Killian's 2nd Birthday

Killian turned 2 on July 17th. I can't believe that he has been in our lives for 2 whole years, but I am very grateful for him. He has certainly made life more interesting! We spend literally hours every day just watching him and marvelling at each new thing he does and says. I know all parents think they have the smartest/cutest kid in the world - but we really do! He drives me crazy - especially now that the terrible 2's have officially started (and how!) - but it's worth it for all the joy he brings to my life on a daily basis. I know I'm being one of "those" moms who goes on and on raving about her kid, but I don't often do this on my blog - so deal with it (or double stuff yourself).

As we're gearing up for baby boy #2, we've been watching old videos of Killian and looking at pictures of him from his infant days. It kind of makes me nervous for the new baby, for a couple of very different reasons. First, I'm nervous because I remember how scary it was bringing home a new baby and having NO clue about what to do with it. I'm nervous about the lack of sleep. I'm nervous about my abilities as a mom with 2 little boys. The second category to my nervousness is that I fear the next baby won't be as cool as Killian. I have posed the question to Jay and our families - "What if the next one is a dud??" Seriously, what if he's spacey? What if he waits until after he's 9 months-old to walk? What if he doesn't talk/cuss until he's 2? Or, god forbid, what if he's ugly? (I know that makes me sound like a terrible person, but again, I invite you to double stuff yourself.)

But I'm not only nervous - I am very excited for this next chapter in our lives. Killian is a very cool kid, and if the next one is half as cool as him, we'll have no problems. I have to say that this past year of Killian's life has felt more rewarding, for lack of a better word. It's so nice to talk to him and have him respond. It's nice to get a "thank you" every now and then, and super nice to hear, "I yuv you, mama!" And his new thing this week - he'll come up to me wherever I am and ask, "What doin'? What doin', Mama?"

This next year of his life is going to be a crazy one, I'm sure. Terrible 2's. Adjusting to a baby brother. Potty-training. Getting kicked out of our bed. Getting the teeth that he is still missing. It will surely be trying on my nerves, but I am positive that I love him enough to get through the tough stuff! (If not, he can tell me to double stuff myself.)

And now a buttload of pictures from his birthday for you all to enjoy!

In his Superman pj's. Be prepared to see a lot of this face in his pics!

A rare picture of a genuine smile, rather than his cheesy picture smile.

He requested a hamburger for his birthday dinner. We were surprised because we never saw him eat a hamburger, but we thought he should have what he wanted for his birthday. It took a ton of french fries and 20 minutes of me telling him that hamburgers taste like meatloaf for him to eat half of the burger. (Which is kind of funny because it takes my mom 20 minutes of telling Brett that meatloaf tastes like hamburgers to get him to eat it!)

One of Killian's gifts: temporary tattoos! He gets really excited at the idea of wearing them, then freaks out as if I'm pouring acid on his arm while applying them, and then shows the end result to every person he sees.

Unwrapping what looks like a ghost of some sort? I don't know what the camera was doing there.

His favorite gift from us - a set of Fisher Price Little People with an amusement park - a gift that cost me only $5 at Salvation Army and came with tons of toys. SCORE! (I wish birthdays would always be this easy.)

(He hasn't gotten over the excitement of these toys yet!)

I love this picture of Killian with Jay.

The star birthday cake I made for Killian.

Killian had a very hard time blowing out the candles. He kept making an "f" sound, so there was more saliva escaping his mouth than air. At one point Jay said, "Get it!" and Killian translated that to mean that he should grab the flames. Luckily Jay has cat-like reflexes and there was no burn incident. In this picture it looks like Killian's about to bite the flame.

Jay went to get a knife to cut the cake, and Killian almost didn't wait for him to get back before eating!

SURPRISE!! It's a rainbow cake inside!!

(That cake took me over an hour to make...you WILL look at more pictures of it befor I move on to the next topic.)

Success! Killian loved the cake!

After eating his cake, getting cleaned up and playing with his Little People for a while longer, Killian literally passed out on the floor behind me.

The tuckered-out 2 year-old.

And now the next day, when we had his birthday bash with our families:

His lips are fluorescent orange from the 2 sippy cups of orange soda that he ingested. I can't describe the effect of the soda - maybe similar to crack? He was NUTS on orange soda. Every time he was asked a question he shrieked the response. Why did I allow him to have 2 sippy cups of orange soda? It was his GD birthday, back off! (Oh, and the present that he is so excited about in this picture is a keyboard & microphone from my parents. He LOVES putting the microphone into his mouth and making loud sounds - never actual words.)

This juicy caterpillar decided to make an appearance at the party. He was kind of a big deal. Luckily, no one ate or harmed the critter.

