"MOUSE! MOUUUUUSE!"

"Mickey Mouse?"

"Nooooo! Mouse!"

"Cheerios?"

"Nooooo!"

"Mail?"

"Nooooooooooo"

Then he bangs on the pantry door and as soon as I let him in, what does he make a beeline for? MARSHMALLOWS. Duh, Mom.

My cats are gay.

No, really.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just feel slightly violated when I'm awoken at 2:30am to the rhythm of my two male cats going at it next to me on the bed. At first I thought one of them was having a seizure. Then I turned the light on. And saw Zachary splayed out on his back, Julius straddled over him. And went, "Oh. OH. NO, none of that. NONE OF THAT NONSENSE."

Looks like I'll be putting in a call to the spay and neuter clinic when we get back from vacation. They're five months old now so I suppose it's time. No feline promiscuity in this house!

Oh, and yes, I thought about how I would blog this as I laid in bed at 2:30am, and I did ponder if it would be appropriate to post about my humping cats on the internet. You see what conclusion I came to.

And this, my friends, is evidence that I will be able to be seen from space by July 2009. I will be my own friggin' country if I keep growing at this rate.

I had been happily gloating that I wasn't getting poochy at all, up until around four days ago. Then THIS THING popped up out of nowhere. Hey there, ten weeks and four days old fetus.

My children both have a profound love for crayons. For Beckett, it's tasting them. He just can't resist the rainbow of wax and it's not uncommon for me to open a diaper and find hot pink nuggets staring back at me. It's become a game for him now, and he gnaws on them just to get a rise out of me. He'll sneak one from Sawyer's stash and wait until I notice him inching it towards his mouth, and then dart off behind the recliner giggling his head off. He's apparently shared this hobby with the cats too, because a couple weeks ago I witnessed Zachary pooping a yellow crayon turd into the little box. Lovely, right?

Sawyer, on the other hand does not eat them, thankfully. He draws. All. Day. Long. Every page of every coloring book he owns is covered in a prism of colors, and he's even confiscated several of DH's notepads for use as his own personal sketch books. I'm also happy to say that he's inherited my artistic talent as opposed to his father's, which is a very fortunate thing. I think at this point the kid would win hands down in a draw-off with Daddy.

For some reason, lately he has started *ahem* "decorating" my furniture with his drawings. I don't know why, because he KNOWS he's not supposed to. But nonetheless, my kitchen table is now adorned with two smiling stick figures standing on some tall grass under a very bright sun.

And on Tuesday, what I thought was an innocent gazing out the living room window was actually him depicting an entire scene along the whole length of the window sills. It's wasn't until I heard him announce, "Mommy, I'm drawing your shirt!" that I found the artwork that he was oh-so-proud of. And really, how can you be mad about this? It's better than the boring white, yes?



From left to right we have some balloons, a dinosaur, a smiling sun and Sawyer and Mommy dancing around. Down at the other side were more suns, people, and random letters.



I tried to get him to pose with his masterpiece, but only Beckett was willing to get in the shot.

A couple recent conversations with my ever so logical three-year-old:

Him: Mommy, what does a monkey say?
Me: *monkey sounds*
Him: What does a cow say?
Me: Moooo.
Me: Hey, what does Beckett say?
Him: *thinks for a minute* Um, Beckett is not an animal.


Him: Mommy, where did you come from?
Me: I came from Grandma.
Him: And where did I come from?
Me: You came from me.
Him: No, I came from the store.

HA. If only it had been as easy as scanning his butt across the U-Scan and popping in a credit card!

Beckett got his first haircut today! He was NOT excited about it. At all. The entire process looked like this:




But he looks so cute and grown up. He went from this:



To this:

With the impending arrival of a third little person in our family, I joined a "due date club" as I have with my previous pregnancies. As I check in from day to day, it's becoming increasingly obvious to me that I really need to just stay away from those places this time around.

