sirmans blog

2011-12-15T13:14:00.004-05:00

Two things that Andrew never expected to happen this year.

1. He never would have guessed he'd be riding alongside Candace on the back of a camel.

2. He never thought he would be joining his older sister and brother in the very exclusive Sirmans big siblings club.

...We were all shocked on number 2, really.

Your eyes do not deceive you. The Sirmans family is expecting baby number 4 in the very beginning of July. Papa and uncle Rex's Birthday to be exact.

For the longest time I felt there was another baby waiting to complete our family. Then I started to get the feeling it was all in my head. Earlier this year I made peace with the fact that I was meant to be a mother of 3. As soon as I let go of that feeling and my longing for another baby, Heavenly Father reminded me that he's the one who controls our destiny.

At only 12 weeks along, 2 inches in height, and just weighing in at an ounce, this baby is already so loved by so many people. We are so very blessed.

And as for Andrew? He was a little hesitant to let go of his coveted spot as baby of the family at first, but is now excited to be a part of such an exclusive club.

2011-11-29T18:36:00.004-05:00

Would you believe me if I told you that Andrew turned 7 years old a little over a week ago? It's true. Can't believe it myself, but alas...

A little part of me wants to still believe he's this itty bitty boy who can fit into my pocket, but he reminds me of his big boy status so much, that the little part I desperately hold on to is starting to fade away.

All year andrew talked about having his Birthday party at the Fun Station. He did the Andrew thing by changing his mind a few weeks before. Instead he wanted a "just family" party followed by a day at Disney World and sleeping in our very own pirate room.

Andrew's Birthday weekend was a whirlwind of fun.

On Thursday Grandma came in from Utah to spend a few weeks with us. For the family party he chose a Phineas and Ferb themed cake. He had a blast opening all of his presents.

On Friday we went to see Papa and the Jukebox band do a gig. A rare occasion for us to be able to attend such an event. Andrew takes pride in the fact that his papa is a rock star. He thinks Jukebox would really take off if they sang some Beatles songs, but not Beach Boys. They're too happy.

Then on Saturday his actual Birthday, we went to Disney. We started the day at Epcot, then took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, and ended our night by sleeping in pirate ships.

By the end of the weekend, this kid had the 7th Birthday weekend of dreams. I was exhausted.

2011-10-31T20:49:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween!

With love,

The Star Wars nerd, DR CF Sirmans in summer attire, and Jack Sparrow.

2011-09-28T09:09:00.004-04:00

I know, I know. You thought this post was about our Utah trip because I've been promising so. I'll get to it, but right now I have a mission for you. Yes you. A few weeks ago, I entered Emme in a "rad kid" contest to brag about how awesome she is and her efforts in educating peers in autism and special needs awareness. The grand price? A $10,000 scholarship. Now her dream is to go to NYU. Don't ya think that 10 grand will come in handy?

Today I found out she's in the running so all you have to do is go here (click on the bright red here) and vote for my bragable essay "E is for Excellent... and Emme". Pretty please? Don't do it for me... do it for Emme. Come on... do it. Go vote! Oh and tell your friends!

2011-09-20T18:12:00.003-04:00

This afternoon I broke out the fireside candle, baked pumpkin muffins, while enjoying the sounds of the local high school's marching band practice outside my open living room window. It may be 90 degrees, but fall is finally here.

2011-09-16T11:05:00.002-04:00

It's not everyday you see a huge random gust of wind throw your son completely off the park swing, but me immediately laughing about it? That's pretty much the norm.

The look on said sons face when he landed on the ground was priceless. Actually, the entire event was priceless.

2011-08-22T10:23:00.002-04:00

We made it through another summer of fun. Back to school they all go. Learning. It's a wonderful thing, you know?

First of all. When did my kids get so big? They all look so growny.

Emme was placed in a 3rd, 4th, 5th combined gifted classroom this year. As a 5th grader her first reaction was "how lame is this?", but I think she's gotten used to the idea. It's the first year for the combined classroom so we'll see how it goes, but I must say I'm glad she'll finally be pushed to her full potential. Smarty pants.

Clee was pulled out of public school over the summer and placed in private. Yeah I'll admit it. The beginning reason for the switch was due to poor judgment on behalf of the principal over at the public school, but after looking into the private school (which is provided by the same folks who he goes to for therapy) I realized he'll benefit a lot more in a private setting. It's the pilot year for the new school and I'm pretty optimistic he'll be well taken care of.

Andrew has been counting down the days 'til the first day of school since July. He's been ready to go back. He got my teacher of choice and his buddies Dylan and Ravi are in his class again so we're both pretty pleased. Grandma bought him a Rolling Stones shirt while we were in Utah and he's been looking forward to putting it on for the first day of school. He says he looks good in Rolling Stone shirts and it's not bragging when whats being said is true. I can't say I disagree.

2011-08-21T21:06:00.002-04:00

Way back in April when the Utah trip tickets were being purchased, I thought it would be nice to have Clee's Birthday in Utah for the first time since he was 2. We booked our tickets to come home on his Birthday... at 12:50am. Yep... I screwed that one up. He spent the first 50 minutes of his 9th Birthday asleep in Utah on the runway. Lucky guy. On the bright side, he had not just one but two great swim parties before we left with my side of the family and Tice, Sally, Lane, and crew.

With only 3 good hours of sleep, a 4 hour car ride home from Atlanta, and one 3 week vacation freshly under his belt, I knew he wasn't going to be able to handle another big party. We planned a simple dinner with Grammy, Papa, and Rex for that night. We bought him pizza from his favorite Hungry Howies, and a watermelon instead of a Birthday cake, because lets face it. My kids are weird and don't like Birthday cake (I KNOW, RIGHT???). When it was time for our simple "let's celebrate 9 years of Clemon" dinner, Clemon had had enough. He was yelling. He was screaming. He wanted to go swimming, but didn't want to go swimming at the same time. He was a mess. He brought "it's my party and I'll cry if I want too" to a whole other level. He even cried when we sang Happy Birthday. I couldn't tell if it was due to our singing, but he just wasn't having it. ... I doubt it was our singing... do you think it had to do with our singing?

Poor Clemon spent his Birthday night miserable. I felt bad because it's one of my 3 favorite days out of the year and he just wasn't happy.

Even though the night was off to a rough start, it finished with a happy Clemon. He finally ate his watermelon. He let us sing Happy Birthday to him. He let Fiel and I give him 9 kisses on the cheek. And he smiled at me when I asked if he knew he was my new favorite 9 year old.

ps: Utah trip post coming soon, but first. Lets send the kids off to school tomorrow, shall we?

2011-07-05T13:44:00.002-04:00

Clee loves his Cars and when we saw that Cars 2 was coming out this summer I wanted to take him, but then reality sank in. He's loud at times, the silence in golden rule really doesn't go with our style.

About a month ago Emme's 4th grade teacher sent me an email about autism friendly movies that AMC theaters were showing monthly. Low and behold Cars 2 was one of those movies. We stocked up on treats and went on Saturday. He was a little hesitant to go in the theater at first but when we broke out the Mike and Ike's he settled right down. Candy works wonders for this child.

He sat really well throughout the movie and seemed to really enjoy it. It was nice having a public family outing where we actually fit in. He made some noises, but so did a lot of other kids. There were no stares or glares, just not so typical families partaking in a typical family activity. Being able to take him to a movie that he really enjoys without the stranger judgement makes me happy. It's the little things in life.

2011-07-05T13:15:00.005-04:00

June brought us a lot of guests, and fun. For starters, I turned the big 3o. Turns out 30 isn't so bad after all. Who knew?

A few days later Lane and Ellie came in from Utah. Andrew was especially excited to see Lane. He says he misses his buddy. Luckily Rex is still here, he says.

We didn't seen much of Andrew almost the whole month of June because he was staying with Grammy and Papa. We almost had his mail forwarded over there. He didn't think that joke was funny.

There's been a lot of swimming since our summer began. I love that Clee can't catch a break with his swim trunks. They're either riding up or falling down.

Elaine and Karen had the idea to have a Tea party for all the June Birthday girls. Ellie loved it, Emme liked it, but would never admit it. You now... she's too cool for such things.

The spacecraft, Orion stopped in our town on it's tour and Andrew really wanted to check it out. He thought seeing and touching something that has actually been in outer space was the coolest thing ever! All the rest of the week he told me that he was going to be an astronaut when he grows up.

Between swimming, tea parties, and spacecrafts Clee has been busy with all day (you read that right. All. Day.) summer camp at his therapy office which kinda lead to our decision to pull him out of public school and place him in private school. It'll be the pilot year for his therapy services school and it really does seem to be the right fit for him. I'll elaborate on details later, but for now having a child in private school is the running joke in our household.

Emme has become quite the athlete in her old age. She started gymnastics this summer and loves it very much. And out of the blue she decided she loved basketball as well. Grammy signed her up for basketball camp and last week she went. She had the best time and learned a ton. She tried to explain basketball ball terminology to me but she lost me at hoop. She'll continue and Andrew will start gymnastics in the fall and Emme join the basketball team in the winter.

With all the guests gone back home we have a little time to recoup just in time for the next batch of guests to arrive. I'm sure we'll have lots of great adventures to share.

2011-07-05T13:07:00.003-04:00

We're a little late to the scene, but Andrew started his very first swim lessons this summer. He loved it. I believe his words to describe it were "Fun. Fun. Fun. I have no other words- just fun."
Before he was a little leery of swimming, but now he's very comfortable... Almost too comfortable at times.

2011-07-03T21:41:00.002-04:00

I don't know what got Andrew thinking about his dad's old leather jacket- heck he's never even seen Fiel in it, but today he was on a mission to find it. As soon as we took it out of the closet he put it on and let me tell ya... He was just as swoon worthy in it as his daddy was 13 years ago.

I knew there was a good reason to hold on to that old leather jacket.

2011-06-06T21:56:00.005-04:00

Thanks to the talents and patience of Fiel's aunt Elaine, we were able to go out in the record breaking heat last week and get fabulous photos of the kids.

I knew she was good, but I didn't know she was that good. I am so in love with the photos she took, I could just look at them all day long and feel satisfied with how I spent the day.

Needless to say I have some beautiful kids.

And best of all after years of experiencing what we lovingly refer to as crazy face Clee, we now have photo documentation of crazy face Clee.

Yeesh. I wouldn't want to meet that in a dark alley...

2011-06-06T07:50:00.002-04:00

Today I can officially say goodbye to my 20's and welcome the 30's. I am 30, and it doesn't even sting my heart to say so. I spent my very last night as a twentysomething by watching the Real Housewives Of Orange County finale. I sure know how to end a decade right.

2011-05-18T14:37:00.002-04:00

I finally did it. After 3 years of shying away from the idea, I finally sent all of my old HI8 tapes of the kids baby years away to be converted into DVD format. I haven't looked at those tapes since 2005.

This morning I received a web link to preview 2 tapes via email. One was of Emme and Clee's 2004 birthdays and everything in between, the other was of Emme and Clee meeting newborn Andrew for the first time through a hospital window. I was fine and in control of my emotions until I heard Emme's little voice say "look at his tiny head" referring to Andrew. You better believed I cried, all the while Fiel was rolling his eyes. He was crying on the inside. Memories of my babies are flooding my mind today. My heart swells with love for those little ones sweet faces and voices to the point it's about to burst. Why didn't I have this done years ago?

2011-05-10T16:46:00.002-04:00

I always get excited when I see I've got a message from Clemon Sirmans in my email inbox. It can only mean he's done something super cool again. These emails are like love letters, but better. This was today's highlight in the inbox:

Clemon

Clemon

Clemon

I used Mr. Reece's picture to help remember what letters came next, but I typed my name all three times COMPLETELY INDEPENDENTLY!!! Woot for me!

