nothing says happy new year like...

seriously, i don't think i can remember when i last got this excited! tonight we had the pattisons over.

big h gets along with their kid so well. they play together, only not together. if that make sense. so i fixed tostadas (i am so incredibly fancy) and homemade guacamole and a black eyed pea salsa that my buddy davis gave me the recipe for. the taste of mine doesn't even come close to hers. but then again, she fixes hors d'oerves for me just when i come by to pick up some hand-me-downs. (you just have to know davis.) buz got champagne. i mean, it was the whole nine yards. this was no half-a__ party. i bathed, nursed, and put the goo to bed. and then, it was time.

time to break out the hickory farms beef stick (which buz calls the meat log), smoky bar, and sweet hot mustard. i look forward to the ceremonial opening of these products all. year. long.

and to my surprise, the pattisons were equally excited. poor buz. he could've cared less. a disgrace, i tell you. his loss.

and it was everything i hoped it would be.

so now before we sit in front of dick clark's new year's rockin' eve, buz and i are getting ready to go over our yearly personal "goals" and how we can love each other more and perhaps differently over the upcoming year. over some sparkly.

and, of course, some more meat log.

happy new year.

(and for some reason, blogger will not let me skip lines. hmmm...oh well)

do not, i repeat, DO NOT go...

to the mall.

without a double stroller at least (if you have kids under the age of say...12).

madness.

apparently, kids of all shapes and sizes AND their parents do not have school or work the week between christmas and new years. this is new to me?

we have had 2 days of being couped up in the house in our jammies without baths and showers. (yes, some of you are remembering me saying before i had children that i would never have a day without a shower. that was just so gross. bless my heart.) so i was determined to get out of the house with a shower and have all children bathed and smelling sweet. my buddy sarah (the one that just had a baby TWO WEEKS ago) decided she would join me. she is nuts. though, i had to get out of the house when i had a 2-week-old as well. life with more than one is a lot harder. (you people out there with more than 2 children...my hats off to you.)

getting lunch at the food court may have taken at least 6 hours, complete with lots of crying kids and lots of 9 and 10-year-olds using a lot of "i wants." it was craziness.

but, there was justice.

getting home, the lift and lay was accomplished with BOTH children. the lift and lay is a very technical procedure not to be attempted by just anyone. it is the art and science of taking your sleeping child out of his/her carseat and getting him/her into his/her bed without waking them up. and yes, it was accomplished. henry. done. the goo. done.

happiness in my life is now equivalent to a nap on a rainy day. ahhh...

and now after a fine dinner, buz and i are together, ready to face the weekend head on. (i say "face it head on" because the new years blues are upon us. that feeling you get when the holidays and festivities are over, and you're left with normal life again.)

liberation, freedom, c'mon thesaurus, bring me some more...

well, it has been WAY TOO LONG since i last posted. and for those 4 of you who are interested in what we are up to, i apologize. freedom is in the air. what's that, you say? something big has happened around the wisner house.

dying of suspense?

this is what has happened in the wisner house...



all of you who have been praying about our feeding situation, we thank you. the goo is still nursing, morning and night. but during the day, playtex ventaire. to the people of playtex, our hearts are with you this new year.

and to aunt emily and uncle bob, we thank you a thousand times over.

(yes, that's the goo being fed by a bottle)

you might be thinking this post would be all about christmas. well, it is. the playtex ventaire and my brother and his wife are the reason for the season this year. :)

i have been having SO MUCH TROUBLE nursing the goo that it was stressing me out and i was simply NOT enjoying my sweet goo. so i decided i had to do something about it. my niece (who is by far the cutest little girl i've seen) takes a bottle, and in my opinion my brother and his wife are experts in this field. so i told them that they had 3 days to get my "anti-bottle" baby on a bottle. and first try...I KID YOU NOT! aunt emily tried a couple of positions and different bottles. and then i heard that sound. that sucking sound. that drinking sound. that sound of nourishment. and i am serious when i say this. i was crying. ask bob or emily. real tears.

and my hats off to the goo. sweetheart, you did it. we are going to make it, you and me. and we are going to have some fun. we are going to go places. in public. god bless you!

