Pumpkin Carving!!

Tonight was Pumpkin Carving night. Holly, Dylan, Makayla and Baylee came over and brought their pumpkins. We spent lots of time carving and scraping....here is our end result!

Jubilee enjoyed the pumpkins. Last year she would only touch the pumpkin guts once. This year she really loved digging in!

Happy Birthday Jason!

Today is my brother-in-law's birthday. He's old. But fun. We love him. As Juju as said all day today, "Happy Burtday Unc!!"

Im Now a Dove Girl

Ive never bought Dove products before, but Im going to start.

Anyone who knows me, knows Ive not always conformed to the mainstream concept of beauty. Stick thin waifs with fake boobs, a mystic tan, and a head full of bleach blonde hair extentions will never make my, "Wow, she's gorgeous" list. In fact, like most realistic women, I have come to hate the Hollywood/Media machine that takes talented beautiful women and turns them into Britney Spears or Lindsey Lohan.

I once had a friend,...who married another one of my friends - and they'll remain nameless. He became addicted to porn. Porn in all mediums that escalated to the break up of their marriage. His reason for leaving his wife and two children? "She wasnt good enough." The standard by which he was measuring his wife was a Porn Star. The perfect hairless body, the perfect fake ta-tas, the perfectly fake sexual experiences. To him, a woman should be, act, and look like the actresses, (using that term VERY loosely - no pun intended...hahaha), in porn films. I think society, the entertainment industry, and the media are doing the same thing. Creating these fake, unrealistic goals of what a woman should look like...most of us fall short and are being taught to be ashamed of it.

Check out this video: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/ I love that Dove has put this together...and put it out there for everyone to see. Plus the Self-Esteem project is just what I think young girls need these days. If I had a ton o' money, I would put together a similar project. I think low self-esteem in pre-teen and teenage girls is an epidemic. I mostly certainly know, (partially by experience), that it is a pathway to drugs, eating disorders, self-image distortions, and a poor judgement and problem solving. Particularly when it comes to men. Imagine if some of those poor choices and self-hatred could be untaught? Or warded off all together? Imagine what an intelligent, confident young woman would not have to overcome if she didnt buy into the "Im not good enough" cult?

I am hoping I can instill those exact values in my own daughter. Spending her life comparing herself to her own goals and gifts and not those fake concepts of beauty and worthiness set forth by those around her. Believing in herself. That would be a beautiful thing.

Whats Happenin'?

Well, the short answer to that question is, not much. We're just living life and the days seem busy even thought there is not much to speak of. Just the daily grind of being the very entertained mom of Jubilee and what not!

Saturday we went to the Harvest Carnival. Its a fundraiser for Jubilee's Pre-3 school. We made a family trip of it taking Holly, Dylan and my Dad. Mom Botts was in Seattle with Aunt Jan. The five of us piled into the Grocery Getter and went to the local community gym where the parents of the Co-op transformed it into a Halloween/Harvest fun fair.

It was fun seeing all the kids in costume and even some of the parents in costume. It was also quite interesting to see all the kids, their parents, and how Juju interacted with them. Jubilee doesnt get much socialization with kids her own age beyond her one day a week at school. Once she hits 3, that will change since there are lots of activities for 3 years and up at our church, but until then, we're limited. And its something we need to work on, really! How do I know this? Well, I got my first clue upon entering the "play area" at the carnival and seeing Jubilee announce with moxie that every toy was, "MINE!!" When I explained to her that she had to be polite and say please, she would run up to a toy and say, "Kids! Please my turn? Kids! Wait! My turn please!" The other startling clue was when she went up to a boy Winnie the Pooh and pushed him because.... well, Im not really sure what infraction he committed - besides dressing up as Winnie the Pooh. But she wasnt happy. Jubilee was made to apologize to Pooh. Other than those mishaps in the play area, Jubilee had a good time. She ate pizza and candy, got her face painted and even had a picture key chain made with her cousin Dylan.

