First Few Days in Cali

The boys and I flew to California on Thursday, it was a crazy 6 hours to say the least but in the Christmas spirit of not complaining, I won't say anything else about the flight. Thankfully we all made it in one piece and it feels worth it now that we're here with my family.

We've been adjusting to the time difference and mostly just hanging out at my Mom's house. But on Saturday my sisters and I got to go to my cousin Adam's wedding. And what a beautiful wedding it was! How special to witness two people so in love honoring God with a Christ-centered marriage ceremony! I was especially excited because I never get to go to family weddings anymore and I hadn't seen a lot of my aunts, uncles and cousins since my own wedding.

My sisters and I with our Dad

Adam dancing with his beautiful bride Lindsey. She was hands down the most stunningly beautiful bride I have ever seen in my entire life! Of course she was though, she's a real-life Disney princess. (no joke, she actually works at Disneyland as one of those princesses that your kids stand in line to meet).

My sisters and I with our new cousin Lindsey, she's such a sweetheart, I love seeing her when I'm in town!

My sisters and I with all of our Carstairs cousins

Another shot of the happy couple

My mom got the boys a wagon for Christmas (and obviously gave it to them a little early) so we've been going on lots of walks to the park and around the neighborhood. They just love it!

On Friday night we went to get the Christmas tree with the whole family

Me with my big boys - don't they look so much older with their new haircuts?

And the boys with their Auntie Rachel

Sweet Violet in the bathtub with her cousins

She's so adorable, I just can't stand it!

Lately

These are the only pictures I've taken all weeek but they give you a glimpse into our life. The boys love to brush their teeth and as soon as we go upstairs for baths they start shouting "bubbles!" and "teeth!" I swear, bubbles have completely changed bathtime in the O'Malley household. They're no longer dreaded affairs, they're now eagerly anticipated because it means they'll get to play with bubbles! Why didn't I think of this before????

Anyways, there are still usually tears when it comes time to actually rinse the soap out of their hair because they hate having water poured on their heads but the rest of bathtime is super fun! Here are some pictures of my big boys brushing their teeth:

(Note: I always brush their teeth first and then hand the toothbrush over to them to "finish" and the toothpaste tube was empty so I gave it to them to play with, they're not downing the entire tube during bathtime)

Jackson

Cullen

Of course, within a few minutes, a fight ensued over who got to hold the toothpaste

So Mommy took it away and that was devastating, naturally.

Get me out of here Mom!

Some other things that have been happening this week:

*We're busy getting ready for our trip to California on Thursday. I'm so excited to see my family and especially my sweet little Violet! I haven't started packing yet, but I've been doing lots of laundry and organizing, I think I'll pack during naptime today. I also borrowed a portable DVD player from a family at our church and I'm desperately hoping that will make for a better flight with the boys!

*The toddler beds are going much better! We went ahead and switched Jack over because we did not want to go through this again in a month or whenever he started escaping from the crib. I'm glad we did, both boys are doing really well. They still get out of bed a lot during naptime but I just go in there a few times and tell them to get back in bed (and discipline as necessary) and they have been taking great naps the past few days. At night, they rarely get out of bed, probably because it's pitch black in there and they have nothing to do but wander around in the dark. The only problem is that their room looks like a tornado blew through it after every naptime and every morning. I make them stay in there and clean up the clothes and miscellaneous items they've tossed onto the floor but so far it hasn't deterred them. They also finally figured out how to turn the doorknobs and open the doors but I remembered that I had a few of those childproof doorknob covers so I put those on and it's stopped them.

*Have you all heard of something called Freecycle? If not, you have to sign up for it! I have been getting so much stuff for free lately! Just in the past month, I've gotten a wireless router, houseplants, a cat scratching post, 2 snowsuits for the boys, and a pair of snow boots! I've also been able to give away a lot of things we no longer need that were just cluttering up the house. I LOVE it! I think it's in most major cities in the country and it's kind of like a listserv, I get a summary of posts emailed to me every day. There are mostly random household items and clothing offered, but somebody's always giving away furniture on there and if we had a larger car to transport it, I'd be all over that! Sure, some people offer junk, but for the most part, it's all gently used things that are just taking up space in somebody's home and they want to pass it along to somebody else who needs it. Brilliant!

*Brandon and I have really been enjoying having a fireplace! We've had fires every night this week! Combine that with a cup of hot tea and some Christmas music and we've got a great evening!

