This could be really good or really bad.

Neither one of my kids were binkie babies. They did, however, become binkie toddlers. Nugget was given a binkie in the NICU, so he had one early on, but never really "needed" it. BUT, both kids got all 4 top teeth at the same time and instantly fell in love with a binkie.

Strip would only take an Auburn one (War Eagle!) and Nugget only wanted the ones that he got in the NICU, which of course you couldn't get in a store (you can now, but Target waited until after I had special ordered them from a special website. Special read expensive). So while I was ordering the vanilla sented binkies for Nugget, I noticed the cutest thing ever. I give you, the wubbanub:

Super cute huh?! Yup, it's a litte beenie baby kinda thing sewn onto a binkie. Adorable! It makes it really easy to find, too. Espically if your kid chunks it out of the stroller while walking around Epcot, and he's only 6 weeks old, and it's the ONLY binkie you brought to WDW, and the soothie binkies still aren't available in stores so you are frantically thinking that you are going to have to track down a NICU and beg for one. No fear because it looks like a toy, so a kind soul will pick it up, realize it's connected to a binkie, and set it on a bench. Woo hoo! Vacation saved.

Anyway, Nugget loves the Wub, but now has more teeth, and likes to chew on it. I picked it up yesterday and needed both hands, so popped it in my mouth. That's when I noticed the unthinkable had happened - there were a few tiny holes in it. Tear. The Wubbanub is on the way out.

This happened with Strip's, but she was a little older, so I said, "Oh no! It's broken! Guess we'll have to throw it away." And she threw them all away and that was the end of it. I don't think Nugget is there yet.

But Wubs was out in the car this afternoon when it was nap time, so I let him pick out a truck to play with while he fell asleep, and he went down fine. Tonight, the Uncle J was in town, so we ate a little later, brushed teeth a little later and went to bed a little later. Nugget and I did our bedtime routine, and he went to bed -- without Wubs!

I went back upstairs later to check on Strip, well really Uncle J -- he was in charge of reading Strip's story (meaning ONE) and I wanted to see how many she got him to read --and stopped outside of Nuggets room. He was singing himself to sleep.

Nice. We'll see if he makes it though the night. Could we be Wubbanub free?? Knock on wood!

Picture Time 2!

Wow. Get ready for an awesome Christmas card from our family. Strip has some major chapped lips, so she looks like collagen gone wrong, and Nugget fell out of a chair, on to his head (yeah, we have issues with gravity around here) resulting in a lovely goose egg, followed by falling into his little table giving him an awesome matching bruise across his cheek. The doggie's doing ok, though. So at least one kid is hanging in there. Hmmm maybe we'll just send out new years cards this year...

Don't watch tv in bed

'Cause if you do, there are a couple of not so good things that could happen. Well, one's not bad, just not my favorite thing to get at 1 am, and that would be a 3 year-old's beady eyes staring at you saying, "What's going on?" Stupid tv buzzes, and I turned up the volume.

The other thing is you can end up watching some really weird stuff. I kind of laughed when we moved to the sunshine state. Within a week, Dateline was doing a "To Catch a Predator" right down the street. Literally. If that wasn't good enough, a couple of weeks later, Primetime did a special on these high school kids who killed their band teacher. And where was the high school? You guessed it, right outside our neighborhood.

So after the big move, I was feeling pretty good. Great town, nice neighborhood, fun neighbors (not as fun as you, old neighbors! We love and miss you!), low crime rate. Then we went trick-or-treating. New Neighbor pointed out a house that was for rent that apparently was involved in some super big drug sting a year or so ago. Awesome! I tuck myself in last night, and since Tivo still thinks we live a few states away from where we do, he has no clue what the channels are (bless Tivo's heart, he's still recording episodes of House for me, only USA on Tivo is really the Spanish channel here. E for effort!). This means, I spend much more time stuck on informative channels. One night, I watched a 30 minute show on how to make zippers, and it was fascinating!

