Splish Splash!

We were takin' a bath!

Looks like I need to shave my legs!
Just kidding. (Although there was a time in my life when I was granola...)

Sophie and Daddy had a great time playing in the tub!
Can you see the words they were spelling? I think Daddy needs to go back to grammar school.

When I came into the bathroom a very excited Sophie announced "Daddy's peanits floats!"
"Yes, yes it does Sophie."

way back wednesday

It's another rendition of Way Back Wednesday.
This week's theme is BFF (Best Friends Forever)!
In junior high I remember signing BFF on all the notes my best friend and I wrote to each other.
My first junior high best friend was Tali. Here we are in the Happy Hands Club. Kidding.


And this was my next junior high best friend. Rachael and I were best friends for many years. We thought we were cool switching our swim suits like this. I can't believe I'm posting pictures of me in a bikini on the internet! But hey, I was only 13. (BTW, I'm the skinny one with no boobs.)


Here is one of my best buds in high school, Ari. And of course I picked a picture of us at our finest.


Here's Ari, me, and my other best friend Marsha on spring break in Padre. (note: I had to really dig for a presentable picture of us on Spring Break)

And our matching tattoos we got there...


This was one of my other best friends in high school, Cynthia. We liked to sneak cigarettes together in the bathroom at school. Sadly, she passed away at 18.


So there you have it. The best of my best friends. And some really embarrassing pictures. But I know that's what you wanted to see.

Happy Happy!

Happy Happy!
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

How big is Holden?

How big is Holden?
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

So big!
I'm learning how to sit up all by myself.

It's Raining Snot!

Blow. Suck. Blow. Suck. Blow.
That's what I've been doing all day long. Sophie needs to blow her nose every ten minutes, or sometimes she just sticks her finger in and tells me she has snot & boogies on it. And other times if I'm lucky she'll just wipe it somewhere herself. Thanks for taking care of that yourself Sophie.
At lunch she caught one on her fork after she sneezed. Classic.
Holden can't blow yet, so he has to be sucked. I personally think the snot sucker is a fun little toy to use. Too bad Holden doesn't see it that way.

The good news is that he's still sleeping through the night! He is a much cuter baby now that Mommy and Daddy get some rest. I had forgetten what it feels like to get solid sleep (you know it's been like 8 months since I've slept more than a few hours at a time). Let me tell you sleep is flippin fantastic!!
Before children, I was a champion sleeper. If there were an Olympic event for sleeping I would totally medal! 15,16 hours at a time, no problem. On the weekend I would actually have to tell Dwayne to wake me up by 2pm. Otherwise I would have slept through the entire day and well into the next night. Sleep was one of my favorite past times.
Gone are the days.

It's Been 3 Days!

Three nights actually. Three nights of Holden sleeping. Sleeping throught the night.

We put him down at 8pm and he woke up at 3:30 the first night- awesome! Then 4:15 the next night- awesomer! And last night he didn't get up until 5:00!! The awesomest yet!!
Of course this may all fly out the window in a few days, but I am LOVING it now!

Miss Sophie has caught a cold. Ugh, ugh, ugh! She has been sneezing on top of Holden and fondling his pacifier when I'm not looking. grrrreeeat, I'm sure I know who will be getting the cold next.

It's Way Back Wednesday!

First off, let me say I finally got my scanner! Yahoo!!
And this week's WBW theme is "Picture Day" so here's what I dug up.

This is my fifth grade picture:


Here's tenth grade: (and for you Canadians, we also call this sophmore year)


Too bad we don't have any school pics of Dwayne, I thought it would be cute to post both of us up here.
If you want to play WBW too, go check out The Kept Woman's page.

The Lum darlings

Here they are...

Holden's chillin out in his hot tub. He just finished his wine and cigar.


Somebody likes to walk in Daddy's shoes


Holden's dinner

I've been tagged twice now

So here goes.
List ten songs that you are currently digging. It doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're no good but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other random people to see what they're listening to.

