the cutest one-year-old in the whole wide world!

A year ago...she looked like this:

And, now?

Happy birthday, Baby AJ! We all love you and miss you!

joke of the day

A: Knock knock.
John and me: Who's there?
A: Banilla ice cream.
John and me: Vanilla ice cream who?
A: Tootie [insert hysterical fit of laughter]

cutting class

We had a fun weekend that included a birthday party for the girls and John and I going to his company's (incredibly delayed) Holiday Party. John's Uncle Paul and Aunt Kathleen graciously offered to watch the girlies while we went to the shin-dig (it was an overnighter)...and fun was had by everyone!

When we got back late Sunday morning, it was fun to find how it had gone, and t hear the funny (and different perspective) that they had on the girls. Uncle Paul declared that E is already huge backseat driver. And Aunt Kathleen had this funny little story about A.

On Sunday morning, the foursome was headed to church. E and A were not happy about this...but, being the ever gracious hostesses, begrudgingly went. After mass began, A turned to Aunt Kathleen and said the dreaded seven words,

"I have to go to the potty."

Aunt Kathleen whisked her away to the bathroom. However, the minute they walked into the bathroom door, A turned around and said,

"I really *don't* have to go potty."

Imagine the excuses she will come up with in a few years when at 3 she's faking having to pee to get out church?

could have been worse

A has a new teacher who is always there when I pick her up in the afternoons. I don't know if this teacher just loooooooves A or does this for everyone...but she always tells me a Fun Fact about A. One day, she told me that they were playing Memory and A kicked everyone's ass. And, yesterday was no different.

"A was totally cracking me up today," she told me.
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, she made a microphone out of legos and was singing for the entire class!"
"Oh! That sounds like my girl."
"Yes, she was singing...uh...what's that song from the radio?"

This was where I started to get nervous. We've been listening to XM a lot lately, and sometimes my girls really like inappropriate songs. I started praying to myself please don't say Ke$ha's TikTok.

"TAYLOR SWIFT! That's right! I was really impressed at how she knew all the words."

Crisis averted...for now.

will run for cheesesteaks

So I had a wild and crazy Saturday evening. If by wild and crazy, you mean registering myself for a 10-mile race in 10 weeks. Which I totally do. Come May 2nd...you wanna know what I'll be doing?

Broad Street is Philly's version of the Cherry Blossom.

"But, Slacker Mama," you say, "don't you kind of hate running?"

Why, yes. Yes, I do. But I was tricked talked into running it by one of my best friends...so I really couldn't say no. Bonus! She hates running as much as I do!

I'm going to try start posting updates on training on my other blog. You know, the one I update even less than this one. We'll see how this all turns out.

Best case scenerio: I learn to love running.
Worst case scenario: I get a cool T-shirt.

candy detective

We were hanging out last night, when I noticed something strange.
"Hey, A. Why is your finger green?"
"I was eating candy."
John explained that E had received even *more* candy yesterday...and that the girls had snuck off and eaten when they got home.
"You were eating Fun Dip, weren't you? And since it was E's candy, you used your finger to eat it!"
"How did you know, mama?"

 

Sometimes, a mother learns from experience.

putting the slacker in slacker mama

Today was E's first day back to school since the week before last. And it was delayed 2 hours (and will be the rest of this week). For those of you keeping score, girlfriend has been out of school 10 of the last 13 school days due to snow, a teacher workday and President's Day. Craziness.

So, on Friday of last week, we received an e-mail from E's teacher talking about Valentine's Day...how they weren't having a class party for it, but if you wanted to send Valentines, here was the class list. I figured since the earliest they would go back to school was the 16th, and there weren't any official Valentine's Day activities, everyone would basically not buy cards to exchange.

Holy hell was I wrong. E came home with a bag full of Valentines. And most of them included candy despite the "No Candy" request in the e-mail. So the class parents? Suck-ups AND not very good listeners.

Luckily, E was perfectly happy with just receiving and didn't seem to notice that she didn't pass out any Valentine's to her friends. Which might speak more to her mooch-iness than her happy-go-luckiness. But either way, it's a win for me.

I mean I don't even buy cards for my family...I considered one of the brightspots of all this snow was bypassing the world's stupidest holiday altogether!

to my valentines

Though I might not show my love by remembering to buying Valentine's Day cards (in my defense...we've been housebound! And moving as a family unit otherwise!)...there's no place I'd rather be than snuggling with you all.


Happy Valentine's Day, John!
Happy Valentime's Day, E!*
Happy Balentime's Day, A!*
I love you all!




*thought I would wish them Happy Valentine's Day how they say it.

to do? to done!

After breakfast, we bandied about a gazillion ideas on what we could do to break the cabin fever that had infected our family. E decided it would be easiest if we made a list of all the things we wanted to do.

 

• lunch


• boling (bowling)


• back cooks (bake cookies)


• playing


• diner (dinner)


• dzert (dessert)


• go to bed

Yes, she crossed things off the list after we accomplished them. And, she asked if she could make a To Do list for tomorrow...and every Saturday and Sunday.

