Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Trials of Adjusting to a Family Vehicle

A few months ago, we bought a Buick Enclave. I love the car, but am still adjusting to operating such a large vehicle. It has a third row of seats and is bigger than the Explorer I used to drive. The driving part I've got down, it's the parking that is quite a challenge. I figure I give loads of amusement to the people around me when I enter a parking lot. Several times I've been torn between parking at the back of the parking lot for ease, or attempting to park closer since I usually have the monkeys with me. The other day at the YMCA, I was sure the front desk was enjoying a good laugh at my expense as I repositioned myself about 4 times to try to park in my parking spot. Even parking in my driveway is troublesome. Dadda monkey wants me to park all the way on one side so he can park on the other. I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but two car garages here are not really for two modern day cars. Thus, the driveway is narrower as well. On the bright side, I do think I'm improving and we're all enjoying the new car (except maybe other drivers in tight parking lots).

Friday, August 26, 2011

Dogs and My Little Green Machine

  
We have a couple of large dogs and although all but the newest puppy are house trained, we still have our share of accidents and bouts of illness. Couple that with my monkeys (okay add Dadda monkey and I in there as well) and we get quite a few messes around here.

I just wanted to share with you the little gem that makes me worry just a bit less about these accidents. My Bissell Little Green Machine is quite the handy little item to have around. It's easy portable, quick, and best of all efficient. The machine has even taken up some stains that were older, but there are still some nagging ones that it seems to clean temporarily until they start showing back up again. Any stains that we get to immediately, seem to clean up easily right away in just minutes. The only downside that I've found so far is that the reservoir that holds what's sucked in, can have a pretty bad odor so we try to empty it regularly. Also, we try to keep an extra bottle of the solution around, but I'm guessing you could also make your own solution, maybe with some vinegar.

My Little Green Machine has been a hero to me since we have a lot of carpet in the house. We're thinking of replacing the downstairs carpet with laminate wood, but I have some concerns about that project as well. Even if we go for it, we'll still have area rugs and all the carpet left upstairs.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Costume Discounters Made My Son Crabby!

Halloween always arrives before I'm completely ready for it. This year, however, Monkey girl told me she wants to be Ariel so I was on the search for something Bro Bro monkey could wear that would be related. I know it won't last forever, but it's been fun to outfit them together. For example, last year Monkey girl was Dorothy, and Bro Bro monkey was the scarecrow.


I was browsing through Costume Discounters site and found a great assortment of reasonably priced costumes. In fact, they guarantee their low prices. I started by searching animal costumes. I found this adorable infant/toddler crabby costume and knew it would be great for us. Searching Costume Discounters site is made simple due to your various sorting options. You can search by size, theme, category, holiday, or keyword among others. I apologize for the pictures, but Bro Bro rarely sits still and he was having so much fun wearing his crab costume.

You can tell it has that incredibly soft minky fabric and it was even softer than I imagined it would be. The green tummy is padded for extra effect, which is a nice touch. I was worried about how this would fit since Bro Bro is a large 2T and this costume was available in mostly smaller sizes. I wanted to order him a 3T just to be sure, but the largest size offered for this particular costume was the 2T so I went for it. Thankfully, it has a generous fit, so I'm not worried about him fitting into it when October rolls around. Another great thing about this costume is that the head piece is a separate piece so if it bothers him, we can go without it and he still looks like a Maryland blue crab (had to throw that in due to my Maryland roots). As you can see though, he was far from crabby when I tried the costume on him. He was absolutely giddy about getting to wear it.


I had a lot of fun perusing Costume Discounters, www.costumediscounters.com, and even found a couple of cute ideas for Dadda monkey and I. I even started thinking about next year already, though Miss Monkey girl will have to have her say in it of course so we'll wait on that, but I feel great that the monkeys are all set for this Halloween.

Disclaimer:
Mommy 2 Monkeys was provided with a sample for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received and the views expressed here are my own. 

Friday, August 12, 2011

Peanut Butter Pie Friday

I did not know Jennie or Mikey, but their story of such a deep, unexpected loss resonated with me. A simple request was made to bake a peanut butter pie as a memorial and so that is what I did.  I can't imagine what the family is going through at this time, but Jennie's message was so clear. I did not waste this night with my family. We made this pie together and I enjoyed every moment of it from spoons licked clean with little tongues, to the fresh indent where Bro Bro monkey thought going straight for the pie was a much better idea than just eating the tidbits left on the spoon. Tonight we savored life as a family and I hope we can continue to make the most of our precious lives together.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Curtain Rod Vs Toe

One of the items on Dadda monkey's honey do list is to fix the curtain rod that came loose from the wall a couple of WEEKS ago. His temporary solution was to just push it back in real hard and hope it stayed. Well, with 2 toddlers, his hopes were dashed pretty quickly, but the curtain rod just kept getting pushed back into the wall.

A couple of days ago, while he was at work and I was home with the kids, the monkeys were running up the stairs and snagged the curtain, which pulled the curtain rod down AGAIN. I, being the lemming that I am, proceeded to push it back into the wall. Shortly after, Monkey girl needed a time out. By the way, our time out step is right next to said curtain. So of course, she was playing around and the curtain rod came down.

I'd finally had enough of this nonsense and tried to take the curtain down. It was too high to reach, but my kitchen chair was nearby. I'd say a whole ten feet closer than my step ladder. Why walk the additional ten feet, when I could see what glorious daring feats could be had with the chair. It took a while to screw off the finial, but when it finally got unscrewed the curtain rod came out. Even though it was still in my hand, it swung around, got me off balance and landed on my little toe. I didn't know a curtain rod could hurt so bad. My toe was swollen and I was convinced I'd broken it, but a few hours later I was able to bend it.


It's not a great picture, but that's the curtain rod just beyond Monkey girl. It's been a few days and my toe is still really sore. Dadda monkey (who has a lengthy honey do list with due dates now) says I limp just a little. I'd been hoping to make it back to the gym tomorrow, but I just put Monkey girl to bed with a horrible cough. She's been acting a little under the weather all day so I guess my attempt at a routine will be pushed off until next week. I feel like that's how everything around here gets handled. Oh well, I'll get to it next week!