what in the name of LA-T- DA?

sweet cheeks had an awesome weekend playing with lots of friends. she went to her twin boy friend's 2nd birthday party. the theme of the party was none other than sweet cheeks all time favorite tv show, "jack's big music show." this is the cutest puppet show that toddlers love due to the great music & constant motion. mommy to the boys made tee's for the kids and sweet cheeks was so excited when the day of the party finally arrived so she could wear the cute tee. this picture shows the sheer excitement she was feeling!


really, the tee was so cute and it was so cute on her! thanks for that twins mommy!

can you see her? the party had a fun bubble machine. it was funny to see sweet cheeks going bubble crazy, chasing them with the hopes of popping them. ahhh... the joys of the simple life!

sunday, at sweet cheeks' request, we spent over an hour just browsing all the toys of our local toys r us. she loves to just run around and try everything out. i was so tempted to buy her the radio flyer my first scooter. she not only loved it but she did a great job of riding it (and staying upright!). i was buckling her into her carseat after our one hour visit only to hear her ask for phoebes! OH NO! we had somehow lost her favorite cabbage patch doll phoebe in toys r us. we ran back in and searched everywhere since we had really seen just about every toy there. finally we found her on a shelf in the train section. i guess someone had found her before us and put her up on a shelf. the look on sweet cheeks face was priceless once phoebes was back in her arms. we get back to the car and seriously, this is what she says, "phoebe was sad- i was supposed to watch her." i couldn't believe sweet cheeks actually felt responsible for loosing phoebe. it was so sad because her expression was totally backing up what she was saying, you could see how upset she was about the entire situation. moments later though she said, "phoebes is happy." it really was so sweet.

cute picture below but i couldn't turn it. sorry!
later that night, we had some company! the twins were at sweet cheeks house and they were so fun to watch! trying to get a picture of the three, sitting happy, sitting content, that was impossible so here is the best they had to offer for the camera.

seriously... does it get any cuter! i didn't think so either.

ok, so here is the part were is shamely admit that i have watched more than once on tv... at night... alone... 'tori & dean- inn love.' not sure how it even happened or why i let it happen more than once, but i did so i thought i had to fess up. seriously though, i semi enjoyed it. she is so lame, so dumb that you just kind of have to watch. in all honesty, her husband isn't that bad. he seems pretty normal actually. i am not sure how he puts up with her all the time. anyway, for a bit, i was actually fooled by her, thinking she did quite a bit with the new baby liam. it was obvious, as you see her all the time, that she had a nanny who helped out quite a bit. who wouldn't want someone full time to help. just an extra set of hands to hold the baby while you pee or get some lunch, that doesn't sound so bad. then last night i watched an episode when my original thoughts of tori returned. it is morning time and you see the nanny holding & feeding baby liam his bottle. dean asks the nanny, "how did you sleep?", followed by the question, "how did he sleep?'" then you see tori strolling out of bed getting herself some coffee. WTF? the nanny is the one to keep their son over night, doing the night wakings, etc? how pathetic is that. seriously, she is so spoiled, so lame, and she can't even keep her own son with her through the night. that is just not right.

i feel better now.

can't get much better

we had a great weekend filled with lots of fun stuff. saturday we went to sweet cheek's cousin's 8th birthday party. the kids went bowling and it was sweet cheeks first time participating in the game. thankfully she only took a few turns, donated by her generous cousins, and she really enjoyed it. she had fun seeing all of her cousins. sunday we took sweet cheeks to the movies to see "shrek the third." she is a huge fan of the first two shrek movies, so i thought it was a given that she would love this one. sadly, she didn't. the movie was hilarious for an adult but i really thought it was too dark for a child, especially a toddler. she kept asking me when the funny parts were coming. needless to say, we won't be purchasing the newest shrek movie for her. now when it comes to the first shrek, sweets cheeks, her daddy, and myself all know the movie line for line by now! thankfully we all think it is quite funny.

here are some of my newest favorite pictures of sweet cheeks. i am always amazed at how i can think to myself that she can't possibly get any cuter but she does, daily! i seriously love this girl from head to toe. not only is she the cutest but she is absolutely the smartest and sweetest little girl. she is great with her manners and always remembers to say "please" and "thank you."







this picture cracks me up! you can see sweet cheeks doing one of the things she loves to do... line up her toys to make a choochoo train. so cute.

i so enjoy seeing my baby girl in pigtails. they are so freakin cute on her.

