"mommy? mommy?! mommmmyyy!"

this is what i woke up to at 6:58 this morning. i will be honest here, i rolled over and told B to tell them that the sun was still sleeping and so was mommy, that they needed to lay back down. {keep in mind that they didn't go to bed til after 9pm last night}

well, not to anyone's surprise that didn't work. their yelling and playing with each other made peanut realize that the didn't have to go back to sleep either. so by 7:05 B was opening the gate so that bubba could get to the bathroom. and then he went in the boys' room with them, laying in pookie's bed hoping for a few more minutes of sleep while i was laying in our bed nursing peanut.

that's when it hit me. i woke up to someone yelling ''mommmyyyy."

but it wasn't bubba yelling.

which by a simple deduction, made me realize that it was pooks who called me mommy. it was pooks who woke up, not only wanting me but wanting his "mommy" not ''ma" or "mama."

there is a first time for everything people! this is the same little dude that didn't even call me ''mama'' until after his 1st birthday. since that time, he's always called me mama. ALWAYS.

which means that today was officially the first time that he's called me mommy. and i realize that this is a novely that will soon wear off, but for now, i love it. he says it so sweetly and it just melts my heart!

whatever you say, he is not just like his mother.

yeah i know we've all heard about the ''terrible twos''. well let me preface this by saying that technically i only have one kid thus far who has actually reached two years of age but from my point of view (and lets be honest, obviously it counts...you are choosing to read this rambling) the two's are not terrible. yes there are moments where i'm left going ''what the hell was he thinking!?" but overall, the 2nd year is not terrible.

however, what you never hear about it the "terribly treacherous threes". it could be because i just made that up but eh, you get the idea. bubba has been three years old for not even 2 months and it's like someone has flipped his attitude switch up to ''more please!" except for no sane person would request this amount of attitude and defiance in their 3 year old.

case in point, this convo from yesterday:

me: bubba, can you please pick up all of your cars before nanaw gets here?
bubba: no....i'm playing.
m: well nanaw is on her way over and you need to pick up your cars. put them in your backpack so that nanaw doesn't step on one or trip when she comes in.
b: mommy....i.am.playing. i no pick up my cars. {said while giving me a look like i had 4 eyesballs on my head}
m: okay, you need to pick them up. if you don't then mommy will, and i will put them up in your room and you won't get to play with them at all. pick them up please.
b: mommy. nanaw not step on my cars. she walks this a way {proceeds to walk in a great zig-zag line across the living room avoiding all of his cars} and no step on me cars. see mama? i not put my cars in my backpack...nanaw just walk yike that.
m: [*insert blank stare*]bubba when mommy or daddy asks you to nicely do something--you need to do it. we don't back talk. i asked you to nicely clean up your cars, now you need to clean them up. if you don't, i will give you a timeout. please put your cars in your backpack before nanaw gets here.
b: [*returns blank stare then adds a GIANT eye roll and starts to dramatically put his cars away*]

seriously? since when did barely 3 year olds have so much attitude?

what's that? you didn't hear....

oh, well let me show you:
that's right! peanut can sit up now! if you set him up, he'll stay for 30sec-2mins. how long depends on what he's doing. if he's watching the boys play then he can sit for a couple of minutes!

here he is all embarrassed that i'm showing him off, lol:

he is still to lazy to roll over regularly has only rolled over a handful of times but i'm glad that he is still developing those muscles, even if he doesn't use them. he likes the rice cereal so we're doing that about every other day, and he can drink out of a sippy cup too! where the hell does the time go?

oh, i wouldn't forget to show off his brothers either. geesh, who do you think i am? here is pooks' looking innocent (which we all know is RARE!)
can you even believe that in 13 days he will be TWO years old?! that is insane! he's talking more and more lately. today he told bubba ''sorry'' after he accidentally ran his shopping cart into bubba. he said ''i eat please'' while i was eating my bowl of cereal....he's just getting so big! he's starting to show his own interests too. he likes firetrucks, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Dora. he really likes to do puzzles and blocks--totally the opposite of bubba. he really likes to study things and solve problems.

bubba is doing good too! he is still very much into Cars and i think its an age thing where he is really into pretending. he likes to cook in his pretend kitchen and bring you food. he pretends that he is a race car or a motorcycle. he is talking non stop. i mean seriously, you would have never known that this is the kid who rarely spoke around Thanksgiving. he talks about anything and everything.
he is very excited to start school and i'm in the midst of checking out and visiting preschools now. we'll probably have to get on a wait list, but i'm okay with that. he did just turn 3 so i'm not rushing him!

a not me! monday

.....on what is now tuesday?!



i totally joined the bandwagon and decided to join in on not me! monday. remember lil' stellan? (whom by the way is HOME now!) his mama started this and it's spreading like wildfire. the idea is to fess up to all the embarrassing things you did during the past week by pretending that you did not do them.

so without further ado:

-last week i most certainly did not let bubba and pooks stay in their pajamas all.day.long just because we weren't leaving the house. and i most certainly did not stay in my own pj's with them. i know that i definitely did not let them watch 4 episodes of backyardigan's that day either.

