Happy New Year!!

Let me be the first to wish you a happy, healthy 2009, and a year full of laughter and love.

Our New Year's Eve plans are...well, I'm sitting here at the computer, so you know we're not doing anything exciting. Corey had to work something like 28 hours today (it seemed like that anyway) and he has to go back to work early tomorrow morning, so he has no energy. Me, I'm up past midnight half the time anyway, with insomnia, so staying up late is no big whoop to me.

I know...I've been away from my blog for a WHOLE WEEK. Just winding down from Christmas and getting back in the groove of everyday life, mostly. Christmas is exhausting, to say the least!

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were lots of fun for Milo. Corey had to work late Christmas Eve, so Milo and I did all the getting-ready-for-Santa stuff before Corey came home. We put out cookies for Santa, and made sure the present was where Santa could find it, and went outside and sprinkled seeds and carrots for the reindeer to nibble on. Then, after supper, Milo and I sat at the kitchen table and made lots and lots of construction paper snowflakes for Santa. Milo was so proud of his. I'll bet Santa's tree was smothered in those snowflakes when he took them home for Mrs. C to hang up. :)

Milo finally went to bed around 8:30pm on Christmas Eve. We gave him 15 minutes of getting-drowsy time, and then I sneaked out the front door with a string of jingle bells, and jingled my way around the house, and made sure to make extra noise outside of Milo's bedroom window. I tiptoed back in, and asked Corey if Milo said anything. Corey said that Milo didn't say a word, so I stuck my head in Milo's room to see if he was still awake. He was, and had the blanket pulled up around his ears. I asked Milo if he heard anything, because I was downstairs doing laundry, and thought maybe I heard Santa go by, but I wasn't sure. Milo said, "Yeah, Santa went right by the house. We have to get in bed so he comes here!!" I said okay, and kissed Milo goodnight. Five minutes later Milo was asleep, so Corey and I could run around doing all the Santa evidence: eating cookies, opening the present, leaving a note, picking up the snowflakes, and of course, leaving lots and lots of gifts under the tree.

Santa was here!!

Christmas morning we were all up by 6:30 am, and Milo was most impressed by all the stuff under the tree. Every present that he opened, Milo said, "It's perfect, it's just what I wanted!" We were starting to think we could have wrapped up a pair of dirty socks and said it was from Santa, and the kid would have been happy. Anyway, Milo got everything he wished for, because he was such a good boy: Lots of Transformers, especially Bumblebee, the Speed Racer remote control car with a guy inside, a space station, Legos, a Wall-E robot and a Hess truck. Then we were off to Grandma Carolynn and Grandpa Bob's for breakfast and more gifts from Santa. Besides, Wall-E, Milo is into Buzz Lightyear right now also, so Santa thoughtfully left Wall-E's girlfriend, Eve, some Buzz toys, and some Batman toys at their house. (He got a Batcave. That is so cool! We play with it lots, and use all kinds of action figures for the bad guys. Bionicles from McD's make really good bad guys, if you're interested.)

After that, we were off to Grandmom and Grandpop's for lunch, to see them, Aunt Heather, Jordan and Mister Don. Santa left yet more Transformers stuff at their house, along with the Wall-E movie! Jeez, the kid really did have an in with Santa this year. Then we were home in the afternoon, and we opened up all the toys and made a huge mess in the living room and watched Wall-E while Corey cooked us a fantabulous prime rib for dinner. All in all, it was a really good Christmas, one of the most fun for me, just because of how much Milo enjoyed himself.

Then, this past Sunday another Christmas miracle occurred: I took the outside Christmas lights and decorations down. This is an unheard-of happening; usually the lights stay up until at least March, and some of them have been out there since last year. It was such a nice day on Sunday that Milo and I decided to take advantage of the weather and spend a couple hours outside. We took down everything we could reach, and left the way-high lights for Corey to tackle. I'm terrified of falling off the ladder, so anything that was more than six feet off the ground stayed up, which were the lights along the roof and up at the top of the tall pine tree in our front yard. By the way, I was out there in a short sleeved shirt and jeans, no jacket...at the end of December, in NJ. (and today it's windy, cold and snowy) Bizarro! While I was taking the lights down, Milo was pulling all the seeds out of the flowers in the front flowerbed and planting them throughout the front yard. We will have some interesting landscaping come springtime.

There are videos of Christmas Day, but I haven't gotten around to downloading them yet. They will be coming soon, I promise. I know you're breathless with anticipation :)

Oh yeah, for Christmas dinner's dessert, I made a totally awesome coconut cream pie. I am way proud of my mad pie-making skills. Who knew I had it in me?

Keep an eye on the sky

Keep a lookout for Santa! You can track Santa as he goes around the world at www.noradsanta.org

Have a wonderful, merry Christmas!!

Led Zeppelin are guitar superheroes

Milo's new favorite band is Led Zeppelin. He's always kind of liked them, but lately, every time we're in the truck, it's "Can we listen to the Zeppelin, Mom?" That's cool with me, although I would much rather listen to the Buffett, myself. Lucky for Milo, I have a bunch of Zeppelin CDs. (more on that later)

We had a very adult conversation the other day while we were cruising along, listening to the Zeppelin. Milo pointed out that Zeppelin plays different music than Jimmy Buffett. I said, "Yep." Then Milo went on to say that there is a lot more guitar and it's different than Buffett also. I said "Yep." I asked him why he thought the music was so different. He said because there's more guys in Zeppelin playing guitar. I told Milo he was right, and then I told him that also, Jimmy Buffett's songs are all basically only three or four simple chords, repeated over and over. That's why they're so darn catchy. Zeppelin, on the other hand, plays really complicated chords. So Milo said "Does that mean the Zeppelin are like guitar superheroes?" I said, "Yep, pretty much." He was most impressed by that info.

