We have a consultant for hire

While my niece Emily may be good at discipline (see here), we have our very own discipline consultant on hand. She works cheap- nuggets and lots of ranch- if you need to hire her.

Jacob was put in time out by Beth, though I'm not sure why. He thought it was great fun and tried to get on the stool again later. Please excuse my white trash lookin kids- they'd just gotten up from naps.

JBF

If you don't already know about it, you need to. If you live in the DFW area, you really need to know about it! What is "it"? JBF! Just Between Friends consignment sale. Imagine a football field of clothes, baby equipment, toys, strollers, books, and all the other things it takes for growing and raising a kid. You can consign your things, you can buy things, you can volunteer and shop before most people. It's fabulous! I'm totally hooked! I've never spent more than $12 on an outfit. I got Beth a couple Ralph Lauren polos for $4 each! You can buy Gymboree, Ralph Lauren, Nautica, other top line brands, Childrens Place, Old Navy and even Target stuff, all for a fraction of the cost. It's all gently used, no stains (unless they snuck it by the inspectors), great stuff!





Details? The Fort Worth sale is the week after Labor Day at Will Rogers. Get going now if you want to consign your stuff. Make plans, hire a babysitter, save your money if you plan to go shopping.



Here's the website- http://www.jbfsale.com/



Yes, they're all over the country and plenty around DFW, though FW is the biggest. I'm almost finished with my prep work. I keep finding more things to sell. I hope I can get it all there in one car load!

Weird kid!

Jacob has some strange quirks when it comes to eating. When he likes something, you know it. He'll grunt or sign more. When he doesn't like something, you know it. He makes faces, getting his mouth as far away from the spoon as possible.

He'll gag and choke until whatever it is come out. Freaked me out the first couple times, now I'm over it and deal with it. Or, the new one- he puts the pieces he doesn't want in a different section of his tray. How funny!

Too cute not to share

Beth's first day at her new dance school- Frances Lea

Jacob cheezin for the camera

Show me a sign

We used sign language with Beth when she was a baby, and we think it really made a difference. By her first birthday, she had about 40 signs and about 100 spoken words. The signing helped skip the "terrible" twos because she could communicate her wants and needs.

Needless to say, we planned to do the same with Jacob. It hasn't been working so well. We didn't watch Signing Time as often, we weren't using the signs as often in our conversations, he just didn't care... Until now! Finally, he's interested the dvds, and he actually signed "more" while we were eating the other night. Hooray!!!! Now, he totally gets it and signs when he wants more food. He's also signed "eat" and we think he's working on signing "milk" (it looks like his wave, so we're not sure).

Signing "more"

Signing "eat"

Watching Signing Time

Beth-isms

Oh my, Beth just amazes me with what's in that head of hers. This weekend we got a couple good ones!

1) She was pretending to cook soup while playing in the wading pool. We asked if it was chicken soup. She replied "It's not animal soup. It's just regular chicken soup." HAHAHAHA! I wonder if she'd become a vegetarian if she knew chicken she eats is chicken.

2) Today, Beth and Kevin were talking. She told him "after college, I want to teach dance." Wow, planning already. I'm just so proud she knows she has to go to college first.

3) I love 4 year old self awareness and self confidence. Anytime she gets dressed cute, usually a dress or skirt, she bats her eyes and twirls around. Then if we're going somewhere, she lets me know that our friends will think she's so pretty. She is, but geez!

More coming, with pictures, I promise.

Update, for now

Ok, so I was told I needed to update my blog. It's not like I've been to any foreign country or have an exciting new job to talk about. I spent 3 days cleaning my house between speding time with the kids. Yaya is coming today, flight delayed, but we're about to leave to get her. That's the most exciting thing in my life these days. We're going shopping and to get pedicures and to dinner and to hang out. I can't wait! :)

Until next time....
I do have something to update, with pictures, but I need more spare time.

Crazy!

