Wyatt-isms

It's been a long time coming since I did an update on the kids and their everyday quirks. I try and leave running lists around the house of the funny things they do and say, but they are at such a perfect and cute age right now, there is just too much to write down and remember. Here are some randoms from Wyatt...

One day Wyatt woke up and informed us that his new name was Dr. Bean. He's always renaming himself (i.e. Wyatt Reid Dinosaur Nag, Steve, and this past week - Ellian?), but for whatever reason, Dr. Bean became completely offensive to him when he decided that wasn't his name anymore. If you call him Dr. Bean, he throws a hissy fit like no other. It has since become part of our permanent vocabulary and now anyone who acts like a fool under the Harbin roof is dubbed "Dr. Bean" until they straighten up.

After Wyatt goes to the bathroom, he bellows "I POOOO-OOOOPED!" until someone comes to rescue him. The planet pretty much shakes when he yells it. You've probably heard him. He poops more than anyone I know too. The best part is that he usually waits until I'm in the shower to take a dump. I can't tell you how many times I've had to get out of the shower, dripping in bubbles, and wipe that kid's booty. It's tortureous.

Wyatt has this "tool" he calls the "necker player". Basically, it's an oddly shaped wooden puzzle piece that happens to be Donald Duck's arm and actually resembles something of a drill. He is one with the necker player. He "fixes" things constantly and is always very concerned as to the whereabouts of his beloved necker player. It comes on road trips all the time. The other day, he stacked a bunch of legos and called it his "necker scope" which is actually the second scope that he has constructed. The first one he made at Home Depot that he calls his "skizz scope". (It's actually a functional periscope.) Both scopes are very far and distant seconds to the necker player.

The other day, he came up to me and said, "Mommy, I have a looooong peep!" (refering to his baby bits). I fell out laughing because I'm mature like that, and then congratulated him with a high-five. (I had no idea what the proper mommy protocol was for something like that - I'm sure that wasn't it.) Later that afternoon at my parent's house, I started to tell my mom the story, which Wyatt actually overheard and quickly offered up, "Hey Oma! You wanna see my long peep?" as he started to drop trow. Thank goodness we were able to get that under control before he had a chance to play show-and-tell with the cashier lady at Publix! Wow.

I also have to brag on the little dude for a minute because he's so sweet too. Yesterday, he was headed to the potty and just as he got there, Callie said she had to pee too. He let her go first even though he was dancing around like a madman. He is always concerned about Callie and everyone else. The other day, his teacher pulled me aside and told me that she had accidentally picked two line-leaders for the day (one of them being Wyatt) and when she put Wyatt at the front of the line, the other boy started crying. When Wyatt heard him, he went over and apologized to the little boy, gave him a hug, and told him that he could be the line leader. The teacher said she almost started crying because Wyatt had been so thoughtful. Little man.

Tough Gurs

I have so many half-written posts, it's ridiculous. I also have some posts that are completely finished but kinda smell like dirty laundry which makes me nervous to commit to posting them. One day, I'll throw caution to the wind and actually press the publish button. For now though, I'll just settle on a quick update instead.

My Cogalicious was so sick on Monday. She was puking her brains out. I'm so lucky that I haven't had to deal with the barfs up until now except for Wyatt puking once when he was 2. I'm a germaphobe like no other and douse my kids in hand-sanitizer constantly. Plus, we give them Flinstone Immunity every morning and I can't believe how much that combo has kept us out of the doctor's office.

Anyway, my sweet and pretty girl nugget was so sick and through it all, she smiled and told me that she felt "good". Poor thing. She's so sweet that it just seems wrong for her ever to have to feel that terrible. She shook it off in 24 hours though and although she's still not all that interested in eating, she's back to her normal fluttery self.

