The Skyhawk and The Warthog

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T10:29:00.001-08:00

At Christmas Eve service last night, the kids behaved fairly well. It was their first time going to the service with us; we usually take advantage of the Sunday school aspect of church and enjoy an hour of child-free worship. We sang lots of songs, listened to Pastor Kevin talk about a simple Christmas, and Kate even got to light a candle at the end. My favorite part: when the pastor asked for a show of hands as to who refuses to read the Christmas letters from friends and Luke enthusiastically raised his hand.

We let the kids open one gift on Christmas eve. In this case, it was an XBox Kinect.

The first present of Christmas.

We were up until midnight, prepping for Christmas morning and Christmas breakfast. We "set" our alarm for 6:15am so we could be sure to be downstairs when the kids woke up. I opened my eyes at 6:45am and jumped out of bed. Someone forgot to turn the alarm on, but we were the first ones up. I resisted the urge to check to ensure the children were still breathing. We made coffee, started breakfast prep, and waited. Luke was the first one downstairs, at just after 7am (a minor Christmas miracle that he slept in so late), followed by Kate about 15 minutes later. Luke hadn't realized anything was amiss until Kate informed him that his stocking was full. Then we had to contain them both until Claire came down.

Luke's big present: a new booster seat for the car.

Kate finally got her Blizzard maker, a year after she asked for it. Tim and I have placed bets as to how long it will last before it breaks. We're having trouble agreeing on the terms; we both think it will be busted by the end of the day.

Claire also scored big with another one-year-late Santa surprise: an Easy Bake Oven. Santa is so weak. He swore he wouldn't cave and give Easy Bake Ovens or Blizzard Makers, but here we are.

Luke got a puppy pillow pet!

And a crane truck he can take apart and put together!

The aftermath.

Santa, left in the dust.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas fun

2011-12-22T10:15:00.000-08:00

It's been ages since I've posted here....I just can't keep up with my photography blog, this blog, family life and work!

Yesterday we made gingerbread houses. The kids loved it. Mostly the sneaking candy part, of course. At the end: stickiness on every surface, children giddy with sugar.

The afternoon started out great. Some tea, some quiet.

Then we moved on to gingerbread decorations.

And I moved on from tea to Bailey's and cocoa.

Building.

"Here, Mom. I don't want any more of these."

Snow on the roof.

Moving on to bigger snow.

Summer update

2011-08-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

We went to Oregon, Scotland and Seattle...it's been busy. A few photos in lieu of stories.

Family.

Adorable nephew.

My husband taxiing for take-off.

Edinburgh.

My sister.

All about Luke

2011-05-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

Watching the Indy 500 with his Daddy.

Luke just let out a big "yeeeehaw!" right along with Brad Paisley, singing 'Old Alabama'. Can this kid get any cuter? Yes, I know I am biased.

Today we had our first pee-on-the-potty experience. It was sort of accidental (he had bigger goals in mind, but only peed), but he was fairly animated about the Reese's peanut butter egg he got as a reward.

Luke is in his 5th week of ISR swim lessons. He stopped crying at the beginning of last week, and is now rolling from back to front to grab a hand or the bar. I'm hoping he will finish within the next 2 weeks.

He is no longer saying "itchin" for "chicken". I am heartbroken. He is also beginning to say the hard 'k' sound, so there are very few "otay"s left in his vocabulary. Devastated. There are just some things I don't want to change, ever.

Day to Day Changes

2011-05-29T13:38:00.001-07:00

A walk with Grandma in Bonnie Springs.

Kate took 1st Place in the bean bag toss for grade school at her first track meet.

Walking the lines during the running events. I am hopeful that at least ONE of my children will one day compete in running events.

Luke checks out a caterpillar.

Yesterday, we were swimming in the pool. Today we are inside wearing sweaters and pants. (It went from 90ish yesterday to 68* + 50mph wind gusts today.) And we're setting up the tent for an indoor camping trip. ? It's easier than packing up all our stuff for 2 days. And also, warmer.

Overwhelmed, again

2011-03-11T21:05:00.000-08:00

Life has been ... busy. I don't know how you ladies do it: work, family time, laundry, household maintenance. I am failing miserably at all of them, or at least I feel like I am!

Tim and I recently went to the Neon Museum to do a photo shoot for friends. So much history! Our guide knew so much about Las Vegas; it was truly amazing. If you ever get a chance to visit this place, go! It's well worth your time.

Most of you know that we are staying in Vegas for probably another 3 years. We're not pleased with the assignment, but it could be worse. We love our house, and Las Vegas is not a bad place to be for another bit of time. Hopefully it will give you a chance to come and visit us...

Oh, Dear

2011-02-02T14:41:00.000-08:00

It's come to this: one post a month, if I'm on top of things. And here I am, trying to at least post some photos, but blogger isn't granting my wishes.

For now, a picture from Luke's and my trip to Calico Basin this morning. I know most of the country is frozen over, under feet of snow, but we had a cold morning here as well. At 10am, we were hiking in 33* weather, which is a bit nippy for here. Luke didn't mind.

Lightning Bob

2011-01-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

Guess who came to visit?

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

CB monster.

Realizing a dream.

Listening to stories.

A Christmas Story, 2010

2010-12-29T14:31:00.000-08:00

I'll admit that Christmas Eve was a busy night, with setting out Christmas cookies for Santa, spreading reindeer food on the driveway so Donner and Blitzen would have a snack while they waited, last-minute wrapping of gifts, and mentally preparing for Christmas morning, but I thought I had at least tidied up the family room before I went to bed.

Oddly, I was the first one up. I awoke at 6:30am, thought about going back to sleep, and then resigned myself to getting out of bed and (hopefully) catching some of the childrens' Christmas joy on video. I went downstairs to start the coffee and open the curtains, and nearly tripped on this:

I thought for certain I had blundered and left unwrapped gifts on the floor, until I looked closer and realized that two of the stockings appeared to be empty, with their innards strewn about the floor. Upon closer inspection, I saw that someone who shall remain unnamed (but who has a bedroom on the first floor) had unceremoniously dumped out the contents of Kate's and Claire's stockings. Luke's stocking, which clearly had uninteresting Matchbox cars and a truck coloring book in it, was untouched. I also noticed an assortment of candy wrappers next to the Barbie that had been in Claire's stocking.

I suspected that this midnight snack had filled the little belly of the child who had rummaged through Santa's gifts, and realized that I probably had plenty of time to make coffee and breakfast.

Sure enough, although Claire and Luke were understandably enthusiastic and excited about Christmas morning and all of its tidings, Kate was more difficult to rouse out of bed.

While attempting to wake Kate, Tim asked her if she had had any part in the stocking annihilation. She told him an engaging story about how she had missed seeing Santa, but that she had woken up when the clock said 4 and also 5, and that the reindeer food was all gone. She also mentioned that the stockings were so heavy that they had fallen down to the floor. He asked her if she had a snack of candy, and she admitted she had.

Not realizing that she had relayed the story to her father already, I asked her if she was the one who had opened all the stockings. She told me, "No, it wasn't me," with a smirk.

My favorite part of the story: the candy wrappers were from the Rolos in my stocking.

Prized Barbie clothes from Uncle Bob.

Slippers!

Santa Luke and his awesome 'twaktoh' book.

Luke proved to be surprisingly adept at opening gifts. He would tear off a small piece of paper and hand it to the closest person, demanding, "bin", meaning, "kindly throw this in the garbage bin for me". Adorable.

Busy With Pictures

2010-12-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

This is what I've been up to. Obsessing about photography. Snapping pictures of all my friends and their children. Processing images like I'm a professional. Ha! But it's my new ~~obsession~~ hobby, and I've been having fun. And like with any exciting hobby, I've been ignoring all household duties: the laundry is piling up, I failed to send out Christmas cards this year, and we've been eating a lot of fishsticks for dinner. But that's all okay becuase I'm having fun. Right?

[brushing hands briskly together] Okay, then! Off to test shoot at a new location with Kate. If I get any good images, I'll be sure to post them here in lieu of a Christmas card.

Random Love

2010-11-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

I love how the boy one crinkles up his nose to open his mouth wider in order to stuff more food into it. It is also extremely adorable how he says, "Knnnnooooooooooowwwwwwww" for "no".

I love how the middle one can sleep in until 9am. Except then I wish she was in afternoon pre-school so I didn't have to wake her at 7am on weekdays.

I love how much energy the oldest one has, and the creativity and sense of imagination she exhibits.

I love 70* Sundays in November, even if it is windy outside.

I love that I finally made something grow here in Las Vegas: my serrano peppers are big enough to add to the next batch of guacamole.

Airshow

2010-11-12T15:19:00.000-08:00

Claire's favorite part of the show was the Coast Guard rescue helicopter.

Mama, this is not an A-10.

We arrived at the airshow and the first thing we came upon was 5 fighters lined up in a row. I gave Kate a test. Daddy will be so proud: Kate correctly identified the A-10 on the first try.

Their second favorite part of the airshow was the strawberry ice we got to eat.

On the way home, all three children fell asleep. It's been a busy week.

Horsin' Around

2010-11-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

They thought they were real cowgirls riding on this roping steer. Incidentally, this is the only thing Claire would ride at the ranch yesterday.

First time on a horse. She loved it. I see riding lessons in her future.

Luke also loved riding his first horse.

A few non-related informational points:

The rest of my (hopefully) fantastic photos are in my camera. I've been practicing with film. It's exciting, but somehow disheartening to know that I have to wait to see the results.
It is officially fall here. Really, it feels like winter, as we went from mid-80s directly to low-60s and blustery winds, but I know I shouldn't complain when other areas of the country are expecting snow next week.
The girls are listening to Bocelli at a high volume in Kate's room right now. This has been a common occurrence since Tim pulled out his old CD and introduced it to Kate. They adore it.
Luke had is 18-month well-check last week, at 19 months. He is a solid 28lb 4oz, and is 33.25" tall. And he didn't make a single sound throughout his exam, to include staying silent during 2 shots. Tough guy.

Halloween Recap

2010-11-05T22:12:00.001-07:00

The children were super excited about Halloween this year. The parents, somehow, were woefully unprepared. Not as in "indoor decorations not up in time", but more like "carving pumpkins while the children rush through dinner so they can go get dressed" unprepared. Partly, it was the demands. No more triangle-eyed, toothy jack-o-lanterns here. One girl wanted a haunted house and the other a bat. During dinner preparations/pumpkin carving time, the boy one demanded to ride his sisters' bike, regardless of the fact that he cannot climb up onto it by himself (thankfully), nor can he peddle. The shrieking that ensued ensured that his demands were met.

It was another warm Halloween, so Barbie and Tinkerbell were comfortable in their frilly costumes. The fighter pilot was just excited that he got to wear patches. Each carried their own candy bag, walked nicely to the front door of each house, rang the doorbell, and said "trick or treat!". Or at least that's the theory. Luke managed to say something in the order of "tika tee" and then looked up with expectant/wary eyes. Each time he appeared astounded that complete strangers were giving him treats, and that this experience was apparently parent-sanctioned. At one point he stopped suddenly on our journey and attempted to eat a candy, wrapper and all. It was adorable.

Barbie cops an attitude while Tinkerbell curtseys.

The girls told the boy not to pick his nose, which inspired him to do just that.

The Vampire Game

2010-10-19T18:51:00.001-07:00

We walked to the train park after dinner tonight, in spite of the fact that it was already twilight. The girls ran almost all the way there (probably between 1/4-1/2 mile). Then, I watched them play for about 10 minutes before noticing that 1.) it was nearly completely dark, and 2.) there was a lightning storm heading our way. This freaked Claire out and she ran/cried most of the way home. "I don't want to get hit by lightning!"

Then when we hit the tunnel, Kate decided we should play The Vampire Game. [For those keeping score, I am completely unaware that there is a Vampire Game, and how one would play it. Mention of this new activity does have me curious about what sorts of things the kids do at recess, however.] "Mommy, you're the vampire!" I smiled a coy Bella smile and said okay. Then she ran "super fast" and said, "You can't catch me! You can't catch me!" Then I told her that vampires were even faster than she was and suddenly that was the end of that game. Shortly thereafter she asked me if there were vampires in Nevada, and she seemed relieved when I said vampires did not exist. Mwahhhahhhahhh.

Field Trips

2010-10-18T21:21:00.001-07:00

Last week, Claire's class went on a field trip to a "pumpkin patch". You should know that in the southwest, the term "pumpkin patch" is loosely defined as a gathering of pumpkin(s) in an outdoor area. Each year I am in search of an actual field where pumpkins grow, but thus far all patches/farms/fields have been highly suspect and greatly disappointing, for me. The children, knowing nothing of what a real pumpkin patch might look like, seem to enjoy the brief time spent at them, as long as we aren't actually there for long.

Reagan and Claire are enticed by the promise of cotton candy. None of the other pumpkin patches we have visited have offered this delightful treat.

Luke and his Daddy, utilizing Luke's favorite method of transportation.

BFFs.

So glad he got to go on the school field trip, even though he was more interested in the trucks on the freeway on the other side of the fence, and refused to pose nicely in front of a pumpkin.

New Games*

2010-10-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

*Also known as possibly the most boring post ever. But I felt some need to prove that I am still here, albeit sleepy.

