First Hair Cuts...

Today, Youngest got his hair cut for the first time. I didn't want to do it this early, because I didn't think he was old enough to sit and have it done, but the time had come. How did I know? Today at Target, while checking out, Eldest was harrasing Youngest and the check out lady said "oh, she just has to wait a couple more years before she can beat up on him!"

I didn't bother to correct her, not only did she get his gender wrong, but she also didn't realize that Youngest beats up on Eldest quite a bit already! Needless to say, I left knowing a haircut was necessary!

I got the go ahead from Rob to do it without him around, and loaded my camera up in the diaper bag before leaving the house to take Eldest to school. After dropping him off, we headed to our neighborhood great clips. There's a really nice woman there named Ali (who lives close to us as it turns out) and she's cut Eldest hair before a few times, so I was happy to see she was working today. Eldest's first haircut was a nightmare. He cried with each clip of the sicssors as if we were cutting his limbs off. Picture below to prove just how dramatic he was!



When she sat Youngest down I wasn't sure what would happen, so I pulled out the camera for a quick "before" shot and was surprised when he just sat there happily while she put on the drape and then began cutting. He didn't move his head to much and he didn't lean forward and fall out of the chair. It was so great, and he was so happy! I couldn't get over just how different he looked after it was over. Pictures below:





Our little baby is growing up!!! I can still relive his first year as a hippie through photos though. Just yesterday he experienced his first dirt meal outside with his brother...he was so happy!

I found the proof today!

To those of you that are hardcore in your religious beliefs, this post may not be as funny to you...but to those that have a sense of humor or maybe an open mind to evolution this will may tickle your tummies.

I was an Anthropology major in college and we spoke many a lecture about the "missing link" that would prove, once and for all, that humans were from the same line as other primates. Well, if you want more proof that this theory may be true, just visit your local McDonalds play land.

I was at one today with my kids for lunch. We got there on the early side so the play land area was pretty empty, but in about 30 minutes it was full of kids jumping and screaming. If you have never seen a play land up close, it looks like a "cage" with various levels and ways to exit either by a series of slides or climbing down from where you are.

well, shortly after this wave of kids (ranging in age of 2 to 8) splashed onto the scene, there was this primal screaming going on in the play land. I swear, it was like being at the Macaque exhibit at the zoo.

Now, don't go flaming me for thinking kids are like little monkey. Well, they kind of are. They are very flexible, climb all over everything, and, if given the opportunity, will throw poo...but I'm not saying they ARE monkeys. Go to the play land during lunch and experience it for yourself...then tell me I'm wrong.

Happy Anniversary! 9 years and still kickin'!

Wow, who knew these little cuties would one day be married to each other?



Nine years ago today Rob and I were married at the Church of the Epiphany in Richmond, VA. It was a full Catholic ceremony complete with Mass. After it was over a lot of my family members said "Yeah, you're married FOR LIFE!" I think it was when the priest circled us with the incense burner that clinched it!




I am so surprised at how quickly these first 9 years went by. Truthfully though, Rob and I have been in each others lives for over 18 years. We met back in high school when he started giving me a ride to school. Our mutual friend Brenna was trying to find her and me a ride and Rob was our ticket to coolsville (NO MORE BUS!). I didn't know him before he started driving me, but the three of us did go to the same church. In fact (and maybe this will be the last time I use this as a funny side note), Rob and I both received the "Catholic Student of the Year" award at our church our respective senior years in high school. Yeah, we were pretty awesome.



We connected again when I attended Radford University and he was at Virginia Tech. The trip between the two school was about 30 minutes and my friend Amanda had a car, so we would drive up there on Thursday nights to "party" and then drive home on Friday morning just in time to make it to class. Ahh, the life of a college student. And we thought it was SO TOUGH back then. After my sophomore year at Radford I transferred away to a school that was about 3 hours from Virginia Tech and that is around the time Rob and I started dating. Figures it wouldn't be WHILE I was 30 minutes away. He graduated college in '97 and moved out here to work for Microsoft, which was hard on our relationship, but we managed. December of '97 Rob asked me to marry him in his parents kitchen over a baloney sandwich at around 2:00 AM. That summer I moved to Washington to be with him, but hated it, so we moved back to Charlotte and finally began planning our wedding.

