Dylan's b-day pics

I keep waiting to get caught up in my life and then i can spend about 15 hours getting caught up on the blog ... but that's not going to happen. So, here are a bunch of random recent photos - starting with Dylan's birthday. Enjoy!

Dylan's 4th birthday!!

The bike!


The cake!


Mimi's Gift!

We're baaaack...

OK, I'm not caught up on life, but have realized that I'm never going to be. So, I'm just biting the bullet and beginning to blog again. I think I've been waiting for that "ahhh, I'm all caught up and nothing else to do" moment "I guess I can blog now". However, there's always children to chase, work to do, laundry to get clean, toys to pick up, phone calls to return and a husband to talk to. So getting caught up just doesn't seem likely in my near, 10-15 year future. If you hear me saying that I'm trying to get caught up refer me to this post!

Anyway, here's my latest funny moment. Dylan is in the terrible 3-and-a-halfs and always tormenting his sister. I'd warned him many times today to be nice to her and stop harrassing her. He was chasing her through the house, they were following me naturally, I heard someone hit the floor and Marina began crying. I turned around to see blood everywhere and she was holding her breath. I instantly knew that Dylan had pushed her. I swooped her up and sent him to timeout in the corner (more on that in another post - timeout is hysterical at our house!). After I got her calmed down and realized all the blood was just from a tiny cut in her mouth I asked why he'd pushed her (he's still in time out, though). He was adamant that he didn't push her and in his struggled speech he basically told me that she'd tripped. Which is ENTIRELY possible! Then he said "Mommy, baby fee go bee-out, no weee". Translation: "Marina's feet need to go to timeout, not me."

I smiled, knowing I was wrong to immediately suspect him. And reluctantly released him from his timeout prison. And poured a glass of wine.

Up next - a million pics from the last few months just to get caught up!

bazillion photos ... part deux

Okay, here are more pics. No real order just me being obnoxious and posting way too many photos of my kiddos. Once this mokey is off my back I'll post some true updates on the family :)

Dylan's birthday

(party #2 - he had a party in Indiana, too. Talk about spoiled!!)

Sassy little Marina

Dylan and his playmate

Marina with a cute flower in her hair (along with her newly found food allergies!!)

Dylan reverting back to ...

my favorite photo! I love that smile!

a bazillion photos!

Since I haven't posted in such a long time I figured I'd dump a bunch of photos and let them do the talking. Here's the first batch. Enjoy!

Halloween 2008

Marina was a kitty and a pumpkin. You know how a girl can never have just one choice! :)

Dylan was, of course, a scary pirate!

Christmas Road Trip

Dylan breakdancing at the bowling alley. uh-huh....

Papaw Tim with the kiddos

Mimi and Marina (dressed like a candy cane it looks like)

Christmas Eve

Is it really 2009?

OK, I have no clue what's happened to the last 6 weeks. Wait, yes I do.
- Dylan turned 3!
- Dylan started his new school (separate post on that coming soon)
- Marina got RSV
- Bryan got some weird eye infection
- FunnySpoon has been keeping us busy, busy, busy
- Regular jobs have been keeping us busy!
- I had a small surgery and a double-whammy sinus infection/bronchitis so I was down & out a week or more

I'm sure a few other things happened in there, too, but you get the gist. The Jaynes house is busy. No busier than anyone else, but just not as good as handling it!

So, this is my explanation and apology for not posting any holiday photos or Dylan's 3rd birthday photos. Coming next week, I PROMISE! In the meantime, my dear friend Shannon Samson shared these photos from our visit to her TV station in Indianapolis right before Christmas. Thanks Shano!

it's actually a better photo of Marina's carseat than Bryan, but wanted to prove he was with us!!

We totally missed out on the photo of the kids with Auntie Shano. I think the 3 degree weather had frozen my brain so I can't be held responsible for not thinking...

Daddy's fired!

Being the great father he is, Bryan wanted to help out and took Dylan to get his hair cut on Saturday. I think he's taking 'recession budget' a little too seriously ... Dylan won't need another haircut until 2010 now!



(This was taken after Dylan ate his birthday cake. He's not trying out for a Cure cover band!)

Never a dull moment!

Today is Dylan's first day at his new preschool (more on this new school in an upcoming post). School starts at 8am. In Brunswick. No big deal for most people, but you all know that I'm not a morning person. And neither are my kids. They'd like to sleep until 9am every day if possible. This is great for me most of the time, but now with the new school time I have to figure out how to get myself and the kids out of the house by 7:30. Today was day 1 and I already had to call in for backup. And bail money.

