Better late then never, my giveaway ended last night and fortunately yet unfortunately we only had 2 entries in the giveaway.  The positive look is the 2 that entered won, however I offered 3 winners. 

Oh well, congratulations to Jenna and Leslie.

Yesterday was Lil Tony’s birthday, he turned 2!  I just don’t know where the time goes.  Tony ended up working last Friday from open to close.  They needed the help and it allowed him to have off all day yesterday.  So with the way his schedule worked out, he has off Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday.  How freakin’ great is that.  I get a little break and we all get to spend time with the family.

So we pretty much just relaxed all day.  We decided to go out to dinner at the Golden Corral.  That is the company Tony used to work for.  So I think it was a little weird going to eat there.  Overall the evening was pleasant.  Lil Tony had no desire to eat, Isabel ate as she usually does and everyone else ate their share.  For those of you that don’t know, Golden Corral is a buffet.  They have really good food for a decent price.  The 5 of us ate for $30. 

Today we sit here, I am watching Tony play video games, Lil Tony walking around trying to clean everything, Isabel trying to walk and Nicki chasing (literally) Lil Tony around making sure he doesn’t destroy the house.  What a relaxing day in my house. 

Now my son is running laps around the kitchen table, oh the energy these kids have.  All I want to do is take a nap.  Maybe with Tony home today I will have to sneak upstairs and relax and watch TV….ALONE…IN SILENCE!!!!

As I have stated before, Lil Tony refuses to talk.  He really only says “here” in his Lil Tony accent.  He completely understands everything we say.  Well the other day, out of the blue, he decided he didn’t want to wear a diaper.  He just took it off.  I immediately asked if he wanted to go on the potty.  We went to the bathroom, he sat for a min or so and went pee.  He also completely understands what to do on the potty.  He pushes out farts and has pooped before too.  He has known what to do since about March.  The problem is he can’t tell me he has to go.  I am not sure he understands to let me know.

For the last couple days he has peed and pooped on the potty at least a couple times a day.  He still goes in his diaper but is at least making the efforts.  

I really don’t think Lil Tony needs a speech therapist like many people have suggested.  I think he will talk in his own time.  For his 2 short years when he was ready to stop or start something he was pretty informative in his own way.  When he was done drinking formula, done eating baby food, drinking out of a bottle and even ready to go potty on the toilet….he lets us know and he has his mind made up.  I have however typed our situation in to a search engine directory to see what kind of advice I can find online and see if it is in the least bit normal that he is 2 and still not talking. 

Most of what I read online is little activities we can do at home and a lot of moms say that they have a child that didn’t speak until after the age of 2 or even closer to 2. 

Lil Tony is just always on the go and I don’t think he will sit still to do any activities with a speech therapist and I think mostly what they do it show pictures and say what it is repeatedly.  That is what we do at home.

This may sound bad but I think that once Isabel starts talking, Lil Tony will follow behind.  Now when Isabel babbles he mimics what she says.  It’s cute.  I just think that when he is ready it will happen.  The problem is that he communicates in his own little way and we understand what he needs/wants and we don’t push him to talk.  When I say push I mean refuse to give him something until he speaks what he wants.  He is WAY too stubborn for that. 

I will just be patient, when he is ready he will talk.

I’m just gonna say it, I NEED A VACATION!  My kids are driving me crazy.  Being pregnant it is really tough for me to get out with the kids.  Since Isabel still doesn’t walk and Lil Tony is just a bundle of energy I just can’t keep up with them.  Right now we only have one car so I can’t drive anywhere and there is nothing really kid friendly at the park down the street.  In addition, Nicki is still off for the summer and she is also driving me crazy!

I am thinking of checking out the Caribbean cruises.  There are so many destination choices I just wouldn’t know what to chose.  I would love to go somewhere like the Bahamas or Hawaii but I have also always wanted to go to Europe. Maybe I will just need to take a cruise to all those places.  LOL!  I could really use a 3 week vacation.  I realize that more and more as I sit hear trying to type this and my baby girl is screaming at me because I won’t let her touch my computer and Lil Tony is running laps in the living room and just moments before he was making Isabel cry because he was putting a blanket over her head.  Or yesterday when I had to yell at Nicki for the millionth time for having DIRTY DISHES in the clean dish drainer or for talking back which is why she is grounded this week.  Do they ever learn their lesson and stop being disrespectful?

Tony and I could just use some time away!  I think with all the time he’s been working and all the yrs I have been pregnant and cranky, it has kind of taken a small toll on our relationship.  We don’t get time to just talk without kids screaming or interrupting.  I know that’s the joy of having children but I just think we need a little “mommy/daddy time”. 

