green slimey smudges enhance a black t-shirt

I always hold out hope that the weekend will be relaxing for once...that I'll get to sleep in and be lazy, maybe even fit in a nap or 2 when the kids do, who knows, I might even fit in renting a movie if I'm feeling crazy...but once again, my soothing weekend dreams were squashed like a bug under my shoe (well, really under Tim's after I scream bloody murder for him to kill it).

It all began on Thursday when I got a call from the sitter that both kids were showing signs of being sick. I prepped myself almost immediately to keep one, if not both of the kids home on Friday (I HATE when other parents drop off their sick kids and I try my hardest to keep them home at any sure signs of sickness). Sure enough Jonas was up for hours at night coughing, sneezing, and breaking my heart crying. Thanks to my amazingly understanding job, I was able to work from home, so I sent Tim off to work with Dylan for the sitter while Jonas and I poured some orange juice to start our day. Now, a day home with a sick Jonas is no walk in the park. He has inherited his mothers acute talent for whining incessantly when not feeling well and general distaste in the rules. I knew although, that out of the entire day there was just one hurdle to overcome, my very important conference call with one of my "very important" clients. 

I carefully went through all the necessary steps of preparation to keep Jonas at bay during my call. The call was at 1, which left me with all morning to tire Jonas out while also getting some work done. By 12:30 I had already chased him around the house threatening to tickle his feet, given him his dosage of medicine, and somehow stuffed lunch in his belly when I thought he wouldn't even eat.

By 12:50 I had him all set up for a nap in my bed with "Up" playing quietly in the background while I barricaded myself in our office. My call started promptly at 1 without a hitch. I even was able to crack a small joke about excusing any noise in advance as I was working from home with my sick 2 year old. About 20 minutes into the call I hear Jonas questioning from my room: "mommy?...mommy?....where are you mommy?" (Oh no.)

I continued to talk as if I didn't hear him. Within a minute I could hear him at the office door: "mommy?!...cough cough...what are you doing mommy?!" (Maybe he'll pass by and go into his room looking for me.)

Sure enough, Jonas started BANGING on the door: mommy!...let me in mommy!...cough, cough...MOOOOMMMMEEEEEEEEE! LET ME IN MOMMY! COUGH, COUGH, COUGH" (PANIC!)

I let out a nervous laugh. "I am so sorry (Jonas screaming, banging, coughing and sneezing in the background), I swear I don't torture my children, ha...ha" (errrrrr)

On top of it all, my cell phone started ringing text tones loudly as the sitter sends messages about Dylan being sick and me needing to pick him up. Of course, I couldn't get to the damn thing fast enough for me to quiet it, so I just threw it in the closet hoping is wasn't too disruptive. 

I quickly finished my sentence and muted the phone as soon as they started talking. I opened the door, wiped Jonas' snotty nose, gave him a hug and set him up in another room to play as I moved into Dylan's room. Thinking I bought some time, I unmuted my phone and began to join in the conversation again. About 10 minutes go by before Jonas came screaming and banging at the door. (just breathe...ugh...am I SWEATING?!)

Luckily the call ended shortly after and my boss made it a point to say I handled it pretty well, so I left to pick up a snotty and stuffed up Dylan. The rest of my afternoon was spent trying to get any ounce of work in while the kids coughed, sneezed and boogered all over me (gooey globby shirts are all the rage in momville).

Saturday played pretty much like Friday (minus the trying to be all career-like) since Tim had to work. I was able to get a bit of adult conversation in with jess and jerms who came to spend the night (I am still hoping they don't catch the koerper bug)...but, my mommy responsibilities called and I was assigned snuggly comforting, runny nose, runny diaper, runny eye ball duty for the day.

By the end of the day I felt like I had run a marathon. Tim and I obviously had to forgo our typical Saturday mommy-daddy fun night in since I passed out as soon as I hit the bed WITH my snot covered t-shirt still on. Hopefully my little buggers will get better soon so that they sleep soundly and I can sleep with a clean shirt on!

fashion friday

I want to begin exploring my love for fashion a bit more, so I decided to start Fashion Fridays. Each Friday I'll run down my love (or hate) for a fashion trend, or designer collection, or just rant about something cool I saw in a store. Don't ask me why...it's not like I can afford any of it...and I am no expert...I just love it.

For my first ever Fashion Friday I am going to dive into the Spring 2010 ready-to-wear collection from Chanel. This, of course, was inspired by my lady friend jess and I watching "Coco Before Chanel" this past weekend (an incredible movie about Coco's life...get it and watch it when you can).

First of all, the runway and back drop were amazing. It looked like an enchanted farm forest...and there was a band set up in the middle! (kinda looked like lily allen, but I'm not sure) Second of all, the whole collection was super cute! I hate when you see a runway show and every piece looks like something a twig on crack would wear.

Here are some of my favorite looks:

So cute and fun.  I would totally wear this one for work! 

Love this top (not the pantless look so much).  Such a cute party dress (could almost pass for fun wedding dress...also, would look much better on shorter person)

These are 2 of my favorite looks.

Another 2 that I adore and would wear to a party the first chance I got.

These are perfectly light and springy. I want some knock-off versions immediately!

Love this skirt, not so much with that suit top, and this dress is super fun.

Just more cuteness...why can't karl lagerfeld be my cool uncle?

Adorable accessories:

And some of my not-so-favorites:

Not feeling the puffy short-sleeve jacket.   Is this inspired by the Duggers?