So anyway, here's the funny backstory to Milo's love of Led Zeppelin. I have always tolerated their music but never really liked it. Then, when I was pregnant with Milo, instead of having cravings for food, all of a sudden I developed an intense and devout love of Led Zeppelin. I went out and bought the entire collection in a box set, and listened to it constantly, for months, the whole time I was pregnant, when I wasn't listening to Jimmy Buffett. Then, after Milo was born, I could have cared less about Zeppelin again. Hearing all that while he was in the womb must have warped Milo's mind, because now he loves Zeppelin too!

Milo's current favorite two Led Zep songs:

Black Dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdlg3Q0NzJo

The Immigrant Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwG8WXYAHR0

You should see that kid rocking out in the backseat of the truck when those are on. It is stinkin' hilarious! I'm so glad he likes cool music and that we're not stuck listening to the Wiggles or Raffi on an everyday basis!

You'll never guess where Milo gets his hair cut

Today Milo got his first big boy haircut, in a real........hardware store!!! At least that's what he told everyone when we went to the grocery store afterward. Of course, he really got his 'do done at the barbershop in town.

While we were out and about doing errands, I decided on a whim that Milo was going to get a 'real' haircut, because he needed one badly, and I didn't feel like wrestling with him and the clippers at the same time. I took Milo to John's Barbershop and let him spend a while watching a couple of guys get their hair cut. Milo was mostly interested in the big chair, and kept saying to me that he wasn't going to get his hair cut today, because he was a little bit nervous about it, even though I promised to let him have a donut for lunch if he did do the haircut. Then Milo spotted a backgammon game table, and asked me if he could play that. I said, "Sure, if you let the guy cut your hair." That did the trick! They had a special chair for little kids that looks like a fire engine, with a steering wheel and a bell that he could ring. Milo sat in that chair like a statue (except for the hand that was ringing the bell) and let the guy give him a very nice grown-up haircut.

I'm glad we got that first one out of the way, now I can take Milo there whenever he needs to get his fur trimmed, and he'll know what to expect. And yes, I did let him have a donut with his lunch, and Milo also got a lollipop from the guy. Plus, he got major props when we went to the grocery store, and all the ladies in there noticed how handsome he looked. Milo is a celebrity at Daddy's store, let me tell you. He's like Norm on Cheers used to be, when we walk in the store, there's always a big round of "MILO!!"

The only downer about the whole haircut experience is that I haven't had my hair cut by a professional in so long, I forgot all about the tip. That was the first question Corey asked when he got home tonight, too. Dang it. So I will put a couple bucks in an envelope and stop by the barbershop tomorrow. How embarrassing. The barber must have thought I was a total Scrooge!

you won't believe it

Two wonderful things happened today:

1) Lily and Quinn were left home alone for a few hours, and did not escape the kitchen and did not attack the tree. Marvelous!

2) Milo got yet ANOTHER letter from Santa! Holy cow, is that kid ever in good with the big guy!!

try, try again....

Call me crazy, but Milo and I put the rest of the ornaments on the tree today. I was seriously tempted to leave the tree mostly naked after the Lily incident....but I knew I would regret it later if we didn't decorate the tree. Normally, I go for the 'less is more' approach on the tree. We have tons of ornaments, but we don't usually use them all. Milo had a completely opposite goal in mind. He insisted on using everything in every box I took out for him. Little did he know that I had more boxes still in the attic, full of the fragile and older ornaments. I looked at the tree after Milo went to bed and decided to hell with it, it's all going on there. I went upstairs and got the rest of the boxes, and put as many of the ornaments as would fit, in the higher regions of the tree. I would have to say the result is the most decorated tree we've ever had!


The tree...before being truly decorated, and after the Lily incident. Kind of sparse, but a look I could live with :)

And after we were done with it. This blue spruce doesn't know what hit it! The angel at the top of the tree is the one my family always used when I was a kid. She hasn't seen the light of day in at least 15 years, but for some reason, this year, she just seemed right for the tree. Too bad I cut her head off in the picture!

It's great to be friends with Santa!

We've been so busy hanging around with Santa and getting ready for Christmas, at this point Milo thinks he's a close personal friend of the big guy. Just last week, Milo received this letter from Santa, complete with stickers, as proof that Santa was listening when we went to see him at the mall. One of Santa's elves, named Aunt Heather, helped Santa with writing the letter and decorating the envelope.

And then of course, we had our magical night out with Santa last weekend, in which we visited Santa, followed the Christmas Parade AND saw Rudolph way up in the sky. Here's the photos as promised....

And to top it all off, yesterday, this card came addressed to Milo. I didn't know anything about this one. We didn't sign up for anything or tell Santa our names when we were at the tree lighting last week, and had no idea that Santa really could track us down and mail us a letter. Imagine my surprise when I opened the envelope for Milo. Of course, I burst into tears, because of the magic of it. Milo just said "Wow, cool!" And look: It's signed IN INK!!! That's how you know it's for real!

