Now You See It, Now You Don't

It was time. The baby had flowing hair that made him pretty. I even had to cut the bangs a few times so he could see. We tried to go to one place on Saturday, but the wait was 30 minutes. We went back to the same place on Sunday and the wait was now 45 minutes. The baby isn't good at waiting. So, I held my breath and took him to Great Clips. I know, I know, a cheap place for baby's first hair cut (and you never know if you are going to get someone who can cut hair), but at this point I didn't have much of a choice.

Just before we went, he decided to put some "texture" in his hair using yogurt. And no, I didn't wash it out.

We had a great stylist. He started getting fussy right away and she gave him a sucker. Worked like a charm.

Notice anything different? Yup, a purple sucker. He started fussing, she broke out another one and he was very cooperative. Sticky, but cooperative.


All finished!
He looks a lot like his older brother now, doesn't he?

Shifting Rooms

I have this wonderful sun room. Well, it is now. Up until Wednesday it was the kid's toy room. And a disaster. You had to kick toys out of the way to get to the back door, which was a pain for playing outside, letting the dog out, grilling and such. It wasn't even very pleasant to sit in because of the mess. I know what you are saying "make them keep it clean". Uh-huh--that's realistic.


Cue the bonus room. Up until Thursday was my craft room/guest room/overflow library. It's a spacious room. With no light. I have that one window, a pitiful overhead light and that torchiere. And it gets H-O-T. When I would try to craft at night, and the boy's bedroom doors would close, most of the air flow was cut off to that room. It's a bear to craft at 11pm sweating.
The baby now goes up and down the narrow, carpeted back stairs by himself. I would have never let the oldest do this at nearly 2 years old, but the second child learns things so much quicker. Wok took the kids Wednesday night and fed them and entertained them for a few hours so Chris and I could start switching stuff.

By the end of the night, we had this

and this.

Thursday morning, my oldest and I finished putting the new upstairs toy room together. Yes, that is Gator paraphernalia hanging up. The oldest wants to paint the room orange--we are trying to talk him out of that.
By the end of yesterday, this is what the sun room looked like. It's getting there we still have the gentlemen's chest to move. We are getting some friends over to help--more than just one other person this time--and offering nourishment and adult beverages. And advil.

So far this is what I have. The chest is going to go where the yellow chair is and the chair will go--somewhere.

Last weekend the husband and I were talking about switching the rooms. He says "do you think you can get a piano in there?". Uh, sure honey.

The youngest, smiling instead of hollering at me. He's kinda cute.

Roses Treasury

I'm in this beautiful roses themed treasury put together by Pretty Cheap. Right up my alley since I just adore roses! Take a look and give it some clickable love!

Mother's Day Brunch

On Thursday, Stasiu's preschool had their Mother's Day brunch. The teachers and students went all out.

We sat down to a beautifully set table.



The kids painted pots and planted flowers in them for us. The teachers had them sitting at our places with name cards.



One of Stasiu's teachers, Mrs. Allesnbeck, made the banner.



We had a lovely lunch. My girlfriend got a muffin at her school's brunch. Ha!


That's Stasui in the light blue shirt heading out.



This is a video of the song they sang. Stasiu is in the back row, upper side on the far left. They put him there because he is such an animated dancer. Yes, that is me laughing when he goes down. He didn't sing; he mouthed the words in an exaggerated manner. When his teacher asked him why, he said he didn't want to sing.



At the end of the luncheon, Miss Cindy, read this poem to everyone. There were a lot of dabbing of the eyes.

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put him down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body..
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,

the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom

Happy Mother's Day!

Dead Roomba

With much excitement and anticipation, we put our little Roomba on the living room floor Sunday to watch it go. It didn't. Go, that is. It went in circles a couple times, stopped and beeped. We were underwhelmed to say the least. A little later, I decided it was the kids and dog that made it just circle. After all, it can't go anywhere when there are two kids and a dog less than a foot from it. Hooray! I found the solution; a kid-dog wall.

The kids go to bed and we pull the little guy out. It goes in circles, does the "uh-oh" sound and gives nine beeps. So, it wasn't the kid-dog wall. I call customer service and it closed about a half hour before I called. I get online to the forums and find out the nine beeps it emitted do not bode well. One suggestion was to lightly tap the bumpers, the other was to call customer service and see if your warranty is still good. Not good.

On Monday, I call customer service with much trepidation. You see, the one complaint when I looked into customer reviews was that customer service was not good. There were the usual "I couldn't get the durn thing to work", "why does it get caught on my long-haired cat's shedded hair", "will it clean up water" (uh, no that's the scoomba) and so forth. The overall reviews for performance were outstanding.

So, I dial and hit "0" until I get a human (little tip from me to you, go to get human to bypass those pesky voice prompts). I tell the guy that it goes around in circles then nine beeps. He says "oh no, the dreaded nine beep". I'm doomed, even the tech guy is concerned. He asks when I got it. I said a couple days ago. We had just charged it, put it on the ground and it won't work. He says the bumpers may be stuck and to gently tap them. Uh, really? Ok. I'll be danged, it worked! I put the little guy down and he started actually moving around the room! I kiss the guy over the phone, hang up and put my new little pet in the bathroom to start doing my floors.

The baby and I leave it alone and go to play in the other room. About an hour later, I head in and my floors are still dirty! I hit the button, and it does the dreaded nine beep. So, I call customer service again. She says, "clean the sensors". From what??? It hasn't been run enough for anything to get dirty. She puts me on hold and comes back. They are going to send me a new one! Yay!!!!

Now, my husband, the geek, is thrilled about a new machine. Why? I don't have to send the old one back. And you know what that means? Spare parts--something to play with.

Keep Your Eye on It!

Our Roomba came on Friday and we plugged it in on Sunday to get it charged up. The kids are so excited to see it work. They kept taking it off the charger and wanting it to clean. The dog barked at it. We finally figured out it wasn't going anywhere because the boys and dog were never more than a foot from it. So we put it back on the charger to sit overnight and are going to try it out today.

When my husband plugged it in, he explained to my oldest that it had to charge first. Then he told him to keep an eye on it and let us know when the light turns green. It takes 16 hours to charge. We wondered why he was so quite till I found him like this:


My husband did tell him that he could take a break and come back later.