Such language!

I'll be the first to admit that I have a pretty bad potty mouth at times, just never around my kids, because I really think they should be sheltered from that as long as possible. In all honesty, I don't know that I'd mind them knowing bad words in general, but right now they're too young to know how to use them so they're not hurtful towards others or ugly. Not that there's a good way to make a curse word "pretty" but anyway... And little kids saying naughty words is just too shocking and ugly in itself. So shelter, it is. But it's hard!

I know Aidan knows curse words, and just recently found out that Logan knows curse words as well, thanks to the bus. Apparently there was an incident at school where he told a friend how to spell a curse word (not sure which one, either hell or shit probably) because Logan refused to say it. When that got back to the teacher, he got so upset because he didn't want to know these words, but he couldn't help it because older kids on the bus were saying them.

His teachers sort of empowered him to be a "bad language monitor" so to speak, so if he heard other kids saying bad words, he could feel comfortable telling an adult (especially since his teacher said she could tell it made him so uncomfortable). Problem not really solved, but we moved on and still no bad words uttered from either of my boys' mouths under my watch, at least.

And then one of his parents (ahem, not me) dropped the f-bomb quietly, casually and completely accidentally last night, right in front of both Aidan and Logan. Oops! I gave this particular parent a serious stare-down and silently hoped that the slip went unnoticed. No such luck. Logan looked at me with eyes as big as saucers and whispered "Daddy just said the F-word!" We explained that it was a mistake, and he was sorry. But adults can and do choose to use adult language like that, and that still doesn't make it okay for kids to say those types of bad words.

Teachable moment or parenting fail? Probably both. Fortunately Logan (my overly sensitive one) didn't get upset about it. But that was definitely the first time they heard that word out of one of our mouths. I hope their innocence wasn't shattered too badly.



But even I'm guilty of exposing them to inappropriate language when I do something innocent like turn on the freakin' car radio. All of a sudden I hear Ke$ha talking about her coochie (sometimes that part is censored, sometimes not. I can never tell which version I'll get until that word pops up). I immediately changed the station to a song called "Detachable Penis." First of all, what?! And second of all, that station got changed in a hurry as well, because both boys like to read the name of each song that comes on. And then this morning, I turn the station again, and start jamming to J-Lo and Ja Rule's "I'm Real," when bam! The n-word. Seriously? Thank heavens I had already dropped Aidan and Logan off. But what happened to decency on the public airwaves or whatever? Geez! XM, get it together.



Although I guess if a few bad words is all they get out of some of those songs, I'll be lucky. Because the inappropriateness doesn't stop at bad words. I'd really rather not explain what Daft Punk and Pharrell mean by "Get Lucky" or what "Blurred Lines" Robin Thicke is singing about...

Sheltering kids is hard, man! It's a balance between protecting them from inappropriate things yet carefully exposing them to the world gradually on an age-appropriate level so they're not totally naive. And I'm not sure I've found that balance yet.



PS: for the record, and on the off chance that Adam is reading this, I wasn't mad enough to hate him forever, because it could have just as easily been me to let a bad word slip. I'm just glad it wasn't me.

I totally dropped the ball on Easter

Time for another round of mommy confessions. This time, I have to confess that I haven't even given a second thought to Easter until like right now. I think I've had a mental block that it's coming up, and I blame the stupid &@#!% cold weather. To me, Easter=Spring, and it most definitely doesn't feel like spring here in central NC. This time last year, my daffodils were in bloom and we were rocking the t-shirts (thanks, Timehop app for rubbing it in, ha!). At least we don't have snow like so many others, but this is not Easter weather.

So this is where I start to freak out. I don't have a single thing for the baskets, haven't stuffed plastic eggs for Lorelai's party at school this week, haven't bought dye or even planned any time to decorate eggs, haven't thought up clues for the annual Easter morning egg treasure hunt...Oh my. And honestly, my work schedule is so busy this week I'm not sure if I'll have time to run out and shop. I really don't know what I'm going to do and I'm so mad at myself for not planning ahead.

And we literally just now (as I'm typing--Adam's on the phone) figured out who's hosting dinner. Thankfully, Adam's parents volunteered this year because as much as I loved having it at our house last year, right now our house is a total sty and our yard is a complete overgrown mess with not a flower in sight. So bad.

Andplusalso? Which dress am I going to choose for Lorelai to wear? Gah!