The day was beautiful. The weather was warm, the sun was out, and the party was KICKIN'! After our ceremony we went to the Commonwealth Club in Richmond for our reception. This place is high society, complete with a bride and grooms room. Rob stocked his full of bourbon, which he and his groomsmen partook in before our entrance. Our friend Kevin still recalls my mom pounding on the door telling them all through the wood not to get drunk before everything started. My mom cracks me up.

The party really was a lot of fun. People danced all night long (well, until 9:00 which is when our rental time expired) and the garter and bouquet toss were very memorable. I didn't know we had so many desperate friends (just kidding guys).







Happy Anniversary Babe!

Hey Beth, Vacation is OVER!!

I felt the need to remind myself, as I've been eating nothing but junk since I got back. Actually I had a nasty stomach virus and didn't eat much for a few days, so I guess my body wanted to make up for the lack of food and suggest things like Krispy Kreme, Pizza Rolls, and various candies!

I need to get back on track, and that begins when I have a goal to acheive. "To lose weight" simply isn't enough to get me to the gym. A place I haven't been but twice this month...mostly because their Kids Klub is a petrie dish of disease right now.

So, what should I do? Triathlon, Half Marathon, fun run? I need to start looking for some fun stuff online. One good thing is two friends and I are going to start walking Thursday mornings before our husbands go to work. That means getting up at 5:30 (voluntarily!!) rain or shine and going on a five mile walk down and then back up the parkway. I usually do this walk with both kids in the stroller (now equaling a 70 lbs ball and chain), but with just the girls and I it shouldn't take to long.

Let's hope for some good weather tomorrow. Not only because I am getting up at the crack, but also because I am also taking the boys to the Seattle Center for some fun and I really want it to be warm (which would be 45 degrees or above with no wind) and sunny, but I would settle for warm and not raining!

Oh, we did hit a big milestone with eldest this week. Not only is he sleeping in the top bunk and loving every moment of it, but he is no longer wearing a pull up at night. Yes folks, our eldest is now completly potty trained and it only took 8 months!

Oh man, real life is hard to get back to!

Vegas is officially a distant memory! The week following my trip was long, and the weather was horrible! However, I had some out of town guests and Youngest's 1st birthday party to look forward to, so I made it through. That is until Friday when I found out that Youngest possibly had bronchialitus. This meant we had to cancel the birthday party! But, it would still be fun having some family in town for a small celebration. Then I got a call from my Sister-In-Law telling me her kids were also sick and they couldn't make the trip.

Once I wrapped my head around having to cancel my son's first birthday party, I looked on the bright side. I was going to actually be able to sleep in on Saturday morning! Friday night I went to bed like it was Christmas! It took me no time to fall asleep, but around midnight I woke up and walked out of our room for no real reason, and noticed a burning smell in the house. Let me tell you, NOTHING wakes you up faster than thinking your house is on fire. Rob bolted out of bed and we quickly decided the house wasn't on fire, but something smelled like it was melting in the vents and just to be sure we weren't missing a hot spot, or breathing noxious fumes we called the fire department. They came quickly...IN THE BIG TRUCK! No lights or sirens, but I'm sure the neighbors heard it pull up. Exciting! Once we knew we wouldn't be dying in our sleep, we finally went to bed.

It was a crazy weekend. The best part though was when Rob bought a microphone stand for my Rock Band mic. Yes my friends, now I can play the guitar AND sing at the same time and I'm not half bad at it. Oh, if only I could actually play guitar in real life! For now, I'll settle for the virtual world!

Happy Birthday to my Baby

Youngest is a year old!!! His first year went by so fast, and yet it seems like Eldest has been three forever!

