You know that expression…"like a deck chair off the titanic"? Well, my deck chair was 3 pounds this week upon weigh in at Weight Watchers. So three pounds the first week wasn’t bad (Beth beat me by .6 pounds- ugh) and it’s at least some progress. Trying to be so good and it’s so hard. So. hard. But I’m doing it. And checking in here can only help keep me on track.

We had an emergency on the wrapping front tonight. Jack needed one of his school text books covered. And really, I’m no good at that at all. Which really is surprising with all my craftiness of scrapbooking, right? But wrapping things is not within the realm of my craftiness- presents, books, etc. They come out all lumpy with an excess of paper and crooked. So I called for reinforcements- My mom! All my textbooks in elementary school were always wrapped perfectly with brown paper bags. No tape, just wrapped. And they stuck the whole year. Like a little miracle. So, she wrapped Jack’s book tonight and all was right with the world.

John’s gonna freak over this one. Here is Timmy playing at his best girl’s (that would be "glirl" in Timmy-speak) house this afternoon. He just loved the princess vanity! Well, for a few minutes anyway! Until he moved on to the princess figures-almost all of which he knew.  John wouldn’t let Timmy (or the big boys for that matter) have a play kitchen. EVER. That’s because, according to him, "a kitchen is not an appropriate toy for a boy ". Nevermind the fact that his best friend in the world is an executive chef in NYC! I also have pictures of Timmy playing in the PINK kitchen at Pottery Barn kids this summer on my cell. Of course, I sent those to John right away. He brought it on himself. Not to worry, Timmy has a playdate at his buddy J’s house tommorrow (J is all boy with all boy toys). All will be right with the world again.

A few recent Timmy-isms:

-I need sumpin’ (said while foraging thru my bag or opening the snack cabinet)

-Mommy? I love you sooooooo much!

-We’re still with the "I can’ts" (I can’t like it, I can’t do it…)

-Can sorta spell his name with a lot of help. But he knows T is for Timmy and M is for mommy, J is for Jack, P for Patrick and D for Daddy.

-loves taking off all his clothes and running around the house yelling "nakey boooooooooy".

-says his address and town when you ask where he lives. knows his birthday (which is coming up so soon)

-changes his mind every day on what kind of bigboy room he wants (superman, batman, buzz lightyear, and spiderman are the current favorites).

I took a few maternity shots for my friend S today- she is due in a few months with a boy! I’m so excited and warned her today that she will not be able to get rid of me and my camera when the little man makes his appearance. Here’s one from today. She’s got such a cute belly, right?

Not two things that usually go together, I know. But today, they do.

Joined Weight Watchers (ugh) yesterday with my friend Beth. It’s always easier when you do it with a friend. I haven’t been this fat in a looooong time- like maybe when I was pregnant, and that number from the scale was just GROSS. So I am going to work hard to stick with the program and lose 45 pounds. I did it before and lost over 30 pounds, so I know I CAN do it. The first two weeks just SUCK and I am not enjoying it. But, the weight watchers thing brings me to the housekeeping part…

I cleaned, and I mean CLEANED out the fridge- every bottle, can, container, shelf and drawer came out and was washed, dried and put back. Not a fun job at all and not something I look forward to doing, but it really had to be done. And now it looks so pretty. Plus I went to the fruit/veggie market in town and got some good stuff. I’m trying really hard to eat some fruit or salad everyday. Ewww- much rather have tons of carbs and chocolate. But I gotta. Eating that other stuff is how I got this way in the first place.

Today I took down and put away ALL of Christmas. All the outside decorations and lights, everything inside too- the tree, the boys trees, all ornaments, all stockings, all decor. After walking up and down two flights of stairs carrying that crap, I am officially exhausted. That tree is heavy! Plus, I walked to school to pick up the boys this afternoon. I haven’t been walking cause of the bunion/tendonitis thing, but I figure if I’m going to be walking every day for a week in Disney (and that is a lot of walking), I had better start now and see how it goes. And I got one whopping activity point for all of that on WW. Whoopee.

As for the lightsaber, Timmy’s Wednesday class was cancelled, so we now have Wednesdays off. Our one day without an activity (during the weekdays) so we spent the morning painting, playing, puzzeling, and having a lightsaber duel- all while I tried to finish the unpacking from Florida. The pictures aren’t great as I was trying to keep up my end of the duel with the green lightsaber so I was holding the camera with one hand, on an angle.

And today, Timmy told me "you’re my beeeeest friend". Gotta love that kid!

These pictures were taken by my "niece" E who is 14 years old. She is John’s goddaughter and her parents are our good friends- the "Bart" family. I did their xmas shoot and card. E is taking Photo 1 in high school and these are for her final exam. If she dosen’t get an A+++, I’m going to have to have words with that teacher. You know I must really love her because not only do I let her watch my kids (teehee), I let her use my camera!!! We had some fun in photoshop with some actions and effects. I think she really liked using the SLR- she definitely has the eye for it! Don’tcha think?

and really, I’m not happy about it. At. All. Even though the last 2.5 days of our vacation was pretty damn cold for Florida, it was still a shade better than it is here. The flight back was thankfully fine although we did get stuck in a holding pattern over JFK for about 45 minutes, plus the fact that Timmy decided it would be a good idea to NOT NAP on the plane- or at all that day. Fun.

Overall, it was a super vacation. I got lots of relaxing time in, read 5 books (in 9 days), got 3 massages, ate at all my favorite Florida restaurants, hung out by the pool ALONE reading and listening to John’s my ipod, swam in the pool with the kids, went to the racetrack and to the orange bowl. And got a good tan, which I’m sure is already being sucked out of my skin by the subzero temps. I wish that we had the kind of $ where we could all be snowbirds. I would live that life in a second.

Some of the highlights in pictures. 1. Timmy on the plane. 2. the boys in the pool (Timmy made it in this year with no swimmy diapers- taking a chance, but it was all good). 3. Timmy in pool with a lift from daddy. 4. paradise  5. more Timmy pool. 6. more paradise..the view from Roman’s snack bar where we had lunch everyday- part of the apartment complex. 7. Patrick in the pool. 8. New Year’s- the big boys stayed up til midnight. John didn’t make it past 10pm. Fireworks over Hallandale Beach as seen from the balcony. 9. Boys conferring on the gameboy (the DSes from Christmas were charging from overuse). 10.Jack being handsome and cooperative. 11. Timmy looking for "pirate ships".  12.John on vacation- smiling and everything. And he wasn’t even drunk. 13. Timmy and his "blooooooo ice cream"- sky cream gelati from Dulce Vita- every night. He is already missing that. 14. Patrick enjoying his gelati. 15.Timmy sucked into the gameboy vortex. He has no idea what he is doing, but loves it anyway. 16.Hakka and the boys at the track- choosing their horses. 17. Boys at Gulfstream. Patrick won one race, Jack was all pouty cause he didn’t. But Patrick with the good heart shared his winnings with his brother. Gulfstream is so pretty- if they could just get rid of all the skells it would be a wonderful place!   All the pictures from the trip are in an album on the left. The pictures from the Orange Bowl and from the boys only Dolphins vs. Bengals game to follow soon. We took disposable cameras to those, so gotta get them developed first.