Sent from my iPad

He sure knows how to woo a gal with his brilliance.

Emme's Mother's Day poem

2011-05-08T19:42:00.002-04:00

I can run more than a mile

Just to see your Beautiful smile.

You're like a star up in the sky.

Like an angel sent from up high.

You're like a rainbow with many colors,

that makes you stand out from the others.

Sometimes you make me wonder what makes you so unique.

Is it the stars in your eyes?

Or how your hair has won a prize?

Is it your sparkling smile?

Or your sense of style?

Either way you are best you can be.

You'll always a winner to me.

2011-05-08T19:08:00.002-04:00

Two brothers sharing a favorite pastime.

Their father is so proud.

2011-05-04T17:20:00.001-04:00

... If I were 23 years younger, I'd have a crush on him.

Who am I kidding, I do have a crush on him.

2011-04-26T17:49:00.004-04:00

Let's talk about the elephant in the room, shall we? Clee isn't a for good candidate for school portraits. In fact he's soooo awkward it's awesome.

We all remember last years photo:

And without further ado, here's this years:

Try to remember I'm not making fun of Clee- just pointing out he takes an amazingly awkward school portrait.

2011-04-24T20:09:00.006-04:00

Happy Easter, folks! I can say I'm all candied out in confidence.

The kids found there baskets, wore their Easter best to church, hid then found Easter eggs at Grammy and Papa's, then had some quality time with the Lunt's.

But the fun didn't start there!

Easter weekend started hopping in Pearson for the annual family Easter egg hunt.

Emme found her Easter egg match, they both have "yay Sirmans" written all over them. Candace and Berk were unofficially deemed master egg message writers.

Clee had his very own stash of eggs prepared and hidden just for him. Come to find out, he didn't our help finding those Easter eggs after all. In fact he was a pro at it. Silly us. We really should have known better. This kids can smell candy from miles away.

Andrew hit the Easter egg hunt jackpot by finding the golden egg. He's now the owner of a crisp dollar bill. Being the humble soul that he is he made sure everyone knew he found the egg because of his ninja-like senses...

... And if finding the golden egg wasn't enough, he bagged himself the best eggtravaganza prize ever.

I can't think of a better way to end such a rad Easter egg hunt then by going for an Easter swim.

... The kids couldn't either.

2011-04-22T23:16:00.003-04:00

When you look at Andrew's Netflix most recently viewed list, it looks something like this:

Twilight Zone- 6 episodes

Ghost Adventures- 2 episodes

Blues Clues- 3 episodes

So allow me to go all Sesame Street on you by saying this:

One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong.

2011-04-19T10:02:00.013-04:00

Early this morning my grandmother, Natalie passed from her earthly body and entered into heaven with a big smile on her face. If that's not a sure sign of afterlife, then I don't know what is.

I felt it from the moment I woke this morning, and when I saw my mom's name across the phone screen this morning I knew why she was calling. She was gone. She's at peace.
She had been struggling for a few months now, and she was ready to be in peace. Though I was able to fly out to Utah for a day a few weeks ago to say goodbye, thanks to Elaine and CF's generosity, I couldn't prepare myself for how I feel right now. I'm not going to sugar coat it- I'm hurting. I can't stop crying. I'm terribly sad. Sad for Emme because she thought for sure she'd see her Great Grandma this summer. Sad for Andrew who for months now has been saying he needs to go see her. Sad for Clee because who else is he gonna get his big barrel of Red Vine Licorice from? Sad for me because I today I lost the most cutest grandma ever.

A few of her last words to me were, I love you more then you could ever know. I told her I felt the same way. I spent my last afternoon with my Grandma watching The Importance Of Being Earnest, occasionally resting my hand in hers, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Today I'll think about Ice Capades, Sequoia Redwoods, british comedy, Colin Firth (whom we shared a crush on) and Singing In The Rain, because they all remind me of her. And tonight the whole neighborhood will be in for a real treat when the kids and I sing I Love You A Bushel And A Peck as loud as we can because it's the song she sang to each of us when we were all babies.

Grandma Natalie, was an amazingly strong and wonderful person. The memories and love for the woman I will forever admire will always remain. The earth lost one of it's finest spirits today, and today heaven gained one.

We love you, Grandma. God be with you 'til we meet again.

2011-04-13T17:58:00.004-04:00

Wondering what love for a man who buys you a chocolate cake every Friday looks like?

Here it is:

Thanks Elaine for capturing the moment.

If you ask Emme, all the good men are already taken.

And they're both Sirmans'.

2011-04-13T17:40:00.002-04:00

If your 10 yr old says there's nothing you can do to embarrass her... play this song full blast on the car stereo when you pick her up from school. Oh and you gotta make sure she's surrounded by friends. Challenge met. You're welcome.

ps: No jokes, I really do like this song. Yes it's lame, but it's oh so catchy. I blame my past love for boy bands.

2011-04-09T17:21:00.007-04:00

For a few months now, Clee has been training hard with Mr. Reece in prep for the Special Olympics and today their hard work paid off. It was hot and the games were off to a late start, but Clee kept his cool for a good part of the day. Clee participated in the 50 meter run and the 25 meter run. He placed 2nd both times! Not too shabby for a first timer. I love his run/ skip. It pretty much brightens my day. He was beaming ear to ear with smiles. You could just tell he was extremely proud of himself, and rightfully so.

It was a neat experience to be able to cheer Clee on while he ran. In all honesty, I fought back the tears after his second race. As shallow as it may seem, never seeing my son participate in any kind of athletic activity was one of the first things I thought when we received the autism diagnosis. And to be able to cheer for him as he crossed the finish line was a precious moment for me to be a part of.

Mr Reece, Mr Trey, Ms Perkins, and Mrs Fuller are all pretty rad, and should get constant high hives for all the hard work they do.

What a special day for our special guy.

Mr. Reece sent this last picture to me. As if I didn't need more proof that this family cannot take a non-awkward photo to save our lives. Thank heavens for photoshop.

... It's a real good picture of Elaine, though.

2011-04-09T16:49:00.004-04:00

Long story short: I was a major NSYNC fan from 1998- 2001. JC was my favorite.

The kids school have a reward program for good behavior. They can collect "high fives" and cash them in for miscellaneous items at their school store.

Emme, being the funny and thoughtful girl that she is, saw this at the store and just knew I had to have it.

It's a 2001 JC bobblehead. Oh yeah baby. She surprised me with it last night and we got a big laugh about it. She said her classmates were confused as to a) who NSYNC even was. And b) why would she want it's bobblehead.

We're in the midst of locating the perfect place around the house for him to call home. I'm sure Fiel thinks the perfect place would be behind the toilet seat, but that's no place for a once potential grammy award winner.

The best part of this gift is that JC comes with his very own certificate of authenticity. Ooooh. I better call my insurance agent and get this baby covered.

I knew taking Emme to an NSYNC concert via womb would make her a better person.

2011-04-06T08:36:00.004-04:00

The middle child goes by several different variations of his name.

Clemon

Clee

Clemon F

Clee-Man

C- Lemon

and now...

Cleo?

Maybe he's been watching too many informercials staring Lady Cleo the Psychic or just being silly. He and Mr. Reece spend many mornings one on one, and this particular morning they were spelling his name out with magnetic letters. ~~Cleo~~ Clee was off to a great start when he placed the C L E in perfect order, but then he placed an O after the E. Just when Mr. Reece was a about to correct him, he looked at Mr Reece, gave him a cheesy grin, and put the M between the E and O. He was just playin' with Mr. Reece. Of course he knows how to spell Clemon, uh hello... it is his name.

The coolest thing about this morning was while Mr Reece had his back to Clee, he was scrambling the letters and mixing them all up. Mr. Reece thought he was just playing with the letters the way he typically would, until he turned around and saw that Clemon spelt his name all on his own. No prompt- just being Mr. Independent. Mr Reece made a big deal about Clemon's accomplishment by telling Ms. Perkins, Mr. Trey, and the rest of Clemon's friends. I'm sure Clemon just loved being the center of this kind of positive reinforcement. For those who think Clemon doesn't know what's going on around him, this is just another awesome example of proving them wrong.

It's a great feeling knowing that when I send Clee off to school, I leave him in the care of people who see his full potential and get a great amount of joy from his accomplishments. I sure know how hard Mr Reece works, and everyday I'm grateful. We sure lucked out in the awesome teachers department for Clemon. Shoot, we've lucked out in that department with all three children. What are the odds?

2011-04-05T17:49:00.010-04:00

Being the fun mom that I am, I planned a 4 day Disney World trip during spring break and dragged my mom along for the fun. Emme loved all the thrill rides. She has her favorite few at each Disney park. Clee went all the thrill rides whether he liked them or not, but he'll ride Pirates, and Big Thunder Railroad over and over again. Andrew was finally tall enough to ride Space Mountain, but his all time favorite ride was Walt Disney's Carousel Of Progress. It's basically a 20 minute snooze fest. He rode it numerous times with grandma while we went on rides he didn't like so much. Now he knows the song beginning to end.

After many visits to Orlando, I finally got to see my high school friend who now lives in that area, Natalia and her cute family. Even with the all the Disney chaos it was nice catching up and finally meeting her cute curly haired blondie, Nate who I've gotten to know through facebook.

Andrew's current obsession is with Mickey Mouse. I know what you're thinking here: Him??? An obsession?? It's true and we waited in hour long lines x3 just to get a picture with the famous mouse. Speaking of character pictures, Andrew was made for this kind of stuff. He loves waiting in long lines in hopes of getting hug, handshake or fist bump by a lovable Disney character. When Emme was his age, she wouldn't go near the characters and Clee? Forget about it...

... That is until we saw Lightning McQueen. Clee's a huge Cars fan. He collects die cast Cars in all shapes and sizes. He even liked wearing the Cars mouse ears for a brief moment.

****Note: If you can't see the resemblance between Clee and these particular set of ears for yourself... well you're at a loss.****

As soon as Clee saw Mcqueen, he leaned in for hug. He was in heaven. I was in shock. He would have stayed there all day long covering every inch of the car with his eyes if we'd let him.

When Andrew saw there was a Pizza Planet for realsies, he just about screamed with glee. It's not as cool as the movie one, though. You've been warned.

Here's us before Tower Of Terror...

Here's us during Tower Of Terror (see Clee's head next to my armpit)...

And here's us after...

...Wait a minute. We were too horrified to get an after picture. I remember now. My mom on the other hand loved every drop, but she won't go on space mountain. Looney girl.

While Emme and grandma went to get a drawing lesson, the boys and I watched a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show. Both boys laughed. Both boys loved it.

Um excuse me, Clemon? Where do you think you're hitching a ride to?

Two things I loved about Disneyland when I was young were Fantasmic and the Main Street Electrical Parade. It delights me to know they were good enough to bring back to the parks. The kids got a big kick out of them, too.

All in all we had a really good trip.

Even Clee's strait crazy tantrum that lasted for over an hour and a half, all because he couldn't sniff the seat on the people mover doesn't seem so bad if you think about all the good times we had.

2011-04-05T16:43:00.003-04:00

March 20, 2011 my only baby girl turned the big 1 0. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of having a child in the double digits. Quite frankly... it freaks me out. Even though she's the bestest 10 year old this mom could ever hope for...

I still long for that chubby cheeked cherub I cuddled with day in and day out just 10 short years ago. Isn't she heavenly?

We started off Em's Birthday weekend with go carts and Coldstone ice cream cupcakes. Those two things say "I'm 10!!!" like nothing else, really.

