The Park Remains Awesome

It was freakin' 60 degrees today...on January 31...in INDIANA. Those of you who claim that global warming isn't real are invited to reread that first sentence a few times...then shut the hell up.

WEEEEEEE!!!

Ainsley came with me to a meeting with Sarah, and we decided since it was so nice, we should really take the kids to the park.  So, that's just what we did.  We actually went to Johnny Appleseed Park first, but the river was high and there isn't a good fence between the park and the river and I didn't particularly want Xander to run, jump in the river, and die, so we detoured back to our usual haunt: Northside Park.

Ainsley and Big Sarah
CLIMB!

Now that he's older, Xander has become more enamored with the slides. After seeing Big Sarah climb up there, Ainsley gave the climbing wall a shot. I climbed a little and tried to entice Xander, but he was just all about the slides.

While we were there a WFFT reporter guy interviewed me about bringing the kids to the park and the good weather. He asked what the kids preferred to play in...snow or 60 deree spring-like weather. Ummm...no doy, dude. We'll see if our kids make the color spot at the end of the news....cause clearly "What kind of weather does your toddler like to play in" isn't exactly lead material. Or is it?!?!

After my thrilling interview, we decided to let the kids swing. Their love affair with the swing has returned...as evidenced below:

Of course, they cried when it was time to leave. Luckily we had a sandwich for Xander and the iPad for Ainsley. *whew* Don't worry kids, spring is just around the corner. Oh wait...not it's not.

SNOW!!

First steps out!

Finally we've gotten enough snow that I deem it worth the time and effort to get the kids bundled up and roll them out into the yard.

So, I put the kids in two shirts, two pants, two socks, boots, hats, gloves, etc. etc. etc. When we were getting ready, Ainsley asked me why she had to wear so much. "Momma knows about dressing warm, baby," I was totally having flashbacks to my own days sent out into the tundra. Our big discovery is that Xander doesn't have boots, so he got to trudge out in his Chuck Taylors.

Xander: Bulldozer

This is Xander's first big snow. I wasn't too sure how he'd respond. I should have known, though. Basically, he just threw himself into the snow and continued to plow through it until I carried him inside.

He slid down the steps, immediately ran to our sloped yard, and slid down it. Who knew?! Our yard is a sledding hill! Of course, at the bottom of the sledding hill is the sidewalk and the street. So, Momma had to do some Xander wrangling at the bottom.

Ainsley, of course, was a bit more hesitant to get into the snow, but she did follow her brother down the hill.

I tried to keep them in front of the house, but Xander kept wanting to run out into the street and die, so I corralled them up the driveway.

RUNNING! Running IN SNOW!!

Xander? Want some snow?!

They got to fiddle about in the driveway for a while...when Ainsley realized that she could THROW SNOW. Once that happened, it was on. She just kept throwing snow at Xander over and over.

Xander didn't mind getting snow in his face...considering that he'd spent the last 10 minutes bulldozing the snow with his face. It was at this point that I started to think 1) Xander needs one of those bank robber masks cause the boy leads with the face, and 2) why am I only wearing one pair of pants. That was just stupid.

Once I saved Xander from the facefuls of snow, Ainsley realized there was snow on the van...and that was unacceptable, so she started cleaning it off. It was at that point that Xander decided to make a break for it.

Going!

Going!

GONE!

Once I got Xander secured and was certain that he wasn't going to try to get hit by a car, Ainsley got to the serious business of snow angel making. I forced her to pose for the picture below...and she forced me to take a picture of her snow angel. We're bossy...Ainsleys and Mommas.

When it was time to come in, Xander threw a right proper fit. I lured Ainsley in with the promise of chicken noodle soup (Toy Story...though she'd have preferred Princess).

Climbing the yard

Ainsley asked to bring some snow inside. I gave her a quick lesson in the elements and a firm "no." I was quite proud that I thought to strip the kids down one layer before getting in the house so there was minimal melted snow puddles. Of course, now, at 1am, I realize that I forgot to bring those clothes in...so they're frozen on the porch. Ah well.

Ultimately, my real goal was achieved...both kids went down for their naps with minimal trouble. After the soup, Xander started to ask for his Beebee. Miss A got into bed much easier than I expected. She didn't sleep (she's tying to pretend that she's not a toddler who naps; we're reminding her that it's better for all of us when we do), but she did rest and read. It's the best I can ask for at this point.

