Okay, apparently I started some mompetition in my circle of mom friends.  I did my little guy’s 2nd birthday big with a cowboy themed party complete with a petting zoo (that had an alpaca and a lamb and lots of other cuties) and pony rides.

We have two birthday parties coming up in the next few weeks.  One of my friends is notoriously competitive.  Like…she opens doors that are closed in my house just to see the room where all the laundry is hiding.  Seriously.  She’s nice and doesn’t do it maliciously, so I forgive her and even laugh at her antics, but she’s so uber competitive.  She’s desperately throwing together a party for her son that will outshine my guy’s party.  Our moms are friends, so I’m getting my information from her mom.  Train rides.  Bounce house.  :)

I guess I don’t feel competitive just for the sake of beating out other moms.  I like to do nice parties for my kids.  Mompetition is fierce and I just don’t have time for that.

With that said, my friend is going to flip when she comes to my stepson’s Man vs. Wild themed birthday party this summer!!!!  I’ve already started planning

My 29.5 week preemie turned two years old last week.  We celebrated with a cowboy themed birthday party.

Party guests got to “dude ‘em up” with red bandanas and sheriff badges.  For entertainment, they had access to two beautiful ponies for pony rides and a petting zoo complete with an alpaca, lamb, two goats, two chickens, and two rabbits.

Birthday cupcakes were served–designd to look like little pies.  I did some with M & Ms and some with Fruit Loops.

Food was easy and casual: corn dogs, egg rolls (from our gifted babysitter), chips and salsa, and bagel bites.  I had a rough holiday season, so I just never got around to the cowboy menu I had planned to do.

Guests got to take home Wild West themed terrariums I made in mason jars.

It was a blast.  Seriously so much fun!  And I can’t believe my preemie is a big boy now.

It’s been a long time.  The holidays have been so freaking busy.  Lots of good times though, and I’m finding out that parenting boys is just a blast (even though I seriously really really really want a daughter!)

This is how I found one of my nutcrackers, compliments of E.  Oh the life with boys.

But they aren’t all brutes.  My boy can also make some pretty mean cookies.

After tossing around the idea of getting a play kitchen set for a boy, we decided that indeed a kitchen set can be for boys too. I hate how everything is so stereotyped into categories: boy or girl. My boy is going to know how to cook and he’s going to knock the socks off of the ladies with his impressive cookie baking skills.

Yesterday he threw on his Spiderman costume and was doing a little cooking with his fake muscles.  He’s also been known to use his new tool box and drill in the kitchen.  Oh, boys.

Oh, the joys of raising boys.  They are truly hilarious.  I still yearn for the day that playing dress-up and dolls and make-up and cute hair-dos will be in my cards, but until then I am having fun with dinosaur roaring, dirt, cars, and rough-housing.

My little one wakes up at 3:45 this morning.  He apparently goes to the closet, pulls out his Spider-Man tennis shoes, and brings them to my side of the bed with a smile and a “go?”  No, definitely a “no go.”

My stepson goes through a pile of pumping parts/bottles I have waiting to go in the attic from yesterday’s closet cleaning frenzy.  He pulls out pumping parts and proceeds to try to convince me that he can use the parts to make something (he is known for recycling parts) and that in the future if I have another baby, I can just pump from one side because that’s easier.  Um…no thanks.  I eventually let him take the parts, realizing that if I have another baby who needs a hospital grade pump, I should probably just buy new parts anyway.  Oh boys.

That’s not even as bad as the time he went through the trash and squealed with delight when he found a tampon applicator (which he doesn’t know what it is) and proclaimed how he could make it into something.  Oi vey.  Now I am particularly careful about hiding tampon-waste. 

Boys, boys, boys.

Just came back from a trip from Boston with the toddler and my sister.  A few lessons learned:

1.  At 25 lbs, walking the Freedom Trail with the Ergo just doesn’t cut it.  I think I now have to graduate to an umbrella stroller when we are walking any great difference.

2.  The teddy bear leash is a total gift and perfect for the airport when you are dealing with an almost 23 month old.

3.  I’m almost to the point where I just don’t give a shit about the judgey people in the world.  I feel like I can do no right for some people.  Like…even the very presense of my son annoys some people.  I’m ready to be happy with the best I can do.  Everyone else can go shove it.  It’s too stressful trying to please the world!

4.  TSA and airport workers don’t give a crap if you are lugging your baby on your back and an arm full of items.  They will wait and watch as you struggle to take your baby carrier off your back while simultaneously balancing carry-on luggage and your laptop, adn then will tell you that you didn’t have to take the carrier off.  Whaaat?

5.  Toddlers love new cities. 

Here’s a peak at the trip:

Most joyful year EVER, and I have been a hardcore Halloween fan since toddler-hood.  Seeing my little guy get all excited and proud over dressing up as Spider-Man, and the enthusiasm he had for trick-or-treating literally melted me into a pile of goo.

This is him after our NICU reunion this past weekend.  Almost two years since we began our 53 day stay in the NICU, and how far we’ve come. 

A longer post is needed.  I’ve just been so busy with life. 

In the fall of 2009, my stepson came to live with us full-time. I was also six months pregnant with my first baby. Less than two months later, I gave birth to my premature son, and from then on life in our cute little vintage 1923 home has never been the same. Two sons in less than two months—it was a transition.

I went back to work at the end of August of 2010, forcing us to readjust to yet another change—life as working parents of two kids.

Since then, we have been on an everlasting quest to simplify our lives.

Take right now, for instance. I’m struggling to get over sickness, fatigued beyond normal levels, and not really at the point yet where I could feel comfortable using a sick day to recuperate. Being only October and the beginning of the school year, sick days are precious (especially when you have toddlers at home to get you sick. So, I’m sick, toddler is sick, stepson has a Boy Scout event, husband has a birthday a few days away I’m desperately trying to throw together on an extremely shoe-string budget, house needs more attention, my list of errands hasn’t been touched, and I haven’t had any time with my friends to get away from it all (because of said sickness). It’s been a hard week.

Being a “green family” is also hard for the working parent. No paper cups or plates to use, and therefore lots of dishes. Cloth diapers aren’t so bad, but when we were running late this morning it was trying finding a few extra minutes to race outside and hang the laundry I did last night.

I really want to just simplify things. The daily grind of coming and going, preparing, cleaning, packing, entertaining, driving, doing, and being constantly engaged in something or another is just so…tiring. It also makes the days fly by, and I’m not too comfortable with that either. My 30th birthday looms on the horizon and I am not anxious to greet it any sooner than I have to.

What do you do to simplify your life?

I’ve been sick.  And before that busy with court stuff (for my stepson’s custody case). 

This is what a toddler does when his mama has her guard down because she’s sick:

It’s a requirement for said toddler to throw cutting boards, pots and pans on the floor to create more dishes for his mama too.  At least he’s cute. 

I’ve been absent. Life has gotten in the way in the form of busy work schedule, intense child custody trial (re: my stepson), and to make matters more heavy we lost a couple students this week and have funerals to attend.  Two young boys have passed away, a mother’s worst nightmare.  It puts life into perspective when we feel like the walls are crumbling from the ongoing, tedious court case.