The Wallace Pack

New Blog!

2011-09-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

I've (pretty much) set up the new blog. From now on my posts will be made at www.thewallacepack.com. Don't forget to update your RSS or bookmark!

I have included a page with links to various picture, video and social media sites. I'll add more as I get around to finding them all...

Also I added a widget so that you can subscribe to the posts by email. Look for it on the right side of the page.

I will keep this page up for a few months and then delete it. All of the posts on here will already be on the new site, don't worry!

Sean's Turn for the Tooth Fairy

2011-09-12T21:17:00.000-07:00

He's obviously nonchalant.

After a long hard fight, Sean's first tooth fell out last night. Rich went to give it a tug with a napkin right before bed, and Sean pulled back and started a retreat, but it was too late. Rich had the little tooth and Sean didn't even notice that it was gone. Sean's response after Rich showed it to him (when he finally stopped jumping up and down while shrieking) was to say "YEAH BABY!" He was very excited this morning when he got his loot from the tooth fairy.

From my Facebook today:

Sean says "Daddy, what's your favorite color?" Daddy says "I like red and blue equally." After a brief pause Sean says "OK, so you like purple?" He's a funny little guy.

He's been full of little quirks lately. Last week we had spaghetti for dinner one night. We were halfway done and Sean just smashed his face down into the plate of spaghetti. He kept it there for a couple seconds while I picked my jaw up off of the floor. Finally I told him to get his face off of his plate and go wash it off. I somehow managed to keep a straight face until he left the room. Of course he doesn't know why he did it.

I'm trying to transfer this blog over to another account but I'm having problems with blogger uploading my old blog. In any case, I'm going to redesign it and I'm going to try to do a weekly recap type thing so as to better keep up on here. I'll keep you guys updated if the blog address changes.

Picture Time

2011-08-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

Sean in Daddy's Office

Quin playing with his dinosaur.

Evie at the Zoo on Ryan's 2nd Grade Field Trip

Sean and Evie at the Zoo on Ryan's 2nd Grade Field Trip.

Evie's 3rd Birthday Party - Tangled Cake

Camping 2011 - Catching Crawdads in the Creek.

Camping 2011 - Evie's Perpetually Dirty Face.

Camping 2011 - Sean and Evie Mugging for the Camera.

Summer 2011 - Evie and Ryan Running Around Like Maniacs. Notice Ryan's "Bald on Top" Haircut...

Brushing Teeth Getting Ready For School - August 10, 2011

Ryan - August 10, 2011 - 3rd Grade

Sean - August 10, 2011 - Kindergarten

Evie - August 10, 2011 - Preschool

Ryan, Sean and Evie - First Day of School 2011

Sean & Ryan walking to the bus stop, first day of school 2011.

Sean at School - First Day of Kindergarten

Evie in her Preschool Classroom - First Day of School 2011

End of Summer 2011

2011-08-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

What an exciting summer we had this year! We had camping, cooking days, craft days, lots of library days, movie days, and game days. The kids all played together well (for the most part), everyone had a ball in their swimming classes, too. Ryan graduated to Level 5 for next year, which is the highest level the swim lessons go to, Sean will be in Level 3 next year and Evie is an Otter. Quin loved his swim lessons too, and although he was usually one of the youngest in his class and can't even really walk yet he was an expert at climbing out of the pool at the edge. I had other parents with older babies ogle us when he just shimmied his little tush out of the pool like it was no big deal while their kids were flopping around getting nowhere.

We had a great time when Grandma Hoppe, Aunt Heather and "Uncle" Tyler came to visit. The kids loved the extra attention and extra energy they provided! They still talk about them all the time. Evie saw a shirt in my closet the other day and said "Hey, that's Uncle Tyler's shirt." I said "No, it's mine." She said "NO. It's his." She simply wouldn't believe me. It was a tie dye shirt I had picked up a couple weeks back. Apparently tie dye will always be associated with Tyler now (I suppose because he wore tie dye about every other day while he was here...)

We have had some monster monsoon dust storms, some really good monsoon rainstorms and loads and loads of scorpions in the house. Quin has been stung twice, once on his foot in the master bath (with a trip to the ER after) and once in his crib while he was sleeping at night (no ER needed, thankfully). We've done everything we can to keep them out, from sealing the cracks in the house and surrounding the house with diatomaceous earth, to getting a new monthly pest control service and putting the legs of his crib in glass containers. I suppose we will have to just hope the cooler weather gets here soon so they will start to hibernate. Maybe we should get a cat. I hear they like to eat the scorpions.

