Thursday Thirteen...a little late
1. i am suffering from insomnia. it's 6am and i still haven't been to bed. this is completely normal for me and yet very very very frustrating. how can i make myself sleep without the help of Unisom?
2. annabelle remembers the funniest phrases from movies. i have to be very careful of what she watches, because after seeing something one time, she will be quoting it out of nowhere, 4 months from now. tonight she told her 2 year old brother, "Juju, you can't run from love." I'm thinking she saw it on Brother Bear 2.
3. it was a yucky, groggy, rainy day yesterday and after much begging and whining and fighting from the kids, i bundled them up and took them to Barnes and Noble. We played at the Thomas the Train table and Annabelle found about 400 stuffed animals that I am to buy her for Christmas. It was the best time, and I kicked myself for not taking them there earlier.
4. i took the kids to Target and we were sharing some breadsticks, when I spilled my very full drink directly onto my crotch. the items that i was there to pick up were essential to the smooth running of my household, so I then had to shop for the next 25 minutes with a large "pee looking" crotch stain. I told Dustin about this tonight over dinner at Taco Cabana, and approximately 2 minutes later, he spilled Julian's cup of ice water in my lap, complete with particles of tortilla and cheese floaties.
5. Barack Obama will be at the Texas Book Festival this Saturday and I desperately want to go, but Dustin may be working, and I know that Julian would be impossible to take with me. this makes me so sad.
6. the kids went outside to play today, and got the brilliant idea to mix their chalk with yesterday's rainwater and create "war paint". Julian painted his entire body, while Annabelle stuck to the safe places, like her stomach and legs. I threw my back out, while carrying them from the patio to the bathtub, and spent the next 30 minutes lying on the floor, wishing that i was heavily sedated.
7. julian only knows of two brand name foods, and points them out to me everytime we go to the grocery store: Lucky Charms (thank you mother) and Cheetos.
Annabelle, however, could make up her own shopping list if she only knew how to write.
8. Dustin fixed my computer and I am super duper happy about this.
9. we registered our vehicle, and including out of state licensing and vehicle inspections, it cost us close to $250. my mouth is still hanging open in shock.
10. i am a happier woman because of my new fall wreath and my pumpkin and hazelnut candles. they make my apartment feel more like home.
11. i officially hate cooking once again.
12. i am afraid that this baby #3 does not sleep. you could touch my belly at ANY time of day and feel the he/she is moving wildly. i am scared.
13. discussing baby names in the car tonight, Annabelle tossed out a few keepers, including "Regular Cow Milk Bartell" Julian's only idea for a baby name was "baby Jocelyn". after explaining to him that we already had a baby Jocelyn and we needed a NEW name, he said, "hmmmm.......i know! Baby Jocelyn!"
handy manny
annabelle came to me this morning and said, "mama, i had the best dream ever. i had a dream about a lot of toys and there was a BIG box of tools...two screwdrivers and a hammer and...wow. it was just the best dream ever."
i think this comes from our recent fascination with the cartoon, "Handy Manny". it's so cute and i admit, i have a little crush on Manny myself. he's like a Bob the Builder for brown people :) and he has the cutest accent.
i just think it's funny that this show can cause my 4 year old little girl to dream about hammers and think it is just the best ever.
By the way: Dustin fixed our computer tonight!!!!! No more internet problems!!!! :) He's my own personal little Handy Manny...but he's a whitey. Maybe he's my little Bob the Builder :-)
my new fall wreath
as soon as i saw our red door, i knew i wanted a new fall wreath. annabelle saw it for the first time as she was talking on the phone with poppy and tata. she almost dropped the phone, immediately forgetting about her conversation and started oohing and aahing over the beautiful berries.
julian tried climbing over the brick wall of the patio to get to the wreath. when i told him to get down, he said, "i can't. i've gotta get those grapes!"
