The Brattychick

Heidi: Do you want this? It's yucky. Mom: Yeah, let me try it.

Cole (3/5/98) is the first-born child to Jamie and Heidi. His parents were young when they had him. His father was 23 and his mother was 18. His parents met in 1995 at their workplace, Langley Electronics and Camera. Jamie worked in the front of the store, helping customers and selling electronics, and Heidi worked behind the scenes in the photo lab. They were friends for two years before they became romantically involved. Although both his parents wanted a boy, they opted not to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl. However, blue was Heidi's favorite color and everything that she purchased for the baby was blue. This dismayed her mother, who thought the baby was a girl. During her pregnancy, Heidi worked at two different photo labs and then did temp work at an auto dealership. At the time of Cole's birth and through his babyhood, Jamie was working as a web developer in a company he started with his mother and step-father. The couple had great trouble agreeing upon nam...

To the waitress... "Now, tell me about the rum. Is it alcohol?"

At Chicago O'Hare airport... Cole : There are like, gilded space age urinals in there. My mom: Were you admiring them? Cole: Yes.

Thomas , David, & Melanie were raving about the movie Where the Wild Things Are . So last night I went to the movies all by myself, for the first time ever, I think. For those of you that are not familiar, Where the Wild Things Are is a well loved children's picture book by Maurice Sendak. The book is certainly less than 100 words long, and so Max and The Wild Things are not given their full personalities by literature alone. The pictures, and what your imagination does with them, fill in the gaps and reach places that words cannot. I was really curious as to how writers Spike Jonze and David Eggers were going to go about stretching this short book into a movie. Especially a book that wasn't theirs. Not one of The Wild Things in the book says anything that isn't in unison with the other Wild Things. I would be terrified to expand on a character that was another writer's vision with only illustrations to go by. And they had to create several in addition to fleshing...

To my mom on the phone... "Why, thank-you. We've been thinking about us all day too."

"Pooping is good."

What is something your mom always says to you? I will kill everyone! What makes your mom happy? When I finish my routine and when I give her a kiss and a hug and a hug and a kiss. What makes your mom sad? When I go in time out. That REALLY makes you sad. That, and also when I don't clean my room and it's so messy that you can't walk in and give me a goodnight kiss. How does your mom make you laugh? When she does that laugh that you "uh huh huh huh" (dorky laugh) and maybe you can put that on youtube. You can put a video of it where you go "uh huh huh". What was your mom like as a child? She liked when her room was clean....maybe. And she liked thinking about what her children would be like, maybe. How old is your mom? 30 How tall is your mom? She is as tall as 7 and a half of Daddy's Winnie the Pooh toys. What is her favorite thing to do? Saying "I will kill everyone! " and give me a goodnight kiss and a hug and give me hugs and kisses, tec...

Which obscure holiday was I born on? a) Earth Day b) Cinco De Mayo c) Labor Day d) Memorial Day e) Arbor Day Where was I born? a) Washington DC b) Virginia c) Nepal d) California e) Tennessee How many siblings do I have? a) 10 total. 6 halves, 4 steps. b) 3 brothers. c) 2 brothers and a sister. d) 6 total. 5 halves. 1 step. e) 2 brothers I was almost named..... a) Chrysanthemum b) Tammy c) Venus d) Kelly e) Sapphire How old was I when I went on my first date? a) 9. I was totally boy crazy starting in 4th grade b) 14. We went to a church dance in our Sunday best c) 13. And I had to sneak out to do it d) 12. My mother trailed us all over the mall e) 16. I wasn't allowed out of the house until then Which (school approved) extra curricular activities did I participate in? a) Choir and Sports Medicine b) Band and Track c) Debate Team and Cheerleading d) Drama and Dance Team e) Junior Republicans and Lacrosse I've known my b...

Mom: The Eyre's are speaking next week at the visitors center. Me: I don't know the Eyre's. Mom: You do know the Eyre's! Brother Eyre was your nursery leader! Me: I was three in nursery! Mom: You STILL remember him! You talked about him all the time. You were totally running the nursery. He is 6' 2"! You will remember him when you see him. Me: I was THREE! Mom: You were almost four! What do you mean you were 3?!

