Woolen Nightmare

Beware: This is what happens when you wash wool in hot water and then throw it in the dryer. These used to be Helmut and my size sweaters.

Shopping Carts that Save Lives

Hayden's Birthday

I was going to make a post about Hayden's birthday with tons of pictures of the party and everything that followed, but my actual camera isn't working and I keep getting the beach ball of doom when I try to upload the pictures to my computer. So instead I'm going to give you this picture with Hayden riding his birthday present, and a little explanation of our day.

Saturday we had a party for Hayden at an indoor play place, which was really fun and he had a great time. It was a morning party which meant me dragging myself across the floor and plunking in the car, forgetting to put on my make-up (which FYI is pretty embarrassing when you already look half asleep because you ARE ACTUALLY half asleep). When we got there I gulped down large amounts of coffee and SOSed my friend to bring me make-up, but unfortunately she didn't get the message....The coffee worked wonders though and I quickly forgot my ugly face and had a great time too. I'm not absolutely positive, but I'm fairly certain I didn't stop talking until we left 2.5 hours later, at which point I caught myself rambling about absolutely nothing to Helmut in the car on the way home and finally stopped.

Hayden just happens to share the same birthday as another girl in our church. Last year we didn't have a party for Hayden, but we attended a party for this little girl on his actual birthday. It was almost like having a party for him but with her getting all the gifts. Ghetto? I think not. It's AWESOME. This year she came to our party in the morning, then we attended hers in the evening. I should also mention that at last year's party Hayden was AWFUL, and I was so depressed (PPD) that I almost cried in front of everyone at least 25 times.

This year was completely different. Hayden was a changed kid. He played all the games, followed instructions, sat in a chair like a real human being, and ate his cake with a fork instead of smashing it all over his face. I was so proud my face was shining like the sun and I couldn't stop smiling. I felt so happy I was able to do what I do best: give out lots of unsolicited advice.

Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean I've forgotten last weeks "runaway incident." In fact I think I'm permanently scarred from that. I'm going to need therapy to get past it....and a masseuse, turns out carrying a 40 lb kid on one hip and pushing a stroller while shooting laser beams from your eyes and having steam from your white hot rage coming out your ears does bad things to your back. I haven't been able to sit comfortably for a week.

Conversations with a Three Year Old: Men

Me: "hehe, look it's a macho man." ----->
(pointing to a man with tattoos, a muscle car and loudly playing music).

Hayden: "A nacho man?.....

Oh a macho man tehehe.....................

NO! It's a SPACE MAN.

Don't ask me how he knows what a macho man is, I promise I've never used that word in front of him before.

Image courtesy of www.joefuda.com

Conversations with a Three Year Old: Goodies

Me: "Hayden, NO MORE candy."

Hayden: (pulling out a lollipop) "Okay, OKAY...this is the last time."

The Story

Okay, I'm ready to tell what happened. You'll probably laugh when you read this and think what a sissy I am for freaking out so much, but here you go:

We went to the park to enjoy some of the nice weather. While we were there some kids came along and showed Hayden a little snake they had caught. It was really cute and Hayden was enthralled. He proceeded to follow them around the park mimicking things they did and said, climbing whatever they climbed and chasing them whenever they would run away. I sat on the park bench next to Mariah, who was munching snacks in the stroller, and thought how adorable and outgoing he was.

Then one of the kids decided to leave. She started walking across the park to the basketball courts and soon after the other kids followed her, including Hayden. There is a large expanse of grass between the park and the basketball courts, followed by a small expanse of grass and the exit. The whole park is fenced in and only has 3 exits. It's about 2 acres. Once he got to the basketball courts I hollered at him to come back. I'm not sure why I thought he would listen, that was my first mistake. Then he ran to the farthest exit, still following the kids. I hollered much MUCH louder thinking surely he wouldn't actually follow them out of the park, that was my second mistake. Soon he had exited the park barely giving me a backward glace as I screamed at him to come back (literally screamed, in fact I'm pretty sure the whole county heard me). By this time I had thrown his tricycle into the back of the stroller buckled Mariah in and was running full speed across the park screaming for one of the kids to grab him before he got away. I could no longer see him as he had run past some houses that were blocking my view and continued down the street amidst traffic. I left Mariah stranded in the stroller at the side of the park and ran down the street to where one of the kids had caught him and was holding him down. I grabbed him and carried him back to the park to get Mariah, all the while fuming and ranting about how naughty he had been.

It was a long LONG walk home. I often marvel how when I am at my breaking point with him, God inserts a long walk or a long drive to help me cool off before I have to discipline him. I did spank him for it, and I was still a little angry, but not nearly as angry as I was before a 1/2 mile hike pushing a stroller with one hand and carrying him with the other.

So that's it. I'm still traumatized and haven't taken him to the park again....or even on a walk. So now not only are we not going shopping together, but we are not going ANYWHERE, AND I'm seriously considering pre-school. I'm not sure how much more of the constant daily naughty stuff I can take before I lose my mind.

