27

Believe it or not, it's taken me an entire week to finally admit that I turned 27! I'm normally not such a grouch when it comes to my birthday, but ever since I turned 25, I put oscar to shame. 30 for other people still sounds so young to me, but 30 for me is REALLY hard to swallow. The closer I get, the sicker I feel. For the most part, it was a pretty good day. Every mother MUST get a babysitter for their birthday. If you don't, you will see how quickly your kids take the "happy" out of happy birthday. Trust me on this one. I'm a weirdo who enjoys shopping by myself every once in a while, so that's what I did. I met Marc for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed even more shopping in the mall while we waited 65 minutes to get a seat. The food was great, but the waiting and the crowds may cause me to second guess returning any time soon. We ordered cheesecake to go and brought it home so the kids could sing to me. They LOVE birthdays, so I was showered with lots of hugs and kisses on my special day! 358 more days until I do it again.

A conversation with a 2 year old

me: Aliyah, do you want peaches or applesauce?
Ali: Um, peaches!
me: Okay, here you go.
Ali: No! Oatmeal.
me: We don't have oatmeal, peaches or applesauce?
Ali: Applesauce.
me: Okay, are you sure, because I'm not going to put it in a bowl if you won't eat it.
Ali: Yah, applesauce.
me: Here you go.
Ali: NOOOOOOOOOO! Peaches mommy. (As she sees me put the peaches away) No applesauce. WAHHHHHHH! (Flood gates open)
me: Aliyah, I'm not going to play a guessing game. When you've decided let me know. Exit stage left.
Third party enters (Kael)
Kael: MMMM, I want some applesauce.
Ali: No Dael!! My applesauce. WAHHHHHH! (Flood gates reopen)
me: What's the problem? Aliyah, Kael can have applesauce. You can't even decide what you want.
me: Do you want applesauce like Kael?
Ali: Yes. And peaches.
me: Okay, you need to get your hands out of your mouth (new habit when she cries, so gross, who knows where her hands have been), stop crying, and be a happy girl.
Ali: K.
She then proceeds to eat all her peaches and applesauce, and in the end asks for more. What a wonderful start to our day.

The silly things kids say

As I'm changing Ali's diaper, Kael rummages through his drawer looking for something to wear for the day.
The next thing I hear is this, "Mommy, do I have to change my underwear today? Please say yes, because my
underwear is stinky and I need a clean pair." Ahhhh, music to a mother's ears. He knows the concept of keeping
clean. I've taught him well.

Sign language song

Should I? Or Shouldn't I?

For MANY reasons, I have FINALLY come to a decision of whether or not I should send Kael to Kindergarten. So many pros, so many cons, so many sleepless nights, and too much contemplation on my part to the point of going MAD! If you can help it, never have a late summer baby. This has been really hard, but I am not going to send him. I'm going to cross my fingers, hold my breath, and say a little prayer that it is the right decision. I truly believe he is ready and would do fine if I sent him in the fall, but I believe even more that he will succeed leaps and bounds if I wait one more year. Kael already suffers from the, "Why can't I do that?" syndrome. So hopefully this will solve many future frustrations. Sports, driving, dating, mission, the list goes on, but we're certain we made the right decision. This is my sweet boy on the last day of preschool. Little does he know he'll be back in the fall. Thankfully for him and me he will go 3 days a week instead of 2. Trying to convince him that school is over for the summer has been a hard one too. He just doesn't get it. I can't wait, 3 months of the same question over and over, "mommy, do I have school today?"

Yes, I am alive!!!

I thought I'd do a quick post to let you all know that I do still blog. I have some new pictures to post of Kael's end of the year preschool program, but I'm too lazy to download them right now. The past few weeks have been crazy busy. Due to my Spring fever, I finally have an itch to start some projects. After 7 months of being in our home, I finally painted my kitchen. Drum roll please... and you can't even tell. So one project leads to another. Now I want to glaze my kitchen walls to make them darker. Along with painting my kitchen, I have attempted to do a back splash as well. After 2 days, I am 3/4 of the way done. Now if only I can get my hubby to help me cut the tile for around the 10 outlets in my kitchen. Yes, 10! Had I realized that before I started, I may have second guessed doing a back splash at all. Next on my list was the shower curtain. We finished our basement recently, and I have been on the hunt for the perfect shower curtain. So after three weeks of looking and 20 stores later, I stop at the fabric store for a quick peek at some fabric for some curtains I want to make (another project on my list). I pass the 50% off section and immediately get sucked in. As I skim through the fabric, I see one and think, "that would make the cutest shower curtain." So instead of just buying a pre-made one, I spend 2 hours of my morning making one. WHY? Why do I keep piling more on my plate? And now I am avoiding doing all the things I've neglected since I've started my projects. Off I go to clean the house, do laundry, feed the kids, yada, yada.