mommymae

sex. the little ladies (mind you, they are 6 frickin’ years old!) asked daddyjay what sex was last week. he was reading a book to them, a children’s book about sprites, fairies, and other creatures that create different scents and stains. it’s a rather cute book, save for this one entry. it’s all about a fairy who makes armpit smells and you know what that means…pheromones. and you know what they said? sex, sex, sex. in a kid’s book, you ask? why yes. in a kid’s book. specifically, this one.

here’s the excerpt:

What is, perhaps, less well-known is the fact that Flettera Floralillia is obsessed by sex. In fact all the scents and aromas that she creates under our arms are directly aimed at sexual stimulation. Flettera is convinced that the under-arm area is the most erogenous of all zones and that it is enhanced by smells.

daddyjay stopped reading immediately and one of the gals said, “what’s sex?” he told them he’d have to think about how he wanted to talk to them about it. we talked a bit and i called the trusty aunt lu who i go to in most of these circumstances since she is a model parent. we ended up going with the basics. i told them sex is what mommies and daddies do to make babies. they didn’t ask any more questions. they were fine with that. i was glad that i took the time to think about how to answer, otherwise i would have gone into MUCH more detail and probably confused them completely. they know that babies are made from a sperm and an egg, but aren’t sure how they get together yet. they’ll learn someday. until then, i like my ladies to have 6 year-old knowledge.

over at omsh i was going to comment on my grandpas, but got so engrossed in writing about my grandpas that i decided to write a post of my own.

grandpa fred

Originally uploaded by mommymae

grandpa fred and maw maw b

Originally uploaded by mommymae

my mom’s dad, grandpa fred, was a quiet man who i felt loved me more than anyone, even though he rarely spoke. it was in the way he would look at us and smile or beg to take our pictures every time we went to their house, which was often. i was in 8th grade when he died and on a field trip. the morning before i left for the day trip, my mom took me to the hospital to see him. i think she knew. i don’t remember my sister or brother being there and don’t know if they saw him that day, but when mom picked me up after school, i knew he died the second i got in the car. i was glad to have those few minutes to say good-bye that morning. there were so many things i never knew about him that i didn’t find out until after he passed away, but wouldn’t have changed how much i loved him and loved the smell of his cigar smoke. i can still picture him sitting on the back steps smoking one.

i barely knew grandpa fred’s dad, fred, sr., but remember him being just as quiet. he did a lot of genealogical research in our southern illinois county for the cemeteries. he plotted most of them. when i was in high school, i wanted to see his research and went to our town library to get the books out. the librarian told me that they were only for adults, but when i told her the author was by great grandpa, she let me check them out to a research table. i felt like i was let behind the velvet rope. no picture of this dandy at my house, but i know my mom has some.

grandad and grandma k

Originally uploaded by mommymae

my maw maw b’s dad, my grandad, would have loved my kids. he would have really been taken by my girls and would have been over the moon for the boy. i miss him like you wouldn’t believe, especially in the summertime when we used to go the their farm and eat fresh homemade pickles and strawberry jam made from their crops. he was a good ole’ boy and man i miss him. he wore beat up big smith overalls all the time and had the craziest cackle. as my maw maw b says, he was a corker with a goat-eating-briar grin. i don’t have any candid shots here, but need some, as this church photo doesn’t remind me much of him. no overalls, you know?

i never met my dad’s dad as he passed away just after my dad graduated college. i did run across some pictures of him recently while cleaning at my parent’s house. it was near the end and he was so small. i think he died of cancer, lung cancer, if i’m correct. and he smoked until his dying day. his wife was the same way except that she had emphysema.

i did know my dad’s step-dad, who was my grandpa carl. they lived in florida, though, so we didn’t see them all that much. he was fun. i remember him killing a garter snake in their yard once when we were visiting. and picking limes with him to give to grandma to make limeade. yum.

my kids are lucky that they have 11 grandparents including my folks, daddyjay’s folks and both sets of his grandparents, my maw maw b, and grammy and capt. grandpa in arizona. the girls will remember them all and i am so happy for that. hopefully, the boy and this next one will know and love them all too.

i’m sure i have something interesting going on, but can’t quite figure out what it is. here’s a short rundown:

-i’m 24 weeks and 2 days pregnant
-we keep baby types surprises
-we have a girl’s name picked out
-I have a boy’s name picked out
-i have yet to convince daddyjay that that is the name we’ll use
-here’s the short list of boy names
milo
spencer (called spence)
tucker (called tuck)
malcolm
brody
jasper
cooper
-my favorite is in there somewhere
-i’m thinking of asking the ob if i can see the u/s pictures to see if i can figure out if it’s a boy or a girl, then i can see if i need to fight it or just be happy i already have a girl name.
-i’m thinking of using my kids’s and husband’s names on the blog
-we have a squirrel family living in our crawl space
-along with 2 squirrel skeletons and a bird skeleton
-critter control has been to our house and set traps
-i used to be in a band
-i was the lead singer
-we made a cd
-i miss it

going to bed now. i’ll see what’s in store for friday flashbacks in the morning and try to post again.

the first movie i can remember seeing has got to be e.t. this was 1982 and i don’t remember much about it, except that i cried when e.t. died. i was only 3, so i’m not surprised i don’t remember much besides the emotion and the dark theater.

the next movie i can remember is the muppets take manhattan

i distinctly remember waiting in line at the old movie theater in the mall of my hometown…and this line was loooooooooooong. it snaked out of the theater in a big U-shape down to the entrance.

i still love this movie. i’m not sure what impact it had one me, aside from being one of my first movie memory, but it was like the spongebob of my time. the muppets were everywhere when i was 6. movies, merchandising, mcdonald’s happy meal toys. it was muppet mania, as was apparent by the superbly long line at the theater. i guess e.t. was 2 years before, i just don’t remember as much about that one.

i’m not linking others since i have to go get my kiddos outside. maybe i will later.

*3 days in a row! egads!

this boy

Originally uploaded by mommymae

drives me batty. especially since he learned to climb out of his crib. the last time we were at my parents’ house, he climbed out, walked upstairs from the basement, and called for help from the gate at the top. when i put him back in bed, he immediately climbed out and said “bye bye, buggy’s bed!” when we walked out of the room. we purchased a crib tent which has worked so far, but we came back to my parents’ house and said crib tent is at home.

he went to bed with no problem last night, but at 4:30am, i woke to him crying from the top of the stairs. argghhh!! my neighbor recommended drilling new holes in our crib and lowering the mattress even further. i’ll check that out today on the crib here and see if it will work.

i expect him to nap at about 9am today. won’t that make for good times!?

on a side note, we came to my folks’ since it’s the girls’ spring break and it’s big dump week here. my sister and i are going to purge my parents’ house of junk. they are pack rats. not the kind that have piles lining the walls, but they have stuff and my sister and i want to try to clean it out. is it our job? no. does it drive us crazy enough to do it anyway? yes. my mom is on board, but my dad is the main offender. dude buys in bulk and usually buys shit he doesn’t need. we’ll be sneaking some things out, for sure. heck, we might even get one garage space out of it for them…but i doubt it.

*updated: i’m entering this photo in a contest over here. i know i have others i like, but i’m at my parents’ house and they happen to have this here. and it’s one of my favorites.

bossy

Originally uploaded by mommymae

well, i had the chance to go to the st. louis bossy meet up. i had a great time and was so happy to meet her and her and her and her (and her beautiful daughter) and her (and her sister) and her and her (albeit briefly) and her (who went to my high school) and her.

it was great fun and i hope to see them again in the future. i had passover seder to attend beforehand, so i came in late and missed the talk about drinking breast milk, but did enjoy some great conversations and food, schools, and politics.

so i’ve seen my numbers skyrocket since bossy and others have linked me. it’s quite strange since i blog for myself and mostly read others. i don’t expect to turn into a bossy or dooce, by any means, but i do want to try to post more often. like i’ve said before, i feel like i just don’t have the time between the kids and being pregnant. hopefully, i can now and meeting up with some other area bloggers may be the impetus to post more frequently.

more pics from the last few days on flickr

favorite rings

Originally uploaded by mommymae

flashback friday and what would i grab while running out of a burning house? these:

well, my maw maw b works at a jewelry store, so my favorite things (besides pictures) are the pieces of jewelry that i have given to me by her and a couple of others. this includes my wedding band and engagement rings which are always on anyway. those are the white gold and diamond ring stacked with the platinum band in front. maw maw b gave us the engagement ring which originally had a miner cut diamond when she bought it from an estate. she replaced that with a tanzanite, that while beautiful, has nothing on a diamond - especially a miner cut diamond in a vintage ring. we replaced the diamond with a more modern cut and will buy a top quality miner cut diamond when i’m a rock star.

going clockwise from there is a jade ring that was my great-grandma’s, a blue topaz ring given to me by maw maw b (our shared birthstone,) a ring she just gave me made of a beautiful pearl surrounded by a greek key pattern, a beautiful flowering vine gold band that was my grandfathers, an opal and ruby butterfly that maw maw b gave me, & my other great grandma’s white sapphire engagement ring and wedding band (these are more than 80 years old and will be given to jeebs since she was named after that great grandma.)

