Rachel Callahan

Sometimes, Ali Does the Blogging for Me.

January 11, 2010 Rachel Callahan Anal Retentivity to a Fault, Toddlers: The Experience

I told Ali that she needed to pick up her puzzle.

“Mommy, will you help me clean up this big mess?”

“No, baby. I didn’t make the big mess.”

I leave the room.

Ali begins picking up puzzle, while bitterly mumbling, “But MOMMY made a big mess when she dropped Gramamma’s pretty eggs.”

For the record, that happened three months ago.

Not that she’s bitter or anything.

I head to the bathroom.

She follows, of course.

“Do you have to tee-tee or poo-poo, Mommy?”

“I have to tee-tee.”

“No, I think you have to poo-poo. I’ll help you.”

(She sits down in front of me, pulls her knees up to her chest, and starts rocking back and forth, leaning forward, and straining to the point that her face turns red and I’m worried about what’s going to happen at HER back end.)

In a very purple voice, she strains, “Puuuuuush, Mommy. Puuuuuush. Puuuuuuush!!!! You can do it!!!”

(I look at her, amused.)

(She changes the subject, apparently trying to help pass the time…) “So, what have your dreams been about lately, Mommy?”

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

January 10, 2010 Rachel Callahan I'm a Blog Geek

January 10th-12th. They’re big days in the blogging world. They are officially National Delurking Days.

(Actually, there seems to be some confusion as to whether National Delurking Day is January 10th or January 12th, so I’m just declaring it to be January 10th THROUGH the 12th.)

First, a definition. According to Urban Dictionary….

Lurk – To read without commenting or contributing, therefore effectively invisible to the rest of the group or community.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m quite thankful for my lurkers. According to my stats, over 80% of my readers actually fall into the “lurker” category, so don’t feel bad if you’re one of them. I love you guys!

However, one of the reasons that I do this whole blog thing is for relationships, and that’s kinda hard to do if one person in the relationship is “effectively invisible”.

So….what better day to de-lurk than on National Delurking Day(s), right? It’s a day to celebrate you!

But why de-lurk?

Commenting is a very crucial part of the blogging process. It’s kinda like tipping your waitress…it’s appreciated, the value of the service offered is measured by the amount given, you get better service if you do it, but if you don’t do it, someone might spit in your food.

Okay…I won’t spit in your food. But you get the point.

Anyway, say hey. I like you for reading my blog, and I like knowing who I like. I also love reading my reader’s blogs, so be sure and let me know if you blog.

So join the fun – because lurking is something that you do in dark alleys, not on overly-patterned and nearly-neurotically-colorful blogs.

If you’re new to blog commenting and don’t have a Google login, once you click on “# comments” or “post a comment” , you can either select “Name/URL” and just put your name in (you can leave the URL blank if you don’t have a blog), or “Anonymous” and sign your name within the comment.

Celebratacular

January 9, 2010 Rachel Callahan The Blissfulness of Life, Toddlers: The Experience

After much angst about what sort of Birthday Cake to make or buy for Ali, I decided to go with my bloggy friend Erica’s idea and make Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes.

However, on round one, I didn’t follow the directions very well and they erupted:

Round two was much more attractively shaped:

I got them all baked yesterday, but was so unbelievably past the point of exhaustion last night that I decided to go to bed earlier than I’ve been to bed since I was Ali’s age (8:24pm, if you’re wondering) and get up early to make my icing and decorate my creations.

However, around 11pm, I woke up and about had a panic attack at how in the world I was going to get all of the ice cream cones to the party without them falling over….ice cream cones full of cake aren’t very stable, and they have a tendency to domino…badly.

I finally managed to quell my deep, dark anxieties and fall back asleep.

This morning, I made my two batches of icing and prepared them for their journey as best as I could:

(That picture makes me want to work a jigsaw puzzle.)

Although I stayed stressed out all the way to the location of the party (Ali’s Gymnastics) as I tried to intricately balance the container of cupcakes in my lap, I managed to only let about 10 of them fall over with minimal decoratorial damage, thanks to the huge cake container my Mom donated to my ~~sanity~~ cause.

