Dinosaur roadside attraction near Palm Springs, California #travelwithkids

The silliest stop on our southern California adventure was also one of the most memorable. We took the family to meet the large and amazing Cabazon Dinosaurs! 

These huge dinosaurs are an easy road trip from the Palm Springs, California area. The drive was about 22 minutes on Interstate 10. My husband surprised the kids with a stop to visit the dinosaurs on our way to Joshua Tree National Park. Parking was plentiful and we were able to snap some photos of the California dinosaurs and visit the gift shop. The Cabazon Dinosaurs roadside attraction is a must for dinosaur lovers! (And I know many of you remember the movie Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure, whether you will admit it or not.)

The kids, ages 3 and 9, thought the dinosaurs were funny and we had a good time snapping photos and waving hello to these giants, way up high. If you are near Palm Springs, California, do not forget to drive the kids over to this entertaining attraction. The Cabazon Dinosaurs certainly make a BIG impression!

This post was not sponsored, I just think you should visit! Especially if you have kids along on your adventures. Roar!

Photo bomb the baby playing with your phone

Andrew enjoys making faces at himself with the phone camera. I enjoy photo bombing his fun photos by copycatting his faces.

Mommy and Me Monday is silly this week!
Linking up with Krystyn at ReallyAreYouSerious.com. She's on her 301st Mommy and Me Monday!
 

Baby gear ideas for Elf on The Shelf

Do you have a baby at home this holiday season? We do! And our Elf on The Shelf, Sparkles, is bound to get into some extra-silly mischief with the baby gear. We are eagerly anticipating his arrival to our home sometime after Thanksgiving. I wonder what he will get into?

Need a few new Elf on The Shelf ideas?
Check out these silly baby-related ideas for your Elf on The Shelf!

Elf on The Shelf: Midnight Snack

The baby bottles and Gerber Puffs were apparently irresistible last night.



Elf on The Shelf: Cuddly Night Sleep

This Elf cuddled up with a clip-on pacifier, blanket, and a fuzzy bear. 

Elf on The Shelf: Oops, Dirty Diaper

I think he's playing a joke with a diaper and some jumbo chocolate chips...

 

 

Enjoy your Christmas countdown with silliness! Items around the house, especially baby gear, can be quite tempting for our mischievous elves. 

Texting my husband (not a love note)

Before I was a mother, I did not understand why people needed to text. Why not call? Or email? But once I had a child in one arm, or a kid napping, or my hands tied up in a diaper change attempt with a squirmy uncooperative little thing? I got it.

I text because it is fast and easy. I rarely have the opportunity to sit and focus on a phone conversation. And I have a short memory (Mom Brain is real!). Life is busy and I easily forget whatever it is I wanted to tell someone. So I zip off a quick text before it slips my mind completely.

My husband and I text during the work day often. I dump whatever to-dos are in my brain at any given moment, not expecting him to jump on it right away, but so I know I sent the thought out there and he can get it when he gets it.

Most of our text exchanges are about everyday life. Quick and easy communication to get stuff done.

  Is pizza OK for dinner? Had a crazy day.   --> Yep.
  Got a media invite for a show, you free on Friday night?  --> Sure, find a sitter.
  Soccer practice tonight, will you make it?  --> Meet you there. Traffic is bad.

I often pass along airport news for my husband, who is an engineer on various projects at ATL (among others). This one the other day made for a good giggle:

 

 

 

Oh, texting. Thanks for letting me send random thoughts and sometimes pointless news to my friends and family during work hours.

 

 

- - -

Linked up to Mama Kat's Writers' Workshop. Thursdays. Prompt: "A recent text exchange that made you laugh."

 

 

Dear Daddy, Mom's not in a good mood.

There was a super-secret note passed to Daddy upon his return home from work this evening. It seems our daughter is quite smart; she insisted on giving him a heads-up.

The note pretty much sums up how Thursday went.

(Edited for spelling and punctuation. And FYI, Andrew got hurt because he fell; I didn't injure him!) 

Dear Daddy,

Mom's not in a good mood. 

First, she thought it was her fault she hurt Andrew.