And last but not least, while we were wrapping some gifts today, Milo decided that he had to wrap a present for Santa, since Santa is so nice to him. I told Milo to go in his room and find something that Santa might like. First Milo came out with Oliver Bear, who is Milo's bestest friend and most beloved toy. I thought that was unbearably sweet, and explained to Milo that if he gives Oliver to Santa, that means Santa will keep him. Milo said "Oh!! I'll be right back," and rushed into his room to find something else. He came back with another toy that he likes a lot, but not nearly as much as Oliver. Milo proceeded to wrap that one in scraps of wrapping paper, and topped it off with a bow. Then he saw that I had been writing out labels for the gifts, so he wanted to make a label for Santa's present too. No way could Milo's kid writing fit on a regular gift tag, so we made one out of a big piece of wrapping paper. Milo was so proud to put the wrapped present under the tree, so Santa will find it on Christmas Eve. Don't worry, there will be cookies for Santa, too, along with carrots for the reindeer.

Hmmm...what do Christmas ornaments taste like?

Apparently, this is a question that Lily desperately needed to answer while we were away at work today. I knew I should have locked the dogs in the kitchen this morning, to protect the Christmas tree from Lily, but I didn't do it, in the vain hopes that Lily would behave herself.

And so, we came home to this vision of destruction. Thank goodness she only ate the ornaments, and not the lights too. The ornaments were of the plastic variety, and somehow, she managed to not eat the hooks or the strings, so we're not too worried about Lily's insides.

Milo was very sad when he realized that Lily ate one of his favorite green star ornaments. I'm just glad that we only put on a few ornaments as a test run, to see how the dogs would do. All in all, Lily ate or destroyed about a dozen of them.

Life with that dog is always interesting, to say the least! For the rest of the holiday season, she and Quinn will be safely locked away in the kitchen whenever we go out. God only knows what she'll find to destroy in there....

Don't lie still in our backyard

Or the vultures will get ya! The other day, we were outside with the dogs, when I happened to look skyward and see a bunch of vultures lurking in the neighbor's tree. I was worried for Monet, since she's so fat and slow, but they weren't the least bit interested in her kitty carcass. They didn't go after the neighbor's tiny dog either. I guess moving animals are too much to deal with.

The vultures hung around for at least an hour, and they were creeping me out the whole time. I suppose that there was something tasty in the field behind our house, because the duck hunters have been actively shooting away back there.

And yes, every year when the duck hunters set up their blind, I'm tempted to go back there and put a sign up that says "It's wabbit season." Although if they're not into Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, they totally wouldn't get the joke!

Milo has decided....

That when he grows up, he wants to be....SANTA CLAUS. I was informed of this on the way home from our festivities tonight, and he also told Corey that as soon as we walked in the door.

I'd say that's a pretty good goal to aim for. What's not to love about being Santa? Plus, Milo's so outgoing and sweet, he would definitely make a great Santa.

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I also learned two new things today from Milo, and I'm quoting verbatim:

"The potty is a really good place to pee, Mom. You don't make a mess that way."

and

"Hand me that rump rope over there, will you?" When I asked if he meant jump rope, I was told that "NO, it's a rump rope!" I suppose the way Milo plays jump rope, it is a rump rope, because most of the time Milo ends up falling flat on his butt!

I Still Believe in Santa!

Tonight I took Milo to the New Egypt Christmas tree lighting. Corey and I used to go every year when we lived there, because I loooooove to watch Santa arrive on the firetruck. Anyhoo, with Milo being so into Santa, I thought it would be fun to take him to see the kids sing Christmas carols, and to watch Santa show up on the firetruck. It was better than ever this year....it was totally magical!

The tree lighting took all of two seconds, and then we had to wait for Santa. While we were waiting, we chatted with Aunt Heather and Mister Don, and saw Milo's friend Peyton and her mom. Then we heard the fire siren, and of course, I got all excited, and took Milo up to the area where the firetruck would pull up. You know me, I started getting misty as soon as we saw the fire truck come around the corner. Milo was thrilled to see Santa on the firetruck, and then....the firetruck stopped right in front of us! Here's where it gets really good: Just as Santa and Mrs. C were climbing down off the fire truck, it started to snow!! Jeez, as if I wasn't already crying enough...I got really choked up right then.

Milo totally rushed Santa and wanted to talk to him, so we had to get in line and wait. I didn't expect that Milo would want to see Santa again, but he really, really did. So we stood in line for a half hour or so, and Milo was very, very patient. Finally, it was our turn. Santa and Mrs. C were sitting in the gazebo that is by the lake. Milo started to go up the steps, and then turned around and said to me, Aunt Heather and Mister Don: "Wait right here, I will do this by myself." I told Milo that I had to be in the general area, and he said "No, don't be in the area." At this point, I was trying my best not to laugh. Then Milo turned and went to Santa and Mrs. C and started talking their ears off. I heard Milo say that he wants a Bumblebee for Christmas, and I could tell that the Clauses were totally befuddled, but since I wasn't allowed in the area, I couldn't help them. (Good thing Santa already delivered that particular Transformer to Aunt Heather's house!) Then Milo kept on talking. Santa and Mrs. C were saying things like "Merry Christmas, Milo," and "Happy holidays, Milo" as they were trying to politely push him away. Milo finally turned around, and then he saw the camera, so he had to stop and say "Cheese," to the camera guy. I had completely succumbed to the giggles by this time...the kid is such an uncontrollable ham!

