red.

Dear Blog. I'm back. I've missed you.
So much to catch up on I'm not sure where to begin so I will just begin with red, yellow, and green.
These are Levi's behaviors according to his discipline folder. 1st grade is tough. We are apparently having a problem "staying on task".We have yet to get through an entire week of green this school year. I've tried every possible approach I can think of. Bribing, negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, tears, more bribing... rinse and repeat. I'm pretty sure my child has a bad case of ADD.. I wonder where he gets that from?
Shaylin just turned 5. I feel like she was 4 forever. I'm having mixed emotions about this whole "they grow up so fast" thing. I guess maybe so in a way............ but eh...... not really so much yet. Maybe it's just all the drama that she produces that makes it feel long. I swear she's 30. I have grey hairs so that has to have something to do with it.
Halloween is coming up. Shaylin is going to be a flying pony. Not to be confused with a unicorn. There is no horn... so the technical description is just flying pony. It's probably the most ridiculous costume a little girl could possibly beg for at Target so of course that would be the one we end up with. Levi is a Star Wars guy. I don't know which one and to be honest I don't think he does either. He's too scared to actually watch the Star Wars movie but he's convinced that its cool so he needs to be part of that for Halloween. My kids are nuts. :) I love them.

we wish you a merry Christmas... we WISH you a....

hola blogger readers. FINALLY pulled myself together and purchased a Christmas tree! Last year we had like a 1 footer that graced our counter top. This year I felt the need to really go all out with the puniest 6 footer from good ol' Walmart. The store that causes me mucho pain. I'm not sure where these random spanish words are coming from, but I'm just gonna go with it.

So we get home yesterday evening and I lug all my Christmas decor upstairs from my car... prepare the children for a beautiful evening of decorating our first tree.. in like a long time... and bust out the 100 pieces of greenery with a stand from the ever so deceiving box.
Don't worry... Levi has the directions. For whatever reason, unbeknown to me, I do not realize as I am unboxing this little beast, that it is not pre-lit, as I was led to believe. I blame it on my entitlement to insanity on account of I have 2 small children. So I'm half way done putting the tree together before I realize that I have no lights. CRAP. Meanwhile Levi is assuring me that I'm doing a great job at the assembly of the tree. "Good job mom. Mom.. it looks like you're doing it right. Mom, that piece goes right there where you put it.. Mom". Thanks.. but here's the thing kid.. totally forgot to purchase lights for this tree.. so we're gonna have to wait until tomorrow to decorate it. Of course Levi is chill with this minor dilemma, but drama overhears and puts her pouty face on followed up with some whining and a mini-guilt trip. I made a pretty quick recovery after the plea bargain of a delicious bedtime snack and fabulous bedtime story.
Attempt 2 at tree decorating: Success! After the massive amounts of decorations I piled on this frail little tree.. It actually looks like something festive. ¡Feliz Navidad!

dear blog.

So I feel like its been too long since I've written anything. So I'm making my come-back tonight.
I would first like to talk about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite of the holidays on account of I love the food. The mashed potatoes, the green bean casserole, the stuffing, and my very favorite.. the pumpkin pie (which I am of course eating right now). Plus thanksgiving doesn't require that whole buying everybody a present thing. I mean.... sure it's a nice thought. Giving is nice, but let's be real... the majority of the people I know don't have the kind of money to actually thoroughly enjoy spending it on buying someone else something. We've got bills to worry about. Hello.. recession.
I'm starting a new job in 2 weeks. Pretty crazy right. My goal is to pretty much change everything I can about my life.. and like.. start over. Don't worry, I'm keeping my kids still ;).  I have also thought of getting a cat. A cat or a fish. Me and Shaylin can't decide. Shaylin is leaning towards fish because she said they won't run around and they don't smell bad. We'll have to see what the final verdict is in a couple days. I've always hated cats.. but what with me being open to change now and all... I figure why not.

maybe.. maybe not.. hard to say 

Levi has his Christmas program at school tomorrow night. I'll be sure to record it and take some pictures. At last years he literally just stood there the whole time with this real serious look on his face.. and mouthed a few of the lyrics to the songs. We'll see if he can let loose a little now that he's in Kindergarten!


oh bedtime... I love you.

goodnight

behold.. its November.

I would like to first start off by saying that I had this horrible flashback as I was folding my 3rd load of laundry. My mind went back to the days of potty training. I cannot express in words how happy I am that that part of my life is over with. You always think looking back on things that they won't be as bad as they seemed at the time, but in all seriousness... if its any worse than I remember it being... I re-feel sorry for myself. (and any other parent who has endured the experience).

