The "Big Girl" bed

It's official. We are done with cribs. Kind of bittersweet I will admit. It wasn't too hard of a decision this time though because Sarah got out of her crib awhile ago so we were living on borrowed time. I was afraid she would fall on her head or break out of the house in the middle of the night. Plus, I found the absolute cutest toddler bed for her at a garage sale and that kind of sealed the deal.

Isn't it cute?

And isn't Sarah so cute sleeping?

Umm....yeah....too bad she has decided to just sleep in Anna's bed instead. Poor Anna, yet another example of the middle child woes. Doesn't even have a bed of her own anymore!

What happens when teenage boys grow up and get a job in advertising.......

In case you can't read it, it's a sign for a bedroom furniture company....yikes....

Wild Child

I think the hair says it all.....

Strange World

So, in a previous post I mentioned that I had the opportunity to go to New Orleans for 6 days for a work conference. It was quite the experience. Luckily, I took a few photos that I am finally posting to share with everyone. New Orleans is really like an entirely different country. There is a lot of history which includes some really good jazz music and some really really bad poverty. Bourbon street is just like you can imagine it- not a place to bring your kids. As our trip unfolded, the sights just became stranger. Here is a collection of a few things encountered in this strange world....

Ok, so this isn't really that strange, but in the context of where we were and what else we saw (which I cannot post pictures of!) it still gave us a chuckle....

Really good food- yes, I ate that crayfish! Really proud of myself!

Hmmm....this wouldn't be so bad if it were in the middle of some kind of festival...but it wasn't- just out on the sidewalk near all of the tarot card readers. Did I mention it was like 90 degrees- talk about hot!

Just one example of the sad reality that many of these people face everyday.

So, maybe you are wondering why I would take a picture of garbage. Mostly because we couldn't believe that garbage could be piled on the sidewalks like this everywhere we went. Still don't quite understand why there weren't dumpsters......

Yes....in the middle of a restaurant in some strange dusty window enclosed area....strange

Here we are on the voodoo altar...probably means we are cursed.....

Yeah, in case you were thinking of bringing your nuke with you....

Very strange silver painted people everywhere. Some were mimes, some were just holding signs....

And the obligate shot of Bourbon Street and the infamous beads....Yes, we collected our fair share of beads while we were there....No, it did not involve any inappropriate acts (AKA, no Girls Gone Wild).

In summary, I don't think I'd want to go back unless I received another free trip. It was an experience for sure, but I really kind of like my boring, normal life!

Fighting and Yelling

Recently, a friend from work put my home video tapes onto DVD. I haven't watched them all yet, but the other night Anna and I watched one of them that had her as a newborn up until about her third birthday. It also had Christmas 2006 on there. Anna was 2, Alex was 4. Man, they were cute! Sweet little voices, chubby little cheeks. And they weren't fighting! Fighting is a daily problem at our house. So much so that we've often threatened to handcuff them together. It is exhausting constantly breaking up fights. Many days it feels like all we do is yell at them to stop fighting. But, in this sweet memory there was no fighting- they actually even hugged each other willingly! After the video, Anna said, "Mom, when exactly did Alex start hating me?" I thought that was pretty intuitive of her. And I thought about it and I think it happened when he started school and somehow learned that it isn't cool to like your sister. I'm not sure why but that is what happens. I did assure her that someday things would be different again. Her second question was, "Mom, why couldn't dad yell at us yet?" (I'm sure she noticed there was not one bit of yelling in the entire video whereas compared to today it seems it is a constant yelling fest here!). Somehow, I hope she caught on that those 2 questions are quite related. I started thinking that I should probably take a home video of a typical fighting session so that someday when they are losing their own minds as parents they can see just how much fun they were at this age. God knows there is enough opportunities these days!

Here they were when they didn't hate each other:

And recently when I made the mistake of actually asking them to sit by each other for a picture.....

Why I chose Alex and the skateboard over sleep

It may sound like a simple choice. However, if I'm being honest, it wasn't. It has been a very busy few weeks. We are still in the midst of home renovations which just adds to the chaos that kids bring. Also, I was recently awarded a journalism award for an article I published last year. While this was great news, the other side of it was that I needed to go to New Orleans to accept the award. On top of this was the fact that I only had 2 weeks to prepare for this trip and that I would be gone for 6 days. I had never been away from my kids that long. Heck, I'd never been away from my husband that long. But, we all survived it and the trip was an interesting adventure- perhaps for another post. Partly because of the 5 nights in a hotel and the stress of undone projects, the homework piling up and trying to catch up at work, I haven't slept much in the last month. I'm starting to feel like I have a newborn all over again (just the lack of sleep that is). So, last night I took a couple Tylenol PMs and went to bed at a decent hour. Finally- sleep! Well, until 6am rolled around and Alex came in begging me to take him to the skateboard park- right now! You may be wondering why he was insisting on going at the crack of dawn. It has a little bit to do with the fact that Alex gets up before most birds and more to do with the fact that he was a bit traumatized by our last skateboard park adventure. Unknowingly, I brought him on a sunny afternoon last time. There were so many kids there you could hardly move. And, they were good- really good. Alex was so intimidated he couldn't hardly ride in a straight line. So, I had tried to make him feel better about it and told him that next time we'd just have to go earlier before the bigger kids even get out of bed. And so, he looked at me with those beautiful big blue eyes and I decided that in 20 years it wouldn't matter if I slept or not, but it would matter if Alex remembered that I cared enough to pick him and his skateboard over me and my sleep. But still, it was tough. That's just being honest. In the end, this was my reward.....(and yes, the park was completely empty- big surprise!)...