*And I've got to go because the boys just unraveled my plastic wrap and pulled out about a thousand Ziploc baggies and scattered them all over the kitchen floor. I knew it was too quiet over there...

Fall Photos

I'll start with my favorite:

Catch me if you can Jack!

Cullen

Cullen really got into the leaf throwing, Jack thought it was pretty lame.

Jackson

I always tell them to kiss each other for photos, they're going to hate me someday because they'll have hundreds of pictures of them kissing.

We found this really cool new park by our house that has tons of trails and a pretty little pond. It was especially pretty this time of year.

Cullen

Jackson

He was saying "WOW!"

Oh and I've completely forgotten to post any pictures of my new bangs! Well, they're actually not new anymore, I got them the week before we moved but I've been too busy to take a picture and post it. So here they are!

I'd been thinking about cutting bangs for a while but I kept chickening out. And then I decided against doing it during the summer because of the oppressive humidity but that fall was the perfect time to try it out. And I'm so glad I did! I really love them! I love that I have more than one hairstyle! I can wear them completely across my face, swept to the side, or pinned back. After seeing the above picture, though, I probably better trim them before wearing them fully across my face again.

Oh and in case you were wondering what happens when your almost-two-year-old decides he'd rather wander around his bedroom than nap, this is how it ends:

Notice that his hands are still grasping his food. Somewhere between picking the food up and bringing it to his mouth he dozed off. This kid just kills me!

Transitions

I never thought this day would come, but it has! Cullen has outgrown his crib!

I always wake up once I hear the boys talking in their room and if I have anywhere to be that morning I take a shower before going in to get them. Well, yesterday morning I got out of the shower and was shocked to see Cullen standing in the hallway- surrounded by about 20 yards of dental floss that he'd unraveled and tangled himself up in. He just looked at me and nonchalantly said "Hewwo." I asked him how he got out of bed and he just gave me a sly smile. Jack was screaming in fury by this point after having to witness his brother's escape from the crib and being unable to do it himself.

We didn't have the toddler bed set up yet and I wasn't even sure he'd be able to do it again anyways, so I put him down to nap in his crib later in the afternoon and put two huge couch cushions underneath just in case. Sure enough, a couple of hours later I see Cullen coming down the stairs. He hadn't even made a peep! Apparently climbing out was just so much more fun and easier than calling for Mom.

So last night, I had Brandon take down the crib and set up the one toddler bed that I'd found at the consignment sale a few weeks ago. Before we took the crib apart though I had Cullen show me how he got out. And I have never laughed so hard in my entire life! He went to the corner, hoisted himself up, swung his leg over one of the rails and then pulled the rest of his body up so that he was perching on the ledges of the crib. He was just like a little Spiderman! The he slowly lowered himself down and landed on his feet! Incredible! Kids must be very strong for their size because I seriously doubt I could have lifted my entire body over a railing that was up to my shoulders. I was so amazed that he could do that!

Anyways, last night was his first night in a toddler bed and it actually went pretty well! We fixed his doorknob so that he can't open it anymore (it was broken so that you didn't have to turn the knob to open it, just pull on it a little, that's how he got out in the morning) and put away almost everything he could reach. At first, we could hear him walking around in the dark for a while and then he came and laid by the door and cried for about 30 minutes but then it went silent! When I checked on him later, he was sound asleep in his bed!

But naptime is a whole different story! We just tried that this afternoon and it didn't go over too well. He walked around pulling clothes out of his drawers and throwing them into the trashcan for over 2 hours. Then he started yelling "Emma" (the cat's name) very loudly finally started crying so I just gave up and went to get him. I was afraid he'd wake Jack who was taking a fabulous 3 hour nap.

And I'm at a loss about what to do. I'm thinking that I might set up a pack n' play in our bedroom for the time being and let Cullen nap in there. If he escapes from that too, at least he won't wake Jack up. But I have no idea what to do once Jack needs a toddler bed too. Can you imagine those two having free reign over their bedroom for a few hours each day?! I don't even like thinking about it! If anybody has any advice about this transition (especially if you had two children in the same room) I'd greatly appreciate it!