First on the agenda of the party: Gymnastics, of course.

As soon as they all started playing, I realized that there was something realllllly funky with my camera: spots. I don’t know why, but it only happened in the gym. Just my Luck.

Ali showed off on her favorite apparatus, the bar…

And her friends taught HER a few tricks.

Greg helped the kids do mega flips..

And they came out only slightly damaged.

AJ, braver than Ali, took off to run and jump in “The Pit”:

…but she had to pause and consider the risks before she took the plunge…

However, she managed to find it within herself to brave the frightening jump!

(Which did not, in any way, make Ali feel the need to try out The Pit.)

The kids got to try out the Olympic trampolines, again the big kids showing Ali how to REALLY take off:

But Ali held her own and jumped pretty impressively.

At the end, they all lined up to jump in the pit…

Held hands, and jumped!

Except for Ali, of course. And her self-proclaimed-boyfriend Ethan, who stayed behind to “keep her company”.

(By the way, if you’re wondering about the shirtless gentlemen, they were upset that their sister got to take her pants off and just wear her leotard, so the compromise was that they could go Rambo.)

We headed upstairs to eat, and the cupcakes were a hit!

Even the Grandparents liked them…

Until I showed up with the camera.

Ali blew out her candles…

And then handed out party favors.

The kids had a great time with their treats, especially the slinkies, which make great nose rings…

And having the good fortune to get outfit-coordinating lip-gloss.

Well, the kids who didn’t get their party favors taken away enjoyed them, anyway.

Ali was surrounded with lots of willing hands to help for present opening..

And so after she was done, she took her favorite blinkedy birthday card and sought some solace.

AJ joined her and was supportive of her need for silence.

After the party was over and we headed to Chick-Fil-A to get some lunch, Ali decided that she needed something worse than she needed food:
Partying just wears a girl out like nothing else, you know?

Birthday Stats:

13 Kids 1-6 years old
4 Babies
11 Parents
5 Grandparents and Great-Grandparent
1 Godmother
46 Cupcakes (2 fell in the line of duty)
0 Injuries

And for some reason, I’m sitting here writing this blog post instead of napping with Ali.

G’night!

Threeday

January 8, 2010 Rachel Callahan I would NEVER take too many pictures. . ., The Blissfulness of Life, Toddlers: The Experience

Dear Ali,

It’s been a wonderful year since your last birthday – I’ve loved the amazing adventures and conversations that we have had.

Thankfully, we didn’t experience anything that could even be close to being called the Terrible Twos (although I know you’re making no promises about the Threes yet).

In fact, you were, for the most part, downright agreeable, letting me teach you such words as Axiomatically Bombastic, being eager to learn your states and your presidents, and finally wanting to learn how to write.

Sure, we had our moments. Especially related to poo. And sure, you talked my ear off at times and wanted to grow up way too fast, but overall, this year has been better than I had ever imagined it.

Here are some of the highlights:

This year, you got to try new things, like Snow (obviously last March, not yesterday’s snow-letdown):
Of which you weren’t a fan..

(You much preferred mud-puddles)

Waterslides,
Um, also not a fan..

Your first trampoline,

Your first haircut,

Your first wedding,

And you got to start your Olympic training in Gymnastics…
…of which you were SUCH a fan, you made sure to practice everywhere.

You and AJ continued your best of friendship throughout the year:

And you even began hanging out with some boys…

You adored the beach… “ “
Honed your musical skills,

As well as your milk-bubble talents.

You cheered for your Daddy’s favorite team (you know – the NATIONAL CHAMPIONS..apparently you’re good luck),

And practiced Greek Dancing in honor of your Mommy’s heritage.

You developed your own funky sense of style,

And ADORED you some makeup.

Thank you for making this year adventurous, hilarious, at times mysterious, and just plain fun.

On your last birthday:

Month One:

Month Two:

Month Three:

Month Four:

Month Five:

Month Six:

Month Seven:

Month Eight:

Month Nine:

Month Ten:

Month Eleven:

Month Twelve:

Just one request for this next year… please don’t get too grown up on me.

