Make Your Life Easier - Getting Rid Of Clutter

In my last post, I talked about how one of my main New Year's resolutions was to try and get rid of all the useless clutter in my life. It's amazing how quickly clutter can take over a household, but unfortunately, getting rid of it can seem like it's a never-ending task. You know how it is - you clean your house out in preparation for a garage sale, and two days after the Salvation Army has picked up your left overs, you already have a new pile of clutter building up in the corner of your closet. It's a vicious cycle.

Let me start by saying that the only way to really stop clutter in your house is to stop buying more stuff and recycle what you already own into new things that you need.

But now that I've said that, let's be real. While that's definitely something to strive for, if your house is anything like mine (with a kid who is constantly outgrowing things, a husband who likes gadgets, and well, let's be honest, I like to shop!), that's probably not going to happen any time soon. So the only other de-cluttering options around here are to organize it or get rid of it.

There are two web sites that I've found that have been providing me with the weapons I need to constantly battle the clutter in my house: FlyLady.net and ClutterDiet.com.

FlyLady.net is definitely worth a look. There is a lot of great information on the site itself, (although they will encourage you to join FlyLady, a daily email subscription, which is free). The main idea behind FlyLady is to break down the huge job of cleaning and de-cluttering your home into small, easy to do tasks so that eventually your home clutter is under control. There is a TON of useful information on the web site - and I mean A TON. In fact, so much so that's it's a bit overwhelming. In the third paragraph down on the first page of the site, there is a link to a section called Flying Lessons - and I highly recommend starting there. And truthfully, that may be all you need for some great, motivating ideas. However, if you want to dive deeper, head back to the main page and scroll down to the sections called "Reinforce Your Habits" and "What Kind of FlyBaby Are You?". I actually joined FlyLady to see if their emails would be useful, and although I liked the daily reminders to do things, the emails were so darn long (and very repetitive!) that I unsubscribed within a week. No need to move from household clutter to email clutter! But I still think this is a great resource to get you started on a living a clutter-free life.

Now onto ClutterDiet.com. Although joining ClutterDiet.com, a subscription service, is not free (it costs $14.95 per month for access to a team of professional organizers online), there is actually quite a bit of free information available on the site, and it's SO much easier to read and navigate than FlyLady. Even better than the actual ClutterDiet site is the blog of Lorie Marrero, a professional organizer and the creator of The ClutterDiet. Her blog is filled with useful tips for creating a clutterless life and best of all, it's totally free. Instead of subscribing to the site, I recommend subscribing to the RSS feed of the blog (at no charge, of course) - I have yet to read an idea that I didn't think was useful.

Now I'm off to de-clutter my kitchen junk drawer... happy spring cleaning!

The Start of Something New

Hello, my name is Stacy and I am a magazine junkie.

I've always loved magazines, but my true addiction started a little over three years ago when my son was born. I have been an avid reader all my life - the librarian in the town where I grew up used to call me "The Human Book Vacuum". I typically would read a book or two a week, and when I was on a vacation or at the beach, I could easily devour a book every couple of days. I'm one of those people who gets so absorbed in what I'm reading that I completely tune out the rest of the world (I can just imagine my husband rolling his eyes right now and nodding his head in frustrated agreement!).

However, once Rory was born (and as you all probably know by now, he's a force to be reckoned with!), I couldn't focus on ANYTHING longer than a few minutes at a time, let alone try and read a whole book. And so my passion for magazines began. Glossy pages with a variety of interesting and relevant topics, all that can be read in five minutes or less? The perfect mini-escape for a busy mom!

I don't know about you, but I am always finding little tidbits in magazines that I read and think, "Wow, this is great useful information - I bet it will come in handy one of these days!" and so I fold the page over, promising myself that I'll remember to come back to it someday. But even with the best of intentions, I now have several stacks of magazines saved up, all with at least one or two pages folded down, if not more!

One of my new year's resolutions this year was to try and rid myself of useless clutter. I've been attacking my house with gusto, gleefully getting rid of old clothes we don't wear anymore, clearing through boxes in the garage, throwing out of papers in the office, even going so far as to take four full bags of Rory's old baby clothes - organized by size and season, mind you! - to a consignment shop. However, when it came to my stacks of magazines, with all of their folded pages peaking out at me, I just couldn't make myself get rid of them. I mean, just think of all that USEFUL INFORMATION! So USEFUL! Just waiting to be USED!!!