that's our big news. christmas went absolutely flawless. scored myself a pedicure with my mom and sister-in-law. felt guilty that i wasn't doing much talking. but ONE WHOLE HOUR without anyone under the age of 31 was complete bliss. i shut my eyes and imagined myself on a beach somewhere...

buz helped me enter the age of technology. (i used to see myself as pretty technologically savvy, but due to children entering my life, i couldn't tell you one top 40 song on the radio or #1 selling item at best buy. that pains me.) but again, thanks to buz, i drove back home with one of these in my purse...



now, of course, i have no idea how to use it, and i have been feverishly calling my brother asking question after question. but don't think i'm not going to be the hippest mom in town. hmmm...what's the first song i will download?? any suggestions? perhaps something by air supply or lionel richie? :)

my other christmas gift was something i have been REALLY hoping for for a long time.



and i have no idea how to use this either. but i will definitely use one of my dork out nights to read through the instruction manual. you're saying, "i thought you didn't like flash pictures," and you're right. but in my house (aka the cave), i have no light, and all of my pictures are either grainy or dark, neither of which i like. so we'll give the 'ole sb-600 a go.

big h did really well this weekend with his cousins that he sees a whopping once a year. (we must fix that.) he has a 4-year-old boy cousin, a 3-year-old girl cousin, and a 7-month-old girl cousin. he was fixated on his 7-month-old cousin. maybe it's because of the goo. i don't know. but if you didn't know where he was, look for her. he was lovin' on her all over the place.

speaking of addie kate, the goo loved her too. they are going to be the best of friends. i just know it.


and as always, uncle brad right in the midst of all the fun.


have i mentioned how beautiful my niece is?


and weentrab, have some news for you. pretty bad PR on our photographer's part. we had it scheduled for noon on christmas eve at our church. not great lighting, if you ask me, but you didn't. after MANY bribes, henry had pitched one his grand mal fits and was a sheer delight to be around. greta had already spit up on her christmas dress. and i'm pretty sure i had lipstick on my teeth. mind you, i think the last time i wore lipstick was...my wedding? back to the photographer. SHE FORGOT! she had an opportunity to go out of town at the last minute and DID! so we have a couple of shots from mom's point and shoot that happened to be in her purse. but of course, the battery was almost dead, so the flash didn't work on the last couple. and every picture has big h crying. lovely. so weentrab, please do NOT even ask about our family picture. want to have some work when you get home? want to take some of us? :) (as though you don't have anything ELSE to do?)

spending time with my brother and his family was definitely the highlight of this christmas. it was so fun for henry to be around his cousins and aunt and uncle. and they all got along so well. my sister-in-law continues to get more and more beautiful (perhaps because she got my daughter on a bottle), even after having 3 children. and my brother and i STILL have a great time being with each other.

so whew! there you have it. our latest.

big week for the goo...

it's like she has changed over night. last week, i saw something white in her mouth. the girl spits up all day every day. spit up. white. that's what it was. i knew it. surely. wait...

a tooth? she's FOUR months old!

a tooth?

yes, a tooth! sheer craziness! reason behind her constant crankiness these days, i guess. and then today, big girl decided she was old enough to join us at the table. thanks, goo! we loved having you!

(i'm not sure i have EVER seen a more unflattering picture of myself.)

and winter janet? where, oh where, is she? i mean, we saw her poke her head for the one-day "arctic blast." (translation: one day of below-60 weather.) and now our trusty friends at the weather channel are telling us it's going to be EIGHTY on wednesday? i'm sorry...what? pack your bags, winter janet. maybe we'll see you next year.

we, meaning all THREE of us, went back to presby to visit my buddy sarah, who just had her 2nd baby. gosh, i was dreading this visit due to my little man possibly having one or more meltdowns of an unknown nature. the guy never ceases to amaze me. he went into her hospital room where she, her husband, and the baby were. he proceeded to sit on the chair, open his "cheesy crackers" and eat and play with buzz lightyear. and then every time the baby would sneeze, he was SO concerned and would say, "oh God bless you, baby. what a sneeze! you ok?" i'm sorry -- whose child is this? and then he whipped out his memory of steel. (i love when he does this.) presby is the same place we had both of our children. when greta was born, my parents would bring him up one time during the day, he and buz would go to the vending machine and get animal crackers and he would watch something on our little portable DVD player, so we could visit with my parents and ooh and ahh over the baby. so today, i told him we were going to the hospital to see sarah's baby, and he said, "oh! the hopissal! we get aminal crackers and watch sum-ping together?" literally, the kid kept it together the entire time.