thursday thirteen

it is already thursday! where has the week gone? it has been a busy week already. i took sweet cheeks to the doctor on tuesday, only to find out her strep test from two saturdays ago was positive. i took her to the doctor but because it was a saturday, the office lab was closed. we went ahead and started her on antibiotics in case. i was told i would get a call monday to confirm whether or not the test was positive. i never received the call, so i called them on tuesday and was told it was in fact negative. jump ahead to this past tuesday, i take caroline back to the doctor and was told it was positive. i was a bit upset about the mistake that they had made. so, we had to start her on another round of antibiotics. she is taking pencillin now and it must taste like absolute crap because it is a sheer struggle trying to get this girl to take her medicine twice daily. bribes of candy & sweets aren't even working, so you know it has to be bad. due to her sickness, i have been a cleaning fool trying to rid the house of all strep germs. i have stripped all 3 beds and sprayed down every toy that i possibly could. the mound of laundry currently in my laundry room is so SCARY.

it is thursday... time for my thursday thirteen. my topic de jour is tv shows i watched as a kid. let me know if any of these were some of your favs too! (these are in no particular order because really, who could choose!)


1. growing pains - because that kirk cameron was such a cutie. mike & carol seaver were the ultimate in parenting. how did that show ever get away with having a character named "boner?"
2. inspector gadget- remember penny?
3. doogie howser md- because we all loved and laughed at this adorable 8 year old doctor. how believable was that? i will say though that neil patrick harris is freakin hilarious on the show "how i met your mother." no doubt the husband and i crack up every single time he says, "suit up."
4. the hogan family- pretty sure this is when my love for jason bateman began.

5. saved by the bell- though i couldn't actually watch it on tv myself because our tv at home only got two channels, my cousin was always kind enough to record it for me and send me the vhs tapes. we all remember jesse's addiction to caffeine pills and her singing "i'm so excited." too funny.
6. jabber jaw - great cartoon.
7. punky brewster- oh, punky! you were my favorite show for so long. i used to even think i looked like you as a kid since we both had brown hair and freckles. you know how all of us freckled brunettes look alike :)
8. mr belvedere- i still want a funny englishman butler living with us in a our small 4 bedroom suburbian household. it makes everything so much easier to handle!
9. kids incorporated- i wasn't sure if i should list this show since i have such a distaste for fergie now, but back then, she wasn't fergie she was stacy and stacy was a-ok by me.
10. little house on the prairie- hasn't everyone in american seen this show at least once? it is an american staple thanks to michael landon.
11. heckle and jeckle- i remember loving this cartoon but seems whenever i ask anyone about it, no one else remembers it. these two crazy birds!
12. double dare- yippy for kid obstacle courses. it was a fight between the sister and i for this one. i wanted to watch double dare, but sadly it was on the same time as dance party usa. i think we fought daily on this one.
13. 90210- so i wasn't a kid the entire time for this one but i am still putting it on my list. this show changed the history of tv, didn't it. ok, maybe that is a little much but what a show it was. weren't we all so happy that donna was saving herself? didn't we all love that dylan was such a reble? wasn't the peach pit the coolest hang out ever? wasn't it hilarious when brenda and kelly wore the same dress to the prom? wasn't poor david such a dork, made even worse by the fact that he wanted to be a white rapper? what was with andrea being a 30-something highschooler? wasn't brandon the perfect guy? how did steve even make it on this show?

share your favorite shows with me now.

Tics

not sure what categorizes some of us under the definition of obsessive compulsive:

A psychiatric disorder characterized by obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions, such as cleaning, checking, counting, or hoarding. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), one of the anxiety disorders, is a potentially disabling condition that can persist throughout a person's life. The individual who suffers from OCD becomes trapped in a pattern of repetitive thoughts and behaviors that are senseless and distressing but extremely difficult to overcome.

or is your definition of ocd jack nicholson as Melvin in "as good as it gets?"

the definition is a bit serious but i do think we all have our own OCD tendencies that we deal with on a daily basis. i know i have mine. i know that i sadly have several. i know i have several that probably don't even realize i have. i wonder how we define the difference between that which is routine, that which annoys us to no end, and that which is of the true ocd definition?

for instance, order of actions done in the shower. i wash my hair while brushing my teeth, i condition while soaping up, shave last if i shave at all! is that just routine or is it more than that because i feel strangely incomplete if my shower order is not followed. how about the fact that i can't go to bed without having wiped down all the kitchen counters? again, does that just fall under things that would annoy me if i didn't do it or am i a bit ocd about my kitchen counters.i know my husband leaving his sweet n low wrappers on the microwave oven is definitely in the annoying category. oh how he burns me!