So, things have been a little busy. I'm mentally exhausted (school drama), and physically wiped out as well (first round of colds). Luke is just getting over his first round of croup for the season (thankfully it was a mild case), but is still crabby like I've never seen him. I think I've been fighting off the cold he had, leading me to feel like I could sleep for hours on end during the day, which is unusual for me. Isn't that interesting?

We were up late last night watching the awesome and amazing UW vs OSU (our Civil War) game. Let's just say that I am very proud of my Huskies. We won in double overtime, by 1 point. Then Tim got up at 5am to go TDY.

Today the kids and I spent time with friends, swam, and tried to stay busy. This afternoon Kate and I played a new game entitled 'Snap', which I believe to be a somewhat confusing mesh of 'Snap' and 'Go Fish', but which Kate insists is really called 'Snap'.

Also, guess who ate several bites of chicken tonight, and asked for more? Finally, the boy one is eating other meat besides McDonald's hamburgers and bacon.

And now it's time for me to go to bed. The end.

Milestones That Make Me Want to Cry

2010-10-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

Need I say more?

She's 5

2010-09-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

Her favorite song is You Belong With Me, by Taylor Swift. Every time it comes on the radio, she and Claire yell their favorite (incorrect) lyrics at each other: "She wears short skirts, I wear sneakers, she's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers!" She reads fairly well, and has a pretty good grasp of math for her age. She has an incredible imagination, and loves to lead her friends and siblings in new games, usually with a good degree of bossiness. She stands with her hands on her hips and a gleam in her eye and says, "Mo-om..." in her best 13-year-old voice. She is the youngest in her class, but is not the tallest, somehow.

Kate is obsessed with art. Any kind of art. She will occupy herself for hours, drawing complex pictures with detailed storylines. I am continually amazed by her artistic talent and her creativity. Give her some scrap paper, a cardboard tube and some crayons and she will come up with something I wouldn't think possible.

A short interview with the birthday girl

What's your favorite color? "Red, white and blue and purple and pink." Me: "That's it?" Her: "Yes."

What is your favorite thing to do? "Ummmmmm.........play. My favorite toys to play with are Legos and Barbies."

What is your favorite food? "Ummm...favorite food is...macaroni and cheese."

What is your favorite dessert? "Ummm...s'mores." [certainly this has nothing to do with her father's breakfast treat this morning: s'more pancakes.]

What is your favorite part of school? "My favorite part of school is art."

What is your favorite movie? "The Twelve Dancing Princesses."

Who is your best friend? "Annalisa." [I have no idea who this girl is.]

Who are you going to marry? "CJ." [I was informed of this fact yesterday. Have not met said boy.]

What is your favorite book? "Barbie in the Mermaid Tale, and The Island Princess." [Thankfully she can mostly read these by herself.]

What is your favorite thing to do outside? "Draw with chalk and exercise and play."

The Barbie Princess cake, hastily put together by a still-jet-lagged mom. At the time of its construction, purple was on her list of favorite colors. Oh, wait. I just re-read her index of colors above and purple is indeed on there.

Kindergarten is a time of constant learning. For instance, we are working on manners these days, and learning about etiquette. She opened many art- and Barbie-related gifts, and then unwrapped the one from us. "That isn't a very good present." It was a boom box/CD player, which she now loves and listens to all the time. Ah, five-year-old attitude. We love you, Kate! Happy Birthday, Baby Girl.

In Response to (Not Unreasonable) Questions About My Health and Well-Being

2010-09-16T21:33:00.000-07:00

Sydney was awesome. I really need to write more about the trip, but am still battling the time-change and will have to do that later.

We got back on Saturday morning, and I am mostly unpacked. For those who know me well, this is agonizing for me, yet I find I have no time to actually complete the task of removing all my stuff from my bags. And then there is the matter of the soon-to-be-five-year-old's birthday and her party. So, to answer necessary questions:

1. Tim is home.
2. We are not sick.
3. I am not pregnant.

More on Australia to follow. Until then:

Did I Ever Tell You About Our Drive Back From Oregon?

2010-08-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

We chose to travel home on the busiest weekend of the summer: the one right before the littles go back to school. No worries, we were only planning to stay at Lake Tahoe on a Saturday night. Tragically, I spent my 3 hours with internet service in Oregon acquiring hotel reservations for Sydney, leaving Tim to attempt camp reservations whilst still in the Middle East. Poor choice, I know.

We thought at least our first night would be an easy one: Tim had secured a spot on a LAKE! As we approached the "lake", we noticed a certain smell in the air. Sort of like that swamp smell? And then we pulled up to our "campsite" and Tim began apologizing to me, as I crinkled my nose and asked, "Are those gnats? Or is it foggy? OMG, what color is that water?" We left the children in the car for safety, and approached the owner of the "campsite" explaining that we were the ones with reservations (we were clearly the only fools there for the night). The kind man gave us a map, which we promptly used to find another nearby campsite.

Playing a game called Dump Dirt on the Bench Where Mommy Will Sit, & Then Eat Some Rocks For Good Measure.

Perhaps the most hilarious picture of Kate, ever. I have no idea why she looks so dejected, but I suspect it has something to do with burned hot dogs or that someone made her wait until after dinner to eat marshmallows. Future blackmail potential of this photo was worth whatever caused it.

Whatever you do, do NOT enlarge this photo. Doing so will likely cause you to want to shower immediately afterwards, and perhaps to eat a roasted marshmallow or 3. Luke ate approximately half a bag while at Lake Tahoe.

Yes, the girls are eating graham crackers and chocolate milk for breakfast. It was day 3 on the road. We had each had approximately 4 hours of sleep per night by then, and I was ready to let them eat s'mores and jujubees for breakfast if they would just be good on the drive.

Somehow I Managed Not to Cry

2010-08-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, I got a little misty-eyed, but no real tears!* And Kate and Claire did great. Monday was their first day of school; Kate started Kindergarten and Claire is back in pre-school. We dropped Kate off first, as there are actual RULES regarding tardiness and such, and then walked over to Claire's room. Kate was so excited; she has been talking about Kindergarten for the whole summer. We have tried to cultivate this interest to the right level (e.g. not overdoing it so that she wouldn't sleep the night before, but not ignoring it so that she would be taken by surprise when the first day of school came and she was no longer permitted to wear her pepto-pink princess dresses).

I took surprisingly few photos, due to the boy one's intense desire to climb out of my arms and eat glue sticks. I enthusiastically begged the children to smile, and managed to snap at least one worthy of the blog.

Claire's pose is remarkably similar to Kate's on this day last year.

She'll be 5 in a month. She is likely both the youngest and the tallest kid in her class.

Claire gave me a brief smile before going back to her toys. She didn't even say good-bye when I left. Sniff.

*Luke, however, was surprisingly vocal in his desire to stay at school. Just to be clear, I was not surprised by this, but Claire's teachers were slightly alarmed.

More of My Favorites

2010-08-12T08:26:00.001-07:00

On a walk with Aunt Buji. We picked blackberries and Luke ate them by the handful.

Life on the Farm

2010-08-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

Blowing dandelions all over Great Grandma's yard.

Wheat fields captivate Kate.

She was so excited to climb the apple tree her Daddy climbed when he was a boy.

Walking out to pick blackberries with Great Grandpa.

Completely unrelated to this post, but so endearing:

Kate eyed me in the mirror tonight after everyone was [finally] ready for bed and sternly told me, "Mom, God wants us to let go of our anger." Yes, baby girl, but He also wants children to obey their parents.

Letting the Pictures Tell the Stories

2010-08-04T21:29:00.001-07:00

First time camping; Lake Taco was a huge hit. It turns out the children are surprisingly adept at surviving on little to no sleep.

Kate helps Aunt Sheila milk a goat at 6:30am. **Stunned silence.**

She is loving this vacation.

McLaren and Luke in awe of Snow White's house at the Enchanted Forest. Both could have stayed there all morning.

Water!

Signs That I am Losing My Mind

2010-07-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

1. In a moment of weakness several weeks ago, I succumbed to Kate's fierce and persistent declarations that she ~~wanted~~ needed purple fairy curtains with a pink butterfly segment at the bottom. They are the ugliest curtains I have ever made. Note that they are not pictured here. Not only are they unsightly, but I have only completed one panel. And the curtain rod is still on Kate's floor. I am the queen of unfinished projects.

I also somehow ended up with fabric to make dresses for both girls.

2. Despite currently owning only a 2 person tent, I booked us (Tim, me, Kate, Claire, and Luke. At last check, this is 5 people) a campground at Lake Tahoe for Sunday night. We have never camped with children. Tim and I have not camped for approximately 10 years. The adults own proper camping gear, but the girls' sleeping bags have fairy and princess decorations and light up when the bags move. I am certain that they will be useless and ineffective in the much-cooler-than-we-are-used-to mountain air of the Sierra Nevadas. The boy one has no sleeping bag, and would be unlikely to nest in one if he did. I also fear that the boy one will be unlikely to sleep at all given the lack of containment device he knows as his crib.

3. We leave in 1.5 days. I have not packed more than shirts and shorts for myself, and have only managed to gather Kate's pajamas for the kids. We will be gone for 3 weeks, in weather that I presume will be vastly different than our current 110* highs/90* lows. We are all bound to be stunned by the cold that 55* mornings will bring.

4. I am blogging instead of packing.

The Pinky Stinger...

2010-07-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

Big sister Claire is having fun teaching her little brother. She informed me a few minutes ago that "Luke likes to touch tongues." What? She then proceeded to demonstrate in the pictures above.

Oh, the pinky stinger... The girls were treated to new Barbie doll clothes this morning. They had to wait until after nap to open them. As the dad I got to cut loose the 200 little plastic connectors holding the three outfits to the cardboard container. Once released, the girls took to dressing their barbies in the new outfits. Any woman or parent probably remembers the most painful part of dressing a barbie is getting the hands through the sleeves. Designing a kids doll with a thumb and pinkie finger to snag in loose threads has caused millions of lost man hours over the decades of Barbies existence.

3-year old Claire was struggling getting Barbies hand through the new outfit.

4-year old Kate says to Claire: "Her pinky finger is stuck!"

3-year old Claire brings Barbie to Dad exclaiming "Her pinky stinger is f***ed!"

What?

"Her pinky finger is stuck!"

Love ya Claire.

Celebrating Freedom

2010-07-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

My sister, Jessica, and her family joined us for the 4th of July weekend. It has been more than a year since she was here, and we were glad ~~they were the ones making the long and mentally agonizing drive~~ to be spending time all together, cultivating such relationships that only blood relatives can enjoy.

The weekend was fraught with shenanigans.

Despite Tim's continual, and insistent, marshmallow-roasting instructions, a semi-intoxicated Jessica managed to light her marshmallow on fire at least 8 times. My stove. It might never recover.

One evening, after watching the Star Trek movie (surprisingly good! Yes, I am aware that I am freakishly enamored with sci-fi!) Jess and I spent an excessive amount of time "evening out" the all-American chocolate cake we had purchased at Costco for the weekend. In our defense, it looked much more uniform when we were done.

The children (read: Kate and McLaren) agreed to watch a movie other than Chicken Run (see previous post), which turned out to be Enchanted. During the ballroom dancing scene, Kate and Tempie re-enacted the frolicking as seen through their eyes.

We were all relieved to see that the girls were getting along, especially after it was determined that Lucy was keen to establish her superiority over Luke. The first time it happened, we thought it was clumsiness. Lucy and Luke were casually walking along the edge of the pool, and all parents were focused on the children in the water. Suddenly Luke splashed in, unexpectedly, by the look on his face and the wailing that ensued. Mike and I joked that Lucy pushed him in. Not hours later, however, Jessica caught her red-handed. Lucy was indeed pushing Luke down, attempting (hopefully minor) bodily injury. All weekend, every adult kept the blue-eyed beauty under close observation for more blatant physical violations against her younger cousin.

After movie night, it was time for fireworks. There were a few tears (Tempie), some shrieking (Lucy, who LOVED the whole production), and lots of hands over ears (Kate and Claire). As for Luke, he was mostly wide-eyed throughout the whole event, unclear what it was we were trying to accomplish.

I am so ready for this. Bring it.

Luke's first exposure to fireworks. He is clearly stunned by our lack of grandeur, and yet also concerned by his father's apparent role in purposely lighting things on fire.

The whole family, minus Tim, the pyrotechnician, as they sit in awe of the minuscule sparks and illuminations cast by our paltry firework show. The children still managed to spend most of the time covering their ears and appearing alarmed.

Casual Conversations

2010-07-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

Claire: "I think we'll have to get a new car."

Tim: "Why's that, Claire?"

Claire: "Because this car's all dirty."

~~~

Kate: "Mom, I can't wait till we move."

Me: "Why? I like our house. Don't you like it?"

Kate: "Yeah. But I want a house with a fireplace."

~~~

Claire: "I'm playing with Tempie 'cause I love Tempie super super much."

~~~

Claire: [breakfast time, looking at me expectantly] "I wanna have chocolate cake."

~~~

On the subject of movie night...

Claire: "Kate, are you ever gonna like Chicken Run?"

Kate: "No. I don't like the mean lady who makes chicken pie."

Claire: "Tim, hear this! Chicken pie! Chicken pie! Chicken pie!"

