kinky-haired rat.

ahem. {cough,cough} 

Naughty? Or Nice?

Perhaps they got themselves into an ice-cream induced coma....and forgot?



He's makin a list......(ahem......maverick)



He's checkin it twice (ahem......Chase)



(And even that cute little face won't save you....if you do it)

Because....he always finds out whose been naughty or nice.....

First it was Usual, then it got weird.

Usually, Leighton chooses to have his nap time or quiet time in our bed. Not always but mostly. And later that night, when I finally go to bed, I usually find several of his books somewhere in the sheets of our bed. It's just not that rare and I'm sorta used to it.

And it's never a rare occasion to see our 75lb GoldenDoodle curled up on our bed because he mistakenly thinks that he is 7 point 5 lb GoldenDoodle. And that there is in fact a spot for him on our bed.

There isn't Maverick. There isn't.

But....regardless of our hopes and dreams, Maverick typically ends up sprawled out, spread out, what have you, in our bed.



Day or night. Go ahead, Maverick, make yourself comfortable. I'm sure no one will notice when you shift your huge rump. (certainly not my shins!) Ahem....I digress.



It's also not terribly unusual to have the "quiet time" morph itself into an unintended nap time. As a result, it is not unusual to see this little punk all hunkered down, holding his books, snuggly in our bed. He's pretty cute so I really don't mind. Usually.



However.......

however, finding a big, yellow, blow-up lion hunkered down with the two of them in my bed, is where things cross the line and turn downright weird.



Weird.weird.weird. I tell you.


And that my friends, is when I turn around, tip-toe out of the room and go back to my work pretending that THAT there is not a huge, yellow blow-up lion in my bed.

Not normal.......fargo momblogtographer

One day..........

I heard this. Coming from my bedroom.

That would be chase crying. (as shown by a brightly lit up baby monitor) which sits right next to our bed. derrick's side. one in which maverick frequently frequents when derrick is at work.

After a few minutes, I walked into my bedroom to get something.

And I see this.

This would be our dog. If we can even call him that. Plugging his ears. Which happen to be situated very closely to the edge of the bed which happens to be situated very close to the baby monitor.

Normally, if you have a normal dog that is. One might think if you walked in the room and just happened upon this funny scene that your normal dog would wake up and jump off the bed. Or at least roll over.

But not this dog. Not our dog. He's a special one. He stays firmly planted, plugging his ears while I have myself a little photoshoot of him. Plugging his ears. To the sound of Chase crying.

Now that my friends, is NOT normal.

Chase eventually stopped crying and went back to sleep. By the way.

Me and Mav..........the mom blogger

Sometimes.....when Maverick and I get overwhelmed with dealing with three year old tantrums and one year olds biting us....

we lay on the floor and look at each other like this.

Seeing. Every once in a while.....Fargo photographer

Every once in a while Chase and Leighton nap TOGETHER. As in at the same time. And really when I say every once in a while I truly mean it. Leighton seems to be outgrowing his naps. Or so he thinks. I, on the otherhand, AM NOT.

So, when Leighton doesn't nap his next option is quiet time in his room with his books. If he's extra chatty that day, I put him in the next room so he doesn't wake Chase up.

Anyway, I really need the quiet time/nap time to get some of my work done. And normally that is what happens.

But every once in a while. Chase pulls a Leighton. And decides he's not gonna nap.

Except this day- Chase pulled a Leighton and Leighton pulled a Chase. Got that? Have I lost you? I didn't think so.

Clearly you know what I mean here is Leighton ACTUALLY napped for once and Chase decided he wasn't gonna.

And OK, so sometimes there is a huge little bit of disgust that comes upon me when I realize my "mom" and/or work time is over by the non-napping napperos in my house.

Because sometimes it's nice to just sit and drink a Monster once in a while. In peace. And quiet.

So, back to the day. Where we SAW. Together.

Chase and I were spending some quality alone time together. With Maverick of course.

And that is one of the benefits of one kid waking before the other and spoiling mom's naptime bliss. Is that we get some quality together time. And I mean that. That's good stuff man.

Even better than a monster. In peace. And quiet.

So..........we were having some close face cuddling time.

And he went for my glasses.

And of course I pulled his hand away and said "uh-uh, not mommy's glasses that cost money".

But then...he looked at me.

Like this.

And then he reached out. And I reached out with my glasses and liked seeing his little face in the. So I took a bunch of pictures. Big shocka there.

And I just couldn't take the heart-stabbing mommy-please-just-this-one-time eyes anymore and I gave straight in.

And Chase did this.

And this was my reward. What a cute reward.

After we continued the anti-naptime glasses silly festival, Chase got an idea.

Totally his own idea. Not his mother's. At all.

Sorry Maverick. So sorry. For all the awesome families who could have picked you.

You. got. us.

p.s. thanks for skipping your nap that day Chase. I loved it. Every stinkin minute!

love,mommy.

Nothing is safe. Nothing.

Anyone wanna venture a guess at what this is? Ok, at what this was?


Well, let's take a closer look, shall we?


Ahhh yes, it looks like a chewed up can of 1/2 full baby formula. Bingo.

Now....anyone wanna venture a guess as to what/who could have happened to this lovely, EXPENSIVE, tightly lidded can of baby formula.


I wonder who could be responsible for this monstrosity?


Hey Maverick, do you know who demolished and licked out the entire 1/2 can of Chase's baby formula??


Do you, Maverick?


Well, I guess we'll never know will we..........

Happy Birthday Maverick

Happy Birthday ole' boy. In spite of a rocky last few months between you and me...I guess I might keep you!

Do you remember when we got you? Our first year together was like pure bliss. Read this to see how it all happened.

And then we had our first baby. And you and Leighton did all sorts of cute things together.

And I really liked you..in spite of some of your downfalls.

Like this one.

And this one.

Not to mention the all the other stolen food off our counter tops.
Or the dirty diapers accidentally left on the floor.
Or the stealing of Leighton's toys leaving him in a tizzy.

I'll admit it....having 2 little ones and a huge mischievious dog can really push me to the limit some days.....

And then you look at me like this.


And I fall in love all over again.

Until the next dirty diaper that is.

Frosting for Educational Purposes Only

A few weeks ago, I decided that craft time and frosting really do mix.

Leighton and I had fun mixing and licking the cake batter.

Maverick had fun dreaming about licking the cake batter.

And as you can see below, Leighton just wasn't a big fan of frosting.

Battle of the Bib

*Rest assured that no children or animals were harmed during the making of this video series. Both participants enjoyed every moment of this.

Round 1 (ding, ding)

Round 2 (ding, ding)

In case you are wondering who won the battle- it was neither of them.Mom and dad won because after it was over they were both so tired they took a nap and we got some peace and quite. :)

Our dog doubles for a body pillow..