Too much

I don't really have anywhere else to gripe...

My kids are swimming in Christmas gifts. They have more than they even realize. Some gifts haven't even been taken out of the packages yet. And I don't plan to until the heat of summer is so bad we have to spend time indoors just to cool off a bit.

We have 3 large baskets of toys in our living room, and then a toy chest/corner in our basement. Everything is overflowing, and we haven't even added in the "new ones" yet.

So I called a friend who runs a daycare for homeless families and am taking everything that is currently in our baskets to the daycare. They can keep the toys there or send them on with a family... I don't care. My kids have too much and I am afraid they will "expect" it for each holiday before they even realize what they are doing.


Surely there are a lot of families experiencing this... maybe I am overreacting. I haven't heard many of my peers talk about "how much" their kids received this year. Now, to put it in perspective, our kids are the only grandkids on BOTH sides of our families. Neither my nor Mr. Nut's siblings have kids, so ours are showered with attention and gifts. I am not complaining about how much everyone loves them, because it is quite a joy to see so many family members make our kids the center of their holiday. I just don't want my kids to think they should be the center of everyone's holiday, you know?

Enough complaining about "having too much" from me. Gag - I sound like the upper/middle class housewife who complains because she has 17 sets of queen-sized sheets and "only" 4 beds.

I'll quit now. But just for fun, below is Cashew playing with bubble wrap. Her favorite gift of all...

'S' can stand for Sorry-ass Loser

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/26/AR2007092601015.html

An Extra 'S' on the Report Card
Hailing a Singular Achievement, President Gets Pluralistic

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 27, 2007; Page A10

NEW YORK, Sept. 26 -- As a candidate, George W. Bush once asked, "Is our children learning?"

Now he has an answer.

"Childrens do learn," he said Wednesday.

The setting was, yes, an education event where the president was taking credit for rising test scores and promoting congressional renewal of his signature education law. To create the right image, the White House summoned the city's chancellor of schools, a principal, some teachers and about 20 eager students from P.S. 76. (article continued... see link above)

Seriously, I can't stand it anymore. Get this guy OUT OF HERE and let the door slam on his butt on the way out. I am over it... there are so many refreshing ideas/voices out there (aheam... Senator Obama) that it is a shame Bush is even allowed to speak.

Like Kami, I'm all about 1.20.09!

Green spots on my shirt?

And they are not from a marker or crayon or anything fun like that.

They're snot spots. From my youngest. How lovely is that?!?! You should just be lucky that I didn't take pictures and post them. Then you'd really gag on your lunch.

Having a sick baby is the worst. We have a drs appointment today at 2. I'm hoping for an antibiotic. I can tell all of this has turned into an infection of some sort. Tutu says now that I have 2 kids I can diagnose just as the doctors would.

Oh, and having a sick baby also means you get an ornery toddler to go along with the fun. So far, we've had 4 timeouts, two grab-the-cheeks-while-sayin-don't-talk-to-me-like-that, and one spank on the bottom.

Is it too early to put them to bed for the night?

Rosh Hashanah dinner for the Catholics

We have a staff member of one of the political campaigns living with us for a few months... you know, she's young and probably makes little money... it's the least we can do to get our "dude" elected to the top job.

Anyway, she's Jewish. Or, as she refers to herself, a high holy day Jew. But she celebrates Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish New Year. She made an entire meal for all of our friends and her campaign co-workers. It was AMAZING. We said all of the prayers, broke the bread, drank the wine and dipped the apples in honey. We ate brisket, matza ball soup, carrots and raisins, and bread. All of it was so wonderful. Not one of us was Jewish, but it was so great celebrating her holiday with her. My kids helped her cook... ok, just the oldest, but she enjoyed all the mixing that went into the matza balls!

It was just a fun night, with good food and great company.

Normally, I wouldn't do this...

This is one of those iCaught videos. It is hard to watch, but so very interesting. Make sure you watch until the end. Amazing...

http://ugv.abcnews.go.com/Player.aspx?id=556758

A star was born at gymnastics yesterday

So my toddler, Cashew (2 1/2) had her first gymnastics class yesterday. She has A TON of energy and has been a dare-devil from birth, so I knew the class would be good for her.

