered by it; at least not when they first left. by sat night he didn't want to get out of his crate, he wouldn't sit up by me on the couch like usual, he just kinda moped/paced.

over night he actually pooped by the front door, which he hasn't done since he was a puppy. i think its going to take awhile for him to adjust and to trust us. i mean, tito didn't pass away, he wasn't sick--rascal watched us let a stranger take him. if that doesn't cause some trust issues, i don't know what will.

today was a bit better. he laid in his doggy bed in the front room rather than his crate, he napped with B up on the sofa...he's doing better. bubba is doing better today too. whenever he thinks of tito he comes and tell's me how tito is at a new big house and he gets to play with big dogs outside and that he has fun. (the new family are attorneys and live on a golf course) we hung up a picture of tito in his room and he really likes that.

pooks doesn't get it, and won't until he probably just forgets. he'll go to the dogs' crate and stick his whole upper body in looking for him and i just have to remind him that tito went bye-bye...then he just goes back to playing.

i know it seems crazy but B and I got tito when we were dating back in 2004. he was a part of our family and we miss him :(

updates galore!

update #1--potty training boot camp: day 4
-we did not have any accidents today!! WOOHOO!! none as in zero. bubba went pee pee on the potty all day. now i'm trying not to get too excited, i know that pt'ing is a ''2 steps forward 1 step back'' kind of thing but you haven't heard the kicker yet....

update #2--we visited the nanaw's today (we were in the car for over an hour -twice!-and bubba didn't have an accident!)
-we went with nanaw to visit nanaw phew phew and great great nanaw today. they live an hour away and with great great nanaw being 97yrs old, she doesn't usually get to visit us so we surprised her. boy was she surprised! she loves it when the babies visit and i know she was excited to see all of us, but (you knew it was coming) i think she gets the biggest joy from seeing/holding peanut. she just loves her babies. the last time we saw her was Christmas day so it had been almost a month. we took lots of pictures. luckily peanut was awake and happy, he even laughed for nanaw phew phew!

the big boys of course had a blast. they love being the center of attention and spoiled rotten. they got to play with a ton of cars, they had everyones full attention and they had mcdonald's for lunch. in short: they were silly and hyper and typical toddler boys.

here are the pics:

peanut giving g-g-nanaw the eye

she was so excited!!

laughing for nanaw phew phew

making faces while being burped

looking bored while nanaw tries to make him sit up for a "normal" picture

i didn't take any of the b and p...they were so busy eating and playing and honestly, peanut was awake and happy so he trumped them in picture ''neediness''. i feel like i rarely get to post pics of him because he's always sleeping or making a silly face.

i do have pictures of the older boys from at our house this morning, i'll get those up tomorrow because they are on the other camera.

and lastly:
update #3--tito is being adopted
i know its techinically ''good" news (i mean if getting rid of your dog is ever good)...he really cannot stay here and i am glad that he will be going to a nice family. the lady from the humane society called today and announced that they found the perfect applicant for lil' tito--for the time being we are keeping rascal and seeing how bubba's allergies do, then go from there [it was too hard to find someone to place them together] we may end up having to put him up for adoption or we may be able to control his dander/shedding enough to keep him, we just don't know--anyways...the family sounds nice.

its a married lady with kids, she has an older dog and she had a chihuahua but he died of old age. she is wanting to get another chihuahua and fell in love with tito's profile. she passed all of their screening (they do background checks via the applicants vet to see if their animals are up to date on shots, well cared for, etc) and is really excited. and she must be REALLY excited because she lives 3 hours away and is driving up saturday to meet him. normally after the meeting tito would come back home and she would then have a bit to decide. well since she is driving 3 hours, the humane society lady wanted to see if i would consider letting them have tito that day, rather than having to drive again in 2 days. she hadn't told the other family yet, but wanted to check with me. i told her that i thought that would be best.

it is going to be so hard to hand tito over on saturday, period. i cannot imagine having to do it once, only to get him back for a day or two and then do it again. i don't know how i would handle it or how i would explain it to bubba and pooks. i know deep down that this is best for tito, this lady will probably love him and spoil him rotten...i mean she is driving 3 hours to MEET him and anyone who is that interested, serious and dedicated sounds like the right person. and i'm glad that she has an older dog that tito can befriend. but it doesn't make things any easier.

Well baby visit

peanut had a well baby exam this morning and i thought i'd post his stats.

at birth he was: 6lbs 130z and 20 inches
today at 2 mos: 12lbs 12 oz and 23.5 inches!!

can you even believe that? he's about doubled his birth weight and has grown 3.5 inches! he looks great. surprisingly he is in the 75th percentile for HEIGHT (?) and the 50th for weight. i can't believe that he is so 'tall' for his age (given we are all so short) but its true. he got 3 shots and he did great. a few tears but as soon as he started nursing he forgot all about his little legs.

he does have a small hernia under/on his belly button but nothing serious. he's not in pain and they don't do anything for it, other than watch it. she said that it will go away on its own and that he'll probably have an outtie.

i asked her about his eyes...he looks crossed eyed quite often (i thought it was just because of his eye shape) but i did want to make sure. well, i was right again :) she did this little test to see where the light hits his eyes and he's normal. basically, in completely non PC terms: its because he's asian. seriously, i'm not kidding B! i know he's gonna think i made that up but i swear...it has to do with the shape of his eyes and the way the folds of his eyes are shaped. the inner part of his eye (closest to his nose) is shaped in such a way that we don't see his full eyeball when he looks straightforward, which makes it looks like his eye isn't centered. it is. as he gets bigger and his face grows and he learns to focus better, he'll look "normal".

well i'll get pics up later--just wanted to get the numbers up before i forgot!