Rach and Lu

Rach and I met over 10 years ago (seriously??) as little college freshmen in the dorms. We immediately bonded over clothes, food, and LOTS of laughing...and not much has changed. Back then we knew one day we'd be married off with kids...

...and now we can hardly believe that we are fully in "momhood." (Of course back then we thought our children would be the offspring of Justin Timberlake and Nick Lachey...so not everything has gone according to plan)

Jake and I headed up to Vegas the other week to spend a few days with her and her cute girls Anna and Paige while Mike studied day and night for his first boards exam in dental school. We quickly saw that every day in Vegas is filled with water activities, being that it was 118 degrees...but who is really counting over 110? Here's our cute kids at a little water park one afternoon

Rach kept warning me that Paige was not your typical baby where peek-a-boo and tickling claim an easy laugh. I had to up the anty with my humor with this one. This girl wanted real humor, with wit. It worked...Paige and I totally bonded...so now I'm off to audition at the comedy club after working my material on her all week

Ok, we may have made it seem like this was just a trip for fun. But Rachel and I have a bigger plan. The true mission for our coming together in Vegas was to begin fostering a future marriage between either Jake and Anna (we are not opposed to older women...Rach and Mike are living proof of that)...pictured here enjoying a static-filled trampoline experience

...or between Jake and Paige, who clearly in this picture would be the aggressor in this relationship. You can see that Jake is deep in thought over the tough decision ahead of him with such cute girls.
Ok, if Jake and Paige are going to work out, I think they need to try a little harder on putting their best faces forward in front of each other
Me and the kiddos

On our last day there we headed to Cafe Rio for lunch, and couldn't pass up on a good picture opp...

Rach and I are always picture obsessed...trying to get just one where we think we both look good...one day that will happen

We gave up and went for silly faces

the whole gang

Here we are, two 29 year olds who still act like we are 18. I'll bet that will still be true when we are 40, 50, and even 90 years old! That's what I love about you Rach...things will never change. We will always have a blast being the girly girls that we are--make-up, clothes, tv shows, dances, car dancing, "what-if's," celebrity gossip, bleaching our hair, 7-11 stops, boys, pop and country, ...and someone who is there for me when I need her. I love you!! Thanks for letting Jake and I crash in on you guys for the week!

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I stopped by my friend Brittany's house too before I left Vegas. Brittany and I go way back to high school. When I think of Brittany, I think of sore cheek muscles (in my face) because I was constantly laughing with Britt. (If you haven't noticed from what I said about me and Rach, laughing is pretty much my favorite activity). I was so glad I got a chance to see her and her family and her house before we left.

Of course we are trying to get a picture of ourselves we actually like (another common denominator with me and my friends)...it's kind of ironic I'm ending up posting the "ugly laughing face" picture. (Although believe me, it could be worse...we've had some pretty good laughing faces in our day with red faces and flared nostrils)

We calmed down and tried again...

Just another day in the life of...a mom

I'll give you two examples from today and yesterday:

Example 1:

I was changing a big poopy diaper and noticed it gave Jake diaper rash. I decided to give him a bath. I took him in the bathroom and noticed there was still sand in the tub from a recent beach trip. I set him down next to me outside of the tub with no diaper on while I leaned over to rinse the sand down the drain. I felt something warm and wet hitting my foot. I looked and found him peeing on me and the floor. I went to grab paper towels from under the bathroom sink to wipe up the puddle of pee. During those few seconds I heard glass shattering and looked to see he had grabbed my nail polish and thrown it into the tub. It broke and hot pink nail polish had splattered all over the tub. I paused in a brief moment of shock. I then bent down to wipe up the pee really quick and as I did, he peed again. If you're wondering what my thoughts were, they were along the lines of "Am I living in a sitcom right now?"

I put a diaper on Jake (finally doing something smart) and then worked for the next hour trying to clean up all of the hot pink nail polish from the tub (using nail polish remover and bleach). As I did this, I would look up occasionally to see what he was doing. At one point I found that he'd taken the toilet brush out of its holder and was playing with it and examining its bristles with his fingers. Holding back the throw-up coming into my mouth, I took it away and washed his hands and arms with soap. At another point I looked up to see him dipping my Bath and Body Works lotions into the toilet. Again, I stopped to wash his hands and arms with soap. By the time I was finished, the bathroom floor was covered in little ripped up pieces of toilet paper, puddles of water he'd shaken out of his bath toys, and all my lotions and perfumes, (which by the way, I can't remember which one was dipped into the toilet) with all their lids and sprayer tops removed. Now you might be wondering why I don't have locks on the toilet and all the cabinets or why I didn't just put him in his crib at some point. My answer for you is, I have no idea. Maybe I'm not that smart or maybe I can just claim temporary insanity. But I can assure you that toilet locks and more cabinet locks are coming very soon.

Example 2:

Today I was making dinner and cleaning up the kitchen. I turned on his show in the other room, but he likes being by me in the kitchen. As I worked on dinner he unloaded everything from a cabinet that I'd left open. Then a bit later as I was doing dishes and he was getting into the pantry, I looked to see he had ripped open a container of green otter pops and was splashing in the green puddle on the floor. I stopped to clean him up, wipe off the toys he'd put in the puddle, and mop the floor. Then i put him back in front of his show and got back to cleaning the kitchen. A little later I checked on him, but he wasn't watching his show. I found him upstairs in the bathroom splashing and playing in the toilet as if it was his own kiddie pool...maybe I should go get him a real one and the toilet obsession will stop?? He was wet, the floor was wet, and I was yet again, grossed out. I changed him, washed his face, arms, and hands and brought him back into the kitchen with me. When I got back to loading the dishwasher, he stood by me and unloaded each item as I loaded it in...one of his favorite things to do.

This all reminds me of a song by Lonestar called Mr. Mom where the Dad stays home thinking it will be an easy job. Here's the chorus:

Pampers melt in a Maytag dryer

Crayons go up one drawer higher

Rewind Barney for the fifteenth time

Breakfast, six naps at nine

There's bubble gum in the baby's hair

Sweet potatoes in my lazy chair

Been crazy all day long

and it's only Monday Mr. Mom

Yeah, it ain't easy. But if it sounds like I'm complaining...I'm not. I love every minute of it.

Who would want to wish these days away???

Can anyone relate? Share some tidbits of yours if you want...