We got there on-time, and sat in the forming circle with the teacher. The teacher showed us the "stations" and let each kid go through the stations once before letting them just run around and do whichever station was their favorite, over and over. One of the stations was to do a somersault down a cushion wedge. Another was to walk along a line, simulating a balance beam. You get the picture.

One of the stations was a trampoline (a little shout out to Auntie A... she remembered your house and the fun trampoline!) There was another mom there with her toddler. This toddler was dressed in a full gymnastics outfit (Cashew was in just shorts and a t-shirt.) The mom asked me how long Cashew had been in gymnastics. I told her it was our first class. She then told me that her daughter had been in gymnastics since she was 13 months old. Wow, I said.

This stage mom then said to her daughter on the trampoline, "Honey, show this nice little girl how you do your drop sits." And the gymnastics girl was jumping, fell to her bottom, and then returned to her feet. Nice.

Then the stage mom said, "Honey, now show this girl how you do your knee drop." Then the gymnastics girl dropped to her knees and then quickly returned to her feet. Beautiful.

Cashew was watching closely and after the gymnastics girl finished showing off her moves, she started jumping, then dropped to her bottom, did a few log rolls all while screaming like a maniac, then did a couple of "angels in the snow" then returned to her feet. I thought she did a great job!

THEN, the gymnastics girl started imitating Cashew, much to the stage mom's horror. It was like Cashew was un-doing all the technique this girl had learned since she was 13 months old!

I was so proud. And of course, I was laughing my ass off. How seriously can you take toddler gymnastics, really?!?!

Not to rip on Mr. Nut again, but...

We had friends over for dinner last week. I set out a bowl of yogurt-covered pretzels (ok, let's face it.. they were chocolate-covered.... don't know why the co-op calls chocolate "yogurt")

After dinner, we were all clearing dishes. I handed Mr. Nut the baggie that the pretzels came in and asked him to put the pretzels back in the bag. You know, who likes stale "yogurt" covered pretzels?

The night ends... we all go to bed.... and I woke up and found this.















Who does this?!?!?

I think I am going to post more often...

Yep. I am ready to jump on this blogging bandwagon again. Who will find me?!?!?! If you are out there, please comment or drop me an email. I'd love to see if anyone even checks this blog.

Anyway - summer is almost over and I am getting ready for back to school days. Mr. Nut will be teaching again next year.... hopefully wearing his own clothes and not mine.

Vacations and fun times are over. We are ready to take on the new year. I guess.

Make yourself comfortable...

nut·y, adj.: crazy or eccentric

To give you an idea of our very functional family, I thought I would use the definition of "nutty" I found in the online dictionary.

nut·y, adj.:
1. Having the flavor of nuts
2. informal or slang terms for "mentally irregular"

Hmmmm.... "mentally irregular." I think that pretty much describes us.

Here's an example: Mr. Nut works out every single morning before work. He tries to pack his gym bag, complete with workout and work clothes, the evening before, but this rarely happens. So at 5:25am, I usually hear him scrambling around the room in the dark looking for his things. This morning he called me on the way from the gym to work, as he always does. Our conversation went like this:

Mr. Nut: Do you have a pair of grey pants?

Mrs. Nut: Uh, yes. Why?

Mr. Nut: Are they pinstriped, with a wide-legged cuff?

Mrs. Nut: Uh, yeah. Where are you going with this?

Mr. Nut: Well, I am wearing them. I accidentally grabbed them and I don't have time to come home and get another pair.

OK, so most "mentally regular" people would leave the gym IMMEDIATELY upon finding out that they only packed their wife's pants, and high-tail it home to get an another pair. Not Mr. Nut, no sirree. He proceeds to wear MY PANTS.... to work.... all day.

And he is crazy if he thinks I won't send an email to his co-workers, making sure they don't let him live this down. Ever.

UPDATE: Email sent. Co-workers are pulling out all the stops. It won't surprise me if all the men come to work tomorrow wearing women's clothes... just so Mr. Nut doesn't feel alone.

UPDATE part deux: Co-worker sent picture. Classic. Is it wrong that he almost looks better in my pants than me?