My Mom has moved back to the East Coast from living on the other side of the country for 28 years and now lives a few states away. She visits when she can, and it's such a huge help and wonderful to have her much closer now.

Last time she was visiting she wasn't at the house for more then 10 min and DD asked, "When are you leaving Meme?" Luckily my Mother has a good sense of humor and didn't take it personally. When it was time for her to leave DD wanted her to take a toy starfish with her as a memento of her time spent with us. As Meme was packing up DD wanted her starfish back and was kept asking when Meme was going!

But as soon as my Mom's car was past the driveway, DD said, "I miss Meme." This kid is a nut.

I met my husband & kids for lunch today and after we went into Starbucks for my afternoon recharge. As we were waiting for my tall-sugar-free-vanilla-latte, my Daughter asks;

"Where does the Coffee Maker Sleep?"

Oh man, the guy behind the counter got a kick out of that one!

I was inspired by karriejean’s black belt story & rockergirrl’s new guitar, so I did something for myself yesterday. I bought a bike.

And I rode it work today. Well, I’m not telling the whole truth, I drove my car to my friend’s house and rode in with him as he only lives 10 miles away from work.

I did TONS of research and found the perfect bike for me. It really was a breeze riding to work today and if I knew how easy it was going to be, I would have done it sooner.  It felt so good. And when I walked into the office my co-workers all cheered for me. I am a ROCK STAR, I mean  I am a ROCK STAR STUD.

The only downfall is my bum. I have to build up that bike seat callus so it won’t hurt so much next time! Ywouch!

Now it’s your turn, what are you going to do for yourself?

After reading LatteMommy's post about her DD being a Flower girl next year I thought I'd share my photos & memories from my BF's wedding last year this August. I had just given birth so there was no way I was going to be in her wedding, so I told her she should have Sylvie as her Flower Girl.

This was more of dream come true for me then my DD, as I always wanted to be a Flower Girl. I had bought a dress on sale from Gap in a 3T when DD was about 9 months old just in case we need a dress for wedding (hey that's the thing about girls, you can justify these things). At 2.5 DD was a wee bit young but it wasn't about her now was it?! After she walked down the aisle my Mom & I took her to the Sunday school room so she could play with the toys, etc and so my newborn wouldn't disturb the wedding. I did get to see the Ring Dog run down the aisle and that was super cute. Almost as cute as DD.

i was snuggleing with my dd and she patted my stomach and asked if i had a baby in there.

me: no.

her: yes you do.

me: no i don't.

her: yes you do and it's name is chocolate.

i'm not sure who i'm mad at more, dd for stating the obvious or me for having this baby belly from all the chocolate i eat!

My daughter tells either me or my husband that she is going to marry us. After getting an engagement announcement from my cousin (with a big paper diamond ring cut-out) DD said I want to marry you Mommy. So I asked my husband if he would marry us.

DH led us through our vows, DD put the “ring” on my finger, then I got a kiss from both of them, and I thought we were done.

DD pipes up, “When do we eat cake and dance?” We didn’t have any cake, but we had a family dance party. I love weddings!

My Mom got my DD some new water shoes today (Dora of course). She was very excited to wear them around the house when we got home as my Mom who is visiting also got water shoes and they were twins!

I was getting DS ready for bed after he ate by stripping him down & wiping dinner off his mug & hands. As I was walking back from the laundry room I saw a puddle under DS's squatting body and heard him grunting. I was bummed b/c of the pee, but as I looked closer I could see a pile of poop as well. Oh joy. I tried yelling for my Mom who was helping DD on her own poop adventure in the downstairs bathroom. As the pee was reaching towards the floorboard I managed out a HELP! Mom to the rescue.

Mom scooped up Ivan and started washes the pee off his feet (of course he stepped in it) and I started cleaning up the mess. Mom got the worst of it b/c there was some remenant poop and she got it on her arm (gross!). As I'm cleaning DD says, "Good thing I've got my water shoes on." Feakn' priceless.

Well I think so. I bought 3 sippy cups for my kids for $40 including shipping. At first glance it seems expensive and well it is if it’s just for sippy cups. But these Born Free cups don’t have bisphenol-A.  For $40 I feel like I have decreased my kids chances of getting breast cancer or prostate cancer or mess with their hormones, metabolism, growth and development, tissue function or moods.

I also bought stainless-steal bottles for the kids to take to day care.

