and they're off!!!

John just took A and E Trick or Treating...they'll be lucky if they make it off the pipestem! A's not too keen about going somewhere where I'm not and E was terrified of the first group of trick or treaters, two of whom were dressed in scary costumes.

A's dressed as a pumpkin and E is an elephant. At one point, I had her almost convinced to go as the Hershey Kiss...but in the end, she resisted. "I don't want to be a horsey kiss, mama." She did try to go as both a Hershey Kiss and a elephant, but the kiss didn't fit over her trunk.

I'll post pictures later, but I don't think they are any good...the bad news is that I have the world's suckiest camera. The good news is that John whole-heartedly agrees after the photo shoot, so fingers crossed that we'll get a new one soon!

who's on first?

This is the conversation E and I had on the way home from my birthday dinner.

"How many are you, mommy?"
"How old am I? I'm 33."
"You're 3, just like me. We're the same!"
"No, E, I'm 33."
"Yes, just like me!"
"No dear, I was your age 30 years ago. I'm 33."
"Am I 33, too? 'Cause we're the same."

Later, she asked me if we were going home. I told her we had to stop at Target.

"Oh good. I have to get you a present, mommy."
"Really? What are you going to get me?"
"A water bottle. Maybe a Dora water bottle."
"Wow! That sounds great!"
"Maybe I'll get lots of Dora toys. That'd be great, mommy! If you buy me lots and lots of Dora toys?"
"If I buy you toys? I thought you were buying me a present?"
"No, you should buy me lots of Dora toys. I had a birthday, I turned 3!"

boo!

Nonna and Pop-pop took A and E to Boofest, our community's Halloween Party, on Saturday. Here's a picture of the girls dressed up in their costumes. E insisted on being an elephant despite the fact that (1) she was an elephant last year and (2) the costume was entirely too small for her. A wasn't thrilled about the hat aspect of her costume.

happy birthday, kiki!

Today is my sister's 33rd birthday. Damn, she's old. You know what's worse? I'm four minutes older than that!

I hope she has some fantastic plans for her birthday up in the Windy City. She's travelling back to this neck of the woods on Friday to see the family and head to the UVA v. Wake game and I'm so excited!

my money's on john

This morning, as I was getting A dressed, I went to put our diaper remedy on her little tush (A's been battling diaper rash so we use a mixture of Maalox and Benadryl at home...I highly recommend it). Anyway, E comes on over, peeks onto the changing table and asks me,

"So, mama...are you going to put the pink sh!t on A?"
"What!?!?" I ask her, not sure of what I heard.
"The pink sh!t, mommy? Are you going to put some on A's heiny this morning?"

As of this posting the party responsible for calling the concoction "pink sh!t" within earshot of E has not been identified. I'll keep you posted on the investigation.

where in the world is slacker mama?

As it is Friday, it's time for my requesite post where I tell you what far-reaches of the universe I am headed off to this weekend. For those of you who haven't kept track, here's a schedule of what the fall has been like for us:

September 8-9: Me @ Atlanta for Wedding; John @ UT
September 9-15: Home for John's B-day
September 22-23: Family @ Charlottesville (UVA vs. GT)
September 29-30: Me and John @ NYC
October 6-7: Me and E @ Home; John and A @ UT
October 13-14: Fam @ Charlottesville (UVA vs. UConn)
October 20-21: Me and John @ Asheville for Wedding

So this weekend's destination is...drumroll please...HAPPY VALLEY, for the Penn State vs. Ohio State football game.

"Wait a minute, Slacker Mama," you ask. "Penn State? Ohio State? Haven't heard those teams mentioned before. Why are you headed there?"

Well, dear reader, our friends (and frequent partners in crime) Sean and Autumn have invited us to the game. Sean's parents went to Ohio State, and therefore, Sean is a big Ohio State fan. (Seriously, is it any wonder that he and John got along so well first year, with their mutual hatred of Notre Dame and their similar love of schools that they do not attend?)

Anyhoo, we're shipping the girls over to Nonna and Pop-pop's tomorrow morning and headed up to Penn State for the game. For Sean's birthday, Autumn got him this awesome grill, so we'll be tailgating it up before and after the game. On the menu:

• Brats and kielbasa
  
• South Georgia Caviar
  
• Hummus and pita
  
• Veggies and dip
  
• Pasta salad
  
• Grilled veggies
  
• Steaks
  
• Chicken wings
  
• Brownies
  

Gluttony, thy name is Slacker Mama.

diagnosis: brilliant

I just got back from taking A and E to the Ped's office. A needed a ear recheck (she had fluid at her 1-year) and a flu shot. E needed a flu shot and got her 3-year-check up...E turned 3 in August, but I totally forgot until September that she needed an appointment, hence the tardiness of it all.