Happy Birthday Little Bear!!

The Vegas Post

Las Vegas...What can I say? I couldn't believe until last week I had missed out on such a magical place! It IS like an adult Disney Land. In fact, why anyone would want to take their kids there is beyond me! I have already decided Rob and I will go there for our 10th anniversary, and that Vegas will always remain a kid free zone for us. End of story...if we want a "family" vacation, we'll go to Disney Land!

This trip started with three overly excited moms and ended with three overly tired moms, that, although tired, felt like they got the trip they had dreamed of.







Warm weather, hours by the pool, Spa treatments where you can enjoy the spa ameneties following, talking with friends without your kids asking for something or annoying the crap out of you every five seconds, getting dressed up...without having to rush, VIP entrance into the towns hottest night clubs...the list could go on and on.

Some of my favorite memories? Well, I would have to say I knew I was in the city of sin when I took a shower and noticed two HUGE hand prints on the glass in front of me. Let's just say, I don't know many folks that shower with their hands on the wall as if they're getting arrested. You know I took a picture of it too...



Memory #2 - Going to the Palms Casino and gambling for the first time in a casino. I really had no way of pretending I knew what I was doing, and even with Melissa's help, I still looked like a total newb. I did win $16 dollars though, and decided I should quit while I was ahead. I had planned on playing Craps and 21 while I was there, but after the stress of Roulette, I knew I wouldn't be able to hang at either of those tables! The cashier thought I was joking when I told her I was a winner tonight...hey, $16 bucks can get you a drink!!

Memory #3 Getting on the list (thanks to my fabulous brother-in-law) for entry into the clubs at the palms. We decided on going to The Play Boy Club, and Ghost Bar. We knew the party in Vegas started late, but we thought by 9:30, some folks would be in the Play Boy Club, but no dice. The only other people in there were guys gambling their money away, and we couldn't sit down because we weren't going to buy an $800 bottle of vodka to sooth our tired toes. We checked that club off our list and headed to Ghost Bar and had a fabulous time. The DJ played excellent music, it was busy enough to feel like we were mingling with Vegas' elite, and there were "free" places to sit! I did wear my 3 inch heels all night, and hated every second of it, but beauty is pain...and they looked HOT!








The best memory by FAR though, is Thursday night: going to Tao at the Venetian. Yes, this is the same Tao night club that you read about in "US Weekly", and "OK" magazine. I arranged for us to have bottle service there, and we were all ready to pay $800 to have a place to sit down after the way our feet felt Wednesday night! My contact told me we should show up to the bar around 11:00, which cracked us up, since at home, we're all usually asleep by then...but this was VEGAS BABY!!

On Thursday, we all had a fun day doing whatever the hell we wanted to. I chose to lay by the pool for two hours before our spa appointments...yeah, it was a rough day. After the spa, we had a leisurely dinner at PF Changs, and then while Sarah and I went back to the hotel to watch NBC's Thursday night line up, Melissa and Minda went to experience Fremont Street. It was so wierd laying around our hotel room at 9:30 thinking we didn't need to get ready to go for another hour!!!




