One toddler, lots of trouble

Keith managed to find the banned ottoman. He had fun carrying it around, grunting of course.

You are surely looking at these pictures thinking two things:
1) Why in the world doesn't this child ever wear a complete outfit?
2) Oh! The baby's face! What happened!

First, my clothing-challenged second born son. He always asks to take his shirt off after dinner. And his pants are usually discarded shortly after. I don't know why. Tonight it was chilly so I forced him to put this sweatshirt (Jack hand-me-down) on, much to his protest.

Second, my poor baby's face! A face plant, the first of many I am sure. He fell face first out of the wagon on Wednesday. It seemed more like a little scrape on Wednesday. When he woke up on Thursday it looked like a road rash. It is a bit startling to see in person. From a distance it looks like a bloody nose. His forehead is not as bad, clearly his nose was sacrificed for his head.

He was an only child tonight because Patrick was staying the night with the Kuhtzes. Because of our schedule configuration I don't get to spend a lot of one-on-one time with Keith. We skipped movie-night (he never even asked about it...ha) and had a long bath and snuggle time with his favorite show, The Office (he thinks Michael is hilarious). Other than that, he was interested in playing with my hair, catching my hand and leading me through the house, and being his normal Keith-self. What can I say, I love this kid.

Happiness Is.....

FALL!

It is finally here. It blew in on Thursday with a Winnie the Pooh style blustery gust. The best things about Fall in the Callahan House....

Blankets: The boys' favorite blanket is my favorite blanket. I call it the "napping blanket" because everyone takes excellent naps under this blanket. My grandma makes a hand-tied quilt for her grandkids when they graduate from high school. My blanket is a particularly special blanket. First, my grandma made it for me while she and my grandpa were visiting. Second, my grandpa and dad tied the quilt in my mom's family room. Even my rarely impressed teenage self was smart enough to take mind-photograph of two of the most important men in my life making me a blanket. My grandpa passed away right before I left for my second year of college so the quilt has extra special meaning.
Grandma had the foresight to make the blanket big so it is perfect for napping (I thought it deserved another mention), forts, floor beds, playing hot lava, endless endless games and enjoyment. And of course this blanket plays a prominent role in the "sick bed couch" that is Patrick's number one comfort when he is sick.

Boots: Fall means colder weather, colder weather means pants, and pants mean boots are allowable footwear! Patrick has three pairs: cowboy, rain and fake uggs. Right now the fake uggs are the boots of choice. The only disappointment (for Patrick) is Keith's fake uggs aren't the same color as Patrick's. Keith will hopefully be able to fit into Patrick's old cowboy boots, then each boy will have three pairs. By the way, why is it that girls have all of the cute clothes. I had to buy the boys boots in the girls section the same weekend I went to Old Navy to find the smallest possible section for baby and toddler boys with the same longsleeve polos and vests they have featured for the last four years!

Hoodies: Fortunately for me, Patrick's wardrobe is predominately comprised of Cousin Jack's hand-me-downs. It is great, the boys love a lot of the same things (Cars, Buzz Lightyear) and have some matching clothes (so Keith and Patrick have matching clothes since they are the same age difference as Patrick and Jack...does that make sense?). The only problem is Jack lacks the peculiar obsession with hoods that Patrick has boasted for a year now. I am guessing that the hoodie in this pic will be a prime wardrobe item this season as most of the hand-me-down sweatshirts don't have hoods. Patrick will have to make do with the six or seven hats Jack handed down!

Baking: There is something about summer that makes me want to grill everything. I hate to turn on the oven and I have no desire to take the time to sift dry ingredients. Generally speaking the KitchenAid stays in the cupboard until October or November. Tonight I baked banana bread. It didn't take long, it smells fabulous and it makes the insane wind outside seem appropriate.


I have been rather irritated by this huge push to bake bread (have you noticed?). I have seen at least four different segments on various talk shows about baking bread. The premise is: the economy is horrible, save money, bake your own bread! Here is what is annoying to me, a loaf of bread costs me $2.50. The fresh baked stuff is $1.99 ($3.99 if you want kalamata olives). Bread is not that expensive. In my mind, my time is worth at least $100 per hour (a volunteer's rate is about $18 per hour) and I know that it will take me at least four hours to make bread and clean up the mess. Meaning my loaf of bread is worth $400 (or $72) and it won't keep and Patrick will likely refuse to eat a sandwich on it.
On the other hand, I haven't made bread in a long-time because baking bread is a luxury for me (it usually takes a lot of time and butter). Eating my own fresh baked bread is even more of a luxury. So instead of thinking about saving money, I should be thinking about enjoying the luxuries of life. Sometime soon we'll bake bread, just for the sake of baking bread and eating it warm with lots of butter and homemade jam. Priceless...

Soup: I made the first pot of soup last night. I had some stuffed pasta, a cup of spinach leaves, some frozen vegetables, and a dream.... Soup is easy and comforting. Plus it combines our whole dinner (plus yummy bread of course) protein, veggies and all into one pot and one bowl. Easy clean-up and more time to cuddle under the napping blanket.

Thanks for coming to the party Fall. We hope you brought your fake uggs to go stomping around the house with us!

Pink of Perfection

Those of you who watched Hayley Mills in "Summer Magic" will recall the wonderful spontaneous duet the brother and sister sing about their snotty cousin.... Pink of Perfection. The cousin of course is not so perfect and has more issues than the New York Times. Here are the top ten reasons I know I am not the Pink of Perfection either.

