The Vacuum Boy

Last night, out of nowhere, Leo started crying and whining that we "never vacuum!"  He's not necessarily wrong.  Vacuuming is not really my strong suit and for some reason this devastates my second born child.  So after several minutes of begging, he got side tracked.  I took the opportunity to make dinner and clean up the kitchen. 

But he could not be deterred.  As soon as dinner was over he was back to begging to vacuum.  We relented by having the boys clean their rooms so we could vacuum their rooms.  As soon as he finished he let out a huge wail.  "We NEVER mooooooooooop!"  What?????  Again, the kid is not wrong.  I have never mopped a single thing in this house.  That's daddy's job.  Judge me or be jealous.  Doesn't matter to me.  Daddy mops.  End of story. 

But daddy wasn't up for mopping at 8 pm on a Friday night.  We are a huge disappointment to our son, apparently.  I promised repeatedly that we will spend Saturday morning cleaning.  So it was no surprise that the first words out of Leo's mouth at 7:30 am were "Is it time to dust and vacuum?"  Soon, my son, soon. 

And then the cleaning started.  First it was the living room.  He is a big fan of feather dusting the actual furniture.  Whatevs.

Then it was on to Justin's room

(note, Justin just watching him)
Then it was on to the office/spare bedroom that is currently being renovated for the boys. 

He clearly loves how he looks while cleaning!  Now it's on to mom's room and cleaning the new dog bed.

Meanwhile, Justin plays Leo's Leapster while our dog licks himself.  nice!

Next up: the kitchen floor

Having finished most rooms inside the house, the next obvious place to dust is.....

around the front door! 

And don't forget the front windows!

And we can't let the birds eat out of a dirty bird feeder!!

And now, he needs to take the rug downstairs to the laundry room so he can get ready for vacuuming.  Life just can't get any better than this.

and now it's FINALLY time to vacuum!!



and the steps...

Thanks Justin for your support!

And the final step (of course) is to.....

dust the vacuum itself!

And now it's time for a little TV (with feather duster still in hand)

No, I did not think up any of this myself and YES he is for hire to good homes :)



Get In My Belly!

Oh the joys of pregnancy.  Not that I'm complaining.  It's not as if this was an accident and I didn't know what I was getting myself into.  I went into this with my eyes, and apparently my mouth, wide open. 

I've been eating.  And eating, and eating, and eating, and eating.  For my first two pregnancies I was sick every once in a while and had lots of food aversions.  This time around I can't be stopped.  Food is my friend.  My best friend apparently.  And while my food intake has increased about tenfold, my exhaustion level went through the roof. 

Example #1:  5 weeks pregnant.  Anyone that has been pregnant or known a pregnant lady you know that our memories go kaput during pregnancy.  I was a total space cadet.  Made it through the morning routine with everything in place until I got to work and realized I didn't have any breakfast and also forgot my purse.  I had about zero gas left and no way to buy food or gas.  And this mama was HUNGRY!  I turned around, drove home on fumes (gas light turned on as I pulled in the driveway), grabbed my purse and went straight to the gas station.  But gas station food is nasty so I went to the nearest grocery store, parked in the expectant mother spot just to entertain myself (and it was closer to the food), and stocked up on enough food to last me until......well, until I got to work because I ate it all on the way there!

Example #2: 6 weeks pregnant I asked my in-laws to watch the boys on a Friday night because I could barely drag my tired butt home from work, let alone chase after my kids.  Had there been a comfy place to lay my head at work I highly suspect I would have avoided the drive home all together.  But drive home I did.  Cooking my own dinner was out of the question.  Price Chopper here I come.  It was a Friday during Lent and their catfish dinner was calling my name.  Hunger won out over exhaustion for a brief moment as I scurried around the grocery store throwing not one but TWO single-serving desserts in my cart along with my meal.  Molten chocolate cake and apple pie in case anyone cares to know.  More impulsivity: 2 trashy magazines.  Sadly, except not sad for my waistline, I fell asleep before I could eat either dessert or properly dive into the dramas of Hollywood.  This is followed by an eating binge the next day.  Breakfast at home.  Drive-thru Stake N Shake on the way to get the kids.  Thoughts of Houlihans even as I lick the cheese from my cheesy fries off my fingers.  Snacks at a bridal shower followed by yes.....Houlihans for dinner.  Thank you, honey, for giving in to my every need!