1. Baby, I'm Back (Baby Bash & Akon) I love to dance and workout to this song!
2. I Put Myself Together (Charles Brown) very awesome blues song
3. Don't Cha (Pussy Cat Dolls)
4. Vehicle (Bo Bice) you know he ROCKS
5. I Don't Wanna Be (Bo Bice) his version is way better than that other dude's on the radio
6. My Body, Your Body (LSG) this song makes me horny
7. Glue (Mappari)
8. Galaxy Bounce (Chemical Brothers) I like to trip acid on this song. Just kidding, it gets me in a real groove when I'm working out
9. Bad Day (Daniel Powter) got this free from iTunes and it's gooood
10. If I Could Turn Back Time (Cher) this always reminds me of that Will & Grace episode when Jack meets Cher

Now I tag Carrie C, Jennifer, and Lori. And anyone else who hasn't already done this.

My day, my weekend, my life

My day:
Not so great. Had a nice playdate and lunch with friends, but Holden doesn't want to nap today. Argh! That means he's crabby, clingy, tired, and not the bundle of joy I want him to be.
My weekend:
Great! Got a babysitter Saturday so Dwayne and I could have some much needed relaxation time together. We went oot on the boot for many hours. Beer. Fun. Sun. Tube rides. Sore butt.
My life:
My friends I have gotten off the lazy horse and started working out! It feels great! A big stress reliever and I can listen to my ipod & be in my own little world for half an hour.
I've dusted off my elliptical cross trainer and started using it again. The only trick is finding the time. Best time is when both kids are napping, but that gets tricky making it actually happen. Next best thing is one child naps and the other gets stuck in front of the tv with a Baby Einstein movie. And last choice is wait til they're all in bed. I don't like that one as much because it's too late and then I'm all keyed up when I need to go to bed.
But life is not perfect so I'll take what I can get.

Way Back Wednesday and more

This is Way Back Wednesday! You're supposed to dig out old pictures from your birthday this week. Since I still don't have my scanner yet my pictures suck. I had to take pictures of pictures and they just don't turn out all that great.
But anyway, here I am.
This is my 24th birthday (just last year, *wink, wink*)
I was teaching first grade and my students sang "Happy Birthday" and surprised me with a cake!



************************
And in totally unrelated news...
Thanks for all the suggestions on what to take in case you have an emergency get-out-of-the-house situation.
We are planning on getting a fire safe and doing a fire safety check this weekend.
Everyone in that house got out safely, but they lost everything.
The fire was started because the man accidently left his gas grill on.
Here's a little news clip about it. Take a look at the video clip and you can really see how much damage was done.
http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=3722455&nav=0s3ddKs7

Filthy mouth

As Sophie is carrying her baby around today she drops her and says "Oh fock Baby."
"What did you say Sophie?"
"Fock. Fock Baby."

I wish her father would keep his filthy mouth shut, as this could be the only place she has ever heard this word.


I told Sophie that we should say "fudge" instead of "fock."
"Fock" was her reply.

What would you take with you?

