My boyfriend is back...

Sawyer is back on Thursday. My life is complete.

A proud day in the Nut House

One of my most fine moments....

Tomorrow night, January 3rd, I will cast my vote for Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in the Iowa Caucuses.

I've supported him since February... the day he announced he was running. My entire family supports his journey.

I will always be proud of this decision, regardless of what happens in the coming weeks. Barack Obama allows me to look at my children and say "Good government exists, and there is someone out there who is fighting for those less fortunate than us. He will bring peace to this world, and we will be thrilled to say we were a small part of the process."

Give it up for Barack Obama. The soon-to-be 44th President of the United States of America... and the video that says it all.

Not good times

The best cure for a New Year's Day hangover... Hearing Mr. Nut yell to me that our 2 daughters were into a bottle of allergy medicine.

I ran downstairs to find both of them playing with handfuls of tiny white pills while my husband was frantically trying to keep them from eating more.

I called 911 (second time in my life) and they connected me to poison control. They asked me count the pills so we could know how many were left... there were about 100 pills, but from a bottle of 300. Because the girls weren't showing any signs of overdose, we didn't need an ambulance, but we were to go to the ER immediately.

To the ER we went. While we were buckling the girls in their car seats, a police officer stopped by to make sure we were actually taking them to the hospital. All I could think was "What are our neighbors thinking?" Aren't I awful? What a small-minded thought.

Both girls had to drink liquid charcoal to absorb any medication. We don't know if they actually ingested any pills; Cashew told me that she ate 2 and Almond ate 4, but we have no idea if that was accurate. Everyone in the ER on New Year's Day was wonderful and the girls thought we were playing a game the entire time. They were given chocolate milk with the charcoal and it was like we gave them the treat of a lifetime.

So how did they get into the bottle of pills, you ask? We've had a house guest since July, and all of her toiletries are in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. I didn't even think to ask her if she had any medication within a kid's reach. I definitely learned a lesson with all of this - as nosy as my kids are (OK, mostly my oldest) I need to ask visitors to secure anything potentially dangerous.

We are home now - they both ate dinner and are sleeping now. Glad the day is behind me, and more than thankful that they are OK.

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?!?!?