It's Nearly September

and you know what that means...

Time to purchase and break out a new MomAgenda!

This year I'm going with the gold.

Love!

Fall Lust List: The Getting Dressed Version

Oh Sh*t

The sun crept into the corners of the 4Runner, the beams of light bouncing off the red-blond hair accented with the blue eyes of our beloved toddler. We sat silently on our drive home, reminiscing on the beautiful simplicity of the weekend spent with family, accomplishing house projects and just enjoying one another. The sound of "Yo Gabba Gabba" filled the space, complete with light hums and whispers of the words he knew, causing little smiles to creep up on the corners of our mouths. Life is good. Great even. Nearly perfect.

Until we enter the house and find this:

Sound that screech noise when all good things come to an end or when there is a Saved by the Bell time out.

Oh.sh*t.

Dog vs. emptied-DiaperDecorbag-that-was-meant-for-the-trash-but-left-in-the-hall.

Who won? You tell me...

PS: Anyone want a five-year old Golden Retriever?!

P.P.S.S.: As if the clean-up wasn't rough enough (though the hubs did not have to sport the gas mask this time), our son's attachment to cleanliness meant it took me nearly two hours to convince him to sleep because he was uber concerned about "Ellie's BIG MESS." In addition, Ellie the dog had already betrayed the little dude once today as she "ate Paul," (his "Pat the Bunny" book where Paul and Judy are the characters). Looks like she's stepping up her game in the sibling rivalry department...

Decisions, Decisions

Late Tuesday evening I was frantically combing the town with the hour I had in search for business casual clothes to sport on my upcoming trips to Dallas. Instead of finding practical black pants, silky blouses, button downs, belts and loafers, I came upon these:

And as you know, I had already swiped these up from the anniversary sale, a Nordy's exclusive, which are currently sold out:

So now the conundrum is, which to keep? The sparkly Sperrys or the sparkly TOMS? (Note: I do have a lighter pair of silver sparkly TOMS but there is just something about the darker silver that is over-the-top. Note 2: I have Sperrys in pink, purple, fuschia and nude too. Yes, I have a problem).

Decisions, decisions.

I'd much rather be making ones like these than on healthcare reform, earthquake survival or something like that...

So join me in this frivolity - which would you choose for your closet?

Ah, Boys

“Wait – he did wwwaaa?” I said, combing the fine, blond-red hair from across my son’s forehead, assessing the damage as he worked to squiggle out of my arms and go on to the next daredevil stunt.

“Jumped.off.the.fireplace.like.a.leaping.banshee.with.a.blanket.as.a.superman.cape.that.he.tripped.on,” the hubs said, clearly more traumatized from the event than any of us.

And so it begins, the much anticipated (ok, not so much) boyness that will likely now remain a part of our household until he becomes a teenager that ends up sleeping most of the day. Almost overnight, our once quasi-timid son who checked with me before he climbed down the stairs with the railing, shared cautious eyes as he went to put slowly perch on the couch, sat idly by while mass chaos surrounded him in groups of other kids…had become a part of it all. Almost like a toddler gang initiation or something. Or did Nana and Papa teach him this to get back at us while we went away for our first trip over the weekend???

Or maybe he’s just a boy.

It’s been two days since we’ve been back and suddenly my careful 23-month old resembles the boys that my favorite blogger posts about, having accomplished the following in just the last 48 hours: throttled a chair climbing into his booster, dented a wood door for “wow, that was FAST RUNNING!” activities from the hallway to the playroom, scales his new bed effortlessly like a chimp in the Zoo, leapt with no warning 10 bzillion times into the swimming pool, catching his head a few times and finding it hilarious, attempted to run into traffic and up to complete strangers, citing he had to fetch his basketball he’d just thrown into the street, initiated fake falls over and over again like Brad Pitt’s stunt double, rejoicing in every bloody scrape he came up with and golf-sized bruises on his noggin, rode the dog like a rodeo clown, despite her clawing at him to back up off, wrestled with Daddy like he’s in the WWF, supermanned his way off a set of concrete steps and attempted what looked like extreme sporting moves on his new trike. And did you see what happened when I gave him a beautiful windmill thingy?

Um, yah, time to program Children’s urgent care number in the ol' iPhone and find the nearest ER I guess…

I can only imagine what he’ll do next and what it will take for me to keep up with him, let alone give him some kind of look other than disbelief.

But as they say, boys will be boys. And this girl better adjust.

Ah boys: can’t live with ‘em, and definitely, truly can’t live without this one.

4(0) is Fabulous

Each year, we employees at CHCA take a little survey that measures satisfaction with the culture, which is quickly followed by all kinds of parties, conversations, improvement opportunities and more. And year after year you hear team members cracking jokes and gaffawing at the question: “do you have a best friend at work?” But these girls:

aren’t laughing.

Because we are each other’s best gal pals at work – and pretty darn good friends outside of it too.

With nearly two decades spanning between us in ages, family size variance, backgrounds all over the place, there a bzillion differences between the four of us. But within that, there are a million things that are the same. And we celebrate them all with the kind of love and genuine care most can only wish to find in a lifetime let alone at work.

From weekly lunch conversations that cover agenda topics beyond what almost any other colleague could imagine (husbands! Girl stuff! TMI stuff! Babies! Scandals!) , to annual holiday dinners to mani/pedi outings and a committed Friday “Lunch Bunch” to celebrating 40th birthdays and all the days in between, we plan to be together until the end….

And to keep checking that box that yes, we do have a best friend at work.

In fact, we have three of them.


How lucky are we?

Happy milestone birthday, Ms. Dana – you make 40 look fabulous. We love you to pieces. Thank you for helping us mark “yes” on that survey. And for a ridiculously fun weekend in the Ozarks!

Cheers!

Top 10 Things the Little Dude is Saying These Days

1. “Well that would be FUN-a!” complete with a head bob when questioning him on activities he could potentially do over the weekend
2. “I LIKE that (insert whatever it is here)!” when enjoying a song or book
3. “I’m going to school, Mommy” on our drives in each morning
4. “I stay home with Mommy two-day” right before we leave for school
5. “Lawson do it by him-self” to well, just about everything
6. “SQUISH!” for really big, amazing hugs
7. “Lawson did that!” when bringing home his art
8. “SHEWHEW! Ride horsey, Mommy!” when playing with Thurderbolt in the family room; actually he’s renamed him “Giddyup”
9. “Rock on, Mommy!” when air guitaring or dancing
10. “Close the door-a” complete with an evil grin as he locks us out of rooms
11. Bonus: “BIG BOY BED! GO SEE IT!” everyday when we come home, followed by rolling around and around in it like it’s a pile of money

I’m going to spend the rest of my life documenting and cherishing each word that comes out of that amazing boy’s mouth…even if a good 75-percent of it is “no”….

What have your kiddos been chattering about lately?