Quin is making great strides toward becoming a toddler. He's off the binky and the bottle. He recently has sprouted at least 3 new teeth (he's only had the bottom middle two since he was 6 months old). There might be more coming in but when we try to look he tends to try to crush our fingers with his new little chompers. Apparently he thinks we have no business sticking our fingers in his mouth. He also took his first steps the day before yesterday. Just a quick walk a couple of feet over to me, but he was so happy and excited that he did it. He's been pushing his little ride-on Cars car all over the house. He even pushes Evie around on it.

Miss Evie has taken to dancing for us a lot lately. She even sings her own music. It is terribly cute to watch, even if her dancing is interrupted by gales of her giggles between sets. She is positive that she is the funniest thing around! She is getting good at drawing pictures - you can actually identify the drawings as being of people now, not just a bunch of scribbles. But man, oh man can she make a mess. Between her and Sean the house gets wrecked in just a few minutes after I clean up. Fortunately there's a solution - school!

Sean. Oh Sean. That kid says the funniest things. I really need to start writing them down right away, because sometimes I swear I'm talking to a teenager when I talk with him. He really takes sarcasm well - although sometimes he can't tell if we are joking or not, he pretty much just assumes we are when we tell him something outlandish. If we are being serious we have to tell him several times that we really are serious, and even then he keeps a skeptical eye on us. Also he is very good at drawing conclusions and making observations. His logic skills impress me on a regular basis. He is going to really do great in school.

And lastly there's Ryan. He's still my sensitive little guy. When he's happy he's REALLY happy. Do you know how many times he's said "This is the Best. Day. EVER!"? Almost every day. Yet when something goes even the littlest bit wrong he's raining tears. Like today we were playing a round of miniature golf at the waterpark and his ball got stuck in a dragon head on one of the holes. The instant my ball came out and his hadn't come out yet, he got all anxious and the waterworks were coming. So I threw my ball back into the dragon head to try and knock his ball out, but that didn't work and he got even more upset. The whole time I was calm and telling him that we can just go and ask for a new ball if we can't get his out, but he didn't want to listen. Finally I bonked my putter around in the dragon head until I knocked his ball loose and he was instantly fine again. Ugh. And man, does that kid hold a grudge. But he really kicks my butt at racing games in the arcade! I don't stand a chance against him when he grows up. He also reads like there's no tomorrow. I told him that this last time we went to the library he could check out as many books as he wanted and he was jumping up and down and squealing as though I had told him he could have one scoop of every flavor of ice cream in the ice cream shop. He has become very helpful around the house as well. Not very willingly, but he's capable of doing so many different things now. It's neat seeing him evolve into such an independent young fellow.

The kids have been playing Cars 2 on the PS3 for half the summer. Ryan is getting dangerously close to being able to regularly beat Rich at that game. It's crazy how good he is at it. It's not like the kids get to play it all day long - they get to play maybe once or twice a week for a half hour to an hour. Ryan sometimes also plays after Sean and Evie go to bed, too. But they are all very good at it. I, however, struggle with the game. It requires you to push the gas button, steer, jump around and shoot lasers and whatnot, etc, and I just can't control that many movements with my fingers at the same time. Rich says it's painful for him to watch me play. I truly suck at it. Ah well.

Today was the End of the Summer Super Happy Do Fun Stuff Day. We had the kids' back to school breakfast at IHOP, went shoe shopping for new tennies for the kiddos, had lunch at Chick-fil-a, and then I took Ryan to the waterpark while Rich took Sean and Evie to Makutu's Island to play. Ryan was extremely excited to go to the waterpark, he's been asking all summer to go there and we kept saying no since his siblings are really too young to be able to have much fun there yet, but I thought it would be a nice treat to take him alone. We rode on every single water slide (he did a some a couple times). I even dragged the outrageously large and heavy 4 person rafts up 6 flights of stairs by myself so we could go on the really big rides. It was extremely tiring and at the same time wonderfully awesome. My knees are going to be screaming tomorrow, though. Evie, Sean and Daddy had a great time at Makutu's as well. Rich followed Evie around all the tubes and everyone went down the banana slide about a billion times from what I hear. Rich says the kids had giant smiles plastered all over their faces the whole time. When I got home from the waterpark with Ryan, I went in to kiss Evie good night. I asked her if she had a good time at Makutu's and she said "Yeah, well not really." Drama Queen.

Tomorrow three out of my four kids will be attending school. Ryan will be a third grader, Sean in kindergarten and Evie in preschool. We are going to drop the boys off at the bus stop and then drive over to their school so we can escort Sean to Kindergarten. It's important that he knows how to ride the bus and that he rides the first day, but we want to help him to his class and see his excitement about it, too! Ryan is cool as a cucumber - this whole "back to school" thing is so no big deal to him. So after we make sure Sean is safe and sound in K we'll take Evie to her preschool class. That should prove to be very exciting as well!

