'Tis the season

The last of the birthday parties for BabyP was today. I wanted to have one with just close friends because well... I wanted to have close friends over, eat cake, and have some sort of theme. I have been eyeing these dinosaurs from Oriental Trading Company, so we had a dinosaur themed party.

I made a birthday cake with chocolate frosting. I did a layered cake with raspberry sauce between the layers. For the kids, I did mini cupcakes with chocolate icing and a strawberry. BabyP had a giant cupcake that I split in half to put strawberries and icing into the middle of it. He loved it. He tore it up. It was exciting for me because his sister didn't really get to into her cake. I guess after have three cakes, he has perfect the art of being a mess. He was really great about it all. I figured he would be angry because he stayed in his highchair so long eating his dinner.

We also fixed BabyP's bedroom. He slept in it last night and slept through the night. Peanut was with mom last night, which is why we were able to get so much done. When she got home she was so excited to see her new room. She was going on and on about how much she liked it. "It is so beautiful, I LOVE it" She said her brother's new room was "adorable." Seriously, my three year old said adorable?

I have to say, beside babyP eating his cake the highlight for me was the baby toe sucker.

I think he has a bit of a toe fetish. This wasn't the first time he went after her toes. He was even eating my father's shoe/feet.

One year Check-Up

The stats are 23 lb and 32.25 inches long. That makes him 75% in weight and still off the charts for height. His head is 18.5 inch around. (they always do the head so quickly that i don't understand how they get a good reading). He is 2.5 inches taller and 1 pound heavier than his sister was at the same age.

Baby P talked the whole time we were in the room. When Dr. Lu walked in he remarked that obviously he was vocalizing okay. I told him that we did have some words, which really surprised me. He went from not vocalizing at all to saying some words.

Did I tell you that I think baby P might be saying my name? When he seems me he says LaLa. He also sometimes calls LALA really loud when I am not in the room. Who knows! He is a funny old gus.

We are in a vaccine trial. We lucked out and were put in the control group so we don't have to take any additional shots. HURRAY!! He will still have to do blood draws, but that is fine. It is all worth it for science. I love the idea of studies like this. It makes me feel like I am part of something much bigger than myself.

Hannah Ma - tanna

Peanut has her first girl crush. It is Hanna Montana not Miley Cyrus. She thinks that the two girls are different. She rushes through dinner, takes her bath (she draws it herself) and instantly starts asking if she can watch "hannah ma-tanna". She then talks to the screen and tells Hannah how funny she is.

She talks on the phone to Hannah Ma-tanna in the backseat of the car. She puts her hand to her ear and says "what is your daddy's name? I can't come over today" and all sorts of things like that. She cracks me up.

She is also in love in the Jonas brothers. She says "those are my jonas".

It is funny to see a three year old go through this.

All fulled up

As I was loading the stroller today, i realized that I had no more room IN THE MINI VAN. Seriously, how does one fill up a mini van. Evidently one does it by having a gigantic stroller, a not so gigantic stroller, a internal frame backpack and a whole house hold of moving boxes.

I love the long weekends. I want to quit my job and have Mr. T. quit his job so we can stay home and work on the house, exercise, and play with kids. Even though it rained most of the weekend, I had a nice time just doing stuff.

Even if I was just a little bitty tiny bit hung over today. (Dam those presbyterians and their free flowing wine).

I started cleaning out stuff. I love to throw things away and get rid of things. Mom gave me a bunch of pictures that I went through. I threw out most of them. I simply do not need pictures of people that I went to high school with that I
a. don't like
b. don't care about
c. don't know where they are.
Now that I have written that, it sounds mean, but really there were a lot of pictures.

I am preparing the office and the spare bedroom for the big transition. I think I am going to put babyP in Peanut's room for a short time to see how that works. There are so many projects that we "need" to do in this house that setting a new bedroom might need to take a backseat for a while.

I just crave some sleep.

At least we know he is saying momma

We went to church today because we thought (and where wrong for the second time) it was/is Flash's last day in the pulpit. It was sad and good. I left feeling very good moving forward.

But this post isn't about a 70 year old soon to be retired preacher and his potential tears. Nope. This post is about a 1 year old and his tears. That little boy was in the nursery with Miss Quinn crying the whole time. I felt so bad for her and him. She said he would get himself together then say momma and start crying again. Sister tried to help, but he would just push her away.

At least I know he is saying momma.

Poor Quinn.

Poor Bear.


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I want him out of my room. I want to be able to lay on my bed and watch TV. I want to be able to get into my room when he is napping. I want my room back.

The problem is how? There is a lot of moving that needs to go on before sister can be moved into the office. So, I might try moving him into his sister's room until we get our office cleaned out and moved down to the spare room.

BabyP still isn't sleep through the night, so we will have to see how it all works out. I have a feeling that I will be moving him back into our room. It is worth a try though.
The work never ends.

