My week in iPhone photos

I pretty much use my iPhone for most picture-taking these days. Which is great, since I can look back on our week and go, "Oh yeah... THAT'S what we did this week." It makes me feel like less of a bump on a log when I can see that the boys and I left the house and actually DID something... even if it wasn't something productive like folding laundry or cleaning the bathrooms.

Sunday

Eating some dinner at Smashburger

Hank's building towers out of everything these days. Salt and pepper are not immune.

Waiting for dinner. Not so patient, these men of mine.

Monday

"Kid sandwich! Kid sandwich!"

We go to Sea World so we can jump off concrete walls. Because there's no where else we can do that.

Tuesday

Naked nap time in the play room.

Wednesday

Johnny is now spelling words by making letters out of Duplo blocks. That says "orange" in case you couldn't tell.

There's a girl under all those balls. She entered the ball pit, laid down, and demanded Johnny to bury her. To my surprise, he did.

Enjoying the M&Ms, but not the fro yo.

Thursday

My shoes aren't too big, Mommy. Look! I can go up stairs in them!

Spelling words, as usual

Playing with fire engines is way more fun with Uncle Scott

Reading books with Uncle Scott

Friday

Playing on a fire engine in Tierrasanta on Daddy's lunch break

Shoveling rocks at Hilltop park

Saturday

Laughing at Daddy's hula hooping antics at Target

Trying on the party favor from Jacob and Lucy's birthday party

And that was our week! Looking back, I guess it was kind of eventful. Throw in some early mornings, late nights and nap refusal and I guess I had my hands full.

I'd like to make this a weekly thing, not only so I can review our week, but also so I can dump photos off my phone. I had 1,495 photos on my phone yesterday and it finally refused to take another one since the memory was full. I think this would be a good thing to get in the habit of (if at all possible) so I can keep my phone clean! And also clutter my computer! Yay!

BTW, I'm linking up for the first time with one of my favorite bloggers, Suzanne at bebehblog for this weekly wrap up thing.
 

Hello 2013!

Why hello. We're alive. Promise.

This is not going to be a real post because... well, it's just not.

You know that feeling you get when you realize you forgot a friend's birthday and never sent her a birthday card or called her? But you can't do it right this second because you're in the bathroom/you can't find a pen/your phone is dead, so you resolve to do it later.

And then four days later you're like, "Oh crap! I forgot her birthday. If my hands weren't covered in salmonella from dealing with raw chicken, I'd totally call her. I'm going to do it tonight." But your children decide that bed time is optional and you don't end up doing anything but tending to them and finally collapsing into bed at 11pm covered in your children's snot and smelling like you haven't showered in days. Probably because you haven't.

Then before you know it, after a series of unfortunate events involving crazy holidays, 4am wake ups, and toddler shenanigans, it's been two months and you STILL haven't gotten around to sending that note/making that call. So you think to yourself, What do I do now? You want to call her, but doing that would bring attention to the fact that you not only forgot her birthday, but you took two frigging months to make the effort to recognize it. Plus you haven't talked in forever and there's just so much catching up to do on top of groveling at her feet for being a terrible friend. And it just seems like too much to handle at the moment, so you put it off for tomorrow, when surely you'll have more energy to deal with it than you do right now.

That's kind of where I'm at with this blog. I have so many things to write about and catch up on, namely Johnny's letter from me for his 3rd birthday, but I haven't written in so long that the activation energy to get from not writing all to carefully cataloging everything we've been up to since the end of October just seems like a lot. Hence, the non-real post that is this post.

So, I figured I'd merely ramble to get back into the swing of writing. And also typing since it's been so long that my fingers are having issues with hitting the correct letters to form correctly spelled words. Hapoy Neq Uear! (<--- that was a joke... just so you know.)

Organization may be an exercise in futility

I'm not a particularly organized person. I mean, I have this incredible drive to be organized, but I never really get to that point where there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. Even when I was a teacher, it was the most organized I have ever been and I STILL had organization issues (however, all of my glassware and lab tools were impeccably organized).

So, I decided to do this 14 week organization challenge over at A Bowl of Lemons, a blog I happened to find while searching for organization tips. (Side note: did you realize that I've said some form of the word "organize" 7 times already? I won't blame you if you bail now.)

The first week's challenge was the kitchen. So I did it. I took everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) out of the drawers and cabinets and cleaned them. Then I put everything back in a way that made more sense. The first thing I did was figure out which of my cabinets and drawers were "prime real estate" and put utensils and appliances that are the most used in those places. That in itself was a challenge. Which do I use more? This iron dutch oven or this cheesecake pan? 

