Me & the Mower

Last night I mowed the lawn.

I decided that we shouldn't be 'those' neighbors anymore and cut our grass for the first time since a monsoon came to town. We had cut the front, but not the back-mullet style I guess. Well, since Gary may not have had a chance to mow the back until Thursday I thought that I would give it a shot.

You see, I have never done this household chore before. We were never asked to do this growing up (allergies...you know) and I informed Gary as soon as we were married that I was unable to mow grass (again...allergies...you know how it is right?!). Tonight, as I watched my two neighbors, both women, mow their lawns...I decided I could handle it. I gave both girls ample entertainment on the patio and away I went.

First I called Gary to ask a few questions:

1. How do you turn on the lawn mower
2. How do you remove the bag to empty the grass
3. When do you know that you have to empty this bag
4. Can you mow backwards or only forwards...I assumed mowing the lawn was like vacuuming the carpet...they seem similar.
5. Do you mow in horizontal or vertical lines

Just in case I had follow up questions, I pulled a very mom and suburban move and I attached the home phone to my hip for quick retrieval. (You can imagine how 'awesome' I looked right?)

As it turned out, I was unable to mow the hill in our yard. I seriously feared for my life and was not willing to rely on Brooke to call 911 if I got run over by the mower. So, we are still 'those' neighbors. Only now it is worse because we have a 75% mowed lawn...with both vertical and horizontal lines because you know I gave up on those after about 5 min.

The highlight of my mowing career was when Brooke ran into the yard (don't worry..mower was off...just empty grass into recycling bag)..removed her diaper..lifted up her skirt..gave the neighbors a show..and ran down the hill. Fabulous. Did I mention the removed diaper was filled with poop? Yeah. I'm not too worried about it, though-it's fertilizer right??

That may have gone too far...

No more mowing for me. I am going to stick with vacuuming...I keep better lines.

Potty Time

Brooke peed on the potty last night!!

I was so excited. I told her that she could put on her 'big girl' Dora underpants.

She was excited.

So excited that she pooped in them two minutes later.

Awesome.

Girl Updates

It has been awhile since I have really posted some pictures of the girls. It is not for lack of pictures, although it has become increasingly more difficult to get them to pose together. Life has been so crazy and I feel like we will be continuing to play a game of catch-up throughout the summer. Hopefully somewhere in these three months we will get a great pic of the two of them.

The closest shot I could get of the two of them on Mothers Day.
I tried on with me...but not so much!
They are holding hands so that means that at least they like each other!

Playing with our awesome bubble wand from Aunt Lindsay!

Movie night with Jack & Lily!
Dora Pj's for the girls-of course.

Highlight of the evening?
Popcorn...and how to get more popcorn from the parents upstairs...

Big Girl Caroline

Big Girl Dress & a Big Girl Bow
(ignore those stains...girls is a SPITTER!!)

Big Girl Shoes

And one Big Girl TOOTH!

Caroline cut her first tooth today!!

I had a feeling it was coming...lots of drooling, lots of gummy biting and lots of crankiness.
Today, Caroline and I went to my cousins wedding shower (Brooke hung with G. Mary Anne) and while we were there, I discovered her first tooth had arrived!!

FYI-this has led to many giggles and laughs all day long from Caroline. Apparently, cutting your first tooth is hysterical!

Relaxing Work

I'm not sure how I can top the intensity of my last blog, but I will give it a try. This weekend marks our first weekend home-doing nada-in a long time. The last few weekends have been filled with celebration and we have had a great time, but we are totally ready to do nothing.

By nothing, I mean working around the house. Here is my list of things I would like to accomplish this weekend.

• Due to the disgusting weather we have been experiencing, our yard looks more like a maze of grass and weeds. I am concerned we will lose Brooke if she goes to far out in the back yard. I am hoping that it will dry up a bit and we (Gary) can finally mow.

• Painting. There isn't too much that I wanted to re-paint in our new house. We have one red accent wall that I would like to pain the same tan color as its other three sister walls. We are also going to paint Brooke's room. I will be SO happy when Brooke's room is complete so I can finish hanging up all of her pictures, curtains, etc.

• Hanging up additional pictures, decorations, etc. I actually picked up a hammer and nail for the first time this week. I had serious doubts in my ability to hang something without leaving it crooked or spaced wrong. I hung up the girls pictures in the entry way, two pictures in the master bedroom and Brooke's paintings in the girls bathrooms. I am hoping to continue on with my talent this weekend.