E was ultra-psyched for the trip to the doctor's office...until we got there. She was definitely a little nervous. I tried to make her feel better by singing her a song.

"When you get in to start, she'll listen to your heart.
Then, she'll check your toes and then she'll check your nose!" I sang.

"But mommy! I don't want to her to check my NOSE!" she exclaimed. Not sure what her nose-phobia was...but there it was.

The rest of the appointment was uneventful. At the end, the doctor asked me if I had any concerns. After being reassured that the occasional clobbering of A was developmentally normal for a 3-year-old, I asked the doctor if there was anything that I should be concerned about in the next year development-wise.

"Not that I can think of," said the doctor. "I mean, she's a really smart girl."

Dude...when the DOCTOR says she's smart, you KNOW she's smart!

Oh...and for those who are curious, here are the heights and weights:

E: 32.5 lbs, 39 inches
A: 25 lbs, 31 inches

dixieland delight

We had an absolutely fantastic weekend! We arrived in Asheville around 5 or so. John's parents were five minutes behind us, so we met up and did a little Chinese firedrill for the last hour of the trip. Their car is in the shop, they had a new Volvo XC90 as a loaner car, which I got to drive. I love love love that car and totally want one now! My birthday is coming up next week....


Anyway, we checked into the Grove Park Inn, which is gorgeous. We met up with John's parents, Matt and Noreen, and Sam and Dave for a Seafood Buffet. I ate way too much (quelle suprise!), but it was yummy. After dinner, the guys headed back to the main bar to meet up with the wedding party while Sam, Noreen and I made our way to Elaine's Piano Bar. We had an absolute blast singing and dancing along with the dueling piano guys.

On Saturday morning, I woke up and headed down to the Spa for an 80-minute hot stone massage. It was absolutely amazing. If she had asked me if I wanted to pay $500 for 20 minutes more, I would have done so in a heartbeat. After the massage, I stuck around the spa for a few more hours. I did the contrast pool (alternating pools of 64 and 100 degrees), the sauna, the outdoor hot tub and had lunch on the sundeck. Then I headed back to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was gorgeous. A friend of the groom is a minister and performed the ceremony, and his dad played the piano. The food was fantastic and their band was incredible. Lots of dancing by the entire Short clan. A couple of the wedding guests told us that they recognized Sam, Noreen and I from our hijinx at Elaine's the night before...slightly embarrassing, but whatever. After the wedding, we headed back to Elaine's and closed the place down. The end of the evening was a little fuzzy for me, but I'm pretty sure I had a great time despite EVERY request that I made to the piano guys being shot down. Bastards.

Today, we woke up and headed home. There was one 20 minute stretch where I thought I was going to die, but because John is AWESOME he did most of the driving and let me sleep pretty much the entire way home. The girls had a great time with Nonna and Pop-pop....but they definitely missed us. A didn't let me get more than a foot away from her without screaming bloody murder, though she's kind of a mess because all four of her molars are coming in.

But, everyone else is tucked in their beds and asleep...and that's where I'm headed as well. I have work meetings Monday through Wednesday that include dinners and the like, so most likely I will not be posting until later this week.

road trip!

John and I are headed off to Asheville, NC for his friend's wedding. It should be a good time. We're staying at the Grove Park Inn. John's parents, both brothers and their significant others will be there, too. Tonight, we're meeting up for a seafood buffet dinner. Tomorrow, I've got an appointment for a massage while John golfs, and then the wedding. We'll head home on Sunday.

happy birthday, sean!

It's our friend, Sean's birthday today! He's an old man today...33 years old! We celebrated with him in New York a few weeks ago, in Charlottesville last weekend, and next weekend we are headed to Happy Valley!

child geniuses

A's new trick is giving us kisses. It is so freaking cute I can hardly stand it. Her version of kissing is opening her mouth up wide and slobbering on your face. She mainly does it when asked...but tonight she grabbed my face and planted one on me. I was in heaven!

Her other trick is that she's starting to sign a little bit more. Tonight she used milk, more and all done. I tried to show her book and fan...she seemed to understand. She's about the same age as E when she started picking up a few signs, so we'll see. While somewhat helpful in figuring out what they want when they can't talk, I really think signs are more of a cool party trick than anything else.

