A First for Me...

Yesterday morning I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure. Due to last minute "issues" here at home, I almost had to cancel...but I was relieved when Brian insisted I go and spend the morning at the nail salon! Wow, what a treat it was! I truly felt pampered :) My instructions before leaving the salon were "do your dishes w/ gloves on" and "put 1 clear top coat on your nails/day." Ha! That probably won't happen! But at least my toenails and fingernails look pretty for a couple of days! (and no...my feet, toes, and fingers are not model material, I know!)

This Week's Favorites

Every week I tend to have my "favorites" as far as products go. Here are this week's fav's:
Garden Salsa Sunchips - yum! not too spicey, not too blahhh
Desitin - this is the go-to cure-all as far as little people's bottoms go
Pedialyte Freezer Pops - the kids won't drink Pedialyte but these gems are going down like crazy
Twilight Soy Wax Candles - spring-time scents smell so good, and these burn a long time
Tri-Wheat Leave-In Conditioner & Detangler (by Supernatural Ecoly Formulas) - great for little and big people hair
V-8 Splash - not too sweet and no aftertaste

Such different kids

Bryton and Avery continue to prove to me how very different they are. Bryton has been battling a nasty cold for a few days, which started with a fever. I always know when Bryton has a fever because he wants to lay around and his eyes look very, very sleepy. Well, this morning Avery is running a fever as well...but a person would never know it! She's playing, talking, just like the usual Avery. This is the problem I used to have when I'd take her in for her well-baby visits. Her Dr. would take a look at her ears and say, "well, this one looks red...she's got an infection here." And I'd feel like a horrible mother because Avery had given me no clues! When Bryton was little and battled his ear infections, he'd throw up, lose sleep, run very high temps, etc...
Other examples I see daily of how our kids differ (and some of these things have a lot to do w/ the different ages they are at):
* Avery always wants to "go there" when she sees pictures, watches something on TV, or hears about people we've seen or places we've been to. Bryton has always been very content staying home, playing with his toys.
* Bryton has patience when he's working on a "project." Avery gets frustrated and we have to encourage her to stick with it!
* Avery loves to dance and sing for people. Bryton does, too, but it takes him awhile to build up enough courage to do so!
* When things don't go his way, it takes awhile for Bryton's temper to flare. Avery, on the other hand, is very quick to show her horrible temper.
I love that our kids personalities are so different, it adds quite a bit of variety to my day!

Cheap Entertainment

The kids definitely have their "favorites" as far as entertainment goes these days...
Bryton loves LEGO'S, and Avery loves Play-Doh. Each of them will sit and play with their respective favorites for at least a half an hour at a time...sometimes as long as an hour! Times like these are heaven for this Mom!
Brian is a man of many hobbies, but lately he's been chilling and reading a good book. His favorite author right now is Michael Connelly. In the past his imaginative mind has kept busy by oil painting, sketching, wood carving and burning, working on RC planes, shooting his bow...and of course art projects with the kids :) All of these are great hobbies, but its a nice change of pace to see him sitting in the same room with me once in awhile, reading a book w/ his limited free time!
As for me, I continue to love to read when I get a chance to do it. I don't think I have a favorite author right now, but lately I'm a sucker for romance and/or mystery novels....and a good magazine (or two, or ten)!
I suppose these forms of cheap entertainment have helped us keep our sanity over this long winter. Come sunshine, green grass, and warmer temps...we'll be out of doors, but for now its nice staying cozy, doing these things we love!

And so today is Thursday...

I'm up early, partially due to a young daughter and dog who didn't want much to do w/ sleep last night! Why was I up 5 times in the night w/ these "babies" of mine? My educated guesses would be:
*that they weren't quite tired enough...come on Spring!!!
*too many Easter sweets, already! (in Avery's case)
*young bladders are fickle little things!
And so our day has begun. It will be a good day.

Mommmm.......

We were walking into school this morning...and Bryton has a tendancy to lolly-gag his way thru the door.

"Come on bud, keep moving" {Jess}
"Mom, please don't call me that." {Bryton}
"Call you what?!"
"Bud. I want you to call my Bryton."
"Oh, OK. I though you didn't mind that name."
"Mommmmm...."

Hmmmm....I call him "bud" and "buddy" a lot, but apparently that isn't a very cool name while we are on school grounds.
Maybe I need to start taking notes, because this has only just begun...but I think I'll amuse myself with this "dorky-ness" I've achieved, at least once in awhile!

Ice-Cream Cheeks

Yes, our children have been blessed with their mother's ice- cream cheeks :) I can't help but smile at these cute little round faces, especially when they are all bundled up.