Making Progress

Another sticker on the potty chart means Monkey has earned her second surprise, a Disney Princess nail polish set!  

That red string around her neck is holding her "shiny gold medal" because they played Olympics at school today.

She wanted her nails done as soon as Smoke got home; Cinderella blue toes and Little Mermaid green fingers.

(Not to take away the spotlight here, but I also feel obligated to congratulate Froggy on her first photobomb. Well done Pacified One.)

Overheard

Smoke:  How hungry are you?

Monkey:  Ummm...three and a half!

Smoke's New(ish) Ride

This Lady is on her fourth vehicle in the almost five years I've known her.  I can't say anything bad though because she always gets exactly what she wants for exactly how much she wants to spend.  Actually....I'm not allowed to buy my own cars anymore.

This time it is a 2013 Chrysler Town & Country Touring Edition minivan (because one additional child means you need four times the space).  The van is loaded with leather, a dual DVD player with two sets of headphones, remote self opening/closing rear doors and tailgate, and a ton of other stuff.  She got it for the same payments as her lease on a base model 2014 Honda CR-V while ending the lease 18 months early.  She wanted to keep the finance worksheets as a trophy because when all was said and done she worked them for $4500 off their original offer.

And Monkey likes it too because she can get into the van and up in her seat all by herself (but we still have to work on how to safely exit the vehicle).

Fishing

More Appropriate Blog Handle

I don't mind being called "Pa" even though I'm not that old in the grand scheme of life.  There's a sense of experience and wisdom in that word to me.  However, since we updated the blog using pseudonyms I haven't been able to get comfortable using "Ma" to describe my amazing wife.  She is loving and she enjoys cooking and baking, sure.  But there is much more to her than that.  She is funny, whimsical, silly, affectionate, and serious when she has to be.  Those that know me at all can pretty much surmise that music and quotes play a big part in my thinking.  I'm also an ex-smoker and still have a hard time avoiding the temptation to join coworkers in this habit at times.  So in trying to come up with a new blog handle for Ma the song "Smoke" by 1000 Horses took the lead (although I decided not to use the official video because it gets a bit racy).  So from now on, Ma will be known as Smoke on this blog.  She goes where the breeze takes her at every moment and fills any space with her personality.


Love you Smoke!

She's Smoke
I pull her in nice and slow
She's a habit and I can't let go
Blowing rings around my heart
The one she stole
Watching her sway and go
It's killing me and I know
Can't stop her once you start
She's Smoke

Momming

Pa and my girls made sure I had a lovely Mother's Day. As usual. Pa likes to spoil me and lately I've had a yen for kitchen gear so he got me a beautiful shiny new crockpot. We have a small one but I tend to fill it up to the tippy top and it's hard to take to potlucks and such. My shiny new one is BIG and has a shmancy locking lid. YAY! He also got me a pizza stone which I'm really excited to experiment with. And I got me a 12 inch cast iron skillet. I've been watching too much Pioneer Woman lately and have convinced myself I can't cook without a cast iron skillet.

I started my morning snuggling my sweethearts.

We had a lovely breakfast with some silly faces.

Then we went for a drive to the lake and threw rocks.

Monkey, Froggy, and Ma made biscuits

Or maybe hockey pucks. Time will tell.

Super Mom

Batman has his utility belt, ma has her Boba wrap.

Crafty Mommy

Three pillow cases sewn together = One Monkey-sized nap mat.

A conversation overheard during the creation

T"We're gonna need to multiply and replenish the earth"

how can we do that? 

"Uhmm seeds? Like flowers? Or eggs? Like chickens?" 

Nah, done that. 

"Uhm cloning?" 

Too sciency. 

"Well... I had this idea about this thing called a mammal. But it's messy, and will really hurt..."

Alright so we got the multiplying thing down, how are we gonna feed the offspring? 

"Photosynthesis?" 

Sciency. 

"Uhm, a fully developed digestive system when they're born?" 

Waaaay too much work. 

"Well, the mammals come with nipples, I thought they were just weird spare parts buuuut..." 

Perfect!! Let's make that hurt too!

*millenia later* 

well that could have gone better

"horrified stare" 

Remind me again why the males have nipples too?

1:15 AM

So this is what 1:15 AM looks like in our house right now...

Waiting Again

Smoke has been cleared.  As soon as Froggy passes all her 24-hour tests we should all be headed home.

Getting Ready for "Deuce"

Smoke Prepped...

Pa Prepped...

Now the waiting begins.

It's my birthday!!

John sent me some beautiful flowers. Exactly what I would have gotten myself. He's pretty much the best husband ever.

And got me an awesome, useful perfect birthday present that I can't wait to pack up and cart around everywhere.

And my sweethearts sang me happy birthday, had me blow out candles and then we all ate cake. 

I am such a lucky lady.

Making Grasshopper Pie

Can you see Monkey's green "war paint"?

After Swim Class Ice Cream!

Mommy Blogs!

Greetings Family & friends. Mama here. Sorry we've been so absent lately, we haven't been doing much we consider blogworthy. But here's a quick rundown.

Monkey finished her first round of swim lessons. I think she finished swim lessons more afraid than she started. She's still our little mermaid and loves to BE in the water. But she's not a big fan of GETTING in the water. Her teacher has them jump from the edge and our little noodle is not so great at the jumping. She'll get it.

Pa is busy with work and life and seeing to the whims and wackiness of a hormonal wife and two year old daughter. Bless his heart. He's a wonderful house husband and keeps everything running smoothly despite a full schedule at work and the aforementioned crazy women. We're lucky to have him.

I am winding down this baby-making business. I have about 30 more days until Deuce is scheduled to make her debut and I am READY. I mean, I want her to be fully cooked and strong and healthy and ready, but I also very much want to be done. I've almost got myself convinced that my office won't actually burst into flames or crumble to dust while I'm gone, so now it's just about getting everything ready.

Deuce is growing. Which is exactly what she should be doing. Everyone keeps telling me I'm "so small" which is kind of giving me a complex. There are only so many cookies one woman can eat ya know? Our doctor says I'm about a centimeter smaller than average but I seem to remember the same being true of Monkey and she turned out pretty great so I'm not worried. Right now Deuce's favorite thing is pushing as hard as she can against my belly until I feel like I'm about to go all Alien up in here.

And that's about it. We'll post more pictures of baby preparations as they progress and of anything else that seems noteworthy.

We hope you're all well!

Love,
Ma