Ross turns 4!!!

Last week Ross celebrated his 4th birthday. Somewhere in the last year the last traces of my baby has disappeared and he has turned into one very ornery little boy.

He requested polka dots on his cake this year and I went into his cake project with no firm plans. Poor kid...one of the downfalls of having your birthday right after the holidays is that mom is totally ill-prepared (and just a wee bit burnt out) for your party. I'll admit, his cake turned out a bit feminine in color, but he liked it, so I'm happy.

Lucy "helped" with the cake. See that in the picture below? Yep, she stuck a knife in the finished cake...twice. Sigh...I think I'll pass on the kitchen help next time I need to bake something!

I took a lot of pictures, too, trying to get a good 4 year portrait for Ross. He wanted nothing to do with a normal picture, but had a blast hamming it up for the camera. He was so much fun!

This one is my favorite!

And I like this one, too!

But this one totally captures his personality.

And this one is pretty good, too.

Don't you just love the ears here? He totally reminds me of my dad in this picture!

And I love that his tongue is in focus here, but not his eyes!

His attempt at a nice smile!

Good News, Bad News

Last Thursday I had an appointment with my eye doctor (yes, I really did have to make an appointment to get my eyes checked) during the time that Ross was at preschool. I didn't really have time to drive home again before picking Ross up, so as I ran out the door I picked up my gym bag and decided to head to the gym (which is right next door to Jeremy's clinic) with any extra time.

Now, I consider it a real treat to get to drive the car by myself with the tunes turned up. There is just something therapeutic about it to me. So, I took the car that morning (even though it meant letting Ross in it, which doesn't happen very often). One of the things I love about the car is the USB jack that lets me plug my IPod right into the car. So, Ross & I jammed out to my IPod tunes on the way to preschool.

When I got done with my appointment, I grabbed my stuff and headed to the gym. As I was walking, and trying to get my IPod fired up, I realized it wouldn't turn on. Crap! I've had problems with it before and usually plugging it into a power source fixes the problem. So, I headed back to the car and monkeyed with it a bit, until I realized that there was just NO WAY this thing was going to turn on again -- ever. Sigh...so that is the bad news...I love my trusty little IPod Nano. I've had it for 4 years and it has kept me company through hundreds of hours of running and workouts.

I went to the gym anyway, but was totally off because, well, I NEED music to get motivated. And the guy running on the eliptical next to me who was humming to his IPod (well, maybe it was closer to a grunt) didn't cut it as music for me.

The good news...on Friday, my dear husband was kind enough to stop and pick-up a new IPod Nano for me (plus the Nike kit which tracks runs for you -- I can't wait to try that). It is lime green, which I'm just tickled about. I love green. :-) It has a touch screen and, best of all, a radio receiver (which I love because sometimes I just don't want to listen to any of the 300+ songs I have on my IPod).

And so, this brings me again to some more bad news...I don't think I'm smart enough to operate the stupid thing. I've had nothing but problems with it since I got it...I think I'm going to have to go into an Apple store and ask for a live tutorial, because I just don't get this stupid little thing. Is this a sign of aging? Am I technologically elderly? I'm now at the point in life where technology is just too much for me (reminds me of the VCR that my Grandma had but wouldn't turn on for herself)!

Dear little silver IPod, please come back, I promise I don't love the new IPod more than you!

Sniff, sniff...

Yesterday we spent the day working hard on projects around the house and are one room closer to being ready to sell this place. We did Lucy's room yesterday and it was just a little bittersweet.

The room needed painting -- badly. The wall above the changing table was gross. Not that I don't wash it off on a regular basis, but after the kids have ran their hands and feet all over that wall for 4+ years, it just looks a bit nasty. And the room was covered in toy marks. I'm sure any parent out there knows exactly what I'm talking about. Seriously, can't the toy companies come up with a way of coating toys so that they don't leave a trail of colorful paint marks on the walls when the kids bump them (or, as is often the case at our house, chuck the toys at the wall really darn hard)?

As a part of all this, we upgraded Lucy to a big bed. Actually, she is borrowing Hannah's furniture until after we move and Hannah's room is being turned into a temporary toy room. The plan is to move before Hannah arrives here for the summer break (and, if that doesn't happen, we'll just have to worry about it later). So, I have an empty changing table in my bedroom and an empty armoire in my living room. We're going to sell them, but are waiting for a replacement on our recalled crib (ironic that they just recalled it and we no longer need it and our kids survived just fine). We were supposed to be able to use the set for big kids -- you know, the changing table becomes a dresser and the crib pieces become a big bed. Yeah, that really didn't work out so well (so take this as a warning any expecting parents out their). The drawers in the furniture are baby sized. They are really quite useless for anything larger than toddler clothes. I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me when we were shopping...I guess I'll chalk it up to pregnancy brain.