Second, she put Andrew to bed, and as she was working the pizza guy came.

 

He rang the doorbell.

Third, she got a tummy ache by eating the pizza.

As you can see, she is very stressed.

Fourth of all, she had to drive to the city.

Sorry to Mommy!

From, Amelia

TGIF - thank goodness it is Friday for sure!

Five Elf on the Shelf ideas: Funny, rated G, and "Busy Mama Approved"

Thanksgiving is almost here, which means that our elf, Sparkles, is preparing for his upcoming visit to our house. I, for one, am looking forward to his arrival. My daughter had five solid years of being sweet and almost always good. Lately, however, she has really brought the sass! I am hoping that Sparkles can whip her back into shape a little bit. And if he doesn't? Well, Santa will get a lot of questionable reports this year!

Our elf isn't as creative as some, he is just too busy! But it looks like some elves are quite the funny guys and gals! Some others are even PG-13 or worse... yikes.

Here is my favorite collection of funny and child-friendly Elf on the Shelf poses from Pinterest (ones even the busiest mamas can handle):

Click on the images to be taken to the Pin, where you can click through to any original posts as well.

Elf and Barbie on a date...

She dressed herself... (yikes)

Draw a picture that you feel accurately depicts one of your last tweets...

 Even funnier than her crazy outfit was her super-serious, detailed, four-year-old explanation of why it did, in fact, match.
 
I was not convinced. (But I let her wear it.)

#WW: Funny faces

Last month we snapped dozens of photos as we gathered with various family groups for Christmas celebrations. To inject a bit of personality beyond the typical stand-in-a-group-and-smile shots, we asked everyone to make a funny face.

The verdict: We have an utterly crazy family!

The adults and teenagers in the family have forbidden me to share the pics. The world will never know just how ridiculous we can look... oh well. 

Friday Funny: What If?

This sounds exactly like my daughter at bedtime! Sharing a Friday funny from my favorite writer, the great Shel Silverstein:

Whatif
By Shel Silverstein

from the book "A Light in the Attic" (1981)


Last night, while I lay thinking here,
some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I'm dumb in school?
Whatif they've closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there's poison in my cup?
Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don't grow talle?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won't bite?
Whatif the wind tears up my kite?
Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?
Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don't grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems well, and then
the nighttime Whatifs strike again!

#WW: Loves to learn

This is one of my favorite all-time videos of baby Amelia. She is now a 4 1/2 year old smarty pants. She was a smarty pants back then too! She has always loved to learn and succeed.

"Yaaaaay!"

Happy Wednesday!

Daddy is hilarious

Unless he is working late or traveling, my husband is in charge of Amelia's bedtime. He loves spending time cuddled on her bed and playing silly games.

We still have a baby monitor in her room because even now, as of age 4 1/2, she does not leave her room. She has gotten out of bed perhaps four times in her entire life. Instead, she calls for us.

"Hey Mom-MY... Hey Dad-DY..."

See what I'm up against?

Picture it... a Monday night...

A just-turned-4-year-old sporting a Disney Princess nightgown does not want to go to bed, despite multiple warnings that it is already 30 minutes beyond her usual bedtime. She pulls out all her tricks to lengthen these moments,

"Mommy? I need one more hug."

"Daddy? I really miss you at bedtime."

"Mommy? I am very thirsty, may I have some water?"

"Daddy...."

"Mommy..."

She knows the one that always works, "I need to go potty again." 

We have to let her get up to go potty, just in case. 

This night, she goes potty and sloooowly washes her hands. She spies her new coconut scented shampoo on the counter, "Mommy, I want to smell my shampoo!"

Mommy's patience is all gone. "No, you may not. I said bed... NOW."

We teeter on the verge of a major meltdown, but narrowly escape as she unhappily crawls into bed. I tell her my goodnights, give her a final squeeze, and leave the room. Then I remove the shampoo from the bathroom counter and hide it, knowing her never-ceasing persistence will drive her little bare feet over there at the first chance.   

Sure enough, we hear the telltale squeak of the floor upstairs, a mere 4 minutes later. I wait a moment, then yell upstairs, "Amelia! Get back in bed, please!"