*after taking this picture, i realized the wreath would have more of a dynamic impact if i washed the filthy door. sorry. :)
bug poop
annabelle woke up with itchy feet.
she scratched furiously and kept saying, "stupid stupid bugs".
then she pointed her finger at me and said, "YOU forgot to say, 'don't let the bedbugs bite' last night!"
both of the kids woke up with horrible tiger breath this morning.
i told annabelle, "maybe the bedbugs pooped in your mouths before biting your feet".
she said, "mom, bugs don't poop. do they?" looks like i need to find a copy of the book "Everyone Poops".
julian walked into the living room, itching his bellybutton.
he wailed, "mama, mama!! the buuuuuugggggggsssss!!! the bugs are eatin ju-we-an!"
you may want to refrain from visiting our house for awhile, seems like we have a "bug" problem.
chalk peace
i bought a 24 piece box of chalk from Hobby Lobby for $2.99 I have had approximately 4 hours over the last 3 days of peace and quiet in my home. It's a mess to clean up everyday, but hey.... PEACE and QUIET. i'm a happy camper and may go buy a few more boxes this week.
Julian likes to use the chalk as chapstick (well, lipstick, but I'M calling it chapstick) and rubs it all around his mouth like a little clown. He also collects all the small chalk crumbs and puts them in his little dumptrucks and bulldozers and pretends that they're hauling colorful rocks. and of course, he lines up the worn down stubs of chalk and pretends that they are train cars.
annabelle is a little grafitti artist, and is working on coloring every brick on the patio. i hope she completes her task before it rains.
the oprah voice
annabelle has an Oprah Winfrey voice. when oprah is announcing a guest or something fabulous, she always yells and holds the last word for a longer time than necessary
("you'll never guess who we have with us today...it's DR. PHIII-YULLLL!!!" as everyone goes crazy)
annabelle only uses her voice when Julian has something that she wants. she tries to distract him with something else, but he is on to her tricks. so she turns on the oprah voice.
"Juju, look what i have! It's DOOOOO-RRRRRAAAAA!" (holding up a Dora toy)
Julian didn't want to play with Dora. Dora had been laying at his feet for 30 minutes without so much as a glance from him, but once the oprah voice comes out, all of a sudden, Dora is very very appealing.
i am working on perfecting my oprah voice, saved for bedtime.
"hey kids, guess what time it is??? BED-TIIIIIIIIME!!!! WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!"
maybe that will make the 11 hours of separation from Mommy and Daddy, involving lying still and not eating, playing, or talking....fun. probably not. but it's worth a shot.
picture books
julian has been having such a hard time sleeping lately, and since i don't sleep well right now, it's causing me to be one sleep deprived mama.
when he wakes up, he gets into everything, so i have to sleep in the recliner in the living room so that i wake up when his bedroom door creaks open.
today, julian surprised me by sleeping longer than an hour at nap time, and i took advantage of it by sleeping in my bed (instead of the rocking chair). i woke up 2 1/2 hours later, in a panic, sure that julian was sticking toys in electrical outlets or toilet fishing or something. i looked around and he sat in the floor, next to my bookshelf with several of our half-unpacked books strewn around him.
the one he chose to read? "The Celebration of Sex". the only picture book in our grown up library.
Thursday Thirteen
i hate cooking, seriously, seriously hate it. i don't even like microwaving. cold pizza never hurt anybody and a bowl of cereal is the perfect meal, in my opinion. strange for someone who obviously enjoys eating so much, right? but for the past month or more, i've been trying to make an effort to plan (and actually cook) meals and i think we're better for it. and i'm surviving. so today is a list of thirteen things that i've cooked (or baked) this month.
1. lasagna
2. chicken enchilada's (like my mom's)
3. beef stew (like my dad's)
4. mexican chicken
5. fettuccini alfredo with asparagus (kids favorite...and that's a homemade sauce too!)
