This Is The Story Of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Charlie is a classic two-year-old with Jekyll & Hyde syndrome. He can throw a mean tantrum, has been known to take half an hour to pick out the specific clothes he wants, and can scream so loud that the neighbors come running.

On the other hand, he's a major lovebug. He'll dish out sweet cuddly kisses, snuggle on the couch for hours on end, and pet my hair saying, "Momma you look so preeeety."

The other day he was feelin' the love, and I was the lucky recipient. I'm thinking I won't get all of this attention when when he's a teenager so I'm soaking it all in now. MUAH!

Big Fish In A Small Pond

Last week we bought bunk beds off of Craigslist. It's turned out to be the greatest purchase ever...in addition to saving space they've also turned into a fort, a trampoline, a diving board, and now - a fishing boat.

The boys were running around in circles tonight looking for something to do. For some reason I thought, "Let's stretch wire hangers and make fishing rods so they can fish off the top bunk." Check.

Once that was complete, we needed something for them to catch. So I thought, "What's soft and flexible that we have in large quantities?" Eureka! Underoos.

Best. Idea. Ever.

The Pinewood Derby

There's this Boy Scout tradition of carving race cars out of wood and racing them on tracks set up in school cafeterias across America. This is known as the Pinewood Derby.

Ry and Phil worked for weeks on his car...it had custom decals and a hand-painted coat as shiny and bright as Ry's hopes for victory.

The night of the Derby came and Ry was excited but nervous at the same time. Before they left Ry took this picture with his car while giving the Boy Scout salute. Can't you just see the eye of the tiger?



So about an hour after they left I received this dreaded text message from Phil: "OMG. He just came in last place 3 times and is currently crying."

I paced the floors trying to rack my brains for how to comfort him when he came home. Things like - "You gave it your best shot" or "Winning isn't everything" or "There's always next year."

In the midst of all this pacing I received another text from Phil: "Some other kid named Ryan won 3rd place. So our Ryan thought they meant him and jumped up and took the award. So pretty much problem solved."

[These are the actual texts - I couldn't make this stuff up].

As a parent I'm torn on many levels. (A) What about poor other-Ryan who has no award? (B) Our Ryan now thinks he's the bomb and is sleeping with the ribbon. (C) The kid needs to learn that sometimes he's going to come in last place.

So now I'm confused. And tired. And dreading next year's Pinewood Derby. And sort of laughing about this whole thing. Then feeling guilty for laughing.

Welcome to my world!

Yes, I Realize These Videos Are Proof That I Have The Maturity Level Of A 6 & 4 Year Old...

...because I think these are pretty darn funny.

'Till Death To Us Part

My conversation with my dear sweet lovebug Cole last night:

Cole: Mommy, will you love me forever?
Me: Of course – I’ll always love you.
Cole: Even when you die and go to heaven?
Me: I’ll even love you then.
Cole: Will you live in my heart when you’re in heaven?
Me: Yes, I’ll live in your heart when I'm not with you.
Cole [Changing topics, or so I thought]: How old you have to be to get married?
Me: 18
Cole: Will you marry me when I turn 18?
Me: I can’t – you’re not allowed to marry people you’re related to.
Cole: But I love you so much. I think we should get married and be together forever.

And so it went on…and on...and on. We were in the car on the way home from Philly so luckily he had over an hour to continue this line of questioning.

Ever since he was a baby our Coley has loved with all of his soul…he’s going to make someone very happy one day!!

Photo Download

In a world of smartphone cameras it's just too easy to take shots of my lovelies. I'm way backed up on posting so I'm just going to throw some old shots into a post. Write your own captions and let me know what you come up with!!

Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave

Every year for Christmas, Aunt Lori buys the boys matching PJs. This year was a Spidey theme and the boys were killin' the lewk.

Here's how I imagine this conversation going:
Dean: Okay...quick conference...so I'm thinking about just messing around when she's trying to take our picture
Charlie: Shh, shh, here she comes...act natural...


Cole was right on point as he warmed up for our annual PJ shoot:


Right before we took this picture Ry stubbed his toe. We told them they could get an extra dessert if they smiled - so here you see Ryan gritting his teeth and taking it like a man.


And the always popular raising the roof shot.


I don't know how many more years we'll be able to convince them to wear matching clothes...so for now I'll just take what I can get. These boys will always be super heroes in my book. *SHAZAAM!*

5...4...3...2...1... HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

New Year's Eve was memorable this year...I think...at least what I can remember. Ba dum dum ching. Well at least I wasn't as bad off as this guy.


Every year we have a neighborhood party. Seeing how this was the first time since we moved in (5 years ago) that I wasn't pregnant or nursing, I figured it was our turn to host.

Joining us this year was a new friend...Mr. Jello Shot...he was kind to all.


At 10:00 pm we celebrated St. John's New Years for those kiddos that needed to crash. Between the sparklers, the snaps, the horns, and the screaming...we were just as bad as our college student neighbors.


Again...the details are fuzzy...but at some point we started an Irish sing along in the kitchen thanks to our guests from across the pond.

Phil gave everyone a piece of paper and had them write down a word that will be meaningful for them in 2012. This turned out to be quite the hit and we got some very interesting responses.


























By the end of the night my boys were completely kicked. They threw everyone out of their room and posted this sign out the door. Ba humbug.


They say that your year is determined by what you're doing at midnight on New Year's - here's hoping that 2012 turns out to be as much fun as that night (minus the dizziness).