Growing up way "TWO" Fast

Jacob recently turned TWO YEARS OLD and we threw him a Yo Gabba Gabba party last weekend (pictures to follow). He had a blast! Something I noticed about Jacob is that he doesn’t seem to enjoy parties in close quarters. When we attend a party at someone’s home, he is very agitated the whole time. Very clingy and whiney. But parties at the park – watch out now! This boy loves to wander around with no care in the world. Sometimes he’ll even stroll on over to some stranger’s party that might be going down near the one we’re attending and insist on riding the kids’ bikes/trikes. And when I try to tell him he can’t ride their stuff because we don’t know them, he is not afraid to show his displeasure in me (and that’s putting it lightly!)

Anyway, to keep the kiddos busy as we were preparing for the party, I baked little cakes for them to decorate. Check out my little man, helping me bake….

I ended up making a Brobee cake for Jacob to blow his candle out on. (The rest of the party partook in the Costco cake.)

The day after his party, we had some friends/siblings over to watch the Laker game and to try to help us consume the 20 lbs of carne asada meat that we had left-over from the party. (I’m not exaggerating about the 20 lbs either! We were unsuccessful at finishing it all so I had to freeze about half of it and gave the other half to my mother-in-law!)

At one point, I realize that I hadn’t seen Jacob for awhile. I go looking for him and there he is, in the bedroom playing with his sister and the rest of the kids. Later on, he’s outside playing with the kids. It hit me right then and there… Jacob is gaining his independence. He’s becoming less of my shadow (following me everywhere I go) and is less afraid of being away from me (“bye, mom, go to wok!”). I realized that I need to really savor this time of his life because he is the last of my babies. Pretty soon he won’t be jealous anymore when his daddy sits too close to me or puts his arms around me. He won’t be yelling for me from outside, “Moooooooom!! Swiiiiiiiiiiing!! Mooooooom!” His eyes won’t light up the way they always do when he sees me after a long day at work. He won’t be running up to me, so excited for me to pick him up and give him a kiss, looking at me with eyes that are full of love, touching my face with his little hands. Some days, when Jacob is extra whiney and extra clingy, I can’t help but think, “Jeez, I can’t wait until he’s older.” But, no, that isn’t true. I can wait a lifetime if he can just stay my baby forever.

I've got so much "passion"

Thanks to Shamelessly Sassy for the gentle reminder that it has been a whole MONTH since my last post - what the heck?! In my defense, I did start a post last week and then got sidetracked. That would have made it only a mere 3 weeks since my last post. Augh - I know, I suck!

So anyway, to continue the post I began, I mentioned before my newfound love for all things NKOTB, right? Except that post did not do proper justification as to how far my obsession appreciation went. I have to admit that I was too ashamed to admit it at the time. I didn't want to admit that I listened to their new CD non-stop evey chance I got. That I changed my Google homepage to their theme. That I have a Google gadget that plays continuous loops of various NKOTB videos old and new. That I was following all the members on Twitter and having their tweets sent to my phone. That (instead of writing blog posts) I was watching NKOTB videos on YouTube. That I was contemplating selling an organ or two so that I could afford to go to the NKOTB cruise that went down a couple weeks ago. Ok, that last one was a lie. (Sort of.) Anyone who knows me knows I have this groupie/borderline-stalker mentality with anyone/anything I grow fond of. Alfred (God bless him) just rolls his eyes a lot when I get this way. My friends appreciate my "passion" for things (meaning, they still love me when I get the crazies). They know that I will eventually get over it. The thing is, when I AM caught up in my... ahem... "passions"... my poor kids go along for the ride. So now they know all the words to my favorite NKOTB songs (and they even have THEIR favorite songs):

You can't see her but you can hear Katelyn singing along in the background. She loves this song (2 IN THE MORNING) as well as SINGLE.

I was planning to take Desiree and Alana to another NKOTB concert in July (in Vegas). Katelyn is now asking if she could go too. She said "Mama? Can I go see New Kids too? Coz they are SO cute!" It is SO obvious who she takes after, right? It pains me that I can't be the hero and give in to her request. I just can't see myself spending $400 for all 4 us of to go to that concert. Heck, it hurts to be spending $300 for the three of us to go. Last time, it was just me and Desiree who went and even spending that $200 was SO hard. Then again, it might totally be worth it to see NKOTB and the Jabbawockeez - our two biggest "passions"! If you are a fan of either NKTOB and/or Jabbawockeez, you HAVE to check out the summer tour. A little birdie told me that it is going to be even better than their spring tour and that was ALREADY the biznaz! I don't want to spoil it for anyone who is planning to go to the concert but let's just say that I am SO excited about what they have in the works!