6. apple bread
7. peanut butter cookies (i love baking cookies, licking the bowl clean is my incentive)
8. mushroom porkchops and potatoes
9. tacos
10. spaghetti
11. italian seasoned chicken and broccoli
12. taco soup
13. bbq chicken
so a big fat yahoo for me! just so you know...i'm sure this is all a fluke. next month i will probably list all the take out orders we've eaten. :)
dustin's first bra
so dustin turned 31 last week. we had big plans: babysitter, movie, dinner at cheesecake factory, just a fun night alone. plus, we were going to spend the day with the kids, maybe do a little shopping, go to the park, that sort of stuff that we never get to do with his crazy schedule.
except he got sick.
we have the worst luck when it comes to birthdays/anniversaries/holidays. one of us ALWAYS gets sick. only this time, it was really really bad. he spent half the day in bed and the other half in the bathroom throwing up. i think he got pretty dehydrated, plus he is still recovering from a bad cough/cold he had last week.
finally, around midnight, he asked me to take him to the ER. his mom came over to watch the kids and gave him some medicine for nausea, and told him to try to get some rest and to go to the doctor in the morning (because a third ER bill in 2 months would NOT be fun). fortunately the meds helped him sleep and in the morning he couldn't breathe well at all, so he headed to the doctor, got an x-ray and found out that he has fractured a rib. i guess between all the coughing and throwing up???
they gave him some medicine and a rib belt. it's about 12 inches wide and he wears it up high on his ribcage, just over his chest. he's so thin that he can't wear it under his clothes, it just slides down, so he has to wear it over his shirt. even then, it is always sliding down and he has to keep hiking it up. if you are thinking he must look really cool, you are so right. :)
when he walked through the door tonight, i could not stifle my laughter. very dryly, he replied, "don't laugh at my man bra."
lazy sunday afternoon
one hour out of our lazy sunday afternoon...
1. we made a rubber band ball and the kids screamed wildly as we bounced it off the walls and tried to catch it (but mostly just getting hit with it)
2. bella and julian love to put baskets on their backs and pretend that they are turtles under their "shells".
3.juju scouring the sunday paper, pointing out his favorite cereals in the grocery ads.
4. a sun frame, missing the mirror. julian puts this around his neck and walks around the house proclaiming, "I am the SUN!!!!"
5.an orange train
These are very normal, everyday events in our house that i often overlook. today i decided that i wanted to remember these little details. i could follow them around with a camera all day and probably come up with 200 different photos at the end of the day. right now they are on two different areas of the tiled floor, hopping on each square, counting the tiles. did you know that there are 36 visible tiles in my kitchen? i didn't either, until bella counted them.
and now bella is balancing a spoon on her nose, just like she saw on Charlie and Lola this morning.
and now julian is naked, yelling "i am the PEE PEE MONSTER!!!! RARRRRR!!!"
i better go wash his hands and febreeze the furniture...
funny kids
*after having an accident in his "Tow Mater" undies (from the movie "Cars") Juju said, "Oh no....Tow Mater's cryin."
*today the kids were playing outside in their usual garb and i wish i had gotten a picture. annabelle loves to play dress up, so she had on a long sleeve shirt, a pink/white striped dress, a hair band around her neck, a sheer scarf over her face (as a veil) a long blue ruffled skirt, red patent leather dress shoes, a gingerbread apron, and her magic wand.
Julian was wearing his pirate "dunnies" and his dorky "Thomas the Train" light up shoes. he refuses to wear any clothing when wearing big boy dunnies. we may need to work on that.
*annabelle has been playing with a nickel lately, making us choose “heads or tails” and then does what she can to make sure that we win whatever we have chosen. it’s really sweet to watch her and juju play this together. yesterday, julian took the nickel and said, “mama, heads or tails? or eyes. or nose.”