Among the adult activities was a silent auction and raffle. Nothing in the auction caught my eye, but the raffle had two packages with really good photographers so I entered both of those. Holly bought a bunch of tickets and spead them around to the various prizes. Including, and Im not sure why she did this, in the bag that went with the prize that she put together, and the Peninsula Daily News donated. It was a DVD player with a basket movie kit. It had soda, popcorn, and tons of candy. In fact, she bought all the candy and soda herself to go with the PDN DVD player. As she dropped her ticket in the bag she said, "Watch...the one thing I win will be the stuff I donated." Sure enough...she called me the next day to confirm her premonition. She had won the DVD and movie basket. HAHA

After the carnival we dropped Dad Botts off at his second home, The Eagles. Its a club, bar, pool table place. You have to be a member to go in and we sat in the Grocery Getter waiting for him to cross the foyer and enter the bar area. I like to do that because it seems like such a forbidden place. Im not a member so of course I want to go in. I like to look in the door as he opens it to see what sort of secrets lay inside. As my sister pointed out, we expect him to open the door and everyone to yell, "DAVE!" like they did for Norm on Cheers.

Jubilee is still doing great with using the potty. However she is no where near ready for no diapers at night time. She still has a very wet diaper in the morning. Yesterday I forgot to put a diaper on her when she took a nap and she woke up wet. The only day time accident she's had is at the store. Holly, Dylan, Juju and I went there to pick out stuff for the above mentioned movie basket. Jubilee loves balloons and I let her pick out one to take home. No sooner did we get back to the car when the balloon flew off her wrist and into the air. She stared at it for a minute and said, "Oh no!" Then the suprise turned to utter shock and sadness when she realized it wasnt coming back. She stared up at the sky and her balloon drifting away and cried the most pitiful cry. "My baaalllllooooooooooooooooooooooon!" Holly, the dutiful Auntie, took Jubilee back into the store to pick out another balloon. I was just going to let Jubilee mourn the loss of her Micky Mouse balloon, but Holly would have none of that. They went inside the store, got the balloon, and got in line to pay for it. This is where Jubilee stated she had to go potty. In these situations you can usually ask her to hold it and she will. But just then a man cut in front of Holly. The wait was more than Juju could bare, and she peed right there in line, on the floor. Holly said that instead of Juju feeling bad she had an accident, she just announced to everyone as loud as she could, "I PEED! I PEEEED!"

Thats all thats happenin'! I do want to do a special shout-out to my cousin Janet who made this AWESOME water hose art for the silent auction. She works her booty off all day and still had time to do that. Thanks Janet!

Conversations with Jubilee

"Mom-mom?"
"Yes Juju?"
"nooooo... I Jubee!" (Jubilee)
"Oh..Ok, Yes Jubilee?"
"Mom-mom?"
"Yes Jubilee?"
"Nooooo... I Gorgeous!" (Nickname from her Dad)
"Ok, Yes Gorgeous?"
"ummm...Hi!"
______________

"Jubilee, what would you like for breakfast?"
*finger tapping on her chin...* "hmmm.... woooorrrrmmmmmsss!"
______________

"Mom-mom?"
"Yes?"
"I want a baby brother."
*blinks* "You want a baby brother??!!" *wondering where the heck that came from*
"Yeah! PLEAAAAAAAASE baby brother! I want a baby brother!"
"Baby brothers arent all that fun. They stink, they steal your toys, they will toot in your face and they pee with the toilet seat up! Do you still want a baby brother?"
*pause thinking about it all* "..... YEAH!"
"No, we wont be getting a baby brother...sorry."
*crying hysterically like I just refused to feed her for a week* "PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE!"
"No baby brothers. How about a popsicle instead?"
"...Okay!"
______________

In Safeway in a VERY loud voice:
"OH NO MOMMY! I tooooooted!"
*hurrying to hide on the next isle* "Ok, what do you say then?"
"Scoopsy" (excuse me)
"Can you use your quiet voice?"
"Cant! I HAPPYYYYYYYY!"
"You can still be happy and use your quiet voice."
"Like in library? I TOOTED AGAAAAAAIIIIIN!"
"Juju. Be quiet please. Yes, like in the library."
"Scoopsy..... I STINKYYYYY!"
________________

Thank You Steph!!!

