Best Parent Ever website

If I didn't already email you the link to this website www.bestparentever.com it's damn funny and I thought I should give some props to the man or woman who writes it. This excerpt below is my personal favorite and had Eric and I almost in tears we were laughing so hard. Yes, I admit, I fall victim to the "Best Parent Ever syndrome" now and then too...

#10: Play Dates
Since the Best Parent is very busy with some of the most important tasks imaginable to mankind, they have an overwhelming need to schedule things in their daily life. Each trip to the feng shui yoga consultant or the organic cotton aisle at Whole Foods must be well thought-out and planned in advance. And, of course, the Best Parent has already checked-in with one of their Yahoo Parenting Groups beforehand to make sure pesticide-free fennel bulbs are still on sale before jumping into the beloved SUV or 2008 Prius.

On the other hand, being the astute prodigy, the Best Parent’s child is also very busy. They have enormous amounts of after-school and weekend activities, such as musical expression lessons, conversational Mandarin classes, and even athletic pursuits, such as soccer (whatever THAT is). Therefore, the Best Parent’s child doesn’t have the opportunity to play spontaneously with their friends. Enter the scheduled play date.

Scheduled play dates serve a multitude of conveniences for the Best Parent. They no longer have to worry that stray children will wander into their yard unannounced, wanting to distract their child from jazz guitar practice or tai chi for toddlers. Besides, the Best Parent has only bought enough Mahi Mahi for three.

Play dates work because, like family therapy and Botox injections, they can be scheduled in advance for the Best Parent’s convenience and enjoyment. Randomness is for poor, non-best people living in the paths of Hurricane Katrina and Third Word dictators. Children, despite their inherent unpredictability, can be blissfully bent and twisted into schedules befitting the Best Parent’s lifestyle. The scheduled play date says, “Children need to play — but so do I. I am a Best Parent — now deal with it, darling offspring.”

So take that, Mommy Random and Daddy Surprise! The Best Parent realizes childbearing is a spinning roulette wheel that, with the right scheduling, will always land on the color “me.”

Whoa, Momma!!!

Yes, I know, I know...I'm getting HUGE or as Cal says, "Mommy, your belly is REALLY SO SO BIG". I'm 28 weeks 3 days today (pic was taken today) and have too much time left to be this big already but what can you do?

My little lounge lizards. This is how they watch TV. I'm catching them at a rare moment where they aren't elbowing each other.

Sometimes they turn into zombies after TV watching...mommy likes this :)

Again watching TV but this time at nighttime...all happy and giggly toinght for some reason...maybe just glad that daddy's back!!

I have to say the boys put me a little at ease this past weekend while daddy was gone. They've been getting along so well these days. Don't get me wrong, they ARE at each other's throats at least a couple times a day, but more often than not they get along and I'm overjoyed!! Especially with the next little demon on his way, the boys are going to need each other more than ever. I can now say, "Go to the playroom" and they tromp off together and will leave me alone for at least 30 mins!!! I'm not really sure how or when this was established but I'm not asking questions!

Mudroom

So this is what the little mudroom addition looks like. After, coming to a screeching halt about a week ago because it was going to be too small, we made a few minor changes and now think that it'll be perfect! Work is getting done SO quickly. They should be done in less than two weeks! Drywall is in and we might even be able to paint it before we go away this weekend. Exciting!! We've decided to just go ahead and have them eliminate the door we currently use to go from the garage to the house which was always going to be obsolete but we figured we didn't need to spend the money to get rid of it right away. After finding out the cost would be minimal and KNOWING we can't add that to the list of "things we'd like a relative to do", we thought the plan of walling that door up TOMORROW sounded like a great idea!!!

Updates?!

Don't worry that's just non-toxic orange paint I tried to eat!

I love glitter!

Much more paint got on them and the driveway than it did on the paper... next time I won't bother with the paper. (Ben's feet above)

Whoa! Well I did NOT realize that I hadn't updated the blog since June 5th! Hmm...well, no surprise that we've all been sick the 2 weeks prior to June 5th and all the way up until now. Boys have a cough that's hanging on and Ben a snotty nose too. They just decided to treat him for a sinus infection last week (antibiotics aren't working though so who knows) and I decided I needed some too ~ thanks daddy! Fortunately, they are working for me! I noticed my last post says Ben's surgery is in August. Well, after nearing hysteria - literally - about the thought of surgery being postpone due to sickness (which we all know he'll have) and then having to re-schedule around a newborn baby was too much for me. I called the lady the next day in pretty much hysterics and she found me a cancellation and moved his surgery up for July 24th. So I'm breathing a little easier now.