*this morning i walked into bella’s room, to find her sitting perfectly still, legs crossed, eyes fixed straight ahead on the wall. i said, “bella are you okay?” she replied, without looking at me, “yeah…i’m just made of glass…”
*we live next door to a fire department, so we see fire trucks every time we leave our house. julian always squeals when he sees them, begging for me to let him ride the truck. i think he believes that I can just stick a quarter into the fire truck and he can ride it, like the sesame street fire truck at the grocery store. well, a few nights ago, we had the patio door open, and we heard the familiar sirens of a fire engine and julian said, “MAMA! MAMA!!! FIRE TRUCK!!! I WANNA RIDE!!!” i calmly said, “julian, we can’t ride the fire truck, it’s going bye bye.” he was still insistent that he be allowed to ride and i said, “julian, we can’t ride the fire truck, it’s not at our house.”
suddenly, the red lights from THREE flashing, blaring, bright red fire trucks appeared at our doorstep. julian smiled, knowingly and pointed out the window. “mama, MY fire trucks!!!” we watched in awe as several large firemen in full gear walked up our sidewalk and made a last minute turn up the stairs to the apartment above us, who apparently had a small kitchen fire. it was a rough hour, trying to contain my little fire man at the window who desperately believed that the fire trucks were there for his enjoyment.
Thursday Thirteen
i thought it would be fun to do Thursday Thirteen , like my
Aunt Valerie has been doing, so today, i present to you Thirteen names that annabelle has chosen for the baby. (note that this is not a complete list, just 13 random names that made me smile, and her list makes it pretty obvious that she expects this baby to be either a girl....or a puppy)
1. Treeleaf (good for a BOY or a GIRL)
2. Slobbers
3. Jocelyn Too
4. Sarah
5. Scamp
6. Colorado (???)
7. Luther (after Poppy's dog)
8. SpongeBob
9. Potato Head
10. Eva (after her Noni's dog)
11. Nala (Lion King)
12. Mexico
13....my favorite. tonight we were in wal-mart and annabelle turned to me and said, "Mama, I just thought of the PERFECT name for your baby....Jesus!!
Jesus Mexico Bartell. The couple in the aisle with us almost fell over laughing so hard, and I did too.
The best part, is that is her name for a girl. Sweet little baby girl, Jesus Mexico.
One other funny little story, I was sharing some names with Annabelle that I was considering for the baby, as I just love to hear the names with her little twinkly voice and tone. I told her that for a boy, i liked baby Ezra. She loved it and had no problem pronouncing it.
I told her several girl names that I was thinking of, but still can't find a name that I love. I mentioned Gabriella. I said, "Gabriella would be sweet because we could call her Gabriella, Gabby, Brie, Ella...whatever you like! Plus it sounds sweet with Annabelle. Gabriella and Annabelle." She thought it over with a furrowed brow and declared, "
Grabernella. Hmmmm.... I like it!!" So, if we chose that name, we would definitely need to work on a nickname, because while I love that Annabelle first started calling Julian "Juju", "Grabernella" would take a while to grow on me.
haircut!!!
we finally got bella's haircut. we LOVE it, even though it's not quite what i wanted. in the middle of the haircut, annabelle said, "i gotta tell my mama something." the lady said it was okay and bella turned to me and said, "mama, i love you so much. thanks for letting me cut my hair."
the hairdresser almost started crying. it was really sweet and we're all happy that there are NO MORE TANGLES. :-)
i have more to post later, but no time now, i just know there are a few people waiting to see this picture...
i just no want mess it up
i woke up to annabelle's hair in a complete mess. tangles everywhere. i knew that there would be a battle to get it brushed before we could go anywhere today, so i told her i would take her to get her hair cut (since she's been begging for some time now...due to all the tangles)
i got the brush out and went to work, and she immediately went wild screaming and crying. i felt so bad, but knew i couldn't take her into a salon, much less anywhere else with this birds nest on her head.
as she screamed and yelled, julian ran into the room to investigate. "MAMA STOP!!! MAMA!! we're saw-wee mama!! we're SAW-WEE!!" it broke my heart. he thought i was upset with bella and this was her punishment, me ripping her hair out. his little apology almost brought me to tears.
after i removed about 4 pounds of hair from her head, we proceeded to the salon where we got julian's hair trimmed a few weeks earlier. annabelle was so excited, as she sat in the little salon chair and draped the jungle animal cape around her body. i explained to the lady (who also cut juju's hair, and happens to speak VERY little english) that i wanted it pretty short. just a bob style hair cut, but short enough in the back to see her neck and just a little longer in the front.
