"Who Can It Be Now" by Men at Work

A couple weeks ago I showed up at a house for a
playdate that Johnny's mother and I had arranged over the phone (I had
only briefly met Johnny once). Johnny let us in and I made myself and my
boys comfortable in Johnny's living room. The problem was that I
didn't realize that I made a mistake with the address, and I was at a
stranger's house. The mom who lived there was very surprised to find all of
us in her living room. The unfortunate part is that our boys got along
really well. The following is a made up conversation from that mom's
point of view about arranging a real playdate, because, hey, I know
where she lives after all.

(Knock, knock, knock)
Strange Mom (SM): Who can it
be knocking at my door?
AE: It's me Alex Elliot and my
two boys.
SM: Go, away don't come 'round
here no more.
AE: But our boys had such a
nice time playing together. Is this because you think I'm psycho, because
I swear I'm really not.
SM: Can't you see that it's
late at night?
AE: What do you mean? It's
1:00 in the afternoon? Are you just trying to get rid of me?
SM: I'm very tired and I'm not
feeling right.
AE: Do you have the flu? I
know it's hit a bunch of families I know. Can I get you some soup? Or
just offer to keep you company?
SM: All I wish is to be alone.
AE: I'm getting the feeling
that you don't really understand that I was in your house by accident the
other day. I really thought that Johnny's mom said 6 Smith Road not 26
Smith Road.
SM: Stay away, don't you
invade my home.
AE: What? Invade your home?
What are you talking about? Listen, I really think you got the wrong
impression about me. I'm a stay at home mom with two boys who just
wants to hang out.
SM: Best off if you hang
outside.
AE: Well, okay. I'm sure the
boys would love to play in the snow but it's pretty cold out. Maybe
afterwards they can come in and have hot chocolate to warm up.
SM: Don't come in, I'll only
run and hide.
AE: You're going to hide from
me? Hey, it was your son who
let me into your house. It's not like I broke in. I just want our
sons to be able to have a playdate together.
(Knock, knock, knock)
SM: Who can it be now?
People at the door: It's just
us. Men at Work doing Business as Usual.

My name is Alex Elliot. I am a professional Mom of two cats, a dog,
an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a toddler and an infant. While I
am spending time in this Dramatized Reality as part of this month's blog
exchange, Kendra is over at my blog, Formula Fed and
Flexible Parenting, which is written for those of us who didn't get an
instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always
gone as planned. On a more serious note the blog is about supporting a
woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the
choice, for whatever reason, not to breastfeed. Go check out Kendra's post!

For those of you who are confused, this month's Blog exchange prompt was to pick a song and write a post about that song. Click here to check out the other posts this month, and to get more info on the blog exchange.

Sad Day

Today the Little Foster Man left. We've had him for 3 months now and it's going to be a hard transition. I really have mixed emotions. I am so happy to get my life back and just spend time with my children. At the same time, I worry for him and miss him. I guess I'll probably wonder my whole life if he's ok and where he is. I'm second guessing my decision. I just hope the system will make good decisions for him.

P.S. The Babe is potty trained! (Except at night but that's understandable)

Potty Training Success and Quilt Top

We have taken a new potty training approach and.........it's working!!!!!!!! The Babe has been dry almost 24 hours (minus the night lol). He has succesfully gone potty 5 times in a row! Ok I know you're all as super excited as I am! Wanna know our new approach (because we've used all the others)?

We've often said this is it, we're going to do it! We'd put him in underwear and then after an accident or 2, we'd have right back in diapers. So I decided that it sent him the message that if I just pee on the floor a couple of times I won't have to deal with this anymore, they'll put me back in diapers. On Saturday, we figured this out and after he'd peed on the floor a couple of times he went and got me the diaper. I said, NO WAY! You're not getting a diaper anymore except at night time now. Sure enough, it's working.....so far. Wouldn't it be nice to go from 3 in diapers to 1 in diapers all in one week? I'm update again in a day or so.

Anyway the quilt top. I finally finished the Little Foster Man's quilt top. Just in time because he leaves tomorrow morning. How sad huh? Here's the finished product.

Miracle Diaper Rash Cure

This morning I had an early meeting I went off to and returned to the Babe being in the bathtub. We usually bathe our kids in the evening to get off all the dirt from the day so they can at least stay clean while they sleep. When I asked the hubby what was wrong, he told me this hilarious story.

Apparently the Babe woke up with a full saggy diaper. The hubby decided he'd wait a while to change it. He probably waited an hour or so. When he finally got around to doing it (not like he was laying around, he was taking care of the Little Lady and the Foster Man), he took the diaper off to find the reddest diaper rash he's ever seen around the edge of the diaper not under it.

Whenever our kids have bad diaper rash, we just put them in the bathtub for a while so they can at least have some time without a diaper on. He puts him in the bathtub and walks away for a minute to get whichever crying baby. He came back and noticed that all the diaper rash had been magically washed away.