Example #3: While I was eating plenty and often, there were times when some foods sounded awful. Like the night that Justin tried to get me to eat a combo of grape and ketchup, which he loves for some strange reason.  When I politely declined, he continued to push me to eat it. We went back and forth until I explained that sometimes when mommy's have a baby in there belly their stomach kind of feels sick.  Leo pipes up with "Well, that's why we don't eat babies!"  Perfectly logical for him to think the baby got into my belly by eating it since that is the way everything else gets in our bellies.  We'll stick with that explanation until the 4th grade health class speech! 

Example #4:  9 weeks pregnant  I know I am visiting the grocery store with the boys too frequently when Justin says "Hey, when the baby comes there will be 5 of us in our family.  Where is the baby going to sit when we go to the grocery store?"  Apparently the store was our only outing for about 5 weeks straight.

Example #5: also 9 weeks pregnant  Easter Sunday.  I ate an entire meal of soup in a bread bowl from Panera BEFORE Easter lunch.  Seriously.  I can't make this stuff up.  My in-laws were kind enough not to judge.  When we got o the firehouse with Easter dinner I let everyone go through the line first in a weak attempt to put a reasonable amount of time between my meals.

Example #6:  10 weeks pregnant  My appetite is reaching its all time high.  I'm a big fan of home style food.  Enter: Roxanne's.  A super good little restaurant near my office.  In a span of 24 hours I ate there three times.  All with different people so as to not draw attention to my obsession.  Chicken fried chicken, mash potatoes, and a veggies.  Oh, and a huge doughy roll.  Mmmm-mmmmmmm.  Sadly, at my third visit the waiter asked "Haven't you already been here once today?"  He wasn't wrong.  Thankfully he didn't remember I had also been there the day before too!

Example #7:  all weeks.  Pizza  hut personal pan pizza with beef and ham.  'Nuf said.  (although if I'm being honest with myself this one isn't horribly unusual even in my non-prego days).

Example #8: 12 and 13 weeks pregnant.  Frequent flyer at Houlihans bar......because that's where I pick up my take out usual of stuffed chicken with golden mashed potatoes.  YUMMMMM!

Week 13: I made Jeremy promise me that when I start getting fat, not just pregnancy fat, but seriously chunky.  Just tell me straight up.  Don't be mean about it.  Just tell me.  I can handle it.  I'm a big girl.  No pun intended.

The Announcement

I've been writing a blog for the last few weeks.  It's cute and funny.  Lots of little fun stories from the boys.  It's purpose was to make our big announcement, but today's events changed that.  I now feel this is the appropriate way to make our announcement:

That's right.  Leo's going to be a big brother. That's Leo.  Our 3 year old.  With blood all over his cute little "big brother" shirt that is a hand me down from when Justin wore it before Leo was born.  And yes, that's tissue stuffed up his nose.  And a sad, pathetic look on his face.  Just be happy that I cleaned all of the blood off his face and hands before taking the pic.  It was not a pretty site and I still haven't started cleaning the car seat.

After a fun-filled day of a trip to the zoo and a purse party at my friend Sarah's house, the boys were exhausted.   If you have ever been around children, then you know that exhaustion shows itself in two lovely ways: meltdowns or utter silliness.  Today we choose silliness.  For the last 10 minutes of the party they put on quite a display.  Running, uncontrollable giggling, throwing themselves on the floor (usually on top of each other with extra attempts to kick each other), and just general craziness. 

It was a real effort to get them corralled towards the door and into the car.  The silliness continued.  We were so far past nap time it was getting scary.  They begged for Bon Jovi CD.  I complied.  They were dancing and flinging themselves around in their car seats.  My hope was that they would literally dance themselves into a hard slumber.  They were so close when.....

Just one mile from Sarah's house blood starts spewing from Leo's nose.  I don't suppose it has anything to do with the fact that Justin kicked him in the face during their wrestling demonstration before we left Sarah's house. 

So it is literally all over the car.  This kid is a gusher!  And he had been flinging his head and body around to the music so by the time I stop the car on the first gravel driveway I can find and hop out to fling his door open, it's not only all over his shirt, face, hands, and car seat.  There are blood splatters as far away as Justin's car seat.  I worked hard to clean it all up but can't help but think that if someday my car is part of a crime scene investigation the police are going to come looking for DNA from my 3 year old.

Anyway, after at least 5 minutes of soaking every McDonald's napkin, tissue, and the 3 paper towels that we happen to have in the car from eating breakfast on the way to the zoo, I was able to get it slow down enough to try to clean him and the car up a little bit.  Then we packed his nose and took off for home.  Leo fell asleep within seconds.  Justin stayed awake the entire way home and frequently mentioned how Leo's bloody nose really "makes me feel like not being very silly anymore."

Anyone that thinks Baby #3 won't be a boy is just crazy.  This is what we are destined for!