"um. no. i can't do dat. you come back, tomorrow. 11 o'clock. lady here tomorrow dat can cut her hair."
i looked puzzled. surely she must think annabelle will be as wild as julian was last time and she just doesn't want to do it, but annabelle is sitting so big and prim and proper in her little seat, just waiting for her little transformation into a short haired girl. so i repeated, "you can't cut her hair??"
"no. i know what you want, i just no want mess it up. sorry. come back tomorrow."
annabelle was so disappointed, and so was i. we gathered our things and left. we walked around and did some shopping and as we passed the salon again, the lady sat in a chair, reading a magazine. i realized that everytime i come here, she is sitting in the chair, reading a magazine, and NOT cutting hair. maybe she's paid hourly, rather than by the job and she just turns down any work that comes in. i don't know, but as we passed, annabelle waved really big and said, "HEY!! There's that lady that can't cut hair!!"
i guess we'll try again tomorrow.
annabelle is often making up songs, and singing in her bedroom while she is playing. today i overheard her singing, with her girly little southern voice,
"just listen to your heart....it will tell you....listen to your hearrrrrrrrrrrtttttt...."
julian then piped in, "...broccoli....celery....gotta be....veggie tales!!!"
in other news, julian has worn dunnies all day, and has only had one accident. we have been in the bathroom approximately 45 times, as he now semi-understands the difference between pooping and farting. while i was typing this, he sat on my lap and farted. he grinned and said, "no poopoo, just tooties, okay mama?"
big boy dunnies
julian is potty training, but man, it is wearing me out.
he probably sat on the toilet 80 times today. he is so funny, running around in his "big boy dunnies", grabbing himself and yelling, "i gotta pee pee!!!"
the tiring part is that he feels like he has to sit on the toilet everytime he needs to fart. which means that he will be an ultra-polite young man if he keeps this up...but the other boys may make fun of him.
he loves his "dunnies" and insists on changing them several times a day. i can tell what a big part of his Christmas will be this year...."dunnies" in all of his favorite cartoon characters.
just so everybody knows, my computer has a virus. it literally takes me 50 times longer than the normal amount to get anything done online, especially posting pictures, so until we can get it fixed, my blog will probably continue to be a little neglected. not because i don't love you all. :)
street fair
yesterday we went to the "Old Pecan Street Festival" on 6th street. it was such a blast. they close down a huge section of 6th street, and several adjacent streets, and fill it with vendors and rides and games. i wish i had brought my camera, there were so many unique and fun photo opportunities, and one of my favorites was an old scruffy man standing in leopard print bikini undies and roller blades, holding up handwritten political signs in one hand and a never empty beer can in the other...good times.
our first stop was for lemonade, popcorn and cotton candy. then we headed to the rides and the kids got to play on a couple of inflatable slides and obstacle course/fun houses.
we walked and walked and walked until we found a place giving pony rides next to a petting zoo. annabelle went into the petting zoo by herself and was totally in her element. she didn't look for me once. i finally went to the gate and called her name to let her know that she had a few minutes left, and she was just glowing. she is a little dr. dolittle, for sure. she pet all kinds of baby goats and a kangaroo and baby deer and something that looked like a miniature hairy cow thing.
we had such a great time, and ended the night with dinner from Taco Cabana and a big bubble bath.
i notice new banners downtown every week announcing a different festival, and i love that. Apparently next weekend is the Mediterranean Festival. austin reminds me a little of mexico in that there is always something to celebrate. i love it here.
PSA to all my loved ones: move to Austin. i will love you for it. :)
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