Thanks Tommy....

No surprise, these boys want to be just like their dad.

Eric wears cologne for me, not him. He says he could care less, but I love the way cologne smells. He always wore it when I met him, so maybe it takes me back to being 19....

He has always worn Polo or Tommy Hilfiger (my preferences). Well, Polo is what he wore when we met. Anyway, in a moment of thriftiness, I tried some less expensive stuff that I thought smelled just as nice. But, not long after, the smell wore off. I couldn't smell that college man when he got home from work!!

I recently went back to buying Hilfiger - and it smells so nice! The boys watch Eric get ready in the morning and see what he does. During the day, they are always in his bathroom drawer. Yesterday, Dane saw the bottle and told me that's what Eric puts on his neck. He said he wanted some, and of course, so did Abel. I sprayed some on, and I was in heaven all day....my little guys smelled like my big guy! When Eric got home, Dane told him that he put some on so he could "smell good like you".

Eric thought it was a little weird....

RIP Pico....

I am beginning to think that maybe I need to tie a rope to my belt and attach the other end to Abel. He is ALWAYS into something - good, bad, or otherwise. Eric and I have nicknamed him "Wild Card" - because we never know what he's going to do....here's an example.

Dane was at preschool this morning, and Abel and I were doing some chores around the house. He was in the laundry room with me, and all of a sudden I see him darting out of there. I caught a glimpse of a green spray bottle, which I thought was the water bottle I use when I'm ironing. The boys love spraying each other, so I thought that is what he had. Boy, was I wrong.

Not more than a minute later, I walked into the next room (the office), and he had pulled a chair over to the fish tank and was spraying Spray 'N Wash in the fish tank - which happened to be in a green bottle! There were bubbles on the top of the water, and I thought "oh, this is not good!". I emptied about a third of the water, and put some fresh water back in. About this time, two of our three fish were acting weird. Our Jack Dempsey - aka Barney - was floating near the top, and our catfish - aka Pico - was at the bottom doing barrell rolls. I didn't know what else to do. I thought that maybe this was the end of them, but I couldn't just stand there and watch them like that.

I filled a bucket with fresh water, and scooped up all the fish and put them in the bucket. I NEVER do this, but I had no choice. Eric always scoops them out when we are cleaning, when one has died, etc. So, it was quite a sight when I was trying to do it. Luckily, they were kind of lethargic from Abe's poison, so I could get them easily. Abel was so interested, but I kept telling him to back up and not touch the fish - why? He's a boy and that's what they do....but mom thinks it's gross!

I then emptied 3/4 of the tank and refilled it. By the time I was done, Pico had passed. Even though it was a little fish and I don't like them, I was sad. Off into a Meijer's bag he went...too big to flush.

As of right now, the other two are back in the tank and trying to survive. Our sucker fish has seemed fine all along, and Barney is still near the top - but swimming around a little bit more.

When Eric called this evening, he asked to talk to Abel. I put him on the phone, and Eric asked him if he killed Pico today. He said "yep".

I hope they can survive the Wild Card's chemical warfare.

Bright sun shiny day!

It was cold here today, but the sun was shining...the boys were itching to get outside! Here are a few shots of them riding on their bikes in February....

No more pootie!

Most of you know that Abel was very attached to his pootie (pacifier). Ever since he was a year old, I have been thinking that I need to get rid of it. I thought that maybe he would outgrow it, and then I wouldn't have to be the bad guy that takes it away from him. He really only needed it when he went down for his nap and at bedtime, so I justified it because he wasn't walking around all day with it.

In January, Abel had his two year appointment with the pediatrician. I mentioned that he still used it to get to sleep, and he said that I really should try to get rid of it. He told me a story of how one mom did it, and I was ready for any suggestions. This particular mom told her child that the mama squirrel in their back yard just had some babies, and they were back in the nest needing some pacifiers. She put them all in a bag, set them out on her porch, and left them for the mama squirrel. I listened, but all the while thinking, "There is no way that Abel is going to fall for this....it will be a disaster".

On the way home, I decided that I was just going to bite the bullet and do it. No giving in...take it away and deal with whatever comes. Right in the car, I began telling him about the baby squirrels, and that tonight we were going to give them his pooties. He just listened but didn't say much.

All day long, we talked about giving his pooties away. He started talking more about it, and didn't seem upset. All along I thought that at bedtime, he was going to lose it. We packaged them up, and set them on the deck for the mama squirrel. He seemed excited.

He asked for it once at bedtime, and we told him the story again. That night actually went pretty well. About this same time, he learned to get out of his crib. So that just added a new layer to bedtime. Threatening to take his pootie away was what kept him in his crib, now we had nothing.

The first few weeks were rough at bedtime. He only asked for his pootie a few more times, and then told us that the mama squirrel took them. He was ok with that, but had a hard time settling himself down. He is much better now, but is still quite the staller at bedtime. He always calls for me, and when I go in there, he just says "ummm...", or he wants to play with his trains, or go outside, or go to McDonald's...anything to get me back in there. And there lies our sweet little Dane who goes to bed so well....

Dane is still in his toddler bed, and Eric and I have talked about getting them some bunk beds. We may keep the toddler bed in there and let Abel sleep on that, and Dane can have the bottom bunk for a while. It's time to get rid of the crib....although it saddens me as it's one of the last baby items in the house! The pootie was hard for me to get rid of for the same reason.....

January Randoms...

Here are a few random pictures from January. We had a birthday party for Abel on January 25th (also Poppy's birthday!). I know we were a month late, but with all the craziness of the holidays, we decided to have it in January. Right now he doesn't know the difference. I'm sure one day soon he will, a we will have to do something special on December 25th...

We had a sock monkey theme, and below is the cake that I made for him. Despite my worries, it turned out pretty well! Dane wanted to make sure I got the red lips on there. I don't have any more pictures from the party on my camera, my Mom and sister took them all. I will get them from them soon, and will post more.

The boys got robes from Nana and Poppy this Christmas, and he they are showing them off!

A Beautiful Weekend...

It was such a nice weekend here!! The weather was very warm, and although I hate all the mud outside, it was nice to see the sun. The boys got to play outside yesterday and managed to end up in the mud. They had fun riding their bikes on the driveway, and I can see that we will need to buy another bike this summer for Abel - all he wants to do is ride Dane's! They stayed out of the mud for awhile, but eventually it was calling their name. Luckily nobody fell down in it. They ran through it, and then ran through the snow to wash their boots off (something I taught them to do, and Eric thought it was a hoot...).

I had a baby shower to go to today, so the boys spent the day with Dad, and Bumpa and Great Grandpa came over. I had a nice day out with Aunt Grace and Grandma....

The lake looks like it is not frozen over anymore - all the snow that was on top has melted. I hope that it gets cold again this week because we are having our group of friends over from Jackson this weekend for a get together, and I'm sure the guys want to ice fish!! Eric assures me that there is still ice under there. We were out last weekend and there was 8 inches. It still makes me nervous to see standing water though. Dane and Abel are going to Nana and Poppy's for the weekend, so Eric and I can enjoy spending time with our friends - we are looking forward to it! Mav and Maddox will also be with Nana and Poppy (what are they thinking??), so I'm sure the boys will enjoy that...

We have finally started painting in here!! Our first project was the downstairs bathroom. It has been painted, we just need to do some touchups and then hang stuff back up. I will post some pictures when we get it done. It is where Dane and Abel take their baths, so we have decorated it in a cowboy theme. They are excited to see it done!!

Have a great week....will post later. I am determined to quit spending time on Facebook (aka Wastebook) and update my blog!