Brothers

Awwww. Aren't they just so darn cute?? This is what I live for. The two of them getting along. Being good. Not fighting, biting, spitting, hitting or kicking.

I asked Nick to take his pacifier out of his mouth for the pictures and Lucas reached up and did it for him. Nick didn't protest he just smiled. Lucas held onto the pacifier and then put it back into Nick's mouth when I was done. Once again: Awwww!!

On a side note: the hitting and shoving resumed shortly after I got these shots. If I'm not fast with the camera then I miss these fleeting moments.

Yo Here's the Dealio

My faithful readers (all 4 of you) know about my struggles with Nick and his sleep habits. He still struggles to sleep alone even though he's been doing it for like. . . 8 months now? He just doesn't like being alone in a room. Ever. Nick is a social butterfly and I believe it is this dominant personality trait that has kept him from being a "good sleeper".

As you know I have read all the big books, cover to cover, about how to be a good, successful Mommy and get your kid to put himself to sleep alone in a room alone. Did I mention ALONE? Yeah - the "alone" thing is the sticking point with Nick. You know us Mommies are judged heavily based upon how well our children sleep. I didn't make the rules. It is just how it is. After all, isn't that one of the first things people ask you when you have a baby? How is he/she sleeping? If I was gutsy enough to be honest and say that he slept in my bed people would break eye contact and mutter something unintelligible. It happened to me more than I can count.

Well I stand before you, proud (finally) to be a Mommy of an 19 month old that I rock to sleep. That's right, I said it. Not every night but about 50% of the time. He is in his own bed and in his own room (finally). I do it because he has made it perfectly clear on every single day of his 19 months that this is what he needs. He needs to be held. He needs to be cuddled and he needs that human contact. Meeting his needs is my job and I love doing it.

Lucas didn't need the human contact as much. He is perfectly comfortable with alone time and is very happy to be by himself in a room. He always has been. He is a different kid with different needs. That is where these stupid "how to raise a baby" books fail miserably. They don't factor in the uniqueness of each personality, and how could they?

But after nearly a full year of sleepless nights where I was convinced I'd go insane from extreme fatigue, and another 6 months of frequent wakings (every 5-6 hours) I am now at peace with the situation. One book went so far as to threaten that my child will be an alcohol abuser as an adult if he doesn't learn good sleep habits now (because alcohol helps you sleep). An alcohol abuser? Really?

One day I'll wish I could go back in time and rock him to sleep. I'll miss the absolute trust he puts in me as he lays there in my arms closing his eyes and taking that deep sigh as he drifts off. I'm going to soak it in. All the know-it-all's of baby sleep habits can go suck an egg.

There. I'm off my soapbox now.

I Got my Craft On

Today I got all crafty with some ladies in my Mommy group. My Mom-in-law watched the kiddos while I was away. I loved being able to focus on what I was doing and not worry about the kids.

Amy was the ring leader and she does an excellent job of patiently explaining over and over again how to do each and every card. She is from the south and says funny things like "so cute I'm not even standing it". I really like to give her a hard time and tease her and she takes it so well. One time after she went to all this work and we were making Christmas cards, I announced in the middle of the project that this was waayyy too much work for something we could buy at Walmart. She did not think it was funny, until I burst out laughing at her reaction.

Anyway, poor thing has to explain to me repeatedly how to do these things because I am a bumbling fool with artsy, crafty things. I have zero creativity. ZERO. But I copy things well so Amy has learned to make an example card for Miss Kristin to copy. When I screw up she doesn't admit it at all but instead exclaims "oh that is just beautiful, I looovve it". Today when she did that I couldn't even keep a straight face because she was obviously lying through her teeth. I think she is funny because she has this southern charm thing going on and I am just so crass that we bounce off of each other pretty well.

