“Mommy I growed eyebrows!!!!” I heard this shrieked from Eddie’s bedroom last night. I took me a few seconds to realize what he was saying and by then he was running out of his room, fingers over eyebrows. “I growed them Mommy! Feel!!”

I tease him all the time because his eyebrows are so blonde you can’t see them. “Where are your eyebrows Eddie?” I guess he thought he didn’t really have any. Funny kid.

There isn’t a whole lot going on. I’ve been acquiring summer clothes for the kids and myself over the last week or so, and hope to make my final stop at Old Navy today. (This, of course, does not include the requisite shopping trips before I travel with work next month and before our planned summer vacation) I’m tying up loose ends at work since I am on vacation next week---WOOOOHOOOO!!! And don’t tell the bad mommy police, but Eddie and Caitlyn will be going to daycare Monday thru Wednesday while I’m off. I have to, um, clean. Seriously, I do, and Wednesday is Ed’s birthday. Why have a sitter in the evening when we can do lunch during the day-Casino buffet? Mmmmmmm. Also, Rosanne is having a purse party on Weds evening that I HAVE to go to.

Thursday and Friday we are going to the Indoor Water Park, Eddie’s potty training present, even though he’s been fully potty trained since December. We’re excited; it’s going to be a good time.

This coming Saturday we’re going to the Children’s museum with Marisa, George and Sophia so I’ll be sure to post pictures.

I guess there is a lot going on, huh?

I read Catherine Newman's Wondertime Article yesterday and immediately ordered this book from Amazon. It sounds really good and hopefully will help in easing the discomfort and I drop the kids off at daycare every day. Just the few excerpts online made me tear up a little bit. I’m a sap.

I was actually just commenting over at Catherine’s how being a mom puts everything in quite a different perspective. Things that would not have affected me before kids do so profoundly now.

Speaking of books, I just finished “Me and Emma” and the author escapes me right now, but it is about a little girl, Caroline and her little sister Emma who live with their imbalanced mother and severely abusive stepfather. The story is told in the voice of Caroline and is so incredible vivid that I had to put the book down several times because I was bawling uncontrollably. How he put chains around their necks and makes them eat dog food. How he molested Emma but not Caroline. It was incredibly heartbreaking. In the end it actually turns out that there is no Emma and that Caroline sort of made her little sister up as a way of coping with her daddy’s death and the abuse she endured. I sat for a long time last night, so profoundly affected by this book---this piece of fiction. I just don’t even know what to make of it.

I was telling my mother the other day that being a mom has turned me in to a complete chicken (I am taking my first plane ride EVER in a month and am freaking out a little bit) but it has also turned me in to a sensitive soul when it comes to children-real or fictional apparently. I can’t stop thinking about it even today, and I think it’s because even though this was a piece of fiction, there are kids out there who go through this and much worse every day.

I am absolutely beside myself.

I'll have to admit that my stomach lurched a little bit as I handed over my $300+ breast pump to Lisa and Chris on Saturday, but I'm comforted by the fact that they are trying to do the right thing for their baby girl. That's her up there, my brand new niece, Samantha, born to Ed's brother Chris, and his girlfriend Lisa, who are both 18 years old. Not the best of circumstances, but she is a beautiful baby. We saw them at the hospital on Wednesday, 2 days after she was born, and then they came over Saturday, to get the pump and hang out for a while. It was nice. Samantha slept almost the entire time they were here, and then woke up screaming as they were ready to leave. I really don't miss the baby days.

Here is my baby, by the way, last weekend before Lisa's shower.



We had a really great weekend. The weather was just beautiful and we got in a lot of time outside. I shopped for summer clothes for the kids yesterday, and today Eddie helped me clean and vacuum my car out. Both kids went grocery shopping with me, and were generally good all day. The Capri's Caitlyn has on here are a size 12months which made me freak out since I bought her all 24 months, but I think these must just run big since the 24month fit just fine. The 2T's on the other hand are huge. I need to have another baby shower so other people can do this for me. :)





While down stairs yesterday, I heard a crash hat happened to be Cait pulling out a bin of silverware and dumping it in the kitchen. Above it all I hear Eddie yell "WHAT THE HELL??" He's going to be the death of me. You may remember his previous fondness of spouting off "Dammit" left and right. Now, he trys to trick you. He'll act like he's going to curse, and then change it to "Aw....DAMAGE!" I really don't know where he gets this stuff. Cait is at the point of repeating every word we say, and is stringing 4/5 word sentences together. She told my father-in-law "NO NO BAD BOY!!" all day on Saturday and told me "NO, I don't want juice Mommy!" She's great with communicating what she wants and does not want, demanding little girl.

