9 months!!! Seriously...

The Ladybug is now 9 months old. And for her 9 month old birthday present she gets...a double ear infection!!! She looks real sick, huh? Go ahead...feel sorry for her. She still only has 2 teeth - 2 teeth that she has worked very hard on. She is still incredibly happy and still loves her veggies, her brother and Maxx (much to his dismay). She's fast too!! She has started standing on her own without holding onto anything so I know it is just a matter of time before she is off and running. I could go on and on about her special talents and her cuteness but I don't want to bore my audience. We are all having so much fun with our Ladybug.

Now, let's talk about this one. Below is the Doodlebug on his first day of preschool this year. Cute, huh? Let me tell you something about this cuteness. I'm done trying to force him to eat things he doesn't want to eat. Here's why. There is this Chinese restaurant that we go to and he will eat the mess out of the chicken the the fried rice. So, we went to PF Chang's today for lunch. I got him some chicken fried rice off of the kids menu - yes, PFC's has a kids menu now. So the first bite of the chicken he says, rather quickly, "Hey, that's pretty good." Well, the second piece I forced upon him must have been poisoned or something because he started gagging on it and then proceeded to puke on me and himself and the floor. WTF???? It's chicken!!!! By the time I finished cleaning ourselves up my food was cold so I didn't get to finish it. Like I said, I'm done forcing the issue. He'll eat when he is hungry.

Anyone else watching the Arkansas game? Could there be any more penalties? Jeez. Put the flag in your pocket, ref. Let the boys play!

4 year old words???

Doodlebug: Mommy, a herbivore is a dinosaur that eats grass.

Me: (puzzled) Yes baby, you're right.

Doodlebug: A carnivore is a dinosaur that eats meat.

Me: (even more puzzled) Right again.

And then he asks me if I know what a paleontologist is. Yes. Yes I do. Because I'm 35 and I'm an adult and I'm a mother and I'm a teacher and I'm supposed to know what a paleontologist is. But YOU. You're friggin' four years old. Paleontologist is not a four year old word!!!!

(Sigh) He's going to be sent to the office every day when he starts kindergarten. Lord help me.

AND, tonight we ran into the grocery store and when we went to check out he told me to put my groceries on the conveyer belt. Jeez....

Babysitting Update

We left around 8:00 and were home by midnight. Throughout those 4 hours we got no phone calls. We got no text messages. We walked into a very quiet house. The dinosaur hot wheels tracks were all across the living room - so a good time must have been had. The Doodlebug was asleep in his bed. The Ladybug was asleep on Cee Cee - she apparently wasn't a fan of her bed that night. The babysitters were not comatose. Everything went great. I think they'll be back. I'm sure it would be easy for me to find a trustworthy teenager to babysit but I sure do like it when I can leave my bugs with family.

The Babysitting Chronicles

Tonight, Chad and I, along with Sarah and Jason, are going to see Chuck's band. My brother (Cee Cee) and sister-in-law (Lee Lee) are coming over to babysit. Everything will be fine. The bugs love them and they all have a lot of fun together.

Now, let's rewind to December of 2005 and I'll tell you about the first time Cee Cee and Lee Lee tried to babysit the Doodlebug. The Doodlebug was 9 months old and we were going to dinner for Chuck's birthday. We were going to a restaurant far, far away. About halfway there we got a phone call from Cee Cee telling us that the Doodlebug had not stopped crying since we left. He had called my mom and she gave him suggestions - none of which worked. So then I gave him some suggestions and told him I'd call him when we got to the restaurant to see if he was any better. Well, we pulled into the parking lot at the restaurant when my phone rang again. The Doodlebug was at the crying stage where you are pretty sure he is no longer breathing. Without a doubt, Cee Cee and Lee Lee are freaking out at this point. So we went into the restaurant. "Happy Birthday, Chuck. We can't stay." We rushed home to rescue the babysitters. When we walked in, the house was silent. The Doodlebug had cried himself to sleep. Cee Cee was sitting in the rocking chair in his room staring at the floor, semi-comatose. Lee Lee was on the floor, back against the wall, knees to her chest staring at the floor, also semi-comatose. Chad and I had to giggle at them. They were so traumatized. It was a VERY LONG time before the ever agreed to babysit again. Hopefully tonight will not scar them like the first time did.

August 18th

Eight months ago the Ladybug was born. 8 MONTHS??!! Are you serious??!! Yep, she's 8 months old and still an extremely happy baby...despite having cut her first tooth (not a fan of orajel, by the way). She is a fan, however, of veggies, Maxx, the Doodlebug, my jewelry, exploring the house, playing with anything other than her toys, pulling up on everything, going on walks, taking baths in the big girl bathtub, squealing, babbling....she's pretty much a fan of everything except orajel.

I'm back at work so both bugs are back to being spoiled by the grandparents on a daily basis. And speaking of being spoiled, they received a package today from their aunt Carrie. Bath time body paints!! How fun is that??!!

P.S. I realize the quality of these two pictures pretty much stinks but you can still get the bug cuteness regardless of the quality.

I have to get better at this.

Let me look at my calendar here and see what we've been up to since we last met...on August 1st...long time ago.

August 7th - me and my brother and my sister-in-law all stole my dad's car (we actually borrowed it) and headed to Arkansas to the farm to see my aunt and my uncle and my cousin and his fam. It was a lot of fun. I don't think Leah (SIL) had ever been on a farm...ever. She had a great time - we all did. We hung out with the cows and she rode a tractor and we played in the hay and the corn. I sat out on the second round of farming and from what I hear that was a smart move. Leah got pounded with, as she says, grasshoppers the size of cats and other various bugs. She even had a tick on her at one point. We brought Trey back with us so he could do his back to school clothes shopping here because they apparently don't sell cool clothes in Texarkana....but they do in the Galleria.

Chad is switching jobs - by choice. He had this week off before he starts his new gig on the 17th. He got to play Mr. Mom a lot this week because I was very busy getting ready to go back to work - also on the 17th. I don't really want to go back to work. Actually, that's not true. I don't want to go and sit through all of these meetings that I'm going to have to sit through this week. I wish I could skip this week and go to the 24th when the kids come back. Did I just say that out loud?

The bugs are great. The Doodlebug still has a couple of weeks before he starts back to school. One more year and he will get to start kindergarten. The Ladybug has been working awfully hard on getting some teeth and one finally broke through this morning. Yay! Big girl!

Have I ever told you how much I heart Sarah and Jason?

I love them because they love my bugs and my bugs love them.
I love them because they will get on the floor and play with the bugs...not many people do that.
I love them because they put up with the Doodlebug's silliness and don't seem to be bothered by it.

I love them because they let me over serve them on fajita and margarita night.

I love them because they always bring ice to fajita and margarita night because my ice maker always seems to run out of ice (it's small). Last night we even got a cake....mmmmmmm......

And I especially love them because they are going to go to Las Vegas with us in November. They haven't actually agreed to this but peer pressure is a bitch.