Things that stuck with me (and on the ceiling) this week

Peter informed me that he "only eats 'boy' food"

He also now wears "underwear".  He will correct me if I call them anything else. (i.e. "underpants" is NOT an acceptable term!)

I was talking on the phone to one of my favorite people in the entire world, my Nannie.  She asks me (as I am driving in sub zero temperatures here in the 'burgh) if the weather is warming up? Because she is in Green Valley Arizona and its 80.  She is wearing short sleeves and golfing.  I take a glance at my attire in my heated car:  Pants.  Thermals on under my pants.  Cami.  V-neck sweater.  Knit Vest.  Heaviest wool coat I own.  AND I was just thinking before she called how I was under dressed because I didn't have a beanie, scarf and my Burton snow gloves handy when I had a 10 foot walk back inside the house!

Bryan sent me an awesome pictures on my phone.  I wish I knew how to transfer it.  I'll try to describe it.  It was a thing of beauty.  I see our ceiling in the kitchen.  It is COVERED in brown nasties.  I automatically think the worst. (He is home with the kids and I am at a baby shower...)
The caption: Yes. Yes, that is beef and gravy.  On the CEILING.
     I didn't even ask how.  Or why.

Peter is picking up on things I say.  He changes them to use them against me though.  For example:
Yesterday I asked him to come downstairs and play while I did some laundry.  He looks up at me and says "mmm...Probably not"
(how old ARE you child???!!!)
Example number 2: Bryan and I went out on a date and he was at a friends house.  She asks him a question somewhere along the lines of "do you want to get your pajamas on?"
His response: "mmm...probably not"  and "maybe later"

I think I need to re-think my dialogue at home. 

Brooke is obsessed with putting things in her mouth.  I really don't think I have been around another baby who tries to kill herself by sticking so many unpleasant things in her mouth.  I can't leave her alone for a second.  Remember how I said I was excited about her hair getting longer so I could put it in a pigtail or two?  Well, she is excited about that too.
She knows how to pull them out.  I accidentally left them in her hair when I put her down for a nap.  When she woke up, I went in her room and noticed one was missing...
You guess it!  I did the good ole' finger sweep...and she had it in her mouth.
I am not the brightest crayon in the box.  What do I do? Roll my eyes, and tell her she is disgusting.  Then I get the comb and have to put the darn thing back in her hair. (like I said, not the brightest crayon)
She and Bryan took a trip to the grocery store an hour later.  They return, and she, again, only has one pigtail instead of two.  Only this time the extra rubber band is no where to be found.
uh huh.  We all know where it went.  I hope the rubber band has a nice trip to the other end....

New Year, New Goals

I love setting new goals for New Years.  Maybe I am weird.  But I enjoy it.  2010 was fun and full of new things.
In no particular order:
  2010 brought:

-Brooke :)

-A second car (thank goodness!) (and a new transmission in the old one!)

-3 trips to Arizona to visit family

-a new hobby- cake decorating

-the 1 year mark of life in Pittsburgh

-another potential hobby- photography

-some awesome adventures around Pennsylvania- Falling Water, Steelers game, Pirates games, Outerbanks NC, Virginina Beach, DC, and Erie.

-watching the ENTIRE series of LOST (in a very short amount of time)

-discovering Frick Park and more of Schenley and all the GREAT places to trail run!

I have so many goals and ideas for this new year.

-Painting my bedroom and Peter's

-taking a Photography class

-making another wedding cake (any takers???)

-completing "Insanity" (I am on day 2 of 60.  Hopefully I look like Shawn T when I get done)

-take a Ballet class (its about time! I even signed up for one...more about that later...)

-Eating healthy.  My plan is to only have 'junk' dinners 2x month. Things that qualify as junk- pizza, burgers, and other crap that comes pre-cooked that you can microwave. This is going to be the hardest goal for me.

-Reading my scriptures more often.  I know 'daily' should be my goal, but I am so bad I am going to shoot for 4x week until June, and I will re-evaluate and go from there.