Pumpkins!!

Going to Hilger's

It was sunless and spitty last Sunday when we went to get pumpkins for the house. We were supposed to go on Saturday, but Momma got her drink on Friday night and Just. Couldn't. Do. Anything. on Saturday.  Saturday was beautiful and sunny and lovely...but it wasn't happening.  So Sunday morning, we sent a text to Janine and Daelynn and Big Sarah and let them know we were heading out.

We went to Hilger's because we'd heard there was tons of fun there...and there was. The first big hit of the visit was the tire swings. Xander was a bit to small, so Daelynn pulled him in with her and I gave her some pushes.  Ainsley, however, was the perfect size for the tire horse swing. She rode that one for about 10 minutes.  Luckily, since it was cold and rainy, we were practically the only people there.

I overheard the Hilger's lady say that the day before was "a zoo." So, see kids...you got to play with stuff longer and to yourself because Mommy drinks! Aren't you lucky?!

This was some sort of
pumpkin education center that the kids
didn't really pay attention to...

Behind the barn was a fun area for the kids to run around and play with Big Sarah while Daelynn shopped for her pie hole and Janine and I chat. Janine informed me that they'd covered the hay bales with tarp so the hay wouldn't disintegrate in the dampness. One of my favorite things about hanging with Janine is I get to learn interesting little tidbits like that.

There was this plywood maze thing they made for the kids, and Big Sarah, Ainsley, and Xander had a BALL playing in it.

Daelynn returned with popcorn and then, for Ainsley, it *was on*.  Ainsley will cut you for some popcorn. So, of course, I got her a little bag. She had great fun after that eating and protecting her popcorn.

Because it was raining, the hay rides were canceled, had Ainsley been old enough to know what that meant, she'd have been disappointed...remember she has that weird obsession with hay bales.  Traveling out to the pumpkin patch was also canceled, so we picked our pumpkins from the ones they had gathered in front of the barn.  It's not like we're big into pumpkin patches, per se...so we were cool with that.

Because of her big ole hippie status, Big Sarah was showing the kids how to love and respect all the animals, gourds, etc. As this was DAY TWO of my hangover, I let her. Heh.

Ultimately because it was so wet and rainy, we couldn't stay very long...we picked our pumpkins and left. You can really see how wet the kids got in the picture to the left. No, Xander didn't pee himself, he was just playing in the pumpkins!

All the cool kids drive home
pantless with popcorn.

PAINTING Pumpkins

Ainsley: Brush
Xander: Finger

By far, what's much cooler than getting pumpkins is painting pumpkins. This year, I bought a few of those minipumpkin looking gourds for the kids to paint.  This has proven to be one of the wisest Momma moves I've made!

Day One Pumpkins

So far, we've had two pumpkin painting days...mostly I'm just letting her repaint over the same pumpkins because 1) I'm cheap and 2) she's 3 and doesn't care to complain yet. I'm sure next year each pumpkin will be a Work of Art like each piece of paper is right now.

Ainsley painted one pumpkin as her "princess' pumpkin. It's the one with pink, white, and green.  I find this hilarious!

Often when painting, Xander ends up getting bored and painting on the table, his face, the pumpkin, the high chair, and then just plain trying to eat paint. Thank goodness it's washable and non-toxic.  He's still a bit young for painting, so normally he'll paint a bit and then move to the bathtub.

As she is with everything, Ainsley is a very serious artist. She'll move from color to color, and when painting with the brush is very particular about not mixing the colors together. This makes me happy because I think it'd drive the OCD in me INSANE if her colors were all mixed up. I have a hard enough time when she mixes PlayDough colors together.

When we paint, I'll do some painting, but mostly I'm there to manage the mess.  As you can see from these pictures, this time (Day Two of painting), I'm being instructed by Ainsley when, where, and how to paint, and I'm trying to get Xander to actually paint instead of eating the pumpkin. Look closely at that picture (or click on it to enlarge it)...his mouth is covered with paint because he picked it up to chew on it as I was setting the timer on the camera.

It Was a Great Day!

So, I posted last week that I had a great day with the kids in Muncie.

My profs at BSU were supportive and met with me with my kids...which was awesome.

Then we got to see Erin...which resulted in these pictures:

Notice her stick.  This was her last chance having that stick, as a few minutes prior to taking this picture, she had beaned Xander with it.  I say with pride that she didn't hit him with it again.