Kate, somewhat hysterical: "No, Claire! Don't say that!"

Incidentally, they didn't watch Chicken Run for movie night.

Tim's Second Calling

2010-06-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

I begrudgingly acknowledge that my husband is the most talented photographer in our family.

Wearing Out the Children

2010-06-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

The girls demanded eggs, sunny-side-up, this morning. Luke, unable to intelligibly express his desire for food, figured he'd forage for himself. Off of Kate's plate that was sitting unattended on the table.

Uhhhh, SOMEone dropped an egg on the floor, Mama.

"Uh-oh! Uh-oh!"

Fffffttttt. It wasn't ME.

As it turns out, months of waking earlier than the mutually*-agreed-upon time of 7am finally took its toll on Kate.

After generously offering to make our bed, I found her sound asleep buried in pillows at 11am, explaining why previous requests for her to come swimming had gone unheeded.

Meanwhile, the two younger siblings were outside enjoying the "cool" morning (98*).

*Her father and I both recognize this as an acceptable wake time. Evidently, she was not party to this arrangement.

Role-Playing

2010-06-25T13:34:00.001-07:00

Observed post-lunch today: Kate taking Claire's phone order for pizza, while a rogue waiter unsuccessfully tries to climb the "counter".

"Hello, this is Pizza Hut. How may I help you?" Waitress Kate is nothing if not polite and helpful.

"Um, yes. I would like a pizza with pepperoni and olives and pineapple, please." Evidently, we order the same pizza often enough that Claire has memorized its toppings.

Dissatisfied with the speed of service, customer Claire rushes the counter in an attempt to precipitate its delivery. Note that waitress Kate has not yet hung up the phone.

Aforementioned waiter tries to make a quick phone call of his own, while the chef prepares the pizza.

Customer Claire inexplicably ends up with an apple and a lemon; it is unclear whether this was intentional on the part of Pizza Hut, or if orders were botched.

Mum! Mum!

2010-06-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

Translation, from Luke-speak: Vroom! Vroom! It's his favorite phrase, used when discussing the passing garbage truck, or when contemplating use of the vacuum cleaner.

The boy loves his vacuums.

He also loves his cat. Regretfully, the cat does not return the love, aside from the occasional, and oft unprovoked attack on the poor boy.

Cars have not yet become an obsession for him, but I sense us heading in that direction.

He has almost mastered the art of pull-and-release cars, of which I sadly cannot find any more. Do they call them something else? They are just so much more amusing than your standard matchbox car.

Happy Father's Day, Father!*

2010-06-20T09:35:00.001-07:00

A short interview with the children, on their favorite subject: Dad.

1. How old is Daddy?
Kate: Um, 40.
Claire: 40.
Luke: Da!
Actual answer: 40.

2. How old are you?
Kate: Um, 4. And a half.
Claire: 3.
Luke: suh-suh.

3. What is Daddy's favorite food?
Kate: Um, um, um, it's supposed to be....I know what it is. It's....hmmm. Beans in a pot with sausage and he also likes rice with beans.
Claire: Grapes.
Luke: Uh dee duh dah deh.
Actual answer: red beans and rice. And steak.

4. What is Daddy's favorite color?
Kate: I don't know. Maybe black.
Claire: I think green.
Luke: Nuh dah.
Actual answer: blue?

5. What does Daddy like to drink?
Kate: Soda.
Claire: Coffee.
Luke: Nun dah dah.
Actual answer: Jack Daniels.

6. What does Daddy like to do when he's not working?
Kate: Play with us.
Claire: Uh, play and stay home.
Luke: Waaaaaah, ahhhh aaaaah!
Actual answer: Play with the kids.

7. What does Daddy do for work?
Kate: Um, he talks to a lot of people.
Claire: Drives.
Luke: Don neh dun.
Actual answer: flies the A-10.

8. What is Daddy's favorite song?
Kate: Three Blind Mice.
Claire: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
Luke: Plb buh duh.
Actual answer: Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (Franki Valli).

9. Does Daddy have any brothers or sisters?
Kate: He has a lot of brothers and one sister.
Claire: Us.
Luke: Down nah dah.
Actual answer: 2 brothers and 1 sister.

10. What is his favorite thing in the world?
Kate: A-10s!
Claire: Going to work.
Luke: Eeeh aah!
Actual answer: Jen.

*A note of thanks to Carrie and Dorothy for unwittingly sharing this idea with me.

Fighting over the vacuum, and other summer fun

2010-06-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

This morning Kate was up early. We spent a little time reading her new Kids' World Atlas. She was obsessed with the komodo dragon. She asked me where it lived, and I told her: Indonesia. "Donesia?" she asked. "IN-do-ne-sia," I enunciated. "Donesia," she said, confident that she finally had it right.

She LOVES to read. She can read quite a few words, although she gets easily frustrated when we try to prod her along with what she doesn't already know.

Fun with the mister today.

Pouring water on her little brother's head, like any good big sister would do.

Learning how to get what he wants.

"I want to vacuum." "NO, I want to vacuum!" [can you hear my contented sigh from where you are?]

Operation: Pigeon

2010-06-06T14:44:00.000-07:00

We have a bird problem here. Starbuck is useless in helping combat them. He's aggressive inside, but a weenie when outside, faced with actual birds. We decided to wait until we reached record-breaking temperatures to apply our new bird spikes, so as to maximize the discomfort involved. The children didn't mind so much, as their job was to stay inside and provide guidance and moral support. And to tell us which tools to use.

Future dentist.

Dad, you totally need to use this one.

Operation: pigeon is an initial success! There is still room for that pesky mockingbird to land on the owl's ear, so we'll have to wait to declare complete victory.

Afterward, we swam. Because we're setting records for heat here. Also, the boy one looks so stinkin' cute in his swim gear.

With a cough-cough here, and a bark-bark there

2010-06-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

This is the second trip in a row where Luke has come down with croup either on the trip or on the way home. He had a shot of steroids on Wednesday, but sounded bad enough last night that I "slept" in his room with him. Needless to say, we are both exhausted and he has another appointment today. Claire also has croup, but seems to be responding better to the meds.

Our trip to Tucson was a fun one, though - we arrived on Friday night, shortly before my dad did, and spent three days enjoying excellent food, consuming copious amounts of wine, and eating cake in celebration of Tempie's 3rd birthday and my sister's thirtysomethingth birthday. We also got to see our neighbors, the Humphreys, from when we lived in Tucson.

Luke tries to steal cake from the birthday girl. She is not amused.

He thinks he has scored the jackpot: watermelon and goldfish crackers at his level. I didn't see him with an empty hand for the duration of the party.

Kate gives Grampa a kiss.

Kate and Luke playing with Olivia and Isaac.

The best of the approximately 47 photos we took of the children lined up in order of age.

The Wizard of Oz

2010-05-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

Tim is reading The Wizard of Oz to the girls. They love it. I love that they love it. I grew up reading all the books and loving them (except I don't think I ever read the first one, relying instead on the movie, which is very different than the book). I think Tim was skeptical of my love of these books. But now I believe he is as excited to read to them as they are to hear the story. I think he may be slightly disappointed when I sneak in a chapter to them, so that he doesn't get to read it.

Ready to BBQ.

Making bread with Grandma.

Enjoying her gooey hands.

Taking a walk with Grandma.

They love shoulder rides.

Tim's parents visited last week from Oregon. We had a great time with them, swimming, making bread, and taking walks in the amazingly cool spring weather. On Friday we leave for Tucson to visit my sister and her family for Tempie's 3rd birthday. This year, May is for family!

Mostly, it's the Books

2010-05-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

And the internet, or lack of it. A few weeks ago, something went wonky with our wi-fi, and I had no internet for several days. At first I panicked. No internet? What was I to do?

The house suddenly got cleaner, the food more elaborate (except for the recipes I always pull off the 'net), and I started reading again. Then, I got hooked on books and it was back to toys everywhere and fishsticks for dinner. I still didn't get back online, for the most part. It's been a long time since I've read like that, but in the past few weeks, I've read several excellent books: The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo, Child 44, and The Likeness.

On Tuesday night, I got home from a coffee at 10pm, and Kate was crying. She hurt her elbow while wrestling earlier in the evening, and she had just woken up because it still hurt. I tried sleeping next to her, but she couldn't fall back asleep for more than a few minutes before waking up again crying. So, at 11pm, we went to the ER. Along with everyone else. She had 3 x-rays, to rule out broken bones, and when the PA saw us around 2:30am, he confirmed nursemaid's elbow, which is the radius dislocating from the socket. Kate has likely had this several times before, but it has always fixed itself. This time it didn't and we had to get a doctor's help. He showed me how to fix it, so that if it happens again, I can hopefully pop it back in at home.

So this week has been sort of wacky, with lack of sleep and trying to get back to a general feeling of liveliness. Tim's family arrived last night for the next week or so, and we look forward to spending some time with his parents next week, after they are done with the class they are taking.

I can't promise that I will be writing again in the next few days, but it could happen. Except I just got The Girl Who Played With Fire, so . . .

I think she can read

2010-05-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

Over the past several days, Kate has pulled out random books...and read them to us. The first one was a story from her brand new Highlights magazine, one which no one had read to her yet. She gets stuck on multi-syllabic words, but I think she can read. My baby's growing up.

Strong genes

2010-04-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

I'm just sayin'.

It wasn't me.

Me and my Gramma Donna.

One year old.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

2010-04-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

Luke has been getting his fourth bottom tooth for the last week, and has been super crabby. I think this contributed to his "not quite right" demeanor at his birthday party last weekend. That and he seems to be suddenly allergic to strawberries, something I only surmised after several episodes of hives.

Overall, he did pretty well, interacting with the other kids, playing with the plethora of balloons, and picking at his cake. He didn't cry when we sang 'Happy Birthday' to him, and I managed to slide the cake away from him before he burned his fingers when trying to grab the lit candle.

The big sisters wanted to help with every step, especially the cake eating part.

The funniest part of the festivities came when he decided he was done opening presents, wanting to play with my pen instead. A fairly loud tantrum ensued, including a "head on floor" crying fit.

Ainsley looks on in confusion.

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

2010-04-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Luke,

I'm torn on this whole you turning one thing. I love the fact that you are getting to be such a big boy, and that you are learning so many new things every day. But you are my baby, and I'm not ready for you to grow up yet!

You are such a joy to us; full of smiles, curiosity, happiness and wonder. You wake up each morning, pleased to start the day, and play quietly in your crib until your sisters or I come and get you. You greet us with a smile and "talk" to us, telling us what a good night's sleep you had. You especially love it when Kate comes in first thing in the morning. You laugh and laugh at her, as she dances and makes silly faces at you. You have her wrapped around your finger, and I often find a dozen or more toys in your crib, all gifts from her to make you happy.

Music has recently become a favorite thing for you. You have always loved Are You Sleeping?, but you are now starting to hum/grunt songs, trying to get others to sing to you. And, of course, you turn everything into a drum, with your BAMBAMBAMing. As for talking, you say "dadada" a lot, and I have heard you say "mama" several times. Your dad swears you said "ehfant" (elephant) the other day. You also say "ah duh" (all done) and "nigh nigh", and sign for milk, more and all done. And of course, you are teaching your mama about boys: your latest favorite sound can best be described as a machine gun burst of fire, "cah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah". I think it's adorable, but I'm not so sure your father agrees with me.

You started walking a few feet between your dad and me when you were about 10 to 10 1/2 months old, and you gained confidence enough to walk on your own when your dad was in Afghanistan right before your birthday. Now you motor around like a true toddler, and are even figuring out how to navigate the stairs. This, of course, means that you are rarely satisfied with riding in the stroller, which is often challenging for us. You are headstrong, and I wonder if you will perhaps be our first child to actually go through your "terrible twos" (as opposed to your sisters who were/are definitely terrible during their threes).

We are constantly amazed by how much you eat. I am learning that when eating at a restaurant, I need to order as much for you as I would order for Claire, because you will usually eat all of that, and sometimes more. You love bread, cheese, hamburgers, strawberries, kiwi, and yogurt. You aren't so keen on vegetables, unless I feed them to you from the baby food jars. You also love sweet pickles, and have been known to eat several slices at one sitting. You drink well out of a straw sippy cup, but love to try to drink out of a cup like the rest of us do.

You are fascinated by the pool, and love it when we warm up the hot tub and go swimming. You walk around and around on the bench seat, splashing and trying to take toys from your sisters.

I love you, baby boy. Happy birthday!

I guess it could have been worse?

2010-03-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

We were planning to go to Tucson for spring break, but then my sister and her daughter got pink-eye, and we reevaluated. Going to San Diego to see my dad seemed like a good option. I certainly didn't want to hang around Las Vegas by myself with the children out of school for a week. Then Kate got a fever last Wednesday. She recovered for the most part by Thursday, so I decided we were going to push to California. On the drive out, things got challenging. I had rearranged the car so that the girls were sitting next to each other in the back row, in order for them to entertain each other. Who knew that by "entertaining" they meant fighting? I guess I should have seen that coming. Just south of Vegas, I pulled over on a dirt road and ~~tossed bags and car seats out of the car~~ gently suggested a new seating arrangement. I put Kate next to Luke in the second row, which also turned out to be a mistake. She refused to leave him alone. At one point AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' came on the radio and I mused about its timeliness.