Brandon and I disagreed a little about whether to discipline him for getting out of bed or just ignore him and let him get his curiosity out and eventually learn that he needs to sleep when he's tired. I'm sure you can guess who was on what side ;-) My idea sort of worked last night but not at all during naptime. And we can't have two different standards for bedtime and naptime. And I'm also not very confident that it would work once they're both in toddler beds and can get out and play together. There's no actual toys in their room but those boys can make anything into a toy, as evidenced by the fact that Cullen occupied himself for 2 hours with nothing but his dresser drawers. So if anybody else has experienced this, please let me know how you did it! And please tell me we can keep their 3 hour naps going strong! I was really loving those!

As Brandon was setting up the toddler bed last night I took this one last video of the boys wrestling and playing together in Cullen's crib. I'm not gonna lie, I teared up a little bit. I just love seeing them bouncing and wrestling together! I'm sure there will be lots more of that in the future but for some reason I was really emotional about the boys playing together in that particular crib for the very last time. Silly I know, but I feel like they're growing up too fast! Anyways, enough mushy mommy talk, here's the video:

Jack & Cullen Update

Here's all the funny new things they're up to these days, they make me laugh all day long!

* Everytime I say, "come on, boys" or "come here" Jack turns to Cullen and starts gesturing him to come.

*Both boys are major stallers. When I ask them to do something they don't want to do, they pretend not to hear. They wait until I'm threatening to spank them (or in Cullen's case until I'm actually moving toward him threatening to spank him) before obeying.

*I try to keep a serious face when they throw themselves down screaming hysterically and pounding the floor with their fist but inside I'm laughing. I think they throw the cutest little tantrums I've ever seen. Cullen even wails "NOOOOO" in his most pitiful sounding voice. Seriously, it's way too funny to keep a straight face.

*They are obsessed with light switches. They push their little chairs up to the switches and stand there flipping them off and on and off and on. The neighbors must think we're insane.

*They walk around the house holding their toy phones or sometimes Brandon's iPod to their ear saying (hello) "Hewwo!" That's all, just "hewwo"

*They are also obsessed with trains, "choo choo's" as they call them. They scream for choo choo's (their Thomas the Train video) as soon as they wake up. Their favorite part is the songs, they love to clap along. I now have every word memorized.

*It's been a real challenge keeping them out of the dishwasher and microwave at the new house. The other night Cullen put his toy police car in the microwave and turned it on. Thankfully our microwave didn't blow up because I was standing right there and stopped it right away but the car is still broken. I think we may have to put the baby gate back up to block off the kitchen.

*Whenever I announce that it's bathtime, they run away screaming "No! No! No!" but once they're actually in the tub, they enjoy it (most of the time).

*Whenever I tell one of them that something is a no-no, the other one turns to his brother, shakes his head and repeats "no-no" in their most serious voice.

*They still adore their kitties. "Meow" is probably their clearest word besides "no" and they greet the kitties with it every time they see them. They also love to chase, pet, hug and kiss the kitties. Emma mainly avoids them but Huck doesn't seem to mind their attention. The other day Jack walked up to Huck, poked him in the nose (not very gently), and shouted "Noooose!" Huck didn't even flinch.

*At every diaper change they tell me they have "poo poo" even if they don't. And it's always been very obvious when either of them actually is pooping, so whenever they see their brother doing it, they point to him and shout "Poo Poo!"

*They're learning more new words every single day. They try to repeat pretty much everything we say these days. I've lost track of how many they know now but here are some of their newest ones: juice, cheese, banana, wheel, boat, truck, tractor (this one's hardly recognizable but I know it's what they're trying to say because they always point to the picture when they say it), night-night, out, hat, hot, move, wow, book, spoon, eye, nose, feet, toes, mouth, ear,  choo choo, shoes, teeth, house, and windmill strangely enough (only Jack says windmill but it's surprisingly clear, I couldn't believe it when he first said it a few days ago). A lot of these words they don't say on their own yet, they just repeat them after we've already said them. And both Jack and Cullen can't say every single word in the list either, some words only one of them can say but I can't keep track anymore of which words they each know.

*They love praying. They've started folding their hands in anticipation as soon as they're in their high chairs. Jack sometimes murmurs along and both boys burst into applause after we say Amen. They have actually started requesting multiple prayers at each meal. Tonight we got to over a dozen and I finally had to tell them no more prayers, we needed to finish our dinner.

*They insist on being tucked in with their favorite blankets before each naptime and bedtime.  Then they shout "thank you" and "night-night" over and over again attempting to stall. Then, as the door is about to close, Cullen usually shouts "MOM!" and I pop my head back in and ask "What is it?" and he just gives me a blank look and says "thank you" again.

