Look closely at this picture above. Sure it looks cute, but it is depicting a deceptively dangerous situation. It involves three toddlers, a tall bed and a cat. Now encourage (or don’t prohibit) said toddlers to bounce on the bed. What do you have? Grandma’s house.

And more pictures of the cute tikes…(no photos of nose bleed that happened earlier that weekend.)

For the past few weeks we’ve been forced to learn French via movies.

Oui, oui!

That’s because Zach managed to change the audio on the DVD player to French before he hid it in a place only known to him. Ben Stiller in French, when you don’t know French, is not as funny.

Today, because I am always late, I tried my damnedest to get out of the house by 7 a.m. pawning daycare drop off on Mark. At about 7:08 a.m. this is what I turned around and saw after hearing a small “eek”.

Yes, that’s COTTAGE CHEESE. It’s IN HIS HAIR because that’s all the rage. Little did he know that unlike when he chucks it at the dogs, it is much colder when applied to one’s own head.

I took a picture because, well it was going to take more than paper towels to get it out and now I had photographic proof of my eternal lateness.

Then on the way out, because he usually goes to daycare with me (unwillingly) he had a breakdown because I wasn’t taking him to the place he hates to go this morning.

But thank God he had his motorcycle shirt. We bought it yesterday at Ross; he slept in it and refused to remove it this morning. Since it hadn’t been worn a full day, I bent my rule. This is one of four shirts that have motorcycles on them that he cannot live without. If anyone knows of any other location where I can find size 2T shirts with motorcycles on them, please send me the link. Four shirts will not get us through the summer.

If you’re anything like me, a four-day weekend away involves about an hour of packing drawn out to about the last three minutes before leaving.
Unpacking takes about three days.

We were greeted by two inches of snow, but it really wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be. When Zach saw the snow he commented, “Snow outside.” It isn’t often he puts two words together. He must have been impressed.

I did allow myself to eat in moderation everything that was offered at Easter lunch. But after four days of restaurant salads, spurts of red wine and then my splurge day, I realized that I have a lot more energy when I eat lots of fresh green veggies and lean protein. Go figure.

My parents are shaping up to be wonderful grandparents. That was pretty much a given with my mother, who has always had a gift with children, but especially great to see thisfrom my father. His father was a wonderful, joyful grandpa, I had hoped since they were related, my father would emerge from his cocoon and become an awesome grandfather as well.

All the grandchildren got along peachy and we were all able to eat at the adult table while they peacefully played nearby. Thank god for a surplus of toys and parallel play.

We went to church, but because we took a wrong turn we ended up being about seven minutes late. Because the Catholic Church waits for no one, we missed about one-fourth of the service and ended up sitting in the highly acoustical balcony. After every song, Zach clapped.

Each morning on our trip Zach woke up and said “Happy Day!” to which my mother commented via email the day we left: “You have such a sweet little family. I didn’t cry when you left, well maybe a few tears fell, but I just tell myself how much fun I had. I must learn to start my day with ‘Happy Day!’ What a great outlook on life!”

Overall, it was a great trip. When we first had Zachary I worried about how the family bond would develop with my family living 700 miles away. But as with anything, if you put sincerity and effort into tending to it, it seems to grow.

Here are a few shots from my long weekend. The first is an attempt by Grandma and Grandpa to get Zach’s hair cut. He was not having it.

Here he is at my father’s place of employment learning how to run a depot.

Water freezes at 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Therefore, when it’s 35 degrees and rainy/snowing….stay with me here….

IT IS NOT WARM OUT!!!

Thanks, I had to get that off my chest since I am going to Minnesota this weekend and was inquiring on the weather. My mom had mentioned it was warm out. I’m driving home at 5:30 p.m. in Colorado, I look at my car’s thermometer, and it reads 57 degrees. It is brisk, but warmer. You may need a light jacket.

“Its 57 degrees here,” I tell her.

“Oh, it’s not that warm out,” she says.

So, how warm is it supposed to be in Minnesota this weekend? The high all weekend will be 35 degrees with snow flurries and rain. Not warm, not really even close.