After sending Erin off to class, we went with Steph Hedge to McDonald's.  There were chicken nuggets and fun had by all!

We finally ended up visiting the Schallers at their new home.  We met 6 week old William (Ainsley looked, Xander didn't care, I was filled with joy that my ovaries didn't ache at the sight of him).

The best part of our visit was watching Annika play with Ainsley and Matthew play with Xander. Those two are going to be awesome big sibs to William.  Most adorably, Matthew carried Xander all over Molly's backyard...then they chilled in the hammock swing.

I don't really have a point to this blog post (not like my others do either)...but I thought I'd share our great day/cute pics!

Johnny Appleseed Extravaganza!!

This weekend was the Johnny Appleseed Festival.  Last year, my mom came to go with us.  This year, she brought my grandma and my sister, Jill.

Slides Are COOL

While we were at the festival, Ainsley and Xander fell in love with one of the playsets there.  Aunt Jill loves to take the kids on the slide.

My favorite thing about this picture is that Aunt Jill and I were trying to create a "picture moment," and Ainsley just wanted to slide. This is Jill being all surprised that Ainsley pushed off to slide because we were trying to get A to slide with her...  I love the look on A's face. It screams, "Screw you guys, I'm gonna SLIIIIDE!"

Hay...Also Pretty Kick Ass

Though the whole festival, Ainsley was fixated on the bales of hay. After some perusing of random smoked meats, homemade snowman crap, and patchouli soap, Mom, Jill, and Grandma made their way to the flea market section of the festival. I really hate flea markets. I have enough crapola in my house. I really don't have an interest at looking at other people's crapola.

SO...Ainsley, Xander, and I decided to hang out with some serious hay bales.

Xander was happy to get out of the buggy—Johnny Appleseed isn't to conducive to new walkers what with the 10 gajillion attendees.  I tried to get him up on a hay bale with his sister to create a picture moment. (Yes, I'm aware that this is clearly an issue of mine...but I don't care. I like to take pictures of my kids.)

The moment I pulled out my phone for the picture, Ainsley snapped her arm around her brother's neck and started smiling for the picture. It was freakin' adorable.

Xander was, understandably, less tolerant of his sister's assault. He immediately started trying to unwrap himself.

She's still just a little bit bigger and stronger than him, though...so it took a while.  This second picture is of him freeing himself from her. Check out that look on her face...pure sass.

*side note* I sincerely doubt she'll have this advantage much longer. Just yesterday we had to tell Xander to get off his sister, as he'd decided to lay on top of her so she wouldn't move.

I particularly enjoyed telling her that she taught him that move and I'd warned her it'd be used against her. She didn't appreciate the irony. Ok, fair enough, she didn't understand the irony. Sean did though...and we laughed the laugh of really tired parents of two toddlers.

Please Don't Call Social Services, Lady

Big sister

So, this other thing happened while we were hanging with the hay bales at Johnny Appleseed...

Xander decided he needed to RUN around.  He's moderately quick and there were a lot of people and I've been having these horrible dreams about losing the kids (in every horrible variation), so I tried to keep him close to me.  Ainsley was also free ranging at that point.  Xander started to walk off. I told Ainsley to stay by me and we pushed the stroller after him.

I'm not sure if you
can see the bump here.

It looked a lot more disorganized than it was. Worse came to worse, I could have easily abandoned the stroller and snatched up each kid in my arms.  But I'm a hard core control freak trying to let my kids have a little bit of freedom...so I was letting him roam a bit.  Ok, like maybe 3 feet away from me...but still. I was telling Xander to "stay near Mommy" because he's young and needs to start learning that...but I was still making some progress.

What I failed to consider is that Ainsley is mini-Jenn. At one point, Xander got what Ainsley deemed to be "too far away," and she SNATCHED him.  I mean she grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him down...where he proceeded to bust his head on the stroller.

Then the crying started...and Ainsley freaked out and ran off. Luckily, I was prepared to grab both kids at once. That's just what I had to do. Then I had to start simultaneously comforting Xander and reassuring Ainsley it was just an accident but she still had to say she was sorry.