My girl is gonna be a list maker. I couldn't be more proud!

when you inherit your father's sense of fashion

Remember when I said I'd be taking pictures of The Blizzard of 2009 - Round 2 (the official term used by the newscasters). So...uh...yeah. Apparently, there's not so much "Fun in the Snow" to be had when 30+ mph winds whip the snow directly in your face no matter which direction you stand. So, not a lot of snowy frolics for the Slacker family yesterday.

I did manage to take a few pictures of the girls and what they choose to wear yesterday. They thought they looked awesome. And not in a crazy, unmatched Punky Brewster kind of way.

Evening Attire

 

The Daytime Look

 

And can we discuss how my girls seem unwilling to let go of their summer clothes? What is up with that? They wore bathing suits around the house during the last snow storm. I get cold just looking at them.

snowed in...send wine!

After getting close to two feet of snow of Friday and Saturday, bringing the region to a grinding halt, we're supposed to get another 8-10" tonight and tomorrow. Can someone explain to me where we are supposed to *put* more snow...'cause here are pictures from Sunday.

Notice the snow behind A? That's the pile of snow generated from shovelling the drive earlier that morning!

Uh? Timber?

The view out our front porch...please note how long our driveway is. Never buying a house on a pipestem again!

Not going to lie...trying to balance trying to work with both girls home from school has been overwhelming to say the least. Luckily, we discovered that E can go to A's school on a daily drop-in basis, which we put to use today (and will likely do later this week, too)! And I have to give Nonna (and Pop-pop) mad props for continuing to offer their help!

More pictures of this next round to come soon!

And, in case you were worried, the title of this post was just being cutesy. Our wine stockpile was replinished (thankfully) today by John, who stopped by Wegmans to pick up the essentials...beer, wine, bread and milk. But, if you want to send me wine, feel free to!

earning their keep

Yesterday was a "Snow Day" for E. It was kind of ridiculous...sure we had gotten a few inches of snow, but the roads were pretty clear by the time we got up. It should have been a 2-hour delay at most.

Anyhoo, the girls were home and Nonna came over to watch them so I could get some work done (because work-at-home moms? how the hell do you do it?!?!?). The kiddos wanted to go out and play in the snow...so I had them put in a little manual labor while they were out there.



And before you get all "Child labor laws!" on me, please note that they only had to do the front walk...the driveway was totally clear. And it wasn't all work and no play. They also built a mighty fine snowman, too.

And, I must give one more huge shout-out to Nonna for coming over. She's wathced the kiddos TWICE this week -- yesterday and on Monday, which was a teacher workday. Without her help, I probably would have collapsed in a heap of stress and worry on how I was going to get all my work done.

conspiracy theory

I'm pretty sure the only reason Groundhog Day is still a big deal is because preschool and elementary school teachers love all of the craft possiblities.

have girls, will travel

One of the things that I love about John is that he has never been intimidated by taking the girls places. He was the first of us to fly solo with a kid. When A was a newborn, he took them both to Cracker Barrel so I could get a few extra hours sleep. He's taken them to Knoxville and Charlottesville for football games, and done some sightseeing in DC solo.

The other week, he took A down to Charlottesville for a basketball game. It was a mid-week game, so we figured A would be a better companion...since E has real school, can't nap and generally doesn't fall asleep in the car. E was understandably bummed, despite my efforts to have a little date night ourselves.

Virginia had a game last night against VA Tech. We had already considered letting E go to the game because of it being so close to the weekend (and hey, maybe we could get her to sleep in on Saturday)...but our rough week here kind of sealed the deal. The only problem was that A knew that there were fun times to be had with Daddy...so not taking her was out of the question.

Most people might have bristled at the idea of taking 2 kids 5 and under to a sporting event solo. Heck, I don't think I would have done it. But, John?
No problem. (Now if only I could get him to take flattering pictures, he'd be perfect!)

some things never change

A's school is doing some sort of space curriculum right now. Or at least I think they are, because the other night when I picked her up she pointed to the moon and told me she was going to fly there in a rocket ship when she grew up. And, yesterday, she pointed to a picture of Earth on a bulletin board at school and said,

"Mama, dat's the planet we live on. Dat's Earf."

The ride home from school was thens spent discussing the planets in our solar system.

The girls were totally cracking up that there's a planet named "Pluto." And I thought to myself...one day, Pluto won't even phase you. One day, you'll be in your 30s and you'll be driving home with your own kids. And despite your full-on adult status, you'll still giggle at a planet named "Uranus."

Or at least I still do.

winter doldrums

So the entire Slacker family is in a bit of a funk. I don't know if it's the winter weather or what...but all of us are sort of blah right now. E, especially. She's even pulling some old shenanigans when it comes to SAC. And, guess what? A big ole helping of Mommy Guilt isn't really helping make me feel any better.