When Minda & Melissa returned, we put on the tunes and started getting ourselves dolled up. It reminded me of living on my sorority hall in college when we would pass through everyone's suite asking about what they were wearing, and getting help with our hair. It took me longer to get ready than I thought (thanks to an unexpected hole in my new shirt!), and poor Melissa left her ID at the hotel (and only remembered as we pulled up to the Venetian!), so it was a slow start to the night. We didn't get to Tao until 12:00 AM...12:00 AM, I never though I would be STARTING my night that late. When we got to the bar, the line was wrapped around the hall way, and my heart sank. I knew I was on the list, but I didn't think that gave me rights to by-pass the line. I got the courage to talk with the bouncer at the end of the line about our table reservation and he said "oh, you don't wait here, you go to that other line over there." The "other line" was shorter, and was moving a lot faster. I gave my name to another, larger bouncer and there I was...on "the list". I wanted to take a freakin' picture of my name! He went and talked to another guy, who waved us into a larger group of people...behind the velvet rope, and within minutes I was being called Mrs. Young by a man in a very expensive suite. He was apologizing because they no longer had any tables, but he wanted us to have fun, so he gave us free admission and drink tickets, and then just like that, we were IN the club. All of this took less than 10 minutes...the "regular" line would have taken hours. Needless to say, the four of us felt like the sh*t! We were like kids walking into Disney Land for the first time. I swear, I could write 100 blog posts about the things I saw in the that club! The service was fantastic, the bouncers were friendly, the people were amazing, the energy was endless! Even the line for the bathroom was fun! We danced in a few different spots, but ended our night on the main dance floor. This was a crazy place with all kinds of people dancing together. Girls and guys both joined our little group to cut a rug, and it was fun! Alas, the shoes were my downfall, and I could not stand anymore. Had we all been wearing more comfortable shoes, we would have stayed in that club until 5:00 AM. When we left, the heels came off and we went back to the hotel cackling like school girls about what a crazy place that was and how we couldn't believe we got in.








Did we see any famous people? I am sure of it, but we only recognized one...Tila Tequila. She was dancing with a bunch of women on a bar at Tao. It was awesome.

The Bellagio was fantastic. A one of a kind hotel, but VERY expensive. We got a great deal on the room, and I was so glad for it after I realized you have to tip people in Vegas for getting dressed in the morning (and some people do a very poor job at that...haha!)! I even paid $25 dollars just to run on the treadmill! (I know, crazy right?). In the end though, it was worth every stinkin' penny.





Our last day was spent doing the tourist stuff on the strip. We went to the M&M store, Melissa and I rode the roller coaster at New York, New York, and the three of us gambled at the slots and had lunch in the MGM Grand.




We ended up getting to the airport a lot earlier than expected, but we relaxed and read our new "OK", "US Weekly" and "Star" magazines while we waited, and even took advantage of US Air's "pay to upgrade" that night. We got to sit in first class and be the first ones off the plane. Our luggage was some of the first off the carosel as well, and before we knew it, we were home.

I think I stayed up until 3:00 telling Rob about my trip. He's been to Vegas before, and we laughed and laughed about all the things I finally got to experience that I had never seen before. We can't wait to go back together.

This time tomorrow....

This time tomorrow I will be halfway through a two hour flight to Las Vegas with two great friends. My children will be at least two states away, and unable to ask me for anything, unable to interrupt anything I'm doing, and I will not have to wipe anyone else's butt! Some may read this and think, "man, what a horrible mother! She really hates being around her kids!"

Not true. I love my kids. I love being around them and playing with them. However, the last few days have nearly put me over the edge. I need this break! My husband could use it too...maybe next year we'll go TOGETHER!!!

So, turns out Youngest has a milk intolerance (all my friends that have been going through this for months are secretly laughing, I'm sure). I took him to the ER last night because he was projectile vomiting (out both ends, I might add) almost all day yesterday. Yes, I did call the doctor, but while I was on hold, Youngest blew out once again, and the day got away from me. They gave him something to settle his stomach at the ER last night, but it didn't work. He was up until 2:00 AM sharting his diaper over and over again. I swear, we're single handedly keeping pampers in business this week. I gave him a bottle, thinking maybe he was starving since he had puked and pooped everything he had eaten out, and that seemed to work. He fell asleep until 7:00, when he had explosive diarrhea all over his bed. Lovely.

We took a ride to Safeway to get some pedialite this morning (something I should have done last night on my way home from the ER, but didn't). Eldest was a dream. He was helpful and had his listening ears on. Youngest, well, he screamed ALL the way there, and ALL the way back. Since getting home and having 8 oz. of Pedialite and a bottle, his mood has improved, but we'll see how long those liquids stick around.

