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Stuff: Random and Otherwise (aka Day 5)

You’ll have to excuse me for the truly exceptionally poor quality of posts I’ve been pumping out lately. I’m so tired that I’m lucky I can string together complete sentences. I have a clothes-basket full of clean, unfolded laundry that is piled precariously up to about waist-height. I had to bribe Gavin to get him to leave me alone for ten minutes to get a shower this morning, and I’ve resorted to carrying Cooper using both my arms, slinging him across my body, as I struggle to see over his struggling body (made bigger by his big puffy coat), with the diaper bag swinging like a pendulum from my wrist as I shuffle along. Add in that I’m barking blindly at Gavin, who I can’t see, to Hurry up! Get in the building! Knowing how ridiculous I must look, I start cackling madly to myself, which only adds to the whole crazy picture that scares away the other parents and leaves the staff at daycare wide-eyed like they’d never seen something like that before.

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I found out on New Year’s Eve why so many people are addicted to Rock Band. We went over to Eric and Andrea’s place after I got home for work. We had steaks for dinner and a homemade tiramisu trifle. We cracked open the champagne (ok, technically sparkling wine) right away because we weren’t exactly sure how long Cooper would let us stay (Gavin is always ready to stay up late watching movies).

After dinner we ambled downstairs to play “Rock Band” and let the three boys (Peyton is 3 months older than Cooper) go bezerk while we played the game for a couple hours. We then, sucessfully(!), got our kids to lay down in the guest room so that we could continue playing the game. I sucked on the guitar, was afraid of the drums (hell, that’s why I married a guitar-playing drummer), and instead rocked the mike. Or at least according to the game I did because it kept telling me how “AWESOME!” I was! I’m considering trying out for “American Idol” now.

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I made vitinnis on New Year’s Day for dinner, which some of you may remember, takes a while. Especially when my dough-man, Justin, was busy clearing up loose ends before his trip. Dinner was good, even when the lights went out. From what we could see, the lights were out throughout our entire subdivision and the one across the street. Apparently it was some broken equipment. Either way, I’m glad the power came back on within the hour cuz the windstorm we had the day before brought in some really cold weather.

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The vitinnis are ridiculously filling. Like I usually max-out at four and most grown men I know can’t eat much more than five. On Thursday night the little guys each had one vitinni and Gavin had almost two. But Saturday? Cooper ate three for lunch. This after eating nearly two cups of cereal, drinking eight or ten ounces of milk, and six ounces of juice earlier. He just kept asking for more and more and more! The rest of the day he continued to eat like he had a hollow leg. I was convinced I’d get up Sunday morning to a full-grown man laying in Cooper’s crib (ala Big).

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Those foam packing peanuts are the Devil, Bobby Boucher. I am not even kidding. I hate those dang things. Because in the winter when it’s dry, they’re all staticky and stick to you or others. In the summer when it’s humid, they stick to you because you’re warm and slightly sticky from the humidity. I swear they are really just puffed jumping beans because they seem to jump out of boxes all on their own.

I was taking out the recycling this evening and one of the many cardboard boxes I was carrying fell off the tall pile. Unbeknownst to me, that particular box had those darn packing peanuts in there and more than half spilled all over the wet driveway. I tried the broom to sweep them up but they either stuck to the broom or stayed stuck to the wet driveway, so I was forced to pick them up by hand in the cold rain in the dark. I swear, the next person or company who sends us something with those things is going to get that box of peanuts sent right back to them!

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Today, due to the aforementioned rain, traffic was bad. It was a bit rough this morning, but tolerable. Coming home, however, was horrid. And of course getting stuck in terrible traffic with two hungry kids is recipe for death. Not wanting to be forced to decide which child I wanted to throttle, I seriously contemplated my own death while fixing their little microwave meals. One just played in his food and refused to eat it, and also kept trying to throw it on the floor when he thought I wasn’t looking; the other whined about how he wanted the other frozen kid meal and did not eat the one in front of him (this after I showed him the box and asked if he wanted it and received an affirmative from him). But thankfully, before I actually threw a noose over the overhead light above the kitchen table to hang myself, I remembered the yummy bite-sized serenity that I got in my stocking for Christmas this year: Ghirardelli Chocolate Intense Dark Premium Assortment. I had one of the Mint Bliss and, no exaggeration, I instantly felt a little better. I won’t tell you how many more I ate once I put the kids down and battled the friggin’ foam packing peanuts, but suffice it to say that I’m feeling pretty mellow now.