An unexpected reaction to receiving cash as a gift.

What happened when I tried to take the cash away from him to move onto the next gift.

Eating a slice of his 2nd birthday cake.

He had a very full and happy day. Unlike the night before, he stayed up much later than we anticipated. I blame the orange soda/crack.

And this one has nothing to do with his birthday, but I just thought it was cute. I love you, 2 year-old!

My "Jean" Post

I love reading Tim and Jean's blog because they're always doing fun things that usually involve eating yummy food, and then they blog about it. I don't feel like we have as many opportunities for fairs and events like the ones they attend, but I probably just don't seek them out enough.

For example, I wouldn't have known about the Greek Festival at Saint Sophia's in May if Jay's mom had not brought it to our attention. Jay and I had our wedding reception at Saint Sophia's in June of 2006, so we love any opportunity to go back to that location. This was our second time attending their Greek festival. Rose had offered to watch Killian that night, which is an offer we never refuse! We felt kind of bad once we got to the fair, though, because we knew he would have loved being there. There were tons of rides, bright lights, lots of food, and live music. We made ourselves feel less guilty by promising to bring him (and the new baby) to St. Sophia's next big event in September.

The two of us enjoyed walking around the grounds of the Greek Orthodox church where, 3 years earlier, we had been introduced as husband & wife, where we had our "first dance", and so on. The main hall where our reception was held looks very different during their Greek festivals, but both events required about the same amount of chairs and tables to accommodate their/our guests!

We didn't waste much time before we started eating yummy Greek food - we knew exactly which foods to get from our past festival experience. Next we walked around and looked at the rides (with absolutely NO intention of riding any!) and we watched Killian-sized kids have tons of fun (which, of course, added to our guilt). We ended the evening with soft-serve ice cream cones and the long walk back to our car.

It was a lovely evening, and I made sure to take pictures of everything so that I could create a "Jean" post :)


When I was little, during a family vacation in Wildwood, I fell in love with the idea of winning one of these life-sized stuffed tigers. I had visions of myself sitting on it and pretty much treating it like my best friend. Sadly, these visions never came to pass. This was my first time seeing the head-only version of my childhood dream...which just seems like a creepy idea. What kid wants to have a tiger head mounted to his/her bedroom wall? Not this kid!

(Self-explanatory picture...the kind of ride that makes you want to vomit just watching it)

This attraction brought flashbacks from a June Fete that I attended when I was very young. I am positive that Tim and I went on this during our Indiana Jones obsession period (him more so than me, but I loved me some Indiana!)

(Notice that the attraction only says "Raiders" and nothing about Indiana Jones specifically)

Probably what I was most anticipating from the Greek festival: Rice Pudding!!

Super yummy and filling Gyros! (This was the second time I ever had one - but certainly not the last!)

Perhaps not Greek, but certainly delicious french fries! (Which amazed me because they were made in this little temporary tent set-up, not a place where I would expect to find exceptional fries!)

And finally, a shot of St. Sophia's at dusk. (It's nicer-looking without all the tents out front, but you get the idea.)

The Trader Joes Incident

I love big-beaded necklaces. I own about a million and a half of them. But each one is different and goes with different outfits, so they are each important to me.

On this specific occasion, a Saturday morning, I chose to wear a brand new red/orange various-size beaded necklace. Killian and I made our first errand stop of the day at Trader Joes. He was sitting in the front of the shopping cart. I was pushing said shopping cart. After exploring every aisle and successfully picking up everything on my list, we ventured back to the produce section to pick up my current favorite food - seedless watermelon. As I was staring at the mound of delicious melons, picturing how juicy they were inside, Killian took ahold of my necklace. I wasn't alarmed by this; he was in a great mood and wasn't pulling hard. I knew he had no mal intentions. A split second later, I felt the string snap, and everything went into slow-motion. I watched what seemed like hundreds of beads fall to the hard cement floor. Each bead bounced in a diferent direction. Some went under the chip aisle shelving, some under the produce bins. Many headed for people's shopping carts. I had visions of people slipping on my beads and falling all over Trader Joes. While that image now makes me laugh, at the time it was very stressful. Everyone was looking at the source of the scattered beads: me. I turned red, as I so easily do, and frantically began grabbing every bead I could find. I also tried to warn all people entering "THE BEAD ZONE" in an attempt to keep my visions from coming to pass. A couple of lovely bystanders handed me small handfuls of beads that they had recovered. I shoved each one into my tiny change purse and scanned the floor for more. I forgot to mention that some of the beads were the exact shape, size and color as cherry tomatoes - so I ended up grabbing a few squishy fugitive tomatoes that had found a hideout under the produce bins.

