30/50 Things

Today I've decided to mix things up a little bit on the blogfront. I got inspired from a recent e-mail that I've pulled from my inbox several times in the past month and thought it would be fun to share in my blog.


The e-mail asks the recipient to make a list of 5o things you are doing right now, wearing right now, like and dislikes, etc, etc... you get the point. I began to think that with my recent neglect of my old friend, Blog, this might be a fun way to recount a lot of the little things that seem to be making our lives so full, busy and fun over the past few weeks. Besides that, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think, "Oh I need to write about that!" and the story line begins to create in my head, but never consummates into written words. With that said, this is my attempt in recounting and capturing a whole bunch of randomness all in one spot. Over the next two days, I'm going to compile a list of sorts to include my favorite moments with my kids, my husband and my days in general. My challenge is to come up with 5o, no more and no less and restrict my summary into 3 sentences or less. In case you haven't noticed, I sometimes have a tendency to ramble and and talk incessantly about tiny, little details which are mostly important only in my mind, but could otherwise fore go such detail and length. Just sayin'.


Are you ready? Grab a snack and a comfy chair because I'm rolling out the first 30, here we go!

1. Lincoln is waving. A lot. He waves his arm in the air with his goofy little grin, just before slapping his arm closely to his chest, letting you know the wave is over. Where did he come up with that?


2. The stubborn, "I-want-what-I-want, NOW!" attitude of a 3 year-old has been rearing it's ugly head at our house as of late. When she's not rested, Elaina gets a slight affliction of "Diva Syndrome." We've had more power struggles in not her getting her own way more than ever.


3. We bought a wagon. A super cool 2 seater, Radio Flyer with seat belts, back rests, a sun canopy and a rear cubby trunk. The kids love it and we're already getting lots of use out of it. It's been a great, timely purchase for our family.


4. My laundry baskets of clothes that need ironed have reached epic proportions and deserve a gold medal for the number of set-in wrinkles and creases they have incurred while being dumped in my largest laundry basket.


5. Picky Pickerson's eating habits nor her menu have not shown much improvement. The thing that really is driving me up a wall is that the child will dip her mozzarella/cheddar cheesestick into her raspberry yogurt, eat it and say "MMmm, good." [Excuse me while I barf, thankyouverymuch.]


6. Lincoln has been on some weird pattern where he wakes up screaming and crying with his eyes closed and seems virtually inconsolable for anywhere from 5 - 25 minutes. My first instinct was to blame it on his molars coming in. With more input and research, I'm (unfortunately) leaning toward the fact that he may be having night terrors.


7. Momma hasn't been getting much sleep. See #6.


8. You know your lifestyle and family dynamics have changed drastically when you go from running the dishwasher twice a week to every other day.


9. I actually got a lot done at home this past weekend. We had no plans so I purged kid closets, vacuumed and cleaned our bathroom. I feel like I really made some progress in tackling some of my bigger chores around the house.


10. I made $50 when I took my load of baby clothes to a resale shop. They sent me home with just about the same inventory; I barely noticed that they had looked through them. But $50 in my pocket, heh!


11. I've jumped aboard the facebook-addiction-bandwagon. Wow... I really feel like I'm part of something, neat, trendy and cool. I guess it's about time; for the neat, trendy and cool part that is. I'd love to see more of my blog friends in my new neighborhood, why don't you stop by?


12. Elaina has been helping me pick out my outfits for work each morning. It's not likely that I would be willing to wear my pink, plaid tank top paired with my ill-fitting [READ: too tight!] khaki capris, but hey, it's the thought that counts right?


13. I have recently become aware that applying rewetting gel drops in my eyes before bedtime is a necessity to be able to open my eyes the following morning. Thank you old age and allergies.


14. Eric and I have made the decision to partnership with an established business to begin to sell monuments from our home. The circumstances seemed right since we've already had to make 2 monument purchases ourselves, we live in very close proximity to a reputable funeral home and there are really no other competitors in our area. Eric's brother and SIL have previously partnered with the same company and have built a very strong business of their own.


15. Since Blogger has made uploading videos so incredibly easy, wouldn't it just be my luck that with my new camera, I can't seem to make the video-blog connection work for me. I've been squirreling away so many cutie videos that I've wanted to share, but I just can't seem to make them work. Any ideas?


16. Eric is leaving tomorrow for the NASCAR races in Bristol. He'll be gone from Thursday until Sunday and I'm already missing him. My days are much less enjoyable when our family isn't complete.


17. I don't know how I'm doing it but I am actually managing to get the kids ready and out the door by 8:00 each morning. I've been fortunate that Eric is able to offer a little bit of help occasionally, but for the most part, it's all me.


18. We bought the kids a second-hand Barbie Jeep. A co-worker was clearing out toys that her kids had outgrown and offered the Jeep to me at a price I could hardly turn down. So far, Elaina and Lincoln are only mildly impressed with it which makes me glad I took advantage of this deal versus a brand new one at over $200.

19. The game of peek-a-boo has become more interesting when Lincoln decides to play. With both hands, he covers his face but only above his eyes and mostly hides his eyebrows and forehead. I still see you!


20. Lincoln is beginning to use a fork to feed himself. It's quite possible that he could have done it sooner however, sometimes things don't occur to me quite as quickly with Child #2 as they did with Child #1. That's my fault.


21. Elaina LOVES her brother to pieces. In fact, sometimes she likes to squeeze and love him so hard that he could quite possible break into little pieces all over my living room floor.
22. Elaina has also adapted some pretty unique names to call her baby brother. He has been called everything from "PayPay" to "Peter" on any given day. Most days he is is Baby or Baby Brudder.


23. Have I mentioned that Elaina has imaginary friends and that imaginary events happen in her life all of the time? She showed me a "trophy" she got at basketball camp with "Kenny." Kenny (sometimes Penny) has been her friend for a while now and she somehow found a basketball camp for 3 year-olds.


24. Lincoln is developing character. Yes, my dear boy is 15 months old and is finally breaking out of his shell. He is beginning to learn ways that he can express himself with a sense of humor and attention to detail.


25. Lincoln is completely fascinated with wheels, cars and noise. Oh , what a boy. Whenever there are wheels to be investigated, Lincoln will plop himself flat on his stomach to take a closer to look to see where the rubber meets the road.


26. Lincoln has also claimed his addiction to his right thumb (never his left) and his blanket. Not just any blanket, he mostly prefers one with a silky side and a fleecy side and the bigger, the better.


27. Our school district has built a new school and hosted it's dedication on Sunday. I wanted to make it a family trip but when Lincoln was napping when it was time to go, Eric took Elaina by himself. She was shuttled on a real school bus all of 1/4 mile to the school and she got to look around classrooms and enjoyed cookies with M&M's in them.

28. Elaina can't wait to start preschool next year. She talks about school and worries about missing the school bus all of the time. She was even packing her book bag with her books and hairbrush and a doll to go to school.
My child who forgot how to smile naturally.

29. A little girl at the sitter's house is a huge fan of my boy. Keirra's face lights up when she sees Lincoln and rushes over to him with his blanket (that we keep at the sitter's) in her hand and tries to lead him by the hand to go play. Can you say "CUTE?"


30. Have I mentioned how much I would love to blog every single night? Oh, yeah, the day that I wind up having more than 2 hours to spare for everything not kid related, I will commit to doing that. I often wonder when that will be.


Stay tuned for tomorrow when I challenge myself to complete my list of 50 without boring you out of your seats! Only 20 more still to come!