Alternative treatments

For the past week, the entire household has been struggling with a head cold. For most of us, we have used the conventional remedy of Kleenex as needed. But Sadie has a more effective way of stopping her nose from running...

Eeeeewwwwww.

Personality type

I've been meaning to send this link to my family, but thought I would post it for everyone to look at since I love stuff like this.

If you haven't taken the Myers-Briggs personality profile, you really should. I have found it to be amazingly accurate. And I love reading about personality types of other people, so once you take it, either leave your personality type in a comment or email it to me. I'm not sure how most people will score, but I would bet money that my dad and brothers will be the same personality type as myself.

So, first click here to take the test.

After you get your test results, click here to find out more about your personality.

Then, click here for a more thorough description. (You'll have to replace ISTJ in the url with your own personality type).

By the way, in case you were wondering, I'm an ISTJ. I first took this test back in high school (that I remember) and was an ISTJ back then too...I'm as consistent as my personality type.

Brian is an INTP, but right on the border of an extrovert/introvert. No surprise there either.

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I don't have any new pictures to post, but I did want to tell you that today in class Sadie had a grand ol' time participating in song & dance time. She even chose one of the songs to sing, and by the end during story time was sitting on the teacher's lap. It was so cute, but I didn't want to get up to find my camera in case she would get scared.

Meanwhile, Linus wouldn't stop whining, kept telling the class "No songs!" and only wanted to sit in the ball pit. Oh well. At least one of them was happy.

Uh oh!

Well, it's official.

Linus can escape from his crib.

Luckily I was standing right there when he managed to get his leg over the bar and began to hoist himself over the side. Twice. At first I didn't make a big deal of it, I just put him back in bed. The second time I told him that it was very dangerous and he could get a big, big boo-boo if he climbed out of his crib. So far he hasn't tried again, but transitioning out of a crib and into a big bed is one of the things I dread most.

Well...that and potty training.

What in the world?

I don't know what was going on this morning at breakfast, but the kids are a little nuts these days.

I blame it on the fact that they are ready to start the day somewhere between 3am and 4am, and they refuse to go back to sleep. Mommy and daddy are definitely not ready to start the day until 9am. You would think that by this point they would understand the fine art of compromise and not get up until 6...

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A funny story: I'm not sure how it was brought up, but Brian was talking to the kids about bikes. He said something in passing about how Santa might be bringing them bikes for Christmas, and now they are all over it. They don't understand Santa, but they sure like to tell people how Santa is giving them bikes for Christmas. We really need to be careful about what we say to them.

Guess how cold it is

This morning was downright frigid at the park. In fact it was so cold that we had to pull out our San Diego winter wear:


OK, so it was 54 out. But, in all fairness, we can see the snow on the mountains from our house, so that has to count for something. Right?

...We are in serious trouble if we end up moving anywhere besides Tuscon or Miami.

Toys for tots

This year we started what we hope will become an annual tradition with the kids - Toys for Tots. The Flying Leathernecks museum that we have visited a few times in the past has a drop off box, so we went there this afternoon to donate our toys,

and then to check out the planes and helicopters of course.

I think the kids actually understood the concept since one of their favorite stories is about Pooh, Piglet and Tigger donating some of their things, including honeypots, to people who need them. (Sadie calls this the honeypot story and we read it no less than 5 times a day).

Because they seem to be influenced by what they read in books, I think the next story I'm going to read to them will be about cooperation, no whining, and eating at least something at each meal...oh, and not running away from mommy right after playing with avocados during dinner but before their hands are clean and then touching every single surface in the house so that there are green smears everywhere.

Not that it has happened yet or anything.

Points of interest

I know it's been a little while since the last update, so here are a few interesting tidbits from this past week:

1. Sadie's cleaning spree continues.

We bought and decorated our Christmas tree last weekend with the kids' help. The top half has all of the ornaments except for a few that Sadie and Linus (but especially Sadie) likes to rearrange.

And dust.

On a regular basis. (Like every 10 minutes).

I would have absolutely no problem with this except for the fact that she needs help to put the ornaments back on the tree. And she is very particular about which branch they need to go on. (Who knows where she picked up this trait). And which direction they need to face. And she is constantly changing her mind. This means that I spend most of my day sitting beside the tree watching her painstakingly move ornaments and dust each light bulb individually.


2. Have I mentioned that shopping isn't one of my favorite things to do?

Case in point: I went to a big sale that had only one community dressing room to try things on. No problem - after hospital bedrest, the birth of twins, and trying to breastfeed in a very open NICU, I have absolutely no modesty anymore. Except for the fact that while I was trying on things and wrestling my way to one of the few mirrors they had on the wall, the shirt that I had worn into the store was taken from my pile of stuff.

That's right. I had to do the rest of my shopping with no shirt and my coat zipped up to my chin.

And people wonder why I don't like to shop. In all fairness, my coat was still there along with my purse which would have been so much worse - shirtless without car keys or a phone. Picture it.

Only I can leave a store with less than what I came in with.

3. We had our white elephant gift exchange at Mom's Night Out this month.

I "won" this off-the-shoulder sequined number. Hilarious. Need I say more?

4. The kids' Christmas gifts from Aunt Mo arrived.


5. And our love of sports continues...

Sports Fanatic

It is no surprise to most people that I am not exactly a huge sports fan. It's not that I don't like sports, it's just that I really don't care. (Except for college basketball that is, because there's no way I could have been at UNC for almost 10 years and not like basketball). However, unlike myself, our kids absolutely LOVE sports.

Awhile ago, Brian got them a little golf set which they play all of the time. It's a good thing that there are 3 clubs because more often than not, they are both carrying at least one around for most of the day smacking whatever balls they can find laying around. In fact, one of Linus' first words was golf ball. Brian is so proud.


For their 2nd birthday, Gish and Grandpa gave them a basketball hoop. I would say the kids love this just as much as they love golf, and they are actually pretty good at it. Linus even takes the basketball into bed with him at night and for his naps.

Did I mention that Brian is so proud?

When Brian is home, we either have golf, football, basketball, tennis, cycling...really any sport except NASCAR (thank God) on tv. A few months ago he taught the kids to say "Touchdown" anytime football came on. Now they chant it on a regular basis. Sadie will grab the remote if the tv is off, or really if there is any other program on that isn't sports, and specifically request that we turn football on. NOW. She also hates commercials and will demand that we put football back on. NOW.

Apparently she agrees that we need to get Tivo.

Well, last night about an hour after the kids went to bed, we heard her screaming in her crib. Brian ran in thinking that she had a limb caught in the crib somewhere and was really in pain. But, what did he find when he went in there?

Sadie standing up. And saying...get this...

"Sadie watch football".

Brian couldn't be any more proud.

Guess who's going to be getting up in the middle of the night now that a sports monster has been created?