All while this was happening, I was being watched by some woman in desperate need of either a hair cut or a conditioning treatment; she was like Melissa Leo...not desperate Oscar baiting Melissa Leo, Melissa Leo from Homocide. Anyway, she was watching me way too closely, and I had that moment I assume every mother of a toddler (or two) has. I wanted to both yell at her "Screw off, lady" and give her the finger.

Welcome to Hell...I mean Texas

This, by the way, is
IN THE SHADE.

So, we're in Texas...and if you aren't aware, Texas has had 32 100+ days this year. (Tell me again that climate change isn't real.)

Yesterday, Ainsley wanted to go outside to do bubbles. To the right, you can see the temperature--at 7pm.  Actually, there were nights that the low here was in the high 90s. Ahhh TX.

Anyway, I went out on the porch to do bubble with Ainsley. As I sat on the porch slowly melting, Ainsley bubbled away. After about 10 minutes, I had grand fears of passing out due to heat exhaustion and then Ainsley going and drowning in Fred and Kelly's pool.  At that point, I started to try to cajole the rugrat inside.

Me: It's pretty hot out. Maybe we should go inside.

A: No! I blow bubbles!

Me: Yeah, but look, sweety, Mommy is disintegrating.

She's this hot and sweaty
after 10 minutes.

A: No!! Let's do bubbles! Here Momma! (She shoves a bubble wand at me.)

Me: I don't want to blow bubbles right now.

A: (running to me with a crazed look) YEAH! Let's do bubbles! It's FUN!, ok?

Me: (desperate) Maybe we should go inside and have a few Yum Yums?

A: No!! Let's blow bubbles!  (spins her wand around) SEE!  Let's blow bubbles!  Sounds fun? Yeah! Sounds fun, Momma.

I gave up and we blew bubbles for another 10 minutes before I had to bribe her inside with promises of swimming in her future.

Xander's Birthday

The Spread

So, in June, we had Xander's first birthday party.  As promised, I'm here to report on the festivities...and show some of my sister Alysse's awesome pictures.

First, I must thank Aunt Sarah for letting us use her home..there's no way we would have been able to fit all our friends and family in Casa Stewart.

A metric crap-ton of
awesome people

Please note the beauty that was the taco bar. I think I may have to have taco bar at every party. Mmmmm!

So, we held the party on a lovely Saturday in June. I was very excited for this party and its outcome for two reasons: 1) I didn't get drunk (unlike Ainsley's first birthday, when I pushed myself too hard and raided Aunt Sarah's cabinet) and 2) I wasn't pregnant.  Before you get all judgy (though really, anyone who'd read this isn't judgy), I didn't know I was pregnant at Ainsley's party. I found out five days later, but it definitely explained the stress/need to drink!

Outdoor Fun...and a SPRINKLER!!


As always, Grandma Fitzgerald arrived with chalk. Ainsley and Kaelynn both enjoyed playing with the chalk. Of course, Aunt Jill had to get in on the action, too!

Aunt Sarah provided a sprinkler for some backyard fun.  All the kids loved the sprinkler immensely. It was one of those wacky sprinklers that shot water everywhere...so much fun!  Ainsley ran willy nilly; Faith and Ripley enjoyed the sprinkler.  I think Kaelynn was less enthused. Either that or she was showing her sass-face for the camera!

Friends and Family Are Cool!


So, just like Ms. A, Xander took a big ole nap during his party. Grandma Ballay got her baby hoggin' hands on him, and he passed right out!

CAKE!!

Alysse said Sean was looking
at me in this picture. *grin*

So, for Ainsley's birthday, we ordered from Halls Takes the Cake, which makes delicious...and very expensive cakes.  They messed up the flavors of hers, so we had a discount on file that I'd forgotten about.  We took advantage of that with Xander's cake and it was awesome.

Unlike his sister, Xander was willing to Tear. That. Cake. UP!  I kinda knew he would, Xander enjoys playing with his food.


Presents!


Xander, of course, was showered with lots of presents.  The hat that Grandma Fitzgerald got him was a big hit with the crowd, and he seemed to not mind wearing it.  Sean was in charge of Xander's presents this year, and he did an excellent job. I was particularly thrilled that Xander got a Cookie Monster doll instead of the standard Elmo. Well done, husband.

This is exactly the
kind of cute you can't handle.

 All in all it was a great party, and we were happy so many people could come out and celebrate Mr. Awesome's birthday. Now, I just need to write those thank you cards!