I just had to post a little thank you to Steph who gave me a great idea for Juju's ill-fitting pants problem. I spent a couple hours, (yes hours, I know about as much of sewing as I do football), sewing hooks and eyes on Juju's pants. Right now she is comfortably wearing a size 18 month embellished jeans and they arent falling off her tooshy! Thank you Steph!

Ma Petite

I have run into a bit of a problem when it comes to Jubilee and her clothing. I say "a bit" even though it annoys me to no end because in the grand scheme of life, this is nothing to complain about. But, when you buy your kid an adorable outfit that you just love to see them in, you want it to fit, right?

Jubilee has always been on the small side. Even in the womb she was small. During the endless ultrasounds I was given, I never failed to hear, "Her limbs seem a little small...". Most of my family is short so Jubilee never really had a chance to be statuesque. However, as she has gotten older and grown, she has always stayed on the same growth curve....right around the 1-3 percentile. So, there was no alarm for her size....shes just petite and thats ok!

Except now, Im annoyed with how clothes are fitting. Its not uncommon to see Jubilee running around hiking her pants up. And, since she is potty trained, there is no bulk of a diaper to hold up the pants. So you get an idea of her size:

Weight: 23lbs
Height: about 31 inches

For comparison sake, look at Mr. Marcus stats here. Marcus is the handsome boy of some friends of mine in North Carolina. Jubilee is just a few pounds more than a 6 month old baby! Yikes!

Jubilee is 2 years and almost 5 months. In shirts and dresses she can wear 24 months...they are baggy but they are just long enough to accomodate her long trunk. Well, long in comparison to her legs. In skirts and shorts she can easily wear any thing from 6 to 12 months. For long pants and jeans....practically nothing fits. Either the legs are too short, or the butt and waist is too big. Its fall here now and Jubilee has no long pants to wear! We are resorting to lots of dresses, skirts, and even shorts with thick cotton tights. (which are ill-fitting also - bunching the length of the tights up around her thighs.)

So whats a Mommy to do? I cheat. Yep, Im that annoying person who switches sizes on the outfits in the store. Just last week we got Jubilee the cutest pink and burgandy jogging suit that came as a set. Top and jacket - 24 months, bottoms - 12 months. Somewhere someone is going to buy the same outfit in the reverse sizes. Oopsy! Hopefully some parents with a pair-shaped kid will be very happy.

I have also resorted to pinning Jubilee's pants in the back. Ive tried safety pins, (they are NOT deserving of their moniker), an office supply clip, and those gatherers that they used to put on the back of sack dresses people wore in the 90s.

Hopefully her little bum and legs will grow soon. Otherwise as an adult she will look like a tomato on toothpicks and we'll have to change her name to Bob.

Where Is My Little Juju?

Where did my little girl go? Everyone told me it goes by fast...watching your kids grow up. But seriously, did someone take my baby and replace her with this two year old going on 12?

Yesterday we spent an hour cleaning up Jubilee's room, packing old clothes up, and rearranging for her toddler bed. Up until now we were still using the crib and I kind liked having a place to corral her. But since she became totally potty trained for day time, she's been waking up at night wanting to go potty. So I figured it was time for a bed she could get out of on her own so she could start learning how to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night too.

Like almost every big change in Jubilee's life, I try to read up on it first so I know what to expect. I have heard some not-to-pleasant stories about kids being up all night, bouncing in and out of their new beds with the new found freedom. Bedtime suddenly becoming a nightmare and a power struggle and making the parent wonder if their child should ever have come out of the crib.

So I was prepared. We got some new Dora the Explorer bed linens. This was something that I wasnt thrilled about. I dont really like to put my kid in "character" type stuff. Especially clothes. I swore she wouldnt own any apparel with Disney or other cartoony characters on it... and to this day I only caved on a pair of super cute Boohbah tennis shoes that she only wears for play and a couple sets of Dora pajamas. But when we went to this really great 2nd hand store for kids here in town called Twice Upon a Child, I couldnt resist the Dora the Explorer sheets, pillowcase and blanket for 10 bucks!

