Here we are again. It’s that time of year where we struggle to find the perfect gift for the kids. I have a large whiteboard that holds my grocery list and any notes that need to be remembered. It’s also an art board for the kids. When people come to visit, half the time they leave little messages on it as well.

This time of year it becomes the place the kids write their wish list.

Here it is:

What’s that? You can’t read it? Well here, let me help you.

What do you think? Too passive aggressive? A mom’s allowed to wish for things too right? And hey, it won’t even cost the kids any money to fulfill my wishes!

I took my “baby” girl to the Dr. yesterday for a well check. Due to the craziness of Jason losing his job just before her birthday last year, we never made her 3 year well check appointment. Since I had been trying to get her into a specific preschool program (which I’m not really going to discuss here), I knew she needed to have a physical.

I’ve suspected she’s on the tall side, but since the kids her age that she plays with here are short for their ages, I wasn’t sure how she compared. Then when I took her to the preschool playdate, I noticed she was one of the tallest kids in the classroom.

Yesterday, I found out where she fits in the curve.

She’s 41 3/4″ tall
She’s 40 lbs.
She turns 4 on August 25.

Dr. M. said she’s in the 90th percentile for height and weight. That means she’s taller than 90% of kids her age. Dr. M.  plays this little guessing game giving you a general idea of how tall your child is going to be. He said from the get-go that she’ll probably be 5’7″ plus a little. Something like 5’7.75 ” I thought this was impossible because for the first few years of her life, she was in something like the 5th percentile. She was small. She was always a year behind on clothing sizes. All of a sudden, she turned 3, wore 3T clothes for a few months before quickly outgrowing them and going into a 4T. The 4T pants are getting too short for her too. So yesterday he looked over her chart and said she was on track to hit that 5’7″ prediction.

My oldest daughter is 14 and she’s 5’4″ (and all leg.) She has another 3/4″ until she’s as tall as me. Won’t be long until she’s looking down at me.

My son, well he’s still short. One of the shortest boys in his class, but he’s not even 13 yet. I have no doubt that he’ll be passing me up in no time at all. I get to be the family shorty. The funny thing is I’m average. I’m not particularly short. Being surrounded by all these tall people is going to b e a serious blow to my ego. I’m sure they’ll make fun of me the way my 6’3″ husband does.

Today over at Shutter Sisters, they’re talking about bubbles.

Jason took this picture of Caitlin back in 2004, and it remains a favorite of mine to this day.

Yesterday morning I came downstairs and sat at the computer like I do every morning. Occasionally I’ll find a group of pictures on the desktop that my oldest transferred from her cell phone. I have no idea what she actually does with these photos. Anyhow, I’ll occasionally find one that is questionable, and yesterday was one of those days. It wasn’t racy. She wasn’t scantily clad or anything. So what was questionable? She was flipping the bird. I made an improvement to the picture and want to share it with all of you.

Have a great day everyone.

PS: Shameless Self Promotion: Please take a few minutes and head on over to my jewelry shop and consider making a purchase. It would really help us out if you see something you like and order it.

I love the 4th of July. It’s my 3rd favorite holiday, right behind Halloween and Christmas. The funny thing is Jason and I rarely do much for it. Another thing is we just never know what the weather will be like. Some years it’s cold, others blazing hot. This year the weather was darn near perfect. It was in the mid to upper 80′s and had been for a few days. That gave the pool time to warm up, and what better way to celebrate than with a BBQ and a pool party?

Instead of writing all about it, I figured I’d show you snippets of our day. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Can’t wait to do it again next year!

We all have special talents don’t we? Mine? Well it’s breaking chairs. I’ve been busting them since I was a teenager. I think it’s because I fall into them rather than just sitting down. At least that’s part of it. Ask any one of my friends and they’ll tell you I’ve got a knack for breaking chairs.

My daughter Caitlin’s special talent? Well that would be destroying technology. Keyboards, iPods, cell phones, you name it, she’s taken one or more down.

It started with my first Mac keyboard. I woke up one morning and found my keyboard sitting in a puddle. Upon further investigation, I discovered she spilled on the keyboard and then didn’t bother to even attempt cleaning and drying it.

The next casualty was my pink iPod Nano that had been a Christmas gift. I couldn’t find it for several days and I was getting really irritated. I always let Caitlin use it when I wasn’t. Finally she came to me and confessed that a week or so before she’d dropped it in the toilet. It wouldn’t turn on after that and instead of telling me, she freaked out and threw it in a dumpster down the street. Yes, she threw my iPod away.

Then there was my Samsung Sync phone. It was a pretty badass phone and just a year old. The only reason I quit using it was because I got my iPhone.  We had a fairly crappy “house cell phone” which in reality became Caitlin’s phone. So when I got the iPhone, we put the sim card in the Sync and she had a pretty nice cell phone. Not long after, she spent the night at a friend’s house. This friend had a loft bed and there were hardwood floors underneath. Apparently the phone fell off the bed, hit the floor, and broke in half. It was now completely useless.

Then I gave her the phone I had before getting the sync. That wasn’t the worst phone in the world, but it wasn’t all that awesome. Anyhow, one Friday she came home from school and told me her phone was stolen.

At this point, Jason gave her his old Motorola. (Look, we really want her to have a cell phone ok, don’t judge us for replacing the phone over and over. We never actually bought a phone for her. She just kept getting hand-me-downs) Anyhow, last week the screen went crazy on it and no one is sure why. Monday Jason decided to just go ahead and buy her a phone. He told her this was it. If anything happened to the phone that she was screwed. This phone would have to last her 2 years.

Last night a call came in and the caller ID was for one of her friends that she was with. “Moooom?” ut oh. “Mom, my phone was in my back pocket and I went to the bathrooma and my phone fell in the toilet.” Her NEW, not even a week old phone fell in the damn toilet. She pulled it out, immediately took out the battery and now we’re just playing the waiting game to see if the thing will work.