Is it cold in here or is it just me?

At 5:08 this morning, my cell phone rang. Yes, you read that right. 5:08 AM. So, after Caroline and I recovered from our heart attacks (my cell phone is LOUD), I answered it to hear that school was closed. Really? REALLY?? They had to CALL me at 5:08 AM to tell me that school was closed?? WHEN THERE IS AN INCH OF ICE OUTSIDE AND PLOWS HAVE BEEN GETTING STUCK ON MY STREET???? I couldn't have figured THAT bit of news out on my own????? And did I mention that the bus comes to pick my child up at 12:12 PM? Talk about some advance notice. So anyways, I got that bit of news, hung up the phone, and tried to go back to sleep. And then I thought "man, it is COLD." The heat is turned down at night in our house, but to something like 60 degrees. So I laid in bed for a few minutes willing the heat to kick on. So at 5:30 I decided that it was REALLY cold and I should go turn the heat up. Sometimes the thermostat doesn't get the message to the heater that it needs to turn on, so I figured that was what was going on. I go downstairs, flip the light on, and look at the thermostat. 53 DEGREES. THAT IS COLD! So I pushed the button to make the heater turn on. Nothing. So I clicked the temperature setting down below 53 and then back up, thinking THAT would work. Nada. I just had an oil delivery earlier this month, so I was pretty sure we had oil. We BETTER have oil - that delivery was $$! So I open the basement door to go check on the burner and realize that SOMEONE (cough cough Henry cough cough) had flipped the emergency shutoff switch to the OFF position. Easy fix. I love Henry.
Oh, and it's 7:44am right now and it's still only 61 degrees, and the burner appears to need to take a break after being on for 2 hours straight.

Oh no. Please, no.

So. Henry. You know this is going to be good, don't you? Anyways, ever since Henry figured out how to launch himself out of his crib, his bedtime and nap routine has consisted of us tucking him in and shutting the door. He'd cry for a minute and then go to sleep. He'd sometimes fall asleep on the floor right inside the door, but we'd move him into his bed if he did that. Wow, written out that routine sounds downright cruel, but we tried everything else. In Henry's ideal world he would NEVER sleep, and if he has any type of audience (like, say, his mom or dad laying down with him in an attempt to get him to fall asleep) he will NOT sleep. The boy can stay awake FOREVER. So anyways, the other day Henry showed me how he could open the basement door (make note AI Dupont - I can see an accident just waiting to happen!). He was really proud of himself. So Ed said we'd get a lock for the top of the door. No biggie. Last night, however, 7pm came around, Ed got Henry ready for bed, tucked him in, and shut the door. 5 minutes later, Henry was back in the living room. So Ed took him back up, shut the door, came downstairs. And 3 minutes later, Henry was back. Yes, Henry can open his OWN door, too. Shoot me now. I have no idea what to do with the little monkey. Ed said we should lock his door, but I have one of those "what if the house caught on fire and the key was lost or got really hot and..." fears so locking the door won't work. And I guess CPS frowns on duct tape. Ideas, anyone?!? He better be an angelic teenager for everything he's putting me through as a toddler!

Friday Five

I'm thankful that...
1. Obama is president
2. My taxes are almost finished
3. Ed changes diapers
4. Ed cooks
5. Ed got a job

So proud!

Keith came home from school today with the usual pile of papers. In the middle of the pile was a folded piece of paper which said "to the parent/guardian of Keith Borrelli." Uh oh. Growing up letters addressed to my parent/guardian were NEVER good. So I opened it. And it said...

To the Parents/Guardians of: Keith
You are invited to our Spirit Assembly on Friday, January 30th at 10:00 (AM class) 2:00 (PM class). Your child has been selected to receive a special award for showing the character trait of Caring this month. Please do not tell your child, it is supposed to be a surprise. It would be wonderful if you or a family member could attend. Please confirm that you received this note and let me know if you will be able to attend. Congratulations - you have a right to be very proud of your little one!

Well. Isn't that enough to make you tear up? I think that parent/guardian letter is going into the baby book! And I will definitely be at the Spirit Assemby on the 30th! Way to go Keith!

A New Day!

I am JEALOUS!

So, as you probably know, Obama is on his train ride to the Inauguration and stopped in Wilmington, DE. He's giving a speech there. RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FRIEND'S HOUSE!!! Who gets that lucky??? Why can't *I* live on the Wilmington riverfront? And why didn't I think about making an unannounced visit to my friend's house?? I can't wait for Tuesday - it seems like it was ages ago that Obama won the presidential election. I can't wait to see what will happen once he is president.