-this morning when the boys woke up at 7am yet again, i most certainly did not go to the drastic measure of hanging a sheet over the curtains that are over the blinds in my room, as an attempt to block out any speck of sunlight that might shining through my bedroom windows and into their bedroom and be waking them up at such an obscene time. nope, i definitely did not do that.

-while attempting to make a batch of chicken noodle soup this morning, i did not bribe my three year old with the promise of 5 m&m's if he would sit next to his baby brother while i cooked and give him his binky if needed. i then did not give him waaayyy more than 5 m&m's for helping me so well and i certainly didn't promise to let him ''baby sit'' again next time i'm cooking.

-today i did not spend 10 minutes going around the house and collecting $2 in change just to buy an iced carmel macchiato, simply so that "starbucks" wouldn't show up on online banking and have my husband pick on me for it. i then did not have the cup in my car (with ice still in) it when picking him from the automotive place and i definitely did not confess the entire story before he even noticed said cup. nope not me.

i would never do those sorts of things!

pirate party planning

i have come to the realization that every spring/early summer from now on will be spent planning parties. bubba's birthday is march 28th. planning for it is fun as there is nothing going on in late january-early february anyways so it's a welcome opportunity to use my creativity somewhat productively. {wow, was that a run on sentence or what!) i look forward to it. but then immediately following bubba's birthday is mine and pookies' birthday. that doesn't leave a whole lot of time to plan pooks party! i feel like during the month of april, i'm knee deep in party planning. some of you may be like "what planning? what the heck takes that long to do?" well since you asked...

okay, so technically you didn't ask but I'm going to tell you anyways.

ahem. i was raised and i firmly believe that birthdays are a big deal. you are celebrating a loved ones life! this is not a "pick up a cake while at wal-mart'' kinda holiday in my family. (err, well technically there are zero holidays that warrant a store bought cake in my family but that's another post). this is an occasion to come up with a birthday theme, and make a cake to go along with it. i'm almost 25 years old, and every one of my cakes was lovingly and painstakingly happily decorated by hand, by my mom. were there sometimes screw-ups? yes. did we sometimes get to eat a "practice" cake the day before? surely! to this day does my mom have 20+ wilton cake pans at her house? you betcha! but that it what it was about.

i for one, am continuing the tradition with my kids. i will not buy them a store bought cake. does this mean that my mom is automatically commandeered to help? yep, but I think she likes it ;)

so the first decision that i have to make is what theme? now with bubba that was easy because he is so vocal about what he likes. i asked what kinda cake he wanted for his birthday, he replied ''cars''. so a Cars cake it was. but pooks? well i asked him what kinda cake he wanted and he replied ''blue''. err...okay? well i took matters into my own hands and chose a pirate theme.

okay so now to find a pirate cake to make at home. after scouring google images for a few hours, i decided on this . it's cutesy pirate, not scary pirate. i thought about a treasure chest but pooks doesn't really get what that is. when my kids see an eye patch they think pirate. so this cake pan will be perfect.

okay so i chose a theme, i chose a cake pan. heck i even chose and purchased a few decorations. (btw i did NOT pay that much, i went to party america and it was way cheaper). so lastly i needed to make invitations.

that's right, you read that correctly. i said make the invitations. now if i'm not buying the cake, why would i buy pre-made invites? i can honestly say that the homemade cake thing, that's my mama's fault idea. but making the invites, that's all me. i love doing graphic design stuff and i get a huge kick out of making the invites. for bubba's 2nd bday i did construction trucks. for pooks 1st birthday i made a "barnyard dance" invite. that was a lot of fun, coming up with the rhymes. then this year bubba had cars (which was really easy), and here is a sneak peek of pooks pirate invite:
did you know that if you google ''how to talk like a pirate" there are websites that will teach you? matey's ye 'oughta check it out!