Noteworthy

It has been raining quite a bit here the past week so we've been staying in the house. This afternoon it stopped raining and the sun came out, so I decided to take advantage of it and take the kids to the park.....and that's where I have to stop, because the story that follows is still so traumatizing to me that I can't write about it. I thought I could, but i can't. You should know: everybody is okay, and nothing truly bad happened, just some of Hayden's antics that scared me out of my wits. I'll tell you tomorrow.

In less dramatic news, today marks the first day that Hayden voluntarily played by himself in his room with the door shut. Up until today he has never wanted to be out of my site or play by himself, but he finally realized that the only way he'll be able to build a train track that lasts long enough for him to drive a train on, thanks to Mariah, will have to be done in private. He played in there for about half an hour and all I could think of was how quiet it was in the house. I hope this will be the first a many peaceful afternoon play times. I did read that the closer a child gets to their 3rd birthday, the more their imagination takes off and they begin to play better alone. I guess he's right on schedule.

Confession

Hello, my name is Kari and I'm a sewingaholic. It's been 3 weeks since I've seen the light of day. Just kidding. It hasn't gotten that bad yet. I have spent the past 3 nights sewing continuously until midnight. Who knew sewing could become an obsession? I just wish the stuff I was laboring hours and hours on actually looked cute.....or fit somebody. The first dress I tried to make turned out disgustingly awful. I'm tempted to make Mariah wear it anyway just because it took so much work, but it is truly hideous....I blame the pattern, clearly it doesn't have anything to do with my lack of sewing prowess. The second dress I attempted took me 5 hours to make and actually turned out stinking cute....if only it wasn't 3 sizes too big. Oh well, maybe it will fit next summer.

I've been meaning to get an Etsy store set up this week, but got a little side tracked on the dresses. I'm still working on perfecting the boots and at the rate I'm going they'll be absolutely perfect just in time for summer. wah wah wah. I found out too late that since the government passed all those manufacturing laws last year on what you can and can't use for children's clothing/garments, that I can't use buttons on them as decorations. I'm going to design my own flower pattern and use those instead I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Anybody have any ideas for other alternate decorations for them?

P.S. Hayden's 3rd Birthday is this weekend and we're having a party on Saturday for him. If you haven't gotten an invite email me! I couldn't find everyone's email addresses and have lost the ability to write with a pen.

P.P.S I know the picture at the top totally makes me look like a grandma.
Image courtesy of heartsandhome

Christmas Spectacular

Decorating for Christmas with little kids is so much more fun and exciting than decorating by ourselves was. I was moved to tears several times just seeing how excited Hayden got over the Christmas tree (and not just because I'm PMSing....okay, probably mostly for that reason). I put the Christmas lights on the tree, we plugged them in and for the next hour Hayden ran around the house exclaiming "Happy Christmas!" to everyone and everything, including his stuffed cat. Then he sat down on the floor in front of the tree and said, "it's wonderful," in hushed tones. It was so sweet I completely forgot the hot chocolate throwing incident from yesterday and the unwrapped toilet paper filled bathroom incident from this morning.

This afternoon I made some sugar cookie dough with visions of him and I bonding over a fun activity. Something new and exciting that we had never done before. I imagined how I would role out the dough for him and he would use the cookie cutters to make cute little shapes, then together we would place them into the oven while exchanging secretive smiles. I think I failed to remember that he is only two. That was probably my first mistake. Maybe that dream works with a 5 or 6 year old....who knows I'm not there yet. What actually happened was more like this:

Me: "Hayden, let me role the dough and then you can cut the shapes...."

Hayden: "Can I have a bite?"

Me: "No, we're going to cut shapes and then bake them and eat the cookies."

Hayden: "Can I have a bite now?" (reaching...)

Me: "No, just wait!"

Hayden: "I WANT A BITE!" (reaching and grabbing)

Me: "Put that back! wait till we cut shapes!"

Hayden: "I want another bite."

Me: "How about we cut shapes?"

Hayden: "BITE, BITE, BITE, BITE!"

Me: (sneaking a bite for myself), NO!..............................okay.

It ended with me frantically cutting shapes so there would at least be some cookies, while Hayden gobbled his weight in cookie dough and plain flour. I guess we're just a cookie dough eating kind of family.

Unless you want to be very stressed out, annoyed and have your little imaginary dream shattered I'd say It's always better to go into activities with a 2 year old without any preconceived ideas of how it will go. Lesson Learned.

Abuelito

This is Helmut's dad (Abuelito) with the kids right after they woke up from a nap....Hayden has on his super grumpy face unfortunately.

What's for Dinner

Mexican food, prepared by Helmut's mom. From top left working clockwise: Corn Tortillas, Carnitas (because Helmut can't remember the name), Queso, Salsa Verde, and Pico de gallo.

The In-Laws

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Mexico visiting Helmut's parents. This is a view of their house, which Helmut's dad built mostly by himself.