If you click on the pictures, you can see the little story that goes with it on ShitMyKidsRuined.com.  That’s your little Saturday treat

Nobody listened to me.

Becca came down with her iCarly shoes.  They give her about a half an inch.  I sent her to get her other shoes.  Chloe?

She came into the family room wearing roller skates.

As Tony and I suppressed our laughter, I asked her, “Don’t you think it will be hard to get around Disney World with roller skates on?”  She told me that it would be, “no problem.”

HA!

Well, I got her tennis shoes on her and we measured.  There was (obviously) a lot of commotion and laughter going on between the two measurements.  Tony looked at the number.  41 1/2 inches.  Sorry Chloe. She walked away

“Wait.”  I said.  ”Wasn’t she taller before the shoes?”  As Tony and I argued whether or not she was, I just told her to come back and get measured again.

44 inches exactly.

I asked, “Chloe, why were you shorter before?”

She had a big old case of bent knees.  What was she thinking?  I have absolutely NO IDEA.  Maybe she really DID want to wear the roller skates.

As we were walking through the bakery (because I told Chloe she could get cookies), we browsed.  Have you seen the Costco cupcakes?  They are gigantic!  I mean, they have to be three times the size of a normal cupcake.  Chloe then asked me if the food in there is made for REALLY big people.  Yup, I guess so.  I do have to say, though, that I DIDN’T buy the coconut cream pie because it was just too damn big.  And I would have to eat the entire thing.

We paid for our groceries, and stopped to buy our customary churro.  As we were driving home, Chloe talked to me about what she did in school today.  They were talking about weather.  She said “Mom.  Weather is either a tiger or a sheep.”

:::huh?:::

OOOHHHHHHH, you mean either a lion or a lamb?  OK, I get it.

By the way, today got a lamb

Literally.

Lemmie tell ya about it.  It all started the day after Thanksgiving.  After Chloe made three trips to the bathroom within about a half an hour, and then told me that it hurt when she peed, we headed off to the pediatrician.  Right away.  Because it was Friday.  And I learned my lesson about the emergency room a while ago.  Avoid it if you can.

The pediatrician prescribed her an antibiotic.  Then she asked a few questions about why she might have a uti.  Long story short, Chloe’s…um…plumbing has never really flowed freely.  To be blunt, both of my kids poop rabbit turds.  They’ve never complained about it, and they’ve never struggled.  That’s just how it’s been.  The doc suggested that I put Chloe on a mild laxative (mirolax) to get her moving.  I guess a bunch of back up could cause a uti.  (just a little aside here…it’s funny how much you talk about poop once you become a parent.  I mean, mostly when they’re in diapers and potty training.  I don’t talk about poop all that much any more.  But, to me, talking about poop is sort of like talking about any normal subject, like taxes).

So, after three days or so it all sort of kicked in.  Chloe’s a rookie at the whole ‘wiping until you’re clean’ thing, because one swift wipe normally worked with her.  So, I’ve been helping her wipe.  And that’s poop story number one.

Remember our cutie patootie dog, Rex? Well, I’m not sure what he may have gotten into…or if he caught a bug…but here’s how story number two went:  Tuesday night I went to sleep early.  Tuesday is Tony’s early night, so he was up with the dog, but I’m not quite sure what time he came to bed.  Tony set Rex all up in his crate with his girlfriend and a cushion so he would be more comfortable.  When I woke up at 6:30 in the morning, I headed into the bathroom to start getting ready.  I heard Rex crying downstairs.  He had pooped twice in his cage (and that’s not like him at all).   And no, this wasn’t an easy clean up kind of poop.  It was very similar to the mirolax-induced poop.  I tossed the dog outside and started cleaning poop.  Soft things (including a kitchen rug) into the washing machine, cleaning out the tray of his crate.  I realized that he needed cleaned also.  Got him in the sink, soaped him up and sprayed him down.  This was all before my coffee.  I make that coffee and realize that I missed some spots.  Mostly on Rex.  So, he ended up with a bubble bath.  I missed spots in the crate.  Ugh.  I still had to get everybody ready for school and me off to the gym.  I made it, but it really was a shitty morning.

What, you say?!?!?  There can’t possibly be another poop story in the same week!

Oh, but there is.

Story number three didn’t really involve me too much.  Because BOTH of the girls have the same sort of poop going on, I thought it might not be a bad idea to give Becca some of that mirolax, too.  Well, Thursday afternoon I got a call from the school nurse.  Seems Becca had a little accident in math class and had to change her pants and undies.  It wasn’t as terrible as it could have been, it was really just a small bit.  The nurse warned me that I needed to give my attention to a bag of clothes in Becca’s backpack as soon as she got home Becca told me that the kids are not allowed to ask to go to the restroom during math class (which I can understand…I can see ALL the kids who hate math having to use the restroom during math class).  Becca, always a stickler for the rules at school, tried to wait it out.  But just couldn’t.  She didn’t really make too big of a deal out of the incident.  I thought for sure she would be scarred for life.  But it seems she was pretty discrete about the whole thing.