And so I got an idea. What if I tore out all the folded pages and put them into categories - and then created a new section of my blog to showcase all this amazingly USEFUL INFORMATION? No more stacks of magazines cluttering the nooks and crannies of my family room! And maybe, just maybe, I could feel like all this USEFUL INFORMATION would actually be getting USED!

So, to make a LOOOONG story short, I have decided to start a new area of my blog called "The Filing Cabinet". This section will include snappy headings (thought of by yours truly over the past few nights during my latest bout of insomnia) such as Worth It Web Sites, Make Your Life Easier (Tips and Tricks), The Mindful Mama (Parenting Help), and Going Green Gracefully. My hope is to essentially put the majority of this USEFUL information to the test in my own life and then let you know how it goes. If nothing else, I'm sure it will provide some entertaining blogging material! And if you also happen to test out any of these ideas or tips, I'd love to hear if it ended up being useful to you. Because in case you haven't noticed, USEFULNESS is kind of a theme here...

Here's to the start of something new!

Newsletter 3.0 (Happy 3rd Birthday, Rory!)

Okay, so I’m a little late writing this (two weeks late, to be exact), but there was so much going on around the time of your birthday that, quite honestly, this is the first real chance I’ve had to catch my breath.

Inhale.
Exhale.
Ahhhh – that’s much better! Now let’s get down to business.

You, my friend, had what I will now always refer to as “The Endless Birthday.” It started on the Thursday before your actual birth date when you had a party at your preschool to celebrate your Hebrew birthday. Because apparently, since the Hebrew calendar is different than the standard calendar that we all use (because there is that little matter of B.C. and A.D. that understandably doesn’t figure into the Jewish way of thinking), your Hebrew birthday doesn’t always fall on the same day as what the rest of the world considers your birthday. So you, being the lucky little devil that you are, got TWO birthdays.

Your father and I went to your school to see you celebrate with all of your classmates and the Rabbi by wearing a birthday crown and eating a nice kosher birthday cake.



You loved the special attention and the fact that you got to lick honey off of a picture of the Hebrew alphabet to signify that learning Hebrew (which you officially get to start when you turn three) is a sweet privilege. And so the enormous intake of sugar began…



That night, your Grandma Judy and your Granny Dudley came into town and with them came loads of fun, and of course, more sugar. By the time your birthday party on Sunday began, I don’t think a single nutritious item had passed through your lips in almost 72 hours. But isn’t that part of what birthdays are all about?

Your OTHER party this year was at a place called Playsource, which is basically an indoor play place that has tons of stuff to keep little people like you busy. This year, we planned your party with your buddy, Paxton, who was not only born on the same day as you, he was also born at the very same hospital. It was a bit on the crazy side, because between the two of you, we were expecting 35 kids (12 from us, 23 from them), not to mention, all of their parents. THAT IS A LOT OF PEOPLE. I have to admit that I was a bit overwhelmed by the thought of it, and I was more than a little worried that you weren’t going to feel like it was your special day. But, as usual, I worried for nothing and you had a terrific time. The only thing that bothered you about sharing your party was that when everyone sang Happy Birthday, they sang, “Happy Birthday to Paxton and Rory! Happy Birthday to you!” and afterwards you said to me, “Mamma, I didn’t like the ‘Paxton and Rory’ song, I wanted them to say, ‘Just Rory’!” So, note to self, if we ever have a shared party again (which is highly unlikely!) make sure that we sing a separate birthday song for each kid. Sheesh!



As with any party, we ended up having a ton of food left over, especially cupcakes (Paxton’s mom and I made all 85 of them ourselves, by the way!). So for every night after your party that we still had cupcakes left, you made us put a candle in one for you and sing, “Happy Birthday to JUST RORY! Happy Birthday to YOU!”. This went on for at least four nights (hence the “Endless Birthday” theme), so I think that MORE than made up for the song transgression, don’t you?



