Left Foot Left Foot Left Foot, Right! Feet In The Morning, Feet At Night!

Conversation with Jack Jack today...

Me: Come on Jack, let's put your shoes on!
Jack: Time to go bye-bye?
Me: Yes, we're going to go to the pier for lunch! Daddy needs to buy fish.
Jack: Time to go bye-bye! Shoes? Where are you, shoes? There they are!
Me: Yes, I have your shoes right here! Now sit in your chair so that I can put your shoes on!
Jack: (as he goes to sit in his chair) Hi, chair! Sit on bottom, don't stand on it!
Me: That's right, we don't stand on chairs. Now give me your left foot.
Jack: (giving me his right foot) That my right foot!
Me: Yes, Jack, that is your right foot, but I want your left foot.
Jack: That my right foot! I so smart!
Me: (laughing) Yes, that is your right foot, you are so smart! But I have your left shoe, and I need your left foot!
Jack: Smart like momma! Where my right shoe?
Me: (giving up on getting him focused on his left foot, which I know he knows) Okay, we'll put your right shoe on first. (grabbing his right shoe) Here is your right shoe!
Jack: That my right shoe! Good job!

Just Call Me Martha!

Last year around this time I was stressing out because I had decided that I needed to make Jack's birthday cake. Not only had I decided that I needed to make Jack's cake, but I had decided that I needed to make a COOL cake for him, in the shape of a train. Furthermore, I had decided that I needed to do this for him every year, so that he could always look forward to the COOL cake that his mommy would make him each year! Why was this stressful? Well, I had never made a cake before. Seriously. Never. I mean, I had made cupcakes, lots of gingerbread houses, a million sugar cookies (ooooh a sugar cookie sounds really good right now!), and I was the Brownie Baking Queen! But cakes? Yeah, notsomuch. But really, how hard could they be, right? Turns out, very. I butchered attempt after attempt, and it was only due to my friend Rachel's very generous (and very necessary!) help that I managed to learn how to properly ice a cake enough to make Jack's cakes that year!

My cousin, Laura, and I had been talking about taking a cake decorating class at Joann's for years. We both were so busy, though, that we never got around to actually signing up for a class. After realizing how much I had to learn, though, I immediately called her up and signed us up for the next available Wilton Course 1 class at Joann's! We had a great time and learned a lot in that class! So much, that we decided to sign up for Course 2, as well! With our busy schedules it was nearly a year until we could take the next class. So tonight, a year after I first baked a cake, Laura and I made our Finale Cakes for the Wilton Course 2! Hooray!!! Check out this cake! I mean, I still have so much to learn (we are definitely signing up for course 3), but can you believe that a year ago I didn't even know what a coupler was??? Can you believe I MADE this?!?!

My cake


And here is Laura's cake!

A Shower, A Carnival, Wii, and A Fat Lip

Usually the only time I get a shower is during Jack's naptime or after he goes to bed. Occasionally I try to jump in as soon as Dave gets home from work in the morning, since Jack is so happy to see him that he doesn't miss me for a few minutes. It's pretty impossible for me to get a shower when Jack is awake and it's just me and him. But on Friday night I decided that my shower could wait until Dave got home in the morning, because I needed to edit some pictures that I took of Austin. I mean, this kid is way too cute for me to not to give his pics my immediate attention... how could I let those pictures sit while I showered?! The shower could wait, right?!



Yeah, I thought it was a good plan, too. Too bad no one told the city of Anaheim! Apparently Dave had some pretty heavy training at work on Friday followed by a busy night of people calling 9-1-1 for no good reason, so when he came home Saturday morning he pretty much fell in bed and fell asleep right away! Poor guy works so hard! Anyway, I had to take a shower since Jack and I had Karina's 5th Birthday Carnival at 1:00, so I kept waiting for Dave to wake up... finally at 12:00 I decided that not only was he not waking up, but if I didn't get in the shower right then we would be really late to the party. I hate being late (or later than can be blamed on being a mom of a toddler). So I was faced with the challenge of figuring out how in the world I was going to take a shower while Jack was awake. You know, something other than waking up my poor husband or torturing my son by locking him in his room. Hmmm... he's old enough now, maybe I can just tell him to play in his room while mommy takes a shower? I mean, he's a good kid, maybe he'll be content to wait for me! Ah, who am I kidding?! I know exactly what is going to happen. I'll get in the shower, and he'll try to get to me and pull down the shower curtain. Great! Well, at least if I take a shower in his bathroom, rather than the master bathroom, then when the curtain rod falls it won't take the drywall with it! Plus, then I can close the hallway door so he won't be able to get into mischief, right? And, if anything does happen I can just say it was because I was trying to be a good supportive wife and let Dave sleep. Right, I'm going for it...

Me: Okay Jack, momma's going to take a shower
Jack: Momma take shower?
Me: Yes, I'm going to take a shower. You need to be a good boy and play with your toys while momma showers
Jack: Let's play toys! Come on, this way! Come play toys!
Me: No, you play toys, momma is going to take a shower
Jack: (trying to pull me out of the bathroom and into his room) Take shower in my room! Come on, play toys! (finally getting me into his room) Oh my! Look at all the toys!