Life Changing

So, I have been trying to get back to some of my old ways of using less and reusing more. It is hard to do with kids. It is hard to do when you have a new house....

so... We have started composting again. Mr. T. built the composter last night. I will be glad to put it to good use. It will especially make me happy come fall when I put it in my new vegetable beds. I think this summer I am slowly going to assemble a new veggie spot that will work with our new landscaping.

So I am trying to be more cognizant of what I use. We have a crappy recycling system here in the "village". We have to haul our stuff someplace to really have it recycled. We do it, but it is a real hassle. The plastic bags from the grocery store are out of control. I really try to bring reusable bags. For our big shop, I remember. What gets me is stopping in for just a couple of things. I never remember until I am at the checkout line and there is NO WAY I am leaving that line and my stuff to haul my kids out to the van for a bag. I think I might buy two of those bags that roll up really tight and stick them in my purse for such occasions.

I have also been trying to buy from local farmers more often. This system works great for me because I don't have to beat the crowds to show up early at the farmer's market. I like to bike on Saturday mornings so by the time I get to the Arkansas only farmer's market, they are about out of stuff. I think the prices are really reasonable except for the chicken, which is 3 times the store bought price. I am doing more vegetarian menus but it is hard because we don't eat a lot of dairy. Substantial vegetarian is hard to do without it. We are substantial meal kind of people.

I know there are more things I can do to reduce my impact. As they come up, we will be implementing more changes. One of the more obscure ones is that I have started washing my hair every other day. I figure I can save about half the shampoo that way. I can't really take credit for it because I heard about it on NPR, but it struck me as a pretty good idea.

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Another life changer is that I might be going back full time by no choice of my own. I am still holding out hope that we can come to some agreement.

I realize that I am very blessed to work a reduced week while my children are small. There are many women who can't do that. I feel like if I go back full time, something else is going to give. I really like where I am right now. I feel like I have a good balance. Isn't that what it is all about? Balance?

I am stressed out. I wake up and can't get back to sleep at night. I am grinding my teeth. I can't focus as work. It is hard for me to exercise. I feel all tense with my shoulders up over my ears. Mr T. thinks I am being too dramatic, but I don't think he realizes how much this means to me.

I have a whole other lists of worries but I can't get into them on the blog but they include my bad attitude and big mouth.

(And as a side note to commenters, my boss reads this blog, and it isn't her fault. She has my back and has been wonderfully supportive through this last month of messiness.)

Full of Fire

It is funny when I hear people talk about what boys do and what girls do because none of those things that are stereotypical girl really happen with Peanut. When say stereotypical girl, I mean being calm, not getting dirty, not getting into things and not climbing on things. As with most stereotypes, there is probably a reason why it exists.

At Peanut's recital tonight, it really hit home for me. She is different than other kids. She is rowdy and entertaining.

Below is her recital. It is a long clip (about 8 minutes), so if you watch it, you might want to let it run first on your computer then watch it on the replay after it has already run. Peanut is the second little girl to enter the stage. She is also the little girl in the front and middle most of the time. She is also the little girl who sits down. She is also the little girl who wonders off to the back of the stage and starts messing with the flowers.

She has good moves though. I am really proud of her for that and for being so entertaining.

Love Letter to a One Year Old

Dear BabyP

You turned one a couple of days ago. And in inexpensive modern style, you celebrated it in Ikea. Now some people may think it wasn't a very thoughtful way to spend your first birthday, but those people are wrong. At Ikea we bought two more of your favorite dogs that your sister calls raz-berri. You also got to munch on noodles and broccoli, two of your favorites. We gave you two different kinds of cake. You seemed to enjoy the chocolate pudding one, but you were easily distracted by trying to wipe your mat clean with a paper towel.

You are getting closer to walking. You are almost there, but you don't have the confidence to keep going. You have been sick the last couple of days so instead of walking you have been sitting on my lap with your head on my breasts. Or you have been throwing your gummy hands around my neck and pushing your face against me and saying hmmm before putting your head on my shoulders. You are a sweet sweet boy.

You are maybe talking a bit too. I think you might be saying momma, daisy, dada, hi, and bye bye. You were also copying me saying uh-oh in the grocery store yesterday. It is hard for me to tell if you are really saying these things or not. I know that I hear them, but I can't really judge your intention. You crawl toward me and say "momma" but do you do that to other people? I know you say dada a lot, but do you do it because you want your father or his attention? To me, it is one of those, "why ask why". Since it is impossible for me to know, I am just going with the assumption that you are brilliant and you mean to say all these things and more that we just don't understand yet.

I don't like leaving you. I don't remember this with your sister. I think the fact that I hate it so much has a lot to do with your sister. Even when I am with you, my attention is divided between you, your sister, and some other factor like dinner or bath or driving. Sometimes, I have to stop myself to really drink you in. I want to savor you.