Youngest is still in his jammies and lovin' every second of it. He's such a useful engine. OK, I'm off to finish my laundry and get my bag packed. I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight, even if Youngest is. I'm to excited about this trip!!!

Toothpaste...at least is smells good.

Today has been your typical "stay at home mom" day for me. You get one mess cleaned and another one appears. This morning I avoided the mountain of dirty dishes in my sink as long as possible, and when I finally did get to it both of my kids decided THAT would be the perfect time to start nagging me for something. Youngest crawled around whining, and this is AFTER I gave him something to eat. I swear that kid is a bottomless pit. After I engaged Youngest with a toy, I went back to sorting out which dishes needed to be washed by hand and which needed to go in the dishwasher. Just as I started to get my hands wet, Eldest screams out to me, "I'm thirsty". I take a deep breath and walk to the pantry to get a juice box for him. I present my master with this box of refreshment only to be told, "no, I want it in a cup.". I proceeded to tell him he could drink it from the box, or not have anything, and he chose to take the juice box, but squeezed it to hard and got it all over himself. I took another deep breath, marched him upstairs, changed his clothes, came back downstairs and put the rest of the juice box in a cup...with a lid. About this time I realized that Youngest had unrolled an almost FULL roll of toilet paper in my downstairs bathroom and was crawling around with most of it stuck under him. He was happy, so I decided to leave him alone with his toilet paper wad so I could finally finish the dishes. OK, Dishes are done and it's time to make lunch. Eldest requests mac-n-cheese, so I bring out the pot and cook up some Velveta Shells and Cheese for him. By this time, Youngest is in his high chair barking at me to throw food in his direction, but everything I give him is not satisfactory, so he's pushing it onto the floor, while continuing to scream. I ignore it. Lunch is ready! I call Eldest downstairs and upon entering the kitchen he says "I made a big pile!" I asked "A big pile of what?" He replies "Of toothpaste!" "WHERE!!" I say back. "In your sink". OK, fine, it's in a sink, which means it can wait. I sit him down in front of his lunch and He isn't impressed with the "shells" and refuses to eat it. I let him know I don't plan on making anything else, but he still chooses to push it aside. Fine. I straighten up a bit, and take Youngest upstairs for his nap. Then I check out this "toothpaste pile". It was impressive. Eldest had squeezed as much of my toothpaste, my husbands toothpaste, and his toothpaste as he could into my sink. At least it smells minty fresh. I'll take a pile of toothpaste over a steaming pile of crap any day. Now, I wonder when I'll have time to take a shower?

Here's a Funny Story

Eldest is learning the difference between boys and girls, and as such he likes to make sure I know I'm not like him and Daddy (DUH!). My favorite was the other day when he said, "Mommy, you don't have a penis. You just have a butt."

The Trip Draws Near!!!

In just a week and a day I will be heading to Las Vegas for the first time in my life with two great friends. For three days we'll enjoy the warm weather and the freedom of knowing we don't need to be home within a certain amount of time. It's lame, but I think we're all looking forward to the sleep the most!

Yesterday was opening day for the Mariners and they won! HOORAY!! Working at Nintendo I would get tickets to a few games a year, and I will miss that so much! However, my husband has come through for me and purchased me a four game pack for our 9 year anniversary (coming up in a few weeks). I am so excited to go to my first game this season!

The kids? Well, they're doing great. It's hard to believe youngest will be a year in just a few weeks! He's started pulling himself up to standing in his crib and we know that walking isn't far behind. That's when a whole new level of craziness will begin at the house. Some friends of mine that had girls first are finding out just how different boys can be. It's a good different, and it sure does keep you on your toes! Eldest is as messy as ever, playing outside in the mud and snow. I wish they made floor mats of heavy duty lint paper so when they come in from outside all the dirt is stripped from their shoes and kept on the mat! I swear, no matter how much I sweep, there's always a pile of dirt on my kitchen floor...hmmm, maybe this floor mat idea is a good one...NO ONE STEAL IT!