Saturday, May 30, 2009

Help! Tick Invasion 2009

The woods behind our house are TICK CITY this year. Seriously, they should put up a sign with blinking lights and apply for a liquor license. They are EVERYWHERE. In all the years we have lived here (seven to be exact), I have seen ONE tick—on our dog Munson—several years ago. This year, we have picked SEVEN off him in the last TWO weeks. Just picked another one off him yesterday. AND, we use Frontline Plus on poor Muns religiously, which is supposed to help with that sort of thing. What gives?

Looking for answers, I googled "ticks" and discovered that there are two types that could be invading our woods. Brown dog ticks and "paralysis ticks." Now that doesn't sound good. Bad news: these ticks we're finding ain't brown.

Oh, and I got a lovely chigger already this year, too. Nice.

If anyone has ANY ideas for limiting ticks on your property, PLEASE SHARE! I'd love to turn Tick City into a ghost town. SOON.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

It's a....

GIRL!


We found out this week that Baby 2 is a girl! We are so incredibly happy and feel doubly blessed to have a delightful little Bug and now a pink little Bean.

I'm a happy mama. :-)



Friday, May 22, 2009

Where I am today...

In Colorado with my siblings and mom today! Here's my day in photos:



Sunday, May 17, 2009

You Know You're Pregnant When....

Okay, so I was sitting here on the couch, minding my own business when suddenly it hit. You know: the random, unavoidable, highly irrational, completely inconvenient, second-trimester craving. I just ate dinner like two seconds ago, and already my brain has been completely hijacked by my stomach (or is it the other way around??), and I can think of nothing but Nabisco Harvest Crisps 5-Grain crackers.

What are Harvest Crisps? Well, until about five minutes ago, I couldn't have told you. They are a cracker that, also until five minutes ago, I wasn't even sure still existed. I probably haven't eaten them in over two years. Maybe three. But suddenly a vision of their little hexagonal goodness popped into my mind, and there you have it.

Luckily for Hunk, I am not one of those pampered, self-indulgent pregnant women who forces her spouse on midnight runs to Wendy's to satisfy a fry craving. Or to Brewster's for chocolate-chip ice cream. Or to Publix for Harvest Crisps. No, luckily for Hunk, I just ran to the pantry and downed the remaining contents of a box of Carr Whole Wheat Crackers instead.

I totally had to put up with the fact that they're round. But I think, shape aside, my stomach (or is it brain?) is fairly appeased.

For now.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Happy Hubby, Ugly Walls

Hunk talked me into getting the family room wired for surround sound and (gasp) the TV mounted above the fireplace- something I swore I’d never do. He convinced me by pointing out that we could then move the TV armoire to Bug’s soon-to-be Big Boy Room for toy/book storage and move the couches around to make room for a couple new chairs and, hence, more seating for guests. So, he got me on three fronts: nesting, shopping and hospitality. I totally got played. Now our TV is above the fireplace, three unsightly speakers are adorning my mantle, and the walls are completely butchered with rough drywall. Oh, well. It’ll look good in a few weeks when all the pieces fall into place… And in the meantime, I’ve got a happy hubby: worth its weight in A/V wires.


Saturday, May 9, 2009

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

For teaching me to ride a bike. For teaching me to cook. For teaching me to use my creativity when I was bored. For teaching me I could aim high and reach it. For teaching me that a mom can be an awesome mother and still be successful at something other than being an awesome mother. For charging us 25 cents when we were mean to each other. For paying us to do chores. For coming to my room in the middle of the night when I was scared. For coming to all of our school ceremonies and recitals. For coming to our classrooms dressed up like a witch and teaching us how to make bread sticks called witch's fingers. For taking us on vacations. For taking us on summer picnics at the river. For taking us to state parks. For taking us to the pool. For letting us pick our own friends. For letting us pick our own colleges. For letting us pick out our own clothes and never commenting that my purple and yellow shirt didn't really match my pink sweatshirt. For letting us get whatever pets we wanted, even if the cats ate the pet mice, the gerbils had 87 babies in 6 weeks, the cats ate the pet chicken, the hermit crab died and stunk, the fish spent more time swimming in the toilet than in their bowl, the cat ate the gerbils, the hamster wheel squeaked all night, and the parakeet went through more newspaper in a week than a recycling center. For insisting on blinking, colored Christmas lights on the tree. For insisting on early curfews. For insisting on always knowing where we were and when we'd be home. For making us homemade cakes. For making us homemade Halloween costumes. For making us whatever meals we wanted on our birthdays. For making us real hot chocolate on snow days. For making 300 gingerbread men every Christmas and inviting every child we'd ever met to come to our house and decorate one. For making our house a creative, secure, loving place to grow up.

