This is My Forties

Our little tasmanian devil has been super busy lately. Just this month he's learned the following skills: how to strip, how to remove a diaper, how to open the doors, how to lift your shirt like a big boy when you go pee. He used them all at once yesterday right after dinner. Normally our meal ends, the kids have their cookies, and then we're off for bathtime/bedtime. Brennan decided to get a jump on things and prep for bath in the dining room. He ripped off his pants and diaper and ran through the living room yelling "pubby pup", which I thought meant bubble bath ... nope. He was saying poopy butt and I found his abandoned treasure on the dining room floor, poop-side up (thank you for that, Bren), next to a defeated Charlie whose curiosity had gotten the best of him and was now paying for the snoot full of poo fumes with some hearty dog sneezes. I turn to make chase, catch a glimpse of brown baby cheeks as he reaches up to let himself out of the living room...

A lesson I just received from my 6yr old Noah: "Mommy this is a solid shape. Do you know what it's called?" Yes, a cube! "RIGHT! and this one?" Ummm... I don't know that one... it's not a cube. "It's a rectangular prism. They both have 6 flat surfaces and 8 corners, but the rectangle has longer sides. And the cylinder has 2 flat surfaces and 0 corners... hmmm... We don't have a cone, mommy... that's another solid shape and it has only ONE flat surface and one corner and it rolls in a circle, not in a straight line. OH I forgot the sphere, it's kinda like a ball, no flat surfaces and no corners. I'll draw you a picture." OK thanks. Well, Joshua... your son loves geometry and math. Commence "happy dance" ;)

Brennan can now reach and open all of our doors. I shall no longer be able to shut the playroom door, knowing he will remain inside and not go plunging down the marble staircase while I go to the bathroom... this sucks. He also strips down to his diaper every day :P

I'm going to be honest, people... this TDY is dragging. I knew it would be worse since Josh was home on leave for a month right before he left, but this is just... annoying. The weeks are trudging along at the speed of a three toed sloth stuck in molasses, who happens to be dead. That flippin' slowly. On the plus side, I've been busy :) The weather is still nice during the day so we get outside time nearly every day. I've been getting out of the house on a semi-daily basis, did some " rebajas " shopping, hung out with my peeps. It helps. I also have been furiously working on a website and details for my new photography business. After a few requests, compliments, and suggestions I finally decided to go for it. I hope it's as fun as I think it will be! I already have a newborn shoot coming up and I am on pins and needles waiting for this baby to arrive... for all the normal reasons too haha. So... check it out! :) Allison Burnett Photog...

I woke up relatively early and actually cleaned my house! :O Shocker, I know. Then I called up our friends and we planned a park trip. It's been in the upper 50's while the sun is out so we took the opportunity to let our kids get some exercise, sunshine, and fresh air. Between the two families we have 7 kids (and one on the way). They have all girls (until their boy arrives within the next month or so), and we have all boys. The kids are pretty close in age and have a blast together. We had a few small issues with the younger ones since it was close to naptime AND they were getting hungry... they all ended up not taking a nap today. We spent a couple hours at the park and then headed back to their place for some pizza. My boys were exhausted. They got a nice bubble bath while I downloaded pictures and then happily went to bed. It was an excellent day! :)

5 minutes is not very much time... unless you're a 20-month-old toddler, in which case it's a timespan of endless possibilities. This doesn't require embellishments. Everyone who has a toddler knows what they are capable of in a short amount of time. So... I get babblin' Brennan out of his crib and we walk down to the kitchen to get him some breakfast. His feet hit the floor. Minute One What Mommy is doing: Getting a bowl, milk and cereal, a cup of water, and placing it all on the kitchen table. What Brennan is doing: He goes straight for a chair to push up to the counter to reach a water cup and watch me pour cereal. He drinks some water, spills the rest, runs to get the towel from the stove to clean it up, hangs the towel back up. Detour to the drawers to grab himself a cereal spoon. Gets sidetracked by the washing machine and throws his spoon and a stray sippy cup into the machine, twirls the knob, hits every button several times. Runs back to the chai...