If you’re interested in getting some click here or click on the bornfree ads.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-07-epa-chemicals_N.htm

An article in Sierra Magazine also warned that the clear, hard polycarbonate bottles (PET #7) popular with hikers could leach a known endocrine disruptive chemical, bisphenol-A (BPA). The research behind that warning was published in the journal Current Biology by Dr. Patricia Hunt, a geneticist at Case Western University. While plastic bottles made of polypropylene (#5 PP, #2 HDPE and #4 LDPE) are not known to leach anything, consumers also may want to consider switching from plastic to a variety of durable, light-weight and wide-mouth stainless-steel beverage containers.

Ugggh. I am so bummed. On my way to work this AM I found 5 oz of breast milk in my purse. If you've read my other post about what's in your purse (http://www.mybaby.com/Blog/Sticky_Mommy/Item/693/) you will know I carry a big purse and have a lot of things in there. When I come home from work the kids are so excited to see me (and me them) that I drop everything and engage with them. And, well last night I guess I forgot to take all my milk out of my purse...

And I'm so mad at myself. It's a lot of work making 5 oz.! Boo hoo. Poor me. Pumping sux. Yeah, I meant that.

The kids & I visited my Mom for 3 days in the next State over. It was so great to see her. She moved all the way from the West Coast and already it’s made my life easier (she's watching the kids next week!!).

#1 Fantasy: Driving back home I had a fantasy that I could stop in at Target (we don't have one in VT)solo with the two kids in tow to do a little shopping for them, maybe a few cute things for me & the house and then we’d be on our merry 3-hour-drive-home way.

Reality: 1 year old Ivan is in a very clingy Mommy phase meaning he can sit in a cart, he can only be held by me (I was hoping for a Momma’s boy, be careful what you wish for…) and 3 year old Sylvie is in a very must-touch-everything-mode, which meant she was not sitting in a cart either. Needless to say, I did a panic shop where I grabbed some kids clothes on sale & got some mascara for me.

#2 Fantasy: Since DH was solo for 3 days I thought I was coming home to a much cleaner house. You know maybe the bathrooms scrubbed, the folded laundry that had been sitting in the chair for a week put away, some grocery shopping, nothing crazy, but just wiped down.

Reality: House looked the SAME! Toy room still piled up with umm toys, laundry still in the same place, not much food (I made the kids tuna sandwiches without mayo, yuck), counters still had crap on them, etc.

I guess I have to readjust my expectation level. Remember when fantasies used to be a lot juicer then “oh dear God, please let the laundry be put away.”?

One of the joys of having a girl is getting to dress them up in cute clothes, dresses, etc and doing fun things with their hair. My sweet girl has a mess of adorable curls that I’ve never been able to do anything with. She hates getting her hair washed, brushed or even to put in a barrette has been a challenge.

This past weekend we made a special stop at the store to get her some fun hair things. I let her pick out animal barrettes and bands. She’s really into animals so how I sell it to her is, I ask if she wants kitten ears, pony tails, horse tails, pig tails, etc. (even though they’re all different animals her hair looks the same each time).

This morning I ask her if she wants kitten tails, and she said she just wanted one. So I put her hair in one pony tail and she looked so freakn cute! All my years of practicing on Barbie hair paid off.

When my husband dropped her off at preschool all the kids where in circle time. And one of the little boys said, “Sylvie, you look beautiful.” My heart melted.

I was watching a bit of Dumbo with my DD this AM (long story about bribes and sleeping through the night) and at the beginning of the movie the Stork was delivering babies to all the animal Mommies.

Sylvie:  What is the Stork doing?

Me:  Bringing the babies to the Mommies.

Sylvie: But babies come from Uteruses, not Storks.

Can you tell we had a baby recently? She cracks me up!

Last night my husband, Dad & little sister went to see Bob Dylan. What an experience. It was a great show and I felt I was in the presences of greatness.

However it solidified my stereotype about being white. I was clapping along to the beat (or so I thought) and my husband leaned over to me and reminded me to clap on the downbeat.

Downbeat? What’s a downbeat. I’m just going with the rhythm I felt and apparently that’s my white rhythm talking b/c it’s wayyyy off. I felt like Steve Martin in the jerk when he was born a poor black child and his family is trying to teach him to clap to the music. I told my DH he would have to teach our children how to clap and I hope they get his rhythm.

Navin R. Johnson: Okay. It was never easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, singin' and dancin' down in Mississippi.