Squeak squeak.

I go up to her room, just as she dives back under her polka dot sheets and pink butterfly quilt. I ask her what she had been doing.

"I wanted to smell my shampoo."

Grinning, naively claiming victory, I reply, "And you couldn't find it, could you?"

She sits up, her face aglow with pride. "But I did! I opened the cabinet and moved some things... and there it was! So I smelled it. Goodnight, Mommy."

I bolted from her room as fast as I could, suppressing a laugh. She did, after all, disobey me.

Does Mommy ever win?!?

- - -

Definition #1 from Dictionary.com

Definition #2 from, well, me.

A little boy with a lot of words

My friend and fellow GA Social Media Mom faces the same challenges that I do as a working mom. She is a professional on a tight schedule, raising a small child. She has a son turning two next week, and she sent me some of his amazing recent expressions. He is so young, but quite a little speaker!

I think it daily: kids are funny.

5 Most Amazing Things My Son Says

(by Joyce Brewer)

My son turns 2 this week and he’s already quite a chatterbox. When people in the grocery store or mall hear A.J. speak they ask if he’s 3 years old and are surprised by my answer.

I knew girls were supposed to be talkative, but I never imagined that a boy would say so much so soon. I credit that we have never spoken “baby talk” to him. From the moment he was born we’ve only spoken to him in complete sentences. It probably doesn’t hurt that he has two parents with backgrounds’ in TV news so we communicate for a living.

So get ready to giggle at the “5 Most Amazing Things My Son Says”:

1. “I love you Joyce.” I made the mistake of telling A.J. that my real name is Joyce, not Mommy. Little did I know how quickly this would sink into his toddler brain. Since then he finds it quite funny to tell me he much he loves and misses me using my real name.

2. “Daddy, where are you?” While we were out at night enjoying last year’s Christmas lights in our neighborhood, A.J. lost track of my husband in the dark. A.J. was 21 months old.

3. "TMZ” and “E News.” Call me a bad Mom if you want, but I need to get my celebrity news in every night and A.J. has already watched his share of these two shows.

4. “Bye Kroger” or “Bye Target.” He started saying this on his own as we left each store during our weekly shopping trips.

5. “Thank you Lord for this day and for my many blessings. Amen.” This is the bedtime prayer than I’ve said to A.J. every night. Last month, he cut me off mid-prayer and finished saying the prayer himself. I’m taking this as a sign that he’s advanced enough to learn “The Lord’s Prayer” and “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.”

About the author:
Joyce Brewer is an Emmy award-winning TV journalist who created Mommy Talk Show, an online parenting talk show. Joyce decided to become a work at home wife/ mom after the birth of her son. In 2011, she wrote an e-book, Use What You Know: A Business Idea Guide for Moms featuring insightful interviews with Joyce and five other Atlanta moms who turned their skills and expertise into a business.

Two years later, it's pretty funny

I am thankful for my discovery of blogging for many reasons. One of the best? I love how my blog can live forever, a chronicle of all the trials, tribulations, joys, and laughs I have experienced as mom, the most important job title I will ever hold.

I was looking back at my archive, specifically around the month my sweet Amelia turned two... and consequently, not so sweet anymore. I had no love for these moments at the time, but now? They totally make me laugh.

Two favorites?

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

She'll Hate This Story When She's Twelve

To think, I might have forgotten these moments ever happened.

Thanks, blogging.

She makes me laugh: Friday funnies

I do not have a ton of experience around children. I'm learning day by day as I play the Mommy role to my sweetie Amelia. It is a difficult job... but also hilarious.

"Can I get you some lipstick, Mommy? You don't look very pretty."

"Mommy, let's play Easter hunt. Because it's almost Christmas."

(She said this in... August.)

 "Mommy! I don't have nervous anymore!" (Day #3 of swimming lessons)

"Mommy, we have had too many really fun days. No more fun tomorrow, okay?"

Amelia made this clown puppet at school. I asked his name...

"This is Granddad when he was a clown!"

(Apparently, my father was once a clown.)