After that, we walked back to IGA, where we had parked the truck. Milo had to use the bathroom in the store, so we did that and then got some stuff we needed for home. As we were walking to the truck, in the snow, we heard very loud Christmas music. We stopped and watched the street, and here came Santa and Mrs. C on a decorated flatbed trailer, and they were with a real live band and singing Christmas carols. That was totally awesome and unexpected. Milo wanted to be part of the "Christmas parade," as he called it, so I caught up with it a little ways down the street, and we followed Santa for a while. We had the windows down in the truck so we could hear the music, and Milo was practically hanging out the window waving at everyone who was waving at Santa.

Finally, I passed the Christmas parade because we needed to get home sometime tonight. Right after that, we happened to drive by a radio tower that had a blinking red light at the top. I pointed the light out to Milo and asked him what he thought it was. The answer of course was that it was Rudolph!! I told Milo that he was right, and that Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer were in a holding pattern, waiting for Santa to get done with the Christmas parade. Milo couldn't believe that Rudolph was RIGHT THERE in the sky.

And the best part of the whole story, according to Milo? Santa and Mrs. C gave Milo a candy cane, of course, and he was allowed to eat it the minute he got home!! Holy cow, what a perfect way to end such a big adventure!

** The pictures from this grand evening will come later, I have to pick them up later in the week.**

Popcorn for lunch

Today, Milo and I went on a grand adventure: We went to the movies!! We went to see Bolt, the new Disney movie about a dog who thinks he's a super-hero, but really, he's just a regular dog. This is technically Milo's second "real" movie, but it's the first one he actually sat through and paid attention to. (The first attempt, made last year, was Ratatouille, and that movie pretty much sucked. We would have left halfway through it anyway, even if Milo hadn't been talking loudly and fidgeting all over the place.)

I've been watching the trailers for Bolt and thought it would be a Milo-style movie, lots of action and zippy stuff going on, without being too long. Milo loved it, from the previews to the end, thank goodness. What I loved about it: We were the only two people in the movie theater!

On the way there, I told Milo that to watch a movie in the theater, we have to be quiet and sit still, and he said okay. I was very surprised, and proud! when Milo actually managed to do both of those things the whole time. It helped that we had vats of popcorn and high fructose corn syrup-based beverage to sustain us. We went to the 11:30 AM showing, so that was our lunch date for today. Good fun!

Corey and I don't go to the movies much anymore at all. This is only the second one I've seen this year, so I did almost have a heart attack when the matinee cost was $8 each, and then the vat of movie food was another $12. I can't believe it costs so much moolah just to take your kid to a movie these days. I knew I should have sneaked food in under my coat!!

Bolt (the dog), Mittens (the cat) and Rhino (the hamster, and far and away the funniest character).

Thanksgiving snippets

We spent Thanksgiving day at home, just the three of us. I made the all-out turkey dinner, and even brazenly attempted a pumpkin pie, which turned out great. In honor of the day, Milo and I made "Pete" the turkey for the dining room table centerpiece. The night before I stayed up late, cackling to myself as I hot glued felt on a styrofoam ball, and cut out the pieces we would need for the rest of Pete's parts. (Why the turkey is named Pete, I'll never know, ask my kid.) Milo had fun tracing his hands and coloring them in, and then gluing on Pete's head, wings and tail.

The best part about Thanksgiving this year, as far as I'm concerned: I was in bed and sleeping by 9pm! Woo hoo! That is unheard of on a holiday, and I appreciated it deeply.

The weird part about Thanksgiving this year: The bird cooked in under 3 hours! I wasn't prepared for that eventuality, but thankfully my hubby the Hot Foods King was home to assist. He saved the day by telling me to turn down the oven to 250 and just let the bird coast for awhile until right before I was ready to cook everything else. I listened to the instructions (for once!) and everything was fine. I was even so brave as to use the broiler to brown up the turkey. The broiler frightens me. I worry that the oven will explode, but all was well, and the turkey was delish.

Then on Sunday afternoon, we joined the rest of Corey's family at his parents' house for a big Thanksgiving celebration. It was great to see everyone, and Milo had the most fun of all, because one of the big kids brought his Wii. Mark was so nice as to teach Milo how to use the Wii controllers and let Milo play all the games that the big kids were playing. Milo felt so important to be allowed to play with the big kids. He even sat at the big kid table and ate his dinner, and wanted nothing to do with Corey or I. It was a big day of being a big kid for Milo!

Pete the turkey centerpiece, surrounded by his plastic gourd friends. Milo very artfully arranged the gourds and pinecones on a napkin, so we left it that way.

Milo with Corey's uncle Steven and baby Gabby. Baby Gabby is the daughter of another one of Corey's aunts, and Milo was just fascinated with her.

Grandpa Bob, Milo, Milo's cousins Jill and Mark, all playing Wii games.

Forget Thanksgiving...we went BOWLING!!!

Milo's cousin Jordan is on the bowling team at his school, and asked me if he could take Milo bowling sometime. I love to bowl although I am downright terrible at it, so we set up a date with Milo and I, Jordan and Jordan's mom (my sistah) this past Saturday. It was the most fun ever! Jordan blew us out of the water, and Heather wasn't too bad herself. I bowled a whole 15 as my high score, and Milo beat me with a score of 23!