What is My Problem

Today I was wrestling the children through Costco with jackets hanging off and hats falling off and keys still in my hand for some reason, and children who insist on walking and helping to push the cart into old people - and in the midst of all of this I managed to locate and purchase what I was after. A container of dried parsley. The sole reason for the Costco trip. After telling Lucas to sit in the cart through gritted teeth for the umpteenth time I glanced up and saw a nicely dressed woman with great posture and unscuffed shoes and combed unfrazzled hair (OMG I know!!) walk by and I just wanted to step on her shiny shoes and scuff them up. How terrible is that?? I immediately realized I had issues. . . and felt bad.

The boys in the truck

It took me a couple of HOURS to upload this video. I don't know why it took so long. . . but here is a video of the kids in their new truck! Thank you Grammy and Pop, Uncle Dave and Aunt Stella for the wonderful gift. They love it!! This will be lots of fun for the boys and all the kids in the court.

Grandparents and Christmas

Here is Nick chillin' with my parent's dog. This is a vicious dog, he could snap at any moment. Can't you tell? :-)

My parents and the kids. This was taken right before my parents left. I love this picture.

Here is AJ's Mom and Nick making funny sounds together.

I need to get more pictures of Nancy with the kids. They are so happy she is here for Christmas.

The train table took both AJ and I a long time to put together. I had no idea there would be so many moving parts and pieces. There is a whole pile of pieces to the left of this picture that you can't see. It was truly a construction site. We should have had hard hats on. Damn you AJ for your "safety" influence!!! Now I have lame safety humor too.

TaDA!!! Done. This is a gift from Grandma (AJ's mom) to the boys. Wait. Where was she during construction?

And they loved it!! They played and argued and tore up track and argued some more then played some more, then scattered pieces a little bit, then finally tried to reconstruct everything. This will be hours of entertainment.

It was about 18 degrees outside this morning so our driving lessons were cut short until it warms up a little. But the boys love their new truck. They helped put it together and are super excited about driving it. Lucas loves all the little contraptions on the truck. The dumping bed, the key, the "gas" tank that he can open and pretend to put gas into. Nick loves that he gets to ride around. He feels like he is a big boy which is soooo important to Nick. Although he might be afraid of Lucas' driving because he has a death grip on the handle bar on the dash.

Here is a video. In it you can hear Lucas insisting that it was out of gas (he loves to pump gas) and wanted to stop and get gas for it. Nick kept climbing out because he was frozen and wanted to go inside. Don't let the shinning sun fool you it was really REALLY cold out. You can also hear the wind which I'm sure dropped the temp even more. So I'll post another video when it has warmed up and the kids are more willing to play outside.

Opening presents.

I'm still alive

I haven't downloaded pictures from my camera in awhile so here are some scraps from the vacation:

This is a pig head just chillin' on the sidewalk. Nice.


I took this picture to remind me to tell you about poor AJ. This is the day we got off the ship. The night before we disembarked they collected all the baggage so that they could have it off loaded and ready to go once we were in port. You are supposed to pack a small bag of clothes and toiletries to get you through the night and morning. Well I forgot to set aside underwear and socks for my poor husband. He asked me several times if I did and I assured him that I had his underclothes but . . . as it turned out I did not. So AJ had to cruise around without socks or underwear. I felt so bad too. (note in the pic that he doesn't have socks on)


All is going well here. I am still not in the Christmas spirit. In fact I am rather irritable and grumpy. Part of it is the weather. It is gray and cloudy out.

Why do I keep wanting to spell the color GRAY as "Grey"? Is there something else spelled grey?

The kids are behaving terribly. I don't know what to make of it. They are bouncing off the walls, screaming, throwing things, jumping. . . you name it they are doing it. At dinner I can't keep either one of them in their seats. My frustration is mounting because I literally can't turn around without someone doing something unacceptable. To save my sanity I must keep them busy ALL THE TIME. I think rain, shine, or snow I'm going to bundle them up and throw them outside for a while tomorrow. Because I can't entertain all the time. Mommy needs to sit down and pay bills and so far I haven't had a chance to do this because I have two little people that want to help and that means they color on my checks and bills with their own pens. . . which isn't good.