Thanks, Mom.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

First Question

Bug asked his first real question today. His first, honest-to-goodness inquisitive question. Now, I know that within a few months, he'll probably be a font of inquisition so constant I'll feel like I'm on trial in The Crucible, but today was a first and thus worthy of an atta-boy.

In Sandra Boynton's book Doggies, there's a picture where the dogs howl at the moon. The other day while reading this book to Bug, I explained that some dogs howl when they see the moon. Tonight, he was looking at a set of alphabet cards before bed, and he pointed to a picture of the moon and said, "The moon is outside. In my other book, the dog book, the doggies howl at the moon." (Okay, he actually said, "Moo's ow-eye. In oh buk, doggie buk, doggie ow ah moo."-- but I took the liberty of interpreting).

And then he looked at me with this inquisitive face and asked, "Does Munson howl at the moon?" (Munson is our dog, whom Bug actually calls Mai, so his question was really, "Mai ow ah moo?") I know what you're thinking: I've got a freakin' genius on my hands. Oh, sorry- that's what I was thinking.

:-)

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Potty Party

We had an extraordinarily busy week with the second issue of our little mag hitting mailboxes. My inbox has been flooded with encouraging e-mails-- most of which are from people I have never even had the pleasure of meeting! How nice! And the response to our two giveaways has been overwhelmingly positive so far. Yea! Two lucky ladies are sure going to be in for a treat. :-)

So, after our busy week, Hunk and I decided that a nice quiet Sunday was in order. Unfortunately, Bug did not receive the memo on this one, as evidenced by how he greeted us when we went to get him out of his crib. He was sitting there with his footy pjs half off, his diaper completely off, and two fists full of the contents of his diaper. (Let's just say it wasn't pee.)

"That's it!" said I. "We're doing it! Today! It's time for the big boy potty."

Hunk looked at me incredulously for a fleeting moment, made some comment like, "Shouldn't we read a book about this, first?" and then, thinking better of arguing with a woman scrubbing poop from the spindles of a crib, obligingly trekked to the garage to retrieve the training potty I purchased a couple weeks ago (but had been procrastinating about bringing inside the house).

We announced to Bug that we were going to have a Potty Party. He was all ears. First, we put together the potty. Then, he got to pick out which pair of big boy pants he wanted to wear (it was a close call between Thomas the Train and a green brontosaurus, but Thomas won out). Then we broke out the apple juice (a rare occurrence in these parts).

Bug drank to his heart's content, promptly peed all over Thomas, plunked down on his potty, announced he didn't have to pee pee, got off his potty, put on brontosaurus, climbed on the couch, and promptly peed all over brontosaurus (and the couch).

So we abandoned the big boy pants in favor of going buff. Which worked! After one more accident, Bug caught on to the goal and began fervently broadcasting (about every 15 minutes), "B make pee pee!" He would then run to his potty and make good on his proclamation, to the jubilant glee of Mom and Dad, who showered him with kisses, praise and M&Ms.

By the end of the day, Bug only had one more accident (in his high chair during dinner--that was fun to clean up), but about 10 more successful trips to the potty! We're so proud of him!

And to celebrate his success and cap off our Potty Party, we had cake. Which Hunk declared to be more for the parents than for the kids. Let's just say we all needed a little sugar buzz after today.


Amendment, posted on Day Two:
Only one accident today (in the high chair, again-- but it was Mom's fault. I had the dog in the utility sink in the laundry room, washing off his muddy paws, and didn't hear Bug asking to get out of his high chair to go pee pee...until it was too late). And- no pee pee on Thomas, today. Go, Bug, go.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Cute Little Fishie

In our magazine’s current issue, we landed a very big client: The Georgia Aquarium. They're offering a special discount to Little Black Dress/Little Red Wagon readers.... Just click on the cutie beluga whale below to save!

We're going for Mother's Day!