OK, I need to get to bed. I have a dentist appointment in the AM that I am not looking forward to.

Photos by Eddie

I let Eddie use the camera today and not surprisingly, I was his subject. Here are his photos in order---The first 2 are not the greatest, but the last two aren't so shabby!

EASTER

Easter was……well, it just was I suppose. An enjoyable day that began at 7am and ended at 10pm with nonstop candy and no naps. And all I can say is “It was.”

I mean it when I say the day started at 7:00 am. Luckily I got up at about 6:45 and put Eddie’s basket back under the table where I caught the cat licking all of the plastic before we went to bed on Saturday. Eddie could hardly contain himself as he waited at the gate for Ed to get out of bed. I distracted him by making him take his pull up off and go pee so that Ed could at least get dressed. As soon as the gate was down, he ran in to the living room to look for his basket.

We probably could have put it in the middle of the room and he wouldn’t have seen it. He’s horrible at looking for things. We told him to tell Cait to look near the play kitchen for her basket, and he immediately found it and got it down for her. She was pleased. The next 15 minutes felt like 15 hours. He was just walking around, looking in odd places. Ed and I asked questions like “What’s something it could be under??” And laughed as he looked under the couch with its generous half inch of room underneath. He did eventually find the basket under his table, and laughed hysterically as he pulled out the treats inside.

“WOOO HOO Spiderman BUBBLES!!!!! Is this fire truck made of CHOCOLATE?? A SPONGEBOB MAGAZINE???? Is this a cookie sucker on a stick??” He was enamored.

Caitlyn loved her Dora coloring book, but was more interested in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Bunny Sucker that I bought from work. The thing was as big as my hand and she devoured it in, oh, less than 10 min.





The kids combined all of their chocolate eggs in to one basket (ha, don’t put all your eggs in one basket….) and disappeared. They hid them all over their bedroom. Even after I went and collected them from the crevices of Eddie’s racecar bed, they were still coming out with eggs in their mouths. I’m not sure where they were, but I’m pretty sure they’re gone now.

Ed and I ate breakfast (the kids refused) and cleaned up the living room so he could clean the carpets. I got the kids ready for my mom’s house while he did that, and we were on the road by 11:30 and at my mom’s by noon. The candy consumption continued with Eddie devouring half a box of chocolate tools and whatever else he could get his hands on. Caitlyn peeled foiled eggs and popped them in her mouth like a pro. She at least ate some ham and potatoes but Eddie refused.




Lunch was great. My brothers were there, there was good food and good wine. Very enjoyable. I did debate with my mother over immigration issues and speaking English in America and having to press a button for English in an automated system. I argued that this is America and the land of opportunity. She argued that in America you should speak English. The greatest moment of the day was when she asked me if I wanted some “platczek” or coffee cake in Polish. I told her to speak English since we’re in America and we all had a really great laugh. Ed told me he was going to sleep with one eye open because I have some balls he was unaware of. It was really all in good fun though.




We left there to go home and cook dinner for Ed’s parents. Since he had cleaned the carpet, Ed decided to rearrange the furniture while I cooked, and hook up the digital cable. Somehow, he ended up breaking the TV, which is old to begin with, but we had to put the regular cable back on and now we have a horrible picture. Time for a new TV. Dinner was great though, my ham was clove-y and delicious and my German chocolate pie was also GREAT. Caitlyn had a sugar induced meltdown and I finally got Eddie to eat a roll and butter. We were in bed by 10.

Call Me Cake

I was in Eddie and Caitlyn’s room last night, covering Caitlyn one last time before bed. Eddie sat up and pretended to roll down the window on his race car bed. He proceeded to do a dead on impression of me:

“Hi- can I have a large coffee, black, please? And FOUR chocolate doughnuts?”

I don’t order chocolate doughnuts, that must have been a wish, but his impression was hysterical.

