Oh, no, he's definitely a boy!

My life will never be the same... Events have transpired today that make it evident that we can never go back to life as it was yesterday.

It all started innocently enough. Jonathan was working from home. He offered to put baby Jonathan up for a nap around 10 a.m. I gave my snuggly boy a kiss and hug and smiled thinking about the hour or so I would have to catch up on things around the house. 10 minutes later he was downstairs and walking around. I had to assume that my husband had rescued him from his room, but no, Jonathan was on a conference call. He looked as perplexed as I that Jonathan was downstairs walking around.

So guess what? That little stinker crawled out of his crib (first time), opened his bedroom door (first time) and walked down the stairs (not his first time, but still impressive). Ugh! How did this happen?

So, to make it a complete trifecta, he climbed up into his highchair by himself later in the day.

He amazes me so much every day... and makes me realize how much I still have to learn about little boys.

"I wipe it off!"

Delaney is having some real issues with bed time. Specifically, she just doesn't want to go to bed. At all. Every night is a ritual of tucking her "snug as a bug in a rug" only to find her "discretely" coming down the stairs, with her eyes covered, of course (so we can't see her) for one more "tiss and hug". Jonathan and I take turns every night re-escorting her up to bed. The first couple trips are gratis... the ones following carry a high consequence... a bum spanking. Even this has not deterred her. Last night when I was going to bed, I thought I'd look in on our little angel sleeping in her new full-size big-girl bed. I gingerly opened to door to find an empty bed. I was a little panicked as I had not heard the patter of little feet upstairs before this. Where could she be. Not in the bathroom, not in our room watching tv. I finally called out to her, my fear getting the best of me. She arose, groggily from underneath our fluffy comforter in the space between my and Jonathan's pillows on our bed and said "I sleep in your bed". She was escorted back to her bed but I had to hide a snicker. Tonight I went over to my sister's house and was not her to partake in the bedtime games. Jonathan informed me that she had to be spanked twice tonight for bed exitus and that she has a new "coping" mechanism. As soon as she is spanked (lightly) on the bum, she quickly licks her hand and spanks her bum. After the second spanking session, Jonathan had to ask.... "What are you doing?" Her answer... "I wipe off my spanking"
How can you argue with that?

Cinco de Mayo

I'm not sure what Cinco de Mayo is, a Mexican holiday of some-sort. But I am grateful to have a day set aside to have an excuse to partake in my favorite food genre. So I couldn't let the day go by without having a little Mexican feast Bernard-style. Now, before the cash budget system, I would have said, "heck with it...let's go out to eat!" But I have definitely tried to embrace this new budget so we brought Mexico to us. Nothing fancy, just hard and soft tacos with ground beef and refried beans. I didn't even have lettuce or tomatoes for toppings but we got by just fine.

The kids really ate it up though. (All that Mexican food I ate during pregnancy and nursing is finally paying off... the kids can stand the heat!)

Just Bloom

Driving home today I noticed a steep, rocky hillside that I passed many, many times before. I had just never noticed it as intently as I did today. Maybe because I was in the passenger seat and Jonathan was driving. But none the less, I noticed. I noticed the steep walls, the sharp rocks.... and then all the folliage growing strong and green straight up toward the sun. It's silly, but I thought, "boy, that sucks for those plants. I wonder if they realize what a sucky place they have to grow in." (No, really, I thought that) But then I thought. "That's silly... the plant seeds would have had no way of knowing that this was a less desirable place to be planted. They were just happy to be able to grow and see the sun." The phrase "Bloom where you are planted" came to mind. Okay, so now let's get personal. How many times have I been in a situation when I thought "This really sucks! Thanks alot God!" when I really should have just "Bloomed".I am blooming today. I can't say that weather-wise it is a fantastic day or that it is any special occassion... except that is is "Family day"... my favorite day of the whole week. The one I look forward to the most when Jonathan and I can do the most hated tasks, but we do them as a family and it somehow makes it so much better. I have even started getting Delaney excited for "Family Day". It's a day when Jonathan's job is put away, when we all just focus on loving our time together. I am so thankful for my little family even when I forget to be thankful.

Just One Cupcake

I made 6 cupcakes today. I made them with the leftover batter from the last part I needed for Delaney's castle cake. Delaney, of course, saw them and wanted one. My response was to tell her that if she ate a good dinner and was a good girl at the gym nursery while Mommy took her Body Pump class, she could have a cupcake when we got home.She lived up to her end of the bargain, for the most part. What happened when we returned from the gym was the funny part. As soon as we pulled into the garage, Delaney announced that she wanted out of the car first. As soon as her feet hit the garage floor she tore off into the house. I had actually forgotten all about the cupcake...but as soon as I entered the house with baby Jonathan I realized that she hadn't. She already had a cupcake in her hands, unwrapped and starting to devoir it. It wasn't even frosted! I took it from her, gently reminding her that it wasn't frosted yet. So I opened a can of icing and spread some of it on the top of the partially eaten cupcake and gave it back to her. My parting words to her as I took the baby upstairs to put him to bed was to not eat any more cupcakes. She did as she was told. Instead, when I came down from putting Jonathan to bed, I found that she had helped herself to about 1/4 cup of the frosting from the can. She quickly held her fingers up and let me know that she had only had 3 tastes. I said, "How many?" Then she changed her answer and fingers to five. It was hard to stifle a smirk because her little fingers and face were covered in icing. Lesson for today... be absolutely specific with your instructions to an almost 3-year-old. And the laughs keep coming!

Yummy, Dirt!

