As Sam is approaching his third birthday, I'm dreading the year more and more each day. He is the biggest pill right now, I nearly lose my cool almost every day. He's in the phase where he's as sweet as can be with EVERYONE, except mommy and daddy. His favorite word right now (and parents least favorite) is, "NO," and that's the first thing I hear when I get home from work, he looks at me and says (with the hand up), "no mommy, no!" Like just my presence is a bother to him. He also won't eat ANYTHING except mac-n-cheese, turkey dogs, and fruit bits. I think I've had my share of mac-n-cheese to last me for the rest of my life. I can't recall the last time Sam ate a vegetable. He's so dysfunctional when it comes to fruits he enjoys. One day he'll eat all the strawberries he can and the next day, he'll say, "yuckie mommy." I feel like I've tried everything as far as getting him to eat food--hiding it, blending it, making kabobs, bribing for treats.....you name it, I've done it. I'm more than willing to taking further suggestions??

So....not looking forward to the year. What happened to my sweet 2-yr-old? And I do mean sweet, my little angel. I miss him!

I'm counting the MINUTES to our kid-free vacation. Okay, that's to hard to convert (for me), let's go with days........9 days left!

Yes, you're reading it right! I love my sweet baby girl, she's a really good baby most of the time and I realize this habit needs to be broken at some point. Let me say this up front.....Sam was a perfect baby, so we always expected our second to be harder. CONFIRMED! The girl loves to be held and she has a REALLY loud cry. Bedtime is like clockwork and if it's after 9:00, she's toast. It's the sleeping period, that gets tricky. Layla always wakes up in the middle of the night, screaming bloody murder. It's never the same time each night, but we always know, one of us will be sleep deprived. Lucky me, last night. I was just dosing off around midnight when my lady sang her beautiful song. I quickly went to get her, so she wouldn't wake up Sam and immediately put her on the boob. Women who nurse understand the fine line between feeding a hungry baby or just hangin' on for comfort. The lady choses the latter in the middle of the night. The "cycle" begins, I pull away, thinking she's finally nodded off, she cries, right back on. This goes on for a good hour until I finally just pass out myself. I've finally gotten used to the kinks in my neck when I'm the comforter. So, what's worse.......my built-in passy or my hubby who I find passed out on the chair with the lady when I leave for work.

June 5th was hubby and my 3 year anniversary. We had a babysitter planned for Saturday and hubby had made all the plans for our night out, sushi picnic at a vineyard and going to the drive-in to see, Indiana Jones. (Note: this is hubby's first time making the plans, a request from me) We were going to drink this bottle of Pinot we've had stashed for the past 2 years as I refused to let Matt drink the whole bottle last year when I was pregnant with Layla.  We took the kids to Como Zoo during the day so Sam could see his favorite,the monkeys. SIGN #1--Our babysitter called while we were there, letting us know that she got scheduled in the morning at her job and wouldn't be able to get to our house until 4:30-5:00. So, that meant we wouldn't be able to have a sushi picnic at the vineyard. I made a reservation at a sushi restaurant instead, not a big deal. We got home for the kids afternoon nap and were going to get cleaned up, hoping to sneak out while they were still sleeping. SIGN #2---I notice a text message on my phone (I NEVER get texted, everyone I know, calls). It's a message from the babysitter stating her relief didn't show up for work and they were making her stay, so she couldn't babysit. THE WORST! I start working the phones to see if there's anyone who can watch the kids with such short notice. Matt's brother and fiancee tell us we can bring the kids to their place as they have her family over for a BBQ.  Matt gets the kids packed in the car and I wrap things up in the house and make sure we have everything we need............SIGN #3. As soon as I close the door, Matt shouts, "tell me you have keys?" Of course I don't, why would I, hubby always drives and ALWAYS has keys....not this time. Thank goodness for warm weather! We had to cut a screen from a window and climb in like a hoodlum. We made this decision fast and had the kids dropped off (leaving Sam in a tantrum) w/i 20 minutes. We've never been lucky people, so we didn't want to continue our misfortunes and decided to just go out for dinner. I was happy to share a peaceful, delicious dinner (adult food) with the love of my life, even if our plans didn't work out the way we had hoped. When you have children, I've learned to never count on definites, and be open to compromise.

Yesterday I received terribly sad news about a friend who took his life and left behind his wife of 12 years. We're all in such shock as we never would have imagined hearing news like this about these friends. As the details are being revealed, it's hard to wrap my mind around why this happened. The wife's closest friend spent time with her yesterday and told her the day it happened, was a "perfect day." It was a beautiful day, they spent the day outside on their deck, had a few ****tails, played with their dog, had a jacuzzi together and then.........

No sign of this to be expected. 

Your life could change in an instant. My heart hurts soo much for my friend as I know she'll never be the same woman ever again. I'm extremely concerned as she NEVER asks anyone for help and worries me when the service has passed and her family returns to their own lives.

Knowing that she doesn't ask for help, I've decided to just call her frequently and let her know I can stop by or just talk if needed. I don't want her to have to ask for anything and to know that I'm there. Is this too much or is this just what she needs?

by my 2 1/2 year old or are we finally getting what we deserve. Matt and I are well aware how absolutely blessed we are to have 2 children who have ultimately been perfect.  Let me explain their "perfectness" and I do hope I don't anger too many parents. Perfect by sleeping through the night as newborns, perfect because they are both good eaters, perfect that they rarely cry, perfect with their great health record (Sam's been sick twice in 2 1/2 years) and what we consider our biggest blessing, perfect as they both sleep until 9-10am.  I'm totally serious on all accounts.

So, what's going on now? In the last two weeks, bedtime has been a complete nightmare. Normally Sam will fuss for a few minutes and sweetly close his eyes until morning. Recently, bedtime has been a major struggle.  The first issue is getting him in his pajama's, I have to catch him first and then get them on as he's kicking and pushing. After PJ's is reading time where he's 50% attentive and then prayers and tucking in. Last night's bedtime did not go down that way. MAJOR TANTRUM, screaming, crying, getting out of bed and pounding on the door, meanwhile I'm trying to comfort Layla as she is also having a tantrum. TANDEM TANTRUMS.......what can be better.

What's happening parents? These are my conclusions: a) he's going through a phase  b) he's testing his boundaries  c) paybacks a b*&^%  d) my son has been abducted by aliens and we have a clone  e) all of the above

Please let this be a phase!