monday morning exchange with ian

ian loves bacon. turkey bacon, that is. i don't have to ask him what he wants for breakfast every morning because every morning is the same.

at any rate, as i'm fixing my coffee this morning, ian walks into the kitchen and asks if we can go to the movies today. "well," i explain, "the movies are pretty expensive. maybe we can go tomorrow when the theater has discount tuesdays."

quickly trying to change the topic, i ask, "so, what do you want for breakfast buddy?" (even though i already know the answer.)

"water," my poor little boy replies glumly.

"water???"

"yes." as if this is somehow going to increase my sympathy for this little fella who's stuck with a cheap and unfeeling mother.

"no problem, buddy. you want ice with that?"

ian offers a stunned and pained look.

fast-forward a half hour...

"mom, can i vaccuum?"

"sure!"

(a few minutes later after vaccuuming one room.)

"now can i have $5?"

"no."

ian sighs.

fast-forward a few more minutes...

"MOM!!! come here!!!"

ian, in his effort to clean and earn cash (which he erroneously still thinks he's gonna get), has now vaccuumed up a wii cord. if i can't get this ridiculous sweeper taken apart and that wii wire untangled, i'm screwed.

a new wii will cost more than the movie tickets, gosh darn it.

maybe, i should've said "yes" right from the beginning.

can you guess what ian was doing in this picture?

just going through old photos...

man, i'd hate to be an egg

comment made by ian while scrambling his egg this morning. the kid's on a roll, lately.

mommy, would you rather eat a tarantula or a helicopter?

actual question posed by ian while hiking over the weekend in scioto trails.

beautiful kate

my red-headed, free spirited baby girl...happy birthday! i love you!

birthday boy

my beautiful birthday boy. ian turned 7 last friday. here he is, holding one of the chocolate birthday cupcakes he made from scratch and iced himself.

ian has so many wonderful qualities. he is helpful and kindhearted ~loving and well-mannered. it devastates him to disappoint someone, and sometimes he is too quick to apologize (just like his mother). ian loves to cuddle, hug, hold hands, and smooch. he is patient and giving with other children. he's going to make some woman a wonderful husband someday!!!

my bond with ian was instantaneous ~ from the moment he was born, i was head-over-heels in love with him. i had such a difficult delivery with kate, and was so overwhelmed with mommy-hood, that i hadn't felt that spontaneous connection with her. i felt guilty about that for a long time ~ like somehow i had cheated her during her first few weeks on earth. i was worried about having another child, that maybe i wouldn't have enough love for my son. boy, was i wrong.

ian's recent accident has only increased my love for him (if that is even possible). he has grown weary over the past few weeks of me telling him just how much i adore him. but that's okay. can we ever tell our children how precious they are to us too often?

happy birthday ian. my love for you is limitless.

and thank you god, for the gift of my son. my gratitude to you is boundless as well.

oh my gosh, she's got red hair

those were the first words uttered by my ob-gyn when kate was born.

since then, her father and i have been asked this question A MILLION times:

"where does the red hair come from?"

i know it's a conversation starter, but how do people that you don't know expect you to honestly answer that question? leo and i have been asked this by everyone from the baggage handler at orlando international airport to the produce guy at kroger's. so ultimately, i find myself delivering the following explanantion to complete strangers:

well, red hair is a double-recessive trait, which means that her father is a carrier of the gene for red hair and i am a carrier for the gene too. leo's grandmother was a red-head. and as for me, i had a great-aunt and uncle who were twins, and they had red hair. and since i'm a twin, the red-head gene must have been lurking about in my dna somewhere. if you complete a mendelian-based punnett square of our alleles, you'll see that we probably had a 25% chance of having a red-headed child. at least that's what my ob-gyn and our family doctor have told us. does that answer your question?

kate's red hair suits her. she displays, what i would call, the typical personality characteristics of a red head: stubborn, fiery, and tough. "tough" seems like a rather generic adjective, but kate is exactly that. the girl is tough as nails. emotionally and physically.

last year, ian slammed the car door completely shut on kate's finger. i freaked, opened the door, and her finger had a deep crease in it. i don't know how it didn't break. we ran into my parents' house (we were in their driveway) to ice her hand down, and kate was determined not to lose it. my dad looked at her,and told her it was okay to cry if it hurt, and she finally did. surprisingly. once she digs her heels in, she usually doesn't budge.

i often joke that i pity any boy that becomes interested in kate when she gets older. she will definitely wear the pants in all of her relationships, which i think will be a very good thing.

so i have this beautiful red-headed daughter whom i cherish so deeply it sometimes amazes me.

i love you, kate. happy birthday.

that girl read my mind

i just had to post this ~ all the mommies out there will understand...

i said in this morning's post that i couldn't wait to change the sheets on my bed. (kate's sick and has been sleeping with me.)

as soon as i put up my new post, i walked in to check on kate, who was lying in my bed watching tv.

she took one look at me, said, "uh-oh", and promptly threw up all over herself, the pillow, the sheets, and the comforter. (she had just drunk some red gatorade.)

needless to say, the sheets have now been changed.

lesson for today: be careful what you wish for. :)

selective multi-tasking

kate's home sick. i'm pretty sure it's the flu (we are heading to the doctor's in a couple of hours for confirmation). i am staying home with her today, which is a very good thing. as her mommy, i believe that no one can take care of her the way i can. this includes her daddy.

leo stayed home with kate yesterday. and i love him for being such a hands-on daddy. he really is a wonderful father. (he's also a wonderful person; he's just very selective about who he lets in on this fact.) he has no problem staying home from work to help with the kids. but in actuality...he didn't stay home from work.

he worked. at home. on business stuff. nothing else. never mind that it looked like my house had imploded. he was even still up at midnight, reading. business stuff.

arggghhhhh.....

now this is gonna sound like i'm tooting my own horn, but i gotta tell ya, it's only 9:15 am and i've gotten a ton of stuff done this morning already. three loads of laundry have been taken care of, the kitchen and laundry room floors have been swept and mopped, dishwasher unloaded and reloaded, beds made (except for mine, which kate is lying in...i can't wait to change those sheets!), and i could go on. and i've done all this while going in to kiss kate every three minutes or so and tell her how much i love her.

she's already tired of me. i'm walking in to check on her now, and she's rolling her eyes and going, "i know, i know. you LOVE me."

indeed, i do.