Top Ten

I have no camera...again.  Apparently, being a maniac papparazzi mommy leads to many broken cameras.  Well, that and sending your camera crashing to the ground after tripping at the DART station.  I'm having a bit of a lens issue now, so my camera is sitting at Wolf Camera, where it's been for OVER 3 WEEKS, "being repaired".  Right.  Because it takes that long.  Hey Wolf, let's bump up the productivity standards a little, k?  Thanks.

So since I haven't had cute pictures to upload, my motivation for posting has been close to zero...and maybe the fact that I have no time for anything these days has a little something to do with it too.

Here's a top 10 of things I've learned over the past couple of hectic weeks...

1.  Being a mother of two who works full time outside of the home is much, much more difficult than being a mother of one who works part time outside of the home.

2.  If you start to get your priorities out of whack, God will find a way to bring them back into place.  I cherish my time with my family now.  I ache for them at times throughout the day while I'm working, and there is no one I'd rather be with at the end of the day than them.

3.  It takes a really, really long time to adjust to waking up at 5:15.  Hopefully one day I'll actually get out of bed on time and be able dry my hair before I leave the house in the morning.  Let's hope that day is soon so I don't freeze when winter hits.

4.  My husband is an amazing dad.  I already knew he was great with our kids, but I know most men couldn't do what he does all day.  As my sister in law pointed out, they are so lucky to have him.

5.  When you use a camera without a flash your pictures turn out like this...

and when you try to quick fix them on your computer, they turn all grainy like this...

6.  Even though it's been 10 years since I was a part of it, I still get really excited when I meet another Kappa.  Today I found out that one of the OTs I've been working with since I got back from maternity leave is my KKG sista.  Yes, I talked in my shrieky, high pitched voice out of sheer excitement.  And yes, we did the grip right there in the office.  I asked her if she wanted to sing some Kappa songs for everyone, but I think that was little over the top, so she opted against it:)

7.  Getting a good picture of both of my kids together is a lot harder than I ever thought it would be...

...especially with the awesome cameras I have at my disposal.

8.  No matter how much you push the paci, when a girl wants to suck her thumb, she's gonna find a way to do it...

9.  Don't be deceived into thinking you're toddler isn't listening to every single thing that comes out of your mouth.  He is.  And he will soak it up like the sponge he's become and repeat it back to you for weeks on end.  Here's Hunter's list of phrases we'd rather he hadn't picked up...

• 
  
  "dang it!"
  
  
  
• "oh gosh, mommy! oh gosh!"
• "booby!  booby!" (as he points to me while I'm nursing Charlotte.  And no, no one in my house uses that word, so I have no idea how he learned it.)
• "Good Lord."  (I cringe at this.  Luckily he's only said it once.)

And some that he loves to use all day long, but hasn't quite figured out the meaning of...

• "Don't worry, mommy.  Don't worry."
• "Oh!  I forgot!"

And, to our delight, proof that he actually does listen when we want him to...

• "Doggies cannot hurt you."
• "The tractors cannot hurt you."
• "Noooo jumping on the couch." (as he's jumping on it...at least he hears the words...maybe the right actions are soon to follow.)

(In case you didn't know, Hunter is really fearful of a lot of things - dogs being at the top of that list - so we've had to reinforce a million times that the dogs of our families members will not hurt him.  As far as the tractors, there is a lot of construction on 190 by the mall, so when he first saw the tractors and cranes, he freaked and started whining in the car about how scared he was that they were going to hurt him.)

10. Vampires are scary.  And no matter how much all some people disagree, that Twilight movie is frea-ky.