And in other news, a plane crashed in the Hudson. Sorry, that was mean. I think the pilot of that plane has some absolutely AMAZING piloting skills. And if I was to ever fly again, I would hope that he'd be my pilot. However, that plane crash and the ensuing news coverage (you know, 500+ hours on CNN?) has thoroughly convinced me that flying is NOT the way to go. Good thing my friend already HAD her wedding in Miami, because I would NOT be flying down there this May. Nope. It took a lot of gin and tonic to get me to fly down there two years ago!

Henry, also known as his mother's son

So, first off, my mom sent me this email this morning saying "did you send them this?" with this link. I was reading it around 6:30am, so I was scrolling through the article thinking "who would I send this to? I *know* kids can poison themselves, I have a Henry!" and then I got about halfway through the article. Go on, read it. I'll wait.


HA! HOW FUNNY IS THAT???? I have a famous son! Either that or someone is going to call CPS on me. I certainly got a kick out of it. I guess people *do* read my blog, huh?? Anyways, so back to Henry. I had a postpartum meeting yesterday afternoon (those are after the birth when I go check in with the mom and get to ooh and aah over the baby. Fun!), so I left Ed in charge of the kids. Well, Keith wasn't home yet, so it was just the little guys. I wasn't even to the exit off of I95 when my phone ran, and I answered it to hear Ed say "Henry is definitely YOUR child." Uh oh. Henry, apparently, had one of Keith's beads - you know, the larger ones that you can string together in Kindergarten? Not the huge ones, but the ones that are, oh, about the size of a nostril? Yeah. See where I'm going with this? Henry found out just how close to the size of a nostril they are. Apparently, they're a perfect Henry nostril size. He shoved it up his nose. Fortunately, he told Ed right away. Also fortunately, Ed is handy with a pair of tweezers and got it OUT of said nose without having to take him to the Emergency Room. Exciting times, let me tell you.
Oh, and why he says he's my child? Well, apparently, I was famous as a child for sticking beads and buttons and the like up my nose.

Five Months Old

Miss Caroline celebrated her five month birthday today. She's a little over 14 pounds and 25.5 inches long. She's trying SO hard to crawl, and can get all over the place by rolling or crawling military style. She's in 3-6 month clothes, and got her first real food today. I figure with two teeth she'd be okay with some sweet potatoes. Happy birthday Caroline!

The Tooth Fairy is coming!!!!

The tooth fairy will be visiting our house tonight! Yes, Keith has lost his tooth. He woke me up this morning by yelling "MOM! IT'S OUT!!!!" and showing me his tooth. It's now sitting in a shot glass next to my computer awaiting bedtime, which might just be early tonight! I guess my little guy is growing up, huh?!? And yes, I *did* take decent pictures of him showing off his tooth or lack thereof, but when I uploaded them you either couldn't see his eyes because they were closed or couldn't see his tooth because he had his mouth shut. So we were left with this one...

**Update** Keith just informed me that tonight is "the most excitingest night" of his life! I hope the tooth fairy remembers to come!

Saturday's Song

Friday Five

Yeah, I KNOW it's a day late. Sorry! These Fridays keep sneaking up on me! Anyways, I'm thankful that...
1. Keith is pretty healthy. He might need glasses, but that's nothing in the whole scheme of things.
2. Caroline is growing like a weed. Did I mention she's trying to CRAWL?
3. People buy random stuff on Ebay.
4. It's not snowing... yet.
5. The Eagles are in the playoffs!!!!

What the.....????

Caroline is doing her damnedest to crawl. SHE ISN'T EVEN 5 MONTHS OLD YET!!!!! She does that millitary crawl thing to get all over the place as it is, and today she got up on her hands and knees.

Send tequila. Please.

Update on Mr. double vision...

Sorry it took me so long to post - someone went and had a baby today! If you want to know how to get someone to have a baby, be sure to schedule a whole bunch of doctor appointments that you really can't miss. That ALWAYS does it. I was on my way to appointment #2 of the day yesterday when my phone rang - it was my client saying her OB had sent her into labor and delivery and she was going to be induced. Fortunately, L&D works really slow when it comes to inductions, so I made it to Keith's appointment AND managed to get a full night of sleep in before she needed me. Baby girl was born early this afternoon! Keith's neurologist said that everything looked fine except that his eyes weren't perfectly lined up - they'd track together just fine, but one eye seemed off a tiny tiny bit. So that could be causing the double vision - she said it might be the start of near sightedness or something. He has an appointment with an eye doctor on Monday, so we'll know then if he needs glasses or something. But, all in all, he's fine! Thanks for the thoughts!!! I'll update as I learn more!