Trying to do too many things.  This looks like it was cut out of paper...plus, liberty bell is not a good shape for the hips.

And, of course, the genius himself. He has done an amazing job of keeping to Coco's vision.

p.s. I totally just realized I had style.com and walmart.com opened at the same time...classy.

the very hungry caterpillar

Dylan's new love.

not for the weak at heart

Between working like crazy, fighting off sickness, and dragging myself through the day after multiple nights of little-to-no sleep, I have somehow managed to ignore a medical issue long enough to cause myself an intense amount of pain and grief.

What I am about to get into may fall into the category of "too much information" (or TMI as the kiddies would say), but the story is just too funny and bone chilling to pass up retelling.

It all started about a week ago when I noticed a small twinge of pain in my left boob (nipple to be exact) as I was breast feeding. As the week went on the pain became more frequent and was even occurring during non-breast feeding times of the day.

When the weekend hit, I was in full-on boobie pain mode. Even wearing a bra was making my nipple feel as though someone was holding a flame to it. By Sunday I noticed that my left nipple has swollen to at least 2 times the size of my right one! Just one glance at that spectacle and my jaw just dropped straight to the floor!

Monday was spent heading straight to my doctor (I wasn't wasting anymore time)...who informed me that it was just a bad case of thrush and sent me home with a pill to swallow and some nipple rub.

As the week went on, the pain not only persisted, but also intensified. I didn't even want to wear a bra. Slowly a large bubble started to form on my nipple (WHAT THE FRICK!). I was in so much pain that I cringed every time I even moved my arm. Finally, today I decided that the doctor's original diagnosis HAD to be incorrect (my nipple had now swollen to about 3 times the size of my other nipple AND was oozing)...so I headed right back in.

I waited somewhat impatiently for the doctor, carefully holding the ever fashionable paper hospital gown as far away from my throbbing nipple as possible. Every insane nipple scenario I could imagine ran through my head...what if I let the infection go too long and now it is seeping into my other organs?...what if the doctor comes in and has to cut my nipple open?...what if he has to inject my nipple with something to kill the infection and use a ginormous needle to do so?

No matter what I was thinking, I knew he was going to come in and squeeze it...which made my heart palpitate and my arm pits perspire.

When the doctor arrived he took one look at my nipple, made some comment about it not being what he originally thought (DUH), and quickly went in for the squeeze. Pain shot right from my nipple all the way to the top of head and down to my toes (that bastard moved so quickly I barely had time to ninja chop his hand away!).

I looked down and realized that my poor nipple was left battered and bloody, but starting to be relieved from this necessary evil. Before I even had time to take a breath in the doctor went in for one more squeeze! I shut my eyes and stomped my foot, but took it like a real woman (I really almost started to cry). I swear my nipple was going to pop, but luckily it was ok.

The doctor then sent me on my way with a healthy prescription for some antibiotics, a suggestion to continue the squeeze method at home, and what looked like a large HOLE in the area of my nipple that was relieved from the squeezing.

Needless to say, this has been a sore, painful, and UNCOMFORTABLE week. Hopefully I won't have to endure much more excruciating nipple squeezing before things go back to normal.

toyland

I suddenly got an urge to look up some vintage inspired toys for the kids. It seems as though almost EVERY toy they have makes a noise or lights up. What happened to the days when you had to use your imagination and make up the sounds yourself?!

During my search I have found that cool looking vintage toys are expensive as hell...and I REFUSE to spend more than $30 on a toy for an infant and 2 year old who will just tear it to pieces. I am super glad that fisher price has re-invented their vintage toys (which I LOVE and totally need to start collecting for the boys):

But I also wanted to see if there were other unique toy treasures out there, so here are a few new and used toys I have found that I just adored:

I had to start with my favorite because it's just too precious to resist. I seriously want this...if not for the boys, then for myself.

Jonas recently expressed pure joy over a jack-in-the-box. I am not really a huge fan of scary clowns popping out of a box to an eerie chiming melody...so I found a less abrasive version that is complete with a sock monkey (2 birds with 1 stone!).

The next thing I go out to buy for Jonas is totally going to be a wheelbarrow. I can just picture him pushing it around the yard picking up rocks, sticks, and lizards while pretending to help daddy.

I think little tiny pianos are just super sweet. I've already went out and purchased an actual full-size keyboard for the boys to bang on, but Jonas and Dylan will look like little Schroeders when tapping on these keys!

Ok, so this is actually a knitting pattern to make this octopus doll...and I totally do NOT know how to knit (one of my top things to learn in the next 2 years), but I am willing to beg any of my friends that can work magic with knitting needles to make my kids one of these!

This is so simple, yet I feel like Jonas would be insanely into watching the little penguins go round and round, and up and down.

I love old tops, and Jonas loves anything he can spin and twist...so I thought this was perfectly adorable.

I just feel as though every kid should have a cool tin robot toy.

In fact, tin toys are just cool all around.

Jonas already loves flash cards...and how charming are these?!

Tim would love for the boys to have this little wooden set.

As my search continued I came across some not-so-lovable gems. These were just plain FRIGHTENING!

This is just wrong on so many levels.

I am already having nightmares.

This would cause my baby to never drink from a bottle again!

I don't even know where to begin.

Why is Donald on a hamster wheel, and why is he staring at me?

All in all I think I have a pretty good start. For now I will stick to beginning with the easy-to-purchase/less-expensive finds.

P.S. during my search I found someone who makes vintage inspired toys and sells them for CHEAP! Check it out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/RedMarionette