So it has been a while...

Almost a year since I last visited the blog. It has been tossed out recently by a few friends & family that I hadn't posted in a while and a few things have happened since May:

Peyton is now a big sister to Cameron. Big sister...tiny mother...always in my pocket...I am convinced this girl has a tracking device hidden on me somewhere that whenever I come within 5 feet of or am even thinking of going towards Cameron <POOF!> there she is. She has been stepped on more in the past 7 months than probably her 5 years whole life.

Peyton also had her 1st real dace recital at the Rialto Theater downtown. She is not dancing this year due to the fact that she wanted to take the dance class "where you don't have to wear a ponytail."  Miss Trish didn't have ant of those classes available, so she tumbled instead this fall. She also was not necessarily a fan of the *big stage*, but performed tear free when the time came!

Has Peyton known the song "Red Solo Cup" when it was time for her 5th birthday party, it may very well have been her theme song. We told her that she was NOT allowed to sing it at school, so she in turn asked her teacher the next day if she knew the song. <Insert our blank stare at dinner the next night with Peyton telling us this> Mrs. M, her teacher, did in fact know the song. When Peyton was asked why she talked about it her reply was "You said I couldn't sing the song." I guess she got us on that technicality.

And speaking of school, here is the 1st day of kindergarten! Shiny happy people did not last very long. Peyton was a hot mess waiting in car-line that morning. Her brother was a hot mess in car-line at dismissal. Cameron was 6 weeks old and not really a big fan of his car seat. Good thing the AC was on in the truck because any walkers might have thought I was torturing the poor little guy. Good times. Good times. Cameron has since come to accept the fact that roughly 30 minutes of his afternoons are going to consist of sitting in car-line.

And the 2nd day of kindergarten. My Little Hot Mess now goes with a smile on her face everyday, not so much the 1st week or so of school. The principal made her hysterical the 1st day. Awesome. He came into Peyton's classroom, sat down next to her, started talking to her and she was wanting nothing to do with that. Pretty sure they are now on good speaking terms! It is also a bonus that she always says she had a great day at school.

This is how my friend Debbie and I celebrated the 1st day of school! Yes, it was 8:45 in the morning and we were tossing back mimosas. Gotta celebrate all day kindergarten somehow! I may have polished them off/opened another bottle after Cameron's little fiasco at pick-up...

All in all, the past 9 months or so have been a bit busier & crazier now that there are 2 kids driving me Crazycakes!! I can't remember the last time I got to sleep until 6am. Dug makes fun of me for my 8:30 bedtimes, but Cameron thinks that anytime after 4am is acceptable for wake up. This kid wakes the sun up. I'll do an entire post on him here in the near future, cause he is a piece of work, let me tell you.

This is the look on his face EVERY morning when I say "It's time to take Sissy to school!"

Good-Bye Preschool!

This was her 1st day of 3 year old preschool:

This was her 1st day of 4 year old preschool.  A bit older, wiser, and a whole lot sassier:



And last Friday she graduated!  A good 7 inches taller, 7 lbs heavier, and a heck of a lot smarter than when we first sent her in 2 years ago.  

She really did have a great preschool experience.  5 outstanding teachers, a wonderful director, numerous new friendships, for Peyton as well as me, and I can't believe how quickly it went by.  For picking a school based on the closeness to my house...WINNER!

Wasn't it just yesterday that I walked her into the building to room 5 with  Miss Tammy & Miss Charlene?  All set to learn how to be a part of something bigger than her?  Learning to share, work together, make friends, all the while learning shapes, letters & colors along the way? 

Then this past fall, into room 3 with Miss Becky, Miss Karen, & Miss Velari?  In September she could only make scratches on a paper to signify her name.  Now she can write it, and writes it well too.  There is also the knowledge of learning to spell words and read some of those words. And as for numbers?  Well, early signs show that she will be a whole better off than her mother in this area!  The running joke in the family is that my sisters got the math genes, I got Levi's.