It was then that he realized the Babe had been wearing brand new, bright red, unwashed pajamas last night and the coloring had rubbed off on his legs.

Boogie Sharing

Today the Babe and I went to the gym with one of the babe's good friends and his mom. We met there another mom who we're friends with. We do a little (very little) working out and then go sit at the juice bar and talk during the 2 hours we have while our kids are in the daycare. It's really great! We've actually decided to do it every Tuesday and Thursday now.

Anyway, we sometimes go to lunch afterwards. Today on our way to lunch the Babe and his friend are sitting in the back seat. I looked back just in time to see the friend pick his nose and take this big nasty booger and shove it into my son's mouth! I think I barfed a little in my mouth before I said to the other mom, "Oh gee, our kids are sharing boogers." When asked, this child just wanted to share his booger with my son because he likes to eat them.

Lack of Explanation for Absence and Craziness

I have no excuse! I haven't written in a long time. I guess my lame excuse is that nothing exciting has happened. But I typically can turn something very ordinary into something that sounds remotely exciting. I guess I have this one story that can be dramatized. lol. Surprisingly, this is all sadly true.

My in-laws were in town for the long weekend (that's why I haven't written). They left yesterday. They were going to go fairly early in the morning but.....my FIL found a mequite tree that someone was cutting down. As most of you know, my FIL turns wood on a lathe to make various objects. So he wanted to go cut up this tree and take some all of the wood home. He didn't have a chainsaw. He went to rent one and decided that was too expensive so I found a chainsaw for him. Then the chainsaw needed oil. He sent ME (I know nothing about machines) to get oil. Anyway, he gets the tree cut up and the wood loaded into my garage (because he can't take it home).

After the tree, he remembered that he needed to fix the battery on our car. He went to the parts store to see if we needed a new one but decided he could fix ours. He did a bunch of stuff resulting in breakage of car parts which required more trips to store to get replacements. When replacing said broken parts, this resulted in more breakage of parts requiring more trips to store. After this trip, he couldn't get the 2nd broken part off. He spent an hour trying then decided to go to the store and buy a hacksaw (whatever that is) to "cut" it off. After working on the car for 6 hours, he finally got it put back together and went to start it and it didn't start! The battery was now dead! My FIL doesn't jump start cars. After allllllll that, the hubby and him went and bought a new battery.

When they get back from this $50 purchase, I walk out to find that the borrowed chainsaw had "fell apart" and my FIL was trying to figure out how to put it back together. Man, I'm glad my husband doesn't like to fix things. At around 6:00p.m., they finally get on the road to drive the 7 hours home.

I guess my life is still crazy while I was away.

The Miracle of a Nap

Before:

After:

Happy Valentines Day

In honor of this lovely holiday, I thought I would write a sappy post about the hubby and I. So anyone who isn't into sappy can click the X now.

When the hubby and I were dating, we basically spent a lot of time becoming friends. The hub had just returned from a mission and I, well the best way to put it, was 19. One of my best friends and his best friend hooked up so we were "forced" to spend time together. Ya right. That was what it was. But our couple friends were a very fast moving couple (read: they kissed on the first or 2nd date). We of course weren't. So instead we just "hung out" a lot and "studied" a lot in the library.

Anyway to get on with it. There was a point when we'd been dating for 3 months (I think) and the hub hadn't kissed me yet. Yes, I know 3 months doesn't seem like a long time but in a non-kissing relationship it was. I decided that this was not going to do. Meanwhile, the couple friends were on rocky roads also. The guy from our couple friends and I decided that we were both going to dump our partners on a certain date. The night that we had set was a big dance at the college.

It was the beginning of December and during the dance it started to snow for one of the first times that winter. We went outside to play in the snow. We ended up going out there a few times that evening because we'd get cold and have to go back inside to warm up. One time we went out, we were trying to catch snowflakes with out tounges and I still remember the snow. It was falling at an almost magical speed. The flakes were even huge almost magically as well. The hubby asked me if he could kiss me. How gentlemanlike?! I knew it was coming (hence magic snowflakes) and I was really worried about some evesdropers standing close by. When I finally said yes, he gave me a quick peck and followed it up with, "Was that it?" He then said he had to try it again. In my journal, I wrote, "Everyone's not a perfect kisser the first time like me! Just kidding. It was like a storybook first kiss!"

P.S. This is the picture of us at the dance. Gosh we look young! 3 out of 5 of these couples got married and if you mix and match you get 1 other couple who married from this group.

Love Bowl

Tonight at the Grocery store I found this great bowl! It's so cute! It has pink lacey looking trip around the outside edge and one the inside it says, "Love." It's so cute I made the hubby buy it for me. I should have bought a set but I only bought one (at $3 each I could only afford 1). It's my love bowl!

P.S. The Babe's home! We're so happy to have him back! He had a lot of fun with Grandpa and Grandma though.