We have survived another summer.

Evie's Birthday

2011-06-04T21:54:00.000-07:00

We had Evie's 3rd Birthday party this afternoon. Only one cousin came - others were sick or had prior engagements, but Evie had a good time with her pool party nonetheless. I was disappointed that the play kitchen I ordered her didn't arrive in time for her party, but they promise it will be here before we leave for camping. Wouldn't it just be a kicker if it is delivered the day before we leave and the poor thing won't get to play with it until we get back?

The first full week of summer vacation has gone well. I've made a schedule for the kids so they have something to look forward to every day - Monday is crafts, Tuesday is cooking, Wednesday is movie day, Thursday is game day and Friday is library day. So far it has been a big hit, although they saw the craft things that I bought and they want to do all the crafts ASAP. I guess patience will be one of the lessons they learn this summer.

We've also started swimming lessons again. I should have enrolled Ryan in the next level up from what I did - he's a great swimmer already and he's bored to death in his class. Sean is making great strides in his class. Evie is stuck in a parent-tot class because her birthday was one day after the cutoff for the class for her to swim without a parent, and she would rather play around than do the baby stuff in the parent-tot class. However Quin thinks the parent-tot class is super-totally-awesome. He absolutely loves it.

I haven't been feeling too creative lately. It's hard to think of anything to blog about. I have the urge to write - not only on the blog but to just write in general for my own amusement, however nothing comes. No ideas. Nothing that seems worth putting the time into, anyway. Part of the problem is lack of quiet thinking time as well, I think. Par for the course with having 4 young kids in the house, naturally. Meh.

Another Last Day of School...

2011-05-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today was Ryan's last day of Second Grade. Next year he will be a 3rd Grader. Whaaaaa? Almost halfway through grade school already?

So next year Ryan will be 3rd Grade, Sean will be a Kindergardener and Evie is going into Preschool 3 days a week. Amazing.

Ryan got all A's all year long. It was close in Math this last quarter, though. He pulled it off with a 90. We went out to Olive Garden for his celebratory dinner.

This week Rich finished up making a bike ramp for the boys. Just a simple little jump ramp. Ryan and Sean were all over it the past few days. This evening, however, we had our first wipeout. Ryan went off the ramp, landed wobbly and crashed hard. He scraped up an elbow and smashed up his knuckles. I patched him up (poor guy was wailing the whole time) and we went back outside. Then he said that today was "The worst last day of school ever!"

He continued wailing until we found a toad (the same one that attacked me in the garage last night, I think) in the dirt next to our fence. That kept him busy for a couple of minutes, but once the interest in that waned he continued the crying spree. He was very angry, he even decided he didn't want to go with us when we went for a run/bike ride tonight. He's still sulking even now. I'm wondering how long he will avoid his bike and the ramp.

My oh May

2011-04-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

Next month is going to be so busy. Rich will be in San Francisco for a week (boooo!), Aunts Kris & Dee will be visiting for a week (yay!), then I get to go on my solo R & R vacation in San Diego for a few days (don't wake me until noon). A few days after I get back will be Ryan's last day of school. I'm not sure what happened there - I could swear we just went to 2nd grade Open House and now all of a sudden it's the end of the year. Must've been a time warp or something.

We've started letting Ryan stay up an hour later than the other kids. He was absolutely floored with happiness when I told him that we would let him have a later bedtime. The others weren't so happy, but they'll have their turns soon enough. Rich got a new game - Portal 2 for the PS3, and Ryan has been having a great time playing that after the others go to bed. Sean is very jealous - he likes to watch when Rich and Ryan play games - but he's stuck in bed. Poor little guy.

Quin just had his 9 month old well visit with the pediatrician. He's in th 75th percentile for height, 25th for weight. Which is weird since when it's meal time he eats like it's going out of style. Evie was the same way, tall and skinny. I suppose that's a good thing, although Quin doesn't look as skinny as Evie did. Anyway, he's healthy as a horse. He pulls himself up to standing whenever possible and is slowly starting to cruise around using the furniture. Since I weaned him he's finally started to sleep through the night, but he still likes to wake up early - sometimes 5, sometimes 6am. At least we're making progress and I'm finally getting some solid sleep again!

Duke is doing great. He's still quite skittish in situations that he's unfamiliar with, but he's starting to get a hold on the rules. He and Evie are doing better - she's finally stopped shrieking and running every time he approaches her. She still freaks out at times when he jumps on her, but I can't really blame her for that.

We've had a heck of a time keeping ducks out of our pool. Those little fellas are quite persistent. Rich and the kids throw tennis balls at them whenever we notice them out there, but they keep coming back. We went looking for a deterrent at the pool store and the salesperson recommended a shotgun. Nice.