• Clean. Honestly is the best policy so let's just put it out there. We have been living in the house for almost a full month and I haven't given it a great cleaning yet. There has been straightening up, the washing off of counters, vacuuming, etc...but not a good, deep cleaning. It needs to be done.

So, here is to this weekend. Relaxing...hopefully. Being able to check these items off of our to-do list...a MUST.

Bed Time

Right now, as I blog, I am letting Caroline "Cry it Out." Don't judge me. I know many parents are very against this methodology. They believe that this could-in fact-harm the child and cause them not to trust the parent. It has worked for us and many friends of ours, though, and I thought that it was time I give it a try.

When Brooke was born she was never a good sleeper. She was in and out of our bedroom for 15 months until I finally couldn't take it any longer and took her to a sleep therapist-bet you didn't know they existed huh (unless your a follower of my blog). At that point in time, they created a plan specifically for Brooke and it worked like a charm. Within a few days, she was sleeping through the night. She was a happier baby and she had way happier parents as well :) So happy we thought-let's have another baby :)

Right now, Caroline with fall asleep while we are feeding her the final bottle of the evening. After she dozes off, we bring her upstairs and lay her in her crib. She will stay in her bed for maybe ten minutes and then she is up - screaming - for no reason at all. She as a full belly and is very tired, but she is unhappy. Part of me thinks that this is due to her having been spoiled these past five months by her very good dad :) Gary has perfected the art holding Caroline upright while sleeping in a sitting position on the couch. When Caroline developed a cold way back at 2-3 months, she could only sleep upright. We made due with letting her sleep in her car seat and - when desperate - by having Gary hold her...good guy huh? Now, it seems, that she wants it no other way. She only wants to sleep held and it is just not working as we need to sleep more then 4 hours a night...and while not sitting (for Gary that is).

So far, I have had to go into her bedroom one time. I stayed in the room for about five minutes attempting to calm her down. Letting her know that I am here-in the house-and that if she were to ever really need me, I would be there instantly. I am now giving her a bit more time before I do a second follow up. While I wait....I blog. You see, the hardest thing in the world for me is hearing my daughters cry. I can deal with whining, temper-tantrums-(even in public)-but I cannot handle the crying. Not because it makes me mad-but because it melts my heart. When I see them look me in the eye, tears streaming down their faces...I am done. So, it is either blog or eat to pass the time...and who am I to lie...I am doing both.

Ok-we have hit the next time limit...is the suspense killing you?? Yeah, I didn't think so. You may have even quit reading as this has been the dullest post you've ever read. BUT, we have news folks-the crying has ceased. Is it for real? Is it just a tease to get me to go and check on her and have her wake up and start the crying cycle again? Maybe. I will not fall into the trick yet-a few more minutes...

Checkup number 2 complete!

Who knows how long this will last.
1 hour / 3 hours / all night??!! Either way-she did it. Caroline did it all on her own..with a little help from mom. Gary will be so excited when he gets home that I may not need to get him a Father's Day gift after all :)

Happy Belated Mothers Day!!

I have to admit, I had a pretty great Mothers Day. Granted I was fairly tired from all of the awesome weekend festivities, but Gary really did a great job. First, he surprised me at the wedding with a new Flip Camera!! I was SO pumped. Ever since our last friends wedding where I first saw how awesome these little gals were-I had to have one.

I have already put it into use at Katie & Nathan's wedding. I was able to video all of our friends giving sweet messages to the bride and groom and make a little video out of it! I just finished my first three projects last night and I LOVE it-addicted is the better word. Look forward to many, many more videos to be posted.

I thought that this was all for mom's day, but no-one more surprise! Have any of you ever heard of Blog2Print? Well, it is pretty much amazing. You can put together an entire book of all of your blog post. You can break it up monthly, yearly or just bind them all together. I had decided a while back that I really wanted to purchase yearly books so that our girls can have them for years to come (and witness on paper how bizarre their own mother is). Gary and the girls surprised me and purchased Year One which should arrive in the next few days. Can you say EXCITED! You can all feel free to stop by and read the novel of our lives-part one :)

Oh-and I cannot forget to mention that Brooke came home from her pre-school with a mothers day card-made out of her little darling fingerprints and a paper flower that even smelled good! She also made me a hand-print picture with a sweet poem laminated...Girl knows I love Laminated Items (used to beg to work the lamination machine in grade school...). I knew that I was sending her to Kids Day Out for a reason!!!

Great Mom's Day. Now, onto Dad's Day. Any suggestions? For some reason, I think that purchasing Gary Flip accessories and The Fleming Family-Volume Two is not what he has in mind :)