It is off to Kindergarten in August, roughly 96 days, not that I am counting!  Her new backpack and lunch box from the Easter Bunny are in her closet awaiting the 1st day of school and talks have already begun over what she will wear on that 1st day as well.  I think the thing she is most thrilled about is that her lunch box "attaches for going to school then *untaches* for when you go to lunch." 

Until school starts there are swim lessons, camp sessions, a 5th birthday that will be Disney Princess themed, and a dance recital to enjoy.  Be sure to not forget about going to the pool in her cousin's neighborhood.  Talk about chomping at the bit, jeepers!  "Make sure you pack my suit, arm floaters, my sum scream, and my hip hops."  The pool does not open for another 3 weeks and this is the Chicagoland area.  It could be another 6 weeks before the weather cooperates to use the pool.

"She couldn't be lovelier, We couldn't be luckier, I Couldn't be happier...Thank Goodness for today!"

Mother's Day Tea

What a fun day this was!  Peyton's preschool puts on a "Tea" for the mom's each year and they really do a great job with it.

The class sings a few songs they have learned, and we have heard around the house for the past few weeks.  M-O-MM-Y to the tune of B-I-NG-O anyone??

Miss Becky lead the game of:

The kids were asked various questions about their moms and as Miss Becky read the answers outloud, we had to guess which mom in the room was being talked about.  Hilarious!  The age ranges alone were from 6 to 70 years old!

I am 14 years old.
I like to watch her play Dora (on the Wii).
My favorite food is sour green apples.
My favorite color is green.
My favorite thing to do is watch Gibbs (from NCIS).

She knows me well!

Miss Becky then read "I will love you forever" (sniff, tear, sniff).  Then we went out to plant flowers in the garden by the playground.  Afterwards there were treats & snacks in the gym and the kids gave us our presents that they picked out for us.

I got a new bracelt & earrings! I also got a scarf that matched.

A fun day was had by all the moms in attendance and I can't wait to do it again in a few years once the baby goes to preschool!

A Fish, a Ground Hog, and a Wolf walk into a bar...

Ok, so they don't really, but you were wondering right?  And don't worry, I'll come up with a better title 10 minutes after hitting "Publish Post".  Having gone through the camera this weekend and uploaded (finally) some photos that were a long time in coming I honestly couldn't come up with another way to tie some of these together.

Doing a *fish* and playing her Leapster a few weeks ago while battling a cold.  Like all Type-A personalities, she can multi-task with the best of 'em!

I do not remember the name of this ground hog nor do I know the name of this little boy, but I can tell you that he was SO excited to get up close and personal with the critter!  Big Run Wolf Ranch was a guest speaker at the field trip to the park on Friday for Peyton's school. 

This beauty came along on the trip as well and this timber wolf is a 1 year old female PUPPY.  She was HUGE!  I was all excited to go take a picture of my boyfriend Jacob, until I learned that he was in fact a she (cue Swiper's "Oh man!").  Big Run also brought a raccoon and a skunk to show the kids as well.  They did not seem so happy in their travel cages, so I did not take pics of them.

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THE TRANSITION STATE OF OUR HOUSE

You might have heard that we have a new addition to family coming sometime in mid-July.  I hope to get the baby's official eviction notice this week!  These next few pictures show the chaos, for lack of a better word, that was our house for about 2 weeks.  And truth be told, I said to Dug at 1 point that the cops could come in and toss our house and you wouldn't even know it.  THAT is how utterly shambled it was.  It was work camp here while Dug was on Spring Break from his school.  I did let him out to play golf once, but other than that is was work, work, work.

My sister Melissa had asked me to make cupcakes for her husband's 30th birthday party.  I said SURE!  Well, not only was the house a wreck, but we got our carpets cleaned the week Dug was off as well.  I sent my sister a picture of my kitchen, filled with furniture, and told her there would be no cupcakes for the party!  She said she understood and was cool about it.  If we left our garage door up for any length of time, we were straight up hillbilly with the amount of furniture that was in the garage.  At least we were not eating dinner at the kitchen table out there!

