Snuggling with Mommy

I feel very blessed to have two cuddly children. Kayla is a morning cuddler. Matthew likes to cuddle at night in his bed. It's very sweet, although sometimes they want to cuddle when it is not the most convenient time. This morning Kayla woke up at 5:15. This seems to be a common occurrence with her lately. When she was an infant she did not get up this early. But these days, she gets up during the 5 o'clock hour several days during the week. Usually, when I hear her calling for me this early, "Mommy....I awake now," I first attempt to ignore her. That is usually followed by, "Mommy....where are you? I awake now. Where ARE you Mommy?" So, then I go into her room and I tell her that it is the middle of the night and that she needs to go back to sleep. Even though I usually get up about 30 minutes later to get ready for work, she is cutting into my precious sleeping time, and as many of you know, I am not the best morning person. Sometimes this works, and I get my 30 extra minutes of sleep. Other days, like this morning, she responds with, "No sleep crib, I want go nuggle on couch." So, I tell her that if we go "snuggle" on the couch she has to try and sleep because Mommy is very tired, and she agrees. We go to the couch and she lays down with me and proceeds to flip around like a fish out of water. When I tell her to lie still, she will for a short time, but two minutes later when I'm drifting off to sleep, she's at it again. So, getting annoyed now, I tell her, "I'm going to take you back to your bed if you don't try to sleep because Mommy is very tired." She responds by crawling up to my face and saying gently, "shhhhh," and then kisses me all over my face. That's it...she's got me. I get a huge surge of love and wrap my arms around her and we giggle together, hugging and kissing. Who needs another 30 minutes of sleep anyway?

Halloween Fun

We've been gearing up for Halloween around our house. This past weekend we finished up our tombstones and painted a black fence for our cemetery, we decorated some trick or treat buckets, and we visited the pumpkin patch.

Kayla has really gotten into dressing up lately. Here are a couple of pics that show two of her favorite outfits - a traditional outfit from India (thanks to Grammy and Grandpa), and a Cinderella dress-up outfit. I love how proud she looks in her Cinderella costume. She wants to be a pirate for Halloween, by the way. Let me rephrase that...Matthew wants to be a pirate, and Kayla wants to be whatever Matthew is going to be.

I have never...

So here is a fun little thing that my friend Nikki started on her blog. The things in bold are things that I have done in my lifetime. You can look at the list and see all of the things that apply to your life, and see some things you haven't done that perhaps you should consider doing, just because you only live once.

Bought everyone in the bar a drink
Swam with wild dolphin
Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
Been inside a Pyramid
Held a tarantula
Taken a candle lit bath
Said I love you and meant it
Hugged a Tree
Bungee jumped
Visited Paris
Watched a lightening storm at sea
Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
Seen the Northern Lights
Gone to a huge sports game
Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Grown and eaten your own vegetables
Touched an iceberg – does a glacier count?
Slept under the stars
Changed a baby’s diaper
Taken a drip in a hot air balloon
Watched a meteor shower
Gotten drunk on champagne
Given more than you can afford to charity
Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
Had a food fight - at camp, of course
Bet on a winning horse
Asked out a stranger
Had a snowball fight
Screamed as loudly as you possibly can – it hurts!
Held a lamb
Seen a total eclipse
Ridden a rollercoaster
Hit a home run
Danced like a fool, not caring who watched
Adopted an accent for an entire day – not an entire day, but I did for one evening!
Actually felt happy about your life, even for a moment
Had two hard drives for your computer
Visited all 50 states - over half so far
Taken care of someone who was too drunk
Had amazing Friends
Danced with a Stranger in a foreign country
Watched wild whales
Stolen a sign
Hitchhiked in Europe
Taken a road-trip
Gone rock climbing
Midnight walk on the beach
Gone sky diving
Visited Ireland
Been heartbroken longer than you were in love
In a restaurant sat at a stranger’s table and ate with them
Visited Japan
Milked a cow
Alphabetized your CDs – I’m claiming that tapes count
Pretended to be a superhero – can you say Wonder Woman Underoos?
Sung karaoke
Lounged around in bed all day
Posed nude in front of strangers
Gone scuba diving
Kissed in the rain
Played in the mud
Played in the rain
Gone to a drive-in theater
Visited the Great Wall of China
Started a business
Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
Toured ancient sites
Taken a martial arts class
Played a computer game for more than 6 hours straight - I had a Nintendo
Gotten married
Been in a movie
Crashed a party
Gotten divorced
Gone without food for 5 days
Made cookies from scratch
Won first prize in a costume contest - I think I won second prize once
Ridden a gondola in Venice
Gotten a tattoo
Rafted the Snake River
Been on television news program as an “expert”
Got flowers for no reason
Performed on a stage
Been to Las Vegas
Recorded Music – does recording in a booth with friends for a birthday party at age 12 count?
Eaten shark
Had a one-night stand
Gone to Thailand
Bought a house
Been in a combat zone
Buried one/both of your parents
Been on a cruise ship
Spoken more than one language fluently
Performed in Rocky Horror
Raised children - not done yet
Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
Picked up and moved to another city
Walked on the Golden Gate Bridge
Sang loudly in the car and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
Had plastic surgery
Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have - Not sure if this really counts, but I fell about 25 feet from a rope swing into a rocky creek bed once, and walked away with hardly a scratch. I felt very lucky.
Wrote articles for a large publication – I published a paper in a technical journal (boring)
Lost over 100 lbs
Held someone while they were having a flashback
Piloted an airplane
Petted a stingray
Broken someone’s heart
Helped an animal give birth
Won money on a TV game show – I wish!
Broken a bone
Gone on an African safari
Had a body part below the neck pierced
Fired a rifle, shotgun or pistol
Eaten mushrooms gathered in the wild
Ridden a horse
Had major surgery - is a tonsillectomy considered major?
Had a snake as a pet
Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
Slept for more than 30 hours over 48 consecutive hours
Visited more foreign countries than US States – 7 countries, over 25 US states
Visited all 7 continents
Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
Eaten Kangaroo meat
Eaten sushi
Had your picture in the paper
Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
Gone back to school
Parasailed
Petted a cockroach – squashed a few, but never thought to try and pet one!
Eaten fried green tomatoes
Read the Illiad
Selected one important author who you missed school to read – I skipped work for three hours to read Harry Potter once
Killed and prepared an animal for eating
Skipped all of your school reunions
Communicated with someone without sharing a common language
Been elected to public office
Written your own computer language
Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
Had to put someone you love in hospice care
Build your own PC from parts
Sold your own artwork to someone that didn’t know it was yours
Had a booth in a street fair
Dyed your hair
Been a DJ
Shaved your head
Caused a car accident – rear ended someone once, ok three times
Saved someone’s life