Almost 6 hours after we left, we arrived at my dad's. Luke had started coughing a couple of hours into the drive, and by Friday night, he sounded awful. I must have been up every hour that night, helping him get back to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, his cough turned into barking, followed by a slight wheezing. This completely freaked me out, and I don't know if I slept much after that. He wasn't better by the morning, so I told my dad we needed to take him to the doctor.

My dad got online and found a clinic to go to. It was on the way to the beach - perfect! He called, and told them we were on Tri-Care, and the woman mentioned that there was a Tri-Care outpatient facility nearby. Great! We headed there instead. Turns out it was like a Tri-Care office off base, and they would only see you if you were a patient there. The woman gave me directions to a different place for us to go. I asked her if it was an ER (I absolutely detest going to the ER; in fact, it is probably the number one thing I hate to do), and she said no. I asked if it was on an installation. She said no, and also that she wasn't from San Diego. Um? I should have taken this to mean that she didn't know what she was talking about. We wound our way closer to downtown....and ended up at a military gate. We should have turned around right there. But, not knowing where else to go, we parked and walked into the hospital. It turns out we were at the US Naval Medical Center, San Diego, a large concrete structure full of sickies. We checked in, and I asked how long they thought the wait would be. No idea. Awesome. I think it took about 20 minutes to get into triage. And another 4 hours to be seen. So there we were, all in our beach garb, Simone with a migraine, three sick and crabby kids, on vacation. Luke has croup, and ear infections in both ears. They gave him some liquid steroids and amoxicillin, and he is finally sounding a lot better. Now Claire sounds bad.

Ready for his chest x-ray.

On Sunday we finally made it to the beach. For an hour. Luke and Claire were still not feeling great, and Luke cried for most of the time we were there. He was interested in the sand for a bit, though, until he rubbed some of it in his eyes. Claire went down to the water once, but the wind combined with the cold water made her head right back to the warmth of the beach towel.

Mama, this bath is cold. Also, my ears hurt.

I'm supposed to do what with the sand?

Kate loved the beach. LOVED. She giggled with delight as the water rushed up to her feet, sucking the sand out from under her toes. "Mom! The beach is moving!" She ran back and forth, into the water and out again. She splashed, made friends, gathered shells, and giggled some more. I felt bad tearing her away from the water, but Luke was a crying wreck.

On Sunday afternoon, I made the command decision to head home on Monday, earlier than we had planned. We got home at 6pm and Claire went straight to bed, in her clothes and without dinner. This from my little night owl who likes to stay up until 9 or 10pm. Kate and Luke were also asleep by 8pm. Today we have an appointment for Claire to see what sort of illness she is harboring.

In all, I am glad we went. It was a good diversion for all of us, even though it was painful. Here we would have been sick and bored. And it somehow gave me a confidence I haven't had in awhile: I can do pretty much anything alone, if necessary. I would prefer to have Tim here, but we do okay when he's gone.

So busy I keep losing track of the day

2010-03-25T22:10:00.000-07:00

This week leading up to spring break has been extremely full. I can't even remember all of the events right now, except the ones listed below. First, the girls participated in the St. Jude's trike-a-thon at school on Wednesday. Claire didn't enjoy it as much as Kate, I think, but she did well. Luke cheered them on from the sidelines.

Luke has a new seating arrangement, which he loves.

Today was an Easter party with friends, and then a birthday party after nap.

Tomorrow we leave for San Diego. Have I packed yet? No. Am I in bed yet? No. Do I even have a checklist written anywhere? No. I am so toast. Woohoo, first solo road trip with the littles! Please pray for me.

Hey, look, cars!

Eating chocolate cake off the ground at the Easter party.

He refused to stop eating to look at the camera, probably worried that if he saw me that meant I saw him, and then I would take his cake away.

So very, very happy at Chuck E Cheese's for Nathan's birthday party.

For Sale

2010-03-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

For sale: one ~~grumpy, unreasonable, full of mischief~~ sweet, loving, cuddly and cute three-year-old. Loves lotion, water, permanent markers, chalk, and reprogramming computers.

Our waitress must have been mortified

2010-03-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

Even as I'm planning these events, I do not know what possesses me to consider doing them. We walked to sushi tonight. Kate rode her bike, Claire walked almost to the main street from our house, and Luke, of course, rode the whole way. I did not even bring the camera, knowing that it would take all my concentration just to keep the children out of traffic, within the crosswalk lines, and seated at or near our table once there.

The key to my survival, mentally, I think, was knowing what I would order beforehand, so that I could just tell our server immediately what we wanted. She got the order wrong (note to self: the children do not eat California rolls; which ones did they try last time? I think it must have been the unagi), but the chef, noting the anxious woman alone at the corner table greatly outnumbered by her small and unruly children, was quick. We had our udon and tempura at record speed, and the waitress even brought those little chopstick helpers, which enabled the girls to use their chopsticks!

Of course, all the food came at once, and the table was overwhelmed by steaming platters and bowls, and the children were making unreasonable demands (Mommy, I want noodles! Mama, can I have soup? Fix my chopsticks! Bambambam! Can I have the round tempura (onion)? I want shrimp!) all at the same time. Claire had to spread her napkin out like a place mat, allowing Luke much greater access to the table. Both girls squeezed their juice boxes. At one point, Luke got hold of the sticky tempura dipping sauce and overturned it. Several minutes later, after I thought I had cleaned it all up, I felt something dripping on my foot, and noticed the sauce had gotten under his kidpottamus tray and everything was a gooey mess. There were noodles on the floor, napkins soaked with tentsuyu, and stacked dishes on the half of the table that Luke couldn't reach. Even though I tipped her generously, I am pretty sure she is going to cringe the next time she sees us in the restaurant.

Aaaaand, the honeymoon is over

2010-03-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

I just found lotion on the cat. And on my rugs, and the bathroom counter and floor. What is it with Claire and lotion? The "I've got tons of energy, we're going to keep really busy, and the time will just fly by!" attitude I started the week out with is now fading. The girls had dance class this morning (after which the instructor told me I couldn't take pictures of my children during class anymore because one of the other dads didn't want me taking photos of his daughter? Seriously?), and then we went directly to a birthday party at a bouncy place. So, a 10 minute morning nap for Luke in the car. And then Claire and Luke fell asleep for 15 minutes on the way home from the party, and then refused to nap when we got home. Sooooo, everyone is crabby (including me, clearly), and it's hours until bedtime. And I know it's only been a week, and some others I know complained a lot less over a lot longer period of time! Tomorrow I'll suck it up. As long as I get a good night's sleep.

Lucky for Claire, she's cute. We are sitting next to each other in the loft right now, each of us "working" on our laptops. Kate is giving Claire encouragement, "Thumbs up, Buttercup!", and Luke is alternating practicing his walking skills and trying to discern the purpose of the Barbie pool (it seems that "item holder" is winning).

Letting the children mind themselves while I blog

2010-03-18T14:47:00.000-07:00

In the time it took to choose and upload these photos, it sounds like the situation upstairs has deteriorated greatly. So this post might be kind of short.

Playing a confusing game involving hiding and seeking and bubbles and waiting with eyes closed but hands not over the eyes (all rules made up and enforced by Kate). I know there were more regulations, but I cannot remember them.

Bubbles today. I love her new haircut.

Smooch. Her favorite thing to do for the camera, these days.

Chalk lips, before swimming.

P.S. Tim, we are on day three of success with McLaren vs. The Potty.

This is the time to live in Las Vegas

2010-03-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

I have a love-hate relationship with spring. It started when we moved to Tucson. I LOVE spring. It's beautiful, sunny, and well, spring-y outside. It doesn't get much better than this. Highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s, windows open, flowers blooming. But it transitions into summer all too soon in the southwest. It won't be long before it's 110 and I'm miserable. This year, I'm trying to enjoy spring to its absolute fullest. We have been outside everyday this week, and have walked and ridden bikes to the train park twice since Tim left. We'll go again today if I can get us out the door soon enough after nap. Sure, dinners have consisted of quesadillas more times than the children would care to choose, but it's glorious out there!

On the way to the train park yesterday.

~~Chalk appetizers~~ chalk drawing before lunch. Notice everyone in short sleeves and/or shorts, except Claire. She demanded to have pants and a sweater. "I'm cold, Mommy." Aaah, she is my daughter.

Oooh, more snacks.

Chalk booty.

Making a break for it.

Oh, also, before I forget. Luke is getting bigger, as some of you have noticed. At 11mo, 2 weeks ago, he measured 30" and 24.6lbs. And he's this close to walking on his own as a preferred choice.

AND, under the category of TMI, Claire did the big deuce on the potty twice yesterday. Here's to hoping she is finally over that fear.

Visiting family

2010-03-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

I had sort of been dreading our postponed trip to Michigan. I mean, who wants to fly, outnumbered, for 4 hours cross-country? Not me, that's who. We started out okay, with Tim leading a coloring marathon with the girls, across the aisle from me and full-of-energy Luke. I fed him some Chips Ahoy cookies, and talked amiably with the girl next to me. Then, about 30 minutes into the flight, Luke started gagging. Turns out he had eaten part of the cookie wrapper while I had been distracted, and he proceeded to vomit it and the cookies. Thankfully, he's not much of a vomiter, I caught all the barf in my hand (wait, am I really thankful for that?), and my neighbor was very understanding. Me, genius mom that I am, I forgot to pack a change of clothing in my purse for anyone. Awesome.

Then, towards the end of the first flight, Claire fell asleep on Tim. Cute. Except that she peed on him, soaking her clothing and his jeans. See above note about not packing any changes of clothing for anyone in the carry-on bags. Tim was pretty pleased about that.

Once in Michigan, however, things went well. We spent 3 days with my mother and grandmother, and the kids loved seeing their grandmas. We even got to see our friend Tabitha and her daughter Natalie, whom we hadn't seen in 2 years. There was snow on the ground when we arrived, and the kids made a snow kid. Claire seemed to overcome her fear of snow, and Luke got to crawl around outside, tasting rocks.

Pre-barf.

Showing off her creation.

Claire and Great-Grandma Lorraine. Almost 90 years apart.

Dinner out with everyone, including family friend Carol.

Luke and Grandma Lorraine.

Sad exchange

2010-03-14T11:02:00.001-07:00

This morning, when we were dropping Tim off at the airport, Kate looked at him and asked, "Daddy, does it snow in Afghanistan?" He told her it did. She looked at him sternly, and asked, "Do you have your mittens?" If he were going to be gone longer, we might have cried.

On a sillier note, she and Claire were talking the other day at lunchtime. It was a little chilly inside the house and Kate was wearing short sleeves. She turned to Claire and said, "See these dots? Those are my freakles."

Tapping ballet class

2010-02-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

Kate just informed me that some of the disciples ("you know, the ones in the Bible, mom") got all dried out and they didn't have any lotion. Did you know that? Me, either.

Yesterday morning, we started a new class. It's actually a tap and ballet class, but Kate calls it the tapping ballet class. "Mom, I love balleting." Claire skipped the ballet part of class, either due to a lack of extra large footwear (can you see how her tap shoes are about a size too big?), or initial shyness. Once Kate came out and put her tap shoes on, however, Claire was suddenly excited to join the class. Also, once they were together, I noticed the annoyance level of the teacher spike dramatically. Sadly, I do not have photographic evidence to show you, but let's just say there wasn't a lot of dancing going on, and that I think Claire was asked to leave the class when the kids started the creative ribbon dance instructional section.

A blur of tap shoes. Notice the extra blurriness of Kate's and Claire's excited feet.

Pink, pink, pink.

Later in the day, Luke had his first ride in the cozy coupe, during which he fell out and hit his head on the concrete approximately 2 times.

Mealtime staredown

2010-02-16T15:37:00.000-08:00

I just finished downloading approximately 208 photos from my camera. It's been a long couple of weeks, and I clearly have not been keeping up with my technical obligations, to include (but not limited to): blogging, downloading photos, and email. I have also not finished writing thank you notes to all the wonderful people who sent gifts to Claire for her birthday. I am quite sorry about this last part; I do intend to write to all of you, hopefully soon.

Okay, so an update. I got antibiotics a couple of weeks ago, and took them faithfully. And then I started to get another infection. The doctor called me back before I had to go to the hospital again, thankfully, and prescribed me something stronger. It finally took care of the infection, but also wore me out dreadfully. I am just now starting to feel more like myself, and am trying to catch up on all the things I let slide in recent weeks.

We went back up to the mountain on Friday afternoon, the promise of nearly a foot of new snow incenting us to gather up our 400 items necessary for a hour spent in the white stuff. Claire cried this time again, but less so, likely because we let her wear her beloved princess pants instead of her snowsuit. On Kate and Tim's first trip down the hill on a REAL sledding device, they apparently tipped over, and Kate was disinclined to attempt further tobogganing.

Luke has found a new form of entertainment at meal time: dropping food off the side of his highchair. At some point during his meal, he will stare threateningly at you, and jut his hand out off the side of his tray, his eyes suggesting that he will indeed drop the bit of food in his hand, unless you...well, that's the part we're still trying to figure out. Everyone at the table says, "NO, Luke!" when he does it, and he stares tauntingly back at everyone. Then it's usually "bomb's away" as the food falls to the floor. Sometimes he'll put the food in his mouth and then everyone will clap. And then he'll take the food back OUT of his mouth, and the whole cycle starts again. It's very cute, but I'm starting to tire of the clean-up afterward.

