Family Promotion: My Little Brother Rocks

I don't talk about my family much on this blog. My first family, I mean...you know my mom, dad and brother. I do have a first family. There just never seems to be a reason to go into much. But today my brother finally launched his website. He's a big famous designer in NYC. That's right...he's a big shot.

I remember the year he had his holiday card in the MOMA shop and he barely had graduated from college.

So here's his new website. He's so artsy that the screen that comes up is a splash screen so you have to click one more time to get the actual goods. It's art. Go with it.

And not that you're really needing his services, I'm just trying to brag a little...oh, one of his clients is the Justin Timberlake clothing design people--William Rast. I don't know if he's actually met Justin though. You'll find his designs on the banner of Baby Bunching. In summary, I'm just telling you I think my little brother rocks.

We're Thankful For . . .

I'm not having Thanksgiving at my house this year. As much as I tried to cajole people into coming here so we wouldn't have to go there, I did not win. So I only had to make sweet potatoes, pumpkin bread and the most fabulous Mac and Cheese ever.

And this afternoon, in an attempt to pass time, we decided to make paper chains in Thanksgivingy colors. On each link we had to write something we were thankful for. Here is our combined list in the time that was allotted (read: the time my kids would sit for this activity):


My family
My mommy
Gigi + Pop pop
Macaroni and Cheese
Froggy
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Alex
Anna
Daddy
Mom, Dad and David
My husband
Grandma and Papa
Grandma Heasty
Trees
Workbooks
Pink bear
Food on our table
Good health

How Cold is Your House

This is an ongoing debate in my house...one that has picked up since we had kids. Every winter, the hubby and I, agressively discuss how cold/hot the house should be. He would prefer no heat at all. I have to hear the story every time about how he had no heat and A/C growing up in Texas. It's like listening to "back in my day....." So we DO have heat and A/C and I don't like it hot, but I don't like to freeze.

We thought we might remedy this situation by getting new windows. Nope, that's not going to happen. So our house remains freezing, especially the kids room which are drafty and don't get sun at all during the winter days.

How cold is your house in the winter?

Moms Take Charge

In case you missed all the hoopla earlier this week in mommy blogging land, I'll catch you up. Motrin ran a commercial on the web and various other venues about pain and babywearing. You can catch up on the details over at Baby Bunching.

What I love about mommy bloggers is their power to take charge. Within a 48-hour period, a few influential mom bloggers twittered away at their digust for this ad and they had a Fortune 100 company (Johnson & Johnson) at their feet. And sure enough, their site was down and so was the ad.

I am proud to be writing with these powerful women. Look they were even mentioned in Advertising Age. I'm curious about your take on the ad as well.

Santa, Won't you Bring Me...

I love imagination. I especially love it when I'm trying to find out what my kids want for Christmas. So last night I loved overhearing the kids playing "Christmas" and finding out what they hoped for from Santa.

Alex: Rescue Heroes

Anna: A girl Incredible Hulk and A Princess.

Kid in the Box

This picture is confusing...especially for a kid. While cleaning up my house today and talking on the phone, my kids were happily playing Thomas the Train. I turned around to check on them because they were quiet. Alex was inside the rubbermaid tub. The top was on. Anna was sitting on top. I immediately pulled her off. Opened it and pulled him out. Rule #275 is you may NOT get inside tubs and put the lid on. Alex explained that he got the idea from the picture that was on the box.

All Things Phyllo

I have recovered and worked off the 2 pounds of butter I'm sure I digested yesterday at our mom's group cooking club. The theme: phyllo and pastry. Yep, everything brought was wrapped in or sat in yummy crispy phyllo sheets + much much butter. Luckily, my workout this morning easily burned off about 800 of those calories. Whew.....who can resist an entire buffet of puffed pastry and all the yummies inside of it.

Therapy?

So those of you who are regular readers probably know about my daughter's "spunky" attitude. Never a dull moment in this house. She's creative in her own way. But there is always drama. It's a good thing she's super cute!

We've had a good week. Even with my husband away, things have been good. The kids have been sleeping well and everyone's had the right attitude. I'm prefacing my story with this so you can see I have done my best here to foster a loving home for my kids. :-)

Monday--We're coming home from school. The kids are yammering in the back and start to argue. I ignore it since we're very close to home. Next thing I know, Anna hits Alex with a book. I turn around and his lip is bleeding. We pull over. I snap at Anna and get out and go give Alex a cuddle. As I'm doing this Anna starts to scream and cry. I ignore her some more. After he's going better, I get back into the car to drive home. She bawls the whole way saying her lip hurts. She's in pain. I'm was pretty sure she was faking it, but told her I'd take a look when we got home. Sure enough when we arrived home, she forget about her "pain" and ran into the house without another mention of it. Note to self: Doesn't like when Alex gets sympathy.

This morning--I'm downstairs putting a load of laundry in. I hear screaming upstairs. Apparently, according to sources, Anna pushed Alex into the wall. Again, gave Alex cuddles to make him feel better. Anna threw herself on the floor then got up and stormed into her room. Moments later I hear screaming. She had burned her hand on her light. Yeah, that's right. After she settled down, and I got the story, she told me she was angry and went into her room to shake the little light on her nightstand and it fell. She reached down to pick it up and burned her hand on the light bulb.