Not to be outdone...E has a new vocabulary word, too. It's "wedgie" and it gets used a lot in our house. Mainly, when I see her dancing around or fidgeting with her pants our conversation goes like this:

"E, what's going on? Do you have to go potty?"
"No, Mommy."
"Whatchya doing then?"
"Oh. I just have a wedgie."

Classy. That's what we're teaching our kids to be.

slacker mama = sucky photographer

So Gap is having some sort of photo contest where your kids can be the next models for the Gap. Since I clearly have the cutest kids ever, I'm entering E and A. The only problem is I do not have singluar pictures of each girl that fully illustrates just how cute they are. And, since I own the world's worst digital camera ever, I haven't been successful in taking new ones. I still can enter three more photographs, but this is what I've submitted thus far.


Oh...the other thing that sucks is that the age groups are 0-4 and 5-12...so I'm pitting sister against sister. What will I do if only one of them wins?!?!?

just like mommy

E has definitely taken note that she is not the same age as me or A, and based on that, we all do different things. "Maybe when A is my age, she'll get to ride my Dora bicycle," she'll tell me. "Maybe when I'm your age, I'll drive the black car," she'll say as we drive in the car.

This morning, as I was getting dressed, E comes in holding a bra.

"Can I try this on?" she asked me. Not quite knowing what to do in this situation, we slipped it on over her Dora pajamas and clasped it closed.
"Does it fit?" I asked her.
"No, Mommy, it doesn't fit," she told me. "But maybe when my boobies get bigger I can wear it."

my mother is evil

How else could you explain her leaving a batch of brownies with chocolate drizzled over the top at my house yesterday? Especially when I had to work at home today...so I was home alone all day long with the brownies.

Luckily, they will no longer be able to tempt me...I ate most all of them over the course of the day. It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it.

a fun, fall weekend!

How do you know when you've had a fun, action packed weekend in the Slacker house? When the kiddos don't wake up until 8:15 on Monday morning! They were two tired pups, I tell ya.

We had a blast this weekend. On Friday night, everyone converged upon Chez Slacker...the entire O'Reilly clan, and Rick and Mark. The youngin's went off to bed, while E and Maura played and the adults had a late dinner. The girls headed off to bed while the boys stayed up 'til the wee hours of the morning.

Saturday, we got up, piled into the cars and headed down to Charlottesville for the UVA game. We had a prime tailgating spot and the weather was gorgeous! Though it was thrown together at the last minute, our tailgate was pretty nice. We had a sandwich platter from the Teets, Autumn brought cookies and made a 7-layer dip, and I contributed a spinach dip and one of my faves, Paula Deen's South Georgia Caviar!

Everyone had a blast at the tailgate...and then it was time for the game. The boys headed in, and the girls loaded up into the Suburban to head home. E was a bit confused.

"Where are we going, Mommy?" she asked.
"We're going home," I told her.
"But I thought we were going to the Orange Birginya?" she asked.
"We did, sweetie. But we're going to go home now."
"No, Mommy! We need to go IN! We have to go into the Orange Birginya!"

The girls all passed out on the way home. We picked up some Foster's on the way home, threw the girls in the tubs and then went to bed.

On Sunday, there was lots of playing outside, football watching, and finishing off of the dips from Saturday. The O'Reilly clan left in the late afternoon...we polished off leftovers from Friday night, and then the Slackers headed off to bed.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Good times were had by all.

E and Maura's Pajama Party

E, Maggie and Maura at the Tailgate

Watching the Band Play

E and Daddy

A and Maggie Hanging Out in the Shade

channelling katie holmes...

Alright...after about eleventy thousand attempts to come up with a half-way decent picture of me and the new 'do, this is the best I could come up with. I know that most people don't comment on my blog, but do me a favor and tell me you love my new do...even if you are lying! I'm still unsure about the shortness and darkness of it all...

Oh, here's a "Before" picture, so you can see what I used to look like.

girls! girls! girls!

John is having a boys' weekend this weekend. His college friends -- Rick, Snell and Sean -- are coming in town tonight, and tomorrow they are headed down to the 'Ville for the UVA game against UConn. Sean's wife, Autumn, had college friend plans of her own that fell through...so she's loading up the Suburban with her three girls and headed down with Sean for the weekend.

I'm not sure what the plan is...I mentioned us tagging along to the game to John and it went over like a lead balloon. So we might still go, or we might stay a little more local, like go to the Cox Farms Fall Festival. But, it should be a good time!

i hardly recognize myself

One of the great things during my tenure as a SAHM was "Cuts and Coffee." Maritza, a hairstylist at a swanky salon in McLean, does haircuts and colors at someone's house for a lot less than you would pay at the salon. You bring your kids and a snack to share and hang out. While it's not nearly as relaxing as a trip to the salon, you don't have to worry about finding a sitter or going on the weekends.