Why he is willing to drop food off his tray is beyond me; the kid eats like he's a teenager, gobbling up nearly everything you put in front of him. Take, for instance, Valentine's day dinner. We took the kids to our local sushi restaurant, Luke in the stroller, Kate on her bike, and Claire walking and/or being carried by Tim. Luke ate what seemed to be 4 pounds of udon noodles, some coated in nori, a tempura shrimp and a tempura carrot, some abura age, half a bag of yogurt melts, and a cup of puffs. Although he wasn't playing his new game, a lot of food did end up on the floor, much to the dismay of the staff. At one point, our waitress asked me if I wanted a plate for him. Trust me, a plate would have been far worse. As a side note, Kate ate a bite of octopus sushi and LIKED it.

Oh yeah. I'll drop it. Watch me. What are you going to do to stop me? Hmmm?

We went bike riding over the weekend. Claire LOVES her new bike.

We also went swimming on Sunday and Monday. It was sunny and in the high 60s, so we took advantage. Luke thinks swimming is the BEST.

Finally, able to upload video

2010-02-02T16:43:00.000-08:00

From today:

A day on the mountain

2010-02-02T15:46:00.000-08:00

I did not expect to have that much fun. It took what might have been the better part of an hour getting our stuff together, to include gear, snacks and 100% cotton clothing for the children. We weren't entirely sure where we were going, or how long it would take us to get there. But we found Lee Canyon about 45 minutes after we finally left our driveway. Claire sounded so excited: "Snow! Daddy, there's snow!!" We parked and started dressing the kids in their non-snow-appropriate clothing. I did have one snow suit, purchased randomly at Ross for $4.99, which I tugged on over Claire's stretch pants and sweater. Before we left home, I had used approximately half a can of waterproofing spray on it, in hopes of keeping her dry. About 20 seconds after it was on her, though, she started whining about it being too tight, and cried during the entire walk to the sledding hill. We tried to explain to her that the suit was there to keep her warm, but she would have none of it. Kate, meanwhile, was having a blast "sledding" down the mountain. Luke wasn't sure what to make of the experience.

She says it's "too tight". Am not surprised by this declaration. It's not too tight, but it's foreign. She refuses to stop crying until we take it off. Spends rest of time in car eating Chicken in a Biskit crackers and watching Wall-E.

Big sister: extremely happy. Baby brother: indifferent, with a cold tush.

Luke, THIS IS SNOW.

Tasting some.

Father pulls daughter on cardboard sled, with predictable results. Feel free to comment on how this fits in with previous post's topic of Spam.

Are there supposed to be two people in this picture?

There's Luke!

Tim took Claire and Luke back to the car, while I took Kate down the hill, using my ski pants as a sled. We had so much fun. We would stomp up the hill together, Kate telling me, "THIS looks good, Mommy," every 2 feet, while I prodded her on, telling her that sometimes you have to work hard to have fun. After a bit, Tim and I traded out, so he could have some fun with her too. After about an hour and a half on the mountain, we left, sadly, but with knowledge that we would be at In-N-Out Burger for cheeseburgers and shakes soon. Now, at 4:30, the children are vegetables on the sofa, tired out beyond their imaginations.

The first time I had Spam

2010-01-31T10:11:00.000-08:00

Kimbap. I'm pretty sure the first time I had Spam, it was hidden in a Kimbap roll in Korea. Sadly, my children will not be able to claim the same defense. For breakfast this morning: waffles and fried Spam, courtesty of Daddy.

It's been a long weekend. I started feeling ill on Friday morning, and finally called Tim and told him I couldn't pick up the girls from school. I had a fever and chills, and felt awful. It seemed like something I'd had before, but I'd always been able to kick it on my own. This time I wasn't so lucky. I got a second fever/chills spell in the middle of the night on Friday, and I realized I wasn't going to recover on my own. We went to the ER on Saturday morning, and they confirmed my suspicions: mastitis (an infection). Overall, it was probably the best trip to the ER I've ever had; I was checked in and sitting in triage within 5 minutes of being there, and was tucked into my own room shortly thereafter. Tim took the kids to lunch and then brought them home, while I stayed for fluids, antibiotics and an ultrasound. All is well now, for the most part.

Now it's time to recover from being out of it for 2 days. Every room in the house is an absolute disaster, I don't remember the last time the children were bathed, and we have no food. I don't think there is a spare inch of space on any countertop, and clothes are piled everywhere. It doesn't take long for things to spiral out of control. I'm not trying to make Tim look bad - he has been a hero through all of this, and the kids probably had more fun with him than they've had in ages, playing all sorts of games, and ... trying new food. Today he took the girls to their first movie: The Princess and the Frog. I was sort sad that I didn't get to be a part of this adventure, but it sounds like they had fun. And it's funny how much earlier the younger children get to do things: I could not have imagined taking Kate to see a movie at age three.

Waiting in the ER. Tim packed up a huge bag full of toys and art supplies to keep the girls occupied, and everyone ate tons of snacks.

Kate Blagojevich.

We just told her she looked like she slept well.

MJ

2010-01-26T21:20:00.000-08:00

Dear Claire,

You are three today. Although time has probably not flown by for you, it seems like just last month that it was snowing in Tucson days before you were born. You are your own little snowflake; beautiful and unique, and everyone loves you. Your smile makes your little brother break out into a grin, and your big sister would rather play with you than with anyone else.

Sometimes you make us crazy. You are still sneaky, and we have learned to keep a close eye on you, as you are likely to get into lotion and rub it on the walls, or color on my nightstand with pens I have mistakenly left within your reach. Even when something is out of reach for you, you have no qualms about finding something to climb on to get to what you want. I have little doubt that you will use this skill in less devious ways in the future. At least I hope so.

You say the funniest things. Last week I told you we were going to fly in an airplane soon to go see Grandma, and your eyes got big. You said, "Really? Are we gonna fly upside down?" You are your father's daughter. And, like him, you are a night owl. You would be happy to stay up until 10pm, if you could sleep in until 10am.

You also remind me of myself when I was little. You are shy when you first meet someone, and you did not at all enjoy being the center of attention at your birthday party. You looked a little scared when everyone sang 'Happy Birthday' to you. And yet you have little fear when it comes to physical pursuits. You climb exceptionally well, and you love to run and jump. Your sister talks big, but you actually do big things, often without making a big production of it. You are also extraordinarily stubborn. You like what you like, and you are not inclined to change your mind, once it is set. I am still trying to figure you out.

You have an interesting taste for food. You like to dip your chicken nuggets in caramel sauce, your apples in ketchup, and you will eat almost anything if you can dip it in something. In fact, you have a bit of an obsession with dip. A few weeks ago, you decided you like lettuce, if dunked in ranch dressing. Your dad and I were very impressed, as we were sure none of our children were ever going to like salads. Your favorite food is probably cheese. A year ago, you ate aged bleu cheese and loved it. We often call you our little French girl, as you could live off grapes, cheese and bread. Once you decide you like something, you usually stick with it.

Often, it takes a lot of effort on our parts to 'help' you decide you like something, though. You are very particular about what you wear, for instance. You hate jeans, or anything that is "too tight", as you put it. You have a large closet full of clothes, but will only wear a handful of outfits. Your favorites include stretch pants, your gymnastics t-shirt, and a skirt with an elastic band that you got for your 2nd birthday.

You have recently decided you do not like green, and you have your own slang. You say, "suh like", and I think you mean "it's like" or "so, like...". It's very endearing. You also have some cute phrases we dub "McLarenisms". These include:

"Mommy, can I please have more fruit cottontail?"

"I want to watch Starburst for movie night."

We love you, Claire bear. Happy Birthday!

Wait, where am I?

2010-01-20T09:47:00.001-08:00

I think it's been raining since Sunday? Monday? I know it's only Wednesday (stop looking at me like that, PNW pioneers), but that's a lot of rain for Las Vegas; more than I can remember getting since we moved here. They say we are supposed to get 1-3" over the course of the week, as we are getting hit by the storms that are hammering California. When you consider we get an average of 4.5" per year, that's a lot of rain in one week. The weather report said we got almost 1/2" yesterday, setting a record.

This morning I looked outside my bedroom window and saw this:

What a view. I sort of forgot where I was for a minute. Mountains with snow, a giddy feeling at the sight of unexpected sun after a long period of rain...it was almost like being back in Seattle! Well, okay. Not really. Although I know it's going to rain again today enough to fill the greenbelt with a river of water, I have confidence we will see the sun before April.

I set my alarm this morning in a valiant effort to get us dressed and out the door before school actually started. It worked! I even showered before breakfast. Hey, that's something to be proud of around here. The girls were to school earlier than ever before. Of course, I was up until way too late last night getting prepped for this morning (coffee, breakfast dishes out and ready), but it's such a good feeling to have been on time to something.

The Sheep Mountains have snow. ~~Baaa.~~ Brrr.

What is it about weekdays?

2010-01-18T14:53:00.001-08:00

Specifically, how do my children know when it is a Monday, Wednesday, or a Friday? Every other day of the week, they wake up by 7am. Sometimes they are crying, sometimes they are wet, sometimes they just want to play Really Loudly together. Usually they wake their sibling(s) up, if everyone is not already stirring.

But on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, they like to sleep in. Because somehow they KNOW that it's a school day and that I am going to be frantic trying to get them out the door and into the car in a vain attempt to be on time. Today was no exception: I woke up at 7am, listening for jabbering or crying or general fussiness, and heard silence. I rolled over and went back to sleep. At 7:30, I heard Luke talking, so I got up to check on him. He was happily playing with his elephant. He smiled when he saw me. At 7:40, I heard Kate (who was sleeping in the downstairs den due to disobedience last night) wake up. We three ate breakfast together. At nearly 9:00am(!!), Claire came downstairs.

I fooled them today. It's a holiday. Sleep in all you want, my darlings!

What we're doing this weekend

2010-01-17T14:53:00.000-08:00

Helping each other out.

Climbing things.

Being proud of our accomplishments.

Crying for unknown reasons.

Considering applying for federal disaster relief funds.

As for me, I am headed out with friends this afternoon for a little "me" time. Yay me!

More from the photo shoot

2010-01-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

Lots of teeth. Okay, maybe just 6.

Luke at 9mo. Happy boy.

She LOVES pianos. Am tempted to try to find one of these for her.

Claire at almost 3 years old.

Calling the Geek Squad

2010-01-10T22:12:00.000-08:00

We got family photos taken today. At one point, this happened:

A certain photo company has changed their online viewing process. I was all excited this afternoon with the thought of posting some of the pictures we got today on the blog, and then I went to copy and paste them and found out I couldn't do it! Thanks to ~~my fabulous sneaky husband~~ the resident geek, we have solved the problem. Don't tell anyone. I'll post more pictures tomorrow if you're good.

Later, after we were done with photo torture, we took the children to McDonald's, where Claire ate her apples dipped in ketchup. Last time she dipped them in sweet and sour sauce. She loves her dip.

Tomorrow night we're headed to an open house at a possible private school for Kate next year. Seriously. I can't believe we're thinking about putting her in private Kindergarten. I'm all stressed out about whether to keep her in her current private school or send her to public school. Mostly I take issue with the length of class at the public school: it's only 2 1/2 hours a day! She goes to pre-k for 3 1/2 hours this year. I had no idea figuring out Kindergarten would be so complicated and stressful. And expensive! I practically need a job just to pay for it!

How big is Luke?

2010-01-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

So big! At his 9mo appointment yesterday, he weighed in at 22lb 2oz, and he is now 28 3/4" tall. He has learned 3 signs, and usually performs all of them in a row for you, just to show off. [The signs: all done, more, and so big (I know, it's more of a game than a sign, but let's not tell him just yet).]

Really enjoying his sauce.

Look at me, Ma!

Damn.

He isn't walking yet, but is tottering around behind his push-toys by himself. He is also gaining a better sense of balance and is close to riding Rody by himself.

Kate and Claire are back in the swing of things, enjoying school and expanding their amazing imaginations. Kate talks approximately 98% of the minutes she is awake, leaving us all a little bewildered. She and I need to have a little chat about personal information, as I have heard her several times tell strangers the dates of birth of her whole family, and she has even shared our address with people in line at Target. Everyone knows how old I am, and that her father is "older than dirt". As for Claire, she is super excited about turning 3 at the end of the month. She is also insisting on panda cupcakes again. She likes what she likes. But she's branching out, too, as she showed us tonight at dinner by eating a leaf of lettuce and a pickle (both of which she claimed to detest before this).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T20:32:00.000-08:00

Stockings.

First present, ever. Mostly he just wanted to eat the paper.

Ms. Sneaky. Playing with her sister's new toys while Kate was busy opening other gifts.

Kate and Vovo.

It's been a whirlwind of a month: parties (real and pretend), Santa, gifts, arguing over new toys and old, learning new skills (Kate: bike riding, Claire: Rody riding, Luke: climbing everything), and lots of family time.