*Speaking of the word "mom," Cullen usually pronounces it with the strangest accent. It's sounds like he's a cab driver in Brooklyn. Or maybe a Bostonian Irishman? I'm not sure, but it cracks me up each time.

*I try to teach the boys new animal sounds, right now we're working on hissing like a snake and oinking like a pig. But Jack clicks his tongue for each of these... Not sure where he got that from, but I'm sure he'll learn the real sounds eventually.

*The boys know that going upstairs by themselves is off-limits but sometimes I still hear the pitter patter of footsteps above me while I'm downstairs. So I go to the bottom of the stairs and yell "Boys are you upstairs when you're not supposed to be?" and I always hear two little "no's" coming from upstairs in response. They may be naughty but they're not very smart about it.

*Cullen actually likes eating soap. I always catch him sucking on the bottle of bubble bath during bathtime. I guess I'll have to remember not to use that as a punishment for back-talk in a few years.

I could probably go on and on with all the cute/funny things they do but I'll stop for now, this post is long enough! I really believe I have the coolest kids in the world though!

Lesson Learned

Tanning is so not worth it! From the ages of about 13-21 I almost never wore sunscreen, tanned all summer long and even visited those awful fake tanning beds a few times each winter. I knew this was all bad, but I thought myself invincible and never really gave it a second thought. I was half-Mexican after all, and I tanned easily and rarely burned. I figured I was very low risk so why not enjoy the sunshine as much as I wanted? Turned out I was wrong!

Maybe a year ago, I noticed a flat dark freckle on my leg that looked different than all the rest but just shrugged it off. In September, I went to the dermatologist for my first ever skin exam. I really went in to have a wart removed from my hand but they said I needed a skin exam since I'd never had one so I agreed. Turned out the doctor was a little concerned about the "mole" as he called it and wanted to cut it off to biopsy it. "Ok, sure, whatever," I said. They cut it out and told me to call back in 2 weeks for the results. I honestly didn't care at all about it and completely forgot to call back. 3 weeks after my appointment, they called me to say that there were actually a lot of atypical cells around the mole... the kind that lead to skin cancer in 5-10 years if not removed. So I needed to come back in for a minor surgical procedure where they'd cut out more skin around the area where the mole had been "just to be on the safe side."

At this point, I finally started to take it seriously. And so on Friday morning, I went back in to the dermatologist. They ended up cutting out (what I considered to be) a huge chunk of flesh from my leg and I left with 3 stitches. He told me to keep off my feet as much as possible to reduce swelling and pain. Well, as a busy mother of 2 crazy toddlers, that's pretty much impossible. I think I overdid it on Friday by running errands all afternoon and my leg was pretty swollen and killing me by the time I got home. Ever since, I haven't been able to walk or stand for more than an hour before my leg starts throbbing. Once that happens, I have to sit with my leg elevated for about a half hour before the pain will go away. This is easier said than done. I never realized how much I am on my feet until this weekend! I sit down for a few minutes here and there throughout the day but rarely for more than 10 minutes at a time. Somebody is always needing help, needing to be disciplined, needing a snack... there's always cleaning to be done, a meal to be prepared, errands to run, etc. We moms work very hard!

Today is much better, thankfully, and I was finally able to clean the house during the boys' naptime without any pain in my leg. But to think all this, and any future mole removals, could have been avoided had I just worn sunscreen or not used tanning beds. And this was the best case scenario! The doctor told me there was a good chance I could have had skin cancer by the time I was 30 if I hadn't had the mole removed! He said he's putting me on his "watch list" and that I had better keep getting annual skin exams to catch any more trouble spots. Yikes! You won't catch me outside without sunscreen anymore! Not to mention that 90% of all signs of aging for non-smokers are caused by sun damage. Hmm, do I want to be a tan 35-year-old with leathery skin, wrinkles and skin cancer? No thank you! I'm perfectly happy being a pale 25-year-old! And I'm thankful to have learned my lesson sooner rather than later!

This Morning

The boys tried to take every last one of their possessions out into the yard this morning. Here's Jack displaying his forks.

A boy and his garbage can

And after they started getting bored with everything else, I broke out the chalk. I bought it a few months ago and have been waiting to use it. They didn't quite enjoy it as much as I had hoped but it kept them happy for 10 minutes or so.

I think he must have decided to taste-test it. Not what he had expected though.