Getting Crafty

This Halloween I decided that it would be fun to create several yard decorations with the kids. I know many of you are probably thinking that I'm not the crafty type, and you would be right, but I do get inspired to create things occasionally. Here are the kids posing with our spider that we made last weekend. It's made out of pipe insulation, black duct tape, and a milk jug. We put it on a huge web outside the front door, and it actually turned out better than I thought it would. This weekend...tombstones.

Our Little Lady

Kayla and Matthew get along fairly well, for the most part. They often wrestle each other for fun, and you would think that Matthew would win most of the time, being 2.5 years older and a head taller. But in reality, Kayla usually dominates. Last night was one of those very entertaining moments that I happened to catch on the camera. To set the scene, Matthew had taken one of Kayla's toys from her and then given it back - just to bug her. When he does something like this, Kayla likes to get right up into Matthew's face and say, "not ok Mah-you!" I think you will agree that Kayla probably won't have any trouble holding her own with boys.

Not So Fond Halloween Memories

With Halloween fast approaching, I'm reminded of a particularly funny day in my life, and I thought it would be fun to share it with the world. About 8 years ago, my volleyball team was involved in a fundraising activity. We agreed to work one night at the local Six Flags amusement park for "Fright Fest" and donate our earnings to the team. We were asked to dress all in black and work in either the haunted house or the outdoor hayride through the woods. Most of us had to make sure scary things jumped out at just the right time by pushing a button or releasing a rope, and the rest of us had to don scary masks and jump out at people. I was unfortunate enough to get the "jump out and scare people" gig at the haunted hayride.

Three of us were led to an area in the hayride that was set up as an abandoned spooky gas station complete with rusty cars, and special lighting and fog effects. We were told that the hayride would be coming along every 5 minutes or so, and that our job was to hide and then jump out and roar ferociously as the wagon passed. We were also instructed not to actually touch the wagon. No problem. I put on my mask, and we all hide.

Wagon #1 comes along, and first time jitters get the best of us. We hold our positions and giggle.

Wagon #2 comes along, and the three of us jump out and roar. One small child screams. Mission accomplished.

Wagon #3 comes along full of teenagers. We jump out and roar. Not a single scream, and someone says, "Is that supposed to be scary?" Someone else says, "Are those girls?"

By this time it is starting to rain. Did I mention were were outside?

Wagons #5 -10 are uneventful. A couple of screams. My roaring is improving, and I've even got a great lumbering monster skipping thing down. But, I'm wet now, and it's starting to get cold.

Wagon #11. I'm a little late on the scare, so I have to run a bit to get to the wagon. I slip on the way there, my feet fly up over my head, and I land flat on my back in a puddle of mud. Needless to say there were no screams out of this wagon. Just howls of laughter as it passed by.

Fast forward a few wagons. By this time we are cold and wet, muddy, disheartened, and starting to lose our voices. Wagon #15 comes along. It's another wagon full of cynical teenagers. I gather up my pride, and let out a ferocious roar. Someone laughs and yells, "You Suck!," and at this point I lose it a little bit. I like to think I was just really into my character. Anyway, something ignites in me and I run and jump up onto the wagon (definitely breaking a few rules by now), and the teenagers all scream and run to the front of the wagon. Even the driver is a little frightened. Well, they paid money to be scared didn't they? After this, we decide it's probably best to call it a night and we abandon the abandoned gas station.

So, if you go on a haunted hayride this Halloween, remember that those people are working very hard to scare you, and you might want to let out a little courtesy scream. It might just make their night...or at the very least, keep them from completely losing it.