I can’t talk about your birthday, of course, without mentioning some of your favorite presents. Your Nana and Poppi gave you a “big boy bicycle” with training wheels, and you were so excited that you immediately jumped on it and started pedaling your little heart out. We are so impressed by how fast you got the hang of it, and now I spend at least part of every day huffing and puffing as I chase you around the neighborhood. Good exercise for both of us! I get such a kick out of watching you (for those of you with kids, it kinda reminds me a bit of what Elmo looks like when he rides a bike on Sesame Street!), it’s so darn cute to see your little legs going round and round! And sometimes, my chest puffs up with so much pride that I can’t even breathe – but somehow I still manage to have a silly grin on my face anyway…





Your other favorite gifts are High School Musical related (are you surprised?), especially the new Wii game that your father and I bought you that lets you sing along to all of your favorite HSM songs karaoke style with your very own microphone. For you, it just doesn’t get any better than that! And even though we probably wouldn’t admit this in public, your father and I think it’s pretty cool, too. Where else is our vast knowledge of High School Musical songs going to come in handy? And now we will have an endless source of entertainment at our fingertips that looks a little something like this:



Happy Birthday, big guy!

Love,
Mama

It's a Small World...

Back when I was working at the Mother of All Coffee Houses, I was taking a girl's order and asked for her name. She said it was Marin, which happens to be my niece's name as well. So I said conversationally, "You know, Marin is a name you don't hear very often, but I have a Marin in my family. And the funny thing is, her name is Marin Pearce and there is actually another Marin Pearce that lives in Ventura, the same town as her. Crazy, eh?" The girl gets this really weird look on her face and she says, "Are you kidding?! That's my name! I'm the other Marin Pearce in Ventura!"

Now what are the chances of that?

A Golf Pro in the Making

Our entertainment for the evening:




Perhaps we should start saving for a set of golf clubs, although the back scratcher is kind of a nice throw back to my husband's Mariposa roots. Just kidding, honey!

Girl, Interrupted

Just a quick note to let everyone know that my email address with AOL has been frozen, which essentially means that life as I know it has come to screeching halt. Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but it sure FEELS that way. So here I am in the first few weeks of adjusting to my new stay at home mom status and then Rory gets sick. Sinus infection, double ear infection, snot everywhere sick. We are basically confined to our house for five days and not only am I drowning in a pile of dirty Kleenex, I'm also totally climbing the walls. And now, to add insult to injury, I CAN'T GET MY STINKIN' EMAIL! My lifeline to the outside world has been cut off!

Here's the story: Today I go to log into my AOL email and I get this error message that says, "This account has been frozen for security reasons. Please have the account holder contact AOL." Uh, what? I've had this same email address since AOL first came out FIFTEEN years ago and I've never had this problem. So I call AOL's service line to see what the deal is and when they ask for my name to verify that I'm the account holder, there is a long pause. The guy comes back and tells me that the account holder is actually my father. You see, all those years ago, my dad set up my email address as part of a family account and apparently that was never changed. The guy also tells me that only my dad can call to get the account re-instated. UH OH.

Now, usually that wouldn't be a big problem, except of course my parents just left for a two week trip to Rwanda to see gorillas (yes, totally random, I know) and seeing as how they are in the middle a jungle somewhere retracing the steps of Diane Fossey, well, they are sort of UNREACHABLE.

ARRRRRGGGGH!

So what the heck am I supposed to do for two weeks? I can't even send everyone an email to tell them to use a temporary email address because my contact list is in my AOL account. WHICH IS FROZEN.

Soooo, just in case any of YOU are trying to get in touch with me via email, please use my Yahoo address, which is rorysmama@yahoo.com until further notice.

If I can survive that long...

Newsletter 2.11

Dear Rory -
Well, the invitations are out and it's official, in two weeks you are going to be turning three. THREE! I know that I will probably say this almost every time you have a birthday, but where did this year go? I've always heard that time really starts to fly when you have children, but no one told me that it moved at WARP SPEED.

I get dizzy just thinking about.