We somehow made it until 7am on Christmas morning. Once the girls saw all the gifts under the tree, there was a lot of squealing, tearing of paper and hurried handing out of presents. The kids made out like bandits. Kate is the proud owner of approximately 14 Barbies, Claire got a new booster seat for the car, and Luke finally has some boy toys to play with. The day after Christmas, my dad and family came to stay for a couple of days. The girls were thrilled to have new people to play with, and Kate was ecstatic when her Aunt Ana offered to have a Barbie party with her.

The girls go back to school on Monday, Tim leaves for a short TDY on Sunday, and I'm trying to get back into a running routine. Right after I take another nap.

Baby fishing

2009-12-29T15:46:00.000-08:00

Have you been wondering where we've been? Me, too. I'm pretty sure we've just been busy with Christmas celebrations and family, but this has been one busy month. The girls are off from school for 2 weeks, and we've been keeping them occupied with everything from a visit from family to trips downtown. Tim and I are exhausted, but the kids seem to be powering through it.

Today, Kate went baby fishing. Luke loved this new sport.

A day at the Adventuredome.

And now Luke is crying, so I'll have to write about Christmas in another post.

All about Luke

2009-12-17T15:24:00.000-08:00

We've had such a whirlwind of events over the past month, that I have failed to chronicle Luke's recent accomplishments. Just after we got back from Tucson, Luke started crawling. He is taking after big sister Kate in this regard; she crawled at 7 1/2 months, and he crawled at almost 8 months. About a week and a half later, he started holding onto things by himself, and then started pulling himself up on everything just after he turned 8 months old. I walked into his room to check on him during his morning nap, and found him whimpering, "stuck" standing up in his crib. We had an emergency lower-the-crib session that night.

Now he pulls up on everything he can get his hands on (your leg, the steps [his favorite], the cat, the Christmas tree [kidding; he is far too fascinated by the lights to try to pull up on it, yet]), and is even using some of the push-toys on his own. Kate walked at 9 months, so I am anticipating this with Luke. I still have not figured out what to do with our abnormally-railed stairs, and fear we will have to resort to using those super-yard baby gates to fence off the whole area. He uses his head as a third hand, leaning it against something to gain leverage to stand up. He takes his share of spills, but keeps trying until he achieves his goal. Luckily for me, he isn't fully aware of what he is capable of.

He has been saying 'DADADADADA' for weeks, but recently put together the sounds every mom wants to hear: 'MAMAMAMA'. Sadly, he generally only uses this latter sound when he's sad and crying about something.

He is eating semi-solid foods, and particularly loves yogurt melts and cheese puffs. Also on top of the list is regular vanilla yogurt and anything with sugar.

Enjoying dark chocolate gelato in Tucson.

A week of parties

2009-12-14T10:20:00.000-08:00

First visit with Santa, at the 561st Christmas party.

The school Christmas concert. Kate is the tall blonde in black on the left, and Claire is in red and white on the bottom row, turned around to look at her big sister. She spent most of the concert in this position.

Erika, Megan and me at Blue Martini on patch night.

A pile of sugar on a red cookie. Gross. Even she must have thought it was icky, because she later licked the frosting off and left the cookie.

The 422 Christmas party.

Candy canes. They love them.

Books from Santa at the 422 party.

At Pure on graduation night.

Half Marathon: check

2009-12-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

I have not a single photo of the event, due to my refusal to carry a camera for 13.1 miles, and to various children's tardiness, willful disobedience, dragging of feet, and lethargy, but I ran my first half marathon this morning!

Even though it's Las Vegas and it's warmer here than in many other parts of the country at this time of year, it was still freezing at the 6:15am start line. I stayed downtown last night (at Excalibur; you can imagine the girls' amazement. Claire: "Where are you sleeping, Mommy?" Me: "At the castle, Claire!" BIG. EYES.) to avoid what was sure to be pure chaos trying to drive to the strip where 28,000 runners were converging on the inaugural event. It was my first time staying without any of my children (besides births of children, which, frankly, do not count) in several years. I got an excellent night of sleep, after my anxiety receded and I actually fell asleep. I set all of my alarms for 5am, not having used any of them prior to this. At 5:00 I was greeted by my cell phone, PDA, running watch and the hotel's alarm clock. My neighbors might have hated me.

I found my way, by following the hordes, to the start "area" on the strip in front of Mandalay Bay. I watched the fireworks go off at the starting time, and inched my way up to the start for another 40 minutes. Next time, I will be sure to register for a closer corral, especially since I was passing walkers before mile 2.

I ditched my RHS gymnastics sweatshirt (circa 1989) around mile 5, and my hat around mile 7. I was super glad for my gloves, as I wore them the entire race. I ran and ran and ran, slowing down for an occasional drink, and grabbing some Gu at mile 9. I never stopped, fearing that I wouldn't be able to start again. I saw places on the strip that I didn't know existed. I saw casinos I want to go into, and some I would rather not. I witnessed the eruption of the volcano at the Mirage, which was fun and warm. I ran an entire mile north of the Stratosphere, the northernmost casino on the strip. From there, they directed us west into neighborhoods I had never been in, and likely will never see again (the area north of the Stratosphere is notoriously dangerous). Finally, just before mile 9, we rejoined the strip. Mentally, this was huge, and I was so happy to see the Stratosphere. Somehow, adrenaline kicked in at about mile 10, and I picked up the pace for the last 3.1 miles. I finished in 2:11:00, and am proud of my time!

Thank you, Tim, for helping me complete this milestone. I couldn't have done it without you. You're next!

Thanksgiving in Tucson

2009-12-01T10:03:00.000-08:00

I have barely unpacked, let alone found the camera and cord to download our photos from last week, so that will have to come later. Right now I'm in a tizzy trying to figure out how to pack approximately 2,548 things into the next 3-4 weeks. The holiday ~~stress~~ fun has begun!

We drove to Tucson the weekend before Thanksgiving, and spent the whole week with my sister and her family. The kids were in HEAVEN. The parents were mildly amused. All in all, it went well, minus the sleep thing. The title to this post could also be:

Does Not Sleep Well Away From Home (mostly Luke)

There are a lot of other good titles out there, actually. Maybe I'll just use titles to tell you about our trip.

Birthday Parties and Turkey, Oh My! (Happy First Birthday, Lucy!)
Our First Black Friday Shopping Trip, by Jessica and Jennifer
Mmmmm, Good Beer
Mmmmm, Excellent Mexican Food
Mmmmm, Turkey, Stuffing, Habanero Mashed Potatoes...you get the idea
Oops, I Messed Up My Running Schedule; I hope 9 Miles Instead of 10 Will Not Destroy Me Next Weekend
Yay, Bookmans!
WHY Do We Always Get Stuck at the Hoover Dam?
Seriously, We Have to Drive All the Way Back to Kingman to Go Around the Damn Dam?
Tucson to Las Vegas: the Longest Trip Yet (30 Hours)
Can Everyone Just Be Healthy For Like a Week? Please?

I finally ordered our Christmas cards. Hopefully you will receive them before Christmas.

Christmas shopping! Aggggggghhhhhhhh! Christmas tree? Not yet. Maybe next week? Why does everything happen at once?

Now we're off to the dentist for the girls' first teeth cleaning. I've been trying to talk it up. There are movies there! The dentist is so nice! He will tell you to say 'aaaaahhh'. Can you say 'aaaaahhhh'? Yay! I'll let you know how it goes.

Christmas photo FAIL

2009-11-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

Last night we went to a Christmas village with more lights than I can ever remember seeing at a Christmas display of this sort. It was military appreciation night, so not only did we get in for free, but we also got to experience the festivities without half of Las Vegas elbowing their way through the forest - the night was only for military cardholders. We froze (it was in the 50s), but were thankful for the dry weather, and for the fact that although we couldn't feel our fingers, we couldn't actually see our breath. The girls LOVED it.

One of my goals was to get a picture worthy of our 2009 Christmas card. Total failure.

Where's Luke?

Merry Christmas from the Red Eye family! No amount of photo editing can get Luke's eyes to turn an actual color. Glowing white is nice, no?

Lost Luke again.

Kate and her beloved hot chocolate. "It's also called cocoa, Mom."

Tim with "spirit hands". Yes, that's a princess coach adorned with lights. They had everything there.

Ornaments!

My favorite display.

The girls really "got into" the decorations.

I cannot remember the last time Luke fell asleep on someone. He was just adorable. And such a good sport.

Oh, Dear.

2009-11-16T15:51:00.000-08:00

He's so close. He's up on his knees all the time, and is constantly pushing himself backwards. He gets himself stuck under furniture and then complains about it. His father is encouraging this behavior.

If you listen carefully, you can hear me in the background:

Crabby

2009-11-10T16:20:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Luke and I'm having a tough day. I skipped my morning nap, but slept in the car for 10 minutes, which is plenty. My mom thinks I should sleep a little longer, but I'm not gonna do it! I'd rather cry and wail. I didn't go to sleep for my afternoon nap until after 2:00, and then I decided to sleep for just about an hour and a half, which my mom says isn't nearly long enough.

The other day we walked to a restaurant for dinner. My mom gave me miso soup, which was way better than the green stuff she was trying to get me to eat. My big sister, Claire, loves "going to Japanese"; she fancies the soup with the white jell-o, too, but says she doesn't like the weeds in it. My mom also let me try something called "green tea ice cream", which was awesome! Dad looked at her kind of weird after, but I thought she was pretty cool for letting me try it. Then she let me taste the pumpkin cheesecake she made yesterday. Wow, that stuff is so good. Plain pumpkin can stay in the dish, but I'll take the sweet stuff anytime.

I didn't wake up until everyone else did this morning, which is such a bummer. I did start crying right after mom was asleep last night, which frustrates her. I think she can't figure out how I know she has just fallen asleep, but it seems like such a good time to wake up and have her come in and play with me for a bit. I also like waking up when it's super dark out and mom is zombie-like. Those are great times - it's just me and her, and she'll do just about anything to get me to go back to sleep. My cold is finally starting to go away, though, so I'm not waking up many times during the night coughing and choking. I think my mom is glad about that part; she seems kind of nervous when I make horrible sounds.

My biggest sister, Kate, is super fun. She loves to hold me, and I'm so big that we usually topple over. She makes me laugh all the time, though, and gets me toys when I cry. She makes funny faces at me and then I smile at her. She's the only one who can make me smile like that.

My dad has been trying to get me to crawl. For some reason, my mom seems reluctant to help me acquire this new skill. Dad is also cool because he helps me walk with my walker toy. Mom glares at him when he does this. She says it's something about stairs and tile floors, but I'm not sure what the problem is. There are so many things in this house to see! And put in my mouth! You should see all the cabinets that don't have "child locks" on them. It's going to be so fun around here soon!

Yeah, that's what I thought.

2009-11-06T16:12:00.000-08:00

You know all those cold medicines that used to be labeled for toddler use and are now only recommended for those 41 and older, because "they don't work for children"? [Um, if they work for me, why wouldn't they work for someone smaller than me?] Someone today suggested I talk to a pharmacist to see what dosage I should give my children. . . and what do you know! LUKE is able to have 1/2 teaspoon of the cold medicine I've been eyeing every morning at 3am when he wakes up unable to breathe or sleep because he's so congested. I just woke him up from a 3 hour nap, and although he's still sick, at least he's not sick and exhausted.

A pickle

2009-10-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

I didn't have any dill slices on hand, so Luke got to taste a sweet pickle instead. Sadly, he didn't make many good faces, but he did look at it with great suspicion.

After it disintegrated, he nearly choked on some of the seeds. He was a good sport, though, and is now regularly begging for what we affectionately refer to as "real" food. As much as he wants to eat whatever you have in your hand (especially if it is paper-based), he is only authorized stage 1 and 2 baby foods at this time. He now has 4 teeth, though, so chunky solids can't be far away. Four teeth. How did this happen?

He is also "rocking". All you mothers of more than one child know what I am talking about here. It's one of the last steps before you lose all sanity and your baby starts CRAWLING. Tim has been encouraging this behavior. Tim is also going TDY next week, so it is likely that Luke will choose the first day Tim is gone to begin scooting around the house.

Unauthorized Yams

2009-10-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

It might finally be fall here, as of today. When I ran this morning, I wished I had been wearing long sleeves and gloves. And that the wind would stop blowing. It's cloudy, and the temperature is only in the 60s. And the wind! We're having gusts to 70mph today, according to the weatherman.

We knew the weather was turning colder soon, so we took the kids to the park to feed the ducks on Sunday afternoon.

I love the golden hour. And the children loved ~~throwing stale bread at~~ feeding the water fowl. No one fell in the water, which is always my biggest fear. Tim was completely grossed out by the disgustingness that surrounds ducks and geese. But I was relaxed, knowing that it could be worse, like the week prior when Claire let a goose eat out of her hand. Ew.

Seriously? Stale garlic bread? Ohhh, yeahhhh. They aren't picky, those fowl water fowl.

Fighting over who got to have the next chunk of concrete-like bread.

And then they flew a kite.

And then it got dark and they called me repeatedly on my cell phone to inquire if I had finished grocery shopping and picked up the pizza yet.