If only this were my biggest dilemma right now... Sigh. But at least we already have a dress for her, thanks to hand-me-downs from my sister!


I need to seriously get my butt in gear. Not cool, Becky. This is one of the holidays for the memory books (in my mind) so I want to make it special and memorable with lovely traditions and good family memories.

Linking up with Heather and Megan:

Reality check + "cookies"

As I wiped off the counter tonight--with the smell of freshly baked "cookies" in the air, lunches made, homework done, and dinner in the oven--I couldn't help but feel so accomplished.

And then I had a reality check, because it was frozen pizza (with cheese that fell to the bottom of the oven and almost set the smoke alarm off) that was cold before Adam even made it home, and I had already had one huge #momfail of the day: I didn't make it to the bus stop in time from work so Aidan and Logan were upset and had to ride around for an extra 25 minutes until the end of the normal route (on the plus side, at least the bus driver doesn't leave them to roam the neighborhood by themselves...).

Clearly I'm in no danger of setting the bar too high for myself anytime soon. Oh well, at least I can console myself with relatively guilt-free banana oatmeal "cookies."



PS: It's just 3 really ripe bananas smushed up and mixed with a cup-ish of quick cook oats, a bit of cinnamon and some chocolate chips. Bake for 15 min at 350. Or just eat the batter, because it's almost better than the finished product.

A toddler bed fail...but a pacifier win??

I had grand plans this weekend to transition Lorelai to a toddler bed in the hopes that it would help with her overnight pee issue. If she can get out of bed herself at night, maybe she'd come get us when she had to pee? No guarantee, but worth a shot, right? And since she's basically day time potty trained, this is the next logical step to fully potty trained anyway.

So we secured all her furniture to the walls so she'd be safe unsupervised, and took the crib rail off.



She was very excited to play in her new bed and pretend to nap in there with Aidan, so I figured she'd be good to go at bedtime. But apparently she was all talk, no game. Because as soon as I turned out the lights and tried to lay her down, she freaked out and pulled every last blanket and toy off her bed and refused to go near it until I put the crib rail back on. Total fail.

Call me naive, I really had no expectations that this would be a difficult transition at all for her. Aidan easily moved to a twin bed right at 2 years old (to free up the crib for Logan on the way) and Logan had no problem doing the toddler bed thing when he was (I thought) the same age as Lorelai now. Could be that he was older, but either way, 2 out of 3 transitions were a total breeze. But just my luck, third time wasn't a charm. It's like I have three completely different kids or something ;)

BUT...since I had already steeled myself for a long night of being up with Lorelai in case she fell out of bed or took advantage of her new found freedom, I figured I might as well do something else huge instead. Yep, we went cold turkey on the paci.

We had already weaned her down to just nighttime and naps at home a while ago (funny enough, she hasn't napped with a paci at daycare for a year and a half) and she knew the paci always stayed in the crib, but it was time to take that last step and get rid of them for good.

I didn't have a real plan going in because I was debating whether to do the paci fairy or something else along those lines. I had previously mentioned several times that it might be time for the paci fairy to come and take her pacifiers to a new baby who needed them, but she didn't seem to like that idea at all so I didn't really know what to do.

So on a whim, I went with the "oops, I must have lost your pacis, I'll go look for them" trick, tucked her in and left with no intention of coming back in with them (she sleeps with two). Of course she cried for them, so I made a show out of looking for them under her covers and distracted her by taking her to the potty. She woke up crying like 4 more times that night (all while Adam and I were still awake, so not too bad for us), but amazingly, she only asked for the paci that first time.


Shhhh, they're in my sock drawer just in case!

That was on Saturday, so at nap on Sunday, she asked for them again. We looked under her bed and my bed with no luck (obvs), and she went to sleep just fine (although didn't sleep as long as usual, maybe coincidence). Sunday night was the exact same thing--she asked about them, we looked, and she slept fine without one. Tonight, she asked, I said they were still lost and she seemed fine with it.

I don't know if it's too soon to tell, but it's looking like we're pacifier free now, woohoo! And if it sticks, it's really not nearly as bad as I had anticipated.

And if I had to choose, I'd choose the paci win over the toddler bed because to be honest, I'm not all that upset that she's still contained at night. It's more peace of mind for me that she can't get into mischief while no one is looking...or go wake up the boys or crawl into bed with us!

Maybe we'll try the toddler bed again in a month or two...who knows. There really isn't any pressure, thank goodness!

