Free to Be

I've been getting a hard time from some of my family members about the fact that I "allow" the Bro to wear tutus, shiny purple beads, tiaras, Snow White costumes...but many of these same people applauded me when I allowed Natalie to wear "little boy" underwear. I don't get it. Why is it ok for her, but not for him? The way I see it, Natalie and I are teaching him very important lessons about accessorizing so that one day, should he fall madly in love with a girl, he will appreciate her femininity - truly valuable. Between Nat and myself, he may end up being the perfect boy, perhaps with a love of the ballet.

When I showed my brother the picture posted above, he immediately responded that he was going to Toys R Us to buy the Bro a GI Joe "action figure."

" Um...is that like a doll?"

"No! NO!" he says. "It's an action figure."

"You know Natalie is going to want to play with it."

"Yah, I know. That's ok," he says.

Harumpf.

Rundown

Hi, remember me? Friend, wife, mother of two, used to be an avid blogger...there are a few things contributing to my absence.

1. The discovery of Dexter. This disturbing, yet highly addictive show easily ate up three hours of my life each night. I had to keep watching. But we caught up on Season 3 and now have to wait until mid-August to get Season 4. So in the meantime, we have started watching Weeds, which is much easier to walk away from to do other things.

2. Camp, swim lessons, painting rainbows, playgrounds, playdates, barbecues, birthday parties, trips to NJ...Last week, I tried to make a date with my dear friend Steve and informed him that I wasn't available until August 9th. AUGUST 9th! And I am pretty sure I went and booked some stuff since then that makes me less available.

3. The destructive force better known as Hurricane Joe. I can't take my eyes off of him for one minute. Not one! Because in that minute, that blue eyed little cherub as dropped no less than five toys in the toilet bowl, plus all the toilet paper and his happy splashing around in there, eaten at least a handful of dog food, dropped no less than three things in the dog's water bowl (including my phone) and is happily splashing around or dumping the water all over the kitchen floor, had at least fifteen cents in his mouth, and is precariously perched on a chair that he will fall off of and ultimately cry about. Not one minute!

Now we are packing up to leave the Bay State for the next two weeks. Poof! Two weeks, gone! Luckily, one of those will be spent fist pumping on the Jersey Shore. Maybe we could record ourselves and sell it to MTV since we are real Italians...I'm just sayin'

So that's the rundown, and I am a little run down.

Natalie No. 5

My baby girl is five. Her aging process seems to be which similar to how a dog ages, becuase one might believe, regardless of her height and lack of permanant teeth, that she is in fact thirteen. But she's not, even though she would like to be. But still, she is one whole hand and that is a super big deal. I have kindly asked her to stop growing, but she gives me a dimpled smile, shrugs her shoulders and says, "Mommy, I can't help it. I have to grow."

Five things everyone should know about Natalie:

1. Her favorite colors are pink, purple, and blue. She likes all the other colors, but those are her most favorite and she tries to incorporate them into all of her outfits.

2. Her favorite princess is Ariel. And she likes to dance around the house singing, "I am the beautful princess, Ariel."

3. She likes a majority of processed breakfast meats - sausage, bacon, taylor ham

4. Cheese is her favorite food, she likes them all, including blue and feta. She refuses to eat melted cheese (ie grilled cheese sandwhich) unless it is in the form of a quesadilla. In this case, she will deepen her voice, and repeat the word quesadilla with five year old enthusiasm.

5. She can complete 300 piece puzzles by herself and is quite the talented builder of blocks and legos.

Summertime

and the livin' is easy...mostly because it is full of hot dogs, hamburgers, sprinklers, a sandy beach, and plenty of ice cream.

Have I mentioned that it is good to be me? 'cause it is :)