And then I had to go through tupperware. Now, as I may have mentioned before, I love boxes. I save boxes and containers like I'm planning to move next month. In fact, sometime I'll order something off the Internet and when it arrives, I'm more excited about the box than the item I ordered. It's a sickness.

ubiquitous coffee cup photo bomb

But I digress. You can only imagine the pit of despair that was my tupperware cabinet. It was in a corner spot, so it's cavernous, and the boys routinely take everything out of it and leave everything strewn about the kitchen like a tornado came threw but was only strong enough to move the plastic containers. And when your children are in the habit of disorganizing you, you rarely have the motivation to organize these items. So I figured it was time to buckle down and throw some stuff away. I threw out every round container we had and kept all of the square and rectangle ones and put them in a deep drawer across from the drawer holding all of my plastic baggies. Now they are easy to put away and easy to access. That was my crowning achievement from this week's organization challenge.

Otherwise, it was just moving stuff around to make it more accessible. Like putting the deep fryer (that I have yet to use, but can't seem to get rid of) on a shelf high above the refrigerator, where it will NEVER be in my way. Oh, and making a cabinet solely for my baking stuff. And making a coffee station. And bringing the medications and bandaids and vitamins into the kitchen in an organized space.

Next challenge is the garage....

Photo-a-day

My blogging has been a bit sporadic lately due to all kinds of factors, but mostly because it's hard to sit down for fifteen minutes at a stretch and type out a post. So I'm going to try something a little different with a Photo-a-Day project. I'm supposed to take at least one photo a day and post it to this website called ShutterCal as a part of this online photography course I'm taking and I figured I'd share it with anyone who frequents here!

So I'm going to attempt to take one picture every day and post it to this website here: http://shuttercal.com/calendar/mamadurso/2012/2/1/?e=676121 

Don't worry, the blog will still be here. This is just one more way to stalk us. :) I hope I can keep it up and you enjoy a little peek into our daily lives!

The "coming out" post.

It turns out I just needed a week-long break. A mere seven days to make me realize how much I enjoy getting on the Internet and telling the world about how wonderful my family is. Though while I was on my short sabbatical, I analyzed where my stress was coming from. I think my stress stemmed from the fact that I didn't feel like I was doing this for me. I was doing it for family and friends and strangers alike, which has some value and does create joy for others, but it caused some strife for me because I was censoring myself. There are things I wanted to put out there, but felt I couldn't for fear of being judged by the people I knew in real life. (Ahem. See Parenting Hypocrisy.)

If I want to continue this blogging thing for me, I thought to myself, then what do I want to do differently? I do enjoy putting up cute pictures of my boys because they are the center of my world (all three of them) and I like having a way to document their days and lives... but I could just as easily do that in a baby book. In one of the many I already have that are blank because why would I do a blog AND a baby book? There isn't enough time in the day for both.

Do I want to practice my writing composition skills? Negative. I never really had any of these "skills" to practice in the first place.

Do I want a place to hone my comedic edge? If you know me, then you just laughed at that statement... how ironic. Anyway, no. I'm happy with my corny one-liner jokes.

And I decided that if I'm going to continue doing this, I'm going to be honest about who I am. Sure, I'll still put up funny pictures and stories about the boys, but I'm interested in making this more introspective as well. I enjoyed writing that Parenting Hypocrisy post and I want to do more of it. It's a nice way for me to think through this parenting (and life) thing and get honest feedback from other people. So you think I'm crazy for not pretending Santa is real? Well, then tell me. Just know that I'm not going to be shamed into doing something I think is wrong. Regardless, it'd be nice to know how you feel about the topic, since I think people are a little too afraid to say judge-y things in real life.

So. Here we are. Hi. My name is Kelly. And I'm an anarchist.

Boom.

Taking a break

Hi folks! I'm going to take a break from the blog for a while. It has turned into a chore that I don't look forward to anymore, so I'm going to stop and come back to it when I feel like I it. It will be nice to spend my one hour break (1.5 hours if I stay up especially late, or not at all if the boys don't want to sleep) marking things off my to do list. See you in a week. Or a month. Or a year. Who knows?

Link Award

My sister-in-law, Lisa, tagged me in this Link Award (I know, an award!!) and I'm supposed to choose one blog entry for each of the seven categories and then tag seven other bloggers to do the same... so here we go!