I was beginning to feel pretty inadequate today until I went to a potluck with my Mom's group. Talking to them made me feel adequate again. They are all frazzled and no one has their act together. Every one of the ladies were annoyed with someone in their family. Everyone was tired of baking cookies, tired of yelling at kids to stay away from the tree and tired of wrapping presents. Ahhh the holidays. So at least I know I'm not alone in my holiday grumpiness.

The "I Almost Crapped My Pants" Day

Belize. Known by most for it's outstanding natural preserves which hold unbelievable animal and plant diversity. Known by me as the place we nearly died multiple, multiple times at the hands of terrifyingly unconcerned drivers.

The ship had to anchor off of the shore a good mile or so and we took small boats to shore. I think that living with a person who works in safety has rubbed off on me in a not-so-good way. I kept looking around for life jackets on this small boat that was literally PACKED full of people. They kept telling us to squish together more so more people could fit onto the boat. There were no life jackets. And the fire extinguisher was rusted. The boat helpers were like TWELVE years old so they would have been useless in an emergency. You can blame AJ for my obsession with life jackets. Here are some pictures so you can see for yourself what a freaky panic-y person I am:




Do you see a life jacket?? I don't EITHER!! AHHHH!!

Like sweaty uncomfortable sardines. . .

The twelve year old showing off while the boat went full speed toward land.


Then we transferred onto a bus. It was a very old bus and the air conditioning wasn't functioning at all. It was at least 85 degrees out and 99% humidity. We got to stay on the bus for 1.5 hours. We were on our way to a newly discovered archaeological site that was supposed to be amazing. It is 32 square MILES in size and is only just beginning to be excavated. So exciting!! I didn't really care about the AC not working because we were headed into the jungle baby, just like Indiana Jones!! Did I mention that I took a LOT of anthropology and archaeology classes? That might explain my interest in Archaeology a little bit.

The problem I had was the driver. He scared the crap out of me. He kept running the tires on the bus off the edge of the road at incredibly fast speeds (at least 55 mph or more). Each time he did it we were on a curve in the road and were passing someone. It really stressed me out. Badly.

AJ and other passengers dealt with the terror by trying to sleep. Sleeping did not work for me.


The freaky bus driver.


We arrived at a dock on the side of this rural country road. From this point we boarded a patio boat with seats and headed another 1.5 hours up the New River. We saw all sorts of wildlife and we finally had a competent and nice driver!! Here are some pics:

Spider Monkey


We passed a Mennonite compound. The guide told us they were so isolated out here on the river that they began to have "genetic problems" from cousins marrying cousins. We saw several members of this group selling peanuts on the side of the road and several more members were fishing along the river. It was really funny because after the guide told us about them we saw some Mennonites fishing and we all busted out our cameras and took pictures. I was no exception. I stood up with the rest of the passengers to get a real honest to God photograph of a real live Mennonite!! Success!! (Yes I realize that I see Mennonites all around New Mexico, but the whole group mentality took over - when one person does it we all had to do it. Mooooooo. I'm one of the herd I guess.)

Part of the Mennonite compound

Psst!! There they are! The most elusive creature of them all!!! (I'm making fun of myself for taking the picture of these nice people in case you can't tell.)


We finally arrived at the site. Half of our group was unable to walk the 1.5 mile uneven trail to see the different areas. So they all sat in the shade at the "food hut". See how out of breath they all are? We walked 50 feet from the boat and I took this picture. They all busted out the water and . . . eye drops? Anyway. It was weird that they paid all this money for this tour and knew what the physical requirements were.


This is the first temple we came to. It was also the smallest one we saw. They were actively excavating it (lower left side behind the yellow tape) when we walked up. All the workers stopped for the tourists.


