What do you do get when this handsome fella, who happens to be your husband, gets totally paranoid that we are sitting in the splash section at SeaWorld and insists that both you and your brother-in-law must vanquish your camera to your in-laws sitting way in back because he is afraid something will happen to your cameras and you both listen?
This is what happens. This is the only picture you get of the “show” at SeaWorld.

And what do you all say at the end of the show when not a single person in our section gets wet? You got that right Warren. “Oh no!”

For more Wordless Wednesday check out Oh My Sugar High, The Shopping Mama , 3 Kids and Us, Jennifer Leigh Designz, 5 minutes for Mom and Seven Clown Circus.

One of the greatest joys (and frustrations) of having a two year old is never knowing what you might find. Warren loves hiding things and while walking through our entryway I find this in my husband’s shoe. Just hanging out. I’m not sure if this was meant to be a present for his daddy or if his daddy’s shoe was his horse’s new home. Either way it made for a double take, a chuckle and a shake of my head.

For more Wordless Wednesday check out Oh My Sugar High, The Shopping Mama , 3 Kids and Us, Jennifer Leigh Designz, 5 minutes for Mom and Seven Clown Circus.

Ok, this is so not going to be anywhere close to wordless this week.

Houston, we have a problem. Our little sneaky two year old has discovered the joy of hiding. Not himself mind you. No, that is not the current trend, although he is always up for a good game of hide and seek. (He’ll happily throw a blanket over you, go count then pretend he can’t find you.) No, Warren has a new hobby of hiding things. What kind of things? Small basketballs in drawers where half of it is sticking out, matchbox cars in my husband’s gym bag, toys in empty boxes and as shown below, a piece of apple I just discovered in my buffet drawer.

At first I thought it was kind of cute and vowed to double check everything before I threw it away. But the newest thing he has hidden is our cell phone.  It has been gone for two days and after searching high and low and calling it to try and hear it ring, I was convinced it wasn’t in this house. That was, until this morning when I heard it. A beep letting me know that my cell phone was dying. A slow death but one that was very faint and muffled. While I could hear it in the kitchen it could be anywhere. And calling it again did not work which tells me that little bugger put it in something and somehow turned the ringer off. I only heard the beep three times and that did not help me locate it.

So is this hiding hobby cute anymore? Not so much. And if you ask Warren where my cell phone is his answer will be, “I don’t really know.” Well, me neither little man. Me, neither.  Ugh…

For more Wordless Wednesday check out The Shopping Mama , 3 Kids and Us , Jennifer Leigh Designz, 5 minutes for Mom and Seven Clown Circus.

And don’t forget to visit Oh My! Sugar High to see some yummy cupcakes for Wordless Wednesday!

Warren is my two year old, my little monkey. He is stubborn, high energy and fearless. But he is also incredibly sweet, a great communicator and absolutely hilarious. Here are just a few things this week that had me shaking my head in amazement or rolling with laughter!

Warren is obsessed with all things Toy Story, especially Buzz Lightyear. Unfortunately his biggest Buzz is really meant for an older child and is a bit heavy. Consequently Warren drops him often and while my husband Joe has fixed him many times (yeah, with a soldering iron!) I think Buzz might have permanently lost his arm.

Warren (handing Buzz out to me): Buzz’s arm broke, mommy. Fix. Fix Buzz.

Me (inspecting) : Oh no, what happened? Uh-oh. Warren, I can’t fix this. He arm is completely off now and I’m not sure even Daddy can fix.

Warren: Dat ok. Wonder Pets fix. They fix Buzz arm.

Over the weekend Warren sees his cousin loose a tooth and gets to hold it. So next day he decides he needs to inspect my mouth.

Warren (grabbing at my mouth) : Mommy, I look in your mouth. I check your teeth.

Me (playing along): Um, ok.

Warren (trying to grab a tooth) Mommy, I hold your tooth. I hold this one. Pease?

While drying Warren off after his bath I noticed that his second toenail was completely white. I checked to see if it coming off and sure enough, it was really only attached at the bottom. I couldn’t help but feel bad wondering how long it was like that and how it happened. Joe being a runner has lost plenty of toenails so he trimmed it a bit and put a bandaid over it. Warren only said “ow” in his normal voice.

Next day Warren is sitting very quietly in timeout. I go to release him him and he innocently and nonchalantly says “Here, mommy.” and hands me the rest of his toenail before running off to play.

Warren has been on a big kick lately to do things himself, specifically climbing up into our van and into his carseat. Only, he can’t really get into the carseat by himself and has tried many times. So tonight I tried to help him yet again.