BTW - for those of you who were thinking that a NKOTB intervention was in order, I am pleased to advise that I have been listening to music other than NKOTB as of late, I have since changed my Google homepage theme to something other than NKOTB, I've changed my twitter settings so that I do NOT get their tweets via text message anymore and I haven't watched a NKOTB video on YouTube for quite some time now. Thank you for your concern.

Why can't they stay babies forever?

In one of those rare moments, Alfred and I were hanging out downstairs on the couch on Saturday morning watching TV while all four of the kids were upstairs playing Nintendo Wii in the office. We heard Jacob working his way downstairs so Alfred told me to hide under the blanket. As I was hiding, I heard Jacob asking his daddy, "Mama wok? Mama wok?" (translation: Is mom at work?) and Alfred answered, "I don't know?" and slowly pulled the blanket off so that my head was peeking out. The look on Jacob's face when his eyes met mine was priceless! His face lit up and he even did a little jig, he was that excited to see that I was NOT at "wok" but at home with him!

Later that afternoon, I was busy doing laundry and stitching warm-up pants that have been overly abused on the softball field (in retrospect, I should have just tossed it in the trash or turned them into shorts - haha!) when Jacob came up to me asking for "nas" (translation: bananas). I told him to go ask his daddy and was surprised when he answered "daddy! nas!" and took off running to look for his dad and chow down on bananas.

Late yesterday afternoon, the girls were helping their dad wash the cars while I watched Jacob roll up and down the drive-way on his little scooter. It was starting to get cold so I asked him if he wanted to go inside to watch some TV and he answered, "No... bike." When I asked if he was sure he answered, "No.... bike."

When did this happen?? When did my baby go from barely comprehendable babblings to... um... well, barely comprehendable intelligent questions, the ability to follow direction and form his own opinions?? Amazing. Next thing you know, he'll be asking me to take him to the "cathay" for some lattes. I don't think I can take it... all of my babies growing up.

Disgusting... but too funny not to post

My kids bite their nails. A really bad habit that I like to blame on Alfred since I'm pretty certain they inherited their love of keratin from him. For the last 10 years, I had never ever, ever, ever seen Alfred cut his fingernails with a nail clipper. I've seen him cut his toenails but his fingernails stay mysteriously short without the need for clippers. Alfred recently quit biting his nails and it was so weird to see his fingernails that long and to see him cutting them with a nail clipper - WEIRD, I tell ya! And don't even get me started with his new obsession to clean under his nails. I guess one obsession replaces the other? Anyway, I digress, I'm not here to talk about Alfred (although I am very proud of him for working so hard to kick that nail biting habit!! I know it was tough! And I am NOT being facetious here.) I'm here to talk about my KIDS who bite their nails. When they run out of fingernails.... they turn to... what else? Their toenails. I guess if you can reach them... why not? Besides the fact that it's absolutely disgusting and god knows where those feet have been, I guess it makes perfect sense.

My kids get pissed off when I tell them to stop biting their nails - fingers OR toes. They get U-P-S-E-T! They were fresh out of the bath in these pictures so I let them do it long enough to take the photos but, *augh*, so gross! I promised myself I would take pictures to show to their future girlfriends/boyfriends some day. You can never have enough embarrassing photos for when they grow up! Especially posted on the Internet! I'm sure they will be eternally grateful. You're welcome, my darlings.

The Right Stuff

If it weren't for my girlfriend, Liza, I don't think I would have even thought to do it. If the Jabbawockeez were not opening for them, Liza may not have thought to go up to see them either. Thanks to the Jabbawockeez and to Liza - and most especially to her sister, Belle, for hooking us up with tickets and using her VIP status to get us on the floor - we did it... we went up to Los Angeles to see the New Kids on the Block. Alfred was supposed to go with me to the concert but since Liza's man decided to skip the concert, citing that he'd rather stay home and work on the yard or fix some stuff around the house or cut off his arm... something to that affect... Alfred "volunteered" to stay home and watch the kids. I can't believe these guys! They didn't WANT to go see Jabbawockeez and NKOTB with us?? Whah?? Huh?? Luckily for Desiree, her dad gave up his ticket to her. Luckily for my sister, Twinkle, Liza had an extra ticket. So off we go with Liza and her whole family to Los Angeles - to show our support for the Jabbawockeez and to fall in love all over again with Joey, Donnie, Jordan, Jon and Danny. Le sigh...

