D-D-D-D-D-Dora the Explorer!!!

Will is smitten....completely, unabashedly in love with Dora the Explorer. He can't get enough of that girl. He wakes up talking about her and goes to bed talking about her. He talks about her when he eats breakfast, lunch and dinner. In fact, that is pretty much the only show he will watch. Oh, he'll trick you a little bit and make you think he's going to settle in for an episode of Elmo's World, but it's all a lie. He only has eyes and ears for Dora.

At night when I try to sing him a lullaby, he demands (oh yes he does) that I sing "I'm the Map" instead. I kid you not. He will be a snuggly and as soon as I start to sing something soft & soothing, he raises his head off my shoulder and says (LOUDLY I might add) "I'M MAP. I'M MAP."

We also have a Dora soundtrack CD left over from Maddy's toddler years that he discovered one day. Guess what we have to listen to in the car as we travel to & fro? Yep. (Oh yes we do.)

It's really not a problem....except that ALL the Dora toys & accessories are geared toward little girls. I went to buy him some new sippy cups recently (do those disappear like socks in a dryer at your house too?) and thought I'd delight him with a new Dora cup......but they were all pink and purple. Diego cups it is, then.

Oh, yes, we've tried to get him interested in Diego.....but to no avail. Only Dora will do.

Michael and I have embraced this and are comfortable with letting the saga continue (we'll do anything to keep this busy baby entertained for an entire half hour). His older brother and sister, however, are concerned and have all but demanded for this episode in Will's development to cease.

For instance, Will's birthday is in a week and I am planning to get the boy a Dora cake. I mean, really--if you can't have a Dora cake for your 2nd birthday, when can you? Can I get a witness?

Both John and Maddy are trying hard to get me to go with a Plan B.

"Will LOVES Elmo, mom. Don't you Will?!? Tell mommy that you want an Elmo cake!"

"Mom, Will told me this morning that he really doesn't like Dora anymore and that he would actually be embarrassed if you got him a Dora cake because he is a boy and boys aren't supposed to like girl toys and all the Dora toys are pink and purple and not blue and boys should like blue toys and cakes so that's why Will told me when he woke up that he shouldn't get a Dora cake. He told me to tell you this." This was from 5 year old Maddy in the car on the way to the Y this morning.

I don't care what they say. It's my baby's 2nd birthday and if he wants to celebrate his cumpleaños felices with a senorita named Dora and her monkey Boots....then that's what we're going to do!

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is...

A few years ago my brother Keith and his wife Holly came to Nashville to babysit our kids while we went to Atlanta for Michael's office Christmas party. I bought them a subscription to "Runners World" as part of their thank you gift (I think we also got them a gift card to a restaurant or something like that).



Since I am a bit of a cheapskate at times, I googled "discount magazine subscriptions" and found 1 year of RW for $5.00. Great deal, right?!? I mean, I bet you have probably already left this page in search of more discount magazine subscriptions.



CAVEAT: here's what I just discovered when I logged into my old google account a moment ago:

______________________________________
Date

Dec 13, 2006



Shipping Status

Not yet shipped



Qty

1 Runner's World - (Terms:One Year - 12 Issues,Subscription)



Price: $4.99
______________________________________



Really?!? Not yet shipped? It's been 3 years. What the heck?



I vaguely remember asking Keith if he ever received it and he would mumble something to the effect of "I'm not really sure....what was on the cover of the last issue.....I think we did, but I'm pretty sure we didn't......"



I'd like to now extend my utmost apologies to a dear brother....seriously--I owe you a subscription to RW!



The old adage rings true once again--if it sounds too good to be true....well, you know....

We'll call this one "Freewrite"

Here's a little catch up post for you. I've actually gotten back into the blog swing again this week, but they've mostly been child-related metaphors and anecdotes. Or just stories about my kids if you're not all fancy like me with your literary terms.


Anyhow. we are super busy. This is our first year to play Fall Baseball for John and his dad is the coach which brings with it a certain level of.....oh, I don't know what you'd call it, but I'll give it a whirl and say....a certain level of conflict. It's a kid-pitch season and John has never played kid-pitch. However, as you may have already guessed, he believes that he possesses a heavenly gift for the mound though he's never pitched before in his life. So, when his dad broke the news to him that he wasn't going to be pitching the first game of the season, it was not received with open arms. This season is going to be useful in helping him learn to handle disappointment, I suppose.


Two kids in school and one toddler at home has been a good thing for me so far! I still have a list a mile long of projects I'd been saving for this very moment....hoping to get cracking on that. I canceled my house cleaner (join me in a moment of silence as I mourn this loss....) because I do find that I have some "extra" time and also Will is going to Mother's Day Out on Thursdays. But still....there are all those things in the storage room/attic that I want to put in the YMCA consignment sale next week; computer desk to put on Craigslist; couch to put on Craigslist; need to go to KY to pick up couch from my parents (they're moving to a new place and we benefit greatly!); thinking about finishing off the storage room to make a bedroom for John (where the heck will I put all that "STUFF" that's in there now?!); throw in a lot of laundry, baseball and dance to taxi the kids to, PTA obligations, dinner to cook, workouts to sweat through......well, it all adds up.