My son ate dirt today.We were at a birthday party for our friend's daughter who turned one. Lo always goes all out for her kids' birthdays and today was no exception. She had a craft section set up where the kids could plant Impatients into Mickey Mouse cups. There was a big bin of potting soil that Jonathan was having fun digging in. I looked away from him for a minute and when I looked back, Lo was asking me where Jonathan got a brownie from.No, no brownie, just a huge clump of dirt that he decided to take a big bite out of. Yuck! His tongue was covered in dirt! I tried to clean him up as best I could but the dirt snack really didn't phase him. He was off on his next adventure quite quickly. I guess that extra little dose of plant food might give him a growth spurt tonight.It's hard to believe that Delaney turns 3 tomorrow!Where did the time go? It seems just yesterday she was growing in my belly and now she's a walkin', talkin', sassin' 3 year old. I have a lot to get done tonight before her birthday party tomorrow so this will have to be brief. I am taking on a princess castle cake. I hope it turns out okay. Plus, I haven't even started her birthday video. It may just have to wait a week or so. I am exhausted from Jonathan being out of town all week. I'm really going to try though. But I have to keep in mind that she won't care now about the video, what she will remember is the time I spent with her on her birthday making it a special time for her. I just have to keep that perspective when the pangs of guilt at not being perfect mommy creep into my mind.

My New Year's resolution...late, as usual

Let me begin by confirming that yes, I know it is March and yes, I know that New Year's resolutions are supposed to be started at the beginning of the new year. So I'm a little slow in that aspect, but better late than never has always been my motto. Plus, I have written a little on our family website so that should count for something. So why the new weblog? Well.... because I found this awesome book publishing website (you know, where you can have photo books printed?) and they will export my blog and turn it into a book! I thought..."What a great way to chronicle the year without making myself crazy at the end of the year!" So here it is.
Where do I begin. Let me start by saying that we are leaving tomorrow for a week at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Do you even need to ask the question if I am packed and ready to go? Of course not. In true Tracy style, I have not even started. Although I am way ahead of the game in the fact that I have all the laundry done (not, put away, but clean). I'm not stressed because there is always Super Walmart! Anything major I forget can always be purchased there when we get there. I love America!
Yesterday was a pretty exciting day. Here's a brief synopsis for those not wanting to read the full versions: Daddy worked from home, Rukus is good, Delaney and the poo-poo, Daughtry and Bon Jovi. What? That's not enough information? Well, I guess you'll just have to read on...
Let me tell you that although the frequent travel sucks, I LOVE Jonathan's new job for the pure fact that he is able to work from home when he is in Pittsburgh. He gets a lot done and we are very diligent at respecting his office time for "business calls" but it also means that we get to have breakfast and lunch with him and Mommy even gets to steal away in the afternoons sometimes to run errands while the kids are napping. I was worried about how it would all work out having him home, but it has been awesome!
We had to put our loveable pet cat Sammy to sleep in early February. That was hard. He was with us for 7 years...almost our whole marriage and made all the different house moves that we did. He was a great cat and is so very much missed. Even though I swore we would not have another cat for awhile, Rukus just seemed to drop into our lap. My cousin Kimberly owned Rukus and his brother and could not keep them due to her son's allergies. He's only 6 months old and litter-box trained so I said we could have a "meet and greet" a couple weeks ago to see how the kids and Rukus got along. Love at first sight for Delaney so a few days later Rukus came to live with us. Now, Rukus has not been to the vet since he was born, so of course, he had to have all his shots ($$$$$) and needs neutered and declawed ($$$$$). This is not going to be a cheap pet. But I saw the love in Delaney's tearful eyes when I told her I needed to take Rukus to the doctor. She cried because when we took Sammy to the doctor, he never came home again. I guess when you are 2 1/2--almost 3, you just don't understand the difference in appointment types. But Rukus got a clean bill of health and will be going back in 3 weeks for his surgeries. And he is darn cute.
Last night was Daddy night as I had a girls night out at the Daughtry/Bon Jovi concert. Talking with Jonathan while on my way home from the concert, I got the play-by-play of Delaney's stubborn evening, which started with an early bedtime as punishment for not eating her dinner. Since she was not tired, Delaney played up in her bedroom for hours instead of falling asleep. She has now decided that instead of potty training, she will just change all her diapers when needed. So Jonathan went upstairs to find her trying to change her own poopie diaper in her bedroom. She was using wipes, but had still managed to get it all over her hands, feet and legs. So he wiped her down, put a new diaper on and put her back to bed. Not long later, same thing. Poopie Diaper #2 and same result. This time, poop on the rug. Finally, cleaned her, changed her, put her back to bed. Took the wipes and diapers and put them back in Jonathan's room and told her to leave them there. In the short time it took him to go downstairs to get Hippo and Hippo's blanket, she had crawled out of her crib, snuck into Jonathan's room, took the diapers and wipes, brought them back to her room and crawled back into bed. All the while, pretending that she had never moved from her bed. What a little stinker. So smart! As you can imagine, I was laughing very hardily at the mental picture of this whole fiasco. Glad I wasn't there though.
And finally, Daughtry and Bon Jovi. I went with Tiffany and Amy Robol first to dinner at Nakama, the Japanese Steakhouse in South Side, then to the concert at Mellon Arena. I was more excited to see Daughtry since I love his album and have been a fan since his American Idol days, but I was actually blown away by Bon Jovi. They were such high energy and the show was really good. Took me back to my high schools days. It was nice to remember that I used to be someone other than Mommy. (which is still the best job in the world, by the way)
So that's it. Time to pack for Mickey Mouse's house!