If your name is Mommy you MUST watch this...

I was crackin' up all the way through this video. Between the lyrics and watching her "break it down" I was rolling out of my seat. I say most of these lines to my children EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Oh--I could have written the second verse word for word (where she is wearing the sweater and pearls). LOL! Sooooo true! It takes three minutes, but if your name is Mommy, the chuckle will make your day.

Dear Newk...

I'm sure you are wondering why we haven't stopped by in a while. We've been in China and unfortunately we discovered you weren't there. By the end of our trip we spoke of you often. Truthfully, we daydreamed about you on more than one occassion. We even described you in great detail to our Northern friends who have never had the oppportunity to meet you. Don't worry--we promise to introduce you someday when they fly south for the winter. We arrived home late last night and couldn't wait to see you. We had no idea what we were going to eat during our time in Guangzhou BUT we've known for the past 10 days EXACTLY what we were eating today...

Thank you for welcoming home the Chief with open arms. Next time we see you, we may need to make a few changes in our seating arrangements but I'm sure you won't mind. As always, we look forward to seeing you soon.

P.S. If you're interested, I know of an interesting little island in Guangzhou, China that could REALLY use your culinary assistance.
__________________________________________________

L & A...we satisifed our craving within 12 hours of being home. The taco came within 18. Wish the three of you had been here to enjoy it with us.

A little Wild-man-ism...

WM: Dad, what year were you born?
Chief: 1978
WM: 1978! Hmmm...did you ever know Thomas Jefferson?

Discovery...

There is something about the first photograph that makes me want to say YOU MIGHT BE A REDNECK IF YOU ATTEMPT TO OPEN A COCONUT WITH A BIG KNIFE AND A HAMMER. Sorry honey...hehehehehehehe...

Wordless Wednesday...

Wordless Wednesday Batman Style...

Wordless Wednesday...

To the Chief...

I haven't laughed like that in days...thanks Laura Non-Blogger!

A-one...ONE...1-2-3...HIT IT!

The Great Coin Caper...

It is 7:45 am. J is out of school for a snow day. We're all still in our pajamas. I'm in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast. From the other room I hear the sound of my baby girl choking. It wasn't your typical "choke on a Cheerio" kind of sound. It was a true "I CAN NOT BREATHE"--somebody do the Heimlich kind of sound. OH-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO!!! I rounded the corner into our bedroom to find her gasping for air but screaming between gasps. The good news: She's breathing. Praise God! The bad news: this is what I see in her hand...
Except the dime and the quarter she has in her hand are covered in vomit. Lovely. I'm trying to calm her down to figure out what happened.

M: MG, did you swallow the money or did you spit it out in your hand?
MG: [still screaming and gasping] YES!
M: Which one? Did you swallow it or spit it out?
MG: [crying & pointing into her mouth] YES! IT HURTS!
M: What hurts?
MG: [pointing to upper neck] IT HURTS!
M: Did you swallow the money or spit it out and it scared you?
MG: [holding neck and screaming] IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!
J: Is MG going to die because she swallowed money?
M: No, MG is not going to die? Did you see her with money in her mouth?
J: Yes
M: Do you know how many coins she had in there?
J: A LOT!

Somebody cue the Mother of the Year music. At this point MG is still screaming but she's no longer gasping for air. She keeps saying "IT HURTS! IT HURTS!" and pointing to her neck over and over. This is the point where the Mommy calls the Pediatrician's office and politely demands asks to speak to a nurse immediately. Lucky for me, Dr. Tim's nurse just walked in the door.

M: Hey! This is Mommy Womble. MG just choked on a few coins. I think she may have swallowed some. I need to know what I'm supposed to do now. [feeling like a complete idiot]
RN: Is she breathing?

[I must admit I found that question hysterical. If she wasn't breathing would I be calling you? Oh wait...I don't have a good track record for calling 911 when I need it, now do I? No comments Anna M]

M: Yes she's breathing. She coughed up a dime and a quarter
RN: Do you know if she swallowed anything?
M: No
RN: Do you know how many coins she had to begin with?
M: No [if I knew my 2 year old was playing with coins would I let her continue?]
RN: Hold on. Let me talk to Dr. Tim [on hold]

RN: Mommy, didn't she have brochitis a few weeks ago?
M: Yes
RN: Why don't you bring her in for an xray--we want to be sure if there's anything in there it went into her stomach
M: OK, when?
RN: Come on in right now
M: OK

CRAP! Why does this stuff always happen before I've had a shower? Off to the MD office... Why we had to go to the office before we went to a different building for the xray is beyond me (but that's not important to the story). The x-ray confirmed she did indeed swallow a coin. Dr Tim said "it looks to be a quarter or a nickel but there's no way to know for sure by the positioning on the x-ray". PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Apparently dimes and pennies are no big deal but quarters and nickels can cause problems in children under three. "Keep an eye on her and be sure to inspect every diaper until you see the coin again". Lovely. 50 hours later we found the culprit...Thankfully his prediction was wrong. It was a dime. No need to worry. This is not the actual coin that took a two day mini vacation through MG's GI system. That one went straight in the garbage. That was .10 we could live without. Who knew motherhood could be this exciting?

Wordless Wednesday...

Happy Turkey Day!

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
and your pies take the prize,
and may your Thanksgiving dinner
stay off your thighs!
-Unknown

What makes a good Father?

Wordless Wednesday...

Batman's Halloween Festival...

Did you know Batman was a closet vampire? Musical chairs, pumpkin bingo, ghost art, yummy Halloween treats, outside playtime, painting pumpkins...
Remember this...
I loved being able to be at his Halloween party today. This is the last photo before the paint disaster. Apparently when they got the paint out to paint pumpkins they were mixed up between washable and NON-washable. From this point forward, instead of being Batman he was the 70's tie-dyed version of Batman. Nice.

To my dear BIL...

To my dear BIL...

This is what happens when one attempts to be sneaky. Go ahead...click it so you can get the full effect. :-) This would have been such a lovely photo had you not popped up from behind with your scary face on. Have you forgotten how hard it is to get six little people to look at the camera? Apparently so or you would have stayed behind the camera instead of lurking behind the subjects. I'm pretty sure you thought you were being sneaky, but with the help of Photoshop, I think I trumped you. XOXO.

love,
your WONDERFUL SIL

Cinderella, non-fiction...

If she did this...
and I made her do this...Does that make me the evil stepmother?

Take two...

I received this last week when my computer was on vacation. :-) The ole scanner wouldn't work either so this is the best I could do...a picture of a picture. I'll take Pose 2, please. Thankfully retake day proved to be better than the first.

This is what two looks like...

Too bad you can't hear the hands and feet banging on the floor. The sound effects make it even more authentic...

Monkey See--Monkey Do...