a new opportunity

So…I have a little announcement to make and I hope you’ll join in my excitement. Or just humor me.

A year or so ago, I came across a Facebook page called The Affordable Mouse. This was the first Disney-themed Facebook page I began following and found The Affordable Mouse’s website to be indispensable while planning our own Disney vacation last fall.  First and foremost, The Affordable Mouse is a travel agency that helps people make their Disney dreams a reality, regardless of budget.  There are countless resources on the website and a wealth of Disney travel information within the blog posts.  I’ve enjoyed just browsing this and other similar sites for fun, but found them especially helpful when I was seeking out answers to a host of vacation questions that popped up while we were planning our trip.

I said all that to say this: A couple of weeks ago, The Affordable Mouse posted that writers were needed for the website’s blog.  I thought about it briefly, questioning whether or not I had the writing AND Disney experience required to even inquire.  Before I allowed too much self-doubt to creep in, I emailed Nancy and shared with her a couple of links to my blog.  I explained that I loved Disney and I loved writing but was unsure if I had the skills to combine my passions on her website for the world to see.  Within the day, she had written back and expressed interest in having me join the writing team.  We exchanged a few emails discussing details. I had a lot of questions.  My niche will be Disney with Little Kids but that can go in so many directions. I hope I don’t run out of ideas, because my posts will be featured every other Monday, starting on August 25th.

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Needless to say, I’m really excited for a new writing opportunity and challenge. I’m also pretty okay with having an excuse to think about Disney more than I already do. I hope you will “Like” The Affordable Mouse on Facebook and visit their blog often to read my posts there!

xo,

~C~

laying low and potty stuff

Wow, it’s already been 2 weeks since my last post.  I keep thinking it’s been awhile but never seem to find the time or the inspiration to come here and write.  I don’t know why. The boys have been super cute and fun lately.  I haven’t been taking many photos either…lame.

They are so smart. I’m surprised every day by something they say or do.  Theo just seems so OLD lately. He’s still super obsessed with Legos. He just loves taking the guys apart and mixing and matching their bodies. We build whatever came in the lego set and then he takes it apart and attempts to rebuild it. He’s pretty good at it!  What I love the most, though, is his creativity. He builds his own little ships and guns and I literally don’t know how he comes up with this stuff.  So neat to watch him.

What’s not so neat is that he is also obsessed with pee pee and poopy.  Like, the words. Not the things.  He thinks it’s soooo hilarious to call people “poopyface” or “fartface.”  I guess it was funny the first time, but now it’s just pretty obnoxious.  I’m not sure if it’s just his age or something that he’s picked up from school.

Dexter, on the other hand, might turn out to be our goody-two-shoes.  A lot of the time when Theo is trying to get Dex in trouble (by telling him to say or do something inappropriate), he’ll say “No Tee-o, we don’t say that.”  He’s got a little conscience on him. Theo is starting to tell white lies, denying that he did something or blaming things on Dexter.  He’s not a very good liar.

Speaking of peeing and pooping though, for the longest time Theo wore a diaper to bed just because we were so paranoid that as soon as he started wearing underwear, we’d be back to the newborn days of getting up 5 times a night.  Before he wore underwear to bed for the first time (on Nov 2), he had NEVER in his life woken up dry in the morning.  I was curious if he was just peeing when he was awake because he knew he could or if he was actually peeing in his sleep.  We’ve pretty much figured out in the last three weeks that he CAN NOT and will not make it through the night unless we wake him up to take him to the bathroom before we go to bed (about 3 hrs after he does).  We’ve experimented and he always has an accident in the middle of the night if we don’t take him. Sometimes he’ll have 2.  So, what do you do?  Do you wake him up every night (a nuisance for everyone) to start teaching him or do you blow it off and let him keep sleeping in diapers?  For now, we’re taking him to the bathroom at midnight and celebrating successes every morning that he wakes up dry – which is the majority of the time.  I figure he’s going to be four in a little over three months…we’ve got to get a handle on this. Right?

We’ve been lazy with Dexter’s potty training.  We need to be more consistent but here’s the thing. He consistently pees on the floor almost every time he wears underwear. He has some GREAT days, but he has some bad ones too.  I know that’s too be expected. Does it make me a bad mom if I just don’t want to clean up pee off the floor or risk him peeing on the carpet or the couch?  Yeah? I kinda thought so. We’ve got a little time with him – I’d like for him to be trained (at least for the daytime) by the time he’s three…still six months away.  Dexter is more than happy to tell you after he’s gone but very rarely asks to use the potty before he goes.  I think with more consistency on our part, potty training him will be easier than it was with Mr. Stubborn Theo.