This is a large face on the side of the temple, an identical one is on the opposite side. They are going to remove this face from the temple to protect it from the elements. It is composed of limestone and with the frequent rains it won't hold up well unless it is reburied. . . which isn't going to happen. An identical one will be put in it's place for tourists.


This is a drawing of the face and the area around it. The measurements that they record are as you can imagine very detailed.


Sing it with me now: In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps toniggghhht


One of three really large temples.


The tourists (and I confess, us too) were more interested in the howler monkeys in the tree than the temple. We had just emerged from the jungle when the monkeys caught our attention, so no one had really even glanced at the temple when I took this photo. I thought it was really funny that everyone was facing the wrong way.


This is one of many attempts to get the temple behind us but not the sun glare in the picture.


My "Coke Light" had some health advice for me. I think I'll take the advice.


This little building is the "Immigration Office" back at port.


The bus ride back was even more terrifying that the one there. But I survived and my underwear was remarkably unsoiled.

Just a Little Detour

When we returned to our cabin from Costa Maya Captain Hoit came on the speakers and informed the entire ship that we were no longer headed to Guatemala due to a local political issue involving bus travel. Apparently the bus driver population was on strike and no buses = no excursions which = unhappy cruise passengers. So we were being diverted to the island of Rotan, Honduras. People on board were not happy about the change of plans - many people were really looking forward to Guatemala, but we didn't care where we went as long as it was an interesting location. We later heard that two weeks prior to our cruise a passenger off of our same ship was shot and killed in Guatemala. So our attitudes changed from indifference to relief that we were on our way to politically stable Honduras. Wait. Never mind. Honduras isn't stable either - but no one off of our ship had recently been killed there so we were gonna take what we could get.

The excursion options were more limited than before but we found a good one - it was a tour of the island with stops including a boat ride through the protected mangroves, a cultural dance and some local cuisine tasting.



Some of the scenery from one of our stops is below. The island is so small that our guide stopped at all of her friends' roadside stands so we could "shop". There was only mass produced touristy crap for sale so we felt awkward not buying stuff while we stood around doing nothing . . . waiting to get back into the van and proceed with the tour. I kept saying to the vendors who were calling to me to see their junk "ohhh yes that is very nice."


Here is a "pet" monkey kept on a rope in the backyard of the dude (another friend) who took us in the boat through the mangroves. Sad. I dreaded seeing stuff like this. She climbed my leg and wouldn't let go. I just wanted to monkeynap her and put her with other monkeys she could socialize with. She must feel so isolated.


Here are the mangroves. It was pretty cool to see all this. We were told all about how they protect the island from tidal waves and hurricanes. I was glad we were able to see them.


Here we are sitting on another bench trying to avoid the vendors. There was a starving dog wandering around that I wanted to dognap and transport back to my house. I don't think she would have made it through customs though.


Next we went to another location to watch a cultural dance. It was a really cool dance and the whole time I watched it I was thinking that I would NEVER be able to giggle my hips like the women were doing. And then one of the dancing women FORCED me to stand up and attempt the dance in front of everyone. Guess what? I looked pretty "special" asking my hips to wiggle and giggle when they had never been asked to do anything like it before. Somehow my boobs managed to wiggle and giggle more than my hips which was even more embarrassing. And no I will not post a picture.

Here is a member of our tour helping his wife up 5 steps. You see this? Below? This has inspired me to shop for a jogging stroller and I'm not even messing around. I have got to get in shape because the 50% morbid obesity rate I observed on the ship scared the hotdog and coke desires right out of me.


This lady served us food and AJ found a very fuzzy wuzzy friend. Again, I almost folded this sweet baby up and stuffed her in my luggage. I'll be the "Angelina Jolie" of the animal kingdom (except I actually eat food, not just air like Ms. Jolie).


We returned to our room and found an awesome lobster made from a bath towel. Our room steward left it for us on the bed. I was so excited! AJ and I practiced making the lobster for a half hour after we found this.