until.

we got to the car. and i asked the dreaded question. "henry, what would you like for lunch?" not sure exactly why he interpreted it as "henry, would you like a spanking or time out for lunch?" the kid went nuts. i was on the phone with my buddy marino (marino, i love the heck out of you. hope your christmas shopping was successful.), and she got to hear the lovely sound of whiny 3-year-old noise.

tomorrow is mothers' day out. hmmm...goo, what should we do? perhaps wrap at least ONE christmas present? i have not wrapped a SINGLE present! for those of you who know me, you should find this quite surprising. my OCD comes out at christmas and birthdays. i love wrapping. much like i love laundry and vacuuming. the instant gratification.

and just some life lessons we've recently learned from big h.

1. make friends with inanimate objects. yesterday we were on our way home from picking him up from school. he walks up to the door to go inside and says, "hey home, wassup? can we come inside? um...ok, said the home."
2. always include your siblings. "hey, baby. this is my buz. he has wings and a belt. he flies and he is friends with my friend called woody. you wanna watch cars with me?"
3. positive self-image. we go to pick him from school, and as we're walking to the car, he says, "mama, baby sure is happy to see me."
4. admit defeat. he was trying to zip up a CD case and proceeds to tell me, "you know, mama, this is really much harder than it looks."
5. learn a foreign language. i picked him up from school. "gazuntite, mommy." (i don't know how to spell that.) where does he get this stuff?
6. look out for those younger than you. when buz and i sing, he quickly says, "hey you guys. no more singing. that is too loud for little baby." (we think he just doesn't like our singing.)

don't take it personally, don't take it personally...

big h and i were in the guest room, and i was feeding the goo. typically, i tell him not to come in while i'm feeding her because she is SO easily distracted (she comes by that naturally). and he only has two volumes -- loud and a LOT louder. so he was in there trying so hard to be really quiet. he went to take off my shoes. i assured him he did NOT want to take off my shoes because i didn't wear socks today, and these are the infamous smelly shoes. don't get me wrong -- they are cute shoes, but they are some stinky ones, if i must admit online. so he doesn't listen to me, shocker, and he takes them off. and proceeds to say, "oh mama, what's that awful smell? did a skunk spray you?" nice. be blunt next time, why don't you henry? (for the reference of that comment, see "Curious George goes camping.")

today began with little goo getting up before she is "supposed to." always throws a kink in the day. but we bounced back. dropped big h off at school, and we headed down to my former place of employment. reminds of the days when i used to accomplish things. :) met with the lactation nurse. yes, i am STILL at it. greta doesn't like the bottle but isn't that great of a nurser either. rock and a hard place, you might say. of course, greta was a total champ in front of her. stinker. then, we went to see my old co-worker and now friend, lowra. good to see her and catch up, as well as give her the pictures i took of her baby, who is 5 days younger than the goo. also, got to see our labor and delivery nurse who happens to know the Lord and has become a little part of our family. we love you, meredith! had lunch with lowra (just like old times). and the best part was that today the job i went back to was henry and greta. uneventful afternoon. made $25 doing a survey on cashews. random. but can never go wrong making $$ eating, right?

and now, the day is over. and tomorrow is friday. praise the Lord! daddy home for 2 days! oh, and to report -- dad LOVES his new job, and mom and the kiddos LOVE his new "commute."

and some recent pictures.

greta the day after our "arctic blast" (i PROMISE she's a happy little baby. i PROMISE!)

dad and his munchkins

greta, the tomboy

my little man and his "yite-ning ah-keen" (lightning mcqueen)

the goo trying out the jumper

and enamored with her brother

h lovin on his sister

meredith, our amazing labor and delivery nurse