This was the start of the cleaning out of the basement.  5 years worth of toys, books, clothes that for 1 reason or another were not with the bins of clothes in Peyton's closet upstairs were sorted & kept for the baby, put aside for AmVets, or tossed due to missing pieces.  What a freaking project.   Not sure what drove me battier- trying to decide what was good enough to keep or Peyton touching and pawing every. single. thing. that came out of the basement.  She became *very* familiar with the phrase "Would you please...!"

While I was sorting goods from the basement, Dug had the pleasure of painting the nursery his 1st weekend off.  This meant that Peyton's room had to be cleared of all furniture, clothing, and toys.  I think she was a little overwhelmed at all the changes taking place...

Seeing her stuff randomly stored throughout the house, like this pile in the hallway, or our room in the photo above...

Then to see her room for the past 5 years dismantled, repainted and turned into a new home for *the brother*...

That this was one way to control what was going on in the chaos around her.  When in doubt, hang your Goldfish on the fridge with a clippy magnet.  Guaranteed not to lose them this way in the mass purging of 812!  I told her to put them away if she was done eating them and I guess since I didn't say "In the pantry" she felt they were safest there.

However the end results are this:

My absolute favorite thing about the whole nursery.  This is on the wall above the crib, and even before I had bedding picked out, I saw this and HAD to have it. 

Peyton now has a bedroom and playroom mashed together,

And seems to have settled into her new digs nicely.  She has all her animals and her nightlight, and got to pick out a few new things to hang on the wall to make the space more hers than it already was.  Now, if I can just get her to stop trying to crawl into the baby's things like the bouncy seat or the swing, that she is 10x to big for, we'll be all set!

Now we just sit back and wait for the next 10 weeks or so until the day that the *Player To Be Named Later* arrives.  This is currently the baby's name since we have yet to decided on a name for him.  Those that know my husband should not be at all surprised that he keeps saying "We have time."  Those that know me, even a little, will not be surprised to know that this is driving me bat-freaking-crazy. 

In other news, Mother's Day Tea is tomorrow at Peyton's school and this will be good for a laugh or 2.  The kids had to answer some questions about their moms as to how old they are, favorite foods...I will be sure to post my questionnaire in the next day or so!



Crazycakes at her finest...

There must be something in the air as Peyton has been on quite the tear lately with her 1 liners and/or dialogues...

"Mom, you need to get me more big girl movies, these Word World ones just are working for me.  I like Strawberry Shortcake, Belle, and Ariel those kinds of movies.   All the other movies we have can go because they are kiddie movies and I'm not a little kid anymore."

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We were informed one night at dinner that she doesn't like up & down fries, crinkle cut if you will, just the smooth fries like McDonalds has.

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One morning before school I told Peyton that I would be upstairs taking a shower and to come up and get dressed once she finished her breakfast.

"You just took a shower yesterday.  Did you not get all the stink out??"

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"When I am 5 I am going to start picking out my own clothes and doing my own hair just like Natalie does, cause she is 5 and that is what 5 year olds do."

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We had Peyton's cousins Morgan & Kristen over for a sleepover on Saturday and since they were up til 10 that night, we told Peyton she was going to do some *quiet time* after lunch was over.

"Um yeah, I'm not really feelin quiet time today" is what she told us.

She slept for 3 hours that afternoon. 

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Kindergarten registration was last week YAY!  When I picked her up from pre-school that day I looked at her in the backseat and said "Guess who is all signed up for Kindergarten??!"

2 thumbs pointing at her chest "This girl right here!"