June is flying by....Eric just got back from a 4 day trip to FL leaving 28-week pregnant mommy by herself with the boys. Exhausting? Yes. But it wasn't so bad. We ran around doing errands and tasks for the mudroom one day and hung out at the doctor's office one whole morning so that kept us a little busy. Then we visited a fun playground, did some outdoor painting, and went to dinner with a neighbor as a special treat. Above are some pictures of the outrageous mess the boys made painting....and no, the cleanup wasn't really worth it!

Double digits and other updates...

So BabyCenter informed me of my 98 days to go before baby!!! WHAT?! Double digits already!! No, no, no...the summer seems to have started in a flash already! Lots of numbers flying around...How much? When? What time? How many??? I can't keep up. I have just finished scheduling appointments so that there CAN'T be any more to schedule, right?? My house looks like a tornado hit. I'm in the process of switching winter clothes with summer clothes and things are everywhere. Not to mention the laundry that I already can't keep up with scattered all over my bedroom floor. There's a "corner" designated to clean clothes that I can never fold and put away. Occasionally, (ok MOST of the time) it's big enough that the kids think this is a good place to run and jump in. No joke. Plus I'm officially now too fat for my regular clothes and I had to bring out all my maternity clothes this week (26 weeks and counting)...so now I have to find a spot for those! Here's Daddy for some crazy playtime.

Cal being psycho...what's new?

Ben's latest update is that he is scheduled for his speech intake and evaluation in early July. I guess they also evaluate developmental and emotional/social as well. I also just scheduled his tonsillectomy for August 12th. I'm not too happy about this date since I think it's too close to the baby's due date even if the woman scheduling surgery doesn't! All I need is for Ben to be sick and have to postpone surgery for us to basically be screwed. He has to have the surgery IN Boston and he has to stay overnight since he's under 2. Not really possible to do that with a newborn!!

This is about the only project "on schedule" around here. They finished the foundation today and had it inspected. They'll backfill the dirt tomorrow and start framing on Monday! Hooray!

I wish I could show a great picture of the baby's room all nice and pretty and blue. But nope, I haven't touched it since I started priming 2 or 3 weeks ago. I've lost track of time...but I know there's none to devote to getting his room ready...guess I'm not in "nesting" mode yet! I can barely keep up with my OB appts and they're only monthly now! Can't wait to be going twice a month and then weekly! It'll be great to take two kids for those visits :) I haven't been slacking on baby planning though. I've made calls to find a mohel (for his circumcision) and have an appt with a new pediatrician since I hate the one we have. I took Ben in for a sick visit this past week and I think the nurses were shocked that I was 6 1/2 months pregnant and they didn't know! Oops...I guess they'll figure it out when the baby doesn't get seen there.

Attempting to blog a video? Cal's graduation....

So I have no idea how long this will take you to view or download or what the deal is since I've never done it before. It's about 2 mins 16 seconds. I do realize that it's sideways and there's nothing I can do about that except to remember that I can't flip the damn things and always take videos horizontally when I originally shoot them. This really is hysterical though. I apologize in advance of the sometimes non-stop shaking of the camera. I couldn't keep my laughter in long enough to film the whole thing!

Little Clippers Graduation

True to form Cal is sucking him thumb walking down the aisle...

Still got the thumb in his mouth...

They sang Christmas songs at their graduation...I think the kids chose these since they had a snow day back in the winter when they were supposed to do their Winter Concert - less practicing for them I suppose! They did this one other song and I have them all on video but I was laughing so hard that the camera is shaking badly through a lot of it. Cal sang his little heart out though. It was really cute. Then we had some food - Cal had way too many desserts - and back home for a later than usual bedtime.

PS. As an aside to the thumb-sucking thing...Ben, who never sucked his thumb out of his crib, has now started sucking away while playing and totally randomly will now pick up Cal's one and only "other yellow" and drag that around. I think he's trying to be just like his big brother! Cal does not appreciate the stealing of his blanket though.