wow.  we have spent the last three days running hither and thither and yon.  it was crazy, i tell ya, crazy!!

Christmas day had us off to my parentals for dinner and presents, boxing day was the annual gigantic christmas party for ja's extended family, and yesterday, (which usually happens on the first) saw us in cobourg at ja's immediate family.  we are TIRED today!  i'm still in my pj's, ja's in his undies, and keyzia's been naked for most of the day.

it was fun, but way too much in way too short of a period of time.  it won't happen like this again next year, that's for sure!  at the very least because we are demanding that everyone come to us next year.

the leap pad is a fabulous hit with the doodle-girl, and our handsome boy has finally got over his paralyzing fear of the geo-trax.  although, i do think that ja might be enjoying it even more than the kidlets are....

i was spoiled rotten, as i should have been...  ja got me some beautiful gold sleeper ear-rings...  the gold won't even come off in the shower, and me ears will not turn green, and he got me the bottom half for my toolbox!!  i, actually, have a much better toolbox than most men i know! 

my parentals got me this crazy Rolodex Touch-Screen PDA.  it's pretty neat.  i can even hook it up to the computer and download stuff onto it.  i even added a dictionary to it!  how funny is that?  i haven't figured it out totally yet, but i sure am hopeful that it will help me remember things better.  i can set an alarm to remind me of stuff, put in addresses and phone number, has a lot of little gadgets.  very cool.

we just have a few more people we're hoping to see soon, my great aunt joyce, and then new year's eve is at my friend jen's place.  then we take down the tree and start packing!!  a new year definitely calls for a new place to live!

ephraim has been pretty up and down this week.  poor guy.  first he gets his eye teeth, and then i discover he's a super boy, and decided to cut molars at the same time!  not one, but two!!  so, his total tooth count is four on top plus two molars, and still two on the bottom.

he's gonna do great with that turkey!

me:  hurry up, keyzia, i have to go too!

keyzia:  you have to wait your turn!  you have to learn to be patient!

to wear purple girls boots and carry a purse filled with mega bloks.

me:  keyzia, why are you poking yourself like that?

keyzia:  oh, momma, i had to fix my vagina! ((poke, poke))  there!  that's better!

ephraim and i have what ja calls a "thing".  "it's just your 'thing' with your son, honey."  anyways, we have several arguments about what things are called.  one goes like this...

me:  cuppa!

ephraim:  bobble!

me:  cu-PA!

ephraim:  bo-BLE!

me:  CU-PA!!

ephraim:  BO-BLE!

ja:  ephraim, it's a cuppa!

ephraim:  cuppa!

me:  yay!  cuppa!

ephraim:  BOBBLE!

another one, which just started with the onset of orange season happened last night.  i got out an orange for after dinner and...

ephraim:  apple!

me:  no, handsome, it's an orange.  ORANGE.

ephraim:  apple!

me:  orange!

(((this went on for a little while, and i finally did get an apple to show him the difference.  ja, of course, no help at all, is laughing hysterically.)))

me:  this is an apple. ((holding out the apple))  and this is the orange.  ((holding out the orange.))

me:  what's this?  ((holding out the apple))

ephraim:  apple!

me:  yay!  what's this??  ((holding out the orange))

ephraim:  (grinning like the beast that he is)  APPLE!

i give up.

 

and so is poop.  puke is also hard to scrub out of carpets.  when i have my own house, probably many many years in the future when banks no longer laugh hysterically when we ask for a mortgage, we are going to either have bamboo floors or cork floors.  because, of course, by the time we can afford to get our own house, we will easily be able to afford this kind of flooring!  and really, think of the money we would save in the long run in cleaning bills...

but, i digress.  back to the important thing.  the importance of all the poop, pee and puke being out of our carpets!

we've been in this apartment for just about three years now.  we had the carpets cleaned just before ephraim was born, which was also just before toilet training and just before the great poop cannon struck the house in 2003.  we have also since then just recently had the great diarrhea incident of 2004.

oh man, the poop that this tiny apartment has seen over the past few weeks.  ephraim has had a nasty case of diarrhea.  diarrhea that no diaper can hold.  and not just any kind of diarrhea either, but the worst smelling nastiest consistency of water stuff that you can imagine.  and yes, it got on and into the carpets. 

i bet you can imagine how beautiful my apartment has smelled over the last little while.

but, now, oh now...  the smell...  ahhhh...  it's lovely.  it's funny how you don't notice how bad something is until it's fixed!  and now, i have candles going to add to that lovely clean smell, and not just to override the smell of urine and feces.  the guy who did it (Kevco) was fabulous.  and cheap.  i'd recommend him to anyone.

yes.  the smell of clean and the smell of cranberry scented candles is definitely better than what this place used to smell like.

i wonder if i can get one of those cleaners to use on my children?

ephraim went down for a nap at 12:30 this aft.  he got up at 4:45 this evening.  that means he slept for 4 hours and fifteen minutes. 

keyzia, on the other hand, slept for maybe an hour.  stinker.

wow!  when my son decides to go for it, he goes for it!  tooth number six popped through today!

no wonder he's been so miserable.

thank God for tempera!

ahhh yes, the wonderful world of "no."  my darling, sweet, easy going son has discovered the word no, and most of our days go something like this;

ephraim:  cookie?

me:  how about a rice cake?

ephraim:  no.

me:  would you like an apple?

ephraim:  apple?  no.

me:  ephraim...

ephraim: no.

ephraim:  na na na na na naaaaa NO!

keyzia:  want to play with me, ephraim?

ephraim:  no.  mine.

ahhh yes, and sometimes when we're driving somewhere, he just sits in his carseat and yells no repeatedly...  then giggles.

we're working on yes right now.