Last night at 2am we get a call from our neighbor. She told us the house behind ours was on fire!
We jumped out of bed to go check it out! You can't see this house because of the woods between us. When we got outside we could see the orange flames above the trees and lots of smoke. You could hear the fire crackling and other assorted noises. It sounded like a helicopter at first, but we realized it was the sound from the fire engines' water hoses.
I am silently FREAKING OUT at this point!
You know it's a big fire when you see the flames above the trees! (these are not small trees)
"Dwayne, what do we do?!? Is it coming this way?? What do we do?!?"
The scariest part for me was not knowing if the fire was coming through the woods towards our house. We couldn't see far enough.
And then I start worrying if everyone got out of that house okay.
And what should we do? Should we wake up the kids and leave? Should we stay and see what happens? Should we call someone? The wheels in my head are spinning so fast it made my stomach hurt.
We decided to wait and see what was going to happen. We got the cars out of the garage just in case we had to run for it. If the fire did come through the woods we knew we would have plenty of time to get the kids, pets, and a few other things and leave.
And then I started thinking I should pack a bag just an case we have to evacuate.
But what do I bring along???
I first think I should grab some extra clothes and toiletries for everyone. But the kids were sleeping and I didn't want to go in their rooms for the stuff and wake them up unnecessarily. Then I thought I'd grab our photo albums, but there are too many to take them all. OK, I'll just take the computer that has all the pictures. But it's not a laptop and is that just silly to rip out your big computer from the wall and bring it along?
So I got nowhere with the bag.
We watched and waited outside for awhile and it seemed like the fire was slowing down. Much less orange glow and crackling, and lots of water hose sounds.
We waited longer and finally decided it was most likely not going to come our way.
So we went inside, but there was NO WAY I could go to sleep! My mind is going a thousand mph and I'm too scared the fire will pick back up!
I keep thinking about this bag I might or might not need to pack. And maybe not tonight but sometime I might need to. And then, what would I grab if I only had a few minutes?
Sometime later, after we were sure it was going to be okay, we drifted off to sleep (maybe 4am?)
But then I had horrible nightmares about our house catching on fire! And I couldn't get the kids in my dream.
What a night!
In the morning I told Dwayne to drive by the house on his way to work and call me afterwards. He said the house burned to the ground. Everyone got out safe! thank goodness! It was a big house and luckily it was all contained to their house and lot. I guess all the rain we've had and no winds last night really helped.

So we are going to be doing a big fire safety check around our house this week- check smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, escape routes, etc. And make a plan if it were to happen to our house because you never know...
But I still keep thinking about this bag I should have packed!
So my question to you is: What would you take with you if you had to evacuate and only had 10 minutes to pack a bag??

It's Friday again! (and you know what that means)

It's another round of Stuff Portraits Friday (SPF).

This week's categories:
1) your ride
2) a mile away
3) the reason you love where you live

My pictures this week aren't the best, but that's what happens when you try to cram the night before.

My ride:


My brand new Volvo SUV! llllllove it!!

A mile away:

The County Line BBQ... everybody says it's great. I don't like meat or bbq, so I wouldn't know.

The reason I love where I live:



I have many things I wanted to post, like pictures of the lake or my favorite places in Austin, but since it's too late to go out around town I'll stick with why I love where we live in Austin.

I love where we live because:
We have a big yard where deer come visit us frequently.
It's a one of a kind house, no cookie cutter houses around here.
You can walk around naked and don't have to worry about neighbors seeing, and vice versa.
We have privacy but still live in town.

Has it been 5 months already since I squeezed him out my hoo-ha?

Yes it has been five months! Funny how I remember those labor pains oh-so vividly like it was yesterday.

Happy Birthday to Holden!

Let me tell you what my 5 month old likes to do now (besides keep us up at night).
He likes to roll around on the floor and chew on his toys. He smiles when the toys squeak! He laughs when you lift him up high or tickle him. He can coo and talk and blow raspberries.
His favorite person is Mommy. He cries if she's in the room and not holding him. (how dare her!)
He likes when big sister Sophie plays with him and reads him stories.
He eats baby cereal now and thinks it's yummy!

Progress on sleepy time:
I gave up on the crying-it-out method after two days. It sucked and was really increasing my anxiety level. And it only worked 1 out of the 7 naps I tried! He would just keep crying, one and a half hours with no end in sight...I mean how long are you supposed to let them go for?
Anyway, I feel like a better mom now. I've established a better naptime routine and have really been cuing in on when he is tired and ready to go down. Since it's been raining the last few days we've been staying at home which makes it easier for us at naptimes.
He still does not know how to fall asleep on his own. And the longest stretch he sleeps at night is 3-4 hours. So we still have a ways to go...
But I've just started reading this book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby and I'm hoping we can make some progress soon.

Baby steps towards a full night's sleep!

Do use you a pontee too?

