Mommy, the Referee

The kids have been all over each other the past few days, more so than usual. I'm not sure if it's because of the rainy weather and them not being able to run around outside or if it's just part of the whole "brotherly love" thing, but man, they can't keep their hands (and feet) off one another. Oliver is the bigger bully of both of them, he has really turned into a little brute, pulling Nathan's hair repeatedly and throwing everything within his reach. Instead of fighting back, since that's not in Nathan's nature, he screams and yells and amps Ollie up even more and then they start rolling around on the floor like two little WWF stars. It happens so often during the day, I'm not sure if I should be breaking them up every 5 minutes or just let them go at it... I've even seen Ollie put his fingers in Nathan's mouth and try to pull the side of his mouth open. That little boy fights dirty! The funny thing is that even when I try to break them up and have them play by themselves for a little bit, they refuse to stay apart... Nathan always needs to know where Ollie went and then goes and messes with him and the whole things starts all over again.

On a side note, every morning Ollie wakes up hysterically crying in his crib and this morning was no different. One thing that was different was that he stopped after a couple of minutes even though I hadn't gone in there to get him yet. I sneak a glance from around the corner and I hear Nathan singing the ABC's and Ollie dancing in his crib holding on the bars... (that's his favorite song to dance to) Nathan then tells me, "Look, Mommy, Ollie's happy now!" Ahhhh... what a wonderful thing to wake up to!! Even though they fight all the time now, it just makes me so happy to see them interact like that!

Now if only they could be nice to each other during the other 11 hours and 55 minutes they are awake....

De Ja Vu

It's 1am (again) and I am up (again). It is unbelievably hard for me to go right to sleep after working and dealing with unruly people for 7 hours straight. Make that 14 hours straight because I dealt with my unruly children the entire day before I went in to work. Tonight's bar shift was anything but smooth and I needed to have a couple of beers in order to unwind. I am happy to report that my Netbook is back in action, therefore I don't have to freeze in my attic while I go online.

Today I took the kids to an egg hunt at Paws Farm in Mt. Laurel. It's really cute there and the kids had a blast hunting those little dinky plastic eggs, although Ollie was over it in about 3 seconds flat. As soon as I turned my attention to Nathan, that little linebacker was running full force over to a random playground. I swear his attention span is less than a gnat's... I'm sure I looked ever so graceful as I sprinted across the field in order to capture him, poor Nathan was left in the hay fending for himself and searching for the ever elusive "Big Peep", which held the key to a big chocolate bunny surprise. After the egg hunt was over, we went to visit the animals and I spent most of the time keeping Ollie from poking ducks' eyes, preventing him from putting his fingers in a scary Ostrich's beak, and blocking him from falling into the big open pond where the animals were bathing. Doesn't that sound like a nice, relaxing morning?! And I wonder why my stress level is always at a level twelve...

After my patience wore out at the farm, I took the kids to lunch at my old stomping grounds Hooters for lunch with my friend and her fiance and their 3 boys, ages 7, 6, and 16 months. Let me tell ya, 5 boys in Hooters was a riot... probably the most action these Hooters' girls have seen in a long time. Thankfully we were the only ones in there for a while and they didn't seem at all perturbed that our children were running around and actin a fool... ironically not knowing that their mothers were actually Hooters' girls themselves at one point in their life. Yup, little ol' A cup me was once a Hooter's girl at two different locations... I even waited on some nice Air Force guys that took me skydiving on July 4th, 2002. Yes, I'm Rainman when it comes to dates.

All in all, it was a very nice, though exhausting Saturday. Like I said, tonight's shift did not run smoothly at all, but I had some Stella waiting for me in the fridge at home to take the edge off. I still haven't gotten a chance to write my review of Tortilla Press, but the overall gist of it is.... horrible food, even more horrible service, and WAY overpriced. I definitely do not recommend eating there.... EVER... period. Let's just say I have been striking out recently on my eating out choices.

Must. go. to. bed. Good night!