I knew Luke and I would grow restless after the feeding of the birds, so I agreed to take him to the store and then to pick up dinner on the way back to the park. When shopping at our local grocery store, I generally go through the self-checkout lane. It's faster, and I don't have to talk to anybody. Every once in awhile, though, I mistakenly pick out produce with no code sticker on it, or I accidentally hit the button for 'celery hearts' instead of plain 'celery' and then I have to wait for the checker to come over and fix my mistake. My favorite incident so far, though, was the one on Sunday. I put my produce on the scale and typed in the code on the sticker. My machine beeped and a picture of a pharmacist came up on the screen. It read, "unauthorized purchase", in bright, shameful red letters. I finally got the attention of the supervisor, and she scoffed. "We really need to fix that code." Yes. Unauthorized yams, indeed.

In the midst of sickness: a pumpkin!

2009-10-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

Last week I called one of my sickly babysitters to ~~come infect my children with swine flu~~ watch the girls for a few hours while I took Luke for his 6mo photo shoot. He wasn't as cooperative as he can sometimes be, and was pretty stingy with his smiles, but I think we got a few cute ones.

Coy boy in a gourd costume.

A smile! Pay no attention to the legs hovering over his head.

My favorite pictures always include drool. It's just so Luke.

Trying not to freak out

2009-10-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

Last night, my babysitters' mom called me. Her two daughters, who babysat my children twice last week, have the swine flu. Kate was feverish and zombie-like all day on Thursday, but then made a miraculous comeback on Friday. All Luke wants to do is sleep. Claire is also acting out of sorts. There's no way for us to know without getting tested, but I'm guessing we're all infected. Luckily my rock, and the most mentally-stable member of the family, returned home on Thursday afternoon, so I have reinforcements. If you are trying to reach me and are unable to do so, it's probably because I'm at Target buying out their stash of Purell and Tylenol.

Oh, I almost forgot. Luke's 6mo stats: 19lbs 15oz (the size of an 11mo old), and 26 3/4". Hopefully his chub can carry him through this.

Will I ever learn?

2009-10-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

After this and this and this (and this and THIS) you would think that I would double-think letting her play with stamps and an ink pad by herself. Nope. Not much learning going on here.

Third Child

2009-10-05T14:49:00.001-07:00

Poor Luke. He's either in his car seat, eating, napping, or playing on the crumb-strewn floor by himself, probably in a corner. I've always heard people talk about the middle child; how the unlucky kid is always neglected, and is constantly drug around from older and younger siblings' events, never getting a chance to participate in anything on his own. For us, it's the youngest child who is overlooked.

This morning, for instance, it was a rush to get the misbehaving girls ready for school. Luke got fed, but not dressed. Same for me, actually. . . but I digress. After we dropped them off, we returned home and I changed clothes to go for a run. Luke sat cheerlessly in the stroller as I enthusiastically told him how we were going to See The World! He looked at me and sighed. Half-way through the short run, I noticed he had fallen asleep. Yet another nap out of his crib. When we reached the front door, I gently lifted him out of his stroller and carried him to the proper napping locale, and he fussed just a little before nodding off to sleep. About an hour later, when I was finishing my shower, he woke up. Yay! Time to watch mom do her hair. I sat him just outside the bathroom with a few toys, and he looked at me like, seriously, Mom? These toys again? Okay, mental note to switch out the doing-my-hair toys.

After that, it was a diaper and outfit change, and back out the door to run some errands. He might have cried when I put him in his car seat. Then, to pick up the girls. He flirted pretty heavily with Kate's teacher, basking in the attention he surely feels he's missing out on. Back into the car seat yet again to go home for lunch. . .aaaand straight into the high chair so I could ~~yell at~~ kindly ask the girls to take their shoes off already while I made lunch. Then the girls went down for their naps and he and I played for a bit before he got fussy and needed a nap of his own.

In a short while, we'll all head to the park, where Luke will sit in his stroller (or maybe I'll be able to hold him? It's always up to the girls, somehow, and whether they can obey or not) while the older siblings play. Someday he'll get his revenge by eating all their Barbies' shoes, I'm sure, but for now, I'm glad he's patient.

Enjoying a little breathing treatment before nap. Apparently decongestant is dangerous for little ones, but albuterol is okay?

First pears. The girls kept fighting over who got to feed him.

6mo old. Over 20lb. One happy, well-fed baby boy.

I am teh cyut.

The wiggles go to church

2009-10-03T20:47:00.000-07:00

Here I sit at 8:45pm, with 6 seconds left on the clock in the Husky-Irish game, which, on my DVR, is tied 30-30. Funny, this is the same place I was at 4:30 this afternoon, except I was yelling at the TV and at the girls to get their socks on already, and muttering under my breath about the-things-we-do-for-our-children. I ended up turning the television off a few minutes into overtime, and rushing out the door to get to church. On the way there, I promised the girls we would go to Japanese food afterward.

A few times a year, the kids in pre-school sing at the Saturday evening service, and in an attempt to keep as busy as possible, I decided we would go. Also, it's so cute to see the children standing up front, trying to remember the words to their songs, and making muted arm motions.

Damn. Lost in overtime.

So we arrived with a few minutes to spare, and I wisely chose seats towards the back. At some point early on, I wondered about my sanity. I mean, who takes their three children, four years old and under, to Saturday evening church service, when none of the children are able to sit still for longer than 1.2 minutes, one of them is teething, and two of them find great humor in kicking the wooden pews to produce a fun hollow thud? Luckily, I was not the only one with unruly children, but even one of my friends mentioned later that she could hear us from her seat. Go on, ask me if I got anything out of the service.

Luke decided that tonight would be a good time to start practicing his banzai voice. Just imagine a lot of loud growling. I'm pretty certain we were turning heads, but I was too busy trying to entertain my bouncing boy to notice. After about 20 minutes of bellowing, song and prayer, the kids finally wandered up front to sing. The first thing Kate did when she got situated was to find me in the audience and wave with both hands above her head: "Hi, Mom!" They performed about 5 songs, and I was sad I didn't bring my camera. Claire was especially cute, singing with wide eyes and looking at all the kids next to her to see if she was doing it right.

After they had finished, we went back to our pew and I tried to calm the masses. The girls were pretty good, with only Claire tugging at me every few minutes, asking, "Are we going to Japanese now?" over and over again. It was Luke who ended up causing us to make an early break for it. He would not hold still, insisting on jumping on my bladder, and growling like a Tasmanian devil.

Sushi went surprisingly well. Claire even insisted on tasting my salmon and tuna nigiri, and both girls ate enough tempura to warrant a lollipop at the end. When I was getting the kids into the car, Kate was standing on the sidewalk, hands clasped, staring at the starry sky. I asked her what she was doing and she told me she was wishing on a star. She implored me and Claire to join her in singing the song one sings when making wishes. I asked her what she wished for and she smiled and said, "I wished that my Daddy would come home some day." Drama much? He'll be home in 2 weeks.

Within 10 miles of home

2009-10-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

Windy Spice met up with Doesn't Want To Get Dirty Spice and went in search of the Great Pumpkin this morning. It's a smaller farm than the one we visited several times in Arizona, but it's waaaaay closer.

Someone is afraid to get her shoes dirty. Sadly, this attitude did not carry all the way to the car, and Clean Spice peed in her newly washed car seat on the way home. Never fails.

Sittin' on a pumpkin chair. We learned about rotting pumpkins today, and why we don't want to take them home with us. Also complained about the wind, and how she was cold. In her defense, it was only in the 60s. And her mother might have forgotten to bring coats for the children.

The boy one sat quietly and played with his toys.

Might be okra? They were huge. Kate tried to smell them and was disappointed by their lack of fragrance.

Corn.

At the end, Kate and I went in search of eggplant, and she asked, "Mommy, where are the eggs?" I think she thought it was Halloween and Easter. I showed her a small purple plant, and she looked adorably confused. Also, someone might have gotten a little over-zealous with the produce and purchased a rather large eggplant. What would you recommend I do with it?

Kate is cut off from scissors

2009-09-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

Who can tell me why?

The party

2009-09-21T16:19:00.001-07:00

We had a berry-squishing good time at Kate's 4th birthday party on Saturday.

Simone, Kate and Jen.

Reese shows off her shirt.

Claire just wanted to eat the berries. Standard.

Who's four years old?

The princess army.

An interview with Kate

2009-09-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

Ask her a question and she's likely to answer you in a long, rambling sentence, full of details, even if the details don't exactly pertain the question you asked her. She is full of energy, and loves to stay busy. She spends lots of time coloring, writing her name (and Claire's), and is even able to connect the dots in her workbooks. I don't know how high she can count, only because it's higher than anyone is usually willing to count with her. She makes up words and tells you that they mean something, when clearly they do not. Sadly, I am slowly losing my ability to distinguish her fake words from real ones, as she has learned several Chinese words from Ni Hao, Kai Lan, and I'm afraid I will falsely tell her something is not a word when it actually is. She has the memory of an elephant, and often recalls events that happened months ago (mostly things I had hoped that she would forget about).

On Saturday she looked at her half-assembled princess cupcakes and exclaimed, "What are tarNATIONS?!" Tim looked at her and laughed, and asked her where she learned that. "God and Jesus taught me." ?

At the mention of the state of Oklahoma, she will smile and gleefully yell, "OKLAHOMA! OKLAHOMA! OKLAHOMA!" and make her mama proud.

I recently sat down with her to discuss some of her favorites:

to drink: milk
food: peanut butter and honey sandwiches
snack: Nemo snacks (gummi)
cartoon: Max and Ruby and Go, Diego, Go!
movie: Wall-E and Sleeping Beauty
color: red, pink and purple
BFFs: Reese and Reagan
outfit: a dress. Any dress.
book: Sleeping Beauty
place to go: the Dinosaur park (any park, really)
flower: roses ("the red roses and yellow roses")
animal: "kitty cat Starbuck"
game: the fishing game
Do you like school? "Yes, because it's fun." So much for long answers.
What do you want be when you grow up? "A mommy, like you are, Mommy." [puffing up chest and sighing]

Kate loves to sing, especially the Sleeping Beauty song ("Once Upon a Dream") and the Ariel song ("aaah-aaaah-aaaaaaaah!"). I've noticed a new passion for her version of the Mickey Mouse song, which goes something like, "M-O-U-S-E-K-E-Y...M-O-U-S-E".

She's four years old today, and she is beginning to develop her own interests. She has some decided favorites, although she is easily influenced by her surroundings. For instance, when I first asked her what her favorite thing to eat was, she said, "cinnamon toast", mostly because she had just enjoyed a piece for breakfast.

The time has, as the cliche goes, flown by. I absolutely cannot believe my baby girl is four. I love you, Kate! Happy Birthday!

R-22 ride

2009-09-17T16:28:00.001-07:00

I might have forgotten to mention that Tim got to fly in a helicopter recently. One more lifelong dream accomplished!

When did that happen?

2009-09-16T13:49:00.001-07:00

I was sitting at the family medicine clinic on base this morning, playing with Luke, when he opened his mouth to babble at me and I saw two teeth poking through. The bottom middle ones, to be all scientific about it. And they are fully showing their ridges, so it's not like they just popped out last night. Or maybe they did? I feel like I haven't been paying attention to him enough to know when his first two teeth appeared! GAH. Next I'll find that he can crawl and I just haven't happened to notice it yet.

I was at the lovely clinic this morning because I have had a sore throat for more than two months. I know. The nurse looked at me the way you are looking at me right now, too. But I have three kids. Life is sort of . . . hectic . . . around here. I finally got annoyed enough this week to actually make an appointment, and because I really want to know if I have mono or strep, the only two illnesses that would sort of make sense given my symptoms. Anyway, they gave me a prescription for deconamine (because they say allergies and congestion are causing my sore throat), which after minimal research on my part, sounds like a bad idea given that I am still nursing Luke. The nurse on base said I was okay to take it, but I have a call in to my OB, *just to make sure*. C'mon, ask me how I feel about more government health care!

The girls have been making me crazy lately. Or maybe it's just that I'm exhausted (see reference to sore throat above). They are back to their nighttime antics, which include staying up until approximately 9:30pm, or sometimes even 10:00, talking, shrieking, and generally misbehaving. Then, they wake up between 6-7am, crabby but unwilling to go back to sleep. This morning Claire laid down on the kitchen floor, refusing to put her shoes on and get in the car for school. Awesome. I'm trying something new tonight: Kate will be in bed by 7:00, and will hopefully fall asleep before Claire arrives for bed around 8:00. Wish me luck. Or send me some whiskey. Someone is likely to need a stiff drink tonight.

Reason 41 that I love Vegas

2009-09-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

Visits from family and friends!

Uncle Dan and Kate.

Luke drools on Niki.

Mermaids and jelly beans

2009-09-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

We promised the kids two things over the holiday weekend: to take them to the Silverton Lodge casino to see the mermaids, and to take them to the Adventuredome at Circus! Circus! I had high hopes for the prior, and was disappointed, and had low expectations for the Adventuredome, and was pleasantly surprised.

The girls were just plain excited (especially Kate) to see fish, and a mermaid swimming with them. Kate tried to monopolize the swimming lady, and was mesmerized by her floating hair. The mermaid taught her how to make a heart shape with her hands (which Kate totally hearted), and even blew Kate a bubbly kiss. I was hoping to eat at the restaurant right next to the aquarium, but it turned out to be a bar and was age-restricted. We were stuck eating at ~~the casino grease pit~~ Johnny Rockets, instead. The mermaid tank itself was quite amazing, though, and even Luke enjoyed it. He stared open-mouthed at the giant sting rays "flying" up and down the tank. Granted, he stares open-mouthed at a lot of things.

