Wanna be my friend?

I feel like my generation was skipped with the whole myspace thing. Actually, I guess it's not my generation, age-wise - more like my mommy status. I don't know any other moms on myspace, although I know quite a few people my age. Then again, most of the friends I hang out with are at least 5 years older than I am, even though our kids are the same age. That's what I get for getting started so early.

Anyhow, my brother started working for facebook, so I was "encouraged" by my sister-in-law to join. Since then, I find myself on it several times throughout the day. Mostly I look at the status updates, read some blogs, look at pics, watch videos and play scrabble.

BTW, if you're playing scrabble with me, please make moves more often than once every other day. Scrabble is my outlet, the thing I do when I have some time to myself. When I get on and NO ONE has made a move, it's frustrating. And if I'm not currently playing with you, challenge me to a game! I just beat Eugene Byon for the 3rd time in a row. Heh heh. I ended up clearing all my tiles three times in one game. Craziness.

Anyway, I was online last night trying to find out some info about Spencer from The Hills. (Does he even have a job? He's so slimy and greasy, and it looks like he does nothing but spend money all the live long day.) I ended up getting linked to the myspace pages of some of the people from the show. OK, they have, like, 13,002 friends. What the heck?

Is this a status thing? Do people just like having high numbers on their friends list? Does it make you cool? Personally, I don't really want to know what's going on in the daily lives of many acquaintances. It's fun seeing what close friends or family are up to, but if I hardly know you, why do I want to know about your favorite movies? Or even more than that, why do you want me to know?

Is this selfish? Should I accept everyone as my friend, just because they requested it? I have to confess, there are a handful of friend requests I've ignored. If you're one of them and you're reading this, my apologies. But really, why do you want to be my friend? Do you care that Matthew is undisciplinable? Do you care that Julie is going to fix my glasses for me? Do you really want to know who I'm playing scrabble with?

My parents have asked me repeatedly to explain "in layman's terms" what facebook is. It's really hard to explain to old Korean grandparents! They usually respond, "But why do you want to know what everyone's doing?" Then conclude with, "So it's just another way to waste your time." Which, I guess, it is. I know that I personally never do anything productive or worthwhile on facebook. I got in touch with several people that I'd lost touch with, which is nice, but otherwise, I just mostly play scrabble.

So challenge me to a game! But only if you're really my friend.

Dress up time!

I don't recall playing a lot of dress up during childhood, but I know one thing - dressing up my kids is RIDICULOUSLY fun. Ellie has had at least 2 costumes per Halloween. Her first Halloween, she ended up being a ballerina. Here she is with Ryan in his pea costume (that I bought him - heh heh heh).

The next year, I couldn't decide between the full-body chicken costume and the semi-lame princess. She took her portrait in the chicken, but ended up wearing the princess for Halloween. The picture of her in the chicken outfit is hysterical. Mostly because she was between 12-18 and 18-24 month sizes, and I ended up getting the smaller one, which was uncomfortably small. Didn't matter since I returned it after taking the pic. How's this for a scary pic - Peter dressed up as a Power Ranger for work. Scary, this one piece unitard thing. I think he enjoyed it more than his patients. Ellie was remarkably not scared of it. She wanted him to keep wearing it.

Then there was last year, aka the beginning of the matching. This is why I had multiple children! Much to my delight, Ellie's a big fan of matching as well, so she was all for the butterfly and caterpillar thing. We ("we" being Ellie and I) are actually thinking of making #3 wear the caterpillar next year, Ellie can again be a butterfly, and Matthew can be a cocoon. We'll have all the stages covered! I did get Matthew a full-bodied costume as well - this torturously hot fleece lion costume which was ADORABLE. He absolutely hated it. Can't say I blame him.

So this year I'm having somewhat of a struggle. I had gotten Matthew this Texas basketball uniform thing when he was a few months old. It was $9.99 at Marshalls, so I had to get it. Anyway, Ellie has her cheerleader costume she wore to Matthew's dol, so I thought they'd wear that and we'd be done with it. Of course, I'm all agitated that the burnt orange doesn't really match the pink and navy blue in Ellie's dress, so I'm debating between getting her a Texas cheerleader dress or getting Matthew a different costume. I found a little football player costume complete with helmet and shoulder pads for around $15. The Texas dress is $22 at Target. Obviously, price-wise, I should go for the football costume, but it's sized 2T-4T. My skinny little man will be swimming in it, but that'll make it just all the more hilarious, no?

My poor kids, suffering in my hands. You know, I have absolutely no problems with Halloween. Fortunately, we're having a Fall Festival at church this year, but I totally would let them go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Those were some of my fondest memories from childhood. Actually, come to think of it, I did have fun dressing up as a kid. Past Halloween costumes included a bottle of ketchup, a carrot, a Christmas tree... I don't think I was ever a witch or princess or anything. I know I always wore my ballet recital costume. I guess Ellie could then be an 80s stewardess.

I'm so excited! Hooray for excuses to put costumes on my children!

Happy progress

I'm happy to report that things in my life (and my kids' lives) are progressing nicely. Firstly, I am now able to eat fruit again without writhing in discomfort and pain for hours afterwards. Hooray! This makes a big difference in my life. I've been eating peaches everyday.