Anyway, today was Cuts and Coffee, and I popped over during lunch to get my hair done. I had taken a quick gander through InStyle's Celebrity Hair gallery, but didn't see much in the way of frizzy medium length hair styles. So I figured that I'd just be getting a trim and my roots done. I was wrong.

"What are we doing with color?" Maritza asked.
"I guess the usual." I told her.
"Since it's fall, why don't we do something darker? And warmer?" she said.
"Okay" I said...though not really sure how hair could be warmer.

As she was applying the color, I mentioned how there weren't any cuts that I saw for my hair texture, except maybe Katie Holmes' hair.

"I love her hair!" Maritza exclaimed. "Let's do that!"
"Okay" I said.

So, when I woke up this morning I had medium length, medium brown hair. I now have a dark (almost black) brown chin-length haircut. A little shocking, but I'm getting used to it.

political pop quiz!

With the presidential elections a mere 13 months away, do you know which candidate you are most in line with? My mom sent me this link to a quiz to help you find out!

While I didn't shock the heck out of myself and find out that I'm for Romney or Giuliani in '08...I did find my bleeding heart liberal self is a Kucinich supporter.

my babes at bedtime

I brought the camera upstairs last night at bedtime. Here are a few pics of the girls.

Wrestling with Taggie

Sweet Baby A

Dora PJs and a Stuffed Horse...what could be better?

Happy Girl!

dumbest. parenting idea. ever.

The Today Show ran a story today on the practice of Elimination Communication where by insane earthy-crunchy moms don't put diapers on their kids. Rather, they wait for the child to give visual cues that they have to go, run their kids to the bathroom (or bowl or whatever) and give some sort of audio cue to their children to go.

Advocates say it's better for the environment and is in practice in other areas of the world where they can't afford diapers...yadda yadda yadda. But really, aren't their laundry bills through the roof? What are they using to clean the inevitable accidents that occur? And, furthermore, don't these parents not have anything better to do than look for every grunt, grimace and scowl as a possible sign of having to go?

Last night, we let A have some bare-bottom time since she has a diaper-rash. The entire time she was pants-free, I was stressed that she was going to poop on her carpet, or even worse, me. I guess I'm just not mentally tough enough for this trend.

playing "waitress" with e

I was just IM-ing with my friend and co-worker, UT, who just returned from a two-week European vacation with his wife and 2 1/2-year-old. Luckily, all three lived to tell the tales! One of the things he mentioned is that Gasahn was "making" cappucinos for him by the time they left Rome. It reminded me of one of E's favorite ways to play with the stacking cups (besides making towers for the "Tower Eating Baby" A to knock over)...she likes to play waitress.

"Can I get you a drink, Mommy?" she'll ask me as she breaks out the biggest of the cups.
"Sure, E!" I tell her. "A drink sounds fantastic!"
"What do you want, Mommy? Coffee? Diet Coke? Wine?"

I tell you, once I train her on fetching me the actual drinks, I'll be set for life.

who are you? and what have you done with my husband?

This was an actual phone conversation that took place between me and John this morning:

John: I think we should have salads tonight for dinner.
Me: Yeah, I was thinking salads and that fettuccine alfredo that I made last week.
John: That sounds awesome! I could defintely use a meat free dinner.

belated weekend update

It was a great weekend in the Slacker house. John and A had a fantabulous time in Knoxville. A wore the "Go Vols" dress and tailgated at Calhoun's on the River until about 2 or so. She got lots of good stuff from Grandmom shopping, as did E. Daddy also loaded them up with UT stuff -- including a Smokey toothbrush and an Eric Ainge football jersey for E -- which she has worn non-stop since receiving.

E and I had fun -- the slumber parties were successful, though E did wake me up at 4 am on Saturday night to tell me that Daddy and A were home. It took a bit of convincing that it was the middle of the night and they would not be home until later that day. But other than that we had a great time.

Day care was closed and I had the day off yesterday for Columbus Day. We went to Heidi, Madelyn and Ellie's house in the morning, came back to our house for lunch and nap, and then went to Jenn, William and Julia's house in the afternoon. It was great to catch up with everyone. After dinner, we piled the girls in the bathtub for tubby time. After we lathered the girls up, E started yelling "I want a moo hoo! I want a moo hoo!" Took us a minute to figure out what the heck she was talking about.

what goes around comes around...