"Because you like her better"

Is it a parenting fail when one of your children fully believes you like his sister better than him? Is it also a parenting fail when you let the little sister get away with murder, simply because she pitches a bigger fit and is entirely more unreasonable than him, and therefore it's no wonder he believes that?

Last night, when I gave Lorelai the banana she was begging for to pacify her while I cooked dinner, Logan and Aidan both asked for one as well. I simply asked if they wouldn't mind waiting until dinner, and Logan's response broke my heart. He said, "but you gave Lorelai her banana already." When I asked why he thought I did that, with tears in his eyes, he responded quitely "because you like her better."

The answer I was going for was more along the lines of "she was near the hot stove crying and reaching for a banana and she's still a baby and doesn't understand how to be patient yet, let alone the fact that getting under Mommy's feet while she's carrying a pot of boiling water is a terrible idea."

I had no idea that thought was even on his mind. But honestly, I can totally see why he would think that. Heck, my Facebook friends, Instagram followers and blog readers probably think I like Lorelai the best, too, due to the disproportionate number of pictures I take of her compared to the boys.

For the record, it's not true. I reassured Logan that I love all of them the same, even if I sometimes treat them differently. I do coddle Lorelai more, and give in to her whining more than I probably should, and definitely more than I do with the boys. But I explained that since she's younger she can't do as many things for herself, so we all have to help her. (And he really does like to help her, so I think he got it.)

This face. How can you resist this face? None of us can, Aidan and Logan included.

Then I agreed that I was being unfair by not giving him a banana right then, and apologized. I'm really going to have to get better about being fair whenever I can, because I don't want anyone to think I'm playing favorites.

And just as soon as I can get my boys attached to my hip again and not run away whenever I shove the camera in their face, I'll have an equal number of pictures of them to be fair :)

Happy New Year!

Well hello there, 2012. We started off the year on a fun note at my friends' annual New Year's Eve party while my mom had a slumber party at our house with the kids. I tried (and failed) to stay on my feet all night in my new party shoes. There may or may not have been some adult beverages involved, but the real culprit is the fact that I have no experience in 5-inch platform heels (I swear, and you can't convince me otherwise!). But they were only 15 bucks and go with my navy dress, so I just couldn't pass them up, walking be damned.

My heel got caught in the back deck and down I went. Hoping for better luck when I wear
them to my company party in a few weeks!

After a lazy morning on the couch recovering from a fun night (me and Adam) and trying to recover from a mysterious case of the hives (Aidan), the kids and I went to watch Adam play in an alumni soccer game at our high school. We enjoyed the nice 60 degree weather (before the cold blows in) and Adam started of the new year with some exercise, good for him!

Having fun on the bleachers, but check out those hives! My poor Aidan :(

Let's just hope that me falling on my butt and Aidan having hives aren't a sign of the year to come. (Oh, and my possible case of pink eye. Yeah, awesome.) Seems like all the best stuff happens for me during the even years: my birth (obvs), getting married, kids being born...so I have high hopes for 2012. (Though there will be no more marriages or kids for me, ha!) A trip to London is in the works, so that should be a real highlight!

So I don't usually declare any official resolutions, but I do have some goals I want to achieve. I guess they're technically resolutions, whatever.

• Start running again. I got lazy after the 10k in October, and with the shorter days, colder weather, holidays and sickness I've been dealing with, I pretty much quit running. I'm hoping I haven't lost all of my endurance, but I'm definitely going to try my hardest to make time for exercise starting soon. Maybe I'll start with yoga while it's really cold, but I really do want to run in another race in 2012, so I've got to start training again.
• Take better photos. Adam and the boys got me a nice new camera lens for Christmas and I'd love to learn how to use it, and my camera better. 
• Get better about sharing/maintaining my photos. I'm so bad about leaving pictures on my camera, building up a huge backlog of unedited and more importantly, unshared photos. I should also really catch up with my photo albums, but I've got almost 2 years of unprinted photos that need to be in an album, and that's just plain daunting, so I'll just start by posting them more often (on the blog and Facebook). What good is a photo if no one ever sees it? Which leads me to my next one...
• Blog more regularly. Even if it's just a few words and couple of pictures. I started this blog with the best of intentions, and I disappointed myself that I didn't keep up with it like I had planned. 
• Do more Pinterest projects. I've spent so much time pinning tons of cool things, I really need to follow through. There's a sunburst mirror I'm dying to DIY (even though sunburst mirrors are SO 2011, lol).
• Organize my house. The boys' closet is piled high with toys, the linen closet is bursting at the seams, half of the garage is almost unusable, and the desk in the middle of our kitchen/living room is a total eyesore. I will organize at LEAST one of those spaces this year.
• Paint the kitchen cabinets. I've got to put this one on here. Adam and I are know to be all talk, little action, so I don't want that huge portion of our kitchen renovation to go undone. Since we're planning on tackling it ourselves, it's a time-consuming project that has procrastination written all over it!