Most beautiful - I gave the birth stories a hard look, as well as my letter to one-year-old Johnny, but I think the one I like the best is this post about finally accepting motherhood.

Most popular - Well, the post itself is not the most popular, but the video has lots of hits on YouTube, so I figure that makes it popular.

Most controversial - I know, I just wrote it a couple of days ago, but I know everyone who reads it goes, "Whaaaaaat?"

Most helpful - Again, it's a recent one, but I'd say it's pretty darn helpful.

Most surprisingly successful - I find it surprising how many people find my blog by searching "baby butts" on Google.

Most under-rated - Apparently Flava Flav is no longer relevant to the blogosphere... otherwise I think more people would have laughed at this.

Most pride-worthy - Hank's birth story, hands down. I am so proud of myself for going the whole natural birth route and ignoring the nay-sayers (who know who you are!) to have the birth I wanted.

Now I'm supposed to pass this on to seven other bloggers... but Lisa is already taken and she tagged another blog I read religiously... which leaves about three bloggers that might actually read my blog and do this link award:

Leslie Sarna (these can be applied to food, right??)
Rocky Mountain Mama
365degrees

Blog Hop: A Typical Day

I did one of these "day in the life" posts a few months ago when I was pregnant with Hank and, obviously, our routine has changed quite a bit since Hank was born. I tried to take a few pictures here and there to illustrate and then got sick of it... therefore there are only pictures of the first half of our day. Oh well.

6:30am: Hank wakes up, so I get up and we play for a few minutes before I hit the shower. Hank chills out on the floor of the bathroom while I get clean.

7:00am: Hank and I go downstairs to get some coffee and breakfast. I usually listen to my morning show (DSC, if you don't listen, you should) while eating and playing with Hank in his infant seat.

My favorite coffee cup. I used to feel guilty about drinking caffeine and breastfeeding, but this cup made a convincing argument for coffee. I now have a caffeinated drink almost every day.

 7:15am: Unload the dishwasher. I swear, with only three people eating real food around here, we go through a ridiculous amount of dishes. There are dishes to put away nearly every. single. day. But at least I can put them away while Johnny is still in bed, otherwise it'd be putting away dishes while trying to keep Johnny from smashing said dishes on the floor.

7:30am(ish): Johnny is ready to get up and makes it known by yelling as loud as possible.

7:35am: Johnny picks out his shirt for the day... this is a trial because he always wants his "Mater" shirt, which is usually dirty because he has worn it to bed a few times and also during the day a few times. There just comes a point where a T-shirt has to be washed. So he usually goes a little crazy when I tell him his Mater shirt is dirty and then finally picks a different shirt. Then I'm allowed to pick out his shorts. He couldn't care less about the bottom half of his wardrobe.

7:45am: Hank is ready for a nap, so he gets swaddled and stuffed in the ring sling.

7:47am: Johnny pulls me by the hand into the play room, where he drinks some milk and plays with trucks.

9am: This is when we usually do our leave-the-house activities like running errands, going to playdates, going for a walk, etc. This day, however, was a cleaning day. So I dusted and vacuumed the upstairs rooms while Johnny chased me around asking if I was "done" and Hank slept in the ring sling.

10:30am: Hank is awake, so I feed him, change his diaper, and put him down for some naked tummy time to give his little bottom a chance to air out.

11am: I finally get Johnny to eat something. He's never been one to sit down after waking up and have breakfast. Some days it happens, but this day it did not. So, Johnny sits down to eat an egg and blueberries while I sit down and eat some lunch.

11:20am: Brush those teeth! The brushing of the teeth is a variable in our day. It does happen every morning, but the when changes. Sometimes Johnny eats a real breakfast when he wakes up, so we brush teeth after that; other times he won't eat until some time closer to lunch, so we brush teeth then. I'm just proud that I'm able to brush AND floss his teeth every day. I'm an oral surgeon's daughter. Dental hygiene is important.

Normally I brush and floss Johnny's teeth while he's lying down on the changing table. That way I can hold his head with one hand and brush with the other... but it's hard to get a picture like that. So we posed in the bathroom.

 11:30am: We have some more play time. Usually involving the car, like this day. Sometime while we're playing, Hank is ready to sleep again, so I stuff him back in the ring sling.

12:30pm: This is about when Johnny takes his nap and our routine varies a little bit here. If Hank is really passed out, then I leave him in the ring sling while I get Johnny down for his nap. If he's kind of wakeful, then I take him out and put him in his crib where he usually cries for the duration of Johnny's nap time routine. Oh well, it sucks being the second child.