The holidays are just around the corner. Well first of course there's my birthday, which until I turn 30 I plan to celebrate to the utmost. That's the weekend we'll be moving into our new apartment though, so I feel like I'm getting slightly cheated. I'm sure I'll figure out a way to compensate. Anyhoo, I really just realized how close Christmas is today when we received the fabulous Target toy catalog in the mail. Normally toy catalogs don't interest me much... I toss it to one of the kids and they're entertained for a good hour. However, we were running short on our time for reading (we have to read 10 minutes every night says Levi's homework folder) and I felt like the toy catalog could qualify as reading.. I mean... there are words inside.. kind of. Then something amazing was brought to my attention.... secretly hidden inside the middle of this catalog... is the most awesome coupon booklet ever. I'm talking 50% off... this isn't your typical "really they consider 10% off a discount.. that barely covers sales tax" kind of deal. This is like.... mom gold. I was so stoked I immediately ripped that sucker out and began my Christmas shopping LIST. That's right.. I made a list. Well technically the list is still in my head but I have every intention of putting it into a more tangible form.

Shaylin's school picture order form thing came back today. Not to be biased, but my kid should be a freakin' baby gap model. Her hair is even done, and if you know my child you know that's a rare occurrence. I'll be sure to post the glamor shots when we get the real ones that are big enough to see without super magnifying mom eyes and word "proof" written across it, because you know how people like to steal teeny tiny little photos.

Two may actually in fact be better than one.

Today was "dress up as a hero" day at Shaylin's school. Guess which mom forgot? Yea, that's right.. this one did. My mom picked up Shaylin from school who was evidently pretty devastated about her mommy forgetting to dress her up. Supposedly she was the only one in her class who didn't have a costume on.. and since this is a private school, where all the parents are over-achievers.... I wouldn't be surprised if she was the only one in the whole little school. Bad Mommy. I felt HORRIBLE!

Then after I pick up the kids and am halfway home, the PTC calls to remind me today is the pick up day for the fundraiser cookie dough. I somehow managed to miss this on the calendar as well. It becomes apparent to me at this point.... that I either need a personal assistant or a man in my life. I'm leaning toward the personal assistant... better yet: a manny

On a bright note, Levi was one of the best sellers for the fundraiser. This almost makes up for my lack of ability to dress up my child on "hero day". I said almost okay.... I'm sure I'll dwell on it at least for the remainder of the week.

cooties dot com

First off, I would like to state the fact that this is the first time since I've gotten home that I have sat on my butt for longer than 3 minutes. That detail paired with my freshly poured glass of pinot grigio... makes me all sorts of content.

Levi got in trouble at school today. Today AND yesterday! Which is nuts because yesterday was the first time all year his teacher sent a note home about him misbehaving. I gave him a long lecture last night when I found the note and reminded him this morning when I dropped him off to NOT get in trouble again or there would be hell to pay (yes I did actually slip and use the word hell.. which he corrected me on, but I ensured him it was ok to use it in this context and that the rules of not saying "hell" didn't apply to me). So of course today he would have to get in trouble again only this time he even got "written up"! This is the first time we've had that happen. I felt the need to get creative with punishment. Of course I started with a lecture... this time I took the guilt route since evidently yesterday's "mean mommy" lecture held no long term effect. Success.. I made a breakthrough when the eyes began to water.. then I followed up with lots of love. When he got over his 5 minute emotional moment he was told "no toys, no tv, nothing fun! you're going to do your homework and when you finish... you're going to write lines!" 25 lines of "I will obey" (its a short line.. I'm not that mean). It was great because after each line he wrote he counted how many he had left.. punishment with a learning twist. I like it. We'll see how well that worked.. if he comes home with red pen notes tomorrow I might have a breakdown.

Shaylin only had 1 meltdown today, which is a huge improvement. Its always something unpredictable with her. You never know when that cute little girl is going to bust out her psychotic monster personality. The magic is in the "later". I read somewhere that parents use the word "no" more than any other word but for me I think its "later". Its a much safer word. "can I get a new toy?"... "later".. "can you read this 35 page long dora book?"... "later"... "can I have a cookie"... you get the drill. Even now when I say no this is how the conversation goes:
"mommy, can I have some candy"
"no"
"later?"
"no"
"after later?"
"no"
"monday?"
"no!"
then the meltdown. I should have ended it with the first later.

Happy Birthday, Girl

So today is Shaylin's 4th birthday. 4 years of raising a girl.... 14 more to go. Well, I guess really it will be longer than that but putting it that way makes me feel like the chances of going completely nuts seem a little less likely.
Who am I kidding... I'm obviously already half way to the nut house.
Lately Shaylin has been completely obsessed with all the ridiculously girly stuff. I used to think that she wouldn't ever be a girly girl because she was always so dirty. I mean, any little girl who enjoys getting food in their hair, spitting, and biting their toe nails just doesn't strike me as the princess kind. However, she has managed to somehow pull it all off. She loves getting her nails painted even though shortly after she begins the process of biting all the nail polish off.... then begging me to re-paint them the next day. She's a mess... perhaps the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree after all.
I was going through some of her baby pictures to reminisce..... so here's some to share:

I love them :)

Happy 4th Birthday Ms. Shaylin