Warren: No Mommy, me do. I climb.

Me: Ok, you try.

Warren (struggling to get up then stops): Mommy, I can’t.

Me (offering him my hands to stand on to give him a boost): Mommy help.

Warren: No I climb. I do.

Warren (struggles again): Mommy I can’t.

I offer him my hand.

Warren: No I do. I do!

Me: I’ll help you.

Warren: (reluctantly): ooookaaaaay.

I just came across this shots from early last month and couldn’t resist sharing!

Mom, I’m sneaky. You have no idea what cool idea I just came up with.

I’ve decided to climb this tree. Kipper does it all the time, I know I can too! Just watch me do it, mommy!

Oh, mommy. It didn’t work. Sigh….

For more Wordless Wednesday check out The Shopping Mama , 3 Kids and Us , Jennifer Leigh Designz, 5 minutes for Mom and Seven Clown Circus.

Lucian: Mommy, do worms have tongues?

Me: No, worms don’t have tongues.

Lucian: But Slimey does and he is a worm.

Me: Honey, Slimey is just a character on Sesame Street. So while he has a tongue, real worms do not. Slimey is just special that way.

Lucian: Slimey is an inchworm.

Me: Is he?

Lucian (matter of factly): Of course he is.

Pause…

Lucian: We have inchworms all around our house! All around, mommy.

Me (smiling): Wow, that is a lot of worms!

Lucian (nodding his head): Yeah, mom.

I’m sure as soon as you see “snowman” in my title you might have thought I completely forgot to share with you these great pictures of my boys creating a snowman and decided to share them now, months later. I wish that were the case. Instead these were taken last FRIDAY. Yes, you read that right. May 7th we got this much snow in Northern Minnesota. Crazy, even for us and after going two months without any snowfall.  Thankfully my husband knew how to make the best of the situation and got the boys playing outside in the cold, wet sleet/snow. They loved it.

If it makes you feel any better, as it certainly does me, this is a shot of the poor snowman only 24 hours later.

For more Wordless Wednesday check out  5 minutes for Mom, 7 Clown Circus, The Shopping Mama , 3 Kids and Us and Jennifer Leigh Designz!

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A few days ago after folding laundry with my two year old (yes, this is possible) I came into the kitchen to find that my three year old had done this with his cars. When I asked him why he stated, “I wanted to keep my cars protected.” Oh, of course.

Fishing them out was actually a fun game since he dumped a whole bin and so many more were hidden than this pictures shows. Looking for your next birthday party or rainy day game? Here you go! Cheap, easy and lots of fun.

For more Wordless Wednesday check out  5 minutes for Mom, 7 Clown Circus, The Shopping Mama and Jennifer Leigh Designz!

My two year old son Warren has fallen in love with Toy Story the last several months. It started with a Buzz Lightyear obsession and has since grown to a great love of Woody and Rex as well. So when I saw Jessi on clearance at Target a few weeks back I managed to buy it without him seeing and kept it for a rainy day. As luck would have it, he was really sad a couple of days ago and it was the perfect time to bring out Jessi. He loves his new Jessi!

When I announced it was lunch time, Warren declared, “Jessi hun-gee” (hungry) and proceeded to snap her into his booster so she can eat. How sweet? Of course Jessi couldn’t eat with him but she did watch him eat from across the table!

For more Wordless Wednesday check out  5 minutes for Mom, 7 Clown Circus, The Shopping Mama and Jennifer Leigh Designz!

Last weekend when I did my own little mini fashion shoot I had a little helper.

The photo shoots I do are super glamorous. I set up my 10 second timer on my camera, prop my camera up on my desk in the dining room just so, click the button and quickly run to the other side to position myself in my rather sad catalog pose to get a shot. (You can see what ended up using in my T.J. Maxx Review and Giveaway post).

Apparently my two year old Warren thought what I was doing looked like fun. So he joined me in standing by the wall and giving a smile to the camera as well. Which is actually ironic since I can’t get him to sit still long enough to get a good shot of him under normal circumstances.

He looks so tiny in that picture. I have my own little mini me.

(And don’t you just love those socks I’m sporting?. I know, I’m cool like that.)

Did my title grab you? If you are wondering what in the world a butter earring is, I’ve got a definition for you.

butter earring (noun): The result of your child eating a piece of buttered bread haphazardly and swiping an ear in the process.   A bit of butter on the ear resembling an earring is left behind.

Hence, butter earring.

Just wait, it will catch on.

For more Wordless Wednesday check out  5 minutes for Mom, 7 Clown Circus, The Shopping Mama and Jennifer Leigh Designz!