12:45pm: While Johnny naps, I usually do a combination of things. Play with Hank when he's awake, leave him in the ring sling when he's sleeping, blog, upload pictures/videos, clean up after our morning, make phone calls, or just lounge and read my book. However, I hardly ever sit down. Sitting down means Hank will most likely wake up... so I all of the above things while standing or walking around for two hours.

2:30pm: Johnny wakes up, usually crabby.

2:35pm: More playing in the play room, while I chase him around with a banana or some other form of food. Hank generally hangs out and watches Johnny and I play.

3:15pm: This is when I start to just kill time until John comes home. Johnny is usually tired of being inside, so we'll go out and run more errands or play out in the front yard. On this particular day we took a walk to the grocery store because Johnny kept saying "shop" and then led me to Vons. I thought we were headed to the local park, but Johnny knew where he wanted to go. Weird.

4pm: I start making dinner while Johnny plays by himself or tries vainly to get my attention by pulling out cooking utensils and pans and opening the refrigerator. Hank sleeps in the ring sling.

5:15pm: John comes home and I get dinner on the table... kind of. This is always a production because I'm trying to finish cooking, John is trying to get the table set and Johnny is trying to bodily and verbally force John outside so they can play in John's car. The five o' clock hour is a noisy and busy one in the Durso household.

5:30pm: Dinner is served! Hank watches us eat from his infant seat or is nursing. Johnny is trying to grab at our eating utensils and demanding more of this or that. John is trying to keep Johnny happy while attempted to eat himself and I am either nursing Hank, fetching different food for Johnny to eat, or eating myself. After dinner, I clean up while Hank chills and John and Johnny go play by the pool; Johnny is usually naked by this point.

6:15pm: I start getting Hank ready for bed by bathing him, giving him some time to air out, swaddling and then nursing him. John is attempting to get Johnny inside in an non-violent fashion with a few tears as possible.

7pm: Hank is down. John is reading stories to Johnny while Johnny runs around his room, pulls shirts of hangers, opens drawers and plays with the fan.

7:30pm: John exits Johnny's room whether he's asleep or not. If Johnny isn't asleep, he cries for a little and then settles down to play with Scout or to go to sleep. John and I then get to relax, which consists of cleaning up the kitchen, picking up Johnny's toys, then maybe watching a movie or surfing the Internet.

9:30pm: I dreamfeed Hank and then go to bed. Of course, my night consists of getting up to feed Hank every now and then, but for the most part, my day is done.

Obviously, there are an awful lot of breastfeeding sessions and diaper changes that go on during the day, but I felt it was overkill to include all of those. Not to mention even more boring than the things I chose to include.

This blog brought to you by....

the Internet!

I apologize for being MIA for a little while last week. First we had trouble with the cable upgrade and getting that to work with our router. Then our router gave out. Yes, it gave out. It was a much-loved wireless router that took about two seconds to kick to the curb in favor of a newer, prettier router... and I don't feel guilty at all. Hopefully this new Internet configuration will keep us better connected. If I can figure out how to work it.

Apologies

I feel like I need to apologize for the sporadic nature of the blog these days. I'd like to say that it's going to change... but I think everyone who has more than one child knows better. :) Having an active one-year-old and feeling the fatigue of pregnancy has really made updating with regularity difficult. I've got a goal of one post a week though, and so far I'm doing that... maybe February will bring two posts a week! Anyway, I just wanted to say sorry for the lack of fun things going on here. Maybe a cute picture of John and Johnny will make up for that.

Blog hiatus

Unfortunately, I have run out of space on my computer and thus, cannot upload any more photos or videos until I clean out my hard drive. This means that I won't be updating until I can get that taken care of, and well, in the midst of Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping and preparations for Johnny's birthday, I don't think I'm going to get a chance to do any good updates for awhile. My apologies. I will try to update before Thanksgiving to at least put up a picture or SOMETHING... but we'll see what happens.

Thanks for understanding, everyone!

Blog Maintenance

Okay, Blogger has become much more awesome as of late. Do you see all of the new modifications? Yeah, thank you Blogger people for understanding my strife at the limitations of your program. Now, the blog is wide enough to view the videos I post (I know that was getting annoying) and I can customize the layout of my blog as much as I want. YAY!

In other news, I'm only human, so of course I wonder who is reading this darn blog. Please vote in the poll on the right, if you don't mind. :)