I Love Clothes......Apparently

I carry my kids around a LOT. I'm a mom.....that's what we do, right? Well, as I was carrying an armful of clothes back to my room this afternoon, I absentmindedly bent my head down and KISSED THE CLOTHES!!!

Go ahead and laugh.....I did! I stopped in my tracks and laughed out loud at my "you-know-you're-a-mom-if" moment. I actually KISSED a pair of pants simply because they were in my arms.

What's next? Diapering the dog? Feeding pureed bananas to Chris? Reciting the ABCs to the dishwasher?

Look out world---I'm a mom and cannot be held responsible for any nurturing behavior that I bestow on anyone.....or anyTHING.

CoffeeDoraSurfing

Scout and Chris have gone out for coffee again. It's so good for Scout to spend time away from me. He's such a clingy Mama's boy these days. Of course, I still love it when he lunges for me and only smiles when I'm holding him, but I know it's not good for him. So, Chris is going to try to spend more time with Scout without me. I'm sure they'll be fine, I but I'm a bit worried that Scout will be so grumpy that Chris will never want to take him anywhere again!

Flora and I are spending the morning with Dora the Explorer. She doesn't usually watch Dora but is really enjoying it today. I'm convinced that thanks to Dora, Baby Einstein, and Sesame Street, Flora will start speaking Spanish to me one day and I will have no idea what she's saying!

She is content watching Dora right now, but often she is a channel surfer. I would recommend NEVER letting your child see how you turn on the TV if it is within reach of little hands. Flora will turn on the TV, then grab the remote and sit on the couch and channel surf. All she needs is an ottoman and a beer to complete the picture! It's annoying, but also very funny. She seems to prefer the Home Shopping Network, the Kansas City government channel, and The Ellen Show. Thanks to Flora I am very knowledgeable about current road and development projects in the Kansas City area.

*roll eyes*

This morning, while still in her pajamas, Flora put on some fancy white dress shoes and ran a circle through the kitchen between each channel change. Silly kid. Where does she get these ideas????

On the Road

My kids are pretty good travelers. They like their car seats, don't get carsick, and will usually entertain themselves or each other without much assistance from Chris or me. However, they are awfully young and sometimes car trips just last too long for the good behavior to last the entire journey. On our most recent road trip to Illinois and back, things were quiet and peaceful in the backseat until about the last hour of the trip. There's not much worse than the combination of an angry-accusing cry and a bored-uncomfortable-unhappy whine. *shudder*

A little side note:
As "Mommy," I don't exactly hate car trips. It's like mandatory downtime. I can't hold anyone or get up and down from my seat to refill drinks, find snacks, or break up fights. I get to sit in my seat the entire time we are driving. It's especially nice when I am the one driving. If I'm driving, then Chris has to deliver the toys and snacks to our backseat companions, although he lacks some of the patience and much of the flexibility necessary to really do the job effectively.

So, anyway, back to our trip home from Illinois.
Flora got cranky and whiny about an hour before we were supposed to arrive home. I kept telling her that she would have to wait just a little bit longer until we were home and then she could get out of the car and play with Toby. She never actually plays with Toby, but for some reason the idea of seeing Toby is always very exciting. It didn't work this time though. Eventually Scout started crying too and Flora found this inexplicably hilarious. He would cry and she would laugh uncontrollably at him. Maybe a little bit car-trip-delirious?

Since I knew I couldn't do anything to help either of them until we got home I tried to tune out the backseat noise, though I was amused to hear Flora using her best grown-up-bossy-big-sister voice to tell Scout he needed to, "Wait. Home. Wait." Nice try, Flora, but it doesn't work.

Flora's ABC's

Flora likes to say her ABC's. Here are the ABC's according to Flora:

"A, C, Elmo, P, Q, R, W...... Now I ....... Next ....... MEEEEEEEE!!!"

Also.......

Last night, Flora was trying to tell Chris and I something, but we didn't know what she was saying. It sounded like a very naughty phrase and we couldn't keep from giggling. Of course, that just made her say it more. Lesson learned! I guess we already knew that lesson, but it's just too hard to keep a straight face when your 1-year-old is spouting obscenities at you. She hasn't said it today, so I hope she's forgotten whatever it was that she was trying to say. I'm sure she'll remember at a very inconvenient moment and create an incredibly awkward situation for us in the future!!

Random Silliness

• When Scout won't eat, I sometimes pinch his cheeks together so that his mouth opens up enough to get the spoon inside. I just watched Flora pinch ONE of his cheeks and put a teething ring in his mouth!
  
• Flora put a few toys in the pack 'n' play, told me to put Scout in it, and then she wanted in too. Once they were both in with all their toys, Flora looked at me, nodded, and said, "Scout happy. Flo Flo happy!"
  
• Yesterday, Flora and Scout spent the 8 minute car ride home from Target starring in their own private giggle show! Flora would make faces at Scout, Scout would giggle, and then Flora would giggle at Scout's giggle. Car seats should be equipped with video cameras.
• It's so cute to watch Flora and Scout when they see each other for the first time in the mornings. After a whole night apart, they both get big silly grins on their faces. Usually, the first thing Flora says when I open the door to her room is "Scout?"