I took Quin into the pool for the first time today. The other kids and I were going to swim so I put Quin in his bouncy seat on the patio to watch. I managed to have a few minutes of swimming before Quin started complaining about his situation. Since I wasn't ready to get out of the pool I decided to see how Quin would react to being in the pool. At first he screamed his head off like I was submerging him in lava, but after a minute or two he calmed down, then after a few more minutes he was splashing around and kicking his legs while I held him. I'm glad he enjoyed it since I'm pretty sure we will be in that pool every day this summer.

The Dog

2011-04-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here's Duke:

He's a great dog so far. Evie's still not very sure of him - she screams and runs when he comes up to her to play - but overall the kids are doing great with him. He likes to chew up stuff (as every puppy should), but so far he has left the kids books in the library alone (which is great b/c I thought those would be a huge temptation). Rich bought a new back door, cut a hole and installed a dog door in it - which turned out great by the way. At first Duke refused to go through the dog door, but with some careful prodding and some nummy turkey bacon he has learned to use it. He's a little weird about it though, he hits it with his paw over and over again before he works up the courage to stick his nose through. That means we hear the dog door clacking clacking clacking clacking for however long it takes for the dumb dog to decide to go for it. But he's really the sweetest and most mild mannered puppy I've ever met! And I haven't had any problems with my allergies, either. Yay!

Is it April already?

2011-04-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, where did the time go? One minute we just got over the holiday season and now it's already 100 degrees outside here in the tierra de la hot as an oven.

Quick catch up - Kids were sick half of February and March. Evie had her first ear infection (in both at the same time) and has been having stomach pains for almost 2 months now. The ear infections cleared up but the stomach pains haven't, so we have an appointment with a pediatric gastroenterologist later this month. She's taking an hour long preschool class through the Town of Gilbert once a week - which she LOVES. She's also taking a tumbling class. She is so eager to be in real preschool. We'll get her in some classes this fall for sure.

Quin has been doing great! He's growing, eating, pooping, crying, got his two bottom teeth in all the way now. He is an army crawler like Ryan was - he pulls himself along with his arms and pushes with his toes. He can sit up by himself now if he has a little help from an inanimate object or a nearby sibling. We're also weaning as of today. He is taking a bottle and I'm just done with nursing. We are hoping that this will help him sleep through the night. He still gets up several times a night. Also, I need to get my knees operated on to (hopefully) fix the pain I've been dealing with for over 3 years now. I couldn't get surgery while pregnant or nursing (duh), so I'm really looking forward to it. It will be nice to be able to be active again without the pain.

Ryan is an energetic and boisterous fella. He's doing well in school, his permanent top two teeth are about halfway in so he looks a little less... um... weird. He's still SO LOUD when he talks. EVERYTHING IS YELLED. He has no idea how loud he is. And yes, his hearing is fine. He just doesn't think our is, apparently.

Sean had his 5th birthday on Monday. His party was the weekend before last - we moved it up because we were expecting to get our irrigation the Saturday before his party (but of course it came on Sunday) and we wanted the kids to be able to play outside. His friend Blake from his old K-Prep class came, as did the cousins. He had a rocky road ice cream cake. He got Legos, a DS from Nana and Poppop, a Pillowpet and some other stuff. Altogether he had a most excellent time! I say this every time a kid has a party, but I can't believe he's 5! That means kindergarten in the fall. Two kid in school! WOOT! Two down, two to go! He's taking a cooking class and an art class from Town of Gilbert, too. He really likes the art class, but the cooking class is so-so, which surprises me because I was sure he'd love the cooking class. He says he wants to do some golfing though. Not miniature golfing - real golf. I'm not so sure he's ready for that yet!

We moved to a new rental house. It's a nice big 5 bedroom with an office on an acre lot. We put up a playset with slides in the backyard and a metal dome jungle gym for them to burn off some energy on. The kids have been in the pool several times even though it's FRIGID. They all come out shivering so badly, but they just can't wait to get back in there the next day. The neighborhood is nice and mature, lots of horses, goats and chickens. I planted a small garden in the front flowerbed. Hopefully we'll be able to get some veggies out of it before it gets too hot and all the plants die. I spend several days ripping grass and weeds out of the flowerbed - it was an unkempt nightmare. I planted flowers in the other beds and now the house looks so much better.

Finally the boys can get to sleep without fighting with each other, and the baby doesn't have to sleep in our closet anymore. I don't know how families deal with having siblings sharing a room all their lives. The boys were so happy to have rooms of their own that when we were moving in they each made signs for their rooms saying "Keep Out!". They were very possessive of their rooms at first - there were lots of doors slammed in faces and on fingers of siblings trying to invade others' rooms. They've settled down about that lately though because they have new distractions...