Ok, so I have a lot to say today.

The other day, a friend told me about her son falling and getting a huge knot on his head. They marked it with permanent marker to see if the bump changed over a few hours. When it was ok, they went to clean off the marker. They tried hydrogen peroxide, alcohol and some other things. Know what got it off? A baby wipee!

So, I tried it myself today. I have a storage bucket that was labeled with permanent marker. I decided the bucket needed to hold something different. Got a wipee and wiped. Yup, the marker came off. So much for sensitive skin wipees, they clean permanent marker! I'm still gonna use them for diapering as I love the convenience. I just won't think about it too much.

P.S.

Happy 57th birthday Dad/Popi!

Guilty Pleasures

Ok, so I got the idea from my sis to post those things I allow myself to indulge in. It's not much, but it brightens my days.

1) I always have a secret stash of chocolate, that is only for me. I refuse to take it out of its hiding place when anyone else is around. I just finished my current stash yesterday. Maybe this is why I can't manage to lose the rest of the remaining baby weight.

2) Pogo.com- I subscribe to play games online. I know there are tons of free sites, but I really like this one. They issue weekly challenges, and I'll spend hours playing games I don't even like just to get the little badge. I have never won an actual prize, though they have great ones.

3) Blog-stalking. I'll read blogs, find other ones, and on and on and not know where I found the one I started with. I wonder if anyone lands on mine like that?

4) Ok, so internet in general. I prefer to spend the kiddos entire nap time online, wasting my time doing nothing productive. It's fabulous!

5) Target. Ahhhh! I can go in with a list and come out with something extra every time. I love that it only takes about 10 minutes to get to Target, and 5 minutes of that is getting kids in the car.

6) Going anywhere by myself- the store, the post office, the dentist, the bathroom... It's such a rare occasion that I treasure and savor it.

7) Appetizers for dinner. Kevin hates when I do this, he thinks it makes him look cheap. Not hardly since sometimes appetizers can run the same as a dinner. I especially love the places where you can get a variety- like Chilis. Hmm, I'm thinking I need Chilis this weekend :)

8) Magazines. I don't get the time to read books, but I can read snippets of magazines throughout the day. I have subscriptions to 5 magazine. Occasionally, I'll super indulge and buy something intelligent like People or US Weekly.

9) 8:05pm- Both kids have been put to bed, Kevin is usually doing someting on the computer, and I just take a moment to sit quietly. I might turn on the tv, I might grab a magazine, I might do nothing. The rocking chairs on the porch are a great place to sit.

10) DVR- I can't live without it. Goodness knows I can't watch my shows when the kids are up. One, they make too much noise, and two, my 4yo listens and asks lots of questions. What do I find valuable to dvr? Grey's, Desperate Housewives, CSI (all of them), Brothers and Sisters, ER, Jon and Kate plus 8. Now that it's the off season, I've gotten into Secret Lives of the American Teenager and Army Wives.

Before I had kids, before we moved so far from my parents/babysitters, I had so many more indulgences. Oh well, it's worth it. I wouldn't trade my adventures for those few indulgences, most days anyway.

As requested

Well, who am I to say no when Yaya and Popi ask for something. So, here it is, folks, Jacob going up the stairs.



Oh, in other Jacob news, he has two words, officially- "dada" and "uhuh" (uh-oh)

What a silly boy!

I feel so bad for only posting about Beth last time, I have to post a Jacob-only one now. But, it's worth the wait. I've been working on getting some good videos. Jacob is 10 1/2 months old and starting to get a personality of his own.

He's started this thing with his head. We're not sure what sets him off. I call it his Stevie Wonder. Now, when he starts it, I'll call him "Stevie Wonder", and he'll keep doing it. It crackes us up!

In other fun Jacob stuff, he's been taking steps. More and more every day, a little more adventurous, a little braver. He can already go up the stairs (SCARY!), crawls quickly after Beth, and will soon be running after her too.