Milo had a fantastic time and did not want to leave, but we had to give it up after three games because my wrist and legs were bothering me from hefting the bowling ball. (I know, I'm wimpy and I'm out of shape.) No, we did not give in to the temptation of bumpers, because Milo was having so much fun just BEING there, that when his ball actually did make it down the lane, the thrill was just an added bonus.

Watching Milo's ball roll down the lane was in total slo-mo most of the time. Sometimes the ball would just stop before it ever made it all the way. At one point, there were four balls in the gutter, and then they started rolling back toward us, which was the height of hilarity.

I asked Jordan if he thought the bowling date was everything he thought it would be, and he rolled his eyes dramatically and said "Oh...and more." I'm sure he was totally embarrassed by our enthusiastic ineptitude!

So, the videos: The first one is of Milo's first time ever bowling a real bowling ball down the lane. Jordan gives him a brief explanation of what the heck Milo is supposed to do. Then we have the classic bowling pratfall, followed by Milo's love o' bowling. The last video is kind of long and boring, but it gets worth it toward the end (fast forward if you want to, believe me, I won't be offended). Milo's ball actually makes it all the way to the end without going in the gutter, and he hits some pins for the first time! Wooooooo!

Please forgive the poor camera-manning...I'm still learning how to use the thing and didn't realize that if you turn it sideways, the picture doesn't follow suit. You'll see what I mean...and then you say..."Duh, what were you thinking?"

a little ditty for you

Please excuse the fun with zooming at the beginning here, we haven't figured out how to edit the videos yet.

In case you had trouble understanding Milo, the words are "I like mine with lettuce and tomatoes, heinz 57 and french fried potatoes. Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer. Good God almighty which way do I steer for a cheeseburger in paradise?" and then the big musical finish.

It was a hard day at the office

You know you're exhausted when you're so tired you can't even finish your favorite supper without falling asleep in it.

Milo passed out while he was eating dinner on Thursday. We had apparently had way too much fun that day. Milo was jumping out of his skin all day long because he was watching Corey put up the Christmas lights outside. (Yes it's a bit early, but Corey was on vacation and had the time to do it.) According to Milo, Christmas lights are necessary so Santa can see our house. Well, Santa will be able to see our house from outer space with no problems at all. When we first plugged the lights in, we blew the circuit breaker in the house. Our original plan was to decorate the house and the two big pine trees we have out front, and put big bows on them as toppers. We definitely have enough lights to do that, but we don't have enough juice on that circuit, so we had to cut back a bit. Only one big pine is all lit up, along with lights on the house, garage and fence. We'll only light them for an hour or two each night, and longer on Christmas Eve. Just enough to add a little magic to Milo's Christmas, without paying a second mortgage to PSE&G.

All I want for Christmas is....

A goshdarn vent for my kitchen sink. Arghhhhh. I am so SICK and TIRED of plunging the stoopid sink all the time. It's really frustrating when I can't even dump a cup of stale coffee down the sink without it backing up. It's especially gross when other people dump stuff down the sink, and then leave the offensive goo sitting there for me to look at next time I come by, which then means I have to plunge it again.

I have major kitchen sink issues here at home sweet home, obviously. Because there is no vent, the air in the trap doesn't let the water go down unless it is forced down. So I have a whole dishwashing ritual that must be followed in order to properly cleanse the cooking and eating utensils without backing up the sink on both sides. Rule number one is DON'T LEAVE THE WATER RUNNING. EVER. Under penalty of being screeched at by me. Poor Grandma Carolynn was here last night, and thought she was helping me out by rinsing off some of the supper dishes. I think I scared her when I lunged at her, turned off the water and said "STOP. I will do that!" I'm a little nuts about the sink. We have had so many plumbing problems with it that I have become quite possessive and a bit obsessive over the whole situation.

We had to replace the pipes and trap underneath a couple years ago when Milo was a wee tot. We realized that pipe had busted when Corey and I washed our hands and felt hot water running over our feet. Every so often, leaks still happen under there, probably because of the water pressure from the plunger. Last year, one of the incoming water lines blew out. This happened right after we thought we had Lily totally house trained. I came out in the morning to find a puddle on the kitchen floor and yelled at the dog, after I cleaned it up. Then later on that morning, I stepped in the puddle again. I yelled at the dog again and chased her outside, after cleaning it up. Then, it happend again. At that point, I was all "For crying out loud!!" and then I realized the water was colder than pee should be. I finally checked under the sink, only to get sprayed in the face by the leaking hose. Of course, Corey was at work, so I had to figure out where the water shutoffs were downstairs, and then I had to call my daddy to come and rescue me, which he did, thank goodness. The flexible hose from the sprayer leaks a little bit too, so I have to hold it a certain way while I'm using it, and make sure to shake the sprayer head dry after I'm done. I wouldn't even care about the darn sprayer hose leaking, because it's so minimal, but there is so much stuff under the kitchen sink that cleaning up under there is a huge hassle, not to mention the slow and steady damage the water is probably doing to the floor and the bottom of the cabinet.

On the upside though, I am one hell of a good plunger! You got a stopped up drain, call me and I'll blast it for you :)

There's a blow-up for everyone...