What am I to make of this? I foresee therapy in our future...her? me? I'm not sure. But this kind of worries me. Any thoughts?

They Love the News

We were listening to NPR this morning. I try desperately to get in a little news as we're driving to school. Usually my kids start barking orders the minute we get into the car: "We want kids!" (Translation: We want kids MUSIC.) I'm just not up for Steve Songs, Wiggles or Laurie Berkner at 8:30 many mornings. I just want to continue my news feast in the car. Usually I lose. But this morning I begged since I didn't get a chance to read the baby.

As I listened to the news, this is what I hear from the backseat:

"Chickens, no way!"
"Roosters. Wow, the news is about roosters."
"Barak Obama. I know him. He's going to live in the White House."
"Children? Cool."
"Afghanistan. Daddy went there."
"Turkey. We eat that at Thanksgiving."
"Gym (they meant Jim). Mommy we go to the gym."

Funny that I never really heard the news.

Kids are Smart

As we're driving by the shopping center near our house yesterday, both my kids noticed the Christmas decorations hanging from the light posts and the mini Christmas trees. Both of them remarked....seperate of each other....that it is not Christmas yet and the decorations are silly.

I agree.

Election Conversations

Since my kids are only 4 and 3, there isn't a lot of politics that my kids would really understand. They know Daddy works at the Capitol building and that's about it.

Last night in the bathtub, Alex asked why he didn't have school today. I explained it was because today was a holiday for the schools. He wanted to know first if that meant he got presents or candy for the holiday. No, no, no, only a new president. So we talked about what the president does and where he lives and how it's very important for us to pick a new one. We've recently read this book Otto for President so he gets the general idea.

He then went on to ask if he could be president. It's every mom's dream, I'm sure to have their child ask that question. "Sure," I told him. "I'd love for you to be president." I asked him what he'd do as president.

"If I were president I would fly around like a superhero. Then I would save all people from sharks." He had a very detailed plan involving a helicopter for how he'd go about doing this. "Then I would save people from wars." Andrew tells him he has a great platform, and we're sure he'd get elected on the shark idea alone. No one wants to be eaten by sharks.

He thinks for a bit and then decides being president wouldn't be so great after all. Why, I asked him. "Mommy, if I were president, I would miss you so much--saving people from sharks. I want to live forever in this white house." You just gotta love kids.

Decision Final

I'm over at DC Metro Moms today about my decision on who to vote for and why. If you feel the need to spout off about it, please do it over there.

Undecided Me, Finally Decided

It's official, folks. I finally decided TODAY who I will vote for. No thanks to the CNN schmo this morning who said if people were still undecided they should to have their head readjusted or something stupid like that. Yeah...why am I undecided? Because I really dislike both candidates. A lot. And after deliberating for months and months, my decision was clarified, of all things, by this Time Magazine article, "How Obama and McCain Would Lead".

I know many of you are curious about who the lucky candidate will be. I know many of you have been working on me for months. I will let you know tomorrow morning when I make my final decision.

TSA Sucks!

I hate TSA. I especially hope someone at TSA is reading this. I consider myself a fairly experienced traveler, compared to the average American. I'm not one of those travel-every-week business travelers, but I've done my fair share of it.

So Saturday morning when I arrived in plenty of time for my flight to Atlanta, with everything properly packed for my TSA security screening, I was confident. All my liquids were properly packed in the see-thru plastic bag and sent on through the x-ray machine, followed by my coat, shoes, belt, purse and suitcase.

As I pass through the metal detector, the TSA x-ray lady holds up a bottle of my shampoo container and asks whose it is. And so goes the conversation:

Stupid TSA lady: You can't take this on!
Me: Why not? It's 1 oz of shampoo.
Stupid TSA lady: It may be, but it's in a 4 oz container. The rule is 3 ounces. (She has clearly missed the whole big picture of WHY they have this rule. It's not the damn container it's the liquid amount.)
Me: It's only 1 oz of shampoo. Can you see the measurement on the side? 1 oz.
Stupid TSA lady: But it has to be in a 3 oz container.
Me: Why?
Stupid TSA lady: Because it does.
Me: But it's only 1 oz of shampoo. I've gone back and forth with it at least 3 times now.
Stupid TSA lady: And these two bottles are also 4 oz. containers.
Me: But they ALSO only have 1 oz. of conditioner and hair gel. I purposely took them out of the 16 oz bottles and but them in these smaller containers....1 oz each.
Stupid TSA lady: They have to be 3 oz. I suggest you go back and check your bags.
Me: Why? So I can pay $15 for my bag that you all will probably lose anyway over 1 oz of shampoo. No thank you. Oh, and why can't I bring this one? It's smaller than this 4 oz bottle.
Stupid TSA lady: Because it's not marked.
Me: Marked for what?
Stupid TSA lady: It has to say 3 oz on the container. (I guess I had that one coming.) I would check your bag.
Me: No, I'm checking my bag. This is stupid.
Stupid TSA lady: So what are you going to do?
Me: (thinking all kinds of mean thoughts) I'm going to Atlanta without my shampoo. I hope you enjoy it. It's expensive stuff.

I really hate government workers who don't see the forest for the trees.

Gone to Atlanta

This weekend I am in Atlanta visiting my best friend Cara and her now three kids....all under the age of 5. It's vacation for me since none of those kids are mine.