-Buy a bike.  Go biking as a family this summer and hopefully ride the 'Great Allegeny Passage' from Pitt to DC

-Check out all the church historical sites in New York and Ohio

-New York City.  I don't care when. Okay, I do.  I want to go for Thanksgiving.

-Get Peter potty trained. (I am working on it.  It hasn't been fun.)

-Go on at least 2 dates a month with Bryan

-Finally, put the last 2 years of my blog into a 'blurb' or whatever the heck its called.

The Potty Party

Yup.  I am doing it.  Or trying to anyway.  We are having a 3 day potty camp, complete with a Celebration Potty Dance, Chocolate Chips for a reward, a bare bottomed boy,  and hopefully NO MORE DIAPERS!!!  So far so good...

In other "Peter" news...
The stairs are the best place to hang out with Jomax the Monkey, and Brookie the baby.
We got to hang out with some of our favorite people in Arizona.  We went to a gymnastics center and Peter got to go wild!  He was a little nervous at first, but when he found the slide he was in heaven!

Have I mentioned my kids have 'mad' dance skills? Oh ya.  That's right.  This is Peter the Breaker. Getting chicks at Uncle Ryan's Wedding!

I always hear about siblings learning from siblings.  Usually the younger wants to be like the older.

Not in our family.

Peter has reverted back to a 10 month old. 

He crawls everywhere.

He babbles.  He "mma ma's"  and "dadadadada's".

He wants to eat "Puffs" and "Wagon wheels" and those freeze dried yogurts.

He is STILL the world's pickiest eater.

The menu now consists of:

Bananas/Cereal/French Toast/Yogurt/'Plain Toast" (translated=bread. not heated. nothing on it!)

Peanut Butter and Jelly (on a Bagel, with a "Smiley Face" drawn on it)

Clementine Cuties/Grapes or Strawberries

Pizza/Bean Burritos (but it HAS to be Rosaritas brand)/Chicken Nuggets (has to be "Mickey Mouse" shaped)/ Corn/ Rice/Spaghetti (but if you try a different shape of noodles, forget it.)

Mac and Cheese.

Tell me he is not strange.  And his current favorite veggie- PEAS.

I am not joking.

I guess the menu is growing slowly.  He won't even try Lasagna.  Or Mashed Potato's.  Or lunch meat.  Or scrambled eggs.  Or a cheese crisp.

Brooke at 9 months!

She is crawling, eating everything in site (no matter if it is food or not), and talking in her own language!  And the best part...drum roll please... I can put her hair in pig tails!!!
At her 9 month appointment, she weighed 20lbs.  I honestly don't remember the length.  I need to find the card they sent home with me.  But she is 50th percentile for length and 75th percentile for head circumference. 

Unfortunately, Brooke is not the best sleeper.  I would like to say I have a perfect baby, but I can't.  Not even close.  She is really wearing me down when it comes to sleeping!  We went to Az for 3 weeks.  So, her schedule was off.  Then she got sick.  So her schedule was REALLY off.  Then to top it off we kept staying at different places, so she had nothing familiar.  Then we came back to Pitt.  I thought I would make her "cry it out" until she figured it out.  Well, that didn't work.  She wouldn't stop crying at night.  So I took her to the Dr. and find out she had a double ear infection.  Woops!  Now that made me feel like a terrible mom.  To make a long story even longer, I have been up MANY MANY nights for HOURS at a time.  Like 4 or more.  It sucks.  But now we have antibiotics. The pros- she is only waking up 1-2x night. (which is still 1-2x too many for me) The cons- the antibiotics are causing GI problems. 
If its not one thing, its another.

Brooke is also LOVING baby food.  I haven't found anything she won't eat.  She even eats baby food meats.  If you haven't tried them, you are really missing out.  They smell like stinky feet and taste worse. 

She is also climbing stairs.  That is a little scary to me.  But lots of fun for her.

She is napping 3x day.  45 minutes in the morning.  1.5 hours in the afternoon and 45 minutes in the evening.

