Chocolate, Anyone?

Alright kids, I know you've been thinking about it since I blogged it last year. Now is your opportunity to partake in the festivities. This year's CHOCOLATE LOVERS WEEKEND in Ocean Grove takes place February 7th and 8th. For those of you who don't remember, this is the weekend where the beautiful shops in this quaint seaside-town give away FREE chocolate. There are scavenger hunt games and open tours of the famous bed and breakfasts and inns that are in Ocean Grove, too. We had a BLAST last year. I mean, free stuff and chocolate-- it's like they KNOW what I live for!
I had assumed it was always close to Valentine's Day... but this is the weekend before it.
Soooooo... all of you friends in the tri-state area! Any of you like to make a date out of it? I'd predict we'd go early (I think stuff runs from 11-4) so we can leave by naptime...
Leave a comment if you think you might want to meet up!
From last year... same sweet face!

"You Won't Remember This Either"

A fantastic little film, created by painter/experimental filmmaker Jeff Scher. A must-watch for all mommies and daddies who know that their little buddies are growing up, fast, right before their eyes.
Check it out here. And get a tissue handy...

Vote for "Looky, Daddy!"

Alrighty... for those of you parents out there who have yet to read a post at "Looky, Daddy", you need to do so NOW. Even if you aren't a parent, you should still check it out. This stay-at-home-Jersey-dad is absolutely hysterical (that is, if you like his kind of sarcastic humor). He reminds me a lot of David Sedaris, and you all know I love that guy ;)

Some of my favorite posts include this one about "special" children, artwork that says stuff it shouldn't, parenting that is worse than mine, and similar political views.

Anyway, this blog is up for a 2008 Weblog Award for Best Parenting Blog. And he's in a dead heat with a few other ones... so, if you could, go to this site here and vote for Looky, Daddy! Brian deserves this (and a book deal... he's working on that) and I'd love to see him win.

Poke E Man

Bible Songs

Trenton got some new Bible song CDs from Grandma Lacina for Christmas. He particularly loves "This Little Light of Mine" (he sings it with Daddy a lot-- notice the "Hide it under a bushel--NO!" hand movements). He also likes the "Give Me Oil In My Lamp" song... the chorus goes "Sing, Hosana to the King of kings!", but he could really only make out the first part. You'll notice his 'wildman' behavior, too... not sure why he does that so often, but, that's Trenton!

Trenton really listens to the songs, you can tell. He asked me what a pharaoh was and wanted to know if the King of kings was the same guy... smartie!

He's also mastered some of the lyrics to Taylor Swift's songs "Teardrops on My Guitar" and "Our Song". Now that is because I played them on a loop practically the entire time we were in the car over the past week... ha! "Why is she sad?" ("Because Drew doesn't want to kiss her anymore") "Why are the teardrops on her guitar?" ("Because she is singing about her feelings") "Why are they talking real slow?" ("Because it's late and his momma don't know...;)"

Takin' Pictures

Trenton is definitely in the "I want to do it all by myself" frame of mind lately. He's even wanted to take pictures a lot more than he did in the past... I really don't like him using our camera. Maybe we'll have to look into some reviews for a toddler digital camera. If he gets gift cards or something for his birthday, we might get him one. I'm already done shopping for him, though.

We spent New Years Eve and Day with my parents. Mom had a fantastic lunch for a few guests-- her sister Arlene, nephews, friend Karlyn, and sister-in-law JoAnn. Above, my cousin David is shown with Mom and Ollie. David is completing law school out in San Diego. Hopefully, we'll get to take a trip out there to witness his graduation! He then plans to move back east and practice entertainment law here.
Jim did a fantastic job during his Across the Years race. He ran/walked 62.758 miles in 24 hours. And then we hopped in a car and drove to VA when he got back! Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures (yet-- Shairna is supposed to email one of all the boys) but we had a great weekend.

No Camera!

Hello all of you frequent visitors! Sorry to say that I haven't posted in awhile simply because I left my camera elsewhere... but don't worry, I'll be getting it back today!
We had a busy few days without the camera-- traveling to Virginia to visit the Bluesteens, cleaning up the house post-holidays, etc.
Ollie can now hold his head up pretty well and has taken to spitting up a bit more than usual-- not quite as bad as his brother. I spent all day yesterday getting the 3-6 month clothes down from the attic, washing them, and organizing the closet and drawers with them. Big boy is definitely over 12 lbs., and that is the standard maximum for 0-3 month clothes. Also, he is seriously not fitting well in his size one diapers. They are supposed to hold kids up to 14 lbs.; size two begins at 12 lbs and goes to 16, I think. Anyway, you know me; that kid is wearing the size ones until we run out! I have an unopened case and I'm hoping that my mom can return it at Babies R Us and get the next size up, no problem. I know you can do that at Wal-Mart, but I despise that store (especially the one in Howell). I'm also thinking about the best way to go about unloading all of T's old cloth diapers. We've decided to start fresh with all new ones for Ollie. I'll have to check out diaperswappers.com soon, as time is running out for doing things like this. My class starts in two weeks, I have to start planning T's birthday party, and then I'll be much busier than I am now!