Wordless Wednesday: Welcome to the world little one

Congratulations Ling, Carlos and Big Bro E. on the safe arrival of Little Man N. He arrived Monday and checked in at over 8 pounds, and 22 inches in length.

Check out those arms:..he come with factory installed Michelin Man arms!

ME ME ME...

Today...it's all about ME!!!
My crafty gene seems to have worn off on at least one Thing...because one of my presents today had this photo ironed on to a t-shirt.

Thank you Things, you and your daddy fill my heart with great joy and love!

Enough with the sap, bring on the cake.............

Our little entrepreneur

Yesterday, I came home from a Target run and discovered Thing Two had come up with a way to cash in on the neighbor's garage sale traffic mess.

Am wondering if he made any $ to help cover the costs of that Target run (and yes, there is that ever present question after a trip to Target: what did I buy and why did it total over $100?)

Wordless Wednesday: Local Celebrity

For those non-locals, that's Thing Two! He's been "published" in our area park/rec guide!

Giving Thanks

Thing Two has been working so hard lately to master my family's traditional table prayer. He was so excited to "go solo" today at lunch.

Come Lord Jesus , Be our Guest

....ok...so far so good

Let these gifts from us be blessed

.....looks like that second line needs a bit more practice

And then there sits Thing One "You should just stick with the one Grandpa taught me "Yeah God, Boo Devil, Let's Eat!"

While I want to update the blog

with a funny Thing One story, he said NO.

You see, I was retelling the story to Hubby last night and instead of getting the usual "Blog It Blog It" chant from my boy (he likes to point out what is blog-worthy), this time he blushed and said "NO, don't you dare".

So, out of respect for his wishes, I'll refrain from telling y'all that...puberty waits for no boy.

Suffice to say, while the boy remains fascinated with transformers, he's also starting to notice that there are girls in this world, and some of them are "Hot!...and I don't mean temperature, I"m talking about pretty, Mom!!".

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday Dad!!!!!!!

Today's his actual 75th birthday!

Who are you...

and what have you done with Thing One?
Sunday, he "tried" pizza. He went on to eat 3 slices.
Monday, he requested pizza and ate 4 slices...followed up by "I think I'll try ice cream next!"

Is my Picky Boy morphing into an All-American Tween right before my very eyes?

Well, bring it on....(because really? he needs to eat something with some calories.)

*a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, he did eat pizza. But I think it was back in 2002 when he quit. Do you have any idea how hard life is with a kid that doesn't eat pizza? Countless birthday parties and Friday afternoon Happy Hours has had me always providing a second choice or else he just wouldn't eat. And as thin as he is, that's not really a viable option.

12 on the 12th

Uh oh, I almost missed 12 on the 12th. Luckily, one of my blogging buddies up in Canada was ahead of the game and reading her blog jogged my memory. And thanks to TZ for her WW post, I am able to still find 12 pictures on the 12th. Yep, we are entering our 12th year of having Thing One in our family. The time flies almost as fast as the memory fades. Hope you enjoy (and I hope I got the sequence correct).

Music to my ears

Overheard this morning:
Thing One: "Ugh, Spongebob? Where's the remote? I hate this show!"

*of course, he soon discovered there was nothing else on worth watching so it is still playing, but I can only hope that we are just about through this phase of childhood...

Guest Blogger: Trip report from Thing One's perspective

Copied from a letter he wrote to his Uncle Mike in PA.
Figured since Thing Two has guest blogged a couple times, I'd let Thing One tell you all about his trip. I deleted the parts related to thanking him for a birthday gift.

Uhmmm, my vacation in Wisconsin and Minnesota was awesome, because we went
to the Kalihari water park hotel. We saw Stevie, my grandpa and all our
cousins. I got this transformer toy from the Universal series from a long
time ago. I made a moose at "Build a Bear", this is the only place where
you can build a moose. I named him flapjack and he's a kung fu
moose! We rode rides at the Nick Universal Park and at the Mall of
America. One of the scariest rides ever was the Rock Bottom Plunge.
We helped grandpa celebrate his 75th birthday. I watched fireworks during
the fourth of july and they were amazing! I stayed up till 11 oclock one
night. I didn't try any new foods but I did eat one
cheeseburger. Greg, my cousin is much taller now than before we last saw
him. His dad came along and we had a great time with them and I hope we
can do it again sometime. I got a transformer named LongArm, Warpath,
Bumblebee and Grimlock. We had a lot on the water rides, I went into the
wave pool and I went surfing once but Miles did it like three times. I sat
next to a plane driver on the plane and I asked Mom why he wasn't in the pilot
seat instead. Mom said maybe because he's flying to another place. I
was on a plane with a ram named stan painted on the tail of the plane. I
was really tired at the airport because I did not get much sleep the night
before. We went to the Mall of America twice, once for the rides and once
for shopping. Miles got a panda and he named it Gunner, he looks like a
rock start. I saw this motorcycle build a bear and I said to miles: "you
should get it for dad". Miles said he knew that dad doesn't like harleys
so he didn't get it. I went on some kiddie rides with Sterling and Sadie,
they were seven and five years old. Spencer, Miles and Keenan spent more
time on the scarier rides.

Heading Home

Tonight, we fly home.

This has been the longest trip I've taken as a "single parent" (with a Hubby that is self employed, do you really want to take this much time off without billable work, just to see family? Nah, neither did we...). 10 days/9nights.

And yet...it has been the easiest one for me.

As they get older, they seem to enjoy this trip more than when they were young.

They look forward to which "cousin" we'll see that day, and whether this is an "auntie" that gives Thing One a present or not (since it was his birthday on Saturday, he scored some serious cash from even the extended "aunties").

And I am reminded what a blessing it is to visit those people who remember me when... So while my hair color has changed, and my size has expanded...it's still something special to be able to take that trip down memory lane...and bring my Things along with me for the fun.

But all good things must come to an end...so we'll be back home to our own beds later tonight...and that indeed will be a good thing too!

Wordless Wednesday: Let's Play

Be There, or Be Square...we're off for the much anticipated adventure to the Mall of America!

The fun just never seems to end...

7.1.08: Thing One tries his hand at farming.













7.2.08: The cousins prove that their oldest cousin would make an excellent "manny".


7.3.08: "Audrey's girls" take their daddy (and 25 of his friends) to lunch. Happy 75th dad!








7.4.08: An All American Celebration in Cudahy. Launching water balloons at a few of the unsuspecting guests.
7.5.08: Officially, I have a pre-teen thing on my hands. Look closely, there are 11 candles on that cake!









7.5.08: 25 years later, all of us seem to be sporting a more rounded figure than we did way back when.


7.6.08: Surf's Up Dude, here at the Kalahari Resort in WI Dells.


We're still on the road with no certainty as to when I'll have access to high speed internet. While it is possible to "go home", there is no guarantee that they'll have internet access when you get there.

Stay cool, stay happy...and next time? Don't forget to pack the bug spray!