Of course I'd also like to eat more healthy, but I've already tried and failed miserably, so I won't set myself up for failure yet again. But these goals seem manageable to me, so we'll see how well I do. I've got a whole 12 months, that's plenty of time! (Famous last words, right?!)

Happy New Year!

(c)OUCH! to 5k update

I feel like a total failure. I just finished week 3 of my couch to 5K program and my muscles aren't sore at all, but oh my aching ankles, knees and hips! I've definitely got some sort of injury going on here, although I have no idea what it is. Dr. Google tells me it might be tendonitis (achilles? posterior tibial?) or iliotibial band syndrome, or...?

Ice packs everywhere. Poor me.

Whatever it is, I hope it's just an unfortunate coincidence that this all happens right after I get brand spankin' new running shoes. I was so excited to go to a running store and get fitted for shoes to replace my seven-year-old beaters (which I'm pretty sure weren't even actual running shoes anyway). That was kind of awkward, by the way, because the dude watched me run. I kept thinking I should have worn a sports bra and was hoping I didn't run like Phoebe. Apparently I don't pronate, so he put me in a neutral shoe (a Saucony) that feels like I'm running on clouds. Ok, felt. That first run with the new shoes was great. Since then? Not so much. {Sad face}

I know I tweaked my ankle after my first run with the new shoes and I think maybe the next time I ran, I ran differently because of it, which then caused my other ankle and my knees to hurt (that happened to me before in high school and caused achilles tendonitis). Either that, or the new shoes totally screwed up the way I run and caused my injuries. {Mad face}

Anyway, I've decided that the pain has sidelined me for a little while until I stop walking around like a geriatric patient. I would hate to make anything worse to the point that I can't run anymore. So I'll be in the pool this week, which is perfectly convenient since the boys are getting swim lesson from my Aunt this week.

And I'll keep icing my ankles and knees and poppin' the ibuprofen until I'm as good as new!

my new bff

So has anyone else had pain after getting new shoes? Did it go away quickly? Any advice? Should I just give up and accept my place on the couch?

Me versus the sweet potato

I think the sweet potatoes I buy must know how much I hate them, because they've waged a war with me. For the second time, I've tried to make sweet potato puree for Lorelai, and for the second time, I failed big time. As in, "almost up in flames" fail.

Supposedly, the best way to cook a sweet potato is to bake it, because you retain the most nutrients and sweet flavor that way. Blah blah blah. So attempt number one last weekend was to bake the stupid thing until it was soft enough to puree. I poked holes in it, got it wet, then wrapped it in foil and baked for 45 minutes. I checked and it still wasn't done, so I put it back in for 15 minutes. I thought it was done, so I sliced it in half. It was still a bit hard in the center, so I put it back in the oven for about 10 more minutes. It seemed done, so I scooped the potato into the food processor and blended until smooth. Except, it never got smooth, because it turns out that the stupid, @#$!ing sweet potato wasn't fully cooked soft enough. I tried using the blender, the food processor, the hand masher, and even my hands to get those hard pieces blended. Nothing worked, so I did the next most logical thing—threw a major temper tantrum and tossed it all down the drain.

I figured baking just wasn't the way to go for me, so attempt number two today was to get another potato, cut it into little tiny pieces and steam it in a steamer basket on the stove. Since I was paranoid about it not being soft enough like last time, I left the pot on the stove a little (read: a LOT) too long, which I only noticed after I smelled smoke, and realized the sweet potatoes were buring and the pot was about to catch on fire. Just awesome. I had to throw that whole batch away too, along with the pot, which was burnt beyond repair. And our entire house STILL smells like smoke...5 hours later.

Now I know why I always boiled my sweet potatoes when I made them for the boys. Screw nutritional value, my pots and my sanity can't handle any more failed attempts at cooking nasty sweet potatoes!

And whenever I do get them made, I REALLY hope Lorelai loves them so my hard work wasn't all for nothing!