So gross!!!

One of my co-workers said he used to put his wife's breast milk in his coffee!!!!

Jonathan's cuteness

As we were swimming today Jonathan looked up to the sky and pointed, "Look Mommy, mashed potatoes."

Despite my hardships with Jonathan in oh, the past year, I still think he is the cutest kid in the world (Mommy bias, I know)...lately he's been galloping everywhere he goes - on walks, in the grocery store, in and out of the house. He also has to jump over everything. When we take walks he tries to jump over every crack in the sidewalk. He's really cute...

Oh, and now he has a crush...a girl at church named Joy - she's almost 6! She likes him too, but they had their first quarrel when he interrupted her while she was singing. She was really mad. When we were leaving I had him give her a hug, and she accepted. Then later she added very hatefully, "Jonathan -- you messed up my song!" It was funny coming from an otherwise incredibly cute, sweet little girl in a frilly pink dress.

He has been talking about going to church to see Joy all week. I tried to bribe him with it, which, I know...its bad. He is so close to being potty trained but still cant poop in the potty. I told him that if he pooped in the potty today we would go see Joy tonight. We didn't get to see Joy tonight.

So, I changed my title

My other title was just too long. Now I have to find a picture, but first I have to go to bed, then go to work...

Baby clothes

Last weekend we had a yardsale. I was hoping to get rid of all of Jonathan's baby clothes. It took me all week to price them all. I did get rid of some of them, but probably not even a quarter of them. So yesterday during my lunch break I took a box of them to Once Upon A Child, a kids clothes resale shop. I waited 20 minutes for them to look through the box and in the meantime got a sandwich at Subway next door. I went back to get my money. They had picked out 3 outfits and gave me $1.90 for them. I spent more than that on lunch! So I decided that was not the way to go. This morning I woke up and started putting all of the clothes in garbage bags to take to Goodwill - I needed the boxes because we are moving to a different house. But then I thought about Goodwill and how they never act happy when I take them stuff. So what I did was put an add on Craigslist: "Free boys clothes up to 2t." Several people emailed me and eventually came to pick up the clothes - I had to sort them by size so that I could give them to different people depending on the size of their children. I had hoped that the first person to email me would be someone who was expecting and they could take them all. But no, It went reverse. First a guy about the 2t's then someone with a 1 year old, then someone with a 5 month old. I still had some newborn to 6 month stuff to give away, so I looked on Craigslist and someone had posted an add saying they were short on money and seven months pregnant and needed some clothes. So she ended up taking the rest. It was actually nice to give the clothes away like that. I got to see the people who would be using them, and they were very happy to receive them. It was actually what I should have done to start with since many of the clothes were given to us. So, if anyone ever needs to get rid of their old baby clothes, I suggest trying this.

My blessing of a Problem Child...

God must be telling me something by having given me my "problem child" first. I jammed my finger today trying to spank him. He has become a master at dodging spankings.
These are some of the things he does in hopes of making me mad or sad or getting a spanking:
*Names off a list of places that he wants to go when he knows we are going somewhere else (Its much more bothersome than it sounds)
*Calls me Kim repeatedly, even after I ask him not to...no, especially when I ask him not to.
*Poops in his pants and tells me to change him
*Refuses to put anything on his bottom
*Whispers "Gracie's sleeping," then cries loudly "Hey Gracie!!!"
*Laughs at me when I tell him to do or not do something

So yes, I jammed my finger trying to spank him...and it hurt. All I could think of at the time that it happened was that if it was really bad, like broken, I couldnt go to the doctor. What would I say...I broke my finger trying to beat my child?

So people say, "He's just testing you, testing his limits."
Yes, and how do I pass the test?

Thank you, God, for Gracie...she is my sweetie that proves that I am not a complete failure as a parent. She sees what happens to Jonathan, and she, like myself, cannot understand why he keeps doing what he's doing.

Please do not give me suggestions for how to handle my problem child...I have received all of the suggestions in the world. And I follow them. I have just resolved that Jonathan is my problem child, for now, and I am told that if they're bad as toddlers they'll be good as teenagers. But maybe people say that just so that you won't kill them as toddlers because you have hope that they'll do a 180.

P.S. Please do not report me to Childhood Protective Services. I LOVE both of my children and I thank God for them both, Im just venting a little.

So much...

I cant believe it has been so long since I posted anything. No wonder nobody reads my blog! So much has been going on...my mother-in-law and sister-in-law came to visit bringing along three kids. We went to the zoo and did a lot of swimming, oh, and stayed up late one night making a Scandinavian Mei Tai. No, its not a drink, it's a baby carrier. My friend Jodean posted the one that she made on her blog and attached the link to the blog of the person who created the pattern, and the pattern itself. I convinced my mother-in-law to help me make one while she was here. My sister-in-law also helped. We stayed up until 3am Tuesday night to finish it (someone had boasted that it took them only 3 hours to make it - it took 3 of us 6 hours to make it!). Mine isnt as cute as Jodean's, but I like it. It keeps the baby nice and close and secure, it even puts her to sleep. I can hardly feel her there. The only down-side is that the straps are really long, so its a bit of an ordeal to take it off and on.
Im posting some pictures of it and of my husband's family's trip to St Louis:

Here is Chuck's mom with the Mei Tai on:


Me and the kids hiking with the mei tai. You can put the baby on your back too!








I tried taking a picture of myself and Gracie in the mei tai. It was too sunny out.


Daddy looks so nice in his father's day sunglasses at the pool. So hot!!


I was able to get the kids to stop and pose for a picture for a second. Why do 7 year olds insist on making funny faces to the camera non-stop???









Here they are at the St Louis Zoo:








Last Saturday I participated in the Race for the Cure in downtown St Louis. I went with the team from Social Security. And of course, I took the kids along since Chuck has a lecture to go to. I pulled them in the wagon - they were so well-behaved. Unfortunately I didnt get a picture of them i the wagon. But here are some pictures of Jonathan and my friends Nakia and Peggy. It was so unbelievable the amount of people that showed up. The picture of the crowd is just the tail end...maybe 1/10th of the whole race!












Other big news of the week: Gracie has become a pro at pulling herself up!!!












And here's a cute picture of Jonathan on a log:

Me and my man

For the first time in a long, long time, Chuck and I are going out alone tonight. Our next-door neighbor agreed to watch the kids. Since this may be the only time that this happens (Im afraid that our neighbor will see her error after spending an evening with our kids) I want to make the best of it. Chuck got tickets to a comedy club. Im hoping to go to a very non-kid-friendly restaurant as well. And hopefully there aren't people there like us who bring their annoying kids with them everywhere because they cant find a sitter!