I've been dealing with the weirdest thing too. A couple weeks ago, on a night that Brent was out of town, I suddenly had this really weird squishy sensation up in my brain which lead to an intense dizziness and numbness in my arms. It scared me so bad that I called my parents and they were able to come stay with me just to make sure everything was okay - which it totally was, but also led to the onset of a three day long headache.

Because it scared me so badly and because I've been progressively getting more headaches and migranes over the last few years, I decided to go to a chiropractor to see if it might help. He took an x-ray to see what my deal was and the results were shocking! He actually thought I had been in a car accident or something (which I haven't) because of the severity of misalignment of the bones in my neck. Instead of having a normal cervical curvature, my neck looked like a jacked up staircase with even an inverted curve in some places. It was bizarre! My best guess is that the damage came from when I was competitively swimming and hit my head on the bottom of the pool on too deep of a dive one time. I'm not sure though.

I've been at his office almost everyday for two weeks now and it has made such a difference! Although it was really tough and painful at first, he almost has my neck back in proper alignment and I'm amazed at the difference. At first, it was hard for me to submit to all the Jackie Chan-ish, banzai-like, neck-cracking maneuvers which didn't sound healthy at all. But now, I look forward to going in and getting a good crackin'! (So gross. I know.)

My silver lining was when the chiropractor told me that I was a tough chick for dealing with that kind of neck and tension issues for so many years without ever knowing it. I think my weakling biceps inflated a good two inches when he told me that and I kinda felt like I wanted to get into a wrestling ring and beat up some she-gorilla.

Weekend Pics

Castaway Cay

Our last day was spent at Castaway Cay which is Disney's private island. To be honest with you, I wasn't overly excited about a beach day since we have all the beach here that we need. (I know - spoiled rotten. I'm aware.) I was however, looking forward to a very chill day that we could actually relax.

Of course, the kids were up before the break of dawn and we ate before most people were even up. We decided to explore the island a little bit before we even got dressed. Callie got to meet Chip & Dale and Goofy without waiting in line. Wyatt met a Johnny Depp pirate guy since they dumped the ship from Pirates of the Caribbean right off of the beach.

While we were scoping out the perfect chairs to creep, Callie and Wyatt started getting upset as it was dawning on them that this day was going to be nothing more than hanging out at the beach. This was girlfriend's reaction:



Oh, yes. She's for real. Divalicious!

We met Mickey Mouse on the path on our way back to the ship to get our beach stuff. He grabbed Wyatt's hand like they were old pals and they walked together for awhile. It was too cute and one of my favorite moments of the whole trip.

Basically, we ate lunch and snorkled before meltdown mania got too overwhelming and we were forced to plunk the little suckers down for a nap. We hung out on the balcony, had lunch, and drank while they snoozed. Before dinner, we dropped the kids off again at the Oceaneer's Club to learn a dance routine that they later performed onstage in one of the auditoriums with Minnie and Mickey. It was the coolest thing ever! Brent and I met them in the theater to watch the performance. We were those proud parents with the video camera and everything. So cute!

We were sad going to bed that night, knowing we were going to wake back up in Florida again. It was heartbreaking to leave and the kids didn't want to go either. Luckily, we have another one planned already for next year so it's kind of a crutch when we feel bummed about wanting to go again. No doubt, we're addicted!

Bahamian Nuggets

We woke up and ate breakfast on the back deck which is one of my favorite parts of cruising. It's an awesome way to start the day for sure! We arrived in the Bahamas shortly after breakfast and headed to Atlantis for the day!

I was so excited to be back and anxious for Brent to see Atlantis too. We toured the Dig first which completely creeped the kids out because it's so dark and cave-like in there. The first room was a domed area full of lobsters and Callie freaked out like her hair was on fire ensuing a chain reaction in the monkey dude to also scream in hysterics. People stared. We ran away.

We had a really fun and lazy day enjoying the waterpark. It was taunting to see all the fun big slides and having to bench it next to the kiddie puddles. But, we were able to take them around the very non-lazy river in our tubes which was awesome. They loved the class 3 rapids which was ridiculous since a few lobsters scared the peep right out of them.