So, I’m happy that this poopy week is just about over.  And just as an update for anybody who cares…I’m doing great with the non-smoking thing (a did have a small breakdown, but rebounded nicely the next morning) and I’ve still been going to the gym every day.

Now I’m just waiting for the weight to start coming off so I can show off my future rock hard abs  (sarcasm…did you hear the sarcasm?)

She had a blast bouncing around on this all afternoon. When Becca got home from school, they were invited to a neighbor’s house to play for a couple of hours in their back yard. Fine. ‘Me’ time is good. The homework got done, and off they went. I had the house to myself.

I also had to put that thing away.

By myself.

Thank God there wasn’t some stray parent with a video camera taping their child outside. I had to look absolutely ridiculous. I started very calm and focused. I made sure the air was out. I start folding this thing up. Unfortunately, the size of the folded ‘bouncy slide’ was about twice as big as the bag I’m supposed to put it in. I unfolded. I folded again. I straddled this damn thing, shoving it into this bag. I was laying on the grass, holding the thing on top of me.

I was a mess.

But I got it in that damn bag.

Heather – 1
Bouncy Slide – 0

Take that, Little Tikes.

The subject came up because she asked me how, when somebody is pregnant, they can tell whether it’s a boy or a girl. So, I explained the whole ultrasound thing to her, and that the doctor can see whether or not the baby has a penis. I could see her searching in her brain, wheels turning, trying to remember what in the hell a penis is. So I said to her, “Remember when we changed baby Logun’s diaper, and he had a penis?” Yes, she remembered. All was good. No scarring involved.

Then, she proceeded to tell me “It’s way better to be a girl. Because when you’re a girl, you can read a book when you go pee.”

Good point, little girl. Good point.

I’m not sure where exactly this video came from. My friend Nikki sent it to me, and I absolutely love it. I have no idea who the woman singing is. I went to the website listed in the corner, but couldn’t find anything. If anybody knows who I should give credit to, please let me know!!! ]]> http://blog.brainlint.net/2009/01/awesome-video/feed/ 0 http://blog.brainlint.net/2009/01/happy-new-year-to-all/ http://blog.brainlint.net/2009/01/happy-new-year-to-all/#comments Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:31:00 +0000 Heather http://blog.brainlint.net/?p=113 Well, 2008 was pretty good to us. I mean, life got extra crazy and there was a huge amount of uncertainty (there still is!), but it was a huge adrenaline rush. It was life changing. It was emotional. Although I love these huge events and thrive on change, I’m hoping that we can just continue to adjust to these changes in 2009. We’re sort of on a schedule where we have some life changing event about every 5 years. I think that’s about all we can handle. It went something like this: First house and our wedding in 1999. Second house and life with kids started in 2003. Restaurant in 2008. Let’s just coast through until about 2011 or 2012.

The daily happenings of my life continue to amaze me. I never in a million years could have imagined how my life would be. Here’s how my day has gone so far. We all woke up on the couch, because we fell asleep waiting for the whole ball drop thing. There was coffee, breakfast (for the kids – still none for me yet) and I did the paperwork from the restaurant last night. (It was a great night at Downey’s House, btw. The wedding was great and we were super busy). Then started more motherly duties. Chloe wanted to play with her ‘Cupcake Maker’ that she got for Christmas. There’s a story behind this thing. She had been saying that she wanted it for Christmas since October. When I went to buy it, it was located next to the Easy Bake Ovens. I would have much rather bought an Easy Bake Oven over this thing. I knew it would be a bust, but it was the ONE THING that she was consistently asking for. So, I plunked down my 25 bucks, and here’s what I got:

So, I did a new Groundhog Day design. I don’t know what it is about Groundhog Day for me. Just that glimmer of hope that Spring might be just around the corner. Hey, I know I’m grasping, but I really don’t like winter. Anyway, here they are. One for the chickies and one that’s more for the boys:

Phil BFF Groundhog Day Hooded Sweatshirt

Homeboy Groundhog Day Baseball Jersey

As always, I made more than just shirts. There are buttons, tiles, mugs, mousepads and all kinds of stuff. The above links will take you to CafePress, but I made some over at Zazzle, too. Here’s a peek from over there:

Phil is My Homeboy by hdowney

Phil is my BFF by hdowney

So, now it’s off to get our running around done before the Steeler game today. Just a little excited about that. And I guess I really should start doing my Christmas cards. Ugh!

First, here’s the scoop on Downey’s House. Long story short, we put a bunch of money in escrow so that the PLCB could get tax clearance from the Dept of Revenue and the Dept of Labor and Industry. That was Tuesday. We asked if we might close on Friday (tomorrow), and we were told that Friday would be a miracle. But we’re all shooting for early next week. Which would put our opening around Memorial Day.

Next, I actually did a new t shirt design. I’ve been updating the job/occupation store (www.cafepress.com/noshoptalk and www.zazzle.com/notworking), but I actually added a new one to Brainlint.net. So, here’s the shirt (via Zazzle):

Sarcastic Comment by hdowney
Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

And here’s the framed tile from CafePress: