It's just simply sickening, that's all I can say. I have gone NUTS about decorating Taryn's room w/Hello Kitty. I have made the internet, namely eBay, my new home, and spend every waking moment looking for trinkets to add a little kitty to her room at a low, low price. I just finished painting it and she got her new bed. It's looking better already. Trey refinished her dresser to match her bed, and he did an AWESOME job! It's so exciting! Taryn loves it, too. She runs into her room at all times of the day and just jumps into her bed...mainly b/c she can! It's far from finished, but it's looking tons better already...



Yeah, so it's not TOTALLY Hello Kitty'd to death, but I think that's good. That way, it's not overkill, and if I find something I think is cute, I can still get it and put it in there. Trey still has to refinish the mirror, and I am still looking for a few more little touches. You can't see it, but the sheet set is Hello Kitty. I've got some fabric w/HK on it that I'm going to use to make the valance for the window, and a lightswitch cover and outlet covers are on their way. Oh, I didn't take a picture of the other corner, but right now there is a little Hello Kitty lamp, too, that's in the shape of her head. Isn't it SO exciting! There's definitely something wrong with me!

Anyway, I hope you're having a great day, and I'll see you soon.

It's already Saturday! My goodness! Where does the time go?

I did my taxes this past week, with the help of my mother, and I'm a little shell-shocked. I won't say how much we're getting back, but I will say that it's more than I thought it would be. It's almost more than I claimed to have made on my taxes this past year! Now we get to pay off some bills...hooray...

So I've come to realize that I've slacked off a lot lately in the parenting arena. With the combination of our odd work hours, the stress of money problems of late (thank you, God, for tax refunds!), and everyone being sick for weeks now, I've kinda just been in survival mode, which is not my best. We have good days here and there, but most days I'm just trying to make it to bedtime! Unfortunately, TJ has figured this out. Undoubtedly, he thinks he's being shafted in the whole deal (which he is, in a way), and has decided he will just do as he pleases. Often lately when I tell him not to do something he'll say, "I can do that if I want to." Or, if I tell him what to do, he'll either ignore me or tell me no. So, I must, I MUST take control of this and fix the problem! I noticed a lot in the past few days that he will act up the most when I'm busy and unable to deal with him. Like, he'll start jumping on the couch (a big no-no) while I'm feeding Cole or on the phone, so that the best I can do is say "Stop it!" Or, like yesterday, he and Taryn were eating suckers, and he started beating his on the table. I told him to stop, and he kept doing it, despite me asking him several times to stop and threatening to throw it away. Again, I was feeding Cole at the time, and was sitting across the room. I finally got up and went to go take the sucker, and he vowed he would stop. I gave him another chance...and I swear, a minute later he started doing it again! While he did it, he gave me an evil little grin, as if to say, "I know you're not going to do anything, and I'm going to keep doing this as long as I want to." So, I took it and buried it deep in the trash can so he couldn't get to it. He really acted shocked, and had a fit, but within minutes was fine, which kinda surprised me. It made me realize I think he's really wanting some discipline, which I know I've been slacking off at, and he's willing to push me to get it. Hmmmmm....So, I've vowed that if it is at all in my power, I will immediately deal with him from now on. In other words, if I'm feeding Cole, he might just have to be put down for a minute so I can deal w/TJ. It's not like he will starve, just be really pissed at me! Of course, he can't do much yet, so that I can handle! Wish me luck, I need it! It's really tiring when your kid waits for you to sit down, finally, and decides to start acting up to see what you will do. I'm up for the challenge, though.

Anyway, I guess that's enough for now. I hope you're having a great day, and I'll see you soon.

Okay, so I'm slacking here, huh?

I just found out that I have won a BLOG EXCELLENCE AWARD for blogging in 2006! Hooray! I'm so excited! I won an award for "Most Pregnancies by a Woman in One Blog". Go me! Julia also won one for "Most Debauchery, Southern Region". Congratulations! Of course, Kurt won for "Best Blog by a Police Informant or Person in the Witness Protection Program", which he totally deserves, not that that's his real name or anything...and you'll never know the truth! I really think that I should have won the award for "Best Use of the F Word by a Toddler", but I'm beginning to wonder if I even told you guys the story about my experience w/ the "F" word or not. I fear I haven't, or I may have won that one hands down...

Surely I've told you about TJ's first utterance of a word he shouldn't have said, when he heard me yell "DAMN" when I ate hot rice, and cheerfully screamed it just like Mommy did! That was when he was about two-ish. He's since expanded his vocabulary to include words such as 'astronaut', 'constellation', and 'onomatopoeia' (okay, so honestly, I've tried to get him to say this word, but to no avail yet...he just says "POO POO!" whenever I try to get him to say it lately!). Unfortunately, he's also added phrases such as "Oh shit!", which he decided to spew forth while staying w/his very clean-cut religious grandparents, yes, thank you TJ. Then there's the "DAMMIT!" that I'm 100% sure he got from me. He uses it well, too. Just like myself, he uses it when frustrated and when he just can't get things to go his way. Then there's the day my mom called me at work to let me know that he had just informed her that "Taryn can't get the damn door open anyway, Mimi." All in all, I'd have to say, he really does use his language well...and I really thought I was doing a good job of controlling my mouth!

However, as if all of this wasn't bad enough, and as if I didn't look like the worst mom in the world yet, I haven't told you the best story of them all. It was a lazy afternoon one day a couple of months ago. I was feeding Cole in the living room, and Taryn was taking a nap. TJ was bored, so as he has lately taken to doing when there's nothing else to do, he was scouring the pantry trying to find something to eat (ie-get into and make a mess with while not actually eating a bite of it!). Undoubtedly, as is common here, there was nothing worth wasting his time on eating. So, he walked into the living room, comes right up to me and says, "Mommy, go make me some fucking food." Just like that. I had to do a double-take, b/c I was very sure I hadn't just heard what I thought I had. I asked, "What did you just say?" "I said, 'Mommy, go make me some fucking food.'" Nope, I heard right. I quickly finished feeding Cole, and sat him down and explained that he was not to use that word, so I thought it would be the last I heard of it. Later, I called my mom and told her about it. I was in another room, and I honestly thought he couldn't hear me. The next thing I know, he comes running up to me and says, "Mommy, you're not supposed to use that fucking word!" In an attempt to see the positive side of things, my mom and I both agreed that we were happy to see that he used it correctly in context...

Yep, I am definitely the mom of the year...