Even though the two friends she invited had other plans, we still had a blast with the Sirmans' crew. She wanted Candace to make her a Birthday cake, and Candace was kind enough to accept the request. She made Emme a peanut butter and chocolate cake that was supery dupery yummy! Girl can make a good cake.

Emme collected all her Birthday money and bought herself an ipod touch. Her favorite apps are google voice for texting and one for photo editing. Em can text like a pro. It must come with the double digit territory.

I sure do love my 10 year old.

2011-04-05T14:25:00.002-04:00

Well hello there. Missed me? I have no excuse for my lack of blogging other than I am lazy, but I'm getting back into the swing of things starting with our March happenings. March was a busy, busy month for our little family of 5.
My mom came and stayed with us for two whole weeks, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

Back in January, Emme tried out for her schools honors chorus and made the group. They practiced every Wednesday until the district wide honors chorus performance. They were all great, but you know Emme's school looked and sang the best. Dur.

And if one school performance wasn't enough to satisfy ones love for the performing arts, Andrew along with his kindergarten crew had one a few days after. He was a pro when it came to the hand jive. He completely stopped singing just so his jive could be perfect. At least this is what he tells me.

This kid was born to hand jive, baby.

...A little Grease humor for ya.

And then there was the science fair. Once again our smarty smart girl impressed the judges and bagged herself another blue ribbon for her lava lamp experiment. She had the best presentation board in the school! I thought so, anyway. We're so proud!

Andrew's class also participated in the fair with their paper towel project. Andrew and I agreed that paper towels are extremely interesting and quite useful.

2011-03-08T17:56:00.002-05:00

Happiness is:

75 degree spring weather.

Skipping home from a late afternoon swing at the park, arms all linked, while singing We're Off To See The Wizard.

...Excepting the fact that every part of your body giggles during said skip is optional.

2011-02-25T15:14:00.002-05:00

Today baby G and I decided we needed to get out of the house and live a little. We landed our adventurous selves in the makeup isles of Target. Since we were being so adventurous, I bought few makeup necessities on clearance breaking the bank at $16. I know, I'm such a splurger. When we got home and looked at my purchases, I seconded guessed my cheapo talent. Everything I bought was just meh, except for the blush and eyeshadow- both are peachy... literally. I could actually hear Sally from 2500 miles away yelling at me for buying such cheap garbage for makeup. Still I'm going to keep all purchased items because I'm in serious need for lipgloss foundation, even if the lipgloss didn't look as orange at the store. Sigh. It's time like these when a) I wish I wasn't such a cheapo when it comes to my flawless look and figure and b) I wish I lived closer to my nurse/stylist/makeup artist. She'd tell me to step away from the Target clearance makeup fo sho.

2011-02-24T17:31:00.004-05:00

When you tell your 6 yr old not to run because he's going to fall, it becomes inevitable. He will fall. And it's also inevitable that it will happen right after your nonverbal 8 yr old signs the sign for swing and you reply "Yes! Let's go to the park!"

Today wasn't any different. Andrew was running down the hill, I told him to be careful, then tripped over the uneven side walk and biffed it. He was fine and dandy until he looked down and saw the teenciest weenciest bit of blood, then fine and dandy turned into ear ringing screams. This child does not do well with blood- he takes after his mother. I looked at his fingers, and they were definitely scraped . Between screams, he moans for a bandaid, and sure enough we were without one. The screaming continued even louder than before. He yelled at me. This was my fault, I'll have you know. I'm the one who makes him walk home from school. You can see his ribs, so he doesn't need the exercise. He demanded to go home. He needs a bandaid before his finger falls right off. All his words, not mine. Believe me. I would have la la loved to take him home, but I told Clee we were going to the park.

What's a mom to do? Empathize with the son who's injury has been blown way out of proportion? Or keep my promise to the son we'd go to the park so he could get his swing on?

If we go strait home so Andrew could get his beloved bandaid on, and Clee wouldn't understand why we didn't go the the park after I told him we would. That wouldn't end well.

But if we went on to the park, Andrew would cry and carry on the entire time we're there.

These are the tough decisions in life, and I had to react fast.

In the end I chose the park. Andrew was upset, even after we saw someone from church who gave us a bandaid. He was upset I didn't care enough to take him home in the first place.

The point is I couldn't win either way. I chose the park because that was the plan, and I told Clee that was the plan. When you have a child who very rarely expresses his wants without prompt, you act on it ergo giving him the idea that expressing his wants/needs isn't such a bad thing after all.

And mostly because Andrew will be back to his normal goofball self as soon as he gets home. Clee on the other hand would have carried on all.night.long- even if we went home first and then went to the park. It would screw up his day. Make that our day.

From this I've learned these two things. Remember to start putting bandaids in Andrew's backpack. And both of my boys are big time drama queens.

in the words of andrew:

2011-02-11T15:16:00.001-05:00

Andrew: Mom you're old, and you're not disgusting.

Me: I'm not old.

Andrew: Who told you that?

Have I mentioned that I'm turning 30 this year?

2011-02-11T14:45:00.002-05:00

I often ask Fiel if he thinks it's possible for Clee to know just how much we love him. Without hesitation Fiel always replies, yes.

This was my view on Wednesday night. The nocturnal child crawled onto my lap, kissed me on the cheek, put my arm tightly around his body, gave me his big toothed smile, and fell asleep. Happy Valentine's day weekend, folks. My heart is full of love.

2011-02-04T17:29:00.003-05:00

Today I discovered something I wasn't prepared to find for at least (AT LEAST!) five years from now.

Let me back track for a moment. Last August I decided I was done with bleaching and coloring my hair. I haven't known the true color of my hair since I was 13 years old. I felt it was time to see who's hair color I really had- my moms or my dads (they're practically the same). I knew growing my hair out wouldn't be an easy road and it certainly hasn't been, but I'm hanging tough and sure enough, it's coming in with all it's natural colored glory. Fiel once joked about me finding grey hairs now that it's growing out, and I laughed at the idea. Hahaha. Yeah right, I told him. I've got years until I have to worry about such things.

... Now back to today. I was in the bathroom admiring the pimple on my forehead in the mirror while keeping Clee company while he does his "business" when I saw it.
What I saw was... was... A grey hair! EEK!!!

Pause for composure....

Okay. I'm not even 30 yet, so if I'm getting grey hairs at 29 just imagine how grey my hair will be at 39. And if that's not bad enough, upon looking at the photo, I spotted two more grey hairs. What on earth? Why they gotta be gaining up on me like that? I'm a good person, people. A darn good person... when I'm not laughing at people falling.

So today is the day I found my first grey ~~hair~~ hairs. I won't sugar coat it. This. Stinks. My first instinct is to want to hide in my bed and eat my feelings, but I won't. Instead I'll figure out which child is to blame and take it out on them.

I don't know, folks. A bottle of bleach is looking pretty darn good right about now...

2011-02-03T15:30:00.002-05:00

How Andrew can go from demon child to saint in 0 to 10 seconds will never cease to amaze me. Just thought I should point that out.

2011-02-02T16:25:00.002-05:00

Don't mean to brag or anything, but my son can number 2, read a Thomas The Train book (yes actually read! Success!), and sing at the same time. And when I say sing I mean belt out the lyrics to We Are The Champions.

I'd like to take full credit for such a talent, but I'm not really a fan of Thomas The Train. And like I told Andrew, I don't care if Ringo Starr once was the conductor on the tv series. My stance on Thomas remains the same.

2011-01-29T14:28:00.003-05:00

My mom turns the big 60 tomorrow and I just thought of something. I turn (deep breaths) 30 later this year. She had me at 30. That was 30 years ago. I will soon be half her age. This will be one of those once in a lifetime moments for us. I wonder how old she feels now that I reminded her of this...

2011-01-28T19:11:00.002-05:00

BREAKING NEWS:

The Bucket O Soldiers have been deployed to the TV console. Their mission is to protect the wii from the wii ninjas who threaten to take the wii away from little boys who don't obey their parents. According to my sources, The Bucket O Soldiers will continue their efforts in Operation Frii The Wii and will be stationed on top of the white wii shell until further notice.

... That'll teach those pesky wii ninjas not to mess with the household 6 year old.

At least thats what Andrew thinks.

2011-01-27T17:06:00.002-05:00

I don't know what's more concerning. Andrew wanting to watch TV while sitting in the baby bumbo, or Andrew staring at the TV for 2 minutes before realizing the TV wasn't even on.

It's debatable.

about the time I wanted Danny Tanner pjs

2011-01-11T17:17:00.007-05:00

Emme has been watching old episodes of Full House after school on a regular basis for a while now, it was only a matter of time before I shared my "the time I wanted Danny Tanner pjs" story with her.

The year was 198something. I was about to host my very first sleepover. Mom even bought a brand new tv from the rent-to-own place just in time for the occasion.

The day before, my friend was raving about the brand new Uncle Jesse pjs her mom had just bought her. This particular friend (I can't recall her name) had a HUGE crush on Uncle Jesse. In fact, the entire girl population in my classroom all had huge crushes on Jesse. All but me. I had a HUGE crush on Danny Tanner. Yeah... I was the only one. Weird, right?

Later that night I expressed to my mom my desire for new Danny Tanner pjs to wear at the sleepover. She took me to Fred Meyer, where we searched high and low for my Danny Tanner pjs. We saw tons of Jesse ones. We even saw ones with Michelle on them, but not a Danny Tanner pj in sight. My mom was discouraged. She even had the gall to say maybe they didn't sell Danny Tanner pjs, because Danny was the dad- not the heartthrob. HOW DARE SHE???

After looking everywhere for Danny Tanner pjs, we decided to ask a Fred Meyer associate for assistance. Oh how I remember the sound of her teenaged smirk right before she said, "wow... this is the first time I've heard that one before. " I must admit, by that point my Danny Tanner crush was starting to get a little embarrassing.

I came out of Fred Meyer empty handed that night, with a hurt heart. That was the day I realized that my crush on Danny Tanner was a little odd, so I kept mute about my feelings on the subject for a long while.

In retrospect I've always been a fool for tall and skinny. Just look at Fiel.

Oh and the famous sleepover? It was canceled due to alcoholism. Now that's another story for another time.

2011-01-11T14:14:00.001-05:00

Confession:

I watch Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. There I finally said it. Fiel says he's embarrassed, ashamed, and uncomfortable enough for the both of us.

2011-01-11T09:53:00.005-05:00

It has been brought to my attention that I've been slacking on my blog duties by my homegirl, Meg. I do believe she's right.

But I lack with good reason.

a) We're just plain boring right now.

b) A baby. Before you gasp and squeal for joy I should tell you it's not my baby. Sorry mom. Sweet little baby G has had my full daytime attention for a little over a week now. I've been chosen to take care of Mr Reece's (Clee's Teacher, remember?) little bundle of joy during the weekdays. Mr Reece takes care of my big baby during the day, and I take care of his little baby. It's a pretty sweet gig, don't you think? My hands have been too busy with baby cuddles, and feedings, and I'll take that over a keyboard- any day.

2011-01-05T16:36:00.006-05:00

There once was a time when *NSYNC and Dawson's Creek were the main priorities in life. It was around the same time that I loved describing my then boyfriend/ now husband as a cross between JC Chasez and Dawson Leery to all the inquirers. You know what the best part is? He so was. I know... what.are.the.odds?

Twelve years ago I vowed to my friend and fellow NSYNC lover, Amy that my future children will know and love every single NSYNC song there was. It was a goal in life to make certain would happen.

Twelve years later my children know one NSYNC song, and they thought it was Justin Bieber.