When we went to visit Santa yesterday, we stopped at the Christmas corner in Sears, and there of all places, we found a Rudolph blow-up. It's obscenely expensive, gaudy and huge, and we did not purchase it, prudent people that we are. However, if Santa is listening, I wouldn't mind if he dropped this off under our tree!

We went to see SANTA today!

Hooorayyyy!! Milo was as happy as ever to go see Santa today. Once Corey and I told Milo where we were going this morning, he was busting at the seams to get there. We had to wait a little bit for Santa to arrive, since he was busy feeding his reindeer and all, but once the big man was in his pagoda at the mall, we were at the front of the line. Actually, we were the line! It's awesome going to see Santa before Thanksgiving!

Milo chatted with Santa for quite a while. We couldn't hear what Milo was saying to Santa, but whatever it was, it was cracking Santa up. Finally, the conversation boiled down to the big question: What do you want for Christmas, Milo? And Milo said "Uhhhhhhh" just like Ralphie in the Christmas Story. So then Santa asks "Do you want Batman toys? A football? A skateboard?" and Milo is still not sure of what to say. I was finished crying by then (Santa makes me cry every time I see him, who knows why. You should see me blubbering when he comes around on the firetruck and hands us candy canes.) so I put in my two cents of "Hey Milo, you want a speed racer car, right?" And then Milo came out with "Yeah, oh Santa, I want a remote control Speed Racer Mach 5 with the guy inside! And I want a candy cane!" Whew! I'm glad he got that out, otherwise Santa would never have known what to leave at our house. Santa said "I'll have to check my list to see if I have that put aside for you," at which point I said "No worries, there, Santa, we have you covered!" Santa was able to promise the speed racer mach 5 car with the remote control and guy inside, and make good on the candy cane. While we were walking away, Milo promptly slobbered the candy cane all up and pronounced that it tasted like toothpaste.

After visiting Santa we went to lunch at Burger King, and we let Milo have his own soda. This is a groundbreaking event in itself becuase we almost never let Milo drink soda. With every sip, Milo grimaced at the bubbles, and then said "Mmmmm....goood soda juice!" He ate his lunch really well, surprisingly, and then we were off to our next adventure: a helicopter ride.

Downstairs at the mall there's a bunch of kiddie rides that you stick quarters in to make them go. Milo climbs all over them but we never have any change to actually make them work. Today we did, for a change of pace. The expression on Milo's face when the helicopter started moving around was priceless. We could tell that he was thrilled and scared all at the same time. I was laughing my head off because Milo kept squeezing his eyes shut and then peeking, to see if the thing was still going. It went for a long time for a mere 75 cents. After he got down, we asked Milo if he had fun, and his shout of "It was GREAT" more than answered that question....and that was followed by "I was a little bit scared, but it was FUN."

Good times were had by all! And by the way, Milo says that Santa is COOL.

The Nova is Corey's first wife

Corey hates it when I say that about his car, but it's so true! Mostly because it wants all of his money and demands his attention all the time. Despite my bitching, I think it's pretty cool that Corey loves his car so much, and that it makes him so happy when he's working on it.

Anyway, the current project was to add a blower to the Nova. What this means, I don't really know. I do know that Corey painstakingly did all the work to get the blower hooked up correctly, and then tried to close the hood. The hood no longer fit, so he had to get a new hood with a bigger scoop. That came yesterday, and Corey spent most of the evening trimming it to fit the Nova and getting it just right. Later in the spring, the new hood will get painted, but for now the Nova has a big black nose.

Hoodless, but beautiful on the inside.

Nova with hood!

What's a box like that doing in a place like this?

Hey, that's not just a ginormous cardboard box filling up half of our living room. It's a monster truck arena/drag strip/wrestling mat/running and rollerskating center/big red car like the Wiggles have. Give the kid a box and you give him the world!

When Milo wasn't busy playing in the big box by himself, I was frequently invited in to his big red car to drive to various fancy restaurants for snacks. Finally I convinced him to drive me to the library because I needed to get a book to read. What made me laugh is that after we parked the car at the library, Milo headed right into the dining room to his bookshelves and picked out three books for me. We really did go to the library!

So where did the big box come from, you ask? Corey ordered a new hood for the Nova, and this is what it came in. As far as Milo is concerned, that box was the best thing going for two days straight.

A box and cardboard tubes makes for a killer dirt track for Milo to jump his cars.

You wanna come for a ride in my big red car?

Quinn's hidden talent

Quinn can run like the wind, and will chase a soccer ball as long as you're willing to kick it. Most of the time he does not catch the ball though, or even remotely want to bring it back to you. Then today I discovered that if you drop kick the soccer ball for Quinn, he will catch it in midair every time. Sometimes it hits the ground and bounces back up, but he still catches it on the rebound. Amazing...the velocity of the drop kicked soccer ball is probably twice as much as when I just kick it around with him, but for some reason Quinn digs on the tooth knockout potential a whole lot more.

I really like it when Quinn and Lily are both leaping into the air at the same time to catch the ball and crash into each other. Total two stooges moments!

no...more...rain...