I can just picture Tony and I relaxing on this beautiful beach alone, in silence, listening to the water. It would be awesome to go sailing and horse back riding on the white sandy beaches.  Or heck just sipping some really strong alcoholic beverage while relaxing on the beach.  Not have to worry about what the kids are doing and what they are getting in to, just for a week.  What am I doing to myself, who am I kidding, it will be years before I will be able to take a wonderful relaxing, kid free trip like that. 

Or maybe we should plan a beautiful 12 day trip to Europe.  I went to Greece for a whole summer when I was 10, how much can you really appreciate somewhere so beautiful when you are so young.  I remember so many things about Greece but I was just a kid, I couldn’t explore like I would now.  Venice, Naples and Rome just to name a few places we would stop.  All of those beautiful places.  Somewhere like that, though, I would probably want to have my kids with me.  I would love for them to experience all those great places.  At cruise like that might be a little more adventurous, all the site seeing and such.  Bahamas, I can see myself basking in the sun with a frosty beverage and enjoy the silence…..well the “no kids yelling at me” silence. 

Not mentioning all the onboard activities, Spa Carnival.  I need a spa treatment, a wonderful massage or a body wrap.  They have an onboard gym, which I will need to work off all the wonderful food I will experience. 

Oh the dream, I think Tony and I really need to plan a Caribbean cruise getaway of some sort.  Even if it is for a couple years from now, it will be that much moe deserved.  I need to wait until my kids are a little more grown up, make it easier for whoever will watch them, to take care of them.  Nicki will be older and hopefully more responsible and able to help out way more.  All the lil ones will be walking and hopefully potty trained.  Boy oh boy, I shouldn’t have even started to think about a relaxing vacation in the Bahamas.  I want to go NOW!

Some people have a weakness for chocolate.  They just absolutely love chocolate.  My weakness is cheesecake.  The only problem is it is really hard for me to find a cheesecake I like.  I like the graham cracker crust with a little cheesecake filling.  A lot of cheesecakes I come across have little to no crust. 

Well to my luck 3 1/2 yrs ago I met a wonderful cook/baker.  Cheesecake was one of his specialties so all I had to do was have him tweak it a little with the crust and now he makes the absolute perfect crust. 

I told him today he was the cause of my weight gain when we first met, lol!  I am going to need some losing all the weight, lol. Maybe someone needs to do a diet pills review and get someone to make cheesecake flavored pills.  Those pills leave a nasty herb taste in my mouth.  If they made ones that tasted like cheesecake I wouldn’t have any problem keeping up on taking the pills, I would lose weight in no time. 

Yesterday was Isabel’s birthday, she turned 1.  WOW how time flies!  Tony has both yesterday and today off.  We ran some errands, got some toys for the kids (Lil Tony’s birthday is next week) and came back to put the kids to nap.  Me, Nicki and Tony just lounged around, napping and playing video games.  Very relaxing! 

The children woke about 6pm, they got a late start to their nap, we dressed the kids and went out to a nice dinner.  We weren’t sure where to go but wanted to try something new.  There was a nice Mexican joint down the street so we decided to try it out.  It was delicious and affordable.  I feel bad because I don’t remember the name but we had a nice family dinner.

We got home around 9pm, to have cake.  Isabel loved her cake.  Then it was off to bed for the lil ones. 

Today Tony has off too so we are going to pack up soon and take the kids to the park.  Maybe have a picnic.  Should be a nice day. We wanted to go to the park yesterday but some rain throughout the day kept us from going. 

Well off to have another wonderful day with the family!

Oh boy, Nicki was so easy when she was a baby.  I don’t remember her ever really being mischievous or constantly on the go as a toddler.  Lil Tony though, he exhausts me.  When I put my lil ones to nap today, I sat down and actually sighed in relief for silence. 

He is just always on the go, after he touches one thing he runs to the next and so on.  I am going to have to make sure I have some term life insurance because the stress he causes me sometimes is going to put me in an early grave. LOL!

He is just always getting in to something.  He is always in the fridge or touching our computers or the Playstation or climbing over a gate to get things off the stairs and if the gate isn’t up going upstairs to play in the bathroom.  This morning while Tony was showering and Lil Tony decided he needed to be upstairs, he decided to unroll the toilet paper and shove it all in the toilet, needless to say the toilet is clogged.  I am starting to get concerned that the new baby is also going to be a boy and the 2 of them together are really going to cause me pain.