My Real Life

May 4, 2010

Active vs. Passive

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 8:17 pm
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When Monkey Girl and Monkey in the Middle watch television, they fall into a coma.

They become engrossed in the show and could easily be mistaken for zombies.

Baby Monkey has a different method of television watching.

Whatever the show, he finds a toy that matches the show and plays away.

Watching Bob the Builder…he pulls out the tools.

Watching Fireman Sam…he puts on his firefighter gear.

Watching Thomas…he takes out trains.

I think you get the gist.

However, just in case you aren’t sure, let me show you.

Watching the Wiggles…

Definitely not a passive tv guy.

Come to think of it, he’s not passive about anything in life.

Hopefully he’ll never lose that quality.

May 3, 2010

Traditional vs. Non-Traditional

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 7:53 pm
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In our house, we cover the spread on just about anything.

My kids all like to do things completely differently.

They are unique and independent, and even though they all love each other a ridiculous amount, (probably more than is normal for brothers and sisters), they still retain their own preferences.

Dessert tonight was a good example of this.

Monkey Girl…traditional:

Baby Monkey…not so much with the traditional:

In fact, Baby Monkey believes that everything tastes better when dipped in milk.

Ice pops (which he calls “Whomp-a-Dongs”), green beans, roast beef, gum, etc.

Yup…we’ve got it all.

May 2, 2010

Some Things I Love About Kids

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 9:38 pm
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The way their feet don’t touch the floor when they are sitting on just about any chair.

The way they will hold a toy all day long, no matter what they happening to be doing.

Eating, bathing, playing with another toy…doesn’t matter. 

 They will keep that death grip on the toy that is the favorite of the day, even as they fall asleep.

…and the way that they can completely become entranced in a task that to an adult may seem fruitless and a time waster, but that fills them with such satisfaction, that when they are done, their smiles can light up the world.

May 1, 2010

Construction

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 2:23 pm
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My boys love construction machines.
Like, seriously love them.
Without a moments hesitation, those boys can identify any piece of constrction machinery.
“Hey Mom! A skid steer!”
“Hey Mom! A backhoe loader!”
“Hey Mom! A combine harvester!”
Okay, okay…we don’t see a lot of combine harvesters in Northern NJ.
But, if we did, those boys would be all over it!
After baseball, most kids take advantage of the awesome park at the baseball fields.
Not my boys.
They head straight for the construction toys, conveniently located at the messiest part of the park.
The sandbox.
I know, I know…
A lot of parents won’t let their kids play in a public sandbox for fear of what lurks below.
Me?
I’ve got three kids, two of which are boys.
We live dangerously.

April 30, 2010

Baseball Fan

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 8:28 am
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Baby Monkey loves baseball.

We go to Monkey in the Middle’s games and he is just transfixed by the action.

Witness.

April 28, 2010

Couldn’t If I Tried

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 8:09 pm

I came into the living room yesterday to find Monkey Boy on his ds.

Like this.

No, he didn’t fall.

He stayed like this for 1/2 hour.

I couldn’t caption this one, even if I tried.

April 27, 2010

You Win Some…

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 5:40 pm
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…well, you know the rest.

Today they announced the 50 semi-finalists in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.

You may remember that I was a quarterfinalist.

I am not, however, a semi-finalist.

Am I disappointed?

You betcha.

Am I surprised?

Not really.

I read most of those excerpts and I’m shocked that most of them hadn’t already been published.

So, where do I go from here?

My immediate plan is to use tonight to wallow.

If I didn’t have choir tonight, (and if I wasn’t still sick), I’d pack the family in the car and head to Friendly’s for a 7-scoop Reese’s Peanut Butter Sundae.

However, my health and my schedule have other plans.

So, instead, I’ll go to choir, come home and snuggle up with Real Man to watch some television.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll wake up, dust myself off, and get moving with the rest of my life.

First order of business (other than work) will be to join a writer’s group that a co-worker of Real Man’s (a published co-worker of Real Man) suggested I join.

Second order of business will be to update my query with my new information:

1.  I was a quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.

2.  I have two, official Amazon.com reviews, as well as 15 customer reviews…all positive.

And then…

then…

I’m just going to write.


April 25, 2010

Our Act

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 7:10 pm
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This past weekend was the Talent Show at my school. 

Monkey Girl and I were going to perform, but, as you know, her allergies have been out of control lately.

They get worse as the night goes on, and she made the call, early in the week, to drop out.

It was a smart call, as by 8:30 on show night, she was red-eyed and sniffly and itchy.

However, she still really wanted to perform.

So, we decided to put on a show of our own in the basement and post it here.

Had we performed on Friday, here’s what the crowd would have seen (albeit, in nicer clothes and with brushed hair):

Playing Around

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 1:42 pm
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So, we’re thinking of purchasing Macs for our school, and Apple sent me an executive loaner MacBook Pro to try out for a few weeks.

I’m absolutely LOVING it!

Today, it’s rainy and yucky outside, so the monkeys and I have been playing with the MacBook.

One of our favorite features is Photo Booth.

Here are some of our experiments:

We thought black and white deserved serious faces.

For this one, we pretended we were on Ghost Hunters and were witnessing paranormal phenomena on the infared camera.

Me and my girls. 🙂

This was supposed to be a roller coaster background, but it didn’t really work out too well.

So, we’re going to continue to play, and I may need to start saving my pennies to purchase a MacBook for my next computer purchase (which won’t be for a long time, because I just got my laptop in November).  It’s an awesome computer with some great applications for both work and home.

I’m curious, if you don’t mind sharing, how do you all do your computing?

Mac or PC?

Share in the comments below!

April 23, 2010

Strange Bedfellows

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 3:42 pm
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Most kids snuggle with a favorite blanket.

Some kids snuggle with a favorite stuffed animal.

Monkey Girl snuggles with “Dolly.”

Monkey in the Middle snuggles with “Blue Elephant.”

(You can see that we are really creative with our names for toys around our house.)

What does Baby Monkey snuggle with at bedtime?

Well, it depends.

Last night, he snuggled with his drumsticks.

Two nights ago, he snuggled with a Hess truck.

Last week, I went up to give him a middle of the night kiss because I was missing him and I found him snuggling with a tambourine.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m snuggling with something at bedtime, I expect it to be…oh, I don’t know…snuggly.

Apparently, Baby Monkey doesn’t share this predilection.

That’s okay, I guess.

As long as he is happily sleeping through the night, he can snuggle with anything he wants.

Okay, maybe not anything, but just about anything.

Sometimes, I don’t get this kid.

But good lord, do I love him!

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