We got hamsters a few weeks ago. We got them because we were going to try to get a Laborador Retriever, but after I interacted with the dog for a few minutes I broke out in hives. So no dog. Which resulted in a very upset Ryan. So we compromised with hamsters. Their names are Chewy and Chomper Waffle. Chewy is sweet, but Chomper decided he wants to eat Chewy, so we had to get another cage in order to separate them. Chomper isn't as friendly to the kids as Chewy is so the kids are starting to ignore him and only play with Chewy. That's what you get for being a jerk, I guess. But wait - there's more...

So I read up on dogs and allergies and found that there are Labradoodles and Goldendoodles, mixes of Labs or Golden Retrievers and Poodles. We can't own a poodle - it would just kill Rich's sense of manliness - but they are "hypo-allergenic" dogs so they say. Apparently if you mix a Lab or Golden with a Poodle you get a mix that doesn't shed and loses the allergenic properties. After my very bad reaction to the dog we went to see a few weeks ago I didn't think the outcome of a doodle mix would be good for me, but Rich was very disappointed that he wasn't going to have a running buddy or a camping dog, so I sucked it up and visited a family that was selling Goldendoodle puppies. Turns out that they really aren't as allergenic as a normal dog. I had puppies romping and slobbering all over me and had no reaction on my arms. There was some red on my neck but I think it was mostly just scratches from one of the dogs. I even took the opportunity to rub my eyes with my fingers when I was done to see if it would be a problem. No big deal. It's amazing. So, long story short we now have Duke - a 12 week old Goldendoodle puppy. He's swell. He's mild mannered, already crate trained and housebroken, doesn't jump on the kids or bite them, and pretty lazy for a puppy. So far so good!

I haven't taken many pictures lately, we've been so busy packing, moving, unpacking, taking care of sick kids, fixing up the new house (which was not very well maintained by the previous tenant), having Grandma Hoppe visit for Sean's birthday, and all the everyday things.

Today was a great day. I wish every day could be a Saturday like this. We just did all the normal things - clean house, Costco, the kids got to swim in the pool, I made hamburgers for dinner and we took the dog for a walk in the neighborhood. It was a great day - nice and warm (almost 100), but the evening was very nice and the smell of orange blossoms was thick in the air. Also a lot of good songs were on the radio today. That always makes my day. : )

Bespectacled

2011-01-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

Ryan now officially wears glasses. We went to the eye Dr before school started this last year and he said to come back in a few months for a reassessment. The eye Dr knew that he'd need glasses but wanted to hold it off as long as possible. Ryan has been complaining of not being able to see the board at school, so both the Dr and I figured it was time now.

Ryan has been looking forward to getting these glasses for months now. He was practically skipping when we left the Dr's exam room to go look at the glasses. The Dr remarked that it was odd that he was so happy, usually kids are crying when they are told that they need glasses. So we chose his favorite pair and they cut the lenses right there in the office and he got them right away. He loved them - he was running around, looking at things, lifting up the glasses, looking again, putting the glasses back on. The lady who helped us make the glasses remarked that pretty much all kids do that - it's so interesting for them to actually see all of these things that were just a blur before. It was pretty cute.

He was excited to go to school today, but by the time I picked him up all of that was gone. He got in the car and immediately began sobbing. He had a massive headache. I assumed that it was just because of the glasses, but after we drove thru someplace to pick up lunch and we were on the way home, he tossed his cookies in the car. Luckily Sean got the barf bucket quickly for Ryan so it wasn't a big mess. Yes, we keep a barf bucket in the car at all times. It's now officially my favorite thing in the car. So now I'm thinking that he got a little bit of whatever Rich had yesterday that had him feeling bad. We got home and he rested upstairs in his room for a while, took some tylenol, and felt better after a bit. But he has already started complaining about the glasses. I think now he realizes what a pain they will actually be. Hopefully we can keep him wearing them for the next couple of weeks and it will become a non-issue.

Another Tooth Bites the Dust

2011-01-17T20:26:00.001-08:00

Ryan finally lost one of his front top teeth. It has been wiggly for MONTHS. Both Rich and I tried pulling it out this evening because it was so crazy loose, but no go. Sent the kids to bed as usual. The boys were being loud tonight, and I heard one of them shriek, so I was just on my way to go upstairs and chew them out for being loud when Ryan comes scampering downstairs saying "It's out!"

He was so excited. I suppose we were too - I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. He said it didn't hurt at all, but his mouth was all bloody (ew).

