Spring Break Update

Have you been wondering about what we have been doing during Spring Break?! Well, let me give you a run down. Most of all, we have been laying low and getting some things done around the house, but we have had some excitement as well. Like the ice skating birthday party that we attended this weekend. Thankfully, Robbie was able to come with us because if I had been left to do it on my own I think I would have taken a razor sharp skate to my own head. Believe me, it would have been less painful. Things started out pretty good. See? Skates on, helmets snapped, we are ready to go. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of our ice skating experience because after this all hell broke loose and it was pretty much impossible to snap cute photos with 80 pounds of kid screaming like crazy people and hanging off of me while I tried to stay upright during my first experience on the ice since the mid 90's. Meanwhile, the other 4 year olds at the party had a much more normal reaction to their first ice skating experience and seemed to have a great time. The birthday girl looked like Michelle Kwan out there compared to the freak show that was us. After the skating was over we did have a great time eating cake and playing games and riding the carousel. Now we are looking forward to a play date with Michelle Kwan herself on Friday. Abby can hardly wait. She thinks that maybe her friend would like to copy words when she comes over to play. You know, open a book and rewrite it on a blank piece of paper? This is pretty much her favorite activity these days and she is having a hard time believing that not everyone would want to do this. Friday should be interesting. In other spring break news, it is boot camp time again! What? you ask? Let me fill you in. Being a working mom, I miss out on much of the day to day happenings with my children and every year when I am home for a week, I realize that there is something in our lives that has gotten completely out of hand and I dedicate the week to getting us back on track. I don't plan to do this, it just happens. The year they were born our focus was on sleeping through the night. They were 9 weeks old and the whole getting up in the middle of the night and then going to work the next morning was killing me so I made it my mission to teach them how to sleep through the night by the time I went back to work. The first night I got up 35 times to give pacis instead of bottles. The second night was only slightly better, but by the time I went back to work they were sleeping all night! Last year, our training sessions focused on pooping in the toilet. I know what you're thinking. Yes, they were almost 3 and a half years old, but let me elaborate a bit (just what you were hoping for, right?). For their whole life they only ever pooped when they were in their beds so even though they were potty trained and wore undies all day, they wore diapers (and pooped) at night and during naps. Anyway, long (and gross) story short, last spring break they learned to poop in the toilet! Yay us!! Now you are probably wondering, now that we sleep though the night and no longer soil ourselves, what more could there possibly be to work on? Let me fill you in. Fussing!! I am so over it. Somewhere around their third birthday, my children stumbled upon some false information that unfortunately has stuck with them and influenced the majority of their decision making. Someone (presumably someone quite small) must have told them that when things don't go their way, the way to get what they want is to throw a big ol' fit. Now I have done my best not to buy into this nonsense but in the rush of life, sometimes it is easier to ignore my problems than to deal with them. Well bad news kids, this week time is abundant. The first couple days were rough. One child, especially kept forgetting that I do things for kids who ask nicely and ended up spending quite a bit of time doing this:

But by Tuesday, the whining had dwindled and today was actually glorious! I love boot camp! And I love a week to just get our lives back on track. Hmmmm, I wonder what next year will bring?

Love Him!

Look who I got to snuggle with all night... As we were lying in the dark he said, "Momma? I think we should hold hands. Because we love each other." So we did.

Foiled!!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day from my little leprechauns! I swear, getting them both to smile normal smiles at the same time is like trying to eliminate all of the dandelions from my yard...super frustrating and virtually impossible. In other news, I would like to publicly thank my mother-in-law (aka my nanny) for going on vacation and giving me a good excuse to stay home with my kids. We have been very busy....here are all of the details from our fun filled Saint Patrick's Day! It started this weekend when we made our leprechaun trap. Actually, it started last Saint Patrick's Day when that naughty leprechaun came in the middle of the night and trashed the playroom. Thus the need for the trap this year. Here they are building the ramp for the leprechaun to get up to the to of the trap. They built the ramp all by themselves. Abby glued and Ben put the pieces on. I had brought some supplies home from school for them to use, including my jar of "craft sticks". While I was in the other room I heard her say to him, "Why do you think Mom has a collection of Popsicle sticks? That's gross!".

