The Rules of Dude

I decided I would try blogging again and I found this post that never got published....it is 7 years old...I wasn't very good at keeping up with this stuff. This is too cute not to post, seven years or not. 

My oldest nephew Weston spent the weekend with us for his birthday. He has 4 brothers and sisters and this was just him. Ben wasn't even home as he chose to spend the night with his mamom. Weston chose to spend two nights with us because we were  having so much fun.  We stayed up late, rented movies, raced go-karts, played mini golf and sampled Skyline for the first time. I'm telling you all this becuase overall I think Weston thinks I'm a pretty cool aunt. He is the sweetest kid and always has been. However, as he gets older (he's 9) I fear I'm becoming less and less cool. He's pretty honest with me though, when I first saw him this weekend I said "Hey, dude, what's up?" To which he replied "Aunt, Erin, don't ever say that to me again, and I'm serious." I'm not going to lie, I was very confused as to why I was not allowed to call him dude anymore...I call Ben dude...of course Ben always tells me he's not a dude, he's a boy. So, yesterday I asked, "Weston, why can't I call you dude?"

Here are the rules of dude:

1. Only people between the ages of 5-19 should use the term dude with one another. An adult should never call someone dude.

2. Revised goal- No one over 25 should use that word in reference to someone 5-19.

3. If you are over 25 and your child is younger than kindergarten age, you may refer to them as dude.

So then I asked what I could say and was informed that anything I would try to say would be way to weird and I should just refer to him by his name.

Thanks Weston.

Peace

Peace be with you.

She's My Mommy

It has been 8 months since I have posted anything on here. It's not like I really ever said much before that but still...With the iPhone, face book, email, I feel like I am connected so many different ways that it's difficult to update one more thing. I signed up for Twitter but refuse to use it...that's just too much. I feel that this is a good outlet however and I'm going to give it another go. I'm not promising a post every day or special days of the week or anything like that. I am promising that I will try and post as often as possible...can I be anymore vague?

So, with that being said, a lot has changed in the past 8 months. Biggest change...a new baby. Yes, we have added to the Horsley family. It took us awhile to decide if we really wanted to have another child. Ben is so cute, sweet, funny, smart, witty, amazing..you get the picture. I was afraid to bring another child into our family. I was afraid that it would have a horrible impact on Ben, that he would feel as if he wasn't as loved, that I may not be able to love another as much as I love him, that I couldn't possibly save for two children's therapy sessions. However, we decided to risk it all and try for another with our fingers crossed that Ben would make it through it, that we would produce another offspring as cool as Ben, and that we could keep two kids healthy and happy.

About a year after we made the big decision, we welcomed Nicholas Aaron to this world. He was born on December 9, 2009 at 7:28p.m. He was bigger than his older brother weighing and measuring at 8 lbs and 21 inches. He is beautiful, precious and smart...yes, he's already smart because he lets his mommy and daddy sleep.

And Ben, well he is just about the best big brother ever. He is very caring and runs over to him to see why he's crying. He has told me how happy he is the baby is out of my belly and just how long he had to wait for him to get here. Ben has requested that we don't take down his pictures and replace them with the baby's which I find hilarious. And once, just once he went a little crazy on us..however the craziness was contained and not really directed at anyone. Ben learned what nursing was and shortly after he learned about nursing he was playing by himself in the living room. I was sitting on the couch with the baby and heard Ben say "Stop sucking on my mommy. She's my mommy, not your mommy." Can you say "The Good Son." Okay, not so much. He never admitted to saying anything and I never made a big deal out of it.

I look forward to seeing these two grow as brothers. It's been amazing being a mom of two so far. Nicholas is so laid back and sleeps and eats and lets big brother go on with his every day activities. There has been little disruption to our lives...I feel at peace with these two boys. They say that your heart just grows to let there be room for two and they are right. What they don't tell you is that your bed miraculously grows as well. When I was pregnant I couldn't fit me, Ben and Andy in the bed...now all of a sudden I can fit all of them plus Nicholas and our cat Zoe. I'm not sure how it happens but I'm so glad it does.

Miserable Failure

So I think we've all learned a valuable lesson. I'm not so good at
finishing projects. No blog posts and a messy kitchen. In fact it
might be safe to say I'm a miserable failure.

But then I see Ben after work and the first thing he says is that he
has a dandelion for me. I did something right!

Baby Step #2 Get Dressed to Lace Up Shoes

Okay, so the idea behind this second baby step I guess is to establish routine. This step invovles getting up and dressed, including shoes and fixing your hair and make up, etc. During the week this won't be too much of a problem but come on, today was Sunday. I took about a half an hour this morning to just sit and eat breakfast in my pj's. However, I did shower and get dressed and ready to tackle our bathroom remodel. I did not however fix my hair or put on makeup. On the weekend I'm lucky to remember deoderant.

My sink is still clean though, every dish has gone straight into the dishwasher which is a major accomplishment for me! If I can get organized and stay that way in 31 days I will jump for joy.

Baby step #1 Shine Your Sink

Done. Am I supposed to do this every day?

FlyLady Challenge

Well, I've completely failed at blogging twice a week. I didn't think I could do it anyway. I do believe in a self fulfilling prophecy and I'm proof it's true.

My life is totally out of control right now. We're in the middle of a bathroom renovation, work is stressful and my house....oh my house is a complete mess. I've decided to do something about it...at least the house part.

I'm going to do a Fly Lady Challenge. I'm sure you know about the fly lady. She talks about building habits and has a 31 day baby steps program. That's what I'm doing...baby steps. I'm also going to learn how to blog from my iPhone so I can check in daily with my progress.

Wish me luck.