On the bright side, we had a good weekend last weekend, including going to a fantastic brunch with some good friends. Today, E didn't cry at all this afternoon! And, we've got a slew of visitors coming to see us this weekend, that the *whole* family is looking forward to. So, hopefully things are on an upswing.

Let's hope so. 'Cause these winter doldrums really suck.

men are from mars: little people edition

This weekend, I tried to organize the girls toys a bit. I got a couple of bins to store the rapidly expanding Barbie collection, and tried to tackle The Black Hole of Crap Toys (aka, the toy box). While I did make some progress in my efforts (some relic baby toys did get moved downstairs and some cheap-o and/or broken toys got the boot altogether), I was stymied by the fact that my girls rediscovered their love of the toys that I was trying to remove from the family room...Little People.

I felt like we were kind of over the Little People. We have a dollhouse and all those damn Barbies now...I feel like these three types of toys overlap. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. There was whining. And begging. And sure enough, the girls have played with the Little People pretty much every night since I tried to banish them to storage.

Last night after dinner, the girls broke out all of the Little People, and in an effort to get out of any further post-dinner cleanup John joined in on their game. Except rather than just grabbing a figure and start talking in a silly voice (you do that too...right? right?!?!!?), he decided to implement a Little People Draft.

For the next 20 minutes, the three of them had different selection rounds, including one for Little People vehicles. Poor John didn't fare so hot...he ended up with several Little People knock-offs (think: My Little Pony happy meal toys) AND the crappy school bus with all the doors broken off. Alas the three of them had tons of fun, and he taught them valuable life lessons for when they are old enough to join their own fantasy football teams.

Strangely enough, they finished up playing just as I put the last dish away...

boys vs. girls vs. babies

In what will hopefully become a more frequent than annual event, the girls and I spent part of our day off yesterday at a playdate with my old New Mom's Group from when E was born. Just like last year, everyone had a good time. What I found interesting about this time is that the kids naturally segregated themselves this year.

The boys immediately went off and played legos and Wii together. The older girls (E, A and Julia) were dressing up, playing with baby dolls and playing doctor among about 100 other things. The younger girls kind of played by themselves

But, Here are all the kiddos in attendance. (I didn't take this picture...since I, of course, forgot my camera. Thanks, Kelly, for passing it along!.)

christmas 2009: the recap

So, Christmas was a huge success! This was the first year that each girl had definitive ideas about what they wanted. E wanted a globe that played games and a Barbie. A wanted a pink car and a Barbie. For a while we had *no* idea what kind of car A meant -- for her or for her dolls -- lucky for us she was talking about a doll sized one. We also got the girls bikes. But,when the dust had settled and the presents were opened, the early front runner for favorite gift were the mini-Slinkies the girls got in their stockings. Who knew?

The other big gift of the holiday was the Beertender that my mom got my husband. 'Cause nothing says "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" like a ice cold beer at 10 in the morning.

It was also Baby AJ's first Christmas, which was fun. Sure, she had no *idea* what the heck was going on...but she sure was cute!

 

harder than herding cats

I finally got around to uploading my pictures from Christmas, which means two things. (1) Christmas was totally omitted from my 2009 Year in Review collage. Bummer. (2) Expect a series of Christmas Recap posts...starting now!

On Christmas Eve, we went to my parent's house. Some of our family friends came over and good times were had by all. We also attempted to get a picture of E, A, and AJ in their matching Christmas Eve outfits. The best we could do was a blurry picture with 2 of 3 smiling, 0 of 3 looking *directly* at the camera, and it appears that A is looking to swipe AJ's bottle.

 

We're lucky their cuteness totally makes up for it all.

2009: the year in review

2009 was a great year. We went to Disney, graduated from preschool, went to the beach, turned 5, started Kindergarten, and turned 3. We got to hang out with family and friends. And we captured it all in pictures.

 

Yes, 2009 was a good year. I hope 2010 is even better.

coming attractions

For some reason, I cannot sit down long enough to actually write any of these blog posts...but rest assured, the following posts should be forthcoming:

• A round-up of the Slacker Family Christmas (Also titled: If You Give Your Kids Bikes for Christmas, Make Sure You Don't Do it When There's a Sub-Arctic Cold Spell or You Will Either Freeze Your Ass Off OR Have to EndureConstant Whining about Wanting to Go Outside and Ride Them)
  
• The Slacker 2009 Year in Review (Also titled: Damn, These Kids are Cute Year-round!)
  
• Slacker Mama's 2010 Resolutions (Also titled: The BeerTender My Mom gave John for Christmas Will Likely Kill Any 2010 Weight-loss Goals)
  
• I Was a Picky Eater as a Child...Karma's a Bitch (Also titled: Seriously, What Kind of Freaky Kids *Won't* Eat Sloppy Joes?!?!?)

So you have those to look forward to. Let's hope "No cussing" is not a Slacker Mama resolution, because I think this post pretty much killed that dream.