I am now also officially pregnant looking. I'm pretty sure I'm past the "Is she pregnant or just fat" phase as moms at school are now asking if I'm expecting. Moms who've been there know you don't just ask anyone that question. Unfortunately, I've been too tired (aka lazy) to go through my maternity clothes, so I'm wearing the same 4 bottoms everyday. And my butt has gotten gigantic. So not cute. I'm sure I'm ruining my non-maternity clothes by stretching out the butts and the stomachs. Oh well.

Matthew is somewhat converting to one-nap status. This is good in that the kids sleep at the same time (as opposed to tag teaming, which left me with no breaks). This is bad in that I only get one Matthew break a day. That's actually not that bad, because the boy is fairly good at entertaining himself at home. Another thing is he's getting better at sharing! He actually gave Ellie the last fruit snack today, which shocked both of us. Last week he got his first time out, which seemed to do something for him. He kinda gets it a little better when he's about to be in trouble. I wish I'd videotaped it. It was so cute. Sad when he realized he was being punished and started wailing, but sad in a hilarious way. Ellie and I had to hide because we were laughing so hard.

Ellie is a great big sister. This is not anything that's changed, but it's just a thing I like to talk about. I really lucked out with her. She just adores Matthew and is so good at helping him. Now when he can't do anything, he immediately calls for her. "Ahyee! Ammee!" (Ellie, help me!) Seriously, I'm amazed sometimes at how she'll drop what she's doing to help him, or do something for him, or get him things. She sort of prides herself on being bigger and more capable, which is something I obviously play up. We can't wait to see how she'll be with the baby. Four years is a pretty big age difference. I think she'll be like his second mom. She's this crazy nurturing 3-year old. Even her teacher was impressed that she and Matthew hug and she gives him a kiss before and after school each day.

And finally, I've beaten Eugene Byon at Scrabulous in both games we've played. I don't know why victory against him is sweeter than with others, but it sure is! Ha ha ha!

Life is good these days. Can't complain.

Another new stage

Ellie had her first week of school. She LOVED school last year, but I think she's having a little trouble easing back into the routine, especially going two days in a row (she goes T, Th, F). Hannah's in her class again, which is good. She can tell me all these details about who cried because she wanted to play dress up when it was clean up time, how the Motor teacher got a new classroom, what toys are on the "big kid" playground, what songs they sang, etc. She really is a big girl.

She's going through a weird clingy phase. She just does NOT want to cooperate with Peter these days, and bedtime has become a battlefield again. That is, when it's with him. As Ellie told Daddy, "I ALWAYS cooperate... with Mommy." She said she didn't want to go to school this morning because she didn't want me to leave. Then she had a major tantrum when we were leaving house church. What happened to my mature, easygoing, confident little girl?! Hopefully this is all due to tiredness. We'll see how next week goes.

In the meantime, Matthew has discovered usage of the apostrophe s. He'll go around identifying everything that belongs to Peter in the house. Pager - Daddy's. Palm Pilot - Daddy's. Flip flops in the foyer - Daddy's. Mug used for coffee - Daddy's. Glasses (even if they're mine) - Daddy's. Since Ellie's been gone at school for the past couple of days, he's doing it with her stuff too - Ahyee's.

That's actually cute - he misses Ellie like CRAZY. Either that, or he's completely baffled by her absence in our home. He wakes up from nap asking about her, he keeps patting her carseat, asking where she is. At least a hundred times a day I told him, "Ellie's at SCHOOL." So when he asked for the gajillionth time about her today, I asked him where she was. He responded, "Koo."

And he's THRILLED to see her when we pick her up. He actually ran to the garage today when I said we were going to go get her. Ellie - not that excited. She's more excited to see her friends in other classes, namely Christen and Kayce. It's so sad. He does this opening and closing of his fist when he wants something, and he does it towards her while chanting her name. Oblivous to his longing, Ellie completely ignores him and picks flowers in the grass (which he does not like and won't walk in).

I tried taking Matthew to Little Gym today. I don't know if we're going to stick with it. Firstly, it's right at his naptime. Secondly, I feel like I'm paying money for him to play with balls and get stamps on his hands, as that's all he really cares to do. We'll see. I feel like I should do SOMETHING with him while Ellie's at school.

I, personally, am loving school. I'm loving getting time to myself in the mornings AND afternoons (long days often bring simultaneous afternoon naps!). Unfortunately, I'm not really using my time that productively. I sort of feel like I need to relish ANY time to myself these days, so that's what I've been doing while Ellie's gone. TLC, the Ellen show, eating unhealthy snacks, napping... it's been so nice.

I'm also starting to not fit into regular clothes. I had my first pair of pants not button this week. Granted I'm wearing only low-rise and elasticized waist clothing, but I feel like I'm smaller this time around than I was with Matthew. Actually, I feel like I've popped out more these past couple of weeks, and I no longer can blame gas (although that's still omnipresent in my life).

And it's hot. Not like that's new news, but it really is hot. Will the 90-something degree weather never cease?! Yick.