Anyway, last night, I start watching a really great show called "You might as well throw yourself off a bridge." I don't think that was really the name, but it should have been, because after watching this show you feel like you might as well throw yourself off a bridge. It's all about this magical fault line in the middle of nowhere, USA, that had a super huge earthquake that caused the Mississippi to flow backwards. Yeah. It was that bad. And we don't live ON this spot, but apparently, the next quake is supposed to ripple through surrounding states, and we are so in one of those states. And I was worried about tornadoes. Let's just say, I'm not moving to Memphis anytime soon. Yikes.

Mommy Brain!

Forgot to post these when they happened, so here goes:

Strip loves to say the blessing. Loves it. When she was Nugget's age she would bow her head and scream "AMEN!" when we finished, but now she can say it all by herself. Normally, we get to hear either "God is great, God is good," or "The Lord is good to meeeee, and so I 'fank' da Lord!" but now, she's started preachin' from the heart.

We were at the beach in August, and I guess she heard Uncle B say the blessing and wanted to try one like him. So her new blessing is:

Fank you God for dis wonderful food

We hope we like it

and we hope we enjoy it

Amen

Love it. Short, to the point, and while "fanking" God for the food, she also slips in a little slap to the face about my cooking. Fun!

I think she must have a little preacher in her, somewhere, too. In my mom's bible study group, I shared that every day at the same time, Strip would have a meltdown. You could set you watch to it. One mom suggested saying a prayer with her right before she went into meltdown mode. GREAT idea! She loves God, she loves pray, this will work.

So the next day, 4:27 rolls around, and it's about to get ugly. I stop her and say, "Strip, why don't we say a prayer together." She says OK. So I do an impromptu prayer saying Dear God, please help Strip to have her listening ears. Help her to make good choices so we can have a fun night, amen. Amen. Flip out. Didn't work.

A few days later, we are in my favorite warehouse store. It had been a long day, and poor Nugget was done. He's screaming, I'm trying to dig a sippy out of a giant cart filled with chicken, oatmeal, peanut butter an whatever else we needed. We are standing outside of the bathrooms and a lady is walking toward us. Strip, not able to take it anymore, decides to take charge and says at the top of her lungs

" It's ok mommy! I'll say a prayer! Dear Jesus,
PUULEEZE help mom to put on her listening ears so she can figure out what Nugget wants and he'll stop crying. Amen"

Good thing we were near the bathroom because I think the woman walking past us would have wet her pants had she been any farther away.

Picture Time!

Christmas time is coming soon! I know it is, you know why? Christmas music on XM? No, but thank you Tif for the heads up on that one. Snow? Not yet, but it's getting there? What is it then, that screams, "Time to take a picture?" Well, lets review:

Strip's first Christmas card she was sick as a dog and looked like Rudolf with her little red nose.

Strip's second Christmas, she walked into the corner of a table at the Cracker Barrel resulting in a black eye.

Just last week, we had picture day at school, and what does the child do? A back flip out of a kitchen chair. Forehead, meet hard wood floor and say, "Goose egg!"

So with the time to take Christmas cards coming up quickly, I was contemplating wrapping both of them in bubble wrap until I could snap a good pic. Today was nuts.

We ran errands this morning, then got in just in time to put Nugget down for a nap and Husband to call saying carpet cleaners will be coming today. Awesome. The window was between 2 and 6, so I fully expected to see them around 6:15. They show up about 15 min after I put Nugget down for a nap. Awesome. They agree to do his room last. I let the Wizard of Oz babysit Strip while I started making dinner for our neighbors. Strip wants to do "craps" so she asks to use her scissors. No problem, she's been an awesome cutter for over a year now and Nugget is tucked away upstairs.

Finish dinner, cleaners are ready to do Nugget's room, I have to wake a baby. Yikes. Nugget was cranky, I get him downstairs, trying to fix a little snack for him when I here Strip say,

"Mommy! Look what I did!"

In typical mom fashion, I glance over and give her the old, "Ohhhh nice, Strip!" Only when I glance up she's holding something that looks like hair. No scratch that. It is hair. Gasp.

I can hear my mother laughing now, because when I was about Strip's age, I gave myself a niiiice set of bangs. Really nice. Luckily, it's one piece, and I THINK it's in a spot on the back of her head where it will blend in with the rest of her hair.