It's a good thing I can't go back in time. I couldn't stand to have to tell the 17 yr old me I let her down. Or worse... NSYNC broke up and Justin Timberlake was the only one to have a successful ongoing career.

If you couldn't already tell, this post is what randomness looks like.

in the words of andrew:

2010-12-30T15:45:00.005-05:00

(whilst listening to Sgt. Pepper)

Andrew: What does it mean to sweat like a goat?

Me: I have noooo idea, why?

Andrew: What is Paul saying in the beginning of this song?

Me: It was twenty years ago today. Sgt Pepper told the band to play.

Andrew: Oh... I was about to go through life thinking it said It was sweaty as a goat today.

To be fair I almost went through life thinking We Built This City was We Milk This City. I'm guessing it's genetic. Sorry, bud.

2010-12-30T12:50:00.003-05:00

For the first time since Christmas, Andrew's daily sputters hasn't been something Buzz Lightyear related. Oh no his daily sputters has been brought to a whole other level of awesome. Since watching Cookie Monster's SNL audition tape he's been randomly blurting out:

Cookie joke, cookie joke, cookie joke.

My cookie face. My my cookie face.

and my personal favorite,

Macarooner!

Are you as in love with this as I am? I smell an obsession...

2010-12-30T11:28:00.007-05:00

11 years ago today I married a tall blonde who wore glasses, a black leather jacket and baggy jeans. During our first year of marriage, we spent our weeknights watching The Simpsons in bed. We declared ourselves newlyweds- stuck in our old married couple-like ways. We were in bliss.

Not much has changed since then aside from my tall blonde now wears contacts, traded the leather jacket, and baggy jeans in for zippered pullovers, and adidas warm up pants. And instead of The Simpsons in bed, we graduated to DVR'd Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on the couch.

We're still stuck in our old married couple-like ways, but now we have a reason. It's fact that once you've hit the 10 year mark- you become the old married couple for realsies. So it's okay to eat at Boston Market on date night in your best sweats because that's what old married folk do.

Heh... getting hitched at 18 isn't looking so silly after all, now is it critics of 11 years past?

ps: He still owns that black leather jacket. I will never let him get rid of it.

2010-12-29T17:29:00.010-05:00

Number of tantrums from Clemon during Christmas break: ... I've lost count. In fact, he's in the middle of one right now because I moved one of his new monster truck mater's so I could sweep around it.

I'm not a fan of school breaks whether it be winter, spring, or summer. I'm not a fan all the same. Don't get me wrong here. I enjoy my kids, but when they've have been around each other nonstop for days and you've become the referee instead of the mom, you got a problem. Sure it's fun for the first few days, but when laundry becomes the one consistent thing in life? Well lets just say I'm not a fan of that either.

Breaks are the hardest on Clemon. It's totally out of his routine and he can't handle it as well as others. I have to constantly remind myself of that when he starts getting on my nerves with his yelling, stomping, and full out fits. I can't wait for January 5th to come around, so Clemon and I can get back to loving each other instead of shooting each other dirty looks like we're doing right now.

I'll be taking that mother of the year award now, please.

2010-12-25T17:37:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas y'all!

2010-12-23T12:05:00.003-05:00

This morning, Andrew came running into my room:

Mom! Mom! Clemon gave me a hug! I think he's starting to like me now!

I'm not sure what made me cry more. The brotherly love that was just exchanged between my two sons? That Andrew venerates being hugged by Clemon? Or that Andrew has gone through life thinking Clemon hates him.

2010-12-23T10:20:00.005-05:00

This month has flown right by and we've done some pretty fun Christmasy things along the way. A few weeks ago we accompanied the Stacy Sirmans crew up to Thomasville for a Victorian Christmas . Clee loved the big dancing head in the window display. He could have watched it all night, but it was starting to creep me out so on we went.

There was a booth where you could pay to dress up in Victorian attire and get your photo taken for a fee... We skipped the professional photo op and had our own free of charge. I'm not gonna lie Candace looks so sophisticated in that hat and my boys and I? Well lets just say we're right up there next to Tom Selleck down the line of awesome mustaches.

The boy scouts were there handing out marshmallows to roast. Andrew decided to give up after he kept burning his marshmallow, but Emme got the hang of it pretty fast.

After Clee licked the ice sculpture of a Cross, we headed over to see Santa. Clee preferred hanging out with the stuffed deer.

Emme's choir had a holiday performance and sang many holiday songs from different cultures. Emme had a solo and she was fantastic. The whole performance went wonderfully. My two boys even sat quietly throughout most of it. The choir kids and their music teacher worked very hard and it showed.

Last weekend we headed up to Maries house for the annual Sirmans Christmas party. It just so happened to be Fiel's 31st Birthday as well. A double dose for reason to celebrate. CF's brother Stevie dresses up like Santa and handed out grandparent gifts to the children. All the children got a real big kick out of it, except for Clemon. He wasn't feeling the moments holiday excitement.

Andrew went a gave Santa a big hug and later admitted he knew it was Stevie all along... that's why he hugged him. He looked like papa in a Santa suit.

We have a park that does a walk through light display every year. It's been a tradition of ours to go and although I dread the thought of going, I actually have a good time once we're there. The kids enjoy posing with every Christmas light display within reach.

The one thing I dread the most come Christmas time is making gingerbread houses. You know I'm the one building those houses and I'm the one who gets blamed when they collapse. It's a lose-lose situation, but the kids look forward to it so how can I say no?

Andrew was all over his house and he was so proud when it was done. Then tragedy struck when his house collapsed on it's way over to the tree. He was devastated and then his sadness turned into anger at me for not building it right. Geezuh. Talk about the family grinch. With him crying under the table I quickly tried to assemble it back together, and you know what? I did assemble that gingerbread house back together and I quickly went from being the villain to the hero. He wiped his tears away and took his picture with his house. It remains intact today.

I'm going to be strait forward with you. Clee doesn't care about gingerbread houses. He cares about that candy. He was not happy with me when I kept urging him to decorate his house. He finally put four pieces of candy on the top, gave me the "happy now?" look, and proceeded to eat his stash of candy. He was not the slightest bit upset when he dropped his house on the way to the tree. He just looked at it and went back to the bowls of candy.

I really went through all of this gingerbread house making nonsense for Emme because she's a fool for this kind of stuff and I'm kinda a fool for her. She has a flare for gingerbread house decorating.

Well that's what we've been up to these past few weeks. Christmas eve is tomorrow and we have a full day of getting the house back into shape ahead of us. Santa loaths a messy house.

deep thoughts with Emme

2010-12-16T08:48:00.003-05:00

Em: What's the difference between Diet Coke and regular Coke?

Me: Diet Coke has fake no calorie sugar. Coke is loaded with the real stuff. I can't drink regular anymore. It makes my stomach hurt.

Em: ... and that white chocolate Oreo you ate earlier doesn't, right?

Me: ...

2010-12-07T18:25:00.003-05:00

Whilst walking into school's book fair:

Me: Does it embarrass you that I'm wearing my jammie bottoms to your book fair?

Em: No, those jammie bottoms are awesome.

Heeeeeeeeck yea they are and comfy cosy too.

In retrospect I would have been mortified if my mom came to a school event in her jammie bottoms. Guess it just goes to show who's the cooler nine year old: Emme

Sirmans 2010 Christmas Newsletter

2010-12-06T13:19:00.004-05:00

Hello dear Family and Friends! How is it possible 2010 is coming to an end? This year has certainly gone by in a flash, but oh the things we've done and accomplished within these 12 months.

We moved to a new rented home in February right down the street from the kids school. Our newer neighborhood is in a cute, quite, and hidden suburb on the SE side of town. For the first time in the history of our little family, we've been close enough to walk home from school. We enjoyed our half mile each way walks home from school earlier this year, but since then the kids have protested walking home in the Florida heat and humidity. I can't blame them. The current Florida weather is lovely, so I hope to kick our home from school walks back into gear real soon.

Back in June the kids and I picked up Tice from the Atlanta airport, and followed Elaine and CF on a road trip to Delaware to see our oldest nephew graduate from high school. My van hit the big 100,000 mile mark on our trek to DE which was exciting. It seems like only yesterday I was driving her brand new self off the lot with only 5 miles under her belt... From there, Tice and I hit the road once again and made our journey to Utah where the kids and I spent 5 weeks with my mom. We had a blast visiting with family and friends. When it was time to come home, Fiel flew into SLC and we rode back home with a little stop in Moab UT first. I would love to back to Moab when it's not 105 degrees outside.

This August our family hit a huge milestone. All three kids are now in full time school. Six plus hours of sweet weekday freedom is mine for the taking, but to my dismay it's not all fun and games. Just because the kids disappear for a few hours a day, doesn't mean I have all sorts of time to lollygag. There are still mounds of household chores, and family errands to do. That's basically what occupies my weekday freedom, but I honestly wouldn't have it any other way. I do love my mommy duties, and truth be told I sometimes miss the sounds of those yelling and demanding youngins... gah did I just type that?

This year has found me well. I'm still the fun lovable lady everyone adores (cheesy grin and a wink). I've been keeping busy making our house a home and making sure it's being run and maintained properly for the most part. I have my days where cleaning and laundry can wait a day... or three.

My mom bought me that sewing machine I've been longing for last Christmas and I took her out of the box for the first time in May. I attempted to make Clee a weighted blanket. Five broken needles later, the blanket was a disaster and back went the sewing machine into the box. I still want to learn how to sew, believe it or not. There's even a sewing club that meets at my church on the same date and time Emme's there for activity days. I want to join in on the sewing fun one day, but as of right now I'm sew (heh) over it.

Seeing that all three kids are now attending the same school, I decided to do the "stay at home mommy thing" and joined the PTO (PTA in most areas) as their secretary. So far it's been a busy few months. With a welcome back bbq, cookie fundraiser, and fall carnival already under our belts, the president tells me it's smooth sailing from here.

Fiel is doing good. When he's not taking apart apple computers, or checking off chores on the never ending daddy duty to do list, he's accompanying his dad's band, Jukebox as their sound tech aka roadie as they play rock n' roll gigs in various Georgia towns.

He's affectionally known as the family go-to guy when it comes to computer issues. Whether or not he likes this term is still up for debate.

He's been deemed head nerd of the house with his various high tech gadgets and doodads. We all love and appreciate our head nerd.

Emme has blossomed into a social butterfly this year. As a fourth grader, she continues to maintain a strait A grade point average, and is the only fourth grader to be on the school's daily news broadcast.

She made a new best friend, Mamie who lives just down the street, and together they joined the schools glee club. They've already had a few performances, and they sound and look great.

She was also nominated to join the after school hawks club, which is manned by the schools art teacher. It's there that she gets to show her love and new appreciation for art, and even has learned a few new art tricks.

She was recently tested to be part of the gifted program at school because she's just so smart (takes after me, I suppose...). The results are still unknown at this time.

She continues to be a big help to me in the family department when she and Andrew aren't arguing.

She's found a new hobby in film making. She takes my phone which happens to have a built in video camera and makes mini movies staring Andrew. She is quite the little ~~dictator~~ director.

Emme is my definition of the perfect daughter with the occasional attitude.

This has definitely been Clee's year to shine. He turned 8 over the summer and has matured greatly within the past few months. He officially became 100 percent potty trained back in February which was a huge deal. Have you ever changed a 7 year olds diaper? Yeah... not so fun.

He continues to have a love affair with the swimming pool. He has even taught himself how to hold his breath under water and can do a killer back stroke. His back stroke is quite a sight to see. I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty amazing.

