My Real Life

March 13, 2012

Truthful Tuesday

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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Well, I’m not answering any questions today, but I am still sharing with you something that I might not normally have shared.

I was looking through my iPhone photos, the other day, because I’m now over 1,000 photos, thanks to some help from Baby Monkey who thinks he is the next Annie Leibovitz.

I came across a photo that I desperately wanted to delete, but then decided not to delete because it might be cool for Tiny to see someday.

When I was pregnant with Monkey Girl, I took a picture of myself every month to show the growth of my belly.

I did the same with Monkey in the Middle and Baby, but, as you can imagine, they were lost with the great computer crash of 2009.

With Tiny, I’ll be honest, it never crossed my mind.

And then I came across this picture and realized a few things:

1.  Thank God that kid was 3 weeks early.  I don’t think there was any more space in there for him.

2.  The last month of pregnancy is exhausting.

3.  Boy babies suck the beauty out of you just as much as their girl counterparts do.

4.  Perhaps people weren’t as out of line as I thought they were when they asked things like, “Haven’t you had that baby yet?”

5.  It doesn’t matter how many monkeys I have (and I will only have 4 for the rest of my life) I will always want more.

6.  I loved being pregnant.  (This isn’t news…I just remember how much I loved it when I look at this picture, even though this is, apparently, what I look like when I am pregnant.)

7.  Pregnancy is a freaking miracle and although I know the science behind it and how it all works, I’m completely amazed (and endlessly grateful), all the time, when it goes right.

8.  I’m a very, very lucky woman.

So, here it is.

I’m normally not a sharer of things like belly pics, as I think they are quite personal.

And this could be one of the worst pictures ever taken of me, which is why it made it to Truthful Tuesday, which is about the good, the bad, and the water retention.

However, I’m all covered up here, so I’m going with it.

And that’s the truth.

 

March 12, 2012

Liebster Award

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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There’s a community out there.

It’s a virtual community, but it doesn’t make it any less real or cohesive than one in the “real world.”

It’s the community of bloggers.

Those of us in the blogging community visit each others blogs and comment and become connected to each other through the sharing of our lives.

And sometimes…sometimes…

We send each other awards.

One such award is the Leibster Award.

As Mad Hen at Fluff and Feathers (who was gracious enough to bestow this award upon me!) puts it:

Liebster is a German word, meaning dearest or beloved, but it can also mean favorite.  The idea behind the Liebster Blog Award is that it is given to talented and/or loved bloggers who have less than 200 followers in order to create new connections and to bring attention to these wonderful blogs!

There are some conditions to accepting the award.  One is to acknowledge and thank, through a link, the blogger who was kind enough to nominate you and to cut and paste the award onto your own page.  Another is to pass the award on to other deserving bloggers.

And so, I’d like to pass the award on to the following bloggers and ask that my readers check out their blogs.  These are blogs that I read every day and that inspire me in one way or another.  I hope you enjoy!

thismummaslife which is written by Krista and is just a great blog about mothering and living and being real that brings a smile to my face every day.

beauty that moves which is written by Heather.  I just want to crawl through my computer screen and go live in her house.  The photos she takes of her home and surrounding area are simply gorgeous.  (Out of the guidelines, as she has way more than 200 followers, but I want you to go see why…she’s earned every one of those followers!)

Dear Mr. Vernon which is an entertainment blog written by Shane, an old friend from high school.  It is extremely creative and SO well-written.  It’s a new favorite.

You’ll have to excuse my nepotism with this last one…it’s my sister-in-law, Alicia’s, blog, Why we yell  It’s a bit of this and that and is a glimpse into the mind of a mother of 7.

So, please visit these blogs, even if it’s just for today.  Good stuff, all of them. 🙂

March 11, 2012

Doors

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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As I make dinner each night, Tiny plays with the doors between the kitchen and the dining room.

I have given him toys.

I have given him books.

He wants to play with the doors.

He swings them back and forth, back and forth.

Until he accidentally closes them.

Then, he’s like a caged animal.

“Mama! Mama!” he yells.

“Who dat?  Who dat, Mama?” he yells.

“Who dat,” is what he says when the phone rings or the doorbell rings.

I think he’s using it, in this context, to ask me to look on the other side of the door, see who it is, and open the darn thing up.

So, usually, I wind up finishing what I’m doing, because I know he’s not going anywhere, then going all the way around, through the living room, into the dining room, and sneaking up on him from behind.

I pick him up, move him away from the doors, re-open them, plunk him in the middle of his toys and by the time I’m back at the stove, he’s back at the doors again.

And it’s a safe bet, within the next three minutes, I’ll be responding to the call of “Who dat, Mama?” once again.