Awesome. I think we'll just take the picture tomorrow before they are either bald or missing an eye.

It's all in the family

So a friend of the Husbands from work has been hanging out with us. It's actually the couple that H lived with for the 2 months he was up here before we moved up, so I have NO problem having them over and feeding them. We owe them big time. Anyway, strip has started refering to him as "Uncle." Tonight, we were getting ready for bed, and she was asking how Uncle C fit in to our family. I explained that it was fine to call him "uncle" (if that was ok with him), but that he wasn't really related to us like real uncles were.

Strip: Well, who are my real uncles then?
Me: You have your great uncles, then mommy and daddy's brothers Uncle J and Uncle P.
Strip: And name my aunts
Me: Aunt T, Aunt C and Aunt T.
Strip: You forgot one.
Me: Who?
Strip: Aunt M!
M is my brothers girlfriend who we all love and adore and he's been dating as long as Stip has been alive. Yeah. Did you read that, P?!
Me: Well, M really isn't your aunt. Not yet anyway.
Strip: What do you mean?
Me: Remember how you had an Uncle J and a Miss T? Then J and T got married and T became Aunt T?
Strip: Yeah...
Me: Well, when Uncle P marries M, THEN she'll be your Aunt.
Strip: Oh. (three seconds go by) Is she my aunt now?
Me: No. And M has been waiting a LOT longer than three seconds.

Kids are weird

And I think I have the weirdest.

As mentioned before, we have ladybugs everywhere. Some inside, but a bunch outside. My kid is terrified of them. Why? I have no idea. They land on her and she screams, "GET IT OFF!" or if there's one inside, I know it "Ooooohhhh mommy! There are two ladybugs in your tub! You better get them out! Want me to call daddy?"

I think that being scared of ladybugs is odd, but not crazy. What's crazy is that her favorite toy is this:

Meet Creepy. Creepy was purchased at Target for $.50, and it was just one of those days. I had been working a lot, husband had moved already and we were in Target getting some things for work. I let the kids grab something to play with while I had to shop. We had been in Target almost 4 times that week, and they both got the same thing each time, Strip getting this thing and Nugget getting a frog (nice). On this day, Strip asked very nicely if we could take their new friends home. Since they had both been troopers and since they were only $1 for both, I figured why not. I looked at Strip and said, "You really want to get that thing?" "Yes please!" "Geeze, Strip that is one creepy lizard." "Well, he's my creepy lizard and I love him.

Can't argue with that. She's taken that creepy thing everywhere. Creepy even came on the house hunt and went in every house that we looked at (realtor has 2 kids, so she understood).

So I really do not understand how a kid can be scared of this

when you are in love with this

Like I said, kids are weird.

Ladybugs are the new frogs

I love our realtor. She was awesome. She took us to see a ton of houses, but always knew what we wanted/needed and helped us find the.perfect.house. As a little welcome gift, she brought over this:

Super cute little friend is sitting on our front porch. She bought him as a reminder to Fully Rely On God (frog) and just thought it was cute. I thought it was FANtastic. In old home, we had a ton of creepy crawlies. Walking out on the laini was like walking into Jurassic Park. Lizards would scurry everywhere. And if you went outside after the sun went down or right before it came up, you were guaranteed to have a frog attack. Ugh they were everywhere. They would hop in the car, hop in the front door, hop on your face, uuuggggghh gross.

So we move in the new house, I was happy to get away from that aspect of nature. I'm drying my hair in the bathroom day one when I hear a little buzzz. I was thinking gross black fly, but I was wrong. Ladybug! They are EVERYWHERE here. They come in through the vents and are all over the place. I think ladybugs are lucky, so we have the luckiest house on the block.

You can only imagine how tickled I was to see the welcome frog (old house) with a little ladybug (new house) sitting next to it. Funny! Now I think I will have to find a little stone figure incorporating each place we move. I really hope we move to Germany next. How hilarious will it be to find a frog and a ladybug chillin with a beer stein?!

Off to google that!

Thanksgiving day is coming Mr. Turkey said!