Here they are with their completed trap. The leprechaun sees the gold (Ben decided that we should use Golden Grahams) and climbs the ramp to get it...

little does he know that there is a hole under the "grass" and he falls in. Abby thought that once we caught him we should either tie him up in a bag and throw him away or keep him as a pet.

Even though we had a trap, we wanted to make sure that the shenanigans of last year were not repeated.

This morning when we woke up, this is what we found:

When we checked the trap, there was no leprechaun, but he did leave some gold coins and little pins for them to wear to school. We also found some other mischief. Like this:

Yes, apparently he used our toilets and no, he did not flush!



But the biggest surprise was that he completely rearranged the playroom!! For those of you thinking "That doesn't look any different," look carefully. He moved all of the furniture and toys to the opposite side of the room from where it was when we went to bed. We CANNOT figure out how someone so little could move all of that big stuff!!

In the fridge we found green milk and rainbow cookie dough with directions for baking.

Which means....after school, we made some cookies!! Well, Abby and I made some cookies.

Ben ate his candy.

And the flour off the counter.

Here are our special rainbow cookies. Rainbows, shamrocks and gold coins! And they are tasty!!

So there's our day so far. Fun, right? Tonight we will celebrate with our friends and as we speak, my first ever corned beef is cooking away in the crock pot. Today I had a little reminder about how much fun it is to be at home in the middle of the week. Can't wait for summer!!

I'd Rather be Falling Back

I have issues. Lots. I know you are thinking, "and this is news?" and I know it isn't but today (in the interest of time) I just want to focus on one: my inability to get to bed at a decent hour. It really is terrible. I work all day and then either work again after work or come home to kids and dinner and chores and all that. I should be tired. I AM tired. But once the kids are in bed I sit down on the couch and watch whatever mindless t.v. that I have available and then before I know it, the clock looks like this:

Way too late, right? I know it and every night around 10 I think, "I should go to bed." And every night around 11:30 I finally motivate myself to start heading for bed. But then I have to check on the kids, brush my teeth and do all of the other important things that are necessary for me to do before I can fall asleep. Like review my calendar for the next 13 weeks. Sometimes, I decide that it is a good time for a bath. When I finally get into bed, I turn on the t.v. to lull me to sleep, which usually works.

Now I know that I go to bed way too late. I am reminded of this every morning when my alarm goes off. I tell myself, as I stumble into the shower after hitting the snooze 7 times, that tonight I will go to bed earlier. And I've tried. But that's even worse! I end up tossing and turning and staying awake even later! Or worse yet, I do fall asleep, but then someone calls. Because they all know they can call me late because I never go to sleep before 11:30. I have decided that I am just a night person and I have discovered that no matter what time I go to sleep, I am never going to be a morning person. This is why I live for nap time on the weekends. I am so thankful that my kids still sleep for 2 and a half hours each day. This whole Spring Ahead thing is going to make me grumpy for a couple of days because the last thing I am interested in giving up is an hour of sleep. But I'll get over it and will be back into my routine by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. Call me!

Boot Camp Success

Here in the Miller household, we take very few things seriously. However, when it comes to naming all the teams of the NFL by recognizing each helmet, we take no prisoners. Ben got these little helmets for Christmas and for the past couple of weeks he has been training non-stop to learn the names of all the teams. He was promised 20 jelly beans in the event he got them all. He has some tricks for remembering some of them ("Where does Callie live? Oh yeah...Texans!!") but he finally (with the help of his sidekick) got them all tonight. He sure knows how to make his daddy proud!

(On a side note, please pay no attention to the fact that my daughter's hair looked like it hasn't been brushed in days. We had to seize the moment and had very little time for hair and make up.)