Merry Christmas

Sorry, my 3 readers, it's been quite a while since I've posted. And this one isn't going to be very long. I just wanted to pop in and say a quick hello, and give you some highlights of our life since September.

1. In October, Danny, Liam and I drove down to North Carolina to spend some time with my mom's brothers and sisters at a beach house. It was gorgeous.

2. Danny was Mickey Mouse (and a Firefighter) for Halloween. For weeks, he told me he wanted to be Mickey Mouse and then the Thursday before Halloween he told everyone at school he was going to be a FireFighter and devastated when his teacher pulled out the Mickey Mouse costume. My parents ended up finding a firefighter costume and he wore it for 3 days straight. Liam was supposed to be Buzz LightYear, but it never shipped so we ended up using the hand-me-down Yoda from my cousin that Danny wore when he was 2. He loved being Yoda, so it all worked out.

3. At the end of October, Dan and I found out we would be expecting our 3rd child. I am currently 13 weeks pregnant, and it's been rough so far, for me. But I had a sonogram on Tuesday and it looks like he or she will be a cutie, so worth all my pain! The baby is due on June 29th. We have decided on a boys name, but not yet a girls name. Too many to chose from. We will find out the sex of this baby, if we can. So, at this point I'm not too concerned about the name, but come end of January/ early February, and we find out it's a girl (I think it's a boy, but I thought Liam was a girl) and we still haven't decided on a name, then I'll be worried.

4. November was quiet, as much as it can be with a three year old, a two year, an exhausted, sick pregnant mama, and an overworked Daddy. On November 17th, Dan and I 'celebrated' our 4th Wedding Anniversary. And I say 'celebrated' in quotes because I was super sick and Dan just laid in bed next to me, working, while I slept. Thanksgiving was nice. Spent the afternoon with my family at my mom's house, and the evening was spent with Dan's family at his sister's new apartment.

5. Dan has been working on the ice rink. It's been difficult since Buffalo has been abnormally warm this winter. It's 'done' for now, we're just waiting for it to freeze. At 22 degrees right now, we might actually get a frozen rink by New Years.

6. Danny was taking Ice Skating lessons at a local ice rink. He hated it, and for good reason. It was the first time he had been on skates and had a hard time standing. There were too many kids and too few instructors (2) and one of the instructors looked like she was doing it for mandatory community service. She was not thrilled to be there and refused to help. Instead, we went down to Rotary Rink for the tree lighting ceremony and Danny had some one-on-one skating time with Daddy, and was much happier. They went down last weekend too, Danny didn't skate as much, but at least he's not afraid. The freezing of our rink will be helpful so the boys don't have to go all the way downtown, and maybe I can get some practice in since I'm not that great at it myself.

7. This year, we decided to adopt one of Santa's Elves. His name is Gerbe and the kids just love him.

8. We celebrated Danny's 4th Birthday. I can't believe he's getting so big!

9. Today is Christmas Eve. We're spending the day with Dan's family, going to Midnight Mass and then coming home. Waking up, hopefully opening up presents from Santa and then heading to spend Christmas Day with my parents. (We switch every year, this year it's Christmas Eve with Dan's family and Christmas Day with my family. Next year, it will be Christmas Eve with my family, and Christmas Day with Dan's family.)

I think that's all about the Laughlin family, for now. I'm sure my pregnant brain forgot to mention something, but that should at least hold you over till the next time I blog.

Birthday Week

Today is the first day of Birthday Week!

In my family, we affectionately refer to this week as Birthday Week. Of the, currently, 17ish people in our immediate family that we celebrate birthdays, 5 of us are in the span of a week.

September 23rd - Liam and my brother-in-law Joe
September 25th - me
September 28 - my Mother-In-Law
September 29 - my brother Tony

Also, an honorable mention because he's in September also, my brother-in-law, Matt, is September 8th

Other than Christmas, end of September tends to be an expensive month! :)

Home Depot Gets Sick

Our 25 year old water heater decided it had finally had enough last night. Dan took the morning off to clean up the water and the stuff around the tank and to buy a new one and set up installation.

Today, when Danny heard this he asked if you could help (after the devestation wore off of not being able to take a shower.) The one thing he told Dan was "Let's go get that water Daddy!"

Danny has a pair of crocs that I don't really let him wear any more with the changing of the weather and school (he has to wear sneakers) and he always asks, "I wear Crocs today.?" And I always have to tell him no, except today. He was allowed to go down in the basement with the crocs on to help Dan clean up the water.

When it was time for us to go to Home Depot (Danny loves Home Depot, especially the Race Car Cart that they don't have at the city Home Depot, only the one on Niagara Falls Blvd store. But that's a whole different blog post... :) ) So, when it was time to go to Home Depot, Danny asked "I wear my crocs to Home Depot, Daddy?" Dan said no because it's not good. Danny replied with, "Crocs make Home Depot sick, Daddy." Serious face and serious voice. I was sitting in the other room waiting for Liam's Elmo cake to bake, and heard this and could not stop laughing.

I'm Just a *Boy* in the World

I am happy to report that Danny is no longer the only boy in his class! Starting Tuesday, another boy will be joining Danny's class.
And an update, the teacher loves him and says he's great.

Danny's First Day of Pre-K 3

Tuesday was Danny's First Day of Pre-K 3.

