Halloween Happenings 2015

You guys, the scariest thing happened on Halloween night.... I dreamed I was pregnant! It keeps happening and I keep waking up with the same unsettled feeling. I think it's because a coworker is talking about babies a ton as she gears up to start trying this spring, and given my whole crazy birth control history, I have little faith in my body to follow my program.

I love babies. I do. It was super cute to Facetime with baby C last night in her adorable pumpkin onesie. I've hit like on just about every Facebook post of kids under age one on my timeline. I can't wait for more of my friends to be at the point where they're ready for pregnancies and babies too (but zero pressure, ladies). I just keep remembering how much crazy work goes into the beginning.

Thankfully, the rest of Halloween weekend was less terrifying. We kicked it off with a trip to J-Man's work. Once again they went all out with decorations everywhere. Cubicles were covered in streamers and lights and candy and even some outdoor inflatables. The boys practiced their "trick-or-treat" or "treat" as MDG preferred, and PDG corrected everyone who thought MDG was a dinosaur instead of a dragon. I mean, what knight hangs out with dinosaurs??

Saturday we woke up with too much energy for 6:30am so we made plans with my work BFF and her kids at an indoor trampoline park. Lots of fun but lots of money. It made me want to open one of those in a town that doesn't have one yet and rake in the dough.

After buying too much candy and having an unsuccessful mama/PDG naptime, we lit the rotting pumpkins, velcroed on the costumes, and set out to go door to door.

We kept it simple, just walking up and down our own Mormon Street, and even bumped into some kids we know from Nursery. J-Man and I lagged behind a bit, letting PDG work on his social skills of walkiing up by himself to ask for candy and say thank you on his own.

What a big kid he's becoming. So grown up. No wonder I dreamed about more babies. This guy is so far from a baby I almost don't remember the four months of ear-piercing screams every two hours.

Almost.

We got back to the house and counted our stash. The boys each picked three to eat before reluctantly letting us place their pumpkin baskets out of reach. Then, even more confused, they helped us pass out other candy to other kids who came to our door.

The up side is they got to stay awake a whole extra hour. J-Man and I thought it might help our chances of last night's Fall Back not screwing over our morning. It didn't help anything though. They awoke at 5:30 like it was 6:30 and are currently showering with J-Man while I search the internet for that meme all my fellow parent friends were sharing yesterday.  Ok, found it, here you go...

Still, even with the early rising and the crazy sugar rush adrenaline craziness and the additional mandatory teeth brushing over the past 48 hours, it's been a good run.

Now, time to eat their candy and pretend like nothing happened...

Camp Nicole July 2015 Schedule

How are we G's staying busy you ask? Well mostly by following Camp Nicole schedule. It goes a little like this:

6-7am - wake up and snuggle in my bed while J-Man dresses for work

7-8:30am- gradually move downstairs, eat some combo of dinosaur oatmeal (PDG), chocolate eggos (MDG) and yogurt/oatmeal/fruit/granola bars/etc (me) all coveted by and eventually shared with MDG and PDG

8:30-9:30am - get dressed, choose a park for the day, pack a "park bag" and inevitably choose a snack that one boy likes and the other doesn't, and convince PDG to potty  even though he'd much prefer the chance to wait and pee on a tree

9:30am-12pm - head somewhere outdoors with one single goal: wear PDG out so that he naps. Everything else comes in a distant second place. Fingers crossed the other park parents/nannies aren't obnoxious.

12-1pm - get back home, eat an easy-to-fix lunch balancing out any unhealthy hot dogs or chicken nuggets with excessive blueberries (and hope J-Man gets stuck with those diapers...)

1-3:30pm - independent play in the bedroom until the boys pass out. Occasional check ins required to remind PDG that bed-jumping is not, actually a "quiet" activity like books or stuffed animals. Also not quiet - hiding MDG's blanket from him, screaming "say geronimo," pretending to echo, and throwing socks at one another. Quiet but equally not ok - finding a chapstick and eating the whole thing, unscrewing the lamp's light bulb, stripping all the blankets and fitted sheet from the bed. As for me, watch two episodes of something embarrassing, possibly do some novel revisions, maybe read some more of the Amy Poehler book, sweep up any sand deposits and take at least five minutes to sit in total silence.

3:30ish-5pm - Operation Wiggles Out (Part II) location varies depending on how long dinner will take to prepare but jumping and running highly encouraged.

5-5:30pm - eat again and try to trick MDG into ingesting a vegetable and not just some cheese and animal cracker combination. Unload dishwasher while no one can break anything while trying to help

5:30-6ishpm - keep checking the clock to see how much longer until J-Man gets home. Notice the living room suddenly get covered with every toy we own.

6-7:30pm - mix and mash talking to J-Man while he eats with corralling the hyper children and convincing them that cleanup/bath/brushing teeth/pajamas are all super awesome activities

7:30-7:40pm - successfully ask J-Man about his day after pulling the boys' door shut

7:40pm - miss the boys and say how we can't wait to wake them up and play again

7:45 - 10ish - watch Downton Abbey, practice our terrible British accents, wax philosophical about how to solve the world's problems, step on a crayon or puzzle piece we somehow overlooked, wonder what our life would look be like without the boys, decide we're glad we'll never know, and tuck ourselves in at a more reasonable time than during the school year, but still early

10-6am - wake up twice to pee. possibly once more because MDG decides to announce he also woke up, pray he doesn't need attention, remember he's my last baby and he won't need me forever, and try not to have any more dreams about a 3rd kid. Come on subconscious, that shop is closed!!

Time to start again.

NG Punchout

Last night it seems J-Man and I were a bit abusive to each other.

He started it.

There I was in the middle of the night and J-Man decided to wake me up and not let me go back to sleep.  He started picking me up and tossing me in the air and joking like he wouldn't catch me.  I started screaming out to be careful and what about peg and stop this now.  He laughed and kept going saying it was fun.

Then I punched him.  Twice.

Here's the kicker, though.  That first part, with him throwing me and me screaming, that part was actually a dream.

The punching part, my fist connecting with J-Man's back, that part was real-life action.

Yes, I punched my husband during the night.  While cuddling as big spoon. (What, girls can be big spoon if they want!)

He woke up, confused of course, asking why I just punched him.  I explained he was being mean.  He probed further.  I told him he was throwing me around.

That's when I realized maybe he hadn't thrown me around but that I really had punched him.

Whoopsie.

Luckily he got back to sleep and when I stopped laughing at the silliness of it all, so did I.