He got an iPad to help him better communicate with us through an app that shows him visuals with the words beneath and will vocalize what he wants/needs for him with just a tap of the finger. He's doing well with it, but it's still a huge work in progress. I am very hopeful that one day the iPad will be his best friend and ally.

He's become more focused then ever, and is even following some spoken communication without visual prompts which is something he has rarely done in the past.

His teacher has even noticed the difference from last year which makes me proud knowing he's headed in the right direction.

With maturity comes more freedom, or so I hear. Instead of being by his side at all times, I'm trying to let go a little and give him some freedom to go and explore on his own. This has been extremely hard for me, but alas I'm doing it and for the most part he can be trusted to go off, play, and stay within mama's eye view. Did I mention how hard this has been for me? Because it so has.

He and Andrew recently became roomies with a new and adorable bunk bed to share. Clee has been more than happy to share his bedroom with his brother. Seeing my boys finally share a room makes my heart ever so happy.

He's been making more and more vocal sounds which gives me glimpses of hope he'll one day burst out in conversation, but until then the occasional what appears to be him saying "no" in protest is good enough for this mama.

Andrew the baby just had his 6th Birthday. The thought of him growing up makes my heart hurt, but his swoon worthy crooked smile doesn't let it ache for long. He's a lovable left handed kindergartener who struggles with scissors made for this right handed world. He'll try to tell you otherwise, but he loves school and thinks his teacher is awesome. He's learning to read and thinks the english language is confusing and impossible to sound out. Why isn't phone spelled fone? And who thought is was ok to put a k in the word knock? These are the complex questions I face daily.

He makes books by the dozen. He writes and illustrates each one on his own. The last few have been about Christmas, Cat In The Hat, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Paul McCartney. With he and Emme's love for writing we might not just have one, but two future writers in our family.

Andrew loves life and tries to make the most out of everyday. He dislikes when the sun goes down because that means the day is almost over. He is an all american boy with dreams and ambitions of becoming the first ghostbuster/ghost hunter/ musician/exterminator/basketball playing/video gaming extraordinaire.

Well that's us in a nut shell. Our little family is growing to be pretty darn terrific, if I don't say so myself. If this is your first time visiting our humble blog and you haven't yet reached your Sirmans' fill, feel free to look around the blogs archives.

From our family to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a bright and wonderful new year!

xoxo,

The Sirmans family

2010-11-30T16:23:00.002-05:00

Taylor Swift: I had a videocamera that would...

Emme finishes sentence: ...eat cheese.

To answer your questions:

No, we're not cool ( or too cool? ) enough to hang out with Taylor Swift for realsies. We're just cool enough to have her Christmas special DVR'd.

And yes, Emme finishes lots of sentences with the word cheese. She says it's a talent. It's definitely something alright.

2010-11-30T15:10:00.003-05:00

Our Thanksgiving weekend was filled with family visitors from Delaware, Jacksonville, Gainesville, family togetherness, black Friday shopping (starting at 8:30pm Thursday night), lack of sleep due to BF shopping, Jukebox gigs, and the Sirmans family reunion.

Every Saturday after Thanksgiving the Sirmans' who can attend all get together in Pearson GA to reunite with food, music, and some socialization. We've been lucky enough to be in attendance 3 years in a row. This year Lori and family were able to join in on the Sirmans festivities. The kids were happy that their cousins were there with us. It was a long day, but being with family is always worth it, right? ...Most of the time? Alright, some of the time. Sheesh.

2010-11-26T09:53:00.002-05:00

...Crazy black friday shoppers.

ps: heartburn and black friday shopping aren't such a great duo. In fact they kinda stink together.

2010-11-23T12:49:00.006-05:00

Andrew had his sixth, ghostbustin' Birthday party at Chuck E Cheeses. He invited his friends Dylan, and Ravi from school, Warner, Rylee, Grammy, Papa, Karen, Roger, and of course us and we all had a blast. The kids in particular loved the vast amount of tokens Grammy had passed out. I'm pretty sure all of the adults had headaches towards the end. Fiel and CF were itching to leave as soon as the cake was eaten up, and presents were opened. I mean, can you blame them? This is Chuck E Cheese on a Friday night, we're talking about.

Thanks to my friend Natalia's awesome party store find, Andrew was able to have his Ghostbuster's themed party. He thought it was pretty cool.

Andrew made out like a bandit with the Birthday gifts. Andrew said it was the best birthday ever!

All and all, it was a really good night and Andrew only cried on the way home once. A really good night, indeed.

Not to steal Andrew's birthday post thunder, but the highlight of my night was seeing how much Clee enjoyed Skee Ball. This is the kid that prefers to be sitting at the table with his eyes closed at Chuck E Cheese, but not Friday night. He wanted to explore the joint, so we did. We ended up at the Skee Ball row. I asked him if he wanted to play, and he shook his head yes. He put his token in and just stared at the balls that came towards him. Fiel helped him get going, but it wasn't too long after that when he started to play on his own. He was having himself the best time, trowing those balls at the holes, and he even knew to put another token in after his game was done. What got me was that he used his left hand to throw the balls. Ambidextrous, much? He must have used 30 tokens on Skee Ball alone and won enough tickets to buy himself a few tootsie pops. That's not too shabby for a first timer. This has certainly been Clee's year to shine.

things on the mind

2010-11-22T17:43:00.003-05:00

I kinda love Barbara Bush somethin' fierce. She's the old gal I want to become.

Why is Thanksgiving time the only time Costco doesn't carry premade mashed potatoes? The manager said I should have stocked up a month ago. Thanks Costco manager. You're a big help.

I would totally act like an idiot, too if I were ever lucky enough to be an audience member of Oprah's Favorite Thing's episode. Those crazies have an excuse to be crazy. They're getting some of Oprah's favorite things for just being in the same room with Oprah. That's a win-win.

I can't believe I know so many people who don't like Oprah. They're all Oprah haters.

Martha Stewart is so talented. I'd love to be her assistant, so she can yell at me and tell me how untalented I am.

My kids talked me into putting up the Christmas tree last night. Yes a week early. We're going to be those kinds of people this year. I have no regrets, and thankfully the tree has no mice.

My Christmas decor is still the cutest Christmas decor ever.

How do my kids manage to destroy a clean house in less than 10 minutes? I'm starting to think it's a conspiracy against yours truly.

2010-11-21T18:55:00.005-05:00

Are you sick of trips down memory lane, yet? Well I'm not, so there.

Fiel's got himself a new printer/scanner/fax machine (oooh, fancy fax machine) which means more of these little un-digital pretties will be making their first debut onto the computer.

... How did we ever resist kissing this chubby cheeked face nonstop? He's sooo flipping cute!

This is my most favorite picture of Clee, taken by Tice circa 2003. She has the negative so my one cropped photo was all I had until now. Technology is a wonderful thing.
As soon as I get a hang of this scanning thingy, I think we might become instant bffs... until I run out of things to scan, that is.

2010-11-19T08:59:00.005-05:00

Me kissing Andrew circa December 2004. Before he could talk and tell me it embarrasses him.

The baby of the family isn't such a baby anymore. He may act like one from time to time, but he's technically not one. Andrew turned 6 today. He's a full blown kid. How on earth did that happen? I thought I told him to stay a baby forever? He never listens to me. That's such an Andrew thing to do.

Was it really that long ago when he was the spiky haired baby who would stare at me from his bouncer-roo, just waiting for me to look at him so he could give me that squinty eyed, crooked- open mouth smile that completely adored?

Is he really the kindergartener, I ran into at his school the other day, who told me not to kiss him around his friends?

He was the one who told me last night that just between me and him, he'd always be my baby. I can even hold him like one every once in a while. Only on his terms, though.

Fair enough, bud.

The birth story of Andrew Wyatt- 6 years later

2010-11-17T13:59:00.012-05:00

Six years ago tomorrow, I was told I was going to meet the baby boy inside of me that night- 5 1/2 weeks before scheduled.

Our original due date was December 18th, Fiel's Birthday, but was later changed to December 26th. We were planning on moving to Connecticut at the end of December, after the baby came. Fiel left for Connecticut in October to start his new job, while the kids and I stayed behind waiting for the baby to arrive. With Fiel having already moved, we had to schedule the baby's birth by the timing of when he came back to get us. Our inducing date was set for Tuesday, December 21st. We would have the baby home by the 24th, have Christmas in Utah, and leave a few days later. It was the perfect plan.

That is until I had my routine visit to the ob. Dr. Carlton is her name, and she was a little concerned I was measuring smaller than I did the month before. It was most likely due to the baby dropping, but she wanted to make sure, so she ordered an ultrasound for that Thursday, November 18, at 4pm.

Elaine was in town for a visit and staying over at Sally's at the time, watching Emme and Clee while I went to my ob appointment. It was her last day in Utah before she headed back to Connecticut. When I came back to Sally's, I told them what the doctor had said. Elaine even joked about staying an extra few days just in case the baby came. We all doubted there was anything to worry about. In fact I was excited to go in for a bonus ultrasound. Whatever it took to see my sweet little baby, right? Right.

That Thursday morning felt all out of sorts. Clee was extremely clingy and whinny which was so out of character for him. Even on the way to Sally's before my ultrasound, Emme asked me if I was going to have the baby that day. I dropped the kids off at Sally's, told Lane I'd be back in an hour or so and left. I could see Clee crying as I drove off. It was a pretty sad sight.

I met my mom at St. Marks women's pavilion and we went in to see my baby via ultrasound. There he was, still cute as ever, but I noticed the technician was taking an unusually long time. He said he'd be right back. We waited 20 minutes or so when he came back with a doctor. They both looked at the baby for what seemed like an eternity. The doctor finally said he didn't want to concern me, but they needed to hook me up to monitors for additional testing. Ah yes, the stress test. I wasn't a stranger to the stress test, in fact I've done numerous stress tests before, because lets face it- I kinda tend to worry... a lot.

5:45pm rolls around and I'm still hooked up to the monitors for over an hour, which wasn't too unusual. I thought I was almost done so I made a quick call to Sally's house telling them it was taking longer than excepted and I'd be there as soon as I was done. Just as soon as I made the call, the doctor came in.

He said he had news, and it wasn't the best news. He told me my placenta had been deteriorating. My placenta at 33 and a half weeks, looked more like a 42 week old placenta, which would be past due. The baby was in distress. There was more technical talk. It all went over my head. He said he wanted to ensure I would give birth to a healthy and living baby. I would be induced that night. Then he said, You know... rather be safe then sorry. Uh... I guess?

My delivery room was already waiting for me. I was in shock. I couldn't stop shaking. I could not believe I was having this baby within hours.

It wasn't until minutes later when I realized Fiel wasn't there. In true Fiel fashion, he was hard to get a hold of on the phone. Elaine was the one who finally got a hold of him to tell him the news. He called me, to make sure I wasn't over exaggerating. My reply to him was: Well I'm in my hospital gown waiting for the for the man (anesthesiologist) with the magic (epidural) to come. So yeah, no over exaggerations here. ...Jerk. I thought that last part.

The realization sank in that he wouldn't get here in time to witness the birth of his son. The soonest he could be there was early the next morning. Meh. You've seen one, you've seen 'em all, right? Or is that just a thing Fiel and I say? Does this come across as insensitive to you? So sorry. I do feel bad for him, I must admit.

He didn't let on to me that he was too upset, but Elaine said he was pacing her main level hallway the entire night. That's a sure sign that Fiel's either worried about something or, in deep thoughts. Maybe both?

At 7:30pm my mom left the hospital to pack an overnight bag, and to pick up my camera.

By: 8:30pm I was drugged, induced, and contracting in that order. All the while my mom came back, and Clee was over at Sally's crying nonstop.

