Sweet Sweet Life

Remember this photo? 

It seemed useless for the longest time, those 2 beds. Actually, Sunny slept in one and the other bed was great for potty training in the night- if she peed the bed we'd change her and throw her into the other, to deal with the pee-bed in the morning. And if she peed that one then... no, she never peed again in the night. (ps- this was my trick to train through the night- let her pee! She eventually quit and it didnt really put me out because I had the 2 beds)

I didnt want this to be a potty training post. Its a Congrats Lockie! post. He is on his 3rd week in that bed and Jason and I are besides ourselves (beside each other?) with excitement. It took a week of structured bedtimes in that room for him to 'get' it and he enjoys the freedom. Him and Sunny still give me the run-around for up to 45 minutes some nights, asking for milk, for me to sing, for me to put the music on, for me to get Lachlan out of Sunnys bed, and to break up a fight... But most nights they talk and sing back and forth and she comforts him. She tells him to get into his bed. She encourages him. She does what we as parents normally do. She's doing part of our job! And she's doing it willingly, and for free! And they both like it!

We are firm believers in sibling cosleeping. Not that we need Sunny to take over our responsibilities, but when all Lachlan wants in the night is to not be alone in a crib in a cold quiet room, his sister does the trick.

My favorite reaction lately is to this arrangement (everyone is over the shock of toddler breastfeeding). Most people have been to my house, but they're still concerned its a 'space' issue, as in, "Dont you have an extra room he can have?" And we do. Plenty of rooms. But none for him. Those rooms are freed up for other things and the babies sleep in the nursery, together. Its a sweet life when you've got your sibling by your side.

The Dingo

Our dog has more of a social life than we do: the neighbors rang our doorbell at 8p and asked for Jam. They wanted to take her for a walk with their dogs. Sunny cried and cried that they were taking Jam away; I couldnt explain enought that Smoky and Brody were dog friends of Jam's.
Then the next day a neighbor girl rang the bell and asked for Jam. Wanted to know if Jam could come out and play... Sent her to the backyard to entertain the 4 legged Glig... Popular dog.

Boys & Their Toys

Father and son face

This is how to turn the vacuum on

Add caption

 Lachy's fav pastime. Jason also LOVES to vacuum. In fact, he has 3 vacuums and he's not afraid to use them. I dont even know how to use one of them, but it doesnt matter- its his thing.

His carpet wet vac thing

Uh, The Rainbow- awesomest just like your mother's

Sailing the Ocean Blue

Beers and boats and brothers

Sailing made us want to sell all of our possessions and live on a boat for a few weeks until we go broke.

Sailing with Steve, me and Jase, and my parents was actually a birthday gift I received this year from Jason and my parents. I decided to cash it in in July. Jason's brother was only here for a month so we crammed the activities in.

My Brother Husband

Get it??

I am mourning the loss of the 3rd parent that resided in our home for all of July. Thats why we had so much fun in July, because Steve flew in from Australia and we entertained the crap out of him.

Glig backyardigans

 Suzy's Tiki. The best of Sebastian-town

Naples Pier

Airboat tour of the Rim Canal: the lesser known little brother of Lake Okeechobee

Aussies

Funny kids.... corn and shark lovers

The only reason he wanted to visit Florida-- to see Chobes!

We Deserved a Vacation.

So we took one. 

Really? Places like this exist. And I hope to go here often to experience again. The Marriott at Marco Island, FL

Papa and Lachlan lay in the grass

ice cream he wouldnt share with me

BFFs. water babies. Sibling love. Love it

She loved running through the waterfalls with what looked like cigarettes in her mouth

I love Marco Island. Or at least I love this resort. Highly recommended.

60th Bday Parties are the Shit

My mom turned 60. We threw her a formal party at Elliott and Sophie's in Palm Beach.

a photo inspired by the 50s, when mom was born.

World of Beers=love

There's the birthday girl and the rest of us hotties!

Sums up the night- carnage and silliness

Pangea

Entertaining me this week is an exam that forces me to cover a range of subjects I havent glanced at since the 5th grade. "Plate tectonics" literally havent crossed my mind in decades. Until today. Another new front runner on the frontal lobe of my brain (the frontal lobe of my brain has, in fact, been on my mind for a year now) are clouds. How cute? I thought the duodenum of the small intestine was important until I realized today I must also know the different types of clouds for my exam on Tuesday. While we had breakie on the river as a family, I pointed out to my kids the different types of clouds, as they all seemed to be accounted for up there today.
I am taking the TEAS test Tuesday; its an entrance exam to get into nursing school. I will publicly announce in 8-10 weeks whether or not I will bum around for another year or start the nursing program in January. Kidding. Kidding about the "bum" part. I have plenty to do.
I will remember this about plate tectonics: there are 3 kinds. Oh, and the 3 kinds are transform, divergent, convergent. And something to do with continental drift, which is also cute since Sunny and I saw Ice Age: Continental Drift last night at the theater. I will ace this one question out of a thousand. Plate tectonics. Maybe it will only ask me to spell it properly. I will fail.