Although I have to admit that I'm not THAT sad that you are leaving your terrible twos behind (you ARE, right?) because they most definitely have not been all sunshine and roses! But perhaps all the fussiness is a result of the amazing changes that take place between ages two and three - there is no doubt that this year has seen you change from a little toddler to a BOY. It's darn impressive to think of how far you've come in the last twelve months - you think for yourself now, you have the words to tell us just about anything you want to (a skill you certainly practice ALL THE TIME!), and you're constantly telling us that that you want to do everything "all by myself!". You have become our little Mr. Independent.



Some of your quirks of the moment include:
- A sudden, intense dislike of freeways (where on Earth did that come from?) so much so that if we want any peace and quiet in the car, we have to find back roads to everywhere. So if we are late for something these days, you know why!
- Picking your nose and telling me that you are trying to get the "stuffies" out.
- Grabbing your guitar and singing a quick song about whatever activity you are about to do next. (For example, today it was, "I'm gonna take a nap now, a nap now, a nap now. I'm gonna take a nap now, in my bed today! Thank you, everyone! Goodnight!")



- Trying to imitate the dance moves from "High School Musical" because you already have ALL the words to the songs memorized.
- Finding a new favorite stuffed animal (or "buddy" as you call it) to hug for the week that ultimately ends up in your bed. To date, you have Monks, Lili, Baby Bear, Sunny and Dewey all sleeping with you (and I hate to tell you this, but your "big boy bed" really isn't THAT BIG.)
- Talking to your imaginary friends, Doe and Dee, on your phone
- And last but not least - telling us, "Not now, but soon!" everytime we ask you to do something, you little procrastinator!

It's been quite a year, Ro - not an easy one for me by any stretch of the imagination, but I forgive you for your part in that because, well, you can't help that you were a two year old. And you had that whole " terrible twos" image to live up to, right? (Super job with that, by the way!) And although I've heard that year three can sometimes be even harder (HARDER???), I can at least count on the fact that it's going to be interesting. Because with you, Ro, there is NEVER a dull moment.

And honestly, I don't think I'd want it any other way.

Love,
Mama

Panic Attack

We've been working hard at getting Rory to go to sleep in his big boy bed by himself, and I mistakenly thought we were finally getting things under control. Last night, Hoby put him to bed, and since he didn't take a nap, it wasn't a surprise when everything got quiet upstairs fairly quickly. Hoby and I actually had a few hours together and I was patting myself on the back for getting back into some semblence of a routine.

Two hours later, we head up to bed, and Hoby goes to check on our sleepy head while I go put on my pajamas. Two seconds later, I hear Hoby say rather loudly, "Stacy, WHERE IS RORY?!". And I think, kinda late for a joke, isn't it? Hoby appears at our bedroom door and says, "No, really - WHERE IS RORY? He's not in his room!" and I can see by the look on his face that he's TOTALLY NOT KIDDING. And suddenly, I can't breathe.

We start to look in all the other rooms upstairs - the bathroom (maybe he's in the bathtub sleeping?), the laundry room (did he climb into the dryer?), until finally, Hoby opens the door to his office (which is off limits to Rory) and there is he is - fast asleep on the couch. And once my lungs had a chance to re-inflate, and all of the horrible visions of missing children ads on milk cartons stopped blurring my vision, I smothered my Rory with kisses until we tucked him back into his bed, safe and sound.

Rory, don't ever scare your Mama like that again!

Passing on the Love of Target

Recently I bought Rory a little book in the dollar section of Target called "Bye Bye Pacifier." We've been trying to work up the guts to get rid of his "chewie" as he calls it, and I thought this book might be a way to start the process. So I'm reading Rory the story this afternoon before naptime and it goes a little something like this:

Bye bye Chewie? (Actually, it says pacifier, but you get the idea.)
No! I love my chewie!
I take it with me everywhere,
but sometimes it gets in the way.
My mommy is always so happy
when I take my chewie out of my mouth.
One day she asked me if I would mail my chewie
to a baby that needs one,
so I took my chewie out and put it in an envelope.
Mommy and Daddy are so proud of me!
They say I'm a big boy now!

After I finished reading this little gem to Rory, I say to him, "Hey Ro, how would you like to give your chewies to some babies that need them?"

He shakes his head and says, "No, that's okay, Mama. Their mommies can just buy them some at Target."