Kate loves mermaids.

Later, Claire decided she needed to be cleaner than she usually is, and dumped approximately 3/4 of a bottle of Huggies soap into the tub before Tim caught her. I've never seen so many bubbles. She calls this her "bubble crown".

We spent Monday talking up Circus! Circus! and all the rides we would go on the next day. It even worked to keep them from misbehaving. For about an hour. I expected totally rundown facilities, gum stuck to inappropriate surfaces, screaming toddlers, and long lines. Besides the gum (which I had the distinction of accidentally sitting in)(BTW, does anyone know a good way to get gum out of your favorite pair of shorts?), everything else was pretty good. Since we went on a Tuesday, the lines were virtually non-existent, and our children even behaved well.

Kate has been talking about going on roller coasters for more than a year. Once she saw an actual for-real roller coaster, however, she fell silent. We asked her if she wanted to go on any, and she silently shook her head in a rather emphatic "no". We did manage to take them on a hot air balloon ferris wheel-type thing (twice), Tim and I each got to take Kate on the bumper cars (which she and we LOVED), Kate rode one of those airplane rides where you get to "fly" your own airplane and the planes and helicopters go up and down at the whim of the kids "flying" them (Kate didn't realize her airplane could actually rise up off the ground, but she loved it anyway, and even spent time shooting down the guy in front of her, much to her proud Daddy's delight), I took the girls on this school bus ride that was sort of like a ferris wheel on a lot of caffeine (Claire was so scared she was shaking, but she didn't cry or even utter a word of protest while we were on it), Tim and Kate rode the mini-Himalayan ride (which she thought was great until they hit the first "hill" and I saw her face go from big smile to slightly freaked out), and Tim and the girls rode the carousel twice (Claire chose to ride on the bench both times, waving gleefully at me each time she went around, and Kate picked the only horse with roses on its saddle: "I love the one with flowers and jewels, Mommy! It had yellow roses on its back!"). So, Adventuredome: success!

Roller coaster!

Luke enjoyed all the lights and sounds, and even napped for a bit.

Kate, aka the Red Baron.

Enjoying a sugary snack while I rode the big roller coaster.

Not! Yet!

2009-09-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

19lbs of chub.

This bundle of joy is 5 months old today. Time is going too quickly! My baby is growing up too fast! Soon he'll be telling me he's not a baby anymore. GAH.

Luke is sleeping well, eating well, and socializing well. He loves television (third child) and chewing on things. He wakes up happy every morning, babbling to his mobile or his stuffed animals. He spins himself around in his crib, rarely waking up in the same position he went to sleep in. He can drool like nobody's business. He adores his big sisters, who in turn adore him back. He wants so badly to walk or crawl or run. He wants to be in the center of it all, and hates it when we leave him in the living room in his saucer when we are in another room. He usually only gets one good nap a day, due to his sisters' activities, but he does all right with it. I would like for him to stay this age for *just* a bit longer.

Weight of the world: lifted!

2009-08-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

Aaaaah. That's me, exhaling, and feeling slightly giddy with the prospect of the girls both being on the same school schedule starting on Monday. [!!!!!] You guys are awesome. I had myself convinced, before I read the comments, that the Tuesday/Thursday morning classes were the only ones we could possibly do, but lo! Y'all changed my mind. And I thank you for it. You were, of course, right - three days a week is Much Better than two days a week. Now all I need is to find a decent (single!) jogging stroller. And a job to pay for it and the two young children in private pre-school. Seriously. Why are there no mother's-day-out programs in Las Vegas? Anyway, I am smiling for the first time in a week now that I know I don't have to drive to school every single day next week.

Kate was not amused by our decision to go to a teppanyaki restaurant instead of our local sushi bar last weekend. She heard us mention the term "Japanese food" and she was in heaven thinking of all the edamame she and Claire would soon be flinging at each other. Instead, she got a splattering of hot oil on her chest (luckily only a drop or two, but still), and was freaked out by the fiery onion volcano. Next time we'll stick closer to home. At least the girls enjoyed using their chopsticks; Claire is pretty darned good at using them, too.

Luke at nearly 5 months. I can't get enough of this guy.

Dilemma

2009-08-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

What was I thinking? The girls started school last week, and life is crazier as a result. Isn't school, at this age, supposed to ease my stress levels a bit? The problem is that they each go to school on different days, at different times. And although it's been just over a week, I am going [sing-song] cuck-oooo!

There are other options, but I am unsure which will be best. All involve switching Kate out of her class, a class where she knows a bunch of kids, and I have a high level of guilt over this. But I am telling myself that it will be for the better for EVERYONE if I am less stressed out every day. [This is where Tim will nod vigorously.]

So, please help me, dear readers. Claire is currently in the Tuesday/Thursday a.m. class, and Kate is in the Monday/Wednesday/Friday p.m. class. The options:

both girls in the Monday/Wednesday/Friday a.m. classes
both girls in the Tuesday/Thursday a.m. classes (means not switching Claire around at all, which I am actually not that concerned about, because I'm not a huge fan of her class at present)
both girls in the Tuesday/Thursday p.m. classes

Pros:

Morning classes would allow me to just throw on my running gear and go for a run with Luke (note to self: must get crap stroller fixed) before getting ready for the day. Of course, I could do this for the p.m. classes, too, when the weather cools down...
I am generally more productive in the mornings, and therefore morning classes would allow me to increase my a.m. productivity as I would only have one child with me on some days.
Tues/Thurs classes are a better value: when there is a holiday, it is usually on a Monday or a Friday, and you get charged for the whole month, regardless of whether there is class or not. Also, family days for the Air Force are usually on Mondays and Fridays, so the girls would be less likely to miss out on them, or we wouldn't have to have them play hookie.
Three days a week sounds really, really nice right about now.
Afternoon classes are easier all around for scheduling.
Morning classes allow Claire to have her nap in the afternoon.
Tim can occasionally drop the girls off for morning classes; not so for afternoon ones.

Cons:

Morning classes are hectic for drop-off and pick-up. School starts at 8:30, so we need to be out the door by about 8:15, and it ends at lunchtime. This means that by the time we get home, they are starving, but I usually have not yet made lunch. I could probably get into a schedule of making lunch before I pick them up and this would help on the pick-up end of things.
Afternoon classes mean no nap for either girl, and Claire still really needs one. She will rally through the afternoon if inspired, so if I do put her in the p.m. class, she won't fall asleep while there. She might, however, be grumpy.
Tues/Thurs mornings will cause us to miss out on the playgroup we are part of on Thursday mornings. This group is fun, with seasonal parties, and I would hate to have the girls miss out on such things.
The Mon/Wed/Fri class adds to the already outrageously expensive bill from the pre-school.
When Tim is on nights (granted, this doesn't happen that often), he pretty much misses out on time with the girls that day if they are in the a.m. class.

I am totally stuck. I keep thinking: "Oh! Yes, that's the one we'll sign up for!" And then I think of a reason that it won't be so great. All I know is, something has to change, or I will have completely lost my mind by the time fall comes around.

8 years

2009-08-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary, Tim! As a certain card says, "Once upon a time...happily ever after."

Pre-K

2009-08-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

Today is Kate's first day of pre-kindergarten. She waffled between being super excited about going and whining about not wanting to attend school this year. Once we arrived, she was giddy.

Reese, Claire and Kate. Claire starts school tomorrow.

Wasting time is so much fun

2009-08-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with some old photos...

Milford Sound, New Zealand.

Hong Kong.

Hong Kong.

Hong Kong skyline.

Great Wall.

Days of Our Lives

2009-08-17T21:06:00.001-07:00

It's been a lot less soap-opera-esque here than the title suggests, but it's kinda catchy, no?

The weekend was full of peeing on floors, bribery involving M&Ms, painting with acrylics (thanks to Elizabeth for the suggestion), and some swimming.

All my children enjoying some cartoons.

If this kangaroo punches me again, I'll hit him back.

Also, I ran a whole 7.7 miles last week. Sixteen weeks and counting until my first half-marathon.

And, today Claire told me approximately 24 times that she had to pee on the potty. She might actually gain weight from all the M&Ms she's getting. She refuses to poo on the potty, but it's all in good time.

Shopping trip success!

2009-08-12T14:43:00.001-07:00

I know it probably sounds like a simple thing: going to the commissary for our weekly grocery shopping. Add triple digit temperatures, and three children under the age of four, however, and voila! Potential craziness. But! We survived. No major incidents, no diaper malfunctions, no hysterical crying. There was even a lady we were following (so her children said) who used my children as an example for hers on how to behave! I had to wear Luke in the bjorn, and put the girls in the airplane cart. They didn't even fight much, which is more than I can say for most afternoons around here lately.

Luke is super crabby today; he has a cold and I don't know what all hurts him, but know he is sick because the rest of us have had it and his nose is runny. He slept for 12 hours last night, though, so maybe that will help him get over it soon. Last night was the first night that I didn't wake him up between 10-11pm to feed him one last time. I fed him at 8pm, and he didn't wake up until after 8am this morning.

He hates rice cereal. I have only given it to him about 3 times, but he purses his lips in a surprisingly effective effort to keep the spoon out of his mouth, and spits out most of what I get in there.

We are struggling with potty training. Claire starts school next week and is supposed to be potty-trained before she attends pre-school. Last week I took her to Target so she could pick out her own potty treats (she chose M&Ms and Midnight Milky Way bars), and she peed twice that day on the toilet! Since then: fail. She doesn't even want to try. And when you tell her she has to pee on the toilet at school she will tell you that she doesn't want to go. Tim put her in undies last night when he got home, and I think she peed in 2 pairs before bed. I keep waiting for time when we have less going on so that I can stay on top of the situation and put her on the toilet every 30 minutes, but that time never seems to happen.

Kate is 40% to a prize. I promised her a new toy when she could stay dry for 10 nights (not consecutive). I wish I knew how to help her over this hurdle. I know she is capable of staying dry, but it happens so rarely.

Running is going so slowly. I hyper-extended my knee slightly when Tim's family was here, and it still hurts. But it only hurts when I'm walking or standing - running doesn't seem to bother it. Running does bother my lungs, though - it is taking me a longer time than ever before to get back into shape. I am now up to 2 miles, and am hopeful that this weekend my "long run" will be closer to 3 miles than to two.

Stats and cereal

2009-08-08T16:35:00.001-07:00

Luke is already 4 months old. FOUR MONTHS. Wasn't he just born? I do not know how time is passing so quickly, but I would like for it to slow down a little. Except for the witching hours - those can speed up any time now.

At his well-baby check, we learned that he is heavy. And tall. Specifically, he weighs 18lbs 3oz (95%), and is 26" (75-90%). His noggin is proportionate to his height, at 43cm (75%). The good doctor recommended we start on some rice cereal, which I was all too happy to comply with after Luke started waking up in the middle of the night again last week and consuming an additional meal. Today we had some rice cereal. We didn't care too much for it.

Dropped off the face of the blogosphere

2009-08-08T14:52:00.001-07:00

Tim got back two weeks ago, and we've been non-stop busy ever since. He was home for about 24 hours before the Oregon contingent of his family showed up (a surprise to him) for his 40th birthday.

Bekah holds Luke.

Our first family trip to the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. It was 110* outside, but we took the obligatory photos and then moved on to the Bellagio.

Tim's birthday celebration (and Buji's and Tom's, for that matter) started at Battista's for dinner.

And ended at Mandalay Bay's Foundation Room.

Then there was the surprise birthday party the next afternoon...

Tim held up well through all the surprises, especially given the fact that he had four flights in a row the week after he got back, one of which was a checkride. Thanks to all who came to the party, to the 12 family members who drove 20 hours each way in a crowded 15-passenger van, and Happy 40th Birthday, Tim!

Tidbits

2009-07-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

We went to Cici's Pizza last night for a buffet dinner. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Cici's dining experience, it can only be explained as an affront to Italian epicureans everywhere. The girls loved it. Claire ate approximately 4 pieces of pizza (four!), plus a brownie. Her favorite was the macaroni and cheese pizza. You should have seen the look on her face when she figured out she could have two of her favorite meals put together into one entree. Kate also made several trips to the endless buffet. Not bad considering I didn't have to pay for either of them (children 3 and under ate for free). The girl behind the register might have raised an eyebrow when I told her the children were under 4 years old. Kate's 43" might have something to do with that.

Luke laughed today. Is there anything better than baby giggles? Love.

He is also arching his back so that he almost rolls over to his belly. This I do not love. He needs to stay immobile longer! He almost worked his way out of the bouncy chair the other day, and he is not in the same position when I get him up from his naps. Time to use the seat belt functions on all baby contraptions now. Damn.

Claire has had a cold for the past week that has made her voice hoarse. She sounds like she's been smoking a pack a day since she was born. It's so sad, but so cute.

Kate has told me several times over the past few days that she has "beautiful blonde hair", which she "loves". Vanity starts early in this household.

Also, she told me today that she needs to "follow her heart". I had to ask her to repeat herself, as I wasn't sure I had heard her correctly. She looked at me in all seriousness and said, "like in Cinderella, Mom." Perhaps it's time to lay off the Disney fairytales.