Our Little Genius

Amy loves puzzles, and she's good at them for being so young. Yesterday, she surprised us by doing this puzzle by herself. I had helped her with it throughout the day and tried to teach her what to look for, and I guess it stuck! By the end of the evening she was doing it alone.

Doesn't she look sweet? Fast forward one hour - Amy's quiet, which isn't too unusual, she's quite good at entertaining herself with books and stuff, but we thought to check on her and I'm greeted with "painting ball Mommy"!

There's our sweet little Amy with her diaper off, a basting brush in hand, "painting" a ball with poop!! Poop was everywhere - on the carpet, on her socks, on the table (you get the picture). It was awful.

As Kenny said her prayers with her, this is what I heard:

Kenny: . . . "Please help me to be good"

Amy: . . . "Please help me to be good", "Thank you for poop". Amen.

Our First Call to Poison Control

One of the advantages to having a grandma in town is when Kenny or I don't have Ian or Amy with us we can pretty much assume that they are downstairs with Grandma. We let our guard down a little bit and don't keep as close of an eye on our kids as perhaps we should. We love the break and the help though!

Tonight was one of those said moments. I was busy cooking dinner, Amy was downstairs with Grandma (Grandma was working), Kenny was upstairs checking out the sport's scores on ESPN, and we both assumed Ian was down with Amy too. Wrong!! He was in the bathroom (one room in between Kenny and I) enjoying a little bit of hydrocortisome cream. YUM! (You may ask 'what is hydrocortisome cream doing in a place where little hands can reach it?' . . . Don't have an answer for that one :))

Luckily, Poison Control said hydrocortisome cream is pretty harmless. He might have loose stools for a little bit, but other than that no harm done, just a lesson learned :)

"The Mom Song"

My sister-in-law, Jen, sent this e-mail to me today. The song is originally written by a lady named Anita Renfroe. It's been around for awhile so you very well may have seen it a million times already, but I hadn't seen it yet, thought it was great and wanted to share it too!

Ian Walks!!

Ian is now walking more than he is crawling. He's still a little shaky on his feet, but he wants to walk everywhere! Here's a little video of our little man in action.

Why didn't I think of this . . .

Martha Stewart's organizing tip of the day (from Martha Stewart Living):

Tidy Up a Linen Closet
Bed linens shelved by type -- fitted sheets stacked next to pillowcases -- quickly become disordered when you try to retrieve them to put together matching sets. Try this method instead: Slip each set into one of its pillowcases, and store the sets by size -- twin, full, and so on -- with colors, trim, or other defining details clearly visible.

Ian's Birthday

I thought for sure I blogged about this a couple weeks ago. Ian turned one in the middle of December - We have a major case of 2nd child syndrome. Amy had a party when she turned one which consisted of invitations and lots of friends and family. Ian on the other hand had us, my parents, and I happened to tell one family about it and never got around to telling anyone else. We bought several things for Amy to open on her birthday, and this year we just let the grandparents buy the presents! Ian didn't even get his own cupcake to play with and his birthday cake didn't even say "happy birthday". Luckily, all the hoopla is mostly for us parents. I don't think Ian will ever remember his first birthday. I'll have to do better at getting it all together next year. I heard of someone who had some children born in December and they would celebrate half birthdays. Maybe that's a better idea.

Ian didn't even get his own cupcake to play with and his birthday cake didn't even say "happy birthday".

But he did enjoy eating every bit of frosting on his own piece of birthday cake. He takes after his dad - not eating the cake. Actually Kenny wouldn't eat the frosting either. Luckily, all the hoopla is mostly for us parents. I don't think Ian will ever remember his first birthday. I'll have to do better at getting it all together next year.

He did still have fun playing with all of his old toys while all his friends played with his new ones. He got a fun little people's garage from the Curtis grandparents and a toy train from the Swain grandparents.

Happy Birthday Ian!

Christmas from the Curtises

We got a lot of fun things from Grandma and Grandpa Curtis. I've been meaning to post pictures so they could see the glee and excitement in the kids' eyes as they opened their packages.

(I was a dork and decided to buy myself some matching pajamas . . . I look like a little kid but it was fun :). I couldn't find any that Kenny would wear or he would be decked out too.)

This was Kenny's annual silly gift from his mom - it it's not one kind of chia pet it's another. This year it's catnip for our kitty cat. Kenny loves it!

Too Little Time

I need 6 more hours in the day between the hours of 9 pm and midnight. I've given myself a curfew since the new year to start going to bed at a decent hour . . . before midnight. I had made it a habit to do all my computer stuff between the hours of 10:30 and 3:00 am. I really enjoy the quiet of those hours, but I've decided it's probably better for everyone, especially myself, to go to bed earlier. But now I'm left with little time. I never would have thought that staying at home would be so busy! Today I'm letting Amy watch a movie while Ian is sleeping so I'm giving myself an extra hour. I think there's just too many things I enjoy doing. My parents bought me Photoshop and InDesign for Christmas. I WANT to spend my day today learning how to use photoshop and playing around in it, but it has to wait until about 8:30 tonight. I feel bad because I'm either ignoring my kids or ignoring my husband. Being a wife and mother is a lot of work!! Luckily, it's worth it :). Life is good, I just want a couple more hours. I guess that's when I need to prioritize . . . I might have to stay off facebook for awhile :).