I'm just a little sad to see the baby furniture go. We've had it almost exactly 6 years. And while I'm totally done having babies and ready to move beyond our baby days, I'm also a little sad to see them go. We have almost completely de-babied our house. The crib is gone. The bouncer is long gone...as well as the bottles, rattles, itty sleepers and boppies. All we have left at this point are a few strollers, a sling (my favorite that Lucy can still fit in and I can't bear to part with) and car seats (though, with the new car seat laws, car seats hardly count as a "baby" item anymore).

I really don't want anymore kids, but every once in a while I wish I could have my babies back again -- just for a bit, though definitely not at night time, meal time or diaper changing time.

The Whole Family

Ah, I have been re-miss in my posting once again. I'd like to say it will get better, but alas, I doubt that is the case for a while. Yes, the holidays have come and gone, but now we are in the thick of getting serious about our move. I've got a massive list of stuff to do around the house so that we can put it on the market (hopefully no later than the beginning of February). Painting, cleaning, sorting, storing, donating...the list is endless right now!

So, I thought I would post a few new (or newer) family pictures in lieu of a writing much today. It isn't often that we manage to get the whole crew sat down for a picture, but we somehow managed it twice in the last two months!

PINK!

We have a pink problem here and she goes by the name of Lucy. That girl is just a pink fanatic! I'm not sure where this obsession came from. I mean, yes, she has plenty of pink in her wardobe, but there are lots of other colors present as well. Her room is BEIGE and her bedding is BLUE. So, I know it isn't just a result of my pushiness (though, yes, I do love pink and her next room WILL be pink).

It is reported that last weekend she played Go Fish with Grandma & the boys. Apparently she had a card with a pink fish in her hands and she WOULD NOT give it up. No way no how was that girl going to give the pink fish up.

Today I was rocking her and told her she had pretty brown eyes. Then I asked her what color my eyes were. Her answer? Pink eyes! I told her, that no, my eyes were brown, too. And then she clarified, "my want pink eyes". (Note: for some reason the word "I" and their name has been replaced with the word "my" by my children, so we hear a lot of "my likes that" or "my wants that") I told her she couldn't have pink eyes, which resulted in a major fit before naptime. Sigh...what am I gonna do with this girl?

I'm not upset about this development. I mean, really, I love all things pink and girly. However, it gets frustrating when she refuses to wear anything but pink socks, even when she is wearing purple and orange!

Saying Goodbye!

To my scrap booking/card making hobby, that is. I finally had to force myself to make a choice: either I can scrapbook or I can exercise, but I don't have time on a daily basis for both. I chose exercising for many reasons, but mostly because I really enjoy it (and, well, I really enjoy being thin) and it is good for me. My consolation is that I get to keep my knitting stuff -- since I can take it with me when I'm otherwise doing things that are non-productive (like riding in a car) I can justify keeping the hobby.

A few months ago I had purged a lot of my stamping stuff on Ebay, but only stuff I didn't use anymore. A few weeks ago I got drastic with the clean out. I had an indecent amount of extra paper in my office. As in, I had AT LEAST an extra pack of every color of paper that Stampin' Up makes (or used to make anyway -- 48 colors + all the neutrals). So, every pack of unopened paper went. I thinned my stamp collection by 1/2. And I got rid of about 1/3 of my stamp pads. I listed them on Craigslist and have been happy to get rid of most of the sequestered items -- the rest are sitting in boxes waiting to go, but they will NOT go back in my cupboards. I'm in the process of finishing Lucy's 1 year album. And when that is done, the rest of the lot is going (well, almost everything -- I'm keeping some crafting basics for the kids).

I'm kind of torn between relief and sadness. I really enjoy paper crafting. I also really was stressing about having all that stuff and not using it. And it is GREAT to get it out of here and free up the space (and get some of the cash back in my pocket).

So, goodbye stamps and paper and punches and ink! May you bring hours of entertainment to the next person (and surely many grumblings from their husbands)!

The devil lives here!

And he goes by the name of Ross. Seriously, that boy is just a HANDFUL! Anyway, I was snapping pictures the other day and this is what he greeted me with:

Lovely, isn't he? This is one to save for those moments in life when I want to embarrass him!