…please keep making up your own contractions, like “am’t” instead of the boring way adults say “I’m not”…

…please keep making up your own past tenses, like “doos” and “gotted”…

…and please keep drawing your own conclusions, like “My Eyes are Bright!” instead of “The sun is bright!”

Happy Threeday, Ali!

The Snow That Wasn’t.

January 7, 2010 Rachel Callahan Just My Luck

I don’t usually jump on weather hysteria bandwagons – I’m a skeptic no matter the situation – tornadoes (I watched one come down the street from the double glass doors at work one time – not my smartest of moments.), floods, droughts, and even snow.

Of my 28 years of life in the Deep South, I’ve only ever seen one REALLY GOOD snow storm, and maybe five halfway decent snowfalls.

So as much as I love the stuff, I usually don’t believe it.

But this one was different.

Starting on Saturday, I kept hearing things like…

“Below freezing for all but 18 of the next 180 hours.”

“The coldest it’s been for the longest amount of time in 25 years.”

And, the words we all long to hear, “A snow event on Thursday AND Friday.”

I became a believer due to the crazy cold, coupled with sights of frozen tundra that I didn’t even know was possible in Alabama, such as this frozen-topped lake,
and this stunning-if-you-live-in-Alabama fountain…

(There were actual ICE CAPS in the water below where the fountainsicles had crashed into the water JUST LIKE IT HAPPENS IN ANTARTICA!! I would have gotten you a picture, but it was too cold to remove myself from my heated leather seats.)

So anyway, I believed it. I cleared my schedule for today, and Ali and I waited. We were ready to build snowmen, have snowball fights, go sledding, find some wild dogs and go dog-sledding while screaming “Mush!! Mush!!”, do some ski jumps from the hill in our neighborhood thanks to all of that Wii practice, and find a lake to go ice skating on.

But, alas.

It DID snow, and it was gorgeous coming down in big, soft, dreamy flakes…

…I even drove in it, fearing for my life, all the way to Chris’ office, because he had taken my (four wheel drive) SUV (so he could get home in the Blizzard) which had Ali’s and my coats and gloves in it, which we would obviously need for our mushing and skiing and skating…

…but despite the below-freezing temperatures that our Southern-Pansy bodies have endured ALL WEEK for this Winter Event to occur, IT. DIDN’T. STICK.

So, Ali and I replaced our dreams of ski jumps with making a crafty Birthday Cake in pre-celebration of her birthday tomorrow:

And our fantasies of Mushing on a Dog Sled with cuddling on the couch and playing her new invention, a game of PEZ-Head:

Which, I suppose, was a pretty excellent way to spend a letdown of a day.

Let’s just hope, for my husband’s sanity, that Tonight’s Big Event has the opposite outcome of Today’s Big Event.

Cup of Decap, Anyone?

January 6, 2010 Rachel Callahan Toddlers: The Experience

I was driving along today as Ali was playing with her Disney Princesses in the backseat. She was trying to swap out their clothes, from what I could gather. I hear the following from the backseat:

Ali (mostly to herself): “Their dresses come off, but their heads don’t come off. Do their heads come off?”

CRAAAAAAAAAAACK.

It was a sickening sound, one that no one should EVER have to hear, except maybe Marie Antoinette.

I was pulling into a parking lot, so I quickly stopped and looked back at the violent carnage that I knew without a doubt would be waiting for me.

Me: “Oh, baby….”

Ali seemed completely unfazed by the most certainly R-Rated violence that she just ~~witnessed~~ performed.

Ali: “Cinderella’s head came off. Cinderella was going to marry her Prince, but now just her face will have to marry the Prince.”

She hands Cinderella to me…I try to re-attach her “face”. Luckily, Cinderella seems completely unfazed by the certain pain she must be experiencing.

All of a sudden, I realize that Ali is studying Ariel’s face very carefully.

Me: “No more taking heads off, baby.”

Ali: “Can I still take dresses off?”

Me: “Yes, you can still take their dresses off.”

Ali: “Does it make you sad when I take heads off?”

Me: “Yes, removing heads isn’t exactly considered a nice thing to do to people.”

(More attempts at fixing.)