March 10, 2012

Spring has Sprung

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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It may go away again, as Mother Nature seems to be teasing us relentlessly this year, however, for a few days, at least, spring has sprung in Northern Jersey.

My favorite part about spring?

Seeing these adorable little arms and legs and Barney Rubble feet in sandals:

Seeing the lankiness of this guy, all arms, legs and bones, unfettered by the sweats that he insists on wearing all winter:

Seeing this girl drop the iTouch and get excited about going outside and playing with her brothers.

Not everyone is digging spring.

SOME people can’t play outside until Mommy is done making dinner and it makes SOME people very angry.

Of course, if SOME people would learn how to walk, they’d have a little more freedom to play outside because they’ll be less likely to put everything in their mouth because they won’t be at mouth level, but that’s a post for another day.

However, overall, the windows are open, the breeze is flowing in and life is good.

March 9, 2012

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 7:42 am
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Friday, again, my friends!

Time for another edition of Five Question Friday, where I answer some random questions and give you some further insight into the small details of my world!

1. Are you looking forward to the time change this weekend?
Not particularly.
I’m not NOT looking forward to it, either.
The time change doesn’t seem to affect me, either way, since having kids.
The monkeys decide how many hours of sleep I get a night.
Not some scientific schedule that governs the rest of the world.
2. Are you getting the new iPad/would you want a iPad?
No.
My iPad works just fine.
Do I want one?
Sure.
However, don’t need one and we’re in a place where, if it isn’t a need it isn’t a purchase.
3. If money was not a problem, what is the one thing you would splurge on?
DisneyWorld for the family.
We’ve never taken them, and I’ve only been there on our honeymoon.
(Back story – we had tickets to go when I was a kid, then my Dad’s gall bladder went bejeebers and he had to have it taken out in emergency surgery the night before we were to fly out.  My parents never rescheduled.  Oh, and my Mom didn’t believe he was in that much pain and told him to roll over and go back to sleep.  Gall bladder out within hours.  True story.)
Gotta get these kids to Disney and Universal studios.
4. How did you and the Mr. (or Mrs.) meet?
High school.
He was a cute, cute boy that I asked to the prom after cutting gym for half a year and going to lunch with Kim so I could hang out with him.
Charmed my way out of the cuts and snagged the love of my life in the process.
Ah, high school.
5. Summer is right around the corner. Bikini or one-piece?
Ah, such a silly question.
One-piece PLUS a pair of shorts.
I know some people can rock a bikini after 4 kids (and I don’t mean celebrities with personal trainers) but it ain’t me.
I’m working on it, but I’m not there, yet.
Maybe by 50.

 

March 8, 2012

Adventuring

Filed under: Adventuring — Amy @ 6:00 am
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Let me share with you our latest acquisition from the world outside our door.

Nice, huh?

It’s funny…

In the old house, we had miles and miles of woods behind our house, but we never found this kind of stuff.

Here, it’s house after house after house, with little pieces of woods in between (and the farm behind us, but it’s not a working farm) and yet, every time we turn around there is some part of an animal in our front yard or driveway.

Hopefully it’s not some supernatural warning to our family, like we’re living in a house built on an ancient Indian burial ground, or a pet cemetery (although we are pretty sure there is a cat or two buried in the backyard, whose ghost walks around the house, from time to time).

The kids are pretty hyped about the fact that this particular skull still has some teeth in it.

There have been some hypotheses floating about that it’s a plant eater because of the flat teeth, and then another child will point out that the sharper teeth (like the one in front that the plant eater fan is willfully ignoring) probably already fell out.

They’ve been guessing what type of animal it is based on head shape and size and the shape of the eye sockets.

It’s been a great find because it has absolutely sparked the creativity and thoughtfulness in the monkeys.

I’m not sure I’m interested in knowing what kind of skull it really is, because then the fun of guessing and theorizing is over.

I can’t even begin to imagine what our next adventure will bring!

March 7, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Filed under: Wordless Wednesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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March 6, 2012

Truthful Tuesday

Filed under: Truthful Tuesday,Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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Today’s question comes from reader Jen.

Jen writes:

You, like me have 1 girl and 3 boys. Do you feel you have a different kind of “bond” with your daughter? Don’t get me wrong, I love all my children equally, but for some reason my daughter and I share something different. Maybe it is because she is the only girl, but we have a Mother/Daughter relationship and then a friend relationship. As her mom she respects me, but as her friend, she tells me everything, and isn’t scared to share things with me.

I don’t want to wimp out and not answer the question, but I think I’ve already somewhat explained it with this post from 2009.  Please click the link and read that post and click on the link in that post to get to the answer.