Augh! It's going to be a long winter if I'm feeling trapped indoors already. Normally this time of year is just about my favorite, but this time around it pretty much sucks. Basically for the reason that rain plus lots of leaves plus energetic dogs and kid makes for a big mess. We absolutely have to let the dogs out for a run for about 45 minutes to an hour every day, rain or shine, or else they will tear the house apart. You would not believe what I have to go through to clean those two furballs up when we get back in the house. Thank goodness all I have to do for Milo is take off his muddy shoes and lift him over the gates in the kitchen, and he can go take off his coat and wash his own hands. There is a much more involved ritual when it comes to Quinn and Lily.

Before we even go out into the wet wilderness, I have to put gates up in the kitchen, and put towels down on the floor, in preparation for our hairy, smelly return. Milo and the dogs always come back in the house through the doggie door, so the towels catch most of the mud and crud. I take care of Milo while two wet dogs are winding around my legs, eagerly anticipating their rubdown. The two of them love being toweled off so much that they both sit perfectly still and offer one leg up to me at a time. (It took me ages to teach Lily the importance of hygiene, but Quinn caught on really quickly.) After their feet and bellies get cleaned off, then I dry off the rest of their mangy selves. Finally, I hop over the gates and take off my own shoes and jacket, and then move the gates so the dogs can have a bigger area of the kitchen to roam around in while they dry off the rest of the way. No way are those hounds allowed on the furniture while they're damp. The towels get thrown downstairs and I have to get out fresh ones for the next go-round. We go through at least four towels a day, when the weather is like this. We actually have more "dog towels" than we do good bath towels!

During all of this nonsense, Monet usually wanders in from somewhere and then takes off outside, which makes the dogs chase her out in the patio, so then they get all wet all over again. Argh!

The other reason I'm getting really tired of this wet weather is the stoopid wet leaves. I have to physically remove the leaves from the patio with the snow shovel, while they're still wet. Otherwise going on poop patrol is like a disgusting easter egg hunt. When the leaves are all over the place, more often than not, I find the poop by stepping on it because it's hidden under some leaves. Then I jump away to scrape the crap off my shoe and step in more crap. Plus I have to worry about Milo stepping in crap more so than usual. (He's a total crap magnet. If we don't clean up the poop as soon as possible, Milo inevitably steps in it, no matter where in the yard it is.) Yep, it's a real thrill a minute, when it's rainy in the fall.

A Curious George moment

Milo loves to help me cook. He really loves it when we make stuff that involves the big stand mixer, because I let him turn it on and do the mixing. Normally this is no problem because the control lever on the mixer is really hard to push from setting to setting. Tonight we were mixing up batter for a coffee cake for breakfasts, and we had all the ingredients in the mixer bowl waiting to be mixed. The most prominent ingredient was flour, of course. So Milo turns on the mixer and instead of just pushing it one notch to stir, he managed to get it all the way on high. You can imagine the mess that followed. Thank goodness it was mostly flour!

Of course I was standing right over the mixer so most of the crud went on me before it found its way to the floor, the walls and the table. Luckily for Milo, I am in a good mood today so my reaction was just to crack up laughing. He turned off the mixer as fast as he could and said "Uh oh. Am I going to get yelled at?" I said "No, but maybe next time control yourself and your immense strength when you're turning this thing on." Then Milo asked me if Daddy was going to say "What did you do to the mixer?" and I said "Probably not, but he's going to laugh when I tell him this story." Milo said "Whew!!" and then helped me clean up by staying in one spot and not spreading the mess around even more. Later, after I was de-floured and the kitchen was back to its normal, Milo was talking on the phone to Aunt Heather and he told her that he turned the mixer on low blast and the flour went pffffffttttt everywhere.

No, I did not take any pictures of this moment, though I should have. At the time, all I could think about was getting the mess off the floor at least, so the dogs wouldn't be rolling in it, plus I wanted to get the dang cake in the oven, already.

Santa, if you're listening.....

Milo is a huge fan of what he calls "blow-ups," as in the huge gaudy things that are made out of nylon and generally clutter up many a front lawn whether they're inflated or not. Yesterday we went on a three store blow-up tour. I needed to get some shopping done and the promise of looking at blow-ups was the bribe I used to get Milo in the truck. This one at Lowe's is far and away the most favorite of them all (and we saw a lot of blow-ups). Santa, if you're listening, please bring this for Milo for Christmas!

My boys

Sometimes Milo gets to "drive" the Nova, when Corey is backing it out or putting it back into the garage. Clearly, Milo enjoys every second of it, and enhances the car's engine noise with his own. My boys love their race car!

What a mess!!!

This is just a small sample of the destruction our lovely Lily can cause when she's left by herself with nothing to do. Milo and I came home from an hour or two of grocery shopping and walked in the door to this. It was not a happy homecoming that evening. Lily put herself in time out right away, and stayed there even though it was really chilly outside.

So, based on Lily's behavior, and the fact that the Obamas are looking for a dog, Corey and I have decided to offer to donate our Lily to be the presidential Barack-xer. She's sweet, affectionate, hypoallergenic and an excellent recycling machine. What more could they ask for? The only drawback to the plan is that we'll probably all end up in Guatanamo when Lily snatches some important presidential treaty out of the oval office and leaves it looking like this.....

Runs With Scissors

Well...not yet he doesn't. Milo is avidly learning to use his scissors to cut stuff up. The other day Milo desperately needed something to do so I could get some stuff done in the kitchen. I handed him his scissors and a pile of construction paper scraps. Half an hour later, the dishes were washed and I had a large pile of confetti to sweep up off the floor. Milo was concentrating so hard on holding the scissors the right way, and figuring out how to hold the paper at the same time, I just had to capture the moment on film. He's getting pretty good at cutting straight lines, but we still need to work on curves.