So much for THAT idea.

The End of an Era

Today was my last day at the Mother of All Coffee Houses. This day had such huge significance for me, and yet, to everyone else getting coffee, it was just another average day. Definitely a weird feeling. But everytime I would start to get a twinge of regret of leaving, an obnoxious customer would come in, almost as if on cue, and I'd mentally pat myself on the back and think, thank God I won't have to deal with this CRAP anymore!

- I had a woman practically throw a TANTRUM because we didn't put the sleeve on her cup for her - she actually demanded that her drink be free because of it!

- A man THREW his wadded up cash at me while talking on his cell phone, and then proceeded to hold up the line because he hadn't paid me enough and I couldn't get his attention.

- And my very LAST customer was a guy who accused me of trying to rob him because he thought he gave me a twenty but actually gave me a ten. He didn't believe me so he kept demanding his change. What a pain in the ass!

But then my darling husband showed up with flowers, and after I clocked out for the last time, he swept me off to dinner to celebrate the end of an era.

And the beginning of a new one.

Let the Countdown Begin...

For those of you who might not know, this will be my last week at The Mother of All Coffee Houses. Since I'm still making less than ten dollars an hour, even after almost three years (THREE YEARS!) and Hoby will now have health benefits with his job, it just didn't seem logical for me to stay any longer.

People keep asking me if I'm going to miss working there, and most of the time, the answer is yes. But just when I begin to second guess my decision to leave, something like THIS happens:

- a lady actually demands that I remake her latte because her name is spelled wrong on her cup.

- a man comes and takes his tip back from the tip jar because we didn't put the sleeve on his cup for him (even though they are right there on the counter for people to put on themselves...)

- while I am sweeping the crumbs off the floor, a woman says to me, "Take your broom somewhere else. Not only are you being rude, but you are bothering my allergies!" and because I only have one more week to go I actually tell her, "Only if you say PLEASE."

Hmmm, will I miss it???

My Brother is Dating Who?

I open up my online news page today and see this headline:
"Lindsay Lohan's New Squeeze is Jeremy Greene"

After laughing my ass off, I decided that I just had to post this on my blog. (Not that it couldn't happen, Bro - hahahaha!)

Bedtime Battleground

I'm beginning to seriously question our decision to take Rory out of his crib and put him into a bed. And I mean SERIOUSLY. We had finally gotten into a decent routine where we could put him down to sleep in his crib with a kiss and then walk away without a fuss (and trust me, it took us quite awhile to get there - just read some of my old blog posts!). Now I feel like we're all the way back at square one, having to lay down with him, not just to get him to go to sleep , but to get him just to STAY IN HIS BED. He's decided that it's a game to get up and sneak out to find us, and no amount of threatening or following through with punishment seems to be helping. It's been taking me an entire hour to get him to go down for his naps - and it's a constant battle just to keep him laying down. And once he finally dozes off, I have to hold my breath, tip-toe out of the room, and pray that the floor doesn't squeak - because if he hears me leaving, well, all hell breaks loose.

Arrrgh! This sucks.

Four Things About Yours Truly

Okay, for some reason I can't help but do these things when people send them to me. Come on admit you, you kinda like them, too...

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Barista at Starbucks
2. Corporate Meeting Planner
3. Marketing Coordinator for a publishing company
4. Programming Counselor for Disney Cruise Lines

Four movies I’ve watched more than once: (not including the one's that my son makes me watch a million times, like Polar Express and High School Musical!)
1. French Kiss (This is not as kinky as it sounds - it's a Meg Ryan movie, really!)
2. Titanic (Who HASN'T see this more than once?!)
3. Momento
4. Never Been Kissed

Four T.V. Shows that I regularly watch:
1. The Office
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Lost
4. Chuck

Four places I've traveled to:
1. Kenya, Africa
2. Venice, Italy
3. London, England
4. Nassau in the Carribean

People who e-mail me (regularly):
1. Sara Cameron
2. My Mom
3. Hoby
4. Pam Gil

Four of my favorite foods (WHAT? ONLY FOUR????):
1. Peanut Butter
2. Sushi
3. The cheese bread from Red Lobster (Yummo!)
4. Anything with Chocolate AND Peanut Butter

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Getting a massage
2. In a boat (preferrably on a lake)
3. On a beach in Hawaii with a drink in my hand
4. At the movies (Hey, I had to make at least ONE of these somewhat attainable.)