That was a lot of potty talk, considering I didn’t even know what I was going to talk about.

I think that’s all for now.

xo,
~C~

feelings

It’s been a long time since I wrote much about parenting.  About my babies.  My kids.  They are hardly babies anymore, but they are.  Still.  I’ve had a heart bursting with feelings and a head full of thoughts.  I don’t know how to organize it into anything meaningful on this blog anymore.  I can post pictures and recap our fun adventures, but that’s not all there is to it, is it?  There’s this feeling, this tug at my heart.  Maybe it’s the weather.  Maybe because vacation’s over.  Maybe it’s because I haven’t taken a picture on my DSLR since we got home.  Maybe because I just don’t know what to say sometimes.  I don’t know – I feel like I’m missing something. Or that I’m going to miss something. Do you ever feel that way?

Theo.  Theo is so big now.  So smart.  He is starting to understand things that are more complex.  I can reason with him sometimes, where Dexter is the exact opposite.  Theo knows how and when to use his manners.  He thinks ahead.  He was using the bathroom the other night and while pondering life, sitting on the potty, he flicked the loose side of a bandaid on his thigh repeatedly, mumbling under his breath.  He’d gotten his flu shot earlier.  He didn’t want me in the bathroom so I was kind of hanging around in the hallway and caught this glimpse of his reflection in the mirror, looking so grown up.  I stopped and listened to him grumble “I’m never getting another stupid flu shot again.”  Automatically, my bad-word radar went off and I said “What’d you say!?”  He looked up like a deer in headlights and said, “nothing! I said I’m not getting another flu shot.”  He knew he’d been caught.

And this silly, simple moment became something bigger to me.  My kid, who was so brave for his flu shot, was so ticked off about it 12 hours later that he was “cursing” (for all he knows) under his breath about it when he thought I wasn’t around.  But he knew that he couldn’t kiss his mom with that dirty mouth, so you better believe he cleaned up his language when pressed about it.  He says please. He says thank you.  Granted, he doesn’t do it all the time but at least I’ve taught him something, dammit.  Some common courtesy. 

I love him.

Sometimes I just look at his innocent face in the rearview mirror while he’s looking outside and feel this swelling sensation inside.  Time is flying by.  I think about how small he was when we brought him home.  I think about his extensive vocabulary now and how he’s telling stories and jokes (bad jokes, and he doesn’t really understand the whole punchline thing, but still).  And I think about how he still asks me to sing to him at bedtime, like I did when he was just a few months old.  I think about how he still sucks his thumb when he’s tired.  Sometimes I yell at him and wish I hadn’t.  I am becoming painfully aware that you only get one chance to raise your kids and it flies by. 

Dexter.  My little blonde bear.  He’s such a busy body. He’s becoming such a big boy too.  He looks up to Theo in every way, but he’s so different from him.  He’s not a deep thinker like Theo.  He blows whichever way the wind does.  He doesn’t stop moving long enough to process things.  He’s sweet. He’s loving. He carries stuffed animals around like they’re babies.  His language is also expanding rapidly.  He doesn’t like the dinosaur costume I bought him for Halloween so I asked a friend about borrowing an old costume of theirs, a Donald Duck.  When I asked Dexter if he’d like to be Donald Duck for Halloween, he said “Ummmm, probably I’m gonna be Goofy.”  Ha.  He is goofy. 

I love him.

What he doesn’t know is that I would do anything in the world for him.  That he’d probably get whatever he wanted if he just asked with one of his big bear hugs.  Sometimes after he falls alseep in his big boy bed, I go into their room to make sure they are covered up.  Just to stare at my boys for a few more seconds that day.  Because I know they will never be this young again.  Soon enough, they’ll spend the night with a friend.  Before I know it, they’ll be on their own.  They won’t need me to brush their teeth.  Dexter wore underwear to a restaurant for the first time this week. No accidents.  My big boys are getting bigger.  They’re still so little, but not as little as they once were.  It’s kind of sad.  I will touch their faces and kiss their heads and pick them up and carry them around for as long as they’ll let me and as long a I am physically able.  They’ll be bigger than me in no time at all. 

Man, I love them.  No one tells you that motherhood is about one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking things you’ll ever do. 

xo,
~C~