the days that i take 400 to work and go through the toll booth, i have to go through the cashier lane for fear of the regular lane not working properly. i am always afraid that arm will not go up once i toss my change into the basket, then i will hold up the line and have to encounter endless, grueling minutes of complete strangers honking their horns at me for not completing the toll booth pass in 10 second or less. the mere thought of it scares me. is it fear or a compulsion since i choose that same lane every time?

what are yours? i know i am not alone here. so what that I don't like any toys out at night or that i have to wipe down sweet cheeks table every night. who cares that i often find myself typing in my head every day while talking. what does it matter that i can't read ahead in a magazine, that i must read strictly from the beginning to the end! do you really care that when i put sweet cheek's zillions of spoons away in the silverware drawer that they absolutely must face the same direction if i want to sleep well at night.

did you really want to know all of this about me? share yours, please! make me feel normal or let me know a bit crazy is the new normal.

they look like me

it has been way too long since my last post. family and travel most often come first, so that is why i haven't posted. we had a great weekend with sweet cheeks dad's family. his aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents were all in from ohio to celebrate his grandpa's 90th birthday. yes, his 90th birthday! he has been in treatment for cancer which has weakened him physically, as well as changed the sound of his voice, but he is still so amazingly together mentally. he is such a smart man with a lot of great stories to share. it was really fun watching sweet cheeks spend time with her cousins. nana even bought the girls matching watermelon outfits to wear to dinner. they were all so freakin cute together!
sweet cheek's aunt was kind enough to share this amazingly sweet photo of sweet cheeks with her daddy. what a sweet shot.


and a not so sweet shot.... i told them to pretend they were picking their nose. i think sweet cheeks knew how pretend more so than her daddy.

now having just returned home from NY, i have decided to make my thursday thirteen on things i didn't like about NYC (though i admit there could be another 13 of things i did like)

1. smelly taxi rides
2. smelly bathrooms (even in the hotel)
3. smelly walks in the street
4. kids being out in the streets after 11:00pm
5. feeling like i was really lacking in the fashion department
6. fear of getting mugged! (i watch too much tv)
7. too many starbucks and duane reade stores on every corner
8. too many highrises. no fun for a girl who is afraid of heights. yup, even my hotel room was on the 18th floor
9. tired feet from walking everywhere
10. no greenery! i fear kids growing up in the city won't know what grass or trees are.
11. flying to get to NYC
12. no celebrity sightings, not even B or C celebrities... nothing!
13. missed the family

up up and away

we took a family vacation to new jersey this past weekend. can the words new jersey & vacation even go together? we are proof that it is possible. this was our first vacation in which we flew to our destination. it was sweet cheeks first trip in an airplane and she did better than could be expected(and better than me). i brought about 10 lollipops to last a 2-hour plane trip and only needed 1. she slept for over an hour on the flight. i was happy about that. she woke up when the plane was landing, shifting from about 500mph to about 0mph! the trip up was made possible thanks to our family traveling up with us. sweet cheek's daddy broke a bone in his left foot and ankle the saturday prior to us leaving, which did not making traveling very easy. to say i was not happy about the situation was putting it nicely. we survived.

sweet cheeks adores her cousin so much. i crack up watching her emulate every little thing her cousin does. at one point during our vacation i overheard her cousin say to sweet cheeks, "sometimes i need a little pri-va-cy, that means alone time." sweet cheeks proceeded to follow her around the living room some more. she just can't take a hint!

nothing like walking around the room with your shirt partly pulled over your head. this is her version of a helmet. not only did sweet cheeks make everyone laugh here, she was cracking herself up.

the barnegat light... ahh... yes, a trip in itself. as my memory recalled, the lighthouse was located near barnegat bay. a quick drive from where we were staying, say i don't know maybe 5 minutes. my sister was in the same thought that i was. memories of barnegat were just flooding back to the both of us while we were up there, as if we had just left it. sadly, we were so wrong about this one! it took us like a day, ok maybe 35 minutes, to get to the light house. little did we remember having to drive to the very end of long beach island to reach it. we were all happy once we arrived. it was worth the drive because we really do have memories of this place. i loved seeing sweet cheeks and her cousins get the chance to visit a place that my sister and i had been to many times as kids. no, i did not let myself or my daughter climb to the top. sweet cheek's cousins were brave enough to do it though.

a quick boat ride around the entire circumference of the pool. she was having so much fun ....in a float ....in a baby pool.

we survived the trip despite the damaged daddy. we survived the trip despite the one full day of the pukes for poor sweet cheeks.

i was so happy to be home though!