Four things I am looking forward to this year:
1. Rory being potty trained
2. My 10 year Disney Cruise Line Reunion in Orlando this July
3. Going on a cruise to Mexico in August
4. Hopefully having another baby

Four things you probably don't know about me:
1. I'm afraid of fire
2. I'm flat-footed
3. I'm a speed reader
4. I can't drive a stick shift (ridiculous, I know - but true.)

Ode to Flip

This past Tuesday, one of my favorite older cousins, Flip Harris, passed away. She was a cousin of my grandma's, so I'm not sure exactly what our relationship was (you know, first cousin, twice removed, or third cousin once removed - however that works) but I know that she was one cool old lady and that she will be dearly missed. (And for those who are wondering - yes, Flip IS her name, although it's short for something that I can't remember at the moment - she's just always been Cousin Flip to us.) Although I didn't live close to her, one of my earliest memories is of visiting Flip and her sister Jules at their house, I think in Arizona, and where they had their very own horses. And, like almost every other girl in the world, I was absolutely fascinated with horses for awhile, so in my young eyes, I thought these ladies were the luckiest EVER.

My most recent memory of Flip was from my road trip across country ten years ago with my best friend, Holley. We were working for Disney Cruise Lines then, but since the ship we were supposed to be working on wasn't finished being built on time, all of the crew got sent home for an eight week paid leave - which was basically an eight week PAID VACATION. How often does THAT happen? So Holley and I jumped into my old red Pontiac Sunbird and took several weeks driving across the country - it was very Thelma and Louise-ish of us and probably one of the best trips I've ever gone on. (Ah, the good old days!)

Anyway, we kept our costs down by staying with friends and relatives along the way, so we ended up stopping to see Flip while we were passing through Arizona. Being the computer geek that I am, I took my trusty laptop with me on this amazing trip (which was no easy feat ten years ago - they weighed a TON!), and I started what I guess would be considered my very first blog, "Adventures in Red." Below is the entry from the day that we visited her:

April 20, 1998
Hello again! Here we are in beautiful Leisure World (Mesa, Arizona), where the sun is shining and the seniors are hoppin'! We finished off our visit with Jer by driving out to see our frisky cousin Flip (yes - that IS her name) at her beautiful home outside of Tucson. She entertained us with stories of our family scandals and her two tiny, yippy dogs, Butch and Casey. She definitely reminded us of the spunky old lady in the movie "Titanic" with her jokes and her forward way of speaking. Needless to say, we were all VERY entertained.

I only saw Flip one more time after that visit, when she had to uproot herself from her beloved house in Tucson and move to Florida to be closer to family because she couldn't take care of herself as well anymore. But she still managed to keep her amazing sense of humor, even though I'm sure it broke her heart to leave Arizona...

Flip, you were one amazing lady. You will be missed...

Top Five Things That Annoy Your Coffee Barista: Part 3

Once again, back by popular demand:

5) Customers who finally get to the register after being in line for awhile and then don't know what to order. You just waited in line for ten minutes, what the heck were you doing all that time? And then some of you actually have the nerve to complain about how slow the line is moving. Hmmm, wonder why?

4) People who spill their drinks in the lobby and then don't tell anyone about it. People, this is a major safety hazard - we could get our asses sued if someone slipped on that mess. It's not like we're asking YOU to clean it up, we're just asking you to TELL us that it happened so we can take care of it. It's called common decency. Maybe you've heard of it? Actually, maybe you haven't...

3) Regulars who are rude to our baristas in training. Yes, I know that you are used to having your drink waiting for you before you even order it, but we've all gotta learn sometime. Have a little patience! Trust me, being an ass to our newbies isn't going to earn you points with anyone behind the counter, and it may actually end up earning you DECAF without you knowing it. So BE NICE!