Today was MLK day, so Ryan was home from school. We cleaned house and picked up Quin's first footprint tile from the ceramic painting studio. It turned out very cute. I think my artistic abilities are improving! Then we had lunch at Burger King (yuk) and went to play at a park. Came home, did some crafts - Evie painted a wooden dinosaur, Sean put together and painted a wooden car and Ryan assembled a foam castle. I got everyone's laundry done. I have to say, if a magic housekeeping fairy came up to me and granted me a chore that I'd never have to do again, I'd say laundry. It's so tedious.

Homeschooling with Sean (and Evie) is going pretty well so far. Sean is a pretty good student, he's smart as a whip and picks up on things quickly, but he resists sitting there and doing the work with me. I think it will just take some getting used to on his part that a new part of his day every weekday will be sitting with me and learning. Evie, on the other hand, is gung-ho. I think she is actually very jealous that Sean gets more of my time than she does for learning. She pays very good attention and can hardly wait for her turn to be the student! I'm looking forward to getting Ryan home to do homeschool too, but I don't think Quin would be happy with that situation. He's barely tolerating me giving so much attention to the others for just an hour a day. Spoiled? Nah.

Health-wise this year has sucked so far. Rich has been having nagging problems with his back spasms, then last Monday I somehow got strep throat. I went to the Dr and got some antibiotics, and was feeling pretty much better by Thursday. But Monday was very unhappy - Rich took the day off to watch the kiddos so I didn't infect them. My throat hurt so bad I couldn't talk loudly on Monday or Tuesday - I don't think I've ever had a sore throat that bad. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've even had strep throat before. FYI - I don't recommend getting it. Ever.

Another New Year is Upon Us

2010-12-31T19:24:00.000-08:00

As I type this the kids (with the exception of Quin) and Rich and I have sat down to watch a New Year's Eve Star Wars IV-VI marathon. The kids brought in all the pillows from around the house as well as their special blankets, and have set up camp on the living room floor. I don't know how long they'll last, but I'm pretty sure only Ryan has any chance of lasting until Midnight.

We just got finished gorging on the last of the Christmas cookies. Before that we went outside and played with sparklers and snaps. Earlier today we took Ryan, Sean and Evie to see "Tangled" after we had lunch with Nana and Poppop. This is very nearly a perfect day - with the exception of the dozens of tantrums from overtired and overexcited kids, that is. But eventually everyone will fall fast asleep and the only memories of today they will keep will be the good ones, I'm sure.

We had a great Christmas - the kids loved all of the gifts they got. We spent the last two weeks doing all sorts of fun things - Zoo Lights one night, the Zoo during the day, movies, Christmas cartoons, toy stores, Build-a-Bear Workshop, Christmas Eve get-together at Jim & Jordy's, making cookies - whew! Ryan is happy to be going back to school on Monday.

Sean isn't going to K-Prep anymore. He doesn't like going (we think he doesn't care for the teacher) and they aren't teaching him anything he doesn't already know. So I'm going to teach him to read at home. We'll also start in on addition and subtraction. Ryan wants to homeschool as well - when we brought it up with him he was very enthusiastic about the idea. We're not exactly thrilled with the schooling he is getting now, even though he is in the best elementary school in the district. He is way ahead of second grade and he's bored in school. He's reading and writing at above a fourth grade level, and he's in a third grade math class. I think homeschooling will let him really excel at his studies since he won't be held back by his classmates. We are going to try it out this summer and if all goes well we'll homeschool Ryan, Sean and even Evie in the fall.

This should be an exciting year for us. Hopefully we'll find a house to buy. We had an offer out on a short sale house since August, but things didn't work out with that one. I think it was for the best, because after we cancelled the offer the house was put back on the market for $44K less than we offered. Of course this just makes me very leery about buying a house. Home values are still going down - it's impossible to know where the bottom will be. So in the meantime we'll just have to look at what's out there and do our best to make a decision that works for us.

Happy New Year!

Fallen Leaves

2010-12-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

The vacant house next to us has a great big tree. I don't know what type it is, but right now it's leaves have turned a vibrant shade of yellow and are starting to fall. Most of them fall in our yard.

It was a beautiful 80 degrees out today. The weather people blame it on a strong La Nina this year, which makes our winters warmer and drier. We went outside to crack open some nuts with hammers on the driveway - the kids thought it was pretty fun. The twins from a couple of doors down saw us all gathered around our project in the driveway and came over too. After everyone sampled the nuts, the kids started playing. Ryan raked up the leaves that have fallen so far - we got a pretty good little pile going already. The kids all had a blast jumping around, throwing the leaves in the air, and burying each other.

I love this time of year. It is such a blast to see the kids having so much fun outside without being red-faced and covered in sweat. I hope they remember these times as fondly as I do.

Christmas Tree Haiku

2010-12-12T19:43:00.000-08:00

Nice tree, so darn big
Decorated by us all
Falls once, falls again.

