Slow Down, Gym Shoe!

Rafael's kind of good and kind of bad birthday

Today is Rafael's seventh birthday! It didn't start out all that great, though. Apparently his teacher wouldn't  let the class sing "Happy Birthday" to him. She seems to have some sort of grudge against him... But anyway, Jimmy took Little Bear and Pufferfish to the city tow see their grandparents and Tigerlily. So I thought I would do something special with Rafael. My original plan was to take him to see the movie "The Tooth Fairy." It was supposed to start about ten minutes before Rafael got out of school, but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to miss the previews and first few minutes.

So we got to the theater, only to be told by the lethargic teenagers working there that the entire movie had been cancelled because nobody had shown up! And there were no other kid movies playing there.

I spotted a bowling alley across the street, and cheered Rafael up by telling him we could go bowling! He got all excited as we walked across the street... only to find out  that the bowling alley was closed, for no apparent reason!

Next I spotted a small toy store nextdoor to the bowling alley, so I told Rafael we could go in there and look around. I ended up buying him a bag of marbles and an Uglydoll. Afterwards, we got sodas and went home.

I was feeling horrible that all of my plans to give Rafael a great day had backfired. But then, as we drove home, Rafael piped up from the back seat, "Nicki, you and me had the best day together, didn't we? I love you more than anything!"

I love you too, little dude!

Pictures From Little Bird's Birthday Trip To The City

 So, here are the pics from last weekend! I guess I didn't actually take many pictures at the American Girl Place... I took more at the John Hancock Building!

Here is Little Bird at my mom's house, all excited as we got ready to head to the city!

Little Bird at McDonalds in the city. This used to be Rock 'n' Roll McDonalds, which is part of the reason we went there... but it turns out that now its just a huge,  regular McDonalds! Little Bird still enjoyed being in a huge McDonalds!

Me and Little Bird at McDonalds!

Little Bird listens to the audio tour at the John Hancock Building. The audio tour is so cool!

 

There was a cool photo-opp thing where you could pretend to be  window washer! Here is Little Bird washing the windows!

My Aunt Betsy tries her hand at washing the pretend window! 

Me and Little Bird let this dude hail us a cab outside of some ritzy hotel!

Little Bird at the American Girl restaurant, where Kit got her own seat of honor at the table!
 

Me with my aunt, my mom, and Little Bird! (and Kit!)

They served us this whole platter of tea sandwiches!

 It was a great time! I love the city... I hope we can go more often as the weather gets nicer!
 

 
 

 
 

 

 

Not so happy new year?

I'm just having a hard time tonight. New Years is a hard time to be a person who doesn't do well in noisy, crowded places. Diana and Jimmy and everyone went out to dinner and then to the bar to celebrate. But I hate the noise and crowds at the bar... I like it sometimesat the bar but not on holidays...  especially when people start hugging and kissing and stuff at midnight, I would have wanted to crawl under a table and disintegrate. Sarah invited me to a party she's having with her friends, and Ill probably go there later maybe, but it is also very uncomfortable to be the only adult at a party of 14 and 15 year olds!!! It just highlights the fact that I am not able to function at an "adult" level and that I even have trouble with teenage parties because I never even went to parties when I was a teenager! What I'd really like to do is just take some Tylenol (for my aching head) and curl up with my puppies and go to sleep... but I'm kinda between a rock and a hard place here!
I hate being me.

Being lonely hurts.

I've been alone more NEw Years Eves than not, so I don't know what the big deal is...

but I still hate it.  

Merry Christmas! (A Day Late And A Dollar Short?)

Hi! Sorry I haven't posted in a while! The extremely slow Internet connection at our house makes it difficult to find time... I have to block in about an hour to work at keeping the Internet alive long enough for me to do anything! Anyway, I am at my mom's now. In my hurry to leave the house yesterday, I didn't grab my camera, and so I can't upload my photos from Christmas yet... but I can at least share some stories!

Its been a week of family parties. On Wednesday night we went to Diana's mom's house, where Diana's grandfather, aunt, uncle, and cousins all gathered also, for dinner. (I brought Rafael, too, so it was a bunch of people!) The weirdest part was being told by Diana's grandfather that, since I am technically not related to him, he could kiss me, and that I have breasts that he could touch if he didn't suspect I'd call the cops! (LOL... he's kind of a creeper... but I've known him forever so I know that he's harmless... but it always makes for awkward holiday moments!)

Thursday was Christmas Eve, obviously, and Rafael stayed home with his grandmother. So I had most of the day to finish my last-minute Christmas shopping! The most interesting gift I bought on Christmas Eve was a five gallon aquarium kit, and two goldfish! This was a present for Little Bear and Pufferfish. (I bought it especially with Pufferfish in mind... every time we go to the pet store, Pufferfish is fascinated by the fish, so I thought she'd love it! But so far it seems like Little Bear is the one most interested in the fish!)

Monkeyboy helped me sneak the aquarium and goldfish upstairs to our room, and he helped me keep the little girls out. And he helped me put together the aquarium! He put the filter together all on his own! This was a big thing for Monkeyboy, who has auditory processing disorder and often has trouble learning in school and following directions at home. I, on the other hand, seem to have everything processing disorder, because I just have all-around trouble learning even when I read... but I learn better by doing things or being shown. The picture and instructions that came with the aquarium thing were useless to me! But Monkeyboy just looked at the picture and quickly put the filter together like a jigsaw puzzle. When we plugged it in, and tried it out, he was so proud of himself! He ran downstairs to get Diana and Jimmy so they could see. We lavished him with praise, of course! He is a very smart kid, and a very bright visual learner. He and Marcus also put together a miniature foozball table earlier in the month, so between that and the aquarium filter, he's had a great boost of confidence!

Thursday evening, I had to go out to my uncle's house for our Christmas celebration. We had another delicious dinner, and played Catchphrase. (I opted out of Twister, though!) I got a very cool sweater from one of my aunts, some $$$ from my grandparents, and cozy socks and an awesome T-shirt from my favorite aunt Betsy!  Then, I had to go back home, where I helped DIana and Jimmy put all the presents under the tree and make all of the Santa magic happen.

Friday morning, Little Bear woke us all up bright and early, because Santa had come! Pufferfish was sort of freaked out by all of the presents, and she just wanted to lay on the couch and watch Dora. But the older kids brought her stocking over to her, and that at least started to pique her interest! It may have been one of our best Christmas mornings ever! Monkeyboy got a BB gun, which he was over the moon about. Little Bear got a DS and a huge teddy bear. Pufferfish got a Fisher Price kitchen and a shopping cart!

we went back to Diana's mom's house for breakfast and our gift exchange! I got even more cool stuff... the newest Post Secret book, a freshwater pearl bracelet, and some socks and pajamas from Diana's mom, a gift cerfiticate to Barnes And Noble from Tom, a hat-scarf-and-glove set from Megan, and a pair of mitten-gloves from Sarah!

(The funny thing about the mittens is that, last weekend, I took Sarah and her friend Kaylie to the mall to do their Christmas shopping. We went into a store called Hot Rags, which is one of my favorite stores and also one of Sarah's favorites! I was looking at those mitten-gloves because I've wanted a pair for a long time, and I showed Sarah and Kaylie how you fold the mitten part over your fingers. Then I stealthily disappeared into the crowd, where I looked at some incense burners. I knew Sarah really loves incense! I picked one out, and went to the register, and ran into Sarah, who was buying a pair of the mitten-gloves! She told me, "I'm buying these for myself because they look so warm!" I told her, "I'm buying this for my brother, who is visiting from California, because he likes incense!" But we were actually buying things for each other!)

After this, I had to hurry to my mom's house, where we were actually doing niothing at all... but my mom wanted me to get there as soon as possible. We had yet another gift exchange, and then played some board games, and had lasagna for dinner.

And tomorrow we are supposedly going over to my aunt's house to exchange more gifts with my other aunt and uncle and cousins, who didn't make it to the Christmas Eve party!

The bummer moments of the holiday at my mom's house include being told I am fat and eat too much, (by mom mom)being told I am lazy, (mom again) being told that I should quit school and just get a job already, (grandparents) and being told to shut up every time I open my mouth. (By my very haughty brother, the one visiting from California, where he apparently lives in a fantasy world where everyone is as cool as him and nobody sucks like me.) But for the most part it has been an awesome Christmas!
I hope you are all having a great time, too!

I will post pictures when I get home next week!

How To Have A Merry Christmas

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I can't believe thanksgiving happened already... Didn't this year fly by? A busy couple of months is ahead of us. Not only do we have Christmas and New Years, but Monkeyboy's birthday is also in a couple weeks!

Speaking of Monkeyboy... last night he went out with some friends who live in the neighborhood. He came home, and walked into the house with his hood up and his head down, his hair falling in his face. Diana and I were watching TV in the living room. Monkeyboy stood in front of us and said, "Mom, how would you feel if I told you I got a piercing?"

We thought he was joking... until he took his hood down, and flipped the hair out of his face, so we could see his bloody lip!

I kid you not! His friends pierced his lip for him!

I didn't think to take a picture of it, in all the commotion afterwards. But I will put a pic of him here if he'll let me! I don't think it looks all that bad. Diana has already told him he will not be allowed to have a ring in it, just a little stud. So it won't be too noticeable, I guess.

Anyway. What was I talking about? Oh yeah. Christmas. Because of the crappy economy, nobody in my house is actually working regular hours right now, and we are pretty short on money! Its going to be a very simplified Christmas! Diana is a little worried about this, because she's always gone all out for Christmas, making sure each kid had a giant pile of gifts under the tree. I guess the precedent was set by Monkeyboy, who was an only child for the first six years of his life. It was easy enough for Diana to spend her Christmas bonus making sure he got everything he wanted from Santa! By the time Little Bear was born, Monkeyboy was already used to Christmas being this way, and when Little Bear got old enough to know the difference, it was only fair to make sure she had a comparable pile of gifts under the tree. Then Pufferfish was born, and... well, its getting more and more difficult to pile up those gifts, especially while everyone is broke!

So this Christmas we're gonna dial it down a bit. Because Christmas shouldn't just be about gifts, right? But. Since there will be less gifts, we should replace it with something else, don't you think? So my question to you is, can you think of some ways to make Christmas more special for a family with three wild and crazy kids, without spending a lot of money?
Little Bear and I have already chosen a child in foster care, through our church's "angel-tree" type thingy, to buy some gifts for, so Little Bear will at least experience picking out gifts to make an anonymous child happy. So there's that. But what else? Can you think of anything? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

***********************

Diana: "Ugh, I'm not looking forward to this Christmas!"

Me: "It will be our best Christmas ever! We'll all learn a valuable lesson! It will be a very special year for us!"

Diana: "This isn't a Disney movie, Nicki!"

Halloween At Our House

Today has already been the strangest day! You'll never believe it!
First, Pufferfish and I woke up and looked in the mirror. This is what we saw!

It was so freaky! I grabbed Pufferfish and ran down the stairs, where we ran smack into Little Bear! She was already dressed and ready for the day. But something didn't look right!

Slowly, Pufferfish and I started backing away. But look who was behind us!

Maybe the dogs could defend us! I hurried to let them out of their cage. But when I saw them, I realized things were definitely getting a little out of control.

Maybe I should buy some more of that deworming medicine?
 
 

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, Sarah walked into the room. She picked up Pufferfish and started eating her!

I snatched the baby out of Sarah's decaying zombie arms, and screamed for Diana and Jimmy. But I soon found out that they wouldn't be much help, either.

So I just ran out of the house, and never looked back. 

Anyone know the number of a good exorcist?

Oh well! I hope your day is going a little better than mine!

 
 
 

Halloween Dividers


Halloween Glitter Graphics


Halloween Glitter Graphics


Halloween Animations


Halloween Animations

We're Off To Boooo The Neighbors!

In the neighborhood we lived in last year, I sometimes wanted to boo the neighbors. I sometimes wanted to go up to their houses, ring their bells, and yell, "Booooo! You leave your kids alone all day and they're always coming to our house asking for food! Booo!" Or, "Booooo! You smoke crack!" or "Booooo! You won't let your kid play with Little Bear because you think you're better than us! Also, you don't let your kid play with the other neighbor kids because they're not white! Booooooooo!" Or even, "Booooo! You're just sort of annoying! Boooooooo!"

But I never did it, because I didn't have the nerve.

This year I got a little nervier, and decided to Boooo our new neighbors... but in a different way!

I read about this concept online, and thought it would be fun for the kids.

First, I picked up some cheap Halloween treats (kitchen towels with monsters on them, tiny statues of cats wearing witch costumes, some candy, glittery Halloween cups, etc.)

Then, I had Pufferfish throw together some simple Halloween crafts from Fun Foam. (I use that stuff for everything!)

Next, when Little Bear and Rafael got home from school, I had them use markers and Halloween stickers to decorate some paper bags. I taped Boo Grams to the bags.

Finally, I gathered my crew together!

The kids chose two houses to Booooo. They ran up to the front door of each house, rang the door bell, set the bag on the ground, and ran away!

The idea is that the neighbors are then each supposed to Boooo two more neighbors, and so on and so on. The bags come with signs that you can hang up on your front door to show that you've already been Booooed, so you don't have to keep doing it over and over again.

I have no idea if it will catch on in our neighborhood! So far, I haven't seen any signs up on anyone's doors. But at least I'm pretty sure we put smiles on two neighbors' faces!
 
 
 

Happy Birthday, Two-Year-Old!

Guess who turned two years old today! Yep, you guessed it... the one and only Pufferfish!

My very favorite toddler had a birthday party that lasted two days! Cause that's the way we roll, around here! On Saturday, all of her aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents and a few random others came over for a big party, which included lots of delicious food, presents, and a Dora The Explorer cake! (We were supposed to have a Dora moon jump, too, but it was raining all morning long, so we canceled the moon jump. Then it got sunny out in the afternoon, so we could have had the moon jump after all! Bummer, right?) The party lasted until the wee hours. Plus, Tigerlily and her parents and Little Bit, two additional cousins, two pf Little Bit's friends, and Sarah, stayed the night, so the party started all over again in the morning! Lucky little Pufferfish even got a second cake and a second round of presents!
Pufferfish loved all of her presents... especially the dolls and the dolly crib, stroller and swing! She's a very happy baby with all her new toys,,, some of which have been put away so that, when she is having cranky days, they can be whipped out to surprise her and cheer her up.
To top it off, Pufferfish got a brand new Dora the Explorer potty seat and some Dora big girl undies. We told her that when she was wearing the big girl undies she had to pee in the potty, and she figured it out right away! She peed in the potty twice since she opened her presents a few hours ago, with no accidents! Can you believe that! Obviously she'll still have to wear a diaper when we're out in the world, but hopefully at home she can wear her big girl undies all the time and keep using the potty!
Here are some of my favorite things about Pufferfish.
I love how much she talks now! She can really communicate, and she talks nonstop! She can say full sentences like, "Daddy, Sarah needs you!" and "I need a baba for my baby" and "Did you see my shoes?" She can express her feelings, saying "Baby sad" or "I mad at you" or "This is fun!"
She loves to be like the big kids and never wants to be left out! Today, the grown ups and little Bear and Tigerlily got in an ice-water fight with the hose and ice from the coolers. Pufferfish begged to take off her dress so she could play too. When Tigerlily dumped a cup of ice water on Pufferfish's head, she almost started to cry... but then she shook her head like a dog, jumped up and down, and ran to find her own cup of water to throw!
I love it when I come home and she runs up to me, clapping her hands and yelling, "Nicki Nicki Nicki!"
I love how she wants to share with everyone! If you give her a cookie, she'll ask for one for Little Bear, and one for Tigerlily, and one for Monkeyboy, and one for everyone else in the house that she can think of.
I love how she asks permission to misbehave! For instance, saying, "Please I hit you?" (Sometimes its really hard to say no, though, when she asks so sweetly!)
I love how she's my little buddy who follows me everywhere, even to the bathroom, narrating all the way. ("I shut door? Nicki go pee-pee! Ewwww! Wash butt! Wash hands now? I turn off light?"
Mostly I love that sweet little face.

Happy Birthday, to one of the most loved babies in the whole world! Thanks for bringing joy to our lives!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Little Bear, Pufferfish and I had a little Cinco De Mayo party today! Want to see what we did?

We had Mexican food... our our version of it, anyway... for lunch! We ate whole wheat tortillas, sprinkled with cheese, cooked in the oven, and dipped in mild salsa. We had a side of sliced mangos, and we drank horchata!

Then we did Mexican bark paintings. (I got the idea from Family Fun Magazine.) I cut out pieces of brown paper bag, crinkled them up, soaked them in water, opened them back up, and let them dry. The kids were supposed to draw outlines of pictures in black marker, and then paint them.
Little Bear's came out really well!





















Pufferfish's was a little random, of course I drew her outline for her, and she did the painting. Pufferfish wanted me to draw a bunny with an ice cream cone. she always wants me to draw that same thing, ever since she saw a picture in an Easter coloring book of a bunny with an ice cream cone! I am getting really good at drawing bunnies! Anyway, you can still sorta see the bunny and the ice cream, under all the paint!























Meanwhile, we listened to children's music in Spanish! If you're looking for a very cool Spanish music CD for kids, I recommend DJ 50 Kids Grande Spanish Songs. Its a CD of popular English children's songs like "Eensy Weensy Spider" and "Oh Susannah", but the songs are sung in Spanish! Pufferfish loved it right away because the tunes were familiar, and she even started trying to repeat the Spanish words! (She catches on really quickly to songs.) And Little Bear liked listening to the tunes and guessing what the English songs were!

I wanted to make a pinata, but I realized that in order to be able to decorate it today, we would have had to make it yesterday! And even then, we wouldn't have been able to bust it open until tomorrow, when it would have been dry! So, maybe next year we'll make a pinata as a week-long project!

I hope everyone had a great Cinco De Mayo!

The Easter Fun Begins!

Happy Easter, everyone! Last night,  we started off the holiday fun by coloring Easter eggs! Monkeyboy has got to be the best Easter egg artist. He always puts so much work into his, making things like Sponge Bob, eyeballs, and religious scenes with crosses. We thought we'd make a quick video to show you some of our best eggs!

I'l update again tomorow night, but I just wanted to check in now and tell everyone, Happy Easter!

My Montage 4/11/09