Me: “We’re going to have to get Daddy to fix her later. He’s a Princess Doctor.”

Ali: “Daddy’s not a Princess!! He’s a Boy!!!”

Me: “He’s a Doctor FOR Princesses.”

Ali: “Ooooh. Daddy will fix her face.”

Cinderella is looking for an Wrongful Injury Attorney, if you know of any good ones.

12 Things Learned From The Newlywed Game.

January 5, 2010 Rachel Callahan A Day in the Life, Utter Silliness

At our Small Group New Year’s Eve party, we played The Newlywed Game. It was way too much fun, or at least way too much fun for our kids to sleep through (I think our constant laughter MIGHT have had something to do with the also-constant stream of children coming back downstairs).

I highly recommend playing with your friends, but here are 12 things that we all learned while playing and/or picking the questions:

If you pick the question “Who would your husband say was the most attractive to the opposite sex – you or himself?”, there will ALWAYS be one guy who chooses himself. If you happen to have a guess as to who that might be, it’s always best to let them answer last – for dramatic effect, after all of the other wives say “Well, I’m sure my husband said I am, because NO husband would EVER be stupid enough to answer ‘himself’.”
The REAL winners of the game are the couple might have come in last, but in answering all of their questions, managed to compliment each other so much that you can literally SEE them falling more in love.
(Couple in #1 and Couple in #2 are typically NOT the same couple. Shocker, I know.)
Husbands tend to overthink their answers, so wives need to overthink overthinking their answers to match their husband’s overthunkedness.
Asking the question “What is your pet name for your husband?” will most certainly add more fodder for the husbands to make fun of each other.
When getting questions off of the internet, make sure that you thoroughly go through them and mark usable first. There will be questions that you really, really don’t want to know your friend’s answers to.
Also – make sure if you swap up emcee-ing with someone else, that they know to ONLY ASK THE MARKED QUESTIONS.
One thing in particular to keep in mind in this choosing process: If you’re playing with your closest friends, take that into consideration this fact when picking questions. Don’t ask any of the questions that have ANYTHING to do with who their most attractive friend is, who of your friends you would marry if your spouse weren’t around, etc.
Some questions just work better on the gameshow with random strangers than in a group of friends.

AWKWARD.
Sometimes, your spouse knows you better than yourself, and when they explain why they answered the way they did, you are likely to say, “Oh – You are SO right!”, or “That would have been a better answer than the one I gave!”
(It’s a real shame that you can’t get bonus points for these types of answers.)

(Or that couple in fact #2 might have won the game.)
The question “What sound does your husband imitate best?” Will get many varied responses. For maximum benefit, make sure that they are made to share said imitations with the crowd. Personally, I’m pretty proud of Chris and I for both coming up with his best imitation “The Old British Lady.” The influences of Monty Python run deeply in our household…
If you disappoint your husband by coming up with a less favorable response than he hoped, be sure to overcompensate on the next round – even if you know that it means that you won’t get a point. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Oddly enough, The Newlywed Game is called that for a reason – people who have been married the least amount of time always beat the ones who have been married the longest amount of time.
(That may be due to the #3 “overthinking” thing.)
And finally, When giving the answer to the question “Who was the last person you dated before you were married”, make sure you answer in the LEAST excited voice possible – your tone should not ever come across as regretful, excited, or as if you are wistfully remembering the good ole’ days.

Yoo Hoo and Friends Giveaway!

January 5, 2010 Rachel Callahan Giveaways and Contests

Being the kid of a Blogger who occasionally does giveaways, Ali has the exciting privilege of getting fun things in the mail from strangers. I’m pretty sure that she thinks this is completely normal and happens to everyone.

In fact, pretty much every day, she asks me, “Did I get anything in the mail?”

Her latest favorite bloggy mail item are her Yoo Hoo and Friends:

When she can’t find them, she asks me, “Have you seen my new friends? Where are my new friends?”

These are adorable stuffed animals that make cute noises when their bellies are pressed.

There are over 50 different varieties, and they represent different endangered animals around the world. They have a website where kids can go to play fun games with their animals, all while learning about the different endangered species and their habitats.