We really liked the tree we brought home from our voyage to the Kaibab forest. It was huge and bushy and just... awesome.

Note the past tense used in the above sentence.

On Tuesday Rich and I dragged it inside and thought we had it up, but it started slowly leaning. Rich propped it up with a 2 x 4 until his Dad could come over to help fix it better. We purchased a new "better" tree stand to help sturdify the situation. (Yes I made that word up. I really like the way it sounds. Sturdify.) On Friday they worked on that sucker for a couple of hours, eventually cutting a foot off the base. Finally they got it up and it seemed secure. We decorated the tree all together and left for some dinner.

When we got back, Ryan was the first inside the house. He came running back into the garage yelling that the tree fell. Rich and I spend a good chunk of the evening putting it back up, securing it to the ceiling with kite string and putting the ornaments back on. The next morning at 5:55 exactly, I heard it come crashing down again. We decided the only way to get it to stay upright in the base was to cut more off the tree. We did that and the kids helped us redecorate.

So our once grand and wonderful super big tree is now a somewhat puny regular type tree. The top no longer brushed the ceiling in the playroom - in fact Rich can put the angel on without the assistance of a ladder. After we finished decorating on Saturday morning Ryan got all pouty on us and said he hates our Christmas tree. I asked him why and he said because it keeps falling and it's short. I can't really blame him.

But it's been up for a day and a half straight, so I think it's pretty safe now. Plus last night I got some of the kids presents wrapped and I'm pretty sure at the sight of those gifts they forgot all about the misfit tree from hell.

North Pole Experience and Tree Cutting Weekend

2010-12-08T21:10:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we had a marvelous time up in Greer and Flagstaff. The ride to Greer on Thursday was frightful, not because of snow or traffic, though. Because of Quin. He cried for half the ride. We made it to Show Low and were just a couple minutes shy of stopping to eat lunch when a friendly Highway Patrol Officer informed Rich that he was travelling a bit too fast. Thankfully he took pity on us (probably because of the screaming infant and crabby kids in the back) and let Rich off with a warning. We made it to Greer and went to the North Pole Experience that night. The kids got to go to Santa's workshop and make toys, have cookies and "snowman soup" hot chocolate, go to elf school, write a letter to Santa in his office, then visit the big man. It was lots of fun - although Ryan is on the verge of losing his "Christmas Spirit" so to speak. When we got off the Trolley to the North Pole (which goes through a magic portal), Ryan said "This ISN'T the North Pole. There's no snow." The North Pole sure did look A LOT like Greer.

But he soon forgot about the scenery and had a great time in the workshop. The kids built little air blasters that shoot foam darts, and Ryan had ball shooting the elves with the darts. Ryan also was the resident smarty pants and answered almost all of the questions the elves threw at him. Evie wasn't so sure Santa was on the up and up, though. She wouldn't sit on Santa's lap for the picture. After everyone was done and got back on the trolley, Santa came outside to say goodbye. Rich was holding Evie on his lap when Santa came up to the trolley, and Evie said she liked Santa, but when Santa moved to the door of the trolley to get on, she quickly yelled "NO! NO! NO!" I think she had mixed feelings about the big guy.

We took the trolley back to the lodge and Mrs. Claus read the most boring story on earth in a monotone manner that made it hard to follow the story. I had no idea what the story was about - some pegleg gingerbread pirate or something - she couldn't even keep my attention. Mrs. Claus could use some voice lessons (or maybe acting lessons). After that we went back to our cabin and the kids romped around until well past their bedtime.

The next day we made our way up to Flagstaff. As we traveled down the road from the cabin to the highway, we passed a building that looked suspiciously like the elves workshop, and I thought Ryan was going to point it out, but it seems he didn't see the resemblance like we did. We stopped at Meteor Crater along the way, which turned out to be pretty fun. It was either that or the petrified forest, and Rich and I agreed that at this point in their lives the kids don't think rocks that used to be trees are interesting. On the way we started talking to the kids about how it was created and such. We tuned into the AM band that had a brief explanation of the formation of the crater with some facts about the age, depth, diameter, etc. Then Ryan piped up with a question. "Are you allowed to put your hand in it?" I don't think he was paying attention to our lecture.

Everyone had fun with the displays at the crater, and looking at it, but I think the kids thought the best part was the resident cat. That darn cat followed us around and let the kids pet it, and the kids thought it was just super duper and forgot all about the displays and the interactive stuff. Sigh.

After that we made it to Flagstaff. Had a great time with the extended family swimming in the pool, the kids and I played in the park while Rich went to play Frisbee golf, we had some good meals, and headed up to the Kaibab forest on Sunday to cut down our tree. There was an accident in our caravan on the way, but luckily no one got hurt and we weren't involved. We got a GINORMOUS tree. It's way too big. Our van looked ridiculous with that tree on top. The ride from Flagstaff back to Phoenix was smooth as silk - we left after dinner time so the kids were all pooped out and most of them slept. That was much better than the ride up.