How disappointed was I to discover that Desiree's camera was broken - it was stuck on video and the battery kept dying so we could only capture 10-20 second increments. Anything is better than nothing, I guess.

The next day, we picked up some TODAY SHOW hot dogs from PINK'S Hot Dogs for lunch and then stopped by Sprinkles for some delicious cupcakes to bring home to Alfred and the little ones. What a fabulous weekend we had!

Starting Her Early

Alfred and I go to Starbucks quite often. We are caffeine fiends, no doubt. Over time, our kids have developed their own "go-to" drinks. Desiree usually has a green-tea frappacino with no whip, Alana likes the sweetened lemonade, Katelyn and Jacob will get the Horizon's chocolate or vanilla milk that's a box drink in their little cooler section. One day Alfred was at Starbucks and they had run out of the Horizon's milk so they offered to make the vanilla milk from scratch. A couple squirts of the vanilla syrup into some milk, topped off with whip. Imagine Katelyn's delight! Alfred said that Katelyn commented that "it tastes even better than my sister's latte!" You know that we frequent the coffee shop a little more than we probably should when our 5-year-old is using the word "latte" in a sentence with such confidence.

A few days later, I pick up the kids from our parents house and have this conversation with Kate:

Me: I wonder what we should do for dinner tonight?
Kate: How about we go to the "cathay"?
Me: What's a "cathay?"
Kate: You know, a "cathay" like Starbucks.
Me: Ohhhhh. You mean a CAFE?
Kate: Yeah, a "cathay" and you can buy me a vanilla milk.
Me: But I could just buy you a vanilla milk from the grocery
store.
Kate: No, one like my daddy bought me.

That night, we didn't make it to the "cathay" so the next day I get a phone call at work from Alfred's mom asking me what this vanilla milk is that Katelyn wants from Starbucks. At the time, I wasn't quite sure how it was made so I told her I would have Alfred call her to give her instructions. Apparently, Grandma was ready to have their Uncle Archie (Alfred's brother) throw all the kids into the car and bring them to Starbucks because Katelyn REALLY wanted this drink!

When I got to the house later that afternoon, it turned out that they didn't get a chance to go to Starbucks so Katelyn started begging me to please, please take her! She fell asleep on the drive to Starbucks and I contemplated just going straight home but knew that the next day she would torture the people around her if she didn't get her vanilla-milk-with-whip fix (she IS, after all, her mother's child) so I went to Starbucks and picked up two of the fancy shmancy vanilla milk so that all the kids would be content. Oh man. I think we've created a monster.

My son is BANANAS!

I think Jacob's goals in life are: "What can I do to make my mom's heart stop without actually causing her to keel over?" and "What other shenanigans can I get into that will cause my mom the most amount of work to clean up?" You don't believe me? I present to you...

Exhibit A


Exhibit B

And Exhibit C.

Oh, don't tell me that the video of him jumping on the couch is no big deal. You must have forgetten how coordinatedly-challenged my son is. If he can barely keep himself from falling on a stable, non-moving, concrete surface, there is no way standing on a COUCH is going to be any easier. He recently discovered the joys of jumping with his feet actually leaving the ground so this has been his favorite thing to do lately, as well as his favorite video to watch. Cracks him up every time!

And the photo of him covered in the sugar-candy... the boy had the audacity to LAUGH as I attemped to brush the candy off of his clothes and into the dustpan. How dare he laugh that adorable machine-gun-laugh of his (someday I will HAVE to try to capture this audio - it's the funniest laugh ever!!) while I was CLEARLY trying to scold him for making such a big mess! Couldn't he see that I was trying to be furious with him?

Alas, no matter how greatly skilled he is at aggravating me, he's still got me wrapped around his little finger. I just hope I can survive all the little jolts to my heart that he likes to induce. I'm sure as he gets older, the stuff he gets himself into will be a lot "bigger and better!" than what I'm being put through now!