Tired

It's 1am... do you know where your children are? I do. Mine are asleep and so is my husband. I, on the other hand, am sitting up in the attic freezing cold and wide awake. I can't wait to get my Netbook back, so I can return to my old obsessive ways of being able to check in online at the blink of an eye. Why do I do it to myself? I know I am going to have to wake up early and that I should get a good night's sleep, but I guess I am just a glutton for punishment. I think I was so busy with the kids and work today and tonight that I am just going to enjoy some alone time right now if it kills me.

Today I ran for 40 minutes which is the most I've been able to do so far. That brought me closer to 4 miles, but that still is a long way from 10. There are 5 weeks left until the big run and so far I am feeling pretty confidant that I won't have to cross the finish line with any medical assistance. I think what I really need to do is use the old carrot on a stick thing and instead of a carrot use my old stand-by, a slice of pizza. I'm happy to report that I have significantly decreased my pizza consumption, much to the dismay of my pizza loving Nathan. I swear it's the only substantial thing he eats other than waffles with peanut butter.

This week has been super busy for me. I'm helping to organize an area playgroup and I was all over the place meeting new people in the group. I brought the kids to a very kid-friendly coffee shop (genius!) Tree House Coffee Shop, Please Touch Museum in Philly (extremely stressful watching both of them at the same time w/o Ben), Kid Junction in Mt. Laurel, and finished it off with a Moms Night Out at The Tortilla Press in Collingswood. I will dedicate a whole post to a review on The Tortilla Press, as I was VERY disappointed and will never go back. It is so true that when you have a bad experience you tell many more people than if you had had a good one. I will post more on that tomorrow if I get a chance!!

Right now I need to go to bed.... Ollie boy has been waking up at 5am due to what I can only assume is teething, and I can never fall back asleep right away after he goes back to sleep.

Good night and sweet dreams!

Random Shmandom

trying to enjoy lunch

Ollie taking Daddy for a walk

having fun at the birthday party

Ollie bothering Nathan, as usual

Nathan running around the Pier at Penns Landing

boys pooped from walking around the city

For once, I don't have much to talk about. I mean, I don't have anything overly exciting to write about, and no one has gotten hurt yet today (knock on wood). It's still early, though, so I wouldn't get too excited for me. Yesterday I slept till 11:15pm! I couldn't believe it.... Ben was nice enough to let me sleep in, but I was all out of whack. I pulled the curtains all the way shut on Saturday and it made the room extra dark, and I was a living, breathing example of how those room darkening blinds, do in deed, work wonders. I thought they only worked for kids, but obviously the benefits extend over to parents, as well.

We spent a very nice family day over in the city yesterday. We went to Soho Pizza in Old City and had a couple beers and pizza sitting outside while the kids sat quietly by and let their parents have a conversation. (riiiiiight) I have to say, their pizza is pretty good! We also walked around the pier for a while. Afterwords, I took Nathan to a birthday party at the Little Gym near our house and he had tons of fun with his classmates, who he never really sees outside of school.

Ollie should be waking up from his nap soon, so I'll just post some new pics from my brand spankin new camera, which I love, aside from the shutter speed being a little slow. I can never be completely content with something, it just wouldn't be me!

Happy Monday, I'll try to post something more exciting after I go to the gym and wake up a little... this rain is killing my energy level!

Bad mommy

I'm alive, everyone. I know it's been a few days since I posted last, but this week has been so hectic I'm not even sure what time it is. Speaking of the time.... daylight savings time can kiss my tired arse! I am missing my "free" time when the boys were in bed by 6:30 and I could cozy up with my glass (bottle) of vino and spend some quiet, relaxing, totally worthless time stalking, I mean catching up, on Facebook. Now these little terrors are hittin the hay around 8pm and I'm wondering where the hell my day went. This is causing me to stay up later and they are not, contrary to popular belief, waking up later because they went to bed later. Nope, late to bed, earlier to rise is their motto! Ollie is teething for what seems like the 34th time and he's been up talking to himself and partying in the wee hours of the morning and although he's not crying, I of course get the infamous mommy guilt and can't fall back asleep until I hear him settle down. I then fall back into a restless slumber and get woken up by Nathan telling me he got him and Ollie some breakfast and can I take the cap of the OJ so he can pour himself a nice tall glass. I'm serious. I woke up today to find two bowls of Cheerios nicely laid out and a glass waiting to be filled with orange juice. Thank God I didn't find Ollie sitting at the table already waiting for a spoon, then I would have really lost it. Yup, Ben goes to work and I think I wake up in the morning, but really I fall back asleep while my Nathan watches his shows and gets himself ready like a little man. Cute you may think... but my God, I feel like a bad mom! Seriously.... he got himself breakfast, people!! There have been a plethora of things I have been experiencing this week including:

• I had my back turned, Nathan tried to climb the dresser and the whole damn thing fell down on him.... thank GOD I was in front of it to brace the fall. I do not even want to think about it... all I know is that I need to get furniture brackets to secure everything to the wall. I've been beating myself up all week about this accident.
• Nathan went potty in Kiki's litter box. Unbelievable, but true.
• Oliver fell down a few (carpeted) steps right before my eyes.
• The kids refuse to come inside after taking them to the park or out back... you would think I actually kept them locked in a cage the way they get.
• I ran with both of them in the stroller and made it a mile and half... that's an extra 80 lbs to the workout!! (proud Mommy moment)
• I went food shopping without a list and made it out alive, but spent twice as much.

Honestly, I'm so tired, I can't even remember half of the things I went though this week. Oh, the biggest bummer is the little laptop is broken, so I can't go on the computer whenever I feel like it. That's been the hardest thing because I have to run upstairs to go online, hence Ollie falling down the steps because they've been following me up here.... I have to take it somewhere, it just won't turn on anymore. I'll blame this one on the kids, too, what the hell.

I better go... I believe I heard Ben come home downstairs, but I can't really hear anything up here in the attic. Thank God it's Friday tomorrow!!

30 days to go

I only have a minute. Something's wrong with the Netbook, so I had to sneak upstairs to go online, and the kids are tearing up the attic right along side of me. I was so happy this morning to go on Facebook, and see that there are only 30 days till the end of tax season. Yay!! Plus, the rest of the week is supposed to be really nice weather, so I don't have to be stuck inside with the kids like I was all weekend!!

Since I had said before I was going to post before and after pics of my wonderful struggles with my post children body, here's a picture of me after 3 weeks at the gym. Hopefully by the time the Broad Street Run occurs in May I will feel comfortable wearing something other than a black moo-moo on the beach this summer. Speaking of the summer, I want to rent a big shore house.... anyone in? We can lock the kids in a spare bedroom and do it up Jersey Shore style... as long as I get to be Snookie.

Better go, toys are being launched through the air. Will post more later.

What's wrong with this picture?

The Goldwassers looking tanned and happy

The answer is.... absolutely NOTHING. The only thing wrong is that as of right now we don't have plans to go to Florida this year and I am sad! After our last experience with flying with both kids (something I highly recommend if you want to lose your sanity) we told ourselves we wouldn't subject ourselves to that kind of punishment again. For those that don't know, everything was so hectic at the airport, between the car seats, baggage, trying to keep track of all of Nathan's toys/crap, double stroller, etc. etc. etc. I lost mine and Ben's licenses, and the car rental wouldn't rent to us, so we had to cab it to the hotel and find a shady car rental place that would rent us a van without ripping us off. Thankfully we were able to have a friend mail us our passports so we were able to get home, although I wouldn't have minded being stranded there forever. After the car rental debacle, we checked in and then had to lug our baggage up 3 flights of steps because the elevator had conveniently stopped working right before we got there. It was one thing after another. I swear it took me 3 days before I finally relaxed and then half the vacation was over.

Yes, all of that I remember quite vividly... and now I've changed my mind and would like to subject ourselves to it... for the love of warmer, perfect, weather, sandy beaches, and Mickey Mouse. We've been going every year since 2003, I can't allow the tradition to be broken.

And so the vacation searching begins... maybe we will go for Thanksgiving, Ollie will be 2 and Nathan almost 4... that will give us plenty of time to prepare for the stress of air travel. Will keep ya posted.