I was a picky eater as a child. Not nearly as picky as my sister, but picky nonetheless. I remember my mother muttering "My mother [an Italian immigrant] would roll over in her grave" as we eschewed regular pasta in favor of Chef Boy-r-dee Ravioli, and then my mom's homemade pasta sauce in favor of Prego jarred stuff. So, I was always pretty amazed that E has been a pretty adventerous eater. My three-year-old lists tomatoes as one of her favorite foods -- I didn't even try one until I was ten or so.

Last night, as part of our girls weekend, E and I did some cooking. She always wants to help, but usually when I'm cooking I'm trying to slap something on the table as fast as possible with both her and A underfoot, so it doesn't work. So last night, we made our own pizzas and ice cream. E was a great help with the pouring and mixing. We had tons of fun, until it was time to eat the pizza.

"I don't like it." E said after one bite.
"What? You don't like it?" I asked.
"No. The cheese is yucky." E said. The cheese was mozzerella slices from a ball of fresh cheese instead of shredded cheese. You know, the mozzerrella she at about half of while we topped the pizza.
"Can I have dinosaur chicken nuggets instead?"

Sigh.

On the bright side, she did devour the ice cream for dessert.

we're having a slumber party!

This weekend, John and A are headed to Knoxville for the UT v. Georgia game. Grandmom, Granddad, Uncle Dave and his girlfriend Sam will be in attendance. E and I are staying behind, after we decided the logistics of packing up the entire family for the weekend was going to be ree-diculous!

Since it's just me and The Hurricane, we're going to have a slumber party tonight! We're going to get into our "matching" PJs (well, she calls them matching, they're really just both pink...remember, she has her daddy's fashion sense!), climb into my bed, read tons of stories and then hit the hay! This could be either wildly successful or an absolute nightmare...wish us luck!

In other E news, she woke up this morning and told me that she didn't want to wear her uniform to school today. "That's fine, E." I told her. "It's Friday...you can wear whatever you want." She took me at my word...she's wearing a flowered dress, plaid shoes and a tutu to school today. I did draw the line at the visor, sunglasses and raincoat, however.

so long, farewell, au revoir, auf wiedersehen!

When you are a working mama (or daddy), daycare drop-offs are often a lose-lose situation. Either the kid is upset and you are therefore heartbroken because you feel terrible that you have to leave...OR the kid is fine and you are therefore sad because perhaps they aren't sad to see you go (as silly as it sounds). Luckily the latter is only a fleeting moment, and then you can leave knowing your kids are happy and well taken care of.

This week has been a surprisingly easy week in terms of daycare drop offs. A has been walking straight over to Miss Anya or Miss Idalia, and hasn't been crying, which is nice. And E is no longer stalling your imminent departure by wanting to talk about school, work, Daddy's work and A's school, or by recounting the plan for the day. In fact, today after I fed her three bites of her applesauce for breakfast, she looked at me and said, "Bye bye, Mommy! It's time for you to go!"

And, yes, I was a little heartbroken that she wasn't begging for one more bite from me.

dancing queen

A loves music. Just loves every instrument in our house: the maracas, tambourine, shaky eggs, cow bells -- even the pots and pans qualify as instruments. So it's no suprise that now that she's walking, she's learning how to dance.

The other day at Heidi's house, she had music on in the playroom. A got this huge smile on her face and started bouncing to the music. Then she started walking around in tiny little circles -- she was trying to spin around but doesn't have the turning radius quite yet. It was so cute. The smile on her face showed how proud she was of her "dancing".

i love new york

This weekend, John and I headed up to New York for a little couples weekend/early birthday present. Saturday morning, we drove up to Philly where we met up with our friends Sean and Autumn and Jenn and Andy. (Interesting trivia: we have SEVEN girls aged 3 and below between the three couples.) This six of us piled in a limo and headed up to NYC.

We caught the matinee show of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which was really cute. For dinner, we went to Mesa Grill, one of Bobby Flay's restaurants. I had New Mexico Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Bourbon-Ancho Chile Sauce and Sweet Potato Tamale with Crushed Pecan Butter while John had the spice crusted swordfish steak with Charred Jalapeno-Basil Vinaigrette...both were divine. Afterwards, we went to the Comedy Cellar, where we saw Sherrod Small (a regular on VH1's The Best Week Ever) among others perform.

I'll post the one picture we took this weekend when I get it (it was on Jenn's camera). But, all in all, it was a great little trip!