Here are the things I always want to remember about you right now.

• You are all smiles with big eyes and cheeks.
• Your hair is just a little wispy to the point that soon it will need to be cut.
• You get really mad when you don't get your way, but then you get over it.
  
• Your breath is hot and you always try to bite my face.
• You give big hugs and say hmmmm when hugging.
• You love the dog.
• You love your sister.
• You are a good little traveler.
  

You are my little bitty angel. I tell people you are like sugar.

This first birthday has been both happy and sad for me. Sad because I know that was it. That was all the babies I am ever going to have. Even though I don't want another child, I have enjoyed your babyhood so much that I would keep you small longer if I could. It is also joyful for me because I am so excited about the child you have become. All of the worry of childbirth, getting pregnant, crib death, and absolutely not knowing if you are fine or not is all gone. You are a toddler now, and I just have to worry about you killing yourself. That doesn't sound like a feeling of relief, but it is. From here on out, I just have to teach you to not need me. I hope it works.

And I hope it doesn't.

I love you my sweet boy. Your more precious than gold.

Your mum.

Small Family Get Together

We had the second of BabyP's birthday celebrations tonight. My mom brought over dinner and I made this cake.

It has no process sugar in the cake itself. It does have carmalized sweetened condensed milk on it, so we didn't get away from sugar completely. I have given BabyP icing before and he didn't seem to be too big of a fan. He hasn't really "gotten" sugar yet. I am sure his time is coming though.

Here are a few pics.

This was my favorite. The bits of stuff is apple.

He was really into the icing part. He dug around a little in the cake but mostly the icing took the show.

His party will be dinosaur themed. Hence, the dinosaur candle.

Happy kids.

Took BabyP to the doctor this morning because he still had a fever at 6 this morning. Of course, when he woke up at 830 he didn't have one. He didn't have one at the doctor either. He wasn't feeling well today, but hopefully the worst has passed.

Yankee Noodle Dandy

My Uncle sang Yankee Doodle dandy to my uncle. However, someone who is much smaller than he didn't quite understand what he was saying. Her she is singing her version of it while on the teeter totter at the beach.



And here is our special boy doing his birthday strut. Mr. T. said he took 13 consecutive steps at the park on his own without any coaxing. I see him trying to walk on his own more and more. For a while he has only been walking a couple of steps to get to me. Hopefully he feels good enough to practice this new trick and we can be done with this crawling stuff by the end of the month.



And just so you know. This dude is famous.

Home Again

We are HOME. I have mixed emotions about it. I am tired, but I still want to be playing. I don't want to return to work. Sigh...

BabyP spent his birthday at the park with dad and sister. He spent the evening (after my class) at Ikea where he got to eat noodles and broccoli (his favorite) and some cake. He wasn't too interested in the cake as much as he was interested in wiping the cake off of his mat with a napkin. He can be so naughty sometimes. We wanted to pick up a particular animal that we call razberry for him. He has grown attached to the one he has, and I wanted backups.

On Friday I got out of school early so we did a little shopping. We made it to the Audobon Center for a nice walk through the woods. That evening we went to the Oregon State Rally. You might notice the billions of pictures of cars on our flickr site. You never guess who had control of the camera. The kids were wiped from a long day so Mr. T. took us back to the hotel. He went back to the race while the kids and I prepped for the long ride home. I don't think i have to tell you there was a lot of being really excited to see SO MANY SUBARUS IN ONE PLACE OMG!

Both kids were wonderful on the plane ride. Peanut had to pee 3 times in the 4 hours we were on the plane. I think that had to do with all of the juice her father was giving her. BabyP had a fever on the ride home. It seems to be better now but is still noticeable. I am going to take him to the MD tomorrow if it doesn't break. I get a little worried when he has a fever because he has only had one other one that I can remember.

So we are home and our house is clean. (THANKS MOM). Both kids were asleep by 8, which is crazy because they have been going to sleep at 9 pacific time. I guess it has just caught up with them both. Wouldn't it be great if they both slept until 7 tomorrow.

I am not counting on it.

I will try to post some pictures tomorrow.

A quick update

Mr. T. is down running the laundry. I am trying to put the kids to sleep. It is 915, and they are both only now falling asleep. I can't blame them, really. We didn't get back to the hotel until about 8:30. Schedules all go to hell with traveling. We are going to be so messed up when we get back. My kids are going to bed late for west coast time. I can't even imagine what they are going to be like when we get home. On the up side, they are sleeping much later, which is great.

The plane ride here was better than expected. Well, once we got on a plane it was better than expected. Our first flight was canceled so we arrived in Seattle about 6 hours after we were originally going to land. Baby P slept on the Chicago leg and the Seattle leg. Peanut was tuned into the DVD player for both legs. Unfortunately, about half into the Seattle leg the player stopped. I was wise enough to buy a player that could only be recharged by cord, so we were left DVD less. She did fine enough. She was antsy at the end and had a slight breakdown.