Bedtime: 8:00pm-6:30/7:00am (with too many night time parties going on in her bedroom)

She is overall a REALLY happy baby and LOVES Peter.  She chases him around and he chases her around.  She loves his toys.  And everything that shouldn't go in her mouth.

Happy 9 months Brookie!

The Christmas Post

To me, Christmastime = Picture time!
We had a wonderful Christmas.  We were truly blessed to be able to spend time with both Bryan's family, and my family.  Everyone was home for the holiday!  Well, almost everyone.  We were missing my grandparents.  They stayed in Tucson, but at least we got to see them the week after at Ryan's wedding.  Bryan's older brother made it up from the valley.  His grandma came from Missouri.  My little sisters came home. (one from across town and the other from Florida!)  My brother came up from Tucson. 

Make your own picture collage

Customize your own collage

Make your own collage

P.S. I would love some feedback about the collages.  I want a better site than smile box.  I hate how it takes you out of blogger to look at them.  What do you guys use? Thanks!

Our 2nd 5th Anniversary

No joke.  We celebrated our 5th anniversary twice.  Let me explain.  Last year was our REAL 5th year anniversary.  Bryan forgot, or should I say, he was quite confused to the point of forgetfulness. 

We were driving somewhere, sometime in the not too distant past, when I brought up our up and coming anniversary.  Bryan, who was driving, gave me a sideways glance and a wink.  Then, reaching over and squeezing my hand, says, "So, its kind of a big anniversary this year."

I reply, "Uh, okay."

He says, "I can't believe you don't think so!"

I say, "I didn't really think the 6th anniversary was a big one, but if you say so...."

He says, "no, its not, but the 5th is.  And that is what we are on!"

I say, "Um, babe- It is our 6th.  We had our 5 year anniversary last year."

Apparently, it wasn't very memorable.  (It really wasn't.)  I was in Arizona.  Bryan was in Pittsburgh, a first year dental student, studying like crazy and stressing over finals.  We skyped for about 15 minutes for our anniversary.  Romantic huh. 

I totally let it go.  I didn't think that it was worth making a big deal over the fact we did nothing for our 'big' 5 year celebration.

Well, since I didn't make a big deal.  Bryan never realized he forgot it.  I thought he was better at math than that.

Anyway.  He gave me an amazing 2nd 5th anniversary/Christmas/birthday/1st 7th anniversary present.  Not everyone gets to celebrate their 5th anniversary 2 times.

(In case you were wondering, I got a REALLY nice camera.  Now I need to learn how to use it!)

Happy 2nd 5th to us!  I love you still.  I really do love you more every day.  You are the greatest guy on earth.  You are a great husband.  You put up with my crap.  You are an awesome father and a hard worker.  I trust you completely and know you will always be there for me.  Thanks for a great 6 years and here is to the next 60! (or more...)

Prelude to many, many posts...

That pretty much sums it up.

We just got back last night from Arizona.  We had an awesome Christmas and many adventures while we were there.  I took over 300 pictures.  I made a wedding cake.  I brought back a whole extra suitcase of goodies.  We hung out with family.  We got to see friends.  I got to sub in for the hygienist at my dad's office for a couple days.  Bryan got to spend LOTS of time with the kids.  We had our 2nd 5th anniversary (I will explain later...) My little brother is now a married man.  I got violated in the airport.  So did everyone else departing from Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor.  We played tons of Catan.  And Farkle.  Steve complained. (We have come to the conclusion that if you play Catan and are still friends the next day, you have a lasting friendship!)  Bryan played Black Ops all night for multiple nights.  Peter got the stomach flu.  On Christmas day.  Brooke got sick 2x in the space of three weeks.  They both got better.  Haley brought the workout "Insanity" for us to do.  I was really sore.  Really. Really sore. Finally, I Scored great deals on New Years day and came home with more shoes than I brought.  I love shoes.
Today I am unpacking.  Trying to make up some lost sleep.  Someday I will go to the grocery store.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  That is what my year supply is for.  right? Life is good.