That night, we had dinner at the Animator's Palate on the boat which starts out as a black and white restaurant and changes to color by the end of the evening. Callie was in girlfriend heaven because it was kind of like eating dinner inside of a coloring book. She still hasn't stopped talking about it.

After dinner, the kids went to the Oceaneer's Club for awhile (woot! woot!) before we all headed to the Toy Story musical. It was really the cutest show ever. The costumes were amazing, as was the set, and the fact that it was able to hold the attention span of all the toddlers (and their dads) completely floored me. It was good.

We never made it to the pirate party because it didn't start until 10 and after such a long day, there was no way the kids were going to make it. We were able to pull them out of bed to watch the late night fireworks from our porch though. It was so pretty over the open ocean!

So fun, So fun, So fun!

Girlfriend is totally addicted to the "aqua water!" just like her momma now. I'm not sure how healthy it was to introduce her to crack at such a young age. The monkey dude whispered, "Bye bye, Mickey Mouse boat. I love you!", as we drove away from the port yesterday. Their verdict was hands down Disney Boat over Disney World. No hesitation. No twinado disagreement.

The nuggets started shrieking when they first saw the boat as we drove in to the port. Both of them were so well behaved during and after the road trip, sans nap, and sans food that I was fully prepared to see anal dwelling monkeys spray forth from Mickey's butt once we boarded. It was not the case and we actually didn't experience a single meltdown until the last day. They did awesome!

We boarded at 3:00 and hauled booty to the dining room since none of us had eaten anything all day. (We were afraid we were going to be late and avoided all pygmy complaints with gum.) Then, we went to explore our room and staying true to nugget form, Thing 1 and Thing 2 dropped trow and made themselves comfortable.

Then, we had to do the life boat drill which always feels like the biggest chore on the planet. It's the thing that stands in the way of letting go of all responsibility and starting your vacation. The mother of all thorns in our Bahamas-bound sides.

Then, we headed to the top deck for the sail away party which was so cute. Up until that point, Wyatt was still saying, "I want to go on the Mickey Mouse boat!" He couldn't grasp that we were already on the boat (probably because it was so big) and had yet to see Mickey Mouse so he was nearing the tail end of his patience. They cheered and danced, and celebrated by downing a virgin daiquiri in less than 3 minutes. I did too although mine was laced with rum.

They were so excited and hyped up after that, there was no way we were going to make it through a seated dinner. Although he tried, Wyatt couldn't contain himself any longer after the appetizer and started wallowing around and complaining of fake belly aches so he could get up and walk around to explore the ship. Callie caught on to his jig and mimicked the same phony tummy moans. So, we left and had dinner sent to our room instead. Little turds.

Triangle face at Triton's

We ended up tooling around the boat for a little while and testing out the Oceaneer's Club. Brent and I were definitely overcautious at first. Dropping our kids off with random strangers on a boat and just walking away is not something that ranks up there on the warm and fuzzy scale. But, they put special bracelets on the kids and gave us a pager just in case they needed to contact us. We gave it 30 anal-clenching minutes before going back to pick them up. Honestly, we had to drag them away. They were having so much fun! There were so many different activities and plenty of supervisors there to make it feel safe and comfortable. Aside from the characters, it's the facet of the ship that sets Disney apart from other cruise lines and was a great way for the nuggets to burn of that extra hyper and sugar-induced energy.

On our way back to the room, we took them to the lobby to meet Mickey Mouse. Wyatt wasn't interested because he said Mickey was too scary but Callie was in love and rubbed her stalker cheek all over Mickey's face. She gave him a page she had colored up at the Oceaneers club and Mickey drew a heart in the air for her. She was in heaven. It was so stinkin precious!

Some updatage...