I love the way Sophie sometimes gets big or unfamiliar words mixed up.
Today she was staring at my tampon trying to remember what those fun things were called.
"That's your pontee Mommy?"
"Yep, that's my pontee Sophie."
"You put that in your hiney Mommy?"
"Yep, gonna put it in my hiney Sophie."

hee hee hee hee

Some of her other funny words:
paterkiller for caterpiller
mazagine for magazine
cubice for ice cube
brushtooth for toothbrush

She's been a hoot lately. Loves to make up her own words and people.
We were playing legos the other day and she knocked a tower of them down. She says, "Don't worry J.J. will get them."
"J.J.?? Who is J.J. Sophie??"
"Yeah, J.J. Cocoa."
We know no one by this name.
Silly goose!

My darlings

The source of my overflowing joy and neverending stress.




Pretty darn cute, eh?

9:30

What's so great about 9:30?
That's how late we slept in today!!!
If you have youngins in the house you know this is a big deal.
Usually it's 7:30 or 8 when we get up (sometimes much earlier), and a few times we've even slept in til 8:30.
But 9:30!!!!
The secret ingredient to a good night's sleep?
Wine.
Give them all wine and they'll sleep in.

SPF OCD

This week's SPF (brought to us by Kristine) is about your OCD tendencies.
Pretty apropriate for someone like me.
The categories this week:
-your horrible habit
-something you obsess over
-something that causes anxiety

I had an especially hard time with the last two since I obsess over EVERYTHING and I have many anxieties!
But alas, I narrowed them down to my all time top obsessions and anxieties.
Here they are:

My horrible habits: (not really that horrible)

Target- my major addiction. And Target is good. Just not spending all your money there every week.


And my other major addiction- the computer.

Something I obsess over:

My big ugly crooked nose. This has been an obsession since I was about 12 and started getting made fun of.
And you know your nose never stops growing! Well mine just keeps getting bigger and crookeder every year.
I see a nose job in my near future.

The worst of my anxieties: (remember?)

Ahhh, it makes my heart race just thinking about them.
I drew the picture myself (pretty good dontcha think?) because THANK GOD I didn't have a real one to take a picture of.

Whoooo's been playing with my toilet paper roll?

Whoooo's been playing with my toilet paper roll?
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

Hmm, can't imagine.
Could it be the two year old I left upstairs by herself while I was putting the baby to sleep?

Nat and AC Slater

Nat and AC Slater
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

Do you recognize him?!?!?
That's right, it's AC Slater from Saved By the Bell!
Our dear frind Natalie met him down in San Antonio on the Riverwalk.

Day 1

I've decide to *cringe* try the faithful ole "crying it out" method with Holden.
Results from Day 1: first nap with the babysitter, 2nd nap- screamed and cried for one hour straight but finally fell asleep for 45 minutes, 3rd nap- screamed and cried for one hour 15 minutes then I went in to feed him since I knew he wasn't going to give up and he was hungry by then, he fell asleep in my arms, I laid him down and he cried for another 45 minutes...this is going well so far dontcha think?...Daddy finally picked him up and he didn't sleep again till bedtime.
We have established a good bedtime routine and he falls asleep easily after I nurse him.

We'll go for round two tomorrow.

I already feel like a lousy mother and it is VERY HARD to listen to your baby scream for an hour! I just keep telling myself this will be better in the long run. He should cry less and less each day over the next few weeks.
I hope I'm going in the right direction here. Please let me know if any of you have tried this method and tell me it works!!
And thanks for all the advice so far.

BTW, evidence I am stressed out and have lost my mind: I forgot to change Sophie's diaper THE ENTIRE DAY. I didn't realize this until she had pee leaking out the back pockets of her shorts around 4pm.
OOOOOOPPPSS! Well, it didn't kill her. And dang those Pampers can hold a lot of pee!
I'll try better tomorrow.

pigtails

pigtails
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

I've been waiting a long time for this.
Pigtails!
She kinda has enough hair now. Of course they only lasted about 20 minutes