Winter Fun

I have always maintained that the months of November to January are some of my favorite.  There's hub's birthday. There's my birthday. There are 3 major holidays, and two of them are in two shifts between two families. On opposite sides of the state we live in.

Regardless, they are some of my favorite times of year, and they are busy. Here's just a few things we did during those months.  Happiest of Fridays to all!

I cooked turkeys and hams. Four sets of them, to be exact. I believe this is ham #2.  So pretty.

This is the closest we could get to a "Grandma with Grandkids" photo.  Multiple child photography is like herding cats, and the Culver grandkids did not disappoint.

Sloane with her beloved purple unicorn Pillow Pet.

Tutu day at Casa de Hot Mess. Everybody needs a tutu day.

Daddy and Sloane snuggle time.

My children are not allowed soda, save for special occasions. Christmas, and a visit from cousin Lolo qualify as a special occasion, and Sam is taking full advantage.

Sloane playing dress up. She can rock a pair of heels better than her mama. God help us all.

New Years eve was a success. The prime rib turned out fantastic, and my friend Ms. Flying Fork even brought me a super appropriate name tag. Yes, friends, that says "Hot Mess." Too true. :)



Hail, His Almighty Powers

Sam's got a new party trick.

What is his new trick, you ask?  High five? Jazz hands?  Guess again.

Vomit. His new trick is vomit.

Last night I had had it up to "here" with Sam. He was whiny. He was hitting his sister. He was tired.  It was bed time. Early, yes, but only by about 45 minutes.  He was unhappy.  Parenting experts tell you that the easiest and fastest way to get your child to calm down and stop throwing a fit is to completely ignore them while they are doing it.  My child must be a prodigy in the tantrum department, because he screamed and thrashed and clanked around his room for a solid hour.  It was hard for me too, since I am usually all about trying to find out the issue and make him happy. But last night, I took the advice of his doctor, and his therapists, and my mom, and I'm sure the baby Jesus has written about tantrums, so we'll throw him in there too. And he screamed for an hour.

Finally, he fell asleep. Sam's other new party trick as of late is to stand at the top of our stairs and scream for us at 2 am, promptly, every morning. Since JT and I need sleep in order to function, there have been a few days that we just threw him in between us so we could try to sleep. Not that it worked, because the boy flops around in his sleep like a fish out of water.  Sam called out at 2am "I sleep in mama's bed."  Mama decided the answer was no.

Again, Sam was none too happy. Since he'd worked himself into a tizzy earlier in the night, it came as no surprise that he was again thrashing and upset. But this time, he decided he'd puke on everything in his room.  Repeatedly. Until he got to sleep in his mama's bed.

Ohhhh people. We've got a problem.  I held to my guns and didn't let him in our bed, but it was ZERO fun cleaning up his room and doing laundry and giving a bath at 2am. I was pissed. He thought it was a field day.

I do hope this doesn't become a habit. Because I will send myself straight to the looney bin, first class. And our washer will get quite the workout.

I may never sleep again.

Mittens on My Heart

To many of you reading this, this looks like your basic 3 year old's craft project.  For those that have children, young or old, you've probably recieved countless scraps of these  works of art, with nary a care to post them on your fridge or bulletin board.

To me, this is the most beautiful art I have ever seen in my life as a mother.  This, my friends, is Sam's first non-forced, totally on his own art project. Glued strips of paper to a pair of cut out mittens.  I could not be happier right now, and I'm going to Hawaii in March, for goodness sake.

My son has...something. Autism? Asbergers? We don't know yet. The team of therapists that work with him 2 or 3 days a week haven't been able to wrap Sam's issues up into a pretty bow with a name yet. They may never be able to.  All we know is, he is a different child. A brilliant, happy, thriving child, but a different child.

He's always marched to the beat of a different drummer. He's shy to those who don't know him, and cautious even with the ones that do.  He can read countless books to us, count to 40, but cannot tie his shoes or put on a shirt.  He has never in his 3 years and 5 months of life taken it upon himself to make something with his creative mind.  We've always sort of joked that he doesn't have a creative mind.

Until today.

I am the proudest parent on the planet today. He did art!  Therapy really is making a difference in him, in the way he interacts with people, and the ways that he plays and laughs and loves.  I cannot wait to see him reach his full potential, to be able to deal with the ins and outs of what makes Sam tick.

