Whole Lotta Yadda Yadda

Same s*it, different day. Still fighting the daily poo battle with Taylor, only we're about 98% with getting them in the toilet now! That said, each endeavor is still fraught with lots of crying and fighting, but I'm still counting it as progress.

On another note, I had a few brief words with Taylor's teacher today. She mentioned that Ms. Thang is still being a bit difficult most days, but her theory is that Taylor is bored in the two-year-old classroom. Apparently our little Munkie is kind of advanced in regards to her peers, and her teacher thinks she may be acting out because she's bored.

Gifted? I dunno, this is the same kid that will try eating a booger if we're not watching like hawks.

But mostly she's a happy gal. This sums up the relationship between her and her daddy to a tee.

Either way, moving her up sounds great in theory, but she can't move up until she's 100% potty trained :( Things to work on.......

Poor Ava is still battling it out patiently with her ears. We're scheduled to get tubes this Monday, provided that she gets over her sudden respiratory flare up. I'm hoping our doctor will work with us, junky lungs and all, because I can't help but feel that her cruddy ears are attributing to at least some of the respiratory junk. Why they don't just put the stupid tubes in at birth is beyond me. Especially if you have an older kid who also has a history of crappy ears.

One of the rare times she's sleeping peacefully, poor baby wakes up hurting several times throughout the evening most nights.

And just as a bonus for all of my football peeps - Taylor getting her Bevo on! My mom bought the girls matching Bevo suits last fall, and they're still a little "roomy" but I thought it was worth the laugh to at least let Taylor try hers on for size.

She knows wearing burnt orange is equivalent to being cloaked in pure awesomeness.

Texas fight, Texas fight, OU SUCKS!!!!!

Cabin Fever

I hate this time of year. I'm sick of winter, the novelty of wearing sweatshirts has absolutely worn off, and I'm really tired of being cooped up in the house. This time of year there's little to report but the usual bath tub shenanigans:

Taylor has my "Obnoxious Smile" down pat.

They forgot I was watching. Now and then they like each other.

And since the weather keeps me down, we tried out some exotic new hairstyles on Ms. Ava:

You can see the excitement written all over her face as she sports her first ponytail.

Since she looked like a sumo wrestler, I opted for a headband instead.

Oh, and Ava is teething too. Notice how she chews on absolutely anything:

Soccer ball, or tasty snack?

Aw, who cares, she's still my cute little butterbean.

But then today, we got a break from the winter doldrums. Holy hell, it was a balmy seventy-two degrees in the 806 today! The drive home at 5:00 was about one-third of the usual traffic, because everyone skipped out early to sneak a patio beer or warm up their grills. Not ones to miss out on an opportunity, we decided to join their ranks and head for the outdoors. It's amazing what a little fresh air will do for everyone's demeanors.

Taylor was so happy to be out of the house she posed willingly!

My sweet girl.

Everything was copacetic, until I noticed this little bit of activity after I put Ava to bed:

These two conspiring by the back gate, and Taylor has a mini-shovel. Oh boy.

Then they made a beeline to the rusted out, uber-craptastic bathtub that's supposed to be a flower bed (I think), but is actually just full of nasty stagnant dirt.

And then she's off.......

Sigh..... Jody had her patching up the holes that miscellaneous critters have burrowed under our fence. On one hand, kudos to him for making a game out of a mundane chore. But on the other hand, it was more than redneck from any angle you try it.

After the sun went down, it was dinner time. Taylor has been on a "helping" kick in the kitchen lately, and tonight was no different. We were having BLT's, and she was all in for assisting. The first thing I did was empty the bag of tomatoes into the sink for a wash. As soon as I turned to throw away the bag they were in I hear, "Bite the tomato!" And this is what I turn to see:

Munkie had snatched the tomato out of the sink and taken a huge chomp out of it. After that, I called it a lost cause and just let her have the whole damn thing. Totally made her night.

Seriously??? What kid eats a tomato? Apparently mine. After she polished this bad boy off, she wanted a big helping of chili-mac, then actually requested to go to bed. I don't care if I was one tomato shy of having salad for leftovers tomorrow, the kid actually asked to go to bed. That alone is worth all the tomatoes in the free world.

The Best Valentine's Card Ever

You know you have a great daycare when they help you in the long arduous process of acquiring humiliating pictures of your children.

Case in point:

Think I'm gonna save this bad boy for her senior prom date. Oh, and we have another set from Christmas complete with a Santa outfit and an angel (pretty sure that's where these wings were recycled from).

But honestly, super cute idea, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it!

Whole Lotta Updates

Not even a week since I last posted and we've had an upheaval of new stuff going on around here. First and foremost, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!!! Well, sort of. We signed the contract with a builder to build our first casa, and as long as nothing major happens, we'll be signing our life away and moving in the first part of June. I must say, I'm super excited to finally move out of the rental dump we've been in for the last 2 years. In celebration, here's a picture of Taylor "hiding."


Clever little Munkie.....

In other news, Ava is already seven months old. How in the hell did that happen????? She is a pro at sitting up now, and is trying like hell to crawl (see video clips at the end of this post). And do you remember this infamous picture of Munkie?


Yeah, she was planking mid-air before planking was cool.

Jody wanted to re-create this yesterday morning with Ava.


Not too shabby! Not quite the upper body strength her sister had, but still impressive. And not to be outdone by her own trick:


Taylor decided to reprise her role of Flying Finnelli. Note the slightly strained look on Jody's face. This feat is much easier to accomplish with an 18 lb. kid as opposed to a 32 lb. one.

Sitting like the champ she is.



Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Taylor is 100% on the potty for this week! We even had two poos make it in the toilet! Can I get a woop-woop?

Here's some footage of Ava "crawling" and Taylor trying to give some sisterly coaching. Sorry for the craptastic/shaky filmography, but I was ensuring no one fell off the bed.

Bathing Beauties

You think they might be related??????

Taylor....

....Ava

It Hasn't Even Been Three Weeks This Time!

See? I'm getting better again. Honestly, the only reason I even have time to post anything new tonight is that it's Superbowl Sunday, I don't give a crap about this year's game, and my husband is outta the house. Amazing what feats can be accomplished when you have a little time to yourself. Not much excitement around here other than the usual circus that has become our daily life. Here are a few pics we snapped in the last few days:

I'll bet you didn't know that a toboggan is actually a "pirate hat." No wonder those guys aren't easily found anymore, they don't have the appropriate head-gear.

Modeling Jody's giant hat. Papa Val would be so proud.

Another thing I'll bet you didn't know. Wearing a laundry basket over your head will apparently turn you into a dinosaur.

I can't believe I never noticed the similarities before....... And you thought dinosaurs were big, green, and extinct. Apparently they're white, plastic, and have a faux weave pattern.

Family play time! We've been trying to spend less time doing the mundane stuff (dishes, laundry, you know, shit that keeps the roaches away?), and taking the time to actually sit down and play with our kids. It's so easy to plug in a DVD and let them auto-pilot, and as of late, we've realized that we've gotten kinda bad about that. Possibly, this is the root of Taylor's newfound turd status at school.

Forced niceness. Who cares if we told her to do it, it's still a cute picture!

Miss Roly-poly. It's almost impossible to get a picture of this kid (Or a diaper on her for that matter), because she's always rolling away.

Pausing to look around. Five seconds later, she was all the way to the door. Probably trying to run like hell from these lunatics that keep trying to convince her that they are her family.

Tired parents! One of these days there will be a picture taken of the two of us, by someone else, and we won't look like we are in desperate need of a nap. Maybe for our 50th anniversary?