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While playing with her Barbies & their Jeep in the kitchen the other night she sends the Jeep flying across the kitchen floor for it to ram into the wall and I am assuming that the Barbies fell out because all Dug and I hear afterwards is "Whoops, sorry girls".  Short of tacking on a "my bad" to the end of that statement it was hilarious!


Easter is this weekend, and I am sure there will be plenty more Peyton-isms to come!

Catching up...

Whoopsies, it's been almost 2 months since I have posted anything.  My sisters have been on me to get some new stuff up, so here we go!

STICKER SHOCK

I should preface this with, Yes, I am the same person who lost their soup a few months ago when Peyton colored on the carpet with marker.  Oh yes I was.  Yet somehow seeing stickers randomly stuck to objects around the house amuses me.  Such as this dog on the doorknob of the bathroom door:

Or this smiley faced girl on the carpet next to her basketball hoop in the family room.  What? Doesn't everybody have a basketball hoop in their family room?? No?  Just us??

Peyton has discovered a love of anything that sticks or is sticky.  You see there was a time not so long ago that the child would freak the freak out if something stuck to her.  It was comical to watch to say the least.  However, the tide has turned and she loves all things stickers and sticky.  And if she can't use stickers, what might the next best thing be you might wonder??  Well friends, it is Post-It notes. 

Or shall I say Post-It notes with a marker so she can label things...

I found this one stuck to the couch and another 2 stuck to me after I fell asleep on the couch one afternoon.  Never know when you might forget who you are. 

In the middle of the day.

Peyton felt the need to label my flat iron and hair dryer, I mean I could see how Dug could might possibly think they are for him to use, but I'm fairly certain that I am the only one in the house that uses those items.  Or maybe she was telling me I need to use them more often than I do. Hmmmmm....

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OH BABY!

As we are gearing up for the arrival of a new baby this July, I have bought a new infant carrier and diaper bag.  I bought the biggest carrier that Graco makes due to the fact that we do not produce small babies.  The running joke with Peyton was that I gave birth to a toddler, not a baby.  When you are almost 10lbs to start with and come home from the hospital in 3-6 month clothing, you tend to outgrow car seats a bit faster than the average bear.  This one should last the new baby until he/she is close to 1 year old.  Peyton out grew her carrier by 4 months.  Yeah.

I of course had to have a diaper bag that closely matched the carrier since they will be spending so much time together.  And since I had a coupon to Babies-R-Us that was begging to be used, I went ahead and bought the bag a few weeks ago.  After picking up Peyton from school and unloading the truck she picked up the BRU bag, looked inside, pulled out the diaper bag and says:

"Really?! *This* is what you're going with??" 

She then proceeds to drop the bag on the ground like a hot potato and walked away to go make her lunch.  Alrighty then!

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SAFETY 1ST

I currently have 2 booster seats and a 5 point harness seat in my truck for pre-school car pool with the neighbor 3 days a week.  Rather than take the harnessed seat out and put it back multiple times a week Sylvia, my neighbor, just leaves it in my truck.  Whenever we go somewhere and Peyton brings a dolly or stuffed animal, she is adamant that it rides in the harnessed seat.  While harnessed no less. 

While this bear would not pass any safety inspections on Saturday night, I am glad to report he did make it home in 1 piece.  I didn't realize that she had buckled the bear in until I was looking for my purse that had originally been placed in that seat.  It has been a while since she has taken a dolly or stuffed animal anywhere and I forgot she likes to do that.  I was getting irritated since I thought that Dug had moved my purse and 2 seconds later was asking me where it was.  I eventually ask Peyton where she put my purse, being it was no longer in the chair, and I get:

"Um...it's on the floor so bear could sit here and be safe!" 

Insert the DUH! because even though it was not spoken, it was definitely implied!

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I only wish I had video or at the least photos to show you for the last Peyton story of the day.  It actually happened after Easter last spring.  We colored eggs per holiday tradition, and what does one do with  1 dozen colored eggs after the bunny has come and gone?  You make deviled eggs, you might eat them plain, or even make an egg salad.  I decided to make potato salad.  Well, I was in the kitchen smashing and peeling eggs when Peyton comes in from being outside with Dug and I hear her yell across the kitchen:

"YOU'RE HURTING MY EGGS!"

