Pumpkin Time

My 5 year old

Big monkey turned 5 on Saturday.  I can't get over the fact that he is already 5 years old.  Such a sweet boy.  He really is, I mean sure we have our problems here and there but he is always the first to give his mommy a hug or just let me know how much he loves me out of the blue.  I hope he stays this sweet.  Some woman is going to be a VERY lucky woman one day in the VERY far off future if she snags him.  He does still tell me often that he wants to marry me.  Though last time he also mentioned marrying every girl he knows, but not the strangers!

Lately he has gotten very silly.  Just like most little boys apparently do at this age (and maybe some stay that way forever!).  He cracks up at his own jokes, which are not really jokes but more like "funny" words.  

He is the best biggest brother ever.  I love to watch him with his little brothers, it warms my heart.

We had a riding toy party for him at the local skating rink.  It was so much fun.  Huge place all to ourselves for the kids to ride and ride and ride.  And for me to skate and show my lack of talent on 8 wheels and 2 stoppers!  

Big monkey was pretty good on his skates, here he is dancing to Boom Boom Pow!

Pirate theme all around you scurvy dog!  Great cake from Publix.

And here we are, my first born.  5 years old.  He is just like his mommy, type A personality and all!  Now where is that pause button?

6 months old

Littlest monkey is just over 6 months old now.  Wow has time FLOWN by!  I just can't believe how fast it has gone.  This, while I am planning a pirate skating party for Big monkey's 5th birthday this weekend!  

Look at these monkeys..

Man, am I blessed.

Could they love each other any more?!

Littlest monkey is sitting up on his own now.  We still have a tumble here and there when he reaches for something or just gets distracted.  I really think his chunky legs help him prop up! 

He is also getting up on all fours and rocking!  I could not believe it when I saw it.  The other two were around 7 months when they did this.  I guess being the third he is just ready to get up and go chase those boys.

What a sweet little face.  I could just reach in there and squeeze him, and I do often at home!  He is eating his solids like a champ.  I made prunes last night (really gross thing to try to make by the way) and he tasted them and did not even make his usual what the heck is that you just put in my mouth face, but I did!  

I have not even tried to put him in his own room yet, and I promised myself to do it at 6 months.  I am just having separation anxiety!  I will work on it soon, maybe.

As I mentioned, big monkey is turning 5 on Saturday.  We are having a riding toy party at the skating rink.  I think it is going to be SO fun!  We get the rink to ourselves for 2 hours and the kids can bring whatever riding toy they want to.  DJ, strobe lights, disco ball, I mean what else could you ask for?!?!  Oh, I found glow in the dark swords and masks for the kids.  I think I may be more excited than big monkey!

2557 Days

Okay everyone, only 2557 days until my 40th birthday (or exactly 7 years from today).  So get ready for this...

And this..

And of course this..

Can't. Wait.

But until then, I am looking forward to my trip at the end of the month here..

Think Pink

This past weekend I did the Atlanta 2 day breast cancer walk again.  This year I only walked Sunday because of the baby.  I still did 10 miles (Saturday is 20 miles) and it was so great to be a part of it all again.  My mom and her friends have done this for 3 or 4 years now and it makes me so proud to be part of their group.  

We really get to see some great parts of Atlanta.  This year we ended up at the zoo and my dad met us there with the monkeys.  We ended up spending part of the afternoon there and I decided to play hookie from work Monday since I was so tired by Sunday evening.  

Here we are at the finish line holding on tightly to the monkeys (they were ready to go see the animals at the zoo!).

We sent the bigger monkeys off to the zoo with grandad while we rested with squeaky.  Cutest baby ever!

It was obvious that the recession has hit in many places, and unfortunately it hit the walk too.  Seemed there were less walkers this year, but we still managed to raise over a million dollars to go towards breast cancer research.  

My dad had a great time with the monkeys.  He did such a good job taking care of all three.  I honestly was not worried about them, maybe him a little!  I was glad littlest monkey took a bottle from him.  He seems to be picky about who gives him his bottles, he prefers the nanny!  If you notice the picture, he does have his onesie on backwards.  No biggie!  My dad thought for sure the buttons should go in the front.  It was a good laugh.

Beautiful Noise

This morning was a typical morning, although I did not manage to oversleep due to numerous snooze button pushes so maybe it was not so typical.  I usually get up around 4:30 am or I am in bed with littlest monkey nursing him while half asleep and trying to make myself stay awake so I don't oversleep.  I go about my business and get ready for work, last minute things ready for big monkey and school, or for the nanny and other two monkeys.  

But this morning I woke up to three monkeys in the bed with me.  It was quiet (other than the low hum of the cool mist humidifier we use as white noise) and it was a morning full of beauty and happiness and innocence.  

After my shower I came back into the room and stopped when I noticed all three monkeys in the bed with some part of themselves touching the other, kind of like a reassurance that they were not alone in the world.  It was beautiful.  The only sound was a soft snoring from each one of them and sweet soft sighs coming from littlest monkey.  It warmed my heart.  

It was something much needed and I am glad I had the opportunity to not only witness it, but recognize it.  I will take that with me on my run today to help push through the tough parts, and to my doctor's appointments this week where it will be much needed.

Eventually one by one they woke up and made it be known that they were awake.  I had to fight with big monkey to put eye drops in his eyes (he does not have pink eye but one of his friends does at school and we tend to get it if the disease is even mentioned, so I gave it to him as a preventative measure).  He is not easy to deal with when it comes to medicine.  Little monkey's first words every morning are that he is hungry so I had to deter that until the nanny got there at a decent time for breakfast.  I had to quickly nurse littlest monkey being as I was very near being late by this point.  So things were back to normal, full swing and full of noise.

When putting littlest monkey back in his own bassinet, he made the best noise ever.  You know, that baby babbling noise that sounds like angels singing.  It made my heart warm and happy again.  I wish there was some way to bottle that noise.  I think it would be so wonderful to be able to share it with people in need of an extra push during a stressful time.  To remind us of how simple things really need to be and how much love there is in the world.  I would like to bottle it up and save it for when my babies are grown up and I am missing them.  

Going Green

Okay, so I am the first to admit that I am not the person that is known as the "nice girl".  You know, everyone knows someone who is just labeled as the sweet, nice girl.  And I am just not that person.  Not that I think I am incredibly bitchy or mean (I do have my moments), I am just not overly nice 100% of the time.  No big deal.  Really.  

There are a couple of people at work that really annoy me.  I mean REALLY annoy me.  I try to give everyone a fair share of chances before I just write you off as annoying.  I know that sometimes quirky can come off as annoying at first.  

One coworker in particular makes my stomach churn every time I hear his very loud breathing and shoe shuffling self come in the door (my office is near the front entrance).  I tried to be nice to him.  I work in a scientific field and realize that there are some pretty big nerdy type people in the science field.  My good friend from graduate school and I used to marvel at how cool we were (really just compared to the goobers in our classes).  Somehow we missed the nerdy memo when check marking "biology" as our majors.  But I digress...

This guy drives me crazy because he is so insincere.  At least I am sincere in my bitchiness.  He is a jerky nerd.  Not so nice.  Another coworker is a guy that everyone knows as being quite the recycler  hoarder and trash diver  and he is a nice guy.  But he just came in and offered me an "unused" set of disposable chopsticks.  Yes. Really.  The wooden ones you get for free from the chinese take out.  

This is my Monday!