Sounds convoluted, but I swear, it will answer the question and be worth it.

(And if you still feel like I haven’t answered to the best of my ability, I’ll be happy to expound further at another time.)

March 5, 2012

Twins?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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I think all of my kids look very different from one another.

They all have the genetics of my husbands family and they all resemble that side of the family, but in terms of really looking alike, I have always thought that the only two who really look alike are Monkey Girl and Tiny.

I’ve always thought that Monkey in the Middle looks the most different from everyone.

My Dad used to say that people had two types of faces:

Pig faces and Fox faces.

My Dad and I had Pig faces.

My Mom had a Fox face.

Every single one of us, in this house, have Pig faces, but Monkey in the Middle has a Fox face.

The next part to this post involves explaining how our computer crashed when Baby Monkey was about two.

We lost all of our photos of Monkey in the Middle from birth to age three, and all photos of Baby Monkey.

We hadn’t backed anything up, and had only a few photos that we had sent to other people and they sent back to us.

So, I really don’t get to remind myself what Monkey in the Middle looked like as a baby very often.

(Baby Monkey looks exactly the same…just bigger.)

Except, I guess I just forgot, or got used to seeing until it blended into the background, we have a family photo at the top of the stairs from 2005.

I was pregnant with Baby, so technically he is in the picture, but it’s basically just the four of us that made up family at the time and my parents.

Anyway, for some reason, I noticed this photo yesterday and stopped dead.

Compare.

I don’t know…maybe it’s just me.

Granted, Monkey in the Middle was about 5 months older than Tiny is in his picture, but in the grand scheme of things, not too big of a difference in age.

But, it’s nice to think that Monkey in the Middle looks like someone around here, and to think that I might have a glimpse into what Tiny might look like when he gets a bit older.

March 4, 2012

The Cow Says Woof

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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We like books.

It’s a simple fact.

And so, we spend an enormous amount of time reading books, whether we are 40, 11, 8, 6 or 1.

Our hope for the books we read to our 1 year old is that they might help him make some kind of contextual sense of the world around him.

That they might help him learn.

So, imagine my disappointment when I opened up this book to share with Tiny.

I’ll admit…I didn’t actually browse through it when I bought it.

It said both “John Deere” and “ABC” on the cover.

Around here, either one of those terms makes a book golden.

Saturday night was the first night that Tiny was going to bed without being nursed to sleep.

It was time, and although I wasn’t ready, I thought he might be.

However, I wasn’t just going to dump him in his crib.

We started the ritual we have with the other monkeys, which is books, songs, then bed.

I picked this book out of his bookcase, as we hadn’t cracked the cover on this one yet.

We sat in his rocker and I opened and began to read.

First page went by just fine.

He was pointing at things, I was reading, there was learning going on.

(Okay, in MY mind, there was learning going on.)

Then we turned the page.

Farm.

Okay…I can get on board with that picture to describe the word.

However, while I realize this is a book manufactured by John Deere who has a product to sell, my guess is that the majority of children who will read this book will not make the connection between the letter “G” and this farm machine.

Yes, it happens to be called a “Gator” but, really?  There was nothing else on a farm that started with the letter “G”?

Like, maybe a Gate?

We moved on.

I was somewhat stopped by the picture of “Ice Cream” on the opposite page, but I let it go.

Not really farming terminology, but my Grandma grew up on a farm, and I visited many times as a kid.

There WAS ice cream.

So, okay.

However, the next page made me pause, once again.

I see a barn AND a silo, and if I’m a little one, I’m focusing on the bigger part of the picture which ain’t the silo.

They couldn’t just put a picture of a lone silo in there?

Would that have been so difficult?

Here’s the one that really got me going, though.

Really?

Udder?

You can barely see the udder!

That girl is barely a A-cup.

I’m not sure how this is a picture of an Udder.

I think we all know who will be to blame when hundreds of kids go to nursery school, and when asked “What sound does this animal make?” call out “Squirt! Squirt!”

It was udder-ly ridiculous.

I’m sorry.

So sorry.

I couldn’t resist.

Finally, we came to “X.”

It was at this point that I realized the author, (and I use that term in the loosest sense of the word), wasn’t even trying.

It even took me a minute to figure out that it wasn’t the row of doors that was important in the picture.

It was the design of the “X” ON the door that mattered.

Whatever.

Lessons learned:

1.  Look at the pictures in a picture book before you buy it.

2.  Forget the whole novel writing gig.  Apparently anyone can publish a picture book of ABC’s.

3.  Tiny is only 1.  He probably wasn’t going to learn anything from that book anyway, so I should just calm down and not have an udder about it.

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