More hot sauce please

My kids are chatty! They have been so completely adorable lately because they're starting to put words together into complete sentences. Here are some of my personal favorites:

"Look Mommy! Look! (insert object of interest)"

"No like it!" (Only said by Kyle--I know this isn't a complete sentence . . . deal.)

"No want it!" (Only said by Dylan--this is his version of Kyle's "No like it!" In case you aren't understanding, both statements are negative. I hear these phrases a lot, especially when I'm trying to dress them)

"More hot sauce please" (This is a Dylan request--Please note: "hot sauce" refers to any sauce/condiment; although, hot sauce is Michael's condiment of choice)

"No baby Dylan" or "No baby Kai-Kai" (They both say this when I try to cradle them like they are infants. Well, sometimes they like it. Really)

I'm still trying to figure out what the hell Kyle says when we go to visit our new house. When we drive down the main street and pass other houses that are being built, he says something that sounds like it's in Swedish.

Date Night: Revisited

I really try to keep my posts here to amusing anecdotes and not laundry lists of activities, but I just have got to rave about Saturday.

Michael was coaching a baseball game in the morning, so Dylan, Kyle and I set out on an adventure. Our destination? Little Chops in Glendale. You see, the last time the boys had a haircut, we took them to a regular in-and-out spritz, cut, comb place, and it was a DISASTER! Screaming, crying, kicking . . . Not fun. Actually, that wasn't technically the twins' last haircut . . . But we are never to speak of the horrible wickedness that plagued my scissors and poor Kyle's hair.

Little Chops was so great, the boys didn't want to leave! Each station has a different "vehicle," so the kids get to pick which one they like: a silver airplane, a red jeep, a white police car, etc. In addition, each station also has a TV with VCR and DVD player. I selected some lovely flick with Elmo, and they were in heaven. Dylan fussed a little, but there were no tears, no screaming, just beautiful little boy haircuts. When they were finished, they each got a balloon.

The balloons didn't last long. The trouble with my kids and helium balloons is that they won't let me tie the balloon down to anything - not their wrist, their overalls, nothing. So, off we went to Babies 'R Us to find a baby shower gift for our friends, and no sooner do we enter the baby warehouse then do those lovely balloons float up, up, up and away from my two, now quite un-pacified children. Shopping at Babies 'R Us was not fun.

On to the shower. We arrived at a packed house a women with the intention of only dropping off the gifts, but ended up staying for about an hour. Dylan and Kyle frequently got lost in the sea of legs, and I would hear, "Mommy! Mommy!" from multiple rooms. After a bite to eat and a diaper change, we were off!

Home. Nap time? No, just kidding! Michael cam home just in time to relieve me of my mommy duties, and I conked out for about an hour. Beautiful. When I woke up, the three of them were all equally ready for naps, and they all slept from 3 until 5 PM while I enjoyed the quiet time by myself. Lovely.

Since the twins had such late and long naps, we crossed our fingers and took them out to dinner to Paul Lee's Chinese Kitchen. We had never taken them to a sit-down restaurant by ourselves before (usually we travel with the grandparent posse), and it was such a success! They colored and chatted, and enjoyed the atmosphere, and they even let us eat.

To cap off our beautiful evening, we stopped by Michael's school's varsity baseball game. It was COLD, so we didn't stay long. Michael taught the boys to cheer "Go Tigers!" and "Go! Go! Go!" which they did. Whenever someone would hit the ball (be it from our team or the opponent), they would cheer "Go Tigers!" or "Go! Go! Go!" It was adorable.

What a great date!

Sedona Snow

On Friday I kidnapped Michael and took him to Sedona for his 30th birthday, and we couldn't have asked for a better experience. Mother Nature decided to give us the gift of snow, and it was unbelievably beautiful. We arrived at our beautiful hotel, got to our room, and it started snowing. These gorgeous snowflakes came floating down from the sky, and we stood on our little patio outside and just took it all in. After settling in, we headed to the restaurant there and had a very yummy meal (Michael has a new love for polenta). As we sat at our candlelit table enjoying our meal and each other's company, we could see the snow continue to drift down to the Earth, steadily growing heavier and heavier . . . I haven't felt that peaceful in a very long time.

After about 18 hours of luxury, we headed out of Sedona and decided to really trash it up by going to the Cliff Castle Casino for lunch. Michael kept telling me that the place was actually a lot classier than other Arizona casinos, which kind of frightened me. After our meal, Michael decided we should put his birthday luck to good use. I lost $10 in a matter of about 15 minutes, which sounds better than it really was. About 13 of those minutes were spent scoping out the perfect machine with which I should fork over my money. I've never really gambled much, but the whole idea of it makes me very nervous. I'm especially weird about not wanting to sit right next to anyone, and I'm not interested in sharing any of my gambling experiences with random strangers. Apparently, I was the only one in the casino who felt that way because any time I sat down somewhere, immediately some guy smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer (at 1:00 PM) would plop down next to me and say, "Are you winning much?" or "How's your luck today?" or "These chairs are heavy, aren't they?" After losing my last $2 on some game that I still can't figure out, I went to find Michael.