Marina is sick with RSV so I asked Bryan to stay home with her while I dropped Dylan off. As I was leaving (running 10 minutes behind schedule) I joked to Bryan that not only were we late, but I wasn't exactly sure how the drop off process goes - where to park, what door to go in, etc. I said "I'm like Mr. Mom when he drops off the kids and everyone kept saying 'You're doing it wrong!'". Bryan laughed as I ran out the door (probably not fully getting the Mr. Mom reference).

So we get to school, 5 minutes late. Find out Dylan's speech therapy is supposed to begin first thing so we're late for that. Sigh. I leave school, get in my car and have a brief moment about leaving my son for his first day at 'the big school' and then pull out of my parking space. As I'm pulling out of the parking lot I notice a police car behind me with blue lights on. Now, I haven't even pulled onto the street yet so I'm thinking it must be some weird security measure to drive with their lights on around schools. Or maybe the police officer doesn't know her lights are on? Stupid, I know, but there was no way I was being pulled over. Wait, yes I was. I was getting pulled over in a parking lot. At my son's new school. What that *&%#?

Apparently I was doing it wrong. The parking lot is a one way circle, just like on Mr. Mom, and I went the wrong way. The police officer was nice and probably felt sorry for my deer-in-headlights-already-been-crying-self and just gave me a little warning about being safe around children and the school.

Lesson learned - always have a backup plan and bail money ... even ifyou're just going to preschool.

School pictures? Seriously?

Wow. I'm such a rookie mom. You'd think that since I'm a slightly older mom I would figure some things out, but I haven't. Yet.

So even in preschool they have school pictures. And fundraisers. Who knew??

Here are Dylan's school pics. I swear he looks like he's 10.

School Daze

Dylan started preschool this year. I can't believe it. He goes 2 days per week, Tuesday and Thursday from 9-1. As you can imagine for 2 year olds it's mostly about the playground, gym time and snacks, but they do have lessons each day, too. He brings home his projects and then tries to tell me all about them. Like the apple prints. He showed me how they dipped the apple in paint and then pressed it on the paper. He was VERY animated about it, too!

Over the summer he began resisting going to his daycare. He absolutely loves Nana, but didn't want to leave Mommy and probably didn't think it was fair that Marina got to stay home with me and he didn't. Because of that I wasn't sure how he'd do with the new school - strangers, rules, new routine. Dylan doesn't like any of those things (especially rules!). However he's done great with school. He absolutely loves it.

He gets really excited every time we drive by the school. Mostly because of the playground I think. And he also LOVES his lunch box. Thinks it's the coolest thing ever. He doesn't ever eat anything we take, but still loves the idea.

Here's a pic from his first day ... can't you tell how excited he is?

Heavy Metal Lives!!

So everyone knows that I was a heavy metal fan in high school (and secretly still am!). Well, Dylan is living proof that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Example 1: I was taking him to his first day of preschool and we were trying to find a good song to cheer us up before dropping him off. I scanned the 80s station, the 90s station, the 70s rock station, the Nick Kids station, the adult rock station and he said “NO!” (loudly) to all of them. He usually likes the 90s and the adult rock station. Then I tried XM51 – the Mandatory Metallica station. He started rocking out in the backseat, banging his head and said “Yay mama!”.

Example 2: About a week later we were in the car again looking for a good song. I tried a station that was playing a Fergie song. Dylan loudly said "NO!" so I flipped it to the Mandatory Metallica station. They were playing 'Motorbreath' (one of my faves). He was so excited - started rocking out and holding his fist up. Then the song ended and some lame, new Metallica song came on so I switched it back to the pop station. Fergie was still playing. He said "No mama, no!". So I switched it to the Big Hair Band station on XM and they were playing 'Welcome to the Jungle'. He LOVED it! I started singing and he started yelling with me.

Example 3: Bryan was out of town and it had rained all weekend so I had to get a little creative on things to do inside with Dylan. We decided to have a dance party. After going through all the normal songs we dance to I decided to put on 'Girls, Girls, Girls' ... what a winner. Dylan loved it - loved the sound of the motorcycles. He rocked out to the song, jumping on the couches and playing air guitar. Then I got scared and imagined him in a strip club in about 18 years and had to turn it off.

Seriously … he’s so my kid.

Photo du jour

Loving this look!