"Mom said 'It's a great day to walk today!' but she didn't take into account that it's blowing like a crack ho out here."

2/18/2008 From age 5-18 I lived in a little gray house in McLean, Virginia. We moved there almost exactly 24 years ago after my mom and dad married. The house was old, but roomy. It was a corner lot with a huge yard. There was a plum tree, three crabapple trees, an apple tree, 2 evergreens, at least 4 dogwoods, and plenty of other trees I can’t name. I climbed all the climbable trees. The evergreen in the back wasn’t climbable because it had thorny leaves, but it was so large that the branches made a canopy that you could go under and be alone. There was a little hill near the house in the front. At night if you stood at the top of the hill, you could see the buildings in Tysons Corner. Sometimes when we came home at night I used to run over there and wish I were doing something exciting over there with all the lights. There was a large area along the side yard where there weren’t any trees. There was a patch of wildflowers that grew there. There were white and sometimes purple clover...

Mom: Babies can be very expensive if they’re not born healthy. Dad: They can be really expensive even if they are born healthy. Mom: Well the insurance company doesn’t care about putting them on the plan after they’re born as long as they’re healthy. Dad: That’s because they don’t have to pay for college. In case you’re confused: My parents sell insurance. My mother is explaining why people can’t get approved for health insurance if they’re a woman who is pregnant or if they’re a man who has impregnated someone. I have two brothers in college. My dad’s hobby is worrying about money.

Heidi: Don't hit that guy in the crosswalk. Mom: I won't. Heidi: You were thinking about it. Mom: I was.

Down, down, down. Things have been bad. I went down into my abyss. It's cold and dark there and I can be completely alone and inside myself. My mother coaxed me to come up for air for a little while at least. Mothers are good for that. Breathe.

"Grandma is always like 'I need to make some lasagnas for some people that we don't know.'" This is funny because it is true.

Erika Tagged me The Rules: Once you've been tagged you have to write a blog with 6 weird/things/habits about yourself. In the end you need to list 6 other people to tag and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment saying, "You've been tagged." in their comments and tell them to read your blog. 1. I am afraid of animals. I think it's 'cause they can't talk to you. I'm always scared they're gonna bite me or something. I have been afraid of animals since I was a little girl. I am especially frightened of dogs. This does not mean I hate animals or want bad things to happen to them. I just want them far away from me. I will never have a pet because then they will die and it's like a freakin' family member dying and I will be forced to be devastated for a long time. 2. I am often accused of being a huge flirt. I was actually voted "biggest flirt" once. I have a certificate to prove it. Oh, and my mom grounded me because of...

Dexter recently got potty trained. This is a HUGE EVENT. I have been changing diapers every day of my life for 8 years now. For many (if not the majority) of those years I had two children in diapers. Now, all of a sudden, I don't have to change diapers. I do still have to wipe butts, though. That's another blog altogether. On our third day at Disney, I had arranged for a surprise for my family. I chartered a private boat to take us to go see the fireworks. We had to meet the boat at Disney's Contemporary Resort . There was a huge mix-up. It's a long story and not enough time has elapsed for it to be funny, so I won't get into it, but Dexter wet his pants. We didn't have a change of clothes and our hotel was a good 15 minutes away and the boat was supposed to be there any second. So we took Dexy's pants and undies off, and put an over-sized fleece on him. No one could tell he was going commando under there. The boat was awesome and so were the fireworks. T...

Cole, 1 year My firstborn son Cole turned eight today. Around midnight last night I climbed in bed with him and kissed him on the cheek to say good-bye to the seven-year-old Cole. He is so amazing. His current fascination is chemistry. We got him a periodic table of elements and some sort of rector set that he can build molecules with. Jamie promptly built a benzene molecule with it, which Cole recognized immediately as such. Not only can I not build any molecule, I couldn't even figure out how to make an equilateral triangle with the thing. Last night we arrived home from a week in Orlando with my parents and my brother, Thomas . We spent five days at Disney and one at Seaworld. This was very tiring, but my children were so taken with everything that it made all the exhaustion worthwhile. Every solitary thing at Disney is to make children happy. Highfive. Dexter loved the parades. He just kept waving and saying "HEWWO!!". Occasionally, he would turn around and say ...