There are tears streaming down her face, sobbing, more yelling at me for using her eggs & hurting them to make potato salad.  It truly took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about, but once I did there were also tears on my face, but they were from laughing so darned hard at her being so upset over a few eggs.  Only once I regain my composure do I realize that Dug is also cracking up at this scene.  I forget how we got her calmed down and settled, but I made potato salad this weekend and at the 1st smash of the egg on the counter this story came flooding back and I giggled.  After dinner I brought it up to Dug and by this time was once again laughing hysterically. 

Ahhh, another day in the life a parenting a pre-schooler is calling.  Enjoy the rest of your day!

Peyton-isms

Since the holidays were a very busy time for us, the stories have taken a back seat on the priority list for a while.  Well, I could blame the holidays, or I can blame the 1st trimester of a pregnancy.  You can choose the reason that works best for you!

Last year we bought Peyton her own little Nativity scene, it is the Little People one and it is really adorable.  Only according to her it is an "Activity Scene".  No amount of correcting was going to change that, so we just let it go.  BUT, I have a Nativity scene that I put out in front of the tree and that, according to her is a "Nit-tivty set".  Go figure. It could possibly be the fact that she can play with her set to her hearts content and may have been threatened to within an inch of her life if I were to ever see her even thinking of touching mine. 

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Along with the 1st trimester of a pregnancy comes this life-sucking tiredness.  I have likened it to a parasite just sucking everything out of you and leaving you completely drained mentally & physically.  And that is only after swapping a load of laundry.  An all day affair?  By-pass drained and pass right on through towards delirious.

Peyton was great, most days about coming upstairs and laying down with me while I slept off the latest wave of nauseousness. I stress "most days" because there were the ones where I would say "It's time to go up and lay down for some *quiet time*, I'll turn your shows on."  To which she would reply "Yeah, right.  How about you have *quiet time* and I get to have a treat?" 

My future hostage negotiator in training.

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How about the fact that she only eats mayo on her turkey sandwiches when there is snow on the ground.  Seriously.  I couldn't make this up even if I wanted to.  Case in point, we got home from school today and I got everything out for her to make her sandwich except the mayo.  I turn around to see her digging in the fridge for it.  I asked her what she was doing and she replied "Ummm...it snowed.  Putting mayo on my sandwich."  Go ahead and imply the "DUH!"  It wasn't spoken, but I can guarantee you it was thought.

And you can't sneak the mayo on to the sandwich if there is no snow on the ground.  She will not eat the sandwich if you do. 

OCD party of 1, your table is now ready.

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Along with being 4&1/2 comes this new found attitude of "I'm 4 now and (fill in the blank with a random thing) was from when I was 3."  Apparently when you are 4, this makes you big man on campus around the house.  When she asks for her shows while eating lunch after school, it goes something like this: "Can I have my shows please? But not PBS Kids, that is for the mornings and when I was 3.  I don't like my 3 year old shows anymore because I am 4 now."

4 year old shows=Disney Channel and new shows such as Hannah Ba-Tanna & Wizards of Wizardly Place.
3 year old shows= PBS Kids & Nick Jr. Gone are the days of Word World, Super Why, Little Bill, and The Wonder Pets. 

I can neither confirm nor deny that I might like Disney better and may have watched a Hannah Ba-Tanna movie one night while home alone.  Since nobody was here, I guess that means I didn't since nobody saw me.  Right?? RIGHT!

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We are back into the full swing of things now that the holidays are over, and this means that routine has once again settled in at 812.  The fact that I feel human again, now that the 1st trimester is over, helps greatly too.  Working on getting Christmas photos up on here and on Facebook.  One of these days...One of these days.