I was nervous, but not really sure why. Probably just because it's new and I didn't know what to expect. Danny, on the other hand was fine. Probably in part that he had no idea what school was, other than that kids ride these big yellow buses to get there.

Dan took the morning off of work to be there with Danny, and me, as we sent Danny off to school. It was really nice having him home. Wish we could do that more often!

Everyone woke up early, 6am. (Seriously early for someone who works till 11pm the night before.) Everybody got dressed and we tried to force some breakfast down our
gullets and off we went. We left a little bit early, not sure how busy Main Street was going to be and didn't want to be late for our first day of school. We got there super early. 7:30, Danny didn't have to be there until 8.

We weren't sure where the classroom was so we did some exploring before finally asking someone where to go. We found the classroom and met Danny's teacher. She showed him his locker and where he'll hang his backpack and coat when he gets in in the morning. He was not interested, as soon as she asked him if he wanted to play with some toys, his eyes lit up and asked "I play with fireman?!"

It's a class of 3 (Danny is the only boy), I heard the teacher say that they normally have about 9 kids, and registration is still opem. Unlikely that there will be more children, but I'm hoping, for Danny's sake, they at least get another boy.

We said our goodbyes to Danny and his teacher reassured me that all would be fine and if I was ever worried, I could call the office and ask them for an update. I'm not concerned so, not likely I'll ever do that.

There were no tears.

Dan, Liam and I left after prayers and we went home (mostly because I was exhausted and Dan wanted to do some work.) (Not sure what Liam and I are going to do normally. It's a lot of driving in a 4 hr period. Danny is in school from 8 till 11. I've considered the park. The zoo doesn't open till 10, so we'd be there for 30 minutes and have to leave. And then add in cold Buffalo winters. We might be doing the extra driving, except on nasty, snowy days.)

At 10:30, we all piled back into the car to go get Danny. We arrived a little before 11 so we got to see the tail end of the day. They were dancing. And Danny loves to dance so I was sure he was having a good time.

Outside the door, the teacher made a list of "My Favorite Thing About Today Was." Danny of course said 'the cars'.

When Danny left the classroom, he seemed to have morphed into the crabbiest child I've ever seen. He told us very little about his day, one thing he did tell us was he watched the big kids play badminton. And then he told us his tummy hurt. I was trying to ask him questions about school, the water colors he painted, or the playground he played on (the teacher wrote a note on the board of what they did so we could ask them what they did.) And then he said "Stop talking to me, Mommy." And he yelled at Liam too, when we were trying to talk to him and ask him questions.

Because it was a special day, we decided to go out for lunch, something we don't normally do. But Daddy was with us and Danny (and I) had just made it through the first day of school without any (major) meltdowns.

So that was it for the first day of school. I'll make sure to update the blog on any special things that happen.

Foodies

I love to eat. (I know you can't tell by looking at me) and I love to try out new things. So, I think I am going to start a 2nd blog about cooking and recipes. There are so many out there so not sure how 'popular' it will be, but I am going to try.

My favorite method of cooking is the crockpot, but I'll try anything. So if there is anything out there that people like and want me to try, I'm here for you.

I'll let you know when the new blog is up and running.

Hopefully it's more 'successful' than ThoseDarnLaughlins...and by successful, I mean lots of posts by the blogger.

I need a clever blog Title for said blog. Help!

I Miss You

My boys like to tell everyone 'I Miss You.'

I'm not entirely sure they know what it means (I think they're using it as 'I love you'), but it's definitely nice to hear.

Garbage Day

I love how the simplest things make my sons' days.

Thursday (not including the days that Daddy doesn't have to work) is their favorite day of the week because it's Garbage Day. They love any and all things trucks. And Garbage Day means a truck comes to their house and they can see it from their front window. They get so excited.
Danny just ran through the house looking for Liam "E-um...the Garbage Truck is here!" and they both run to the couch to look out the window. And that makes them happy.

For me, ok Dan because he's the one that takes out the Garbage, Garbage Day is a chore.

Which reminds me, one of Danny's favorite things to do (and he will cry if you don't let him) is to mow the lawn with Daddy. Dan hates it, I refuse to do it till we get a push reel mower because I am terrified of the gas mower, but it's Danny's favorite thing to do. He even has his own little lawn mower that he follows Dan around the yard with.

Danny also loves to sweep and pretend vacuum. (He's absolutely terrified of the vacuum cleaner when it's on, but I've realized it's because he does not like loud noises like thunder and fireworks.)

Sometimes I wish I was not so tainted by society and love all the things I learned to hate. (Although I'm not really sure I ever loved to clean. I did like playing in my play kitchen though.) I want to keep my babies young forever. But time has passsed so quickly. (Danny is ready to go to school in less than a week and Liam is showing signs of potty training readiness.) Where did my babies go? I know they will be ok, and I like them older and watching them grow up into the little men that they will become. But sometimes I miss when they needed me to survive (and when they couldn't talk back or run away from me when I'm trying to get their jammies on them for night-night.)

School-Daze

I know most people have already had their 'first day of school' this week, but I am still waiting for the first day of school for Danny. He does not start until next week Tuesday. From watching other people, I know what to expect but it still won't make it any easier. There will be lots of pictures and lots of tears (mostly from the Mommy and probably none for the new student). He's not taking a bus, but if he were, I'd sure be following that bus to school.

I'm anxiously awaiting, and seriously dreading, next week.