This is my third baby, so there's really nothing I have questions about or that is the "unknown." And there is only so much I can read from the clueless first time mommies before I can no longer sit on my hands to keep from typing, "Yes, lunch meat is going to make your baby grow five legs" or "Don't take a hot shower unless you want your uterus to spontaneously combust" or "You can totally feel your grape-size baby wiggling around already!" And my personal favorite, "Ew, GROSS, how dare someone offer you hand-me-downs for your precious little angel who only deserves top of the line designer duds?? How dare they touch your belly without getting PERMISSION???"

Seriously, I don't mean to be snarky. I was there once too. I remember being so incredibly neurotic during my pregnancy with Sawyer. It was insane. I was addicted to those mommy boards and felt the need to run and gab about every twinge, craving and doctor's appointment. And when he was born - holy cats on a cracker. I was the most over-protective and bitchy mom ever. I was the only one who was good enough for my baby and anyone even breathing in his general direction was a cause for concern.

The second time around, I did somewhat better and was more laid back. I still tended to get uppity about certain things though, and allowed myself to get involved in tiffs over breastfeeding or circumcision a little too often. Not quite out of the know-it-all phase of motherhood, I'm embarrassed to say.

This time, I am the most carefree I have ever been during a pregnancy. I welcome advice from people. I love that people rub my belly already, and I don't care if they don't ask first. I'm stoked every time someone offers me their baby's old clothes and gear, because we all know that crap is way too expensive for how short of a span it is used. I still *GASP* eat at Subway. And I don't give a hamster's hernia how other people choose to give birth or raise their kids. It is REFRESHING.

Maybe this is just the natural progression of motherhood coupled with getting older, I don't know. But I like it.

And on that note, I have to go teach my three-year-old why it's not cool to tell me he hates me. Oh boy, this is starting already?

We had "Breakfast with Santa" today, complete with pancakes and sausage. I had hopes of getting at least one picture with both boys in it, but as expected, Sawyer was in full-on "I'll cover my face and pretend no one can see me" mode and completely refused to sit anywhere near Santa. Beckett surprised me and didn't want to leave Santa's side.

(crappy quality, scanned)


This is as close as Sawyer got.

We still haven't gotten around to painting cookies, but I wanted to share the recipe I used. I search high and low every year for a good sugar cookie recipe and can never find one. It's always too sticky or too crumbly or expands too much and loses its shape. This one is PERFECT and tastes so good. The glaze is really easy and tasty too. Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

1 cup white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, almond and vanilla extracts, and egg yolk. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour until well blended. Chill the dough for 8 hours, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough 1/3 at a time to 1/8 inch thickness, refrigerating remaining dough until ready to use. Cut into desired shapes with lightly floured cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Leave cookies plain for frosting, or brush with slightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with candy sprinkles or colored sugar.

Bake for 7 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light and golden brown. Cool cookies completely before frosting.



Vanilla Glaze

1/3 cup butter or stick margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 4 tablespoons hot water

Melt better over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla. Stir in hot water 1 tablespoon at a time until consistency of thick syrup. Ice cookies immediately. Glaze will harden quickly.

Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen?? They do it all the time. <3





They crack me up.

I'm a scrooge this year. I'm not afraid to admit it.

I decided last week that I wouldn't put our Christmas tree up this year. The boys are young enough yet that they don't really care, and I get a headache just thinking about what fun it would be to constantly be chasing our two kittens out of the tree. They are into EVERYTHING still, being only 5 months old, and I think we'll have much better luck next year when they're more mellow.

DH and I also decided we aren't getting the boys any big gifts. We'll fill their stockings with small stuff and they will be perfectly content with that. I have always hated how commercialized Christmas is, and how it's all about who gives and gets the best gifts. Absolutely hate it. And I refuse to succumb to the hysteria.

Now, before I come off as the worst mom on the planet, I will say that we are traveling to Wisconsin to spend the holiday with my parents, and my mom does have her tree up. So they will still get to experience the lights and ornaments and wonderment there. She also will undoubtedly go overboard with gifts, so the boys will have plenty to rip into on Christmas morning.