2) Customers who complain when we run out of something. Yes, it sucks when you've had your heart set on your favorite drink and we've run out of white mocha (or vanilla or sugar free hazelnut - whatever, you get the idea). But take a second before you lash out at the person behind the register and realize that we are JUST THE MESSANGER. We didn't purposely run into the back when we saw you coming and chug down the last bottle of your favorite syrup just to spite you. We simply ran out. We have at least TWENTY other flavors for you to choose from - and remember, it's JUST COFFEE. It's not the end of the world.

And the number one thing that is annoying your neighborhood barista these days...

1) Yup , it's that damn cell phone problem again, but with a different twist. People actually get to register, but instead of ordering, they tell me to wait a minute and then use their cell phone to call and get their friends' drink orders. Out of respect for your fellow customer waiting behind you, don't come up to the register if you don't know what you're going to order. And for God's sake, people, for the last time - hang up your phone!

Yeah, it's just been one of those weeks...

(For more of my ranting and raving, my previous top five lists can be found here and here.)

We're All In This Together...

High School Musical is the new favorite movie in our house (it's even surpassed Polar Express, if you can believe it!). Rory watches it at least three times a day at the moment, and listens to the sound track even more. Who would have a thought that a two and a half year old would get so entranced by a musical! But as you can see from the video below, he LOVES it, and we love watching HIM.



Guess we better think about getting him a real microphone stand, eh?:

Rock on, Ro.

The New Big Boy Bed

This picture speaks for itself...he LOVES his new bed!



Hoby took apart the crib tonight and we stored it away (at least until another one comes along that needs it!).

Sighhhh, I guess my baby is a baby no longer...

A Banner Week

This week has been amazing in terms of milestones for Rory. First of all, he has been doing a great job sleeping on his "big boy" mattress on the floor, since we've been trying to transition him out of his crib. The first night he slept on his mattress, he woke up and called for me, not realizing that he could actually get out of bed on his own. It only took a few times though before he realized, hey, I don't actually HAVE to stay here! I can get OUT of my bed! Do these people KNOW what they've done? Ha!



He scared Hoby half to death one night when he silently snuck into our room after we thought he was asleep. We kept having to put him back in his bed, only to hear him giggling as he tip-toed back out of his room again. Another night, he was quiet for about 20 minutes after we put him down, and we were impressed (with him and with ourselves!) that he had fallen asleep so quickly. But when Hoby went upstairs to change his clothes, he found that Rory had quietly snuck into our bed, and it was obvious that he was hoping we wouldn't notice. (You're kinda hard to miss, big guy!)

But after a few nights of getting the hang of things, he has now made it through THREE full nights of uninterrupted sleep and he's even managed to take his naps on his mattress. So I guess that means that my baby is officially ready for a "big boy bed." I think the first time I walk into his room and see a bed instead of a crib it's going to break my mommy heart just a little...



Milestone number two: Rory finally went potty on the toilet! He's been great with the peeing part of things, but it's been quite a struggle to get him to, um, sit down, if you know what I mean. We know that he's aware of when he has to go because he always heads over to the same spot behind a chair to do his business. And if he's wearing a pull-up, he'll actually come over and ask us to put him in a diaper. So on Saturday, when he asked me to put him in a diaper, I suddenly got this crazy idea and I told him that we were out of diapers. I even took him over to the diaper basket (which I hadn't restocked yet for the day) and showed him that it was empty. I could see the wheels turning in his head as he processed this information, so I took advantage of the situation and said, "Guess you'll have to use the toilet to go potty!" I held my breath and waited for the loud "Nooooo!" that usually accompanies any suggestion to poop on the pot. But instead he said, "Okay!".

Okay? OKAY?! Was it really that simple? And yes, it really was! Why didn't I try this AGES ago? Sheesh... so we FINALLY had what I like to call "poop lift off" and Rory was beyond excited that he heard the "plop plop" sound in the toilet. Who knew pooping could be so much fun!

I don't know why it's happening all at once, but my little boy is growing up...

Way to go, Ro!

Happy Birthday, Marin!

Rory was really looking forward to celebrating his cousin Marin's 5th birthday with her tonight(and I'm sure Marin was too!) but unfortunately, she has come down with a fever so the family get-together has to be postponed. So in honor of you, Marin, Rory decided to sing you a song to make you feel better:



We love you!