All of this took place in less than 1 minute. When I realized that I had gotten ahold of all the beads that I possibly could, and knew I had to leave the rest for dead, I snapped my bulging coin purse closed, took a deep breath, and looked to Killian. I gave him a flustered smile hoping that he would "get" me. I also thought that he might be feeling kind of bad for having a) broken my adored necklace, and b) causing such a stir.

Instead, he looked at me and said, with a very sincere face, "That's too bad!" ("Bad" was pronounced "bayyadd".) I have NO idea where he picked up this phrase or how he knew when to use it, but it certainly took me by surprise! Not "oops" or "sorry". An almost sarcasticcally-toned and unapologetic way of avoiding any responsibility for the incident.

10 Things You Should NEVER Say to a Pregnant Woman

(In no specific order:)

1. "Are you sure it's not twins?"

I can't tell you how many times I was asked this question during my first pregnancy. I think it's the most offensive, even though people always asked in a joking way. Listen, I don't care if you are joking - it is not funny to ask this question to any pregnant woman! Chances are that you would already be aware of the fact if I was indeed pregnant with twins. My response to these jokers: Are you sure you're not a douchebag?

2. "Are you sure they got your due date correct?"

Again, always asked in a joking manner, but extremely unfunny. I get it; I'm incredibly fat.

3. "WOW!" , "WHOAH!" Or any other similar exclamation.

Completely unnecessary. We pregos are WAY more aware of our excess weight than you are. Keep the comments/alarming looks to yourself.

4. "You're SO big!"

No sh**!

5. "You look like you're ready to go any second..."

How awkward do you have to make me feel when I explain that, no, I still have 2 whole months left? This is a VERY common one in the final months.

6."You look terrible!" or "You look miserable!" (which translate into the same statement)

Yes, people actually say these things to pregnant women. I may be thinking that I'm having a pretty good day, and then someone will tell me that I look "miserable".

7. "Was your pregnancy planned?"

Umm....awkward! In what way does that information apply to you? If your name does not have "Doctor" in front of it, you should probably not be asking this question.

8. "Are you going to have a natural birth?"

I would consider anything that finds its way out of my body to be pretty natural. Am I going to make things slightly easier for myself by accepting pain managing drugs? Absolutely! Does that make it less natural? Not in my opinion! Now I'm not knocking water births, but how is that any more natural? You're not a freaking dolphin!

9. Stories about people who have lost their babies.

People - mostly women and often strangers - will tell you the most horrifying tales of baby deaths while you're pregnant. Why do they feel so inclined? Do they not remember how scary every step of pregnancy and parenthood is? Which brings us to 10:

10. Labor horror stories.

Every woman who has given birth has a story. Most of them feel inclined to share their stories. Personally, I have never really had a problem with listening to experiences. But labor horror stories are in a different category. These are tales that scare the crap out of first-timers who have no idea what to expect. It's not very comforting being told how one woman suffered hours of agonizing labor only to be given a c-section in the end. Or hearing about how horribly some women tear. Or finding out how much blood is involved. Or learning that most women poop at some point during labor. It's probably better to keep these stories to yourself.

A-hoy-hoy!

I have the opposite problem to "writer's block" (or "blogger's block", which is more fun to say out loud). I have sooo many ideas for posts, but I know each one will take a lot of time to type out, and then I feel overwhelmed, so I just don't do it. I have started a ton of entries and just never finished them (Mark's mullet, for example). I won't promise to blog more often, because we all know where that leads: nowhere. But I will try to blog more often. That way you can all be privy to the delightful anecdotes I have to relay.

Look forward to the following topics:

• Mark's Mullet
• Ultrasound Pics/Junk-Grabbing
• The Big Move
• Killian's Swearing Problem
• 10 Things You Should NEVER Say to a Pregnant Woman
• General Pregnancy Stuff
• Great Movies in 2009
• New Adventures with Ryan
• The Trader Joe's Incident
• New House Makeover
• Killian the Ringbearer
• Baby Naming Issues
• (And many more...)

So vote on what you would like to hear about most, and I will devote my time to those topics!

How's Your Intuition?

Tomorrow is the big day: we find out the gender of baby number 2! (Also known as Nugget, Little Bit, and Itty Bitty.)
For fun, I wanted to make a poll to see what you THINK the baby will be. (Not what you prefer; although you may specify both if you wish.) There are a lot of people who seem to think that they know the gender, so put your money where your mouth is! Because I do not know how to set up an official looking poll, just include it in a "comment" at the bottom of the post!

WARNING: I will not release the results until I get at least 5 votes.

A Teaser....

The highlight of my haircutiing career occurred yesterday:

I...gave...Mark...a...MULLET!

More details (and pictures) to follow soon.