At 8:45-9pm: Dr. Carlton came in to measure my stomach. According to her measurements, baby was around 3lbs. Her measurements were about 3 pounds off with Clee, so I assumed they were with this baby, too. Oh and I was right, btw.

Still being worried about an unconsolable Clee, my mom and I contemplated whether or not to pick him up and keep at the hospital with me.

9:30pm: I was briefed on how the hospital handles premature babies. I was prepped for when as soon as baby arrives they would take him to a tiny portable bed thing (er, I'm not good with terminology), give him oxygen through a tiny mask, introduce him to me as my son, and whisk him away to the NICU where I wouldn't be able to see him again until the next morning. I cried.

10pm: Sally assures me for the second time that everything was under control and to leave Clee in her care. I am very grateful for Sally and Amanda's patience with Clee who continued to cry all night.

11:30: Nurse brings in the tiny bed that awaits my baby.

11:55pm: Baby's ready. Then came a crowd of 4 nurses and 1 pediatrician just for the baby. I started to push.

On November 19th at 12:09am: Baby Sirmans was born with a head full of white hair, weighing in at 5lbs 3oz.

He was perfect. Just perfect. Just like the nurse said, they took him to the tiny bed where all 4 nurses and pediatrician huddled over him so tight I couldn't see what was going on. Then the doctor handed him to me all rapped up in a bundle of cuteness.

I only got to hold him for a few seconds before they took him away. That was it. I wasn't allowed to see him again until 5 am. It was the strangest feeling, not having him there with me. 1:30am came around quickly and I was being wheeled off to my recovery room at the same time as another new mother holding her new babe. She looked at me and then looked down at my empty arms. This is really bad timing, I thought to myself. My heart hurt after that, but luckily for me I was too exhausted to dwell on that moment. I crashed for the night as soon as I was in my recovery bed.

I woke up at 6am, eagerly waiting to see my little bundle of joy. My mom already beat me to the punch. She had called our bishop and 1st councilor in for a blessing around 5:30. She warned me he was in an oxygen tent, that it looked scarier than it was, and not to cry because it was routine.

She went to pick up the kids and then to pick up Fiel at the airport a little after 6. That's when I went to see my baby for the first time since we met. She was right, it did look scary. Him just laying there nudie in the tiny little oxygen tent. I sat next to him, holding his hand until Fiel arrived then I let Fiel have a turn.

The nurses wanted to make a name tag for his soon-to-be bed, but the only problem was he didn't have a name. We had names in mind, but wasn't sure about any of them. I knew I wanted Wyatt in the name, but Fiel didn't like it as a first name. He wanted something more traditional from what we've used in the past. A name that people could actually spell. I guess Emme (also known as Emmy, Emmie, Emily) and Clemon (also known as Cleeve, Clemens, Cleu, Cleef, Cleman...etc) aren't traditional enough for his taste. Hmpf. Andrew was the only name we both liked, him more so than I. I still wanted Wyatt as a first name. It was decided, Andrew Wyatt was his name, and off the nurse went to make his name tag. About an hour later Andrew Wyatt's breathing was strong enough to do on his own and he was transferred to his tiny hospital bed where he would stay for the next 2 weeks.

Andrew gave us quite a scare, but he was certainly worth it. He continues to be a bright beam of joy in my life... for the most part. I couldn't imagine our family without him. According to Fiel, he makes our family complete. For the time being, I agree.

2010-11-17T08:52:00.008-05:00

Circa late 2005

... I'm just going to say what y'all are thinking: Hooooooly cuteness.

I found this little gem whilst looking for a baby picture for Andrew's up coming Birthday post (very hard to come by, the poor 3rd baby). It's hard to believe this darling baby, butterball toddler, and pretty preschooler are now 9, 8, and 2 days away from being 6.

I remember the night we took this picture. It was a winter night, Fiel was working late, Emme and Clee were sitting in the rocker while Emme watched Barbie's Princess and The Pauper for what seemed to be the bagillionth time (psst: secretly liked that movie). Andrew crawled over while calling out for: Memee.
That's what he used to call Emme. She picked him up, and she insisted I take a picture of them being cute together. So I did. Believe it or not, back then there were a lot of pictures that never would have been taken if it wasn't for Emme insisting I take one. I have much appreciation to my preschooler Emme.

All was wonderful as we took pictures until Clee let us know the photo-op was done by pushing Andrew off Emme's lap and on to the hardwood floor. Then he casually walked up stairs- laughing at the crying baby. I couldn't help but to laugh, too. That butterball of a 3 year old was too adorable to get mad at. Just sayin'.

I'm not gonna lie. I've been looking back at old photos for a few weeks now, just trying to briefly go back in time to where my babies were just that- babies. I might have even cried a little, but I won't confirm that.

Last night I had Andrew on my lap. Like I've told him everyday for the past week, I told him that this was his very last Tuesday of being 5. Then I told him I wanted him to stay 5 years old forever. You know what he told me? He said he couldn't stay 5 forever. He had to grow up. Who knew Andrew could be the voice of reason?

2010-11-10T08:52:00.007-05:00

Just another reason why my kids are so cool.

Yesterday afternoon on our way home from a loooooong day in Panama City Clee started giggling, bouncing his 70 pound (stats courtesy of doctor visit yesterday) body, while shaking his head along to Rocky Raccoon. We would look at each other and burst into laughter. This kid is so funny, and after the long day we just had, I so needed him to be.

The song ended and so did the party on the passenger side of the car. A few songs came and went as Clee stared at himself in the side mirror of the car (See? I told you he was vain...) when Helter Skelter came on. Again a giggling, bouncing, head shaking Clee was dancing along. Same thing happened when Blackbird, Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da, and Dear Prudence (my favorite Beatle song- I'll have you know, and Paul's not even the lead singer. What the heck, right?) came through the speakers. You've should have seen this kid rocking out. It was like he was a natural- been doing it all of his life. I've seen my fair share of Clee enjoying a song or two, but I've never seen him actually move his body to the beat of one song let alone five. And what was almost as amazing as his rhythm to the songs was he would only do it to those particular five.

If you have no idea what the connection is, these are all Beatle songs. All from the White Album. None of them were played back to back. Coincidence? I don't think so.

2010-11-05T16:16:00.003-04:00

Our heater turned on this morning, for the first time since February. The smell from the heater coming on for the first time in months woke us all up. It was 50 degrees outside at 7am this morning. It was 62 degrees in the house. That can only mean two things:

1: Fall is hopefully here to stay.

and

2: It's finally cold enough in the mornings for Andrew to wear his winter hat. He was so happy.

... Now if only Clee would wear his. He thinks he's too cool to wear a mohawk winter hat. Lame.

2010-11-04T15:33:00.004-04:00

After school, Andrew said he had something classic and hilarious to show me. Boy was he not joking. He got these glasses as a prize from school, and well... lets just say we've had our fun with them ever since.

Emme didn't want to join in the fun. What a fun killer.

To me, these glasses weren't just a fun way to spend the afternoon, they also brought back a good memory.

Circa 1989. I was 8 and on a sleepover with my great grandma Eileen. She and my dads mom took me to pic and save and we ended up browsing through a clearance aisle. As we were looking through the mounds of left over merch, she turned her head away from me. She was giggling when turned around wearing glasses that look exactly like the ones Andrew brought home today. We both bursted into a laughing frenzy. I thought she was so funny. She bought those funny glasses for me and they were a hit amongst the Allgood home for at least a month. That's one of the last few memories I have of my great grandma Eileen before Alzheimers decided to take her away from us.

I don't know what it is about these kinds of glasses, but like Andrew said they are classic and hilarious. Clee did not like it when I wore them. Not one bit. He knocked them strait off of my face and stomped his foot every time I'd look at him. That's the sure sign of annoyance coming from him. So in the end I guess I am the mother of not just one, but two fun killers. Sheesh.

2010-11-03T16:24:00.007-04:00

American Eagle cashier (holding my jeans and flannel shirt): Are these for your daughter?

Me: Er no. These are mine, and my daughter is nine.

American Eagle cashier: Oh sorry about that.

Me: It must be the Mr Rogers meets Martha Stewart sweater I'm wearing...

American Eagle cashier: ...

Punk.

I wasn't really upset over this because let's be honest. I am technically old enough to have given birth to a child in it's teenage years... if I were in my early to mid teens myself, that is.

And no, I don't believe my awesome Mr. Roger meets Martha Stewart sweater had anything to do with this particular cashiers reasoning to think I was old enough to be the mother of a teenager. But my Mr Rogers meets Martha sweater does deserve a collage of it's own because it is that awesome. Here ya go Mr. Rogers meets Martha sweater. You deserve it:

2010-11-01T15:01:00.008-04:00

Halloween 2010 was a success. Emme was a blast from the past 50's girl. She enjoyed twirling in her poodle skirt just as I imagine any girl from the 50's would. Clee went as Jack Skellington, a family favorite from Nightmare Before Christmas. He was a big hit when it became dark out and his bones started to glow. Oooh spooky. And in true Andrew fashion, he went from wanting to be Luigi- super Mario's brother/ side kick, Buzz Lightyear, Jesus- no joke, back to Luigi, to finally deciding on a robot, but not just any old robot- a robot powered by Apple... You know, for the Apple geek of a dad.

The kids made out like trick or treat bandit's, even Papa got into the halloween spirit.

Halloween 2010 was a hoot and a holler, but I'm so glad it's over. My spooky spirit has officially fizzled.

2010-10-28T15:11:00.009-04:00

Sirmans family guide to pumpkin carving:

First we start out by posing for pictures at the photo op stations, scattered around local pumpkin patch.

We're kinda pros at posing for pumpkin patch photo ops, so please don't be intimidated by our skills.

Secondly we pick out our pumpkins. We make sure they're not too big and not too small, but just right for little ones to carry to the car on their own.

Clee wants you to pick out a pumpkin.

Then we take our pumpkin home for some good old fashioned bonding time. Andrew prefers to do so by watching Cat In The Hat with his pumpkin.

Next we draw our faces on the pumpkins....

...Followed by gutting and carving.

You're done with the yucky stuff and the faces look amazing. Now you're ready to place your pumpkins in the area of your choice. We chose the front porch.

When the fun is over and done with, we like to fall asleep on our sisters lap while watching Twitches on the Disney channel.

Wait just a day or two and your pumpkin will be filled with spiders, fruit flies, and mold from the humidity. That's a great halloween treat.

To my dismay, I must report that our pumpkins didn't even last 4 days before caving in from decay. That's what a humid week will do to a pumpkin.

ps: I typed craving instead of carving not once but twice in this here post.

What a knuckle head.

2010-10-28T14:40:00.004-04:00

Here's what I've been working on the past two days:

I can check make homemade costume off of the rather large and always growing motherhood to-do list.

2010-10-28T14:19:00.002-04:00

Once a month I go through and deep clean the boys room, and once month I'm amazed at the amount of junk they collect over a 30 day time span.

Emme's no better, but at least she'll clean her own room in efforts to try and keep her accumulated junk safe from me and the garbage bag.

Lets face it, I'm raising hoarders.

2010-10-27T08:49:00.006-04:00

Me: ... what about a Blue's Clue's party?
Andrew: Mom! I don't want a Blue's Clues party. Blue's Clues is for babies.

Whoa there. Wait just a second. You are a baby, aren't you? Sadly my baby- a kindergartener is not a baby anymore. I've had to come to terms with that recently. I can't describe the feeling, but I can tell you I did cry a little.
Even though I was joking about having a Blue's Clues party for his less than a month away 6th Birthday, Blue's Clues was once his obsession. The first one to be exact. I can vividly see him clutching on to his little red notebook, sitting in his "finking shair" (thinking chair), playing with his eyelashes, always having trusty bink in the corner of his mouth (you know, so he could talk) like it was yesterday. His little voice singing " still down in my finking shair and fink. Fink. Fiiiiink" still pulses through my ears clear as a bell. Man was he cute singing that song...