A few days ago my parents stopped by for a visit and I thought it would be cool if Lucian showed them how well he can sing his ABC’s. He has known them for a while but for whatever reason, our usually super outgoing son gets bashful when you ask him to sing anything in front of a group. So I wasn’t really surprised when I asked him that he turned his head and got quiet.

No big deal, we moved on to something else. Until all of a sudden he says, “Stop! You have to listen to me!” Umm, ok. And then he starts saying his ABC’s in a way I’ve never heard before, super fast and without the usual singing! He got excited by how fast he went and our reaction to it I’m sure that he kept doing it, over and over and over again. We were cracking up so of course I couldn’t resist grabbing the camera to capture the moment.

So without further adieu, this is Lucian saying his ABC’s, super fast!

When I asked him to keep going on the video I meant to finish it with the “Now I know my ABC’s” part but he started over from the beginning instead.

My kid is such a ham.

Does your almost never shy child also get embarrassed to sing in front of people too?

We had a great time this past weekend at my parent’s house. I couldn’t resist dressing my boys up in coordiantely outfits, yet not exactly the same. They look so cute as little men in their sweater vests that I got for a great price from Children’s Place. Both of them loved hunting for eggs but in general were just having the most fun being their silly selves.

Me taking a picture of Warren pretending to take a picture of me. Can you see Lucian in the background?

My nutty three year old Lucian.

Checking out the cool loot they got from the Easter egg hunt! They both were great hunters!

It was a great day!

For more Wordless Wednesday check out  5 minutes for Mom, 7 Clown Circus, The Shopping Mama and Jennifer Leigh Designz!

I love Not Me! Monday created by My Charming Kids so I’ll take this time to reflect on what I did not do this past week. Please take a moment to visit MckMama’s blog and see what she has not been up to this past week.

Last week I did not accidentally drop my car keys in our garbage bin outside. Not moi! So of course I didn’t have to tip it over and dig for them either.  That might have been gross and a bit embarrassing so good thing I didn’t…

I’m also not THAT mother who ends up with a horrible Target shopping experience with two young  kids. So that wasn’t me who innocently grabbed a bottle of liquid fabric softner off a bottom shelf only to discover someone had left the cap almost entirely off. The motion of the grab did not spray a good 1/3 of a bottle of Downy all over the floor.  And if I did I certainly didn’t curse the person who no doubt wanted to take a sniff of the scent and leave a booby trap for me.

This trip didn’t go from bad to worse when my 24 month old son started to squirm and my precious hazelnut Coffeemate creamer didn’t fly out of our cart, skid down the cereal aisle and break the top off. (Thankfully it didn’t explode). I didn’t sigh and relent to purchasing it anyway partly due to guilt and partly because it was the last one and I gotta have my creamer fix.

And it didn’t stop there. While working my way to the checkouts my 24 month old did not on purpose throw our dole fruit cups out the cart in protest of a shopping trip obviously too long and much too close to lunch and therefore nap time. It didn’t pop the seal off one of the cups causing yet another mess. I didn’t want to throw my hands up and wonder how on earth all this happened in a single trip to Target.

And because we didn’t cause Target enough grief, my very favorite Archer Farms pork link sausage (love them!) didn’t somehow get poked open. So we weren’t stuck waiting in line for quite a few extra minutes while someone obviously unfamiliar with their sausage searched high and low for them. I wasn’t ready to *gasp* scream because this shopping trip couldn’t get any worse walk out without my son’s favorite meat product because both my boys were entering meltdown mode. The meltdown mode that only a juice box and box of raisins can cure, both of which were conveniently left in our van.

Good thing I’m not that mom.

The other morning I walk into my kitchen and find this. Oh joy. It only takes my kiddos a few seconds to discover my boxes with *gasp* packing peanuts. What fun, they simply MUST swim in them, right?

For more Wordless Wednesday check out  5 minutes for Mom, 7 Clown Circus, The Shopping Mama and Jennifer Leigh Designz!

It felt so good to get out this past weekend. The weather was sunnier on Saturday but still very warm on Sunday so we decided to make a trek to our local zoo. We had a fabulous day and now spring is my favorite time to go to the zoo. No crowds or super hot temps making it hard to visit all the outside exhibits. The only downfall but was it a was a bit muddy and my boys enjoyed all the puddles a little too much. So fun! (I just love that last shot of “my boys”.)

For more Wordless Wednesday check out 5 minutes for Mom, 7 Clown Circus and Jennifer Leigh Designz!