Fall is here! And how do I know it? Because last week I did this:

Oh yeah. Four bags packed full-o-leaves. And not just oh, this bag's full, on to the next. I had both kids in the trash can, hoppin around to really crunch them down. I'm good.

I had some help

I did leave one giant pile in the backyard so the kids could do this

Yup, nothing better than sliding into a leaf pile.

Strip has also been learning some fun Thanksgiving facts. Today, they learned songs about Pilgrims and Indians. I asked her what a Pilgrim was and she said,

"It's an Indian without a leaf on his head."

Awe. She's so wise. Digging deep to look past the divides of two different cultures and recognize that under all of our leaves, we are all the same.

On another fall note, I went shopping Saturday. Woo hoo. I was really excited, I was ready. I have not been shopping for me since maternity clothes when pregnant with Strip. Other than that, it's been a few things here and there, but moving to a colder climate made me realize that I have 3 sweaters and that's not going to cut it.

I was psyched. Kids were having and all day fun-a-thon with husband, and I had the whole day to spend some cash. I was shopping online, scoping out sales and stores, and seeing what's hot and what's not. I got up early and had our Saturday pancake breakfast, then was at the mall 30 mins before they opened. I walked into Nords so ready to hit their sale racks. Whoa. Big mistake. Here I am in a 10 year-old pea coat with 8 year-old uggs in desperate need of a haircut and eyebrow wax completely overwhelmed. Instead of my three shots of espresso to start the day, I think I should have had three shots of tequila. I left, and looked for my happy place. Ahhhh, the Banana. In and out in no time. I got a hot new bag which I desperately needed because, oh yeah, I was using Strip's small diaper bag as a purse that day, and a purple sweater (because purple seems to be "the" color).

Yay! I'm doing well! I left and had a little lunch before hitting the Loft. I grabbed some cute stuff and was feeling pretty good about how my day was going, when chick next door pipes up. It never fails that I end up in the dressing room next to her.

"Excuse me, miss? These pants are just soooo baggy on me. Do you have anything smaller than a 2?"

UGH. If that weren't bad enough, 17 comments later, she's asking for a shirt and says, "Well I like these tops to fit a little more baggy, so maybe I should try the 4 petite."

Great. The only thing that made that trip better was going to pay with my 2 gift cards and only having one. DANG!

Jewelry store! Score! I can get my rings cleaned. Making small talk with the two bored sales clerks, the guy was waaaaaay too chatty. Ring cleaner girl hands back my rings and was asking how long Husband and I had been married, then she asked if we had kids.

"Yup, 2."

man -- "One of each?"

me -- "Yup."

man -- "oh good for you!"

me -- .......

girl -- "How old? Are they little?"

me -- "3 1/2 and 18 months."

man -- "Wow, so they are young. You still look pretty good!"

me -- "Ok, you have a great weekend."

Wow.

And to further torture myself (and because it was just too darn cold for a bikini) I went bra shopping. Joy. I even allowed the chick to measure me. Unfortunately, underwear store doesn't sell mom boob bras.

I'm trying to leave the dressing room and tape measure girl comes back. I notice there are three young girls standing behind her waiting for my room. They all want to go in together to compare how skinny they are.

Girl "How did those work?"

me "They didn't"

girl "Shoot! Why not?"

me "They just didn't fit me correctly."

girl "Well why not?! They are the size I measured you for! Why specifically didn't work???"

me "Well, when I was pregnant with my daughter, I went from a barely there b to a 34 F. Things just don't always bounce back to where they were, and although those bras are the size that I am now, there's saggy mom boob hanging out all sides of it, so I just don't think I'm going to get those today, but thanks!"

I just hope I scared those teeny bopper girlies next in line into putting back the thongs and reaching for the granny panties.

Can we have a T-o-T do-over?

Please? Before I slip into a KitKatComa? I had no idea how much I liked candy. Nugget and Strip totally scored with the candy. We just have waaaaaaay too much. I think the week after Halloween, all of the teenagers should be allowed to come around with their pillowcases and collect all of the candy you don't want/need. My doorstep is open. Come on up.