1) I lose everything
It is a running joke among my staff. I was bragging about finally finding my work keys (MIA for a week and a half), the retort was: did you find all of the other things you lost? The jump drive, the blueteeth (the nice man at Verizon finally sold me the biggest bluetooth made so I can't lose a fourth bluetooth), the spare battery, the paycheck, the invoices....

2) I procrastinate
As I am writing this blog I am supposed to be writing a speech for the conference I am speaking at next week.

3) I have a blog series entitled "Bad Mommy" with several posts backed up (see #2)
Enough said.

4) I break things and drop things a lot...I'm clumsy
I had to get a helmet for my Blackberry it has been dropped so many times. Mind you this is my second Pearl, the first one was put out of its misery several months ago. The same nice man who sold me the gigantic bluetooth also sold me the Blackberry helmet. God bless him.

Two weeks ago Kevin cleaned out and rearranged the pantry, 34 minutes later I somehow managed to break a bottle of Bloody Mary Mix (that I insisted he save, see #6) all over the pantry. Who does that?

5) I bribe my children
Keith hasn't quite caught on to the process yet but Patrick is well-versed in the art of the Mommy Bribe. It was how I got him to cooperate for the haircut (reward: Happy Meal) and pet/touch the lamb (reward: cinnamon roll and playing).

6) I spend a lot of money on ridiculous things
And I take a lot of joy from it. I am an avid consumer and my life is complicated by too much stuff. I counted 14 boxes of Christmas decorations in our storage unit.... I am sure it is hereditary because I know my mother and sister have just as much Christmas stuff, probably more.

7) I have been compared to both Murphy Brown and Miranda Priestly
Murphy Brown for her penchant for cycling through assistants. Miranda Priestly for her inability to remember people's names and needing staff close by to prompt with names at functions. I think both characterizations are exaggerations....

8) I have been known to do to things out of spite
Last year when the networks (NBC I'm looking at you) were preaching about going green (in the middle of my primetime tv viewing! see #9), I found it so annoying I started my very own mini silent revolt against any efforts to save the Earth. It is resoundingly annoying that Network executives preach at me and my beloved Expedition when they fly empty jets across the country to pick-up sandwiches. Dang, now I am going to have to blog on going green....
9) I like to watch really bad tv
I don't drink (much), I don't smoke, tv is my drug of choice. If the CW wasn't free, I would pay a premium to watch the horrible acting and obvious storylines. The words "all-new reality series" is music to my ears.

10) I have a President Bush style attitude toward the news
He walks into the Oval Office in the morning, Bush said, and asks Card: "what's in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what's moving," Bush said. "I rarely read the stories," he said. Instead, the president continued, he gets "briefed by people who have probably read the news themselves."
I do read select articles on my daily scan of Rough & Tumble, other than that someone usually tells me the details beyond the pretty obvious headlines.

There you have it... my imperfection in black and white. The sad thing is I could have gone on with a list of 20.

Happiness Is.....

A warm cinnamon roll at the BIG BIG BIG Fresno Fair. Technically the cinnamon rolls were hot, we had to wait and got two right out of the oven. Patrick and Kevin shared a frosted cinnamon roll, Keith and I had plain (just to simplify things, what with the messy toddler I was partnered with). I had a bellyache after that experience, otherwise I would have continued to eat my way through the fair.

On a non-food note:
Usually when we have a family outing or event we ask Patrick to tell us about his favorite part of the day/event. A friend of Kevin's has a daughter in FFA. She was nice enough to bring her lamb out for the boys to pet. It wasn't Patrick's idea so he wasn't having any part of touching a lamb, namely because it is "dirty." After 25 minutes of cajoling, he finally quickly touched the lamb (after I had promised he could play). Anyway, he totally hated it and was asking to leave that poor lamb behind the whole time.

What was Patrick's favorite part of the day? "The sheep!"

Into each life a little rain must fall

Longfellow, right? Ours wasn't a dreary day. Patrick and Keith have been waiting for a reason to wear their rain boots for weeks. Patrick has been praying for rain. There wasn't enough rain to create any significant puddles, but Patrick found a small one at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Happy 28th Birthday Uncle Ben!

Patrick once told me that, "Uncles are for fun only, not for telling me what to do." It was Uncle Ben's night and it was fun. Especially for Patrick.
Grilled pizza, Catch Phrase, cake and homemade pistachio ice cream, wrestling, College Football, and a phone call from 1984.... gonna need that cape back.

I love EVERYTHING about karate

KICKS!

Abby, Patrick, Ian and Chase... All listening to Sensei Adam

At first we thought soccer sounded like a good idea, then we remembered our boys (Patrick, Chase and Ian that is). The non-joiner, has to be my own idea, I won't do anything that you are paying for especially the things that cost $300 Boys. Our alternative idea for the boys was karate. I was nervous, we tried karate last year and I feared a repeat performance. Last year, Patrick sat there with the jaded mask of a preschooler, going through the motions but remaining aloof.

I am not sure what exactly made the difference but as either Kristina or Sugar said: night and day. Patrick loved it! They all loved it. And they were all really well-behaved (for preschoolers). Of course I am sure that having a class of four kids he knows really well went a long way to ease Patrick's nerves. Abby is in the class with the boys too. Today the boys each got a gi (uniform) so look forward to more pictures next week. I will come prepared with my zoom lens for more close up pics. Until then....