I almost cracked open some wine, but I didn’t trust myself to NOT finish it, and I do have to get up early in the morning for Gavin’s Speech Therapy and for work…I mean, come on, someone’s got to work to pay the bills around here since someone else is out galavanting at MacWorld this week.

(Note: for pics from Justin’s site, click on them to see them larger; click again to see them larger-erererer)

About the Author

Colleen

This is a blog where I will share my adventures and mundane tasks as a work-out-of-home-mom. I now have 2 kids and my wonderful husband, so the juggling has gotten a little bit more tricky (man-on-man defense). We also have 2 dogs and 3 cats (we used to have 4) so as you can imagine, our household is pretty busy. Since I never feel like I'm being listened to, I figured I'll just start talking at the general Internet community and see what happens.

10 Comments

sue

You do have your hands full, Colleen!!! Yikes!
I do hate packing peanuts too and dropped a bunch in my front hallway, thankfully not a wet driveway.
I understand your point about not opening a bottle of wine because you might drink the whole thing.
And we got Guitar Hero for Christmas and it is a riot!!! I want the band one now because I think I would rock the drums, I suck at the guitar.

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calicobebop

Oh yes – those packing peanuts are the devil. DEVIL! My cats got into them and let’s just say it was a mess for weeks to come. grrr…

Also, though I may not know the joys of Rock Star, I did play a Wii for the first time over the holidays and I can totally see the appeal. Must delete all memories before I run out and buy one!

Sounds like you’re pretty busy! Hope the chocolate helps keep you sane. I’m proud of your self-restraint when it comes to cracking open a bottle of wine! With two unhappy little ones? I’m not sure I could do it! 🙂

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caramama

Sounds like you are hanging in there!

As for the peanuts (love the Waterboy reference), the neighbors who live behind us had a beanbag chair that was outside (I have no idea way) and it ripped. The same type of peanuts are in those, you know.
The kids just left the stuff out in the yard. This was before we had a fence, and of course the stuff got all over our yard. They never did pick up the bean bag peanuts. So I applaud you for picking up all the peanuts, and I’m sure your neighbors do too!

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jen

“I sucked on the guitar”

Hee, hee…Really??? I don’t think that came out like you thought it would.

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Colleen - Mommy Always Wins

Oy vey! Hope the hubby gets home soon! (Too often I’ve been that juggling Mom – like every day of my life. I’ve actually run over my poor 4yo cuz I couldn’t see him around the 30 lb baby I was carrying…poor kid…)

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Krissa

Oh Gawd. I would have just slit my wrists and be done with it. I HATE AND DETEST the ghost poo. And I have been selling things on ebay lately, so I have had to “use” it. I am using the word “use” lightly here. It, more often than not, uses me.
Picking it up in the rain? The only thing worse is the thought of picking it up/chasing it down, in windy weather.

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Roger

We can’t play Rock Band at our house right now – my son, the drummer, broke it. Yep, the pedal cracked right in half, while I was watching, and then he denied that he broke it. I was like dude, who else was just playing the drums? For that matter, who else even gets to play the drums, sheesh! We’re looking to get the new Guitar Hero for the Wii soon, hopefully he doesn’t break this drum pedal.

Sounds like you have everything under control to me. 🙂 Now, imagine Justin in your place. Feel better? Have a great day!

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Tranny Head

I get that same thing with the Sumo. There’s random days (or weeks) in a row when the appetite level is unbelievable. And then all of a sudden it goes back to normal. And I’m already buying 4T clothes for him. *sigh*

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Karen

Ah, the ever fun packing penauts. Nothing makes life quite as interesting as kids, packing peanuts, and pets.

I was in VA last week and thought of you. I wanted to call and get together but we were only there 24 hours helping Sam’s bro move, and I didn’t have your number. I’ll have to remedy the second one. And it was a spur of the moment trip so I had no advance warning. Don’t worry – they’re still in VA so I’ll let you know next time we’re down.

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Lovely Monday…Day 17 | Wine Please

[…] After naptime, we had a well-visit for Cooper. He’s now 32 inches tall, 24 lbs 10 oz, and his big ol’ cranium hitting at 49 cm around. The doctor was concerned that he gained less than a pound from his 15-month visit, but I reminded her that Justin and I are hardly big people. That and Cooper often eats as much as a grown man. […]

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