We have successfully completed the first two weeks of homeschooling and it is awesome! Seriously, I never thought homeschooling would be this fulfilling, but the kids are rockin' it and I'm loving having a hand in teaching them stuff. I definitely miss the few hours of freedom that I would have gotten from dropping them off somewhere, but at home, I know what they are doing, I know how they are doing, and I can move each one along at their own pace! So far, I couldn't be happier with the way things have worked out! I never thought we would all enjoy it this much!

Bible school is so super precious too! Last week, I was really anxious about leaving them in their classroom and was nervous they would be upset when I walked away. It helped me out a lot knowing I was just going to be down the hall, but both of them couldn't have cared less about me leaving. When I picked them up, the stinkers pretended not to know me so they could play longer! Wyatt even started crying when it was time to go. They made a little craft, went to music class, and had free time to play with other sticky half pints. Their teacher is super sweet too. I can't believe how much the preschool situation was stressing me out and how well it all seemed to have worked itself out! It's been such a relief!

Anyway, our Labor Day weekend was fabulicious! The weather was perfect too! We wallowed in football heaven for the entire day on Saturday. Sunday, we packed up the kids and headed down to Jacksonville. We marinated ourselves in chlorine and infused ourselves with Red Stripe. We let the kids pool party til they puked which led to some very late night pool partyage. Good times, good eats, good music, and good hookahing! So fun!

Here's a little video of their color changing pool that Callie won't stop talking about. When she first saw it, her eyes were huge as if she had never imagined something so cool! She was in rainbow heaven! It was adorbs!

Ghost Hunters

I hope you all enjoyed your nice long Labor Day weekend as much as we did! I'll post some pictures in a minute but first I wanted to share something ultra creeptacular!

I have always thought our bonus room was haunted (even though our house was built brand new about a month after we got married). A few months after the kids were born, I headed upstairs to check on them in the middle of the night. Brent had left the TV on in the bonus room so I walked in there to turn it off and was met with this bone-chilling presence. Moonlight was pouring in through one of the windows and all of a sudden, a black figure stood before the window shielding 100% of the moonlight. It took everything in my power not to scream in fear but I was so shaken up that I didn't sleep well for the better part of a year.

It wasn't just me either. The same kinds of things were happening to Brent too. I felt like it was an older gentleman who was kind of pissed off and Brent felt the same way too. One night, when there was a baby staying up in that room, I jolted awake to the intensely loud and angry screaming of a old man. The room would also, on occasion, trigger the hairs on the back of your neck to stand on end without any reason. Pictures we took up there showed "orbs" which are supposedly indicators of lingering spirits. All of it scared the crap out of me. It got to the point that I would start talking to the ghost if I had to walk into the bonus room at night and tell him that I was sorry for disturbing him.

I swear I'm sane.

Luckily for me, I have an uncle who is completely fascinated with ghost hunting and paranormal stuff and last Christmas he debunked our bonus room ghost. It turned out that he was able to pinpoint an extremely high EMF field in our bonus room near the window where the figure appeared, that was just the result of an area of very thick electric wiring within the walls and floor of that room. Strong EMF fields can actually trigger hallucinations and uncomfortable sensations in people who are sensitive to those energies. We happen to be sensitive, I guess.

It's been great knowing that our "ghost" was nothing more than spot-specific, heavy wiring and it's definitely been easier to sleep at night and walk into the bonus room during dark hours. My uncle though, is continuously on the hunt for paranormal activities and a few weekends ago, on a ghost tour in a St. Augustine cemetery, he caught something on camera as he was casually taking pictures hoping to pick something up that he couldn't see with his own eyes. (The second picture is one that he took a second or two right after the first shot.)


Oogie Boogie.

And on a similar note, here is a precious picture of my nuggets all dressed up in their Halloween costumes for this year! They are ready already! I can't believe that this will already be their fourth Halloween! It's their favorite holiday and these spooky babies have been waiting for Halloween to get here all year! They are so excited!