Why do I have two toys, mom??

That's what I was asked by Keith on Friday. No, he doesn't only OWN two toys, he meant "why when I look at my one toy do I see two of them?" I, being the good mother I am, said "what are you talking about? It's bedtime!" And then on Saturday he asked the same thing, And asked why there were two TVs. And two fireplaces. And two of Caroline... You see where I'm going with this?? So, after trying to ascertain if he was fooling around or if he really WAS seeing double, Ed and I decided that it really did appear that he was seeing more things than he should be. Add in a pretty much constant headache for the boy since the start of the new year, and we headed off to the doctor's office this morning. Of COURSE, once there, she can't find anything wrong with him. His vision appears to be perfect, but he insists that he sees two of everything. Like when the doctor held up 3 fingers and asked how many, he promptly answered six. He is a math whiz, but I'm really hoping he knows better than to try to show off his mad skillz at the doctors. Anyways, she referred him to a neurologist and an ophthalmologist to see if they could find anything wrong with him. So tomorrow morning we head off to the neurologists. Fortunately, the neurologist is not located at AI DuPont - I've about had it with that place. I'm convinced that my children are fine and just have random symptoms which need a really expensive test to determine that they mean nothing, but still - if I didn't get the tests done and something WAS wrong I'd feel pretty crappy, know what I mean?? So, if you'd keep my little man in your thoughts tomorrow I'd appreciate it! I hope we can either figure out what is up with his vision or it quickly resolves! Maybe loose teeth cause double vision? Wouldn't surprise me, knowing my luck with children and expensive tests!

Christmas and New Years

I said I'd post about Christmas, so I should probably get around to it! We had a nice holiday. We went to a friend's house for dinner on Christmas Eve, then to my parents house for Christmas morning, then Ed's mom's house for the early afternoon, then back to my parents house for dinner. Can we say BUSY? It was a nice day, though. The kids made out like little bandits and we happy with all of their new toys, my parents got a Wii for Christmas and we played that until Ed had to be a party pooper and make us go home, no one ended up in an emergency room... Successful Christmas in my opinion! My sister in law gave the boys this slime stuff that they both LOVED, until Henry decided he should put his in his hair. Fortunately Aunt Mary was there to help get it out.


For New Years we went to a party at my friend Beth's house. We had a blast - wine, martinis, fireworks, you name it. The only bad thing was that ALL of the kids (and I do mean all) stayed up until we left around 2am, and then Henry promptly got up for the day at 7am. THAT didn't make for a happy Henry, let me tell you. So he went to bed around 3pm on the first and slept until 7am the next morning. And 3pm wasn't early enough in my opinion.
And, speaking of New Years, I don't do resolutions. I find that if I do, I always end up breaking them, usually before February. However, I was reading Carrie's blog, and I think I'm going to stick with the resolution of "swim in the water and not drown." Kind of covers everything, wouldn't you say? So, what about you? Resolutions? Yes or no??

Two Things...

Okay, I'll jump on the bandwagon, Anita!

Two Names You Go By: Amy, Mom
Two Things You Are Wearing Right now: Jeans and a tank top (yes, I KNOW it's 30 degrees out!)
Two Things You Want Very badly At the Moment: A Wii, but I'm restraining myself, and Keith to just chill out
Two People Who Will Fill This Out (and post a comment here to tell us..) Heck if I know
Two things you did last night: Fed Caroline, and fed Caroline. Oh, and fed Caroline some more.
Two things you ate yesterday: Taco salad and risotto
Things you're doing tomorrow: Going to the post office and updating a couple of web sites even if it kills me.
Two longest car rides: California to Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania to Wyoming with a 10 month old.
Two favorite Holidays: Christmas and Labor Day
Two favorite vacation spots: I don't do vacations much, but Wyoming is nice. So was Miami!
Two favorite beverages: coffee and white wine. No, not together.

I can't TELL you what dad said...

You tell me not to SAY bad words, mom! That's what Keith told me when I asked how his trip out to Ed's mom this morning was. I knew I'd get an answer along those lines, because unbeknownst to Edward I was out of the shower and downstairs in the living room when I heard the crunch of him backing my van into his Chevy. Fortunately he didn't do any damage to either of the cars. Unfortunately, I think the boys learned a new word today!