if you check out the flickr pics, you’ll also see in the middle is a silver and turquoise pendant that was my aunt’s. i actually had a silver necklace that had a dove on it that was my absolute favorite piece of jewelry, but it fell off once and has never been found. this pendant was given to me at the same time and it reminds me of the other one. the black pearls to the left are a souvenir from our family trip to europe when i was 10. my mom and sister picked out white pearls, but i was drawn to the black ones. they remain a favorite. the silver charm bracelet at the back was maw maw b’s. it has numerous heart charms and is adorable. it also needs a good washing. all of them rest on daddyjay’s blankie that he slept with his whole life. i’m sure he would grab this.

if i could make numerous trips in i would also grab my 2 belly casts and the girls’ tushie casts since their bellies weren’t quite big enough. once i have this third cast and corresponding tushie casts made, plastered, sanded, and shellacked, i’ll put them up in the house. i’d also get my 3 junk boxes. it’s not as bad as it sounds. one is a big one and the other 2 are quite small. i used to have 3 big ones, but dumped a lot of stuff during one of our moves. this dump included every note i’d ever been given from junior high on. i only kept those that made me laugh out loud when i read them again. i should go through them again and reorganize since i now have stuff in there from the kiddos. and the kids special boxes would also make it out. heck, i might even grab those first.

anyhoo, that’s what i’d keep.

also flashing back:

http://mamalogues.com/
http://girlsgonechild.blogspot.com/
http://whoorl.com/
http://mrs.flinger.us/
http://www.sweetney.com/
http://www.badladies.blogspot.com/
http://othejoys.blogspot.com/
http://izzymom.com/

so daddyjay and i have been talking about lots of stuff lately and one of those things is how i’ve had a hard time making friends here in st. louis.

being a stay-at-home-mom is rather isolating and i spend a fair amount of time at home since the bug takes a glorious 3 hour nap. when i do get out it’s to go to the gym 5 mornings a week or to take him to school. we have one mom and me class and i drop him off for another day.

now, i’m not saying i don’t like the moms in the mom and me class, but i don’t feel like there is that chemistry. no connection past the fact that our kids are in class together and will most likely go to religious school together. i like them, but i can’t see wanting to hang out with them past seeing them now.

i am younger than all of the other moms in class. i knew i would be younger than the moms in the girls’ classes. we had kids young - well, younger than most others having kids at the time. one of daddyjay’s best friends is having their first babe as we are having our last. a lot of the moms in the girls’ class last year were at least 10 years older than me. this time around they are 5 years older or more. maybe with the 4th baby we’ll finally be the same age. who knows?

anyhoo - i’m just frustrated that it’s so hard to make friends. it’s not supposed to be this hard and it’s not because i’m shy. i like to talk to people. heck, that’s another thing daddyjay said…i tend to dominate the rap when we go out with adults. he also recognizes it’s because i’m with kids all day, but still, i want some mommy friends here in town. i love my besty, but she lives in illinois and we only hang out when i go home.

i wish i lived closer to girlsgonechild. she’s much fun. or maybe if i stalk mamalogues she’ll relent. she seems like a good fun time. i’m not good at stalking, though. i’ll just have to stick with my babes for now and worry about the friends later.

anyone else wonder why suri cruise is still toting a bottle around at 1 and a half?  yea, there are many more important things going on in the world than a very loved and adorable child with a bottle, but i’m just lazing around in the 1 degree weather and surfing the nets out of sheer boredom.  

i have intentions of posting often, but never do since i don’t have new pictures on flickr.  it just seems like such a hassle for me to get them on the computer and then to get them to flickr.  i wish it were easier.   we had a great holiday season - i say this since we celebrate hannukah and christmas in our house.  this year was the year of presents.  the girls couldn’t get enough and it kills me.  we may have to start some rules next year like only spending X amount of money and only buying X amount of gifts.  the bug didn’t care much.  he’d open a gift and go on to the next one.  he likes the paper still. i’ve not been feeling well due to the little grape i’m growing.  nauseous and starving, but food sounds horrible.  if i eat i know i’ll feel better, but the thought of eating is too much to bear.  it’s gotten better the last 2 weeks, but it’s not gone.  soon enough.  i go to the doc next week and hope it all goes well.  i’ve never met her.  third pregnancy and third doc.  i loved my first ob in austin and will never find another like her.  i hope dr. smith is better than the last.  i felt like i was one out of millions with her.  with my first ob i felt like one in a million.my sister is due to have her 2nd baby any day now.  i can’t wait to meet her.  if i get around to it again, i’ll put some photos on flickr.  what’s the use of a book with no pictures, you know?