Andrew in his finking shair circa early 2007.

But alas it wasn't yesterday. It was more like four years ago. It doesn't seem that long ago when I was clearing the party store shelves of Blue's Clues notebook party favors so we could have a stash on hand. We stored those away like they were binkys. He always had to have one in his hand. He was a constant finker. I remember longing for the day we could kick the notebook habit, and when it happened every single notebook got kicked to the curb.

Today I'm kicking myself for not keeping just one of the countless notebooks he drew his clues on. Blast my sporadic impulses to throw things away.

You know he might say Blue's Clues is for babies, but he checked out a Blue's Clues book from the library not too long ago. And his inner finker enjoyed every page of it.

2010-10-26T08:42:00.002-04:00

Fact: Every Monday night whilst watching Castle, Fiel and I both yell out "twist!" around the 28 minute mark of the show. Every. Monday. Night.

I'm glad I could provide you with that knowledge. You're a better person now for knowing what Fiel and I do on Monday nights. That's also a fact.

2010-10-22T09:26:00.002-04:00

I caught Clee looking at himself in the mirror this morning. He must have been in front of that mirror for 2 minutes, just smiling at himself. He's so vain. He probably thinks this post is about him...

2010-10-20T12:49:00.004-04:00

Clee woke up around 4am this morning feeling hot to the touch. I knew then he'd probably be my right hand man (right hand, literally) for the rest of the day. Sure enough, 8am he vomited in the hallway right next to the bathroom. He is terrified to vomit in the toilet, so he either vomits on the floor or into a towel being held by yours truly. I know, I live a lavish life with a strong gag reflex...

So the vomit on the floor was a deal breaker. He was staying home from school. He went and laid on my bed, acting all sickly-like. I took the other two to school while Fiel got ready for work and Clee laid in bed.

As soon as I came home from the school, I heard sounds of heavy footsteps running towards the bedroom. It was Clee, running back into the bedroom and hopping into bed as soon as he heard the front door open. I walked in the bedroom to find him exactly where I left him, but his eyes were closed and he was trying very hard not to laugh. I think he was pretending to be asleep. Was he playing me? I asked him just that. You know what his response was? He let out a huge squeal and hid completely under the covers. Ah yes. He was playing me. That little stinker.

He continued to sneak out of the bed and would run and hop back into it every time he heard me coming to check on him. Oh yes, there was lots of giggling coming from that bedroom.

If it wasn't for the fever, shivering, and occasional short naps, I'd think he was faking it.

2010-10-19T12:33:00.003-04:00

Because this family consists of fools for dry humor, one of these will make it's debut in Emme's lunch box tomorrow and the rest will follow through to next Friday.

... I know what you're thinking- Lucky.

I found them on eighteen25.blogspot.com and I also found them to be hilarious. She's going to howl over these. heh.

My favorite?

How do you fix a broken jack-o-lantern? With a pumpkin patch.

Ba da ba.

...So funny.

2010-10-19T09:07:00.004-04:00

Lane invited us to Orlando this past weekend, to spend the day at Universal Studios. We all had a great time with the exceptions of technical difficulties, being too short to ride the roller coaster, getting our vacation shirts wet, and a huge shark trying to eat us.

We were stuck on our first ride for almost 10 minutes. Clee did so well just sitting there for most of it. He started to get antsy towards the end and I knew if they didn't get this ride started back up soon, Clee was going to have a meltdown. Luckily the ride started working again, and the meltdown was avoided. Clee's meltdowns are something to be feared. That's a fact- not an opinion.

The new Harry Potter attraction was pretty cool and pretty crowded. People love them some Harry Potter up in there. Lane and Emme went on a crazy looking coaster, but poor little 43 inch Andrew had to stay behind. He was so sad... but all was well again when we found another Harry Potter roller coaster that he was just tall enough for.

The Dr. Seuss attraction was a major hit amongst the two little boys. They both loved the easygoingness of each popular book themed ride... well almost. The One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish ride got us a little wet. Andrew was not pleased that one side of his "vacation shirt" was a little wet. The look on Clee's face was priceless while Andrew was ranting and raving over said shirt. It was a "Really? You're crying over this. Really?" kind of a look. If Clee could talk, I can only imagine what he would have said to his younger brother during his hissy fit.

And then there was da. da. daaaaaa, Jaws. I take some blame for this next incident. I should have told Andrew there was a huge mean shark trying to eat us on this ride even if at first, it appears to be similar to the funny Disney Jungle Cruise ride he knows and loves. I don't think about these things, whatcha gonna do. Poor Andrew chose the wrong side of the boat to be on. Andrew told me he was totally freaked out when the flames bursted out of the oil wells, but the worse was soon to come. Just when Andrew thought the ride was almost over, this ginormous shark came out of the water and Andrew was right in the middle of the action. I couldn't blink faster than how fast he jumped onto my lap. He was shaking, and crying. I felt so bad. On the way home from Orlando he drew a picture of that dreadful ride...

... This might have scarred him for life. Oh well, we all have something, right?

I'm making this sound like a trip to the amusement park of doom, aren't I? It really wasn't. We really did have fun. Look, I have the pictures to prove it.

Out of all three children, Andrew has been the only one who likes meeting the characters. He's the type of kid this stuff was made for. He loves it. It really is cute, just how much he loves it. I could honestly say he would have waited in line all day just to get a picture with SpongeBob, but the actual 10 minute wait was long enough for me.

Clee and Andrew both thought the Curious George park was the bees knees. If you look hard enough, you can see Emme and Fiel smack dab in the middle - just realizing we were dragging behind.

Andrew almost got smashed into smithereens by a huge man and his huge foot. Emme couldn't be happier.

Emme attempted to walk the dog, but by the looks of things- the dog is walking her. heh.

Aside from almost becoming fish food, we had a great weekend. The kids really love hanging around, or in this case on uncle Lane.

What the hay, they love hanging on Dad, too.

... Clee thinks they're all looney.

2010-10-14T16:40:00.003-04:00

... The answer? He couldn't. He ended up giving Clee a good portion of his bacon. That's a true sign of Fiel's love- he doesn't share his bacon with just anyone.

2010-10-14T15:29:00.003-04:00

Everyday after school is like clockwork. The boys get in the house, and off go the pants. Lets face it. Clothes are too restricting for my boys. This is all fine and dandy with me on two conditions:

1) They grow out of the lounging around in their underwear throughout the living areas of the home well before they hit puberty. No one wants to see that.

2) I can foresee persons dropping by quick enough to get pants on their bottoms.

Yesterday I could not foresee number 2 coming when Andrew greeted the UPS man in only his underwear. To make it worse Clee joined him at the front door in nothing but his undies, too. I held my tongue and avoided eye contact with the UPS man when Andrew asked if he had a package for him. Yes folks, he emphasized on the word package.

*face palm of irony*

Perhaps the UPS man didn't notice, but his "bah!" after the fact has me skeptical.

conversations between husband and wife

2010-10-12T15:23:00.003-04:00

wife: Man your kids look good in a skinny jean. All three of them- so cute.

husband: If you like them so much, why don't you get a pair?

wife: Oh no. Not with my huge hips... and bum. It's not possible.

husband: Yeah, I reckon it's not.

Diss.

Or in husbands words: Bazinga.

2010-10-09T21:59:00.002-04:00

An evening with Fiel's laptop, clips of Late night with Jimmy Fallon and special guest- animal guy Jeff Musial, and episodes of Modern Family.

These are the makings of a Saturday night win.

ps: Best quote from a television show this week goes out to The Big Bang Theory.

Leonard: It's John and Yoko.

Howard: More like Yoko and Yoko.

Happy Birthday John Lennon.

2010-10-05T08:50:00.002-04:00

For once in this child's life, he has a nice comfy bed to call his own. Instead of using that nice comfy bed, he's opted to sleep the floor... using the rug as his blanket.

*long pause*

I don't know what to say here.

2010-10-01T16:42:00.012-04:00

Andrew had his very first parent teacher conference today. I was prepared for the worst, but low and behold it was pretty darn great!

Let me explain why I was prepared for the worst. We have two verbal extremes in our household. There's Clemon, who doesn't speak a single word, and then there's Andrew who makes up for Clemon's lack of speech and then some. I'm not saying that a bad thing. I am very grateful for Andrew's talkative personality, but I'm also fully aware of how disruptive it can be at times. I thought for sure Andrew's talky talk would be a major concern for Mrs Howard.

So back to parent teacher conference.

I learned that he does indeed talk a lot in class, which I already knew, but it's not in a disruptive sort of way for the most part. It's to ask questions about the lesson. Very impressed.

He cracks his Mrs. Howard up with the things he has to say. She especially enjoys his famous squinty eye when he asks her a question. Who doesn't enjoy that, dare I ask?

There's a boy who was briefly in Clemon's classroom last year who is now in Andrew's class. When the boy is doing something thats not typical for the task they're on, Andrew tells Mrs Howard that his brother acts like that sometimes and then helps the boy to get back on task. This melts my heart, folks. I love how my children naturally want to help and include, instead of poke fun at children who are a little different.

He's a smarty pants. Uh dur.

One day they were reading Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth and as soon as Mrs. Howard said the title, Andrew demanded her to give him the phone so he could call her mom, because she said something not nice. Gee, that sounds familiar. He demands me to do that everyday.

He's a University of Florida gators fan, and does the gator chomp (?) with his buddy, Dylan. News to me. I could have sworn he was a loyal Georgia fan yesterday...

And last but not least, he wears 5 different Beatles shirts to school, but says he can't remember any of their songs when Mrs Howard calls on him to sing one. Does anyone believe this? Just this morning he was singing "Woke up. Got out of bed, and dragged the comb across my head...".

I seriously have no idea why I was so worried about this parent teacher conference. Andrew is one fantastic kid. Who wouldn't love him as a student?

in the words of andrew:

2010-10-01T16:36:00.002-04:00

**With his hands on his side, complete with the tapping foot.***

Why does Emme have a friend over? Huh, mom? I did not approve this...

2010-09-29T19:41:00.000-04:00

Andrew: What's the bag of bacon for?
Me: It's fishing bait for you and Papa.
Andrew: Whoopie!!!!

If you were to ask Andrew what one of his most favorite pastimes is, he'd tell you fishing with Papa. He had his first fishing experience with Papa back in summer 2008, on a trip to see Meme in Greensboro GA. He told me he and Papa had the bestest time.
A month or so ago, Papa bought Andrew his very own Spiderman fishing rod. They've been on several fishing trips to the pond near Papa's house since that glorious purchase. Andrew loves his "man time" with Papa and says it's their special thing they do together.
With Andrew being such a sentimental young man, I believe these little fishing trips to the pond with Papa will be treasured always.
Today, when they got back from their most recent fishing trip I asked how many fish they caught. Papa said about 15. Andrew said it was more like 1500.
...Side with whom you think is more accurate amongst yourselves.

in the words of andrew:

2010-09-29T19:22:00.004-04:00

**Watching a commercial for Playhouse Disney Tour**

Man on tv: Seats start at only 15 dollars...

Andrew: What? That costs 15 dollars?? I'm starting to think that all they want is our money.

I think he's right.

2010-09-24T14:34:00.001-04:00

Clee sure does love his Friday field trips. They go on hikes, swing on swings, and...

...feed the gators.