Dylan and Makayla were here after school and they helped us rearrange her room and convert the crib into the toddler bed. As we were doing this, Jubilee got very agitated. She was VERY worried about her crib being taken apart. When we took the mattress out she kept telling us, "put it back! put it back!". I tried explaining she was going to get a big girl bed and that it was going to be cool....but she just didnt believe me. That is, until we got it all set up, Dora trappings and all. Well thats all it took! She climbed in and out of her own bed probably 50 times just because she could! When it was finally bed time we kept the same routine; shower, brush teeth, jammies, mommy's bed for one cartoon, read a story, then bedtime. She layed right down, snuggled her babies and went to sleep. No struggle, no up and down out of bed every 10 mins...nothing! Piece of cake!

Its almost 6am now and she should be waking within the next hour. We'll see if she gets up on her own or calls for me like she did in the crib!

Seriously tho, shouldnt this growing up thing go just a little bit slower!?

My New Parrot!!

I have a new parrot! She is very colorful, has blue eyes, and loves to talk up a storm! She has a playful personality, is so very friendly, and loves to play with all her toys. She is mucho smart too. In fact, she is so smart that she has taken to repeating everything we say! Even things I dont even realize are a part of my regular vocabulary. My new parrots name??
JUBILEE!

Oh yes friends... the time has come. The time where you stub your toe and a little curse word comes out in the painful aftermath - only to hear said curse word over and over again in joyful child-like tones for the next 10 mins. ACK!

Jubilee has always been a talker. She may have rolled over, crawled and walked late, but she talked early on and never stopped. I may have ignored the signs that my little parrot would be coming in full force soon. Like the time she busied herself in my bedroom and found condoms ....only to decide they were better kept in the microwave. When I pulled them out with surprise she asked, "Whats that!?" I answered truthfully...still in shock at seeing condoms in the microwave, "...condoms". So for the next 20 mins I heard a singsong of cheerful delight, "condomscondomscondomscondoms....CONdoms!!!!!!!"

There have been other words along the way she picked up - temporarily of course. When we camp Mom Botts makes the best breakfast concoction that my sister endearingly named Breakfast Crap. When Mom Botts once decided to stray from the original design of The Crap and got creative to make a different, (and not so good) version, my sister lovingly donned it, Crap the Sequel. So of course The Parrot soon picked up "crap". Once my Mom gave Jubilee an ice cream cone of a different color than she normlly gets at Mema's house, and Jubilee looked at it confused and perplexed... Mom asked her, "What do you got? What is that?", of course expecting Jubilee to say, "ICE CREAM!!!". Instead, The Parrot looked at the green ice cream and said, "Crap!"

So given all her history of picking up questionable words for a two year old's vocabulary, I probably should have been watching what I say. For the most part, I dont swear a whole lot. When Im angry I can rival a truck driver, but thats never around Juju - usually around Troy tho....hmmm. ;-)

Imagine my surprise when The Parrot came bouncing into the living room after her nap, found her new white dress shoes, picked them up with surprise and awe on her face and said, "OH MY GAWD!!" Not only did she just exclaim this, but she said it so crystal clear and with such gumption that she sounded like an old jewish woman gossiping on her stoop! It was then I realized that "oh my god" was a very regular part of my vocabulary and even tho it seems non-eventful when I say it, its quite the different story hearing it come out of a two year old's mouth! So...needless to say, we are now working on saying, "Oh my goodness" and hopefully The Parrot will follow suit.

Its October! Halloween is Coming!

Halloween is coming.... LOVVVVVE Halloweenie! Cool thing about Halloween now is I have a little person I get to dress up! Until she gets to the age where she wont let me pick out her costume anymore, Im going to have fun! Bonnie, a very nice lady Troy's Mom works with, gave Jubilee this dress:

We're going to add some black wings and a gold crown with some black feathers and call her a graveyard fairy. Fun!


Dylan and Makayla got costumes that are similar and we will be haunting various households on Halloween night! If we show up on your door step you better give them candy or we will unleash the fury of the graveyard fairy on you and your descendents! MUAHAHAHAHA!!