You see in Minnesota, they would say “My refrigerator is warmer than my freezer,” because they are aware of the subtle nuances of cold poker runcaribbean poker portal webforo poquercaribbean poker pagina webjuegos de poker onlinejugar apostar internettragaperras portales webjugar lineapremios paginas internettragamonedas lineajuegos seguros lineajugar jack blackplay baccarat onlinecasino portal internetjuegos de casino on linejuego instantaneo paginas internetjuegos de casino gratuitosganar dinero verdadero pagina websalidores ruleta practicasapostar weball slotspremio dinero lineala rouletteroulette portaljuegos interactivos webganar dinero real internettragamonedas onlinepremio paginas webpremio gordoganar dinero lineaapuesta dinero pagina webel juego de la ruletajugar a la ruletapremios dinero paginas webganar dinero real portalescasino on line,casinos web,online casinojuegos de casino onlinejuegos interactivos paginas internettrucos casinojuego ruleta de la fortunaganar dinero paginas internetpremio dinero onlinecasino virtual paginas webjuegos azar paginas internetgames freejugar tragamonedas webjuego video pokercasino internacional webjugar cartas webjugar casino gratis in a way in which people in Texas will never know. They might also say, “Snow is warmer than ice.” To be able to make a comment like that, one has to experience the true hells of brutal cold.

I am no longer a Minnesota resident and therefore, according to my late grandmother, my blood “has not thickened up” this winter. So to me, 35 degrees means bring the hat, the winter coats, and long sleeve shirts!

I was reading about Joan Crawford today and came across this picture. At first I thought it was a photoshop picture combining Madonna and Joan Crawford but it’s not. It’s one of Crawford’s caracters. I would bet money it was inspiration for Madonna’s 1980s look.

Isn’t that uncanny? Here I thought that Madonna came up with the street urchin slut look all on her own.

Here is Madonna in 1985.

A conversation I had with a 7 year-old while being a checker on my last day at the Big Box Baby store.

“Well, we’re going back to my Aunt Pam’s house for the second time today,” he sighed.

“Wow, I hope you like your Aunt Pam because that’s a lot of visiting,” I joked.

“I like her, and my Uncle Bob,” he said, “But he really isn’t my uncle Bob because they aren’t married they just live together.”

I glanced at the mom who was turning a bit red, “Well, sometimes its good to try things out before you get married,” I suggested.

“They’ve been living together a long time,” he said.

The mom snickered, “They’ve lived together 10 years.”

“I wonder when they will get married,” the boy lamented, like a parrot of the grandmother, I’m sure.

“Maybe this summer, when the weather is nice,” I suggested.

“Only they know when that will happen,” the mom laughed.

When my son was about six-months-old, I was speaking to a father of a three-year-old, having the familiar conversation about how amazing these little human things are, and how they learn at science-fiction-movie speed.
“Wait until he starts talking,” he said. “That is weird. All of a sudden this little thing is telling you want it wants and all sorts of other things.”

Well, the talking is pretty basic at this point but it’s amazing how much can be conveyed by using less than 100 words and phrases.

When he wakes up in the morning, if he’s happy he says “Happy ba day.” This means, hey, I’m up and I’m happy. We’re not really sure if he’s saying “Happy Birthday” or “Happy today” or what-have-you, but this is his standard greeting to the world. Then it’s followed by calling our Golden Retriever, Molly, by saying,”Ma yee, Ma yee!

While mom and dad get ready he watches “The Mickey Mouse Fun House” and calls for the Toddles character with the gang, “Oh too!”

We still have many moments where words fail. Like yesterday where he threw himself on the grocery store floor and started kicking. This was after the checker had left his aisle to ask me if I needed help pushing my cart while holding my screaming, squirming, tantruming child.

Hmmm, yeah, I could use a little help. Thanks.

I couldn’t decide if he was helping me to JUST GET THAT KID OUT OF THE STORE, but it seemed pretty genuine.

The roots and wings cliché comes to mind. Everyday is a battle between knowing when to help and when to let him do it himself, when to baby and when to praise the big kid, when to pay attention and when to ignore. I’m sure this process is a tight rope parents walk….forever. But as much as it seems like a self-sacrificing thing to learn how to do this, it’s been an important part of making me a better person. You give to get. That’s something I never understood about parenthood before I had a child.

I don’t think that everyone needs to be parent to learn how to wholly give, but it sure speeds up the process if you jump in and unconditionally try your best. It’s the only way I know of where you are told a person is yours, and your total responsibly, but where you must constantly learn how to treat him as an individual and groom him toward total independence.

It sure doesn’t happen like that with a dog.

I can see how you’d learn a lot about this by being a teacher.

The always amusing, celebrities in high school photos. I think I’ve figured out all of them except the last one on row four. Who is that? Also, who is the last one in row three?

 Isn’t that nice of me, I post this and I don’t have the answer key. That’s what Google is for!

See the comments for my guess and add your own.