I feel bad because I’m constantly writing about how funny Eddie is and never have much to say about Cait. She really is fun at this age. I don’t know why, but I don’t remember Eddie being this fun at her age. Maybe it’s because I was 27 months pregnant with Caitlyn when he was 20 months old. Actually, I suppose she was born already when he was her age. Anyway, she really is fun. The only way I can get her to do anything is to tell her not to do it, or that I am going to do it first. Any time we arrive at a destination, regardless of where, she sings “ hone !!” which means, home. When she hands me something, she say “here Mommy”, but here sounds like “hee ooo” and the very best thing, other than her soft kisses, that she gives you first on the lips and then one on each cheek for good measure, is that one day last week I asked her what her name was. She was being silly, and instead of saying “Cait”, which is what she calls herself, she said “cake”. Eddie laughed hysterically and that made her laugh hysterically. Now, any time you ask her what her name is, she says “CAKE!” and laughs. Who knew that a 20-month-old could make jokes?

We’re looking forward to Easter although we’ll be busy between our parents. Busy is good though.

To anyone who reads this- I hope you have a wonderful Easter with your family!!

Take my advice. If you’re 20 and you get an offer to move in with your boyfriend’s father for only $220 a month, when you’re currently paying $380 in rent, don’t do it. You’ll find yourself owning the house in 8 years and he will now be living with you.

I really shouldn’t complain, because Ed’s dad is a tremendous help to me. I don’t know how I would get through a lot of days without his help. Eddie and Caitlyn adore him-plus he does the dishes. He just gets on my very last nerve.

Really my biggest gripe has been resolved-he used to do all of his laundry on the weekend, which is when I also do my laundry. He’s started doing it during the week since he’s retired, and has more time to do it during the week. But why did it take him the whole weekend to do his laundry? Ecause he had SEVERAL loads. They were comprised as follows: 1st load- all of his black socks-maybe 10 pair. 2nd loan- all of his underwear-again, probably 10 pair and an undershirt or 2. 3rd load- 6 every day t-shirts. 4th load- 3 long sleeved shirts. 5th load- 2 pair of jeans. 6th load-2 pair of dress pants. 7th load- 5 towels and 5 wash cloths. You could be like Ed and tell me that I have too much time on my hands to pay this close attention to his loads of laundry, but you should really take my side here. This should be 3 loads of laundry tops.

Ok, done with that…

I got the kid’s Easter baskets out last night and left them in the kitchen. I don’t know why it never occurs to me that Eddie knows what is going on now; he’s not a baby any more. So he asks me “Mommy is the Easter Bunny coming to our house?” I say yes. He puts his hands on his hips “Then why are these Easter baskets in the kitchen already???” I told him that I had to get them out and have them ready for the Easter Bunny to fill with candy. That little stinker.

For the last few months, Eddie has begged me every day to be dropped off in “Caterpillars”, the room for 3-4 year olds at daycare. Some days they had room for him and some days they did not, but the easiest days to drop him off were the days he could go over there. A few weeks ago, I got the notice that he would be moving up permanently effective 4/2. We were excited since he loves it over there so much.

Friday, they had a going away party for him and his friend Mea who was moving up with him. The kids all took turns saying what they would miss about Eddie and Mea, and signed a good bye/good luck card for them. The teachers made a really big deal about their departure. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that this wasn’t a great idea, but didn’t give it a lot of thought because Eddie talked about it all weekend. He was excited to go to Caterpillars.

Until we actually got there, that is. It would be an understatement to say that Eddie was hysterical when I dropped him off this morning. It wasn’t that he was scared, or that anything in particular was wrong with Caterpillars, he was concerned because his friends would miss him. My poor little ball of emotions was concerned that his other friends wouldn’t make it through the day without him. Poor baby.

I finally got out of there after about 20 minutes. I was almost in tears because he was so upset. They ended up taking him over to say hi to his friends to calm him down. I felt so bad for him.

We had a pretty good weekend. We stocked up at BJ’s on Saturday ($456.00 gulp) and made a decision to never take Caitlyn in to a store again. I can’t even begin to describe how terrible she was. Multiple temper tantrums were involved. We had dinner at The Olive Garden with my parents later on, and it was nice, except for trying to avoid Ed’s former business partner who was seated just after us. We haven’t talked to him since, I don’t know, 2002. Could have been very uncomfortable.

Yesterday was uneventful. Ed got up with the kids and let me go back to sleep---then he made pancakes and bacon. I took Eddie for a haircut and then picked up the few groceries I couldn’t get at BJ’s while the kids napped. It got really sunny and warm in the late afternoon, so we played outside while Ed cleaned the garage and barbequed chicken. After Ed left for work, his dad took Eddie up to the store to return bottles and then to Louie’s for a hotdog since he didn’t eat dinner. Kids were both in bed pretty early, and I was asleep before 11.

So, I’m back at work today and it feels like I never left. I really need a vacation.