This week's forecast is 55+ and sunny! Last year it was snowing, but I will gladly take this week off from Spanish winter to get the kids out of the house. They were thrilled to be able to be outside again and I was smart this time and picked up the doggie presents left all over the yard. The sun sets at around 6pm here right now. I parked the van outside the gate so the boys could have the entire driveway to ride their scooters. I played with my 70-300mm lens, which I hardly ever use. It's amazing how much better the color and lighting are when you put a dang guard on the lens outside :/ Too bad I didn't figure that out earlier! haha Brennan's been waking up a lot at night since Josh left. Either he is actually affected by it, he's affected by me being affected by it, or he remembers last month when he slept in my bed with me all the time while Daddy was gone. I love it! I love having him with me. I sleep better with him kicking me... weird. ...

Today started off fine. Kids were up at 5am which ended up being good since my alarm clocks morphed into a dream about my computer being stuck on a blue screen, shrieking at me... I tried to shut it down completely, even unplugged it, but the noise never stopped! Noah nudged me awake and I finally heard the alarms as alarms. Brennan was still passed out next to me. He was up at 5 also, but went back to sleep in my bed with me. So... we had plenty of time to get breakfast, get dressed, and get off to the bus stop. No rushing. Wonderful. Great. OK. Up until an hour ago. All of a sudden my power went out AGAIN!!! This happens so often in this neighborhood it just makes me crazy. Fine. I turn it back on ::CHUK:: flips right back off. So I have to go through one-by-one turning off and flipping back on all the breakers to see where the problem lies. The rooms affected? The PLAYROOM and the LIVING ROOM... which means no movies and no internet. I flipped every switch and u...

We're pretty used to Josh leaving at this point. Thankfully he's not going to be gone for very long... almost 2 months. I've got my list going (again) of things to accomplish while he's gone. Brennan's baby book made the list (again). Still haven't started it, but at least I finally finished Tristan's (2 years late). I get to make fish, spinach, lentils, eggplant, eggs, cabbage... all the things Josh hates. In fact we made egg salad sammiches and cabbage slaw as soon as we got back from the airport. My kitchen stinks of deliciousness. We also got haircuts and watched a few movies. Back to school tomorrow! I hope I wake up on time haha... seriously, though :P I just finished editing and burning a CD for one of the shoots I did last week. Hooray! Tomorrow night I should be able to get the 2nd one done. It was great to have Josh home on leave for nearly a month. This should be an easy one... right? ;)

I've been religiously reading Rants From Mommyland for a month now and this last post had my head spinning with my own questions.  So... here we go.  Five questions for my beloved boys. 1.) Why is it that as soon as the phone hits my ear you go into a major meltdown?  God forbid I talk to an adult for any stretch of time while in your presence.  Most of my friends have grown accustomed to the background screaming, but I tire of having to lock myself in the bathroom to make a business related phone call, which really makes the screaming worse anyway and includes the added bonus of door pounding.  I don't understand why I have to hold your hand or hug you just because I'm on the phone.  It makes no sense. 2.) Why do I have to order you to relieve yourselves when we're at home, but as soon as we get to a store... no no... as soon as we get as far away from the bathroom in the store you suddenly have to "go" or you'll explode?  I have made you utilize...

I decided to do a little montage of my favorite photographic captures of "boys being boys" from this year.                            

Christmas has come and gone, 2011 has begun. I guess it's time for a blog post! Christmas Eve day was great. We had a lot of fun and were totally exciterpated all day long. We baked our sugar cookies (I think about a metric ton). We watched all the kid-friendly Christmas movies we could find. The kids opened their ONE GIFT, which was a shake and go racetrack. They finally went to bed at 10pm after yet another version of "A Christmas Carol". We started in on the assembling of the playroom Santa spectacular accompanied by a decaf with Bailey's and amaretto. Then we were still excited and awake so we watched "Serendipity" and "Zombieland" (hilarious zombie movies are perfect for Christmas). By this time it's 4am... Josh informs me his decaf was actually caf since he's convinced caffeine has no power over him, and he's not tired. I am. So I head to bed while visions of zombies dance in my head. Kids are up 2 hours later. U...