On the Seattle leg we were surrounded by this rock band called "Three inches of Blood". They had just toured with some bigger band and were on their way back to Canada. They were polite in the way that Canadians are. When they seemed too irritated with my kids yelling or kicking the seat in front of them, I handed out freeze dried pineapples. I knew there was no way anyone could stay mad after that.

The best thing I brought for the plane ride was pipe cleaners. They made a great toy for both peanut and babyP. I also brought finder puppets and stickers. Baby P enjoyed peeling the stickers off of cups and things while Peanut worked on putting them in her coloring book.

We had a wonderful visit with my aunt and uncle in Anacortes. They live in a really special area just south of the Canadian border. My aunt and uncle were very accommodating of my crazy crew. We overflowed their toilet, threw up on the carpet, and managed to smear poo into the rug in the bathroom. They just went with the flow taking care of us, feeding us, and showing us around. The good thing about having small kids is that you are forced to take a break in the middle of the day and nap. I am sure they appreciated it.

We had a quick stop in Seattle to see my tallish cousin. She took us to some of the busiest locks in the nation. It was amazing to me because people were everywhere. They were walking over the gates for the lock freely. They were taking pictures and peering into the lock chambers while boats were locking through. After watching the yachts lock through, we walked across the dam, eye level with the spillways to see the fish ladder. For security reasons, this would never be tolerated in Arkansas. We also did a quick tour through Pikes Place market. We saw them throw fish, and we saw the original "chocolate milk store."

We were also able to catch up with two families who used to leave near us. One friend lives right on the river. It was so great to sit and watch the rain come down on the Willamette River. What luxury! (oh and seeing him and his wife after 7 years wasn't so bad either, but did I mention the river)

My girl likes to do two things

She likes to read

and she likes to watch TV

I am about to take a plane ride with the two kids. I think it will be interesting. It will either go really well or be a total disaster. If Peanut doesn't nap and the TV quits on us, I am in for a world of hurt.

We had the interior designer over today to present her ideas for our living room. I really like her. Her ideas kind of what we were thinking but really cool. We are going for a contemporary space. The walls and curtains will be very pale with lots of color in the artwork, couch, and rug. She even suggested a chair. I would never have thought of a chair in there. We are going to end up repainting the kitchen, which is fine. I don't particularly want to repaint the hallways, but I think we are going to have to, eventually.

Here is the colors and an idea of the abstract natural pattern we will be working with

Seeing all these great ideas made me want to change our backsplash in our kitchen to something more fun. Oh well. There is always next year after we finish the living room and work on the bathrooms. and the playroom. and the office. and peanut's room. And painting our room again.

Seven Years Ago

Seven Years ago it was raining. It was hot. I couldn't rouse my bridesmaids to get up and help me decorate or put the flower arrangements together.

I had a breakdown.

And then I saw my fiance, my mom, susan sims and my mother in law. They told me I didn't have to help get the reception ready.

It never occured to me that I didn't need to help.
That I didn't need to be in control of it.

So I went home and got ready.

And I was late to Knoop Park. I thought Mr. T. was already there because our car was there.

It wasn't our car. It was our photographers. I guess that makes two blue Honda Accord Wagon's with Bike Racks in Little Rock. I wish I hadn't of thrown my stuff all over it.

It quit raining.

My God Son and my dog went down the aisle before I did. Our friends went down next. Then me and my dad. My dad and I started out on the wrong side and had to switch so he could give me away.

My dad was crying.
My mom was crying.

I was crying and couldn't get the words out for our vows. Mr. T. told me. "Just say it!"

We somehow had a parade back to the reception. My father in law played the bagpipes. My wedding was kilted. Two little kids were up in the bushes yelling "I see her. I see the bride."

I can see Peanut doing that now.

Mr. T. told me that I looked like an angel coming down the aisle because the sun came out behind me. I beleive him.

It was sunny and humid and hot. We couldn't figure out how to turn the air conditioner on in the building. It was the best day of my life.

This all happened seven years ago.

And I am happy.

Ahoy me hearties!

me: Do you want to put something else on besides your pirate outfit?
Peanut: Why?

She has been wearing her pirate outfit all day. To go to the restroom, she has to take it completely off. (it is one piece).

She wore it to the museum and to Bath Junkie. One of the clerks asked me. "Why is she wearing a pirate outfit?" I looked at her with my brows furrowed... then said. "because she is 3 and she can." I mean really... how long is she going to be allowed to wear something like that and people not think she is looney. She needs to take advantage of it while she can. (Rolls eyes at clerk who thinks she is ssssssssoooooooooo coooooooollllllllll)