Halloween part 2

Every year around Halloween, my sister hosts a lil' tea party for us ladies who lunch. The only catch is that we have to dress up. This is what happened this year...

Amy Winehouse was the hostess.

A close up of Amy Winehouse (aka my sistah Heather)

Sarah Jo is a peanut butter cup.

My ma, Peter Pan, and her friend Tinkerbell.

My Aunt Regina, or as she was that day, crazy old lady at the retirement commune.

And me, the bearded lady! I always knew I had a calling as a circus freak....

hubba hubba!

Happy Halloween from Milo the Robot

Well. This Halloween started out awful and ended up pretty good. This morning Milo pitched a horrendous hissy about putting on his robot costume before we left for work. All I wanted him to do was wear it to my mom's house, so they could see him in it for two seconds, at least. This caused a conniption of major proportions. As in, I was a half hour late for work because I had to pry a screaming kicking Milo off the kitchen floor, and out from behind a chair, and then somehow fold him into his booster seat in the truck, which is very difficult to do when the kid is acting like a downright banshee. That incident set the tone for the rest of the day for both of us. He was grouchy at my parents house, and I was grouchy at work.

Even after we got home from work and we were waiting for Grandma Carolynn to get here so we could go trick or treating, Milo still adamantly refused to put on his costume. He also said that he did not like Halloween and that he wasn't going anywhere. All this after a whole month of buildup to the big day, ya know? Very disappointing. I decided that if he was going to be that way, okay fine.

I don't know what I said to talk the kid into getting his costume on for tricks or treats, but it had something to do with getting a cool surprise. When there is a promise of something good at the end of the torture, it's interesting how much more motivated Milo is to do something. He got all bundled up and into his robot suit, and put up with the required picture taking, and then begged for his big surprise, which turned out to be a.......glow stick!! Woo hoo! (I had gotten a giant one months ago, and had been saving it for just this very night. Who knew it would work so well to make both of our evenings go better?) That made him so happy, Milo got right into the truck without complaint. I couldn't believe it.

We commenced to trick or treat all around one of the nicer neighborhoods near us, and ended up traipsing around for almost two hours. I think Grandma Carolynn and I were more tired than Milo was. Milo served as the welcoming committee for every kid he saw approaching a house we were already at: "HI GUYS. HAPPY HALLOWEEN, YOU TRICK OR TREATERS" is what he yelled the most often. Milo also chatted to every person who happened to get within earshot of him. He compared candy, light sticks, treat buckets, you name it, with anyone who stayed still long enough to listen.

When we were all done, and it was time to go, Milo said "But people still want to look at me being a robot." I asked him if he minded his robot suit so much anymore, and he said no, that he liked it. Then I asked him if next time I asked him to wear a costume, if he was going to fuss so much. Milo said no, he was sorry that he was sad last morning because Halloween is fun!! Well thank goodness we got that cleared up :)

Milo is the pumpkin king

This year's bunch of pumpkin masterpieces. Milo supervised and I did the work. While I was carving the pumpkins, Milo cut up the scraps into 'potatoes' for the hungry pumpkins to eat once they had mouths. Not bad results for an afternoon' s worth of punkin' cuttin'!

The pumpkin on the lower left is the one from Grandma Carolynn, and we did the vampire, ghostie and spider.

Shhhh....they're both being still

I stumbled upon this rare moment of tranquility this morning. Milo was watching a movie intently, and Lily decided to curl up next to him and go to sleep. They stayed this way for over an hour! I just tiptoed about my business and was thankful for the quiet time. Believe it or not, neither one of them noticed when I got the camera and took this picture.

It's too early for this!

We thought it was a bit chilly out today! Not cold enough for SNOW, though! It snowed this morning while we were out doing errands, and then again this afternoon for a couple of hours. Wasn't it 70 degrees and sunny just two days ago?

the dog stinks

Lily is, shall we say, a fragrant sort of dog. As in, when she lets loose with a gas attack, sometimes we all have to leave the room. Today, Milo was eating his lunch in the living room and Lily was sitting right next to him, to guard for falling crumbs. I was walking by and heard this: "Gaaa, Lily, go stink somewhere else!" said in a tone of great frustration. The next time I looked in the living room, Milo was sitting in a different spot well away from the lovely Lily. I asked him what happened and Milo told me that she stunked him out so he had to move. The poor kid! Couldn't even eat his sandwich in peace.

Milo Uses A Chainsaw

Milo got a special treat this weekend at Grandma Carolynn's house. They carved a pumpkin together, and she let him use the "chainsaw" as he called it. Milo was most enthused!

Thinking about Christmas already

Jeez, Halloween is not even here yet, and Milo is already thinking about Christmas. This year's Toys R Us catalog came in Saturday's paper. Milo glommed onto it and pored over it for hours that morning. He tells us the long and elaborate backstory to each and every toy that he is adding to his list. What an imagination that kid has on him.

Not only is Milo making an extensive Christmas list, he's been asking us to take him to see Santa for at least two weeks now. When we finally do get around to visiting Santa, I hope the big guy has a couple hours blocked out of his schedule for us. Milo's list gets longer every day.