I know it will take time. But for now, I patiently wait...one art project at a time.

Adios, 2010

My recipe for a proper send off to 2010 goes a little something like this:

1. big slab o meat
2. house full of friends
3. stocked bar

Hope your 2011 is the best ever, peeps!

Happy New Year!

It's An Actual Sickness.

Damn the luck.

We went to visit my parents for our family Christmas this weekend.  My family has had a population explosion here in the past 4 years, and there are now 6 grandchildren ranging in age from 4 years to 6 months old. It was a lovely time, the cousins all played together, loved on eachother, and were very good at sharing everything.

Very good at sharing. Everything.

Four out of those 6 are now sick. Super sick. Gross sick. Two of them are mine.  I imagine the only reason the other 2 aren't sick yet is because the baby is too young, and perhaps, just maybe, the older one has already had it. The Trojan Horse. :)

So here it is, Christmas week. I am set to make dinner for 30 people Friday and Saturday. THIRTY PEOPLE.  There are things to be made, and my house currently looks like an episode of Cops. All we need is a dirty mattress in the corner and some drug paraphernalia, and we're set.

In my control freak world, this illness will be gone by Wednesday, so that I have 2 days to bleach bomb my house and get treats and things prepped for Friday.  I'm sure God is laughing at me right now. I'm pretty hilarious.  Because I'm sure that after caring for puking children for 2 days by myself, I am going to be SO EXCITED to clean my house and make pie.

Pray for me.

PS- Why the hell does Pedialyte make colored electrolyte solution? That is JUST WHAT I WANT, is rainbow colored vomit all over everything. Oooh!! Orange!!! PRETTY!!

It's A Sickness.

I've mentioned a few times that I kind of like grocery shopping. A lot.

Today was a big shopping day. When I run out of basic things to make other things from--like flour, garlic, and baking soda--it is time to go to the store. I had been trying my darndest to stay out of the store, quite successfully, but today I HAD to go.

And go, I went.

I got Christmas food stuffs, but the shining gem of the day was my New Year's Eve gift: A prime rib to cook. *cue angels singing*  I love beef. I love prime rib beef the bestest.  It makes my heart aflutter.  I sort of feel guilty, because I am so much more excited about New Years Eve dinner than I am Christmas dinner, mainly because I am so so tired of turkey and ham. SO tired. But, cooking for 30 means things that feed a crowd, and turkey and ham are 2 of those things. One of these years I am going to surprise the Taylors with Chinese food for Christmas. One of these years...

Back to my awesome prime rib. I am already dreaming of how delicious it will be. I have a recipe perfected for it that encases it in salt, and cooks it low and slow in the oven.  Served with a potato, asparagus, and maybe some mushroom red wine reduction? Closest thing to heaven I can get.  I think while he's here, I will name him...Bo. Bo Vine. Yum.

Ho Ho Ho-liday Rush.

Greetings everyone,

This is the time of year that I get into my "I'm too busy to even think, let alone write a blog" groove.  There have been birthday parties (including my own), holiday parties, baking, getting together with friends, school, Santa, and general holiday cheer.  I will have a month's worth of blogs to write in January, because there have been so many activities.  For now, I will give you the picture version of December for the kids. Surprisingly, there aren't pictures of most of the adult activities, but nobody wants to see my mug pasted all over this blog anyways.  More to come, so stay tuned.  Happy Holidays to you and yours! <3 The Hot Mess Express

 I cannot resist a picture of a sleeping baby...

 ...or a sleeping toddler.

 There have been naked baby dance parties with the cousins...

 The Hot Mess Christmas tree, 2010

 This picture doesn't really get the true excitement my kids had over the tree. It was so fun watching them take it all in. It is going to be a sad day when the tree goes bye bye again for the year.

 Sloane got to stay up late and help mama and her friends eat birthday ice cream pie. This picture says "I am adorable, and totally getting away with something by being up."

 Sam's first day of school was December 10th. He's growing too fast!

 A visit from Santa Claus. Notice my son is basically attacking his sister. Another Christmas card thwarted. Happy Holidays, I suppose. :)

No toddler get together is complete without jumping on the bed.