However, if there's anything I've learned through the years, someway, somehow, it all gets done! I've been here before and I don't know how it happens, but all those things will get marked off my list.


OK--enough with the serious. It's going to be a full weekend--Maddy is going to see Thomas the Train tomorrow with Mimi, then to a birthday party. Michael has a baseball coach's clinic for a couple hours tomorrow as well. Then Sunday we will, once again, celebrate my 29th birthday!! ;o)

The Bus Cusser

Aaaahhhhh....the purity and innocence of my 5 year old girl.....


Yesterday they ran off the school bus frantic because somebody had written a bad word on the bus. That's right....the bane of our existence has hit right here in our little neighborhood school: the Bus Cusser. I was a little worried about which word it was that was apparently plastered on the back of one of the seats and THANKFULLY, when I asked Maddy what it was, she replied....


"....well, I can't say it. It's just too bad to even speak."


I asked her to just whisper it to me softly in my ear so Will wouldn't hear it and she finally conceded to do it.


[whispering] "It said.......'stupid.' I'm sorry I had to tell you, mommy, but the word said 'stupid.' "

Now that is lovely and sweet and so hilarious that I had to bite my tongue not to laugh out loud, but the truth is that there actually was a "bad word" written on the back of a seat and so later when I asked John what it said, he spelled it out for me.... and THANKFULLY, though it was a bad word, it was spelled wrong. So he's still none the wiser on this particular verbage. [Whew! Another bullet dodged.]


So, to sum it all up, not only is the Bus Cusser a touch on the juvenile delinquent side...in a way Maddy was right. He may also be [I'm whispering now] "stupid."

Marketing Ideas

If you have a product to market to the American public and need a focus group, please consider using the people in our home. Here are a few of the conversations we've had lately:

John: "Mom, next time you go to the store, can you buy Colgate Total Plus Whitening? I've heard it's the most recommended toothpaste by dentists and that's what we should be using."


John: "Mom, you really ought to think about switching paper towel brands. There's this one brand out there, Bounty I think, and it only takes one towel to clean up a HUGE spill while the other brand on the commercial took about 5 or 6 and it was still a big mess."

My mother: "I love those Travelers Insurance commercials with the red umbrella and the guy flying all around the city! I love that commercial so much that I'd buy Traveler's Insurance even if they didn't have the lowest price, (which they do, by the way.)"

President Obama's Speech, according to a 5 year old

Maddy, did you listen to the president's speech today?

"Yes. President Obama talked about having failures and not failing anymore and remembering your failures. His wife did some failing too. But now they don't fail anymore. People shouldn't fail. Then he said to think about the times you fail. If you fail, you should try next time to not fail."

I guess I should be glad that she is no longer failing to call him by his correct name....remember when he was O'Bracka?

A trip to KY for birthday fun

Well, it's September, and if you know me at all, you know that with the turning of August's calendar page, we enter into a month-long fest of cake, presents and cake. Did I mention that we eat a lot of cake during September? Because we do. Eat a lot of cake, that is.

This weekend we went to KY for a joint-celebration of my brother (David) and my sister-in-law's (Holly) birthdays. They both turn 30 in a few weeks, so mom put together a celebration like none other to ring in a new decade for these two.

Holly had been inspired by the viral youtube video of the wedding entrance dance a couple weeks ago and decided to put together a little birthday dance routine of her own. She & her friend Jennifer spliced together about 10 songs from the '90s and storyboarded out some choreography (it looked like a football playbook, so I hear). Last minute, I was recruited to participate....which was so difficult for me because I am REALLY shy. (I kid, oh, how I kid!) But, you know how it goes...anything for the birthday girl, right?

The best laid plans, however well planned they may be, sometimes go awry, though, you know? Guy Dancer #1 came down with the flu; Guy Dancer #2 was in a car wreck the night before and showed up late to the party so he couldn't "rehearse" with us; and of course I was a somewhat last minute addition, so I learned my steps in the parking lot behind the dumpsters about 10 minutes before we were "on."

Nonetheless, we pulled out all the stops as we MC Hammered, Vanilla Iced, Michael Jackson'd (R.I.P.), Cotton-Eyed Joed, and N'Sync'd our way through some stellar dance moves.

And heaven help me if the video footage of this little ditty ever shows up on youtube...

So we are now 2 birthdays down, and about 4 to go!

I turn 29 again on Sunday, followed by my mother-in-law, then Michael's and finally Will's 2nd birthday round us off for the month.