I don't like frogs, okay. You think I like gators any better? HECK NAH. I was freaked out, but apparently that's what you do when you live in Florida. You feed those gators. You feed those gators to the point where those gators just come up to you because they know you're going to feed them.

... I guess I'm not seeing how this is a good thing here.

The kids had fun, though. And that's what counts, right? Er right.

On the upside the soft shell turtles were pretty sweet. I liked those.

Conversations between husband and wife

2010-09-23T16:17:00.005-04:00

... that quickly becomes a trip down memory lane.

A few weeks back:

Fiel: ... Like the time you hit the wall with my Lexus and then let believe I'm the one who did it?

Natalie: Yeah, like that. I couldn't tell you that I hit the wall with your Lexus, Fiel. You would have broke up with me. I was doing it for our future children...

I. Am. Sooooo thoughtful. Can you hardly stand it? You are so welcome, Emme.

Here's the long story. Back when Fiel and I were dating, he wore this amazing Ralph Lauren leather jacket, and bought this fancy shmancy Lexus. It was black and so was the jacket. He spent hours (and I mean hours) installing nitrous to make it go faster.He installed blue head lights to make it look even that much cooler. He had fancy tire things that sparkled and shined. It was his baby. He wouldn't dare let anyone drive it.

That is until one cold snowy day when we were watching a movie at his apartment and I needed to go home. He was really into the movie so he threw me his keys and said "here. Don't crash." Wow. He was really trusting me with his pride and joy? He must really love me- that or he really loved that movie.

I had two years experience of driving in snowy conditions, I thought I could handle driving 2 miles just fine.

I turned the Lexus on, put it in reverse, pressed a little on the gas, started to slide, and hit the cement wall behind me. I didn't even make it out of the parking lot, people. I suck. I didn't even bother getting out to see the damage until I got home. There it was. A big gash on the drivers side back bumper. Oh man. I was in big trouble. My mom just gave me a "oopsies" type look and went back in the house. I contemplated my options for a while. I could either a) tell him, and then he breaks up with me, or b) Say nothing at all.

I went back to his apartment where his roommate Ben was yelling at Fiel for how unfair it was to let me drive the Lexus when he's been asking for weeks. I knew if I told Fiel in front of Ben, I would never hear the end of it from Ben. I handed Fiel the keys, and said nothing. Maybe he won't even notice.

The next day I came over after work. He was looking at the back of the Lexus. That wasn't a good sign. I got out of my rad baby blue 4Runner and casually asked "so... watcha doin' ". He replied "I think I ran into something-look." There it was. My gash. I wanted to tell him then and there that I was the one who made it, but then he would ask me why I didn't tell him the night before. He would break up with me for sure, so like a coward I kept my mouth shut- thinking I would take this secret to the grave. I was such a dramatic teenager. Geeze.

7 months later he traded in his black Lexus for a Grey one (which I also had a minor snow accident in- with baby Emme and pregnant Tice in the car), but that's not when I decided to tell him. No. I didn't tell him until 2 years later. You know, after the wound had time to heal. He took it pretty well, I think he secretly knew it was me.

Do I feel guilty for what I've done? Of course. Lying or in my case keeping silent is never the right thing to do. But it helps to mend those wounds knowing that five years ago, when our van was brand spanking new, Fiel rammed into a pole in an empty NY mall parking lot. He left a much bigger gash on the gold front passenger side bumper. I've had to look at that gash everyday since. At least his was black and in back. Just sayin'.

2010-09-22T19:08:00.005-04:00

*at the request of Andrew*

I thought one of the perks of having a husband was being able to have a nature (ie spiders, lizards, frogs in your home) remover at your disposal. I found out that's not the case after only one week into mine and Fiel's marriage.

Today was a nightmare- averted when Fiel found a frog in the bathtub. We were all sorts of freaked out. Look. I don't need your judging eyes mocking me, okay? We aren't frog lovers. There you go.

Anyway, Fiel was telling me to get it out, I was telling Fiel to get it out, we both said we wished 5 yr old cousin Warner was here to remove it for us, then I bribed Andrew to take it outside for a dollar. He did it. My ~~macho macho man~~ baby came to our rescue for one whole dollar bill.

They became instant buddies, him and the frog.

We set him free back into nature,

...but not before Andrew poked and prodded him with a stick.

Ah yes. Boys and boy stuff. I guess it skipped a generation with Fiel, bless his heart. No worries, though. What Fiel lacks in the way of nature removal, he makes up for in geeky techy stuff. Oh and hanging window rods.

On an ending note: Fiel says it was a team effort between he and Andrew. I wasn't there to witness so...

2010-09-20T19:05:00.004-04:00

Have you ever told someone about a dream you've recently had, then come to find out they too recently had a similar dream? What about sharing this dream with yet another person and finding out they also had a similar dream? This seems to be the norm with dreams involving Clee speaking. It happens in 3s. The first time involved my dad, Fiel's dad, and my grandma. It's happened a handful of times throughout the years since.

The most recent was just this past weekend after posting a post about Clee writing his name for Mr. Reece, Tice and CF (aka Papa) shared their recent dream about Clee talking in their comments linked to the post.

Tice wrote: This reminds me that I had a dream about him. He was talking to me and whatever he was saying was so sweet it made me cry.

Papa: wrote: Like Tice, I had a dream about Clee also - he and I were talking to someone, I mentioned that Clee is autistic, then Clee began talking to this person - just started talking!

I too had a similar dream just last week.

We were at some type of get together when I looked over at a teenage boy. Man was he handsome. I instantly knew who it was- Clee. He was talking to an older man and he sounded a lot like Fiel- especially in his mannerisms. Then he looked at me and smiled. That's when I woke up. It felt so real. I didn't want it to end.

I often wonder why so many dreams involving Clee talking happen in 3s. Could it possibly be a window into the future?

A girl can dream, can't she?

2010-09-18T14:09:00.002-04:00

Clee's teacher, Mr Reece sent this picture via email.

Can you guess what it says?

... did you figure it out?

It's says C L E M O N, and my little Clemon wrote it independently.

This boy is super smart.

Look at that "e" willya? That "e" is the penmanship of champions, my friends.

2010-09-16T09:44:00.003-04:00

This is Emme working on her science homework. She has to draw the moon every night and report it's changes. She thinks science is boring, but she gets to use the binoculars uncle Chuck gave her over the summer for this assignment. I think any opportunity to use those sweet, sweet binoculars is win-win scenario. Since she's been getting a close up view of the moon, I've been waiting for her to tell me that the moons face looks like this:

... because it so does. I don't think she's noticed it yet. I'm starting to get discouraged.

While we're on the subject of science, Andrew thinks science is going to set the earth on fire and the earth will then break off into tiny pieces throughout space. He tells me this every time Emme goes outside to draw the moon- oh and that the sun is made out of plasma (his knowledge of science comes from They Might Be Giants). He even made a picture of the earth on fire one night. I'm not gonna lie, this freaks me out.

2010-09-14T17:54:00.004-04:00

I've been on a serious Heart kick as of late. Blame it on either my mom subjecting me to her Heart fanatic side as a youngin' or my excellent taste in music- the choice is all yours.

The funny thing about listening to Heart is that I have childhood memories linked to quite a few their songs.

Magic Man reminds me of playing Barbies in our Logan Ave home, being mad and yelling at my dad because he was singing along with said song, while trying to fix Ken's head. Ken had an unfortunate accident involving him, Barbie, Barbie's Corvette, and the next door neighbors boat. Barbie was an instant goner. Sorry to report Ken did not survive as well. I think my yelling at my dad was the deciding factor of Ken's fate.

I had a phase where it really bothered me when a man would sing along to a song that had a female singer and vice versa. The phase was short lived when I started wanting to sing along to songs that had male singers.

Crazy On You reminds me of the time my mom was dancing and singing along, while trying to reach something on the top shelf of the closet. Instead of being successful at grabbing that one thing she reached for, EVERYTHING on the top shelf came toppling on her head. I remember three things vividly: 1. Piles of miscellaneous items falling on my mom. 2. Her calling out for my dad in a panic sort of manner. 3. Her saying "This isn't funny, Nat!" while trying to keep her balance.

Oh mom the thing is... it was funny.

Barracuda reminds me of my moms famous hippie shimmy. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out.

Never reminds me of Bozo The Clown and hot chocolate. I can't seem to remember why the song reminds me of those two. Perhaps it's a disturbing memory that I must keep repressed down inside. I mean this is Bozo we're talking about. To this day Bozo and hot chocolate go hand in hand, in my mind. You say "hot chocolate" and I think of pointy red headed creepy clown.

What About Love reminds me of watching my mom belt out the lyrics inside her sweet orange Ford Pinto wagon with the bubble back window. That is the first memory of her grabbing her seatbelt, giving it a quick intense yank, and letting it flip back to her chest. That's right folks, my mom is a passionate seatbelt yanker. If you are ever so lucky to experience this, please tread lightly. She's either a) singing her heart out, or b) really, REALLY mad. You don't want to be near the latter if at all possible.

Yes, Heart takes me back in time. I love when something as simple or complex as a song can trigger a memory you wouldn't have otherwise remembered. Heart is one of the many music staples of my childhood. Man, I sure grew up with some pretty fantastic tunes.

Thank you mom, and dad for making me listen to more classic rock and less Tony Toni Tone.

2010-09-14T16:31:00.002-04:00

3:45pm. Andrew zonked out. Wanna wake him up? Yeah. Good luck with that.

This is what happens when you decide that 3am is the perfect time to watch SpongeBob and for firing off your nerf gun... over. and. over.

Thanks to this nap, it'll most likely become tonights turn of events as well.

I hear having nocturnal children is good for the nerves.

... no?

It's not?

Weird...

Sleeping in this household is a fictional fairytale as far as I'm concerned.

2010-09-13T16:18:00.003-04:00

Last night I dreamt that I was sitting on top of a gorgeous lemon yellow, bright red, lime green patchwork quilt, up what I think was Emigration Canyon, making felt flower headbands to put on top of a rather large piece of oreo pie for Mr. Stud himself, Mike Holmes' Birthday. I cannot begin to tell you just how confused I am by this odd dream, but I can tell you just how much it made me crave oreo pie. So I made some.

Now you know.

2010-09-09T17:46:00.003-04:00

I received a phone call around noon today. It was Andrew's teacher Mrs. Howard informing me that everything was fine, but Andrew has been asking to use her cell phone to call me. The call was important and had to be made. I told her to go ahead and put him on, and this is how the call went down:

Mom: Andrew?

Andrew: Hi mom. Uh, Mrs. Howard? ... A little privacy, please?

Mom: Andrew is something wrong?

Andrew: Well... today at lunch when I opened my lunchbox there were oreo crumbs all over everything inside. I just wanted you to know it wasn't my fault.

Mom: Okay Andrew, we'll clean it up when you get home. It's no big deal. Bye, bud.

Andrew: Love you, mom.

And that's the important phone call that had to be made. We have since discussed when the right time to call and when the wrong time to call mom from school. Still, I have a feeling this is the first of many important calls to mom from school. Say little prayer for Mrs. Howard, willya?

in the words of andrew:

2010-09-08T17:05:00.002-04:00

Andrew: Do you remember when (this past Saturday) we went to the guitar store and saw Paul's guitar?

Me: Yes, do you remember when you were holding it and said "this sounds in-sa-ane."

Andrew: oh yeah... I am so funny. I really wish I wasn't wearing my jungle shirt when I said that.

I don't know why. That Jungle Book shirt is in-sa-ane.

2010-09-08T15:48:00.003-04:00

Every time I help Clee put on his pressure suit, I instantly think this:

Can you blame me here?