Vegas Baby

Excerpts from my journal:

"I dont deserve this bliss that is a/c blasting into my face in my hotel bed. No, wait- I do deserve it. Is it filled with extra oxygen as well- something that surely kept me awake all night [in the casinos]? It is after 1a in Vegas----> 4a Florida time! What am I doing? Well, I should pump. Milk is taking over. But I wanted to write. Blog, really, but I didnt bring a computer. Hofbräuhaus was awesome! We went there after our $7.77 salad steak shrimp potato dinner and drank massive HB's, just like we did in Munich 1 year ago. Almost exact replica. Kids- I love you and your mom is cool and she can hang. Daddy said, "They're all looking at you!" I said, Who? He said "All the guys at the casino. All night"; everyone is checking me out. I checked baggage today [to save time] for $25 so I'd have all the things that would make me sexy this weekend. I know I look nice, but watching you kids I have no time for sexy. But here I do. I left your daddy and Uncle Steve in the Hard Rock Casino where we're staying. Daddy wanted to play No Limit Hold 'Em poker for $100 buy in. Whatev. I want $120 shoes."

After all was said and done, I took a photo of myself at the end of the night
before I began blogging in the amazing cold hotel room bed.

"We spent $200 yesterday in food, drinks, taxis- and when Jason came waltzing in at 4a we had $200 still! A free night. All good. So- at the HB- Jason and Steve got to reminiscing about snuff- this tobacco.menthol powder you snort at Oktoberfest or beer gardens [in Germany] in general. They used to do it. So.. they asked our drunk fun waitress and she was a little appalled but said they sold it. I had no intentions of snorting anything in my life, but I didnt wanna miss this experience. It was minty, and more importantly, it was fun."

*I dont feel safe here- everyone is off their face still- its 730a*

"I brought my fun slutty dress. Plan to wear it 2-3 nights, lol. Its perfect and fun. Jason needed to zip me in it, though. Right as he began to pull it, I said "Dont rip it," rip! It ripped and he was stunned and waiting for the screaming to begin. But I just wore it with a hole. Classy, huh? You cant see it amidst all the ruffles."

Fun slutty dress with fun slutty husband.

"The coffee's good in Vegas. Pretty much a requirement I'd say. Things could surprise you either way here- a $16 HB beer, $7.77 dinner, awesome coffee, free drinks all night, most cozy comfy room and bed ever, smoking inside, scary looking characters... People watching is easy here."

"I'm traumatized. I pumped a lot of milk this morning and then poured it into the sink. Its a first. I had to take a picture. Lachlan wont drink it if I saved it and I cant donate it to a Vegas baby- its toxic. haha. Only one option then...."

"Coffee. Picture uploading. We hopped into a limo that took us to our helicopter tour. Steve and I rode in the front of the heli- it was amazing! Very smooth, cruising over the strip and into the mountains. Not as bumpy as our Hawaiian flight either (thermals, Jason said, lol). Careening with the Colorado River as we descended into the canyon and landed was the best. I almost puked 5 times as we flew over the Pawn Shop and strip.... Then we went to the pool. Quite unrelaxing unfortunately. But it had sand, which was fun. And I let a 300lb man-boy talk me up for 15 minutes out of boredom until I told him I was married. He floated off."

"Went to dinner on the strip at the mall. Sounds lame, we didnt wanna admit it either, but it was the best Italian food and it was under the clouds- the roof was a brilliant fake sky and we were 'on a cobbled stoned side-street' at night with a water fountain. Then we saw SinCity Brewery, then it rained in the mall. Another 'along the river' outside looking, at night, with a bridge- it thundered and lightening, and rained. We hit the Casinos. Had (needed!) Red Bull/vodkas from a street vendor."

"The casinos were so cool, each so different but continued to blow my mind each time we walked into another. NY NY was sick- dueling pianos=highlight. We went to Dicks Last Resort at another- everyone had tablecloth paper hats their servers would write inappropriate sayings on and I asked ours for one. told him I'd like one. He said "he'd like a lot of things" (ok, he actually said something pretty vulgar, I wont write it on my family blog). So he didnt make me one. Jason asked another server - that server said if we tipped ours he'd do it. So I got a dollar and wrote, "We both like Dicks" on it- gave it to him as I said, "You and I have something in common". It was funny. Tipped the scales back into my favor. But I still didnt get a hat."

He posted my dollar on the wall. No hat.