We're also creating some new traditions to carry on through the years that I feel are more important and worthwhile than a bunch of gifts. Sawyer helped me make Christmas-shaped sugar cookies a couple days ago, and tomorrow I'll let both boys "paint" designs on them with icing. We're going to "Breakfast with Santa" this Saturday too, which will be the first time the boys have visited Santa. I'm still waiting for the first good snow to help them build their first snowman, but I'm thinking we'll just have to wait until we get to Wisconsin where the white stuff is plentiful.

I'm still thinking of other ideas to make the holidays fun for our family without breaking the bank. This little bambino I'm cooking was a huge surprise, and thus not planned for financially, so we really need to be careful with what we spend in the coming months. We have to get a new vehicle at some point, because three carseats won't fit in our Ford Focus. We also need to begin making payments to the midwife for the homebirth, since Indiana is backwards and insurance probably won't cover any of it.

Okay, so maybe I'm not so much a scrooge as just extra frugal this year - and all about making things easier on my extremely fatigued and morning sick self. I tend to get down on myself a lot for not being super mom and having elaborate Christmas-themed plans each day until the 25th, or a pristine house adorned with snowflakes and garlands in every room. But I'm getting better about realizing that it's not the quantity of what I do, but the memories I create for my kids that really matter.

This post was not supposed to be so serious, I swear! Tomorrow will be better with pictures of my crazy men covered in a rainbow of icings and loving every minute of it.

On a good note, my husband is awesome because he dyes my hair - and actually does a good job. No more roots!

Wow. It's been over a year since I cracked open the virtual pages of this thing. I just spent awhile reading over my tirades as a new mom of two and had a good chuckle. And then became terrified when I realized I'm doing that all over again, this time with three. Here's to hoping that the little bebe I'm cooking this time decides to take after her oldest brother and be the most mellow kid on the planet. Yes, that would be nice.

Last night, I was looking at pictures of our kittens from when we first got them, and said aloud to DH, "I don't remember them being that small!" That, of course, led me to pictures of the boys in their infancy and those days are all but a distant memory. Sawyer is now a very articulate and sensitive 3-and-a-half-year-old, and not nearly the terror he was at age two. Beckett will turn two soon, yet is still very much my little baby. Luckily, he's past the constant night-waking and crying all day, THANK YOU GODS. How is it that I can barely remember what it was like back then?

I decided today that I would start writing here again, because I NEED to be able to remember these times. I don't want to be looking at pictures a year from now and not know what my kids were like in them, how their laughs sounded, what antics they devised to drive me crazy yet make me giggle hysterically.

I need to remember what it was like to show Sawyer the first ultrasound picture of his new sibling at nine weeks gestation, and see his eyes light up with wonder when I told him it was a baby. "Oh, that is SO cool, Mommy!" Seriously priceless. He then declared to his father and me, "Mommy, you are having a girl baby. Daddy, you are having a Spiderman baby. And I want a boy baby." I definitely cannot allow myself to forget moments like that.

I need to be able to envision in my mind how warm and wonderful it feels when Beckett crawls onto the couch with me and snuggles up right against my face to look in my eyes. He doesn't say anything, just grins and giggles and plays with my hair. Such a mama's boy he is, and I love it.

Sawyer is becoming more loving and affectionate as well, constantly asking, "Mommy, do you love me?" and demanding hugs and kisses throughout the day. I am so lucky to have these moments with my children and it would really be a shame to just let them slip away into the past, unrecorded.

I am one of those slacker moms who is the victim of the digital age, with very VERY few printed pictures of my children. The ones hanging on the walls are all I have. I take so many and am so far behind now that it would take hours upon hours and cost a fortune to have them all printed. I haven't made tangible baby books either, which I feel awful about. It goes hand in hand with not writing hand-written letters to relatives or compiling photo albums of our family for my children.

I have to start somewhere, so getting our day to day life down in virtual format is as good a place as any. Some day I WILL have the time and money to get those pictures printed, and my kids will have books full of memories to look back upon. But for now, I'm happy just writing about our adventures here for safe keeping.

So, hello again!