10 things I loved about Sarah's 21st Birthday

1. That she had it at a German pub in Anaheim.

2. That it just happened to be Karaoke night.

3. That besides my family the only other people in there were the help, and two tables of hardcore German pub Karaoke bluehairs.

4. That the first thing they did was call out Sarah and DEMAND that she sing. DEMAND. Weren't even nice about it.

5. That five minutes after we sat at our table one of the bluehairs asked Fin if he liked to draw, and then handed him some crayons and three little drawings she drew for him of the funniest "monsters."

6. That the same lady then drew Sarah singing karaoke and blowing out candles, and proceeded to sing "Black Velvet" in the thickest German accent you've ever heard.

7. This:
*Old man steps up to the mic, slurring from either too much beer or possibly a stroke
"This one's for Ssssarah. Where is she?! SARAH! SSSSSSSSSSarrrrrrraaahhh?? Well (shrugs) she must be in the crapper"

8. That she was.

9. This:
*Fin is going to the bathroom chatting away with me. He hears a man singing a country song.
"Mom, what's this song?"
"I don't know Fin, can you hurry please?"
"Sounds like Johnny Cash, Mom"
Lady in stall next to us exclaims
"HE KNOWS WHO JOHNNY CASH IS??!!!"
me, *sigh* "He knows everything."

10. That it was.

BinkysRUs

He's done it!  He's kicked the habit!  Fin is officially two night times, and one nap time sober.  And this time its for real, because as they say he had to want to change, and this time it was his choice.  While we were able to curtail its use (we were down to nap and night time only) our previous attempts were disastrous.  All it took was finding out that a daycare friend had given up her binkys in return for a "upstairs kitchen."  Fin immediately wanted to know if he could do the same, and I jumped all over that idea. He changed his mind about the kitchen once he found out it wouldn't be a real kitchen ("how are we gonna fit a whole kitchen upstairs, Mama?  That's crazy!") but was excited about picking something else.  So one monster truck and marble maze later, we are binky free (well for Fin anyway).  He hasn't asked for one, and even yelled "No Dad! I don't need a binky!" when he overheard Josh ask for one for Parker.  I nearly fell off the stairs.  This is a boy who not only demanded his binkys, but ran a five point inspection every night to make sure it was up to snuff.  He's also the boy who is so resistant to change we've taken to calling him OCD.  

So here's to Gracie and her new kitchen, and here's to letting go, and moving on.  One marble maze at a time.

A lazy weekend includes...

sleeping in (til eight!) a trip to the library (books on monster trucks, happy bees, lucretia borzia), a yogurt smoothie induced meltdown at target (parker made it out okay, the dress did not), naps, a drive down the canyon ("look fin, that place is called jeeps r us," without missing a beat the reply, "mama, we need to go to binkys r us and get a new binky cause tammy ate mine lellow one"), exploring the tidepools ("i love the tidepools mama, it burrys mine feet"), cheap frozen pizza and chinese food, shaking our booties to electronica, new blue nail polish (its the new black, which was the new red), dying mama's hair ("you're hair looks kinda weird mom" says the child who should be in bed) a nice big glass of wine and snuggling with my favorite man

Year 0

We are taking the family digital...