Michael was sitting at a virtual Blackjack table. The table itself wasn't virtual, I mean, he was actually sitting on a real chair at a real table. Instead of a live dealer, there was a big screen and every once in a while the dealer would change between a blonde with cleavage coming right at you, an Asian woman with cleavage coming right at you, and an African-American man at some sort of tropical location. A few men were playing along with Michael, and the group already had its own little rapport. I almost lost it when the older guy next to Michael commented that he didn't like one of the dealers and another guy at the table announced that the dealer will hesitate if she has Blackjack. It's a freaking computer, people! Michael cashed out when he was up $25, so with my $10 loss, we left the casino $15 richer.

What a gift for us to be able to just be with each other, even if for only 24 or so hours.

I've been tagged!

So the rules are, once you've been tagged you have to write a blog with 6 weird things/habits about yourself. In the end you need to list 6 other people to tag and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment saying "You've been tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog...

1. I unintentionally transfer stress from myself to my husband. What I mean is, if I'm stressed out about something like the house being clean, the way I like to deal with my stress is to tell Michael every little thing that needs to be accomplished to make me happy. Then I feel better because after I've verbalized the list of chores, it's not as bad as I originally thought. The problem is, then Michael gets all stressed out because he likes to deal with one problem at a time. So, in de-stressing myself, I end up stressing out my husband.

2. I jump at the chance to tell you that you're wrong and why. I don't know why I do this. I think I just like to be right, and I'd like to know everything, even though I know that is impossible. Once I told Joe, "I know I don't know everything, I just want people to think I know everything."

3. I get caught in horrible cycles. For example, I haven't been to the dentist in almost a year (and yes, I sort of already blogged about this in December). I hav been putting off going to the dentist because the last time I went, he gave me this stuff called Gel-Kam. I was instructed to brush my teeth with it right afterI regularly brushed my teeth. It's not horrible-tasting, but you're not supposed to drink or eat anything for 20 minutes after using it, which is really hard for me because I HAVE to have a drink of water after I brush my teeth. So, I haven't been using the stuff, and I don't want to disappoint the dentist. I figured I would put off going to the dentist, use the Gel-Kam and maybe he wouldn't notice I hadn't used it for a while. The thing is, I hate using it, so I haven't been using it, so I can't go to the dentist, etc. etc.

4. I will always see the bad before the good. This is true for so many things, and Michael points this out to me all the time. I'll come home and not notice clean dishes or pictures hung or weeds pulled, but I can walk into a room and in two seconds see Cheerios on the floor . . . and man, I jump all over him!

5. I have to pee right before I go to sleep. This may not sound odd, but you don't know the extent of it. I will pee when I get into my PJs, but if I don't immediately crawl into bed and go directly to sleep I will be back in the bathroom peeing again and again. Sometimes I will go play on the computer, then come back to my room/bathroom and pee, then get into bed and grab my book. After I read a bit, I'll go pee again. Then if I don't fall asleep quickly, I'm bound to get up once again to pee. Why? If I have time to think, 'Do I have to pee?' then, well, I do. I'm kind of surprised that I have anything to eliminate. Why didn't it all leave my body 3 minutes ago when I last went to pee?

6. I spell things with my thumb and index finger. Say I'm a passenger in a vehicle, and I see a sign. I'll pick a word or phrase printed on that sign and use my index finger to spell out each letter on my thumb (right hand only). Sometimes I get fancy and curly-qy (Ys are fun). Often I keep repeating the same word or phrase with my fingers over and over again until it kind of starts to hurt, and then I force myself to stop. Don't worry, I don't do this when I'm driving!

OK, now I don't know who to tag because the only blogs I read on blogspot are Joe's and Ted's (and Ted tagged me and Joe). Joe just informed me that I could tag myspacers, so here goes: Sara, Sarah, Missy, Mike, Stephanie, Jen K. You are IT!!

Dylan's Pink Hat

This morning Michael and I found ourselves shopping with the twins for new hats. We were headed to a baseball game in Scottsdale (the USA team vs. the SF Giants' B-team--pretty cool), and the kids needed something to protect their eyes and face.

We encountered the same situation we always encounter: only one decent hat left. I don't understand it. There are always tons of hats for girls, and there will be 1 boyish toddler hat. The one hat that was there was a Bob the Builder hat - adorable, and it fit Kyle great. With no other options for Dylan, we purchased two hats that were paired together. One was beige and the other was pink. I told Michael, "It's only $4 for both of them, so he'll wear the beige one and we can give the pink one away." Fine. Great. We paid and headed to the car.

One problem: Guess which hat Dylan wanted to wear? Uh huh, the pink one. He would NOT wear the beige hat or the Bob the Builder hat. When we got into the car Michael discovered Kyle's old Pooh Bear hat. Dylan wasn't interested.

Dylan wore the pink hat all the way to Scottsdale, which drove Michael completely crazy. The only thing that concerned me was that the pink hat clashed horribly with Dylan's orange t-shirt.

When we arrived at the park in Scottsdale, Michael was adamant that Dylan not wear the pink hat. So, I convinced Dylan that the pink hat had to stay in the car. Kyle wore the Pooh Bear hat, Dylan wore the Bob the Builder hat, and all was well. Until the 6th inning . . .

A couple of hours later, Dylan took off his hat, shoved it at me and said, "Pink one!"

By the end of the 6th inning, they had basically had enough, so we headed home. He put the pink hat on as soon as he got into the car. He's upstairs right now watching Veggie Tales, wearing the pink hat.