They have several different sizes, as well as small ones to put on backpacks and such:

(I’m pretty sure Ali wants a backpack just for her little friend to live on.)

If you’d like to win these fun friends, they have offered a 5″ Yoo Hoo friend to three winners! To enter this giveaway, simply comment on this post.

You can earn up to two extra entries if you:

Subscribe to OR Follow my blog
Follow me on Twitter OR my new fan page on Facebook

(be sure to leave separate comments for your extra entries.)

This giveaway will be open until Monday, January 18th. The three winners will be chosen randomly and announced on Tuesday, January 19th. Open to US and Canadian Addresses.

Good luck!!

I did receive products to review, but I was not compensated to write this and my opinions are, as always, my own.

The Bowling Ali

January 4, 2010 Rachel Callahan The Blissfulness of Life, Toddlers: The Experience

Ali is a miniature expert at “Playing Pins” on the Wii, so we decided to try to turn her virtual skills into IRL* skills.

* For those of you who live so much in the real life that you don’t know what IRL means, it means, well, “In Real Life”, used often by those of us who live too much in the virtual world.

We weren’t sure how it would go, seeing as how the smallest ball available was approximately 1/4 of her body weight, but she was a huge fan of the bowling fashion, so if nothing else, at least she’d get to broaden her style horizons.

However, she showed no hesitation to give it a try. She tried to pick up Daddy’s special, custom, name-engraved, from-his-~~geeky~~ glory-days-of-league-bowling ball right at the start while he was too busy finding her a light ball:

AJ came to join us, just as excited as Ali:

And Tessa was perfectly content watching the light show.

We started out helping Ali and carrying the ball for her (thinking for sure that she’d drop it on her toes), but after a few frames, if we weren’t quick enough to come help her when it was her turn, she would go get her own ball, carry it to the lane, and ~~drop~~ throw it:

And, of course, there was a celebratory hug after every throw,

…and a game of ring-around the rosies…

…and a nice long chat…

all before the ball even made it halfway down the lane.

Curly Haired Toddler, Winter Edition.

January 2, 2010 Rachel Callahan Actually Possibly Informational, Don't Listen to my Fashion Advice, Toddlers: The Experience

Back in May, I had my first Curly Toddler Style Breakthrough, when I finally figured out how to take Ali’s frizzy crazy hair to nice curls.

However, I have yet again been stumped. This time, it wasn’t the frizzy, looks-like-a-balloon-was-rubbed-on-her-head problem – quite the opposite.

Since winter got here, a lot of her curls have fallen out to ringlets-at-the-bottom-only.

Or even just general-poofiness.

Both are cute, for sure, but I’d been missing her typical curlier look.

Plus, it certainly seemed like her hair WANTED to curl, because on humid days, it loopedy-looped right up.

(If only my hair were perfect on humid days – it’s quite the opposite, really.)

So, to help her hair make a decision on what it wanted to do, I finally decided to try….. Product.

After I washed her hair, I combed a tiny bit of gel through with my fingers and scrunched it minimally.

I’m pretty sure this is the first time than any product of any kind has been on her head, but the results?

Undeniable.

She kinda looked like I’d just permed her hair and left the solution in a bit too long:
And she was certainly happy with the results.

(Or maybe she was just excited about the sparklyness of the hair gel.)

But, all good things have to come to an end – especially a toddler being happy about a photo op.

However, surprisingly enough, even after naptime her hair still looked pretty curly.

And she even found it in her heart to give me another cheese for the camera.

The only drawback was that it did make her hair somewhat crunchy/tangly – so I decided that maybe I used too much.

The next time, I used a lot less.

And Ali was a lot less cooperative about the after-gel photography requirements:

However, one mention of the fact that she might could have a pack of PEZ if she smiled for some pictures got markedly different results:

In fact, maybe a bit too much resultage.

She started making all of these posey-poses …

Umm…we’re not doing a swimsuit shoot here.

HAIR ONLY.

HAIR PHOTOGRAPHY, Ali.

The point of this blog is that hair gel works.

And that PEZ is too powerful of a photographical bribery tool and may cause your toddler to turn into Kathy Ireland.