Jack gives one last good tug and our hands slip apart. Jack, of course, loses his balance (story of his life!) and falls, hitting his teeth on a toy. Oh yeah, and his lip got crushed between the toy and his teeth! Ugh! What a terrible mother I am, thinking I needed a shower more than I needed to play toys with my son!!! Guilt guilt guilt!!!
By the time we got the blood cleaned up and the tears stopped it was 12:20... 30 minutes til we had to leave in order to be at the party on time! Finally I got him distracted by his airplane toy and I managed to get into the bathroom and get the water running without him trying to get me... hopefully he'll stay distracted long enough for me to get clean! So I hop in and start taking care of business. I get the shampoo rinsed out before I realize that Jack has pulled the curtain back and is playing with the water. Water is getting everywhere! Great, what am I going to do now?! I have to finish my shower, but I can't let him keep playing with the water! *Sigh* I suppose I am going to be late to the party... if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! I turned off the water, stripped Jack down, and pulled him into the shower with me. He loved it! He was cracking up and walking around me in circles going in and out of the water! I couldn't believe I hadn't just done that in the first place!!!

Oh, and we were only 17 minutes late for the party, but we were still the first ones there! Jack had a great time at Karina's Carnival! He loved the bounce house, and the goldfish game (though he preferred to just watch the fishies swim around than throw the balls at them!) and most definitely enjoyed the food.


This afternoon we had another birthday party! Savannah turned 9 this week, so Jack and I headed over there to celebrate with a Wii party. I'm just amazed that she is 9 already! She is getting so grown up!

Karina, 5- She was being shy, but luckily I have a quick shutter and I caught her peeking at me!

Savannah with her new chair from Grandma Heather

The Fat Lip


Jack enjoying Karina's party

Like Charles Dickens Said

Twice a day I get to rock Jack before he goes to sleep: once before his nap, and once again right before bed. I love it, and I know he does, too. He gets excited when I tell him it's naptime or bedtime, and he runs in his room ahead of me squealing and saying "Time to take a nap/go night-night!" He practically jumps into my arms the moment I sit in the rocking chair, and as soon as he gets settled, he asks me "We sing a song?" It never fails. I tell him, "Yes, we can sing a song! What song would you like to sing?" The answer varies from Mermaid (otherwise known as Part Of Your World, from The Little Mermaid) to The Bird Song (that's Feed The Birds from Mary Poppins... can you tell I like Disney?). Often, it's Fa-La-La (Deck The Halls), but more often than not, it's O Holy Night (yeah, that's O Holy Night) . Hey, as Charles Dickens wrote in A Christmas Carol, "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." That means it's never the wrong time of year for Christmas carols, right?

Did I Just Start A Blog?

What in the world was I thinking? Okay, I know what I was thinking. With my mind constantly whirring at 1001 miles per hour, I really should take the time to journal some of the important, interesting, and neither-important-nor-interesting-but-nonetheless-memorable things that happen day to day. Especially since Jack Jack is so young. I don't want to forget a thing. I mean, I love reading people's blogs, I'd probably enjoy blogging myself! Added bonus: maybe having an outlet for my thoughts will slow my mind down and I will be able to get some sleep one of these nights! Ha ha, okay, maybe not, but I can dream, can't I? No? Or maybe I could dream if I could just get some sleep! If you know me, you know that I love to sleep. I just suck at it. I'll probably blog about my lack of sleeping skills in a later post. First, I should explain the title of my blog.

I did not want something generic, like The Reeves Family or Jack's Mom's Blog. I wanted something random, but not completely meaningless. I mean, this blog is about me, my family, our life... it should reflect at least some aspect of our lives, right? So, I started thinking about what random aspect of our life I could name my blog for and I came up with Pennies In My Couch. Here's why:

I'm pretty sure that my husband's pockets have a coin repelling feature of some sort. Just sitting here I can see 2 pennies on the floor that he must have dropped yesterday at some point. I just picked up 5 coins the day before that! My mom was the first to remark on it. When Dave and I got married, gave him a jar of coins that she had collected from her couch/floor ever since we started dating... she knew they had to be from him! I recently took our coin 'collection' to Coinstar and came home $80 richer! Okay, so technically I wasn't actually richer, but still! I still find coins all around our house, in random places. So yeah, the name of my blog is Pennies In My Couch. If you have mystery coins in your couch, Dave was probably there. Yes, it's random. No, it isn't particularly interesting. But, I always smile at the thought of loose change in random places, because it reminds me of my husband. I love him dearly :)

What can you expect from my blog? Well, just what you can expect from any other blog, I suppose... the latest news about what's going on in our lives, photos of my family (or anyone who lets me take pictures of them! I need the practice and feedback!), cute videos of Jack Jack, random thoughts and late night ramblings, or anything else that occurs to me to post.

So, welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy reading it! Don't forget to click the 'subscribe' button so that you know when I post an update!