We made it home safe and sound. We got the huge tree in the house and precariously placed in a tree stand. Who knows how we are going to decorate it. Overall I'd call the trip a total success!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T21:23:00.002-08:00

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner courtesy of Nana & Poppop. It was delicious!

The kids in Sean's K-Prep class did a project earlier this month where the teacher wrote what the kids were thankful for on turkey feathers. What did Sean's feather say? He's thankful for a new little sister and Criss Cross Crash. I talked with him after that and explained that he got what he was thankful for mixed up with what he wanted for Christmas. I also told him that we're not having any more babies. I thought he understood what I said.

So... 3TV was at Sean's K-Prep class earlier this week to get some video of what the kids are thankful for. Here's Sean's spot -

Obviously he didn't get my message.

In case you can't hear the audio, Sean says "I'm thankful for another baby sister." The interviewer says excitedly "You're gonna have a new baby sister?" Sean then says "I want one, but I'm not." Meaning he wants a new little sister but he's not going to get one. I swear - that kid - he's so silly. I bet he did that just to get a rise out of me! I certainly laughed my tush off when I saw it this morning on TV! I'll try to get a better video (I recorded this with my regular camera), this is a really cute keepsake to show him when he gets older how much of a little funnyman he was.

Family Portraits 2010

2010-11-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

Do you know how hard it is to keep four young children looking at the camera AND smiling at the same time?

VERY.

But individually they did quite well!

Overall I think they turned out fine. I don't think we'll be going back to Sears again, though. The pics are off center, Quin's pic is on a white background instead of dark like the others, so they will look weird when I hang them up in a grouping, the dark background with the dark clothes makes it hard to see, too. Overall I wasn't impressed at all, and the price was outrageous. Next year we'll have Nana take our pics at a park or something. I bet we'd get bigger smiles that way, too!

Splattered

2010-11-16T19:32:00.000-08:00

Conversation in the car this evening-

Ryan: I'm using my imagination.

Me: You're not allowed to use your imagination in the car. It will make a mess.

Ryan: Yeah right. I already splattered my imagination all over you!

Classic : )

Ryan's 7th

2010-11-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

Ryan had his official 7th birthday party today. We had it at Peter Piper Pizza because I didn't feel like trying to assemble a big shin-dig like last year with a 3 month old baby in tow. It worked out, friends and family came, including Ryan's best friend Kiran. His future wife (her words, not mine *wink*) Avery was supposed to come too but she was a now show. Luckily he didn't really realize it until we were leaving the party so it didn't spoil anything for him.

We got him a Nintendo DS Lite for his present this year. We gave him the accessories too - a carry case (which we fondly refer to as a purse to irk him), a protective cover for it and some earphones (so he doesn't bug us) and some extra doo-dads. He was quite happy to get it - after all, he's been wanting one for a whole year now. I put the DS in the carry case when I wrapped it, and he didn't realize it was in there, so after he emptied the gift bag and saw all the DS stuff but no DS he almost broke down in tears. Silly goober.

He wound up getting some DS games, a Lego set, a Wimpy Kid book and some gift cards and cash. He was pretty happy. He had a great time playing games at the pizza place, and he bought, of all things, CANDY with his tickets from the games. Not like the huge container of Halloween candy wasn't enough, ya know??

Rich pointed out yesterday that now Ryan is 7 - he has been a part of our lives for half the time that Rich and I have been together. Time flies.

The Fair

2010-11-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

Soooooo, I've decided to get my butt in gear and start exercising again. I've made zero progress losing the baby weight this time, and I'm sick of wearing maternity pants! This week I've been going to the gym in the morning after dropping off Ryan at school. I drop the kids off at the daycare at the Y and go put in my time on the treadmill. So far so good, I can get in 2 miles in half an hour. I was expecting my knees to start bugging me, but they are doing pretty well as of this week. Quin seems to like the lady they have in the infants area watching the little ones, so as long as he keeps cooperating we're golden. An added bonus is the ability to take a shower there without kids walking in on me, crying and getting into trouble! Sweet!

Quin says "Hey Baby, wazzup! Wanna hang at my crib?"

Ryan has started his own blog - his "journal" if you will. I'm teaching him how to make posts, and I'll have to teach him how to download and add videos and pictures from his camera. He's very excited about it! We've made it private, so if you're a family member interested in reading it and you haven't been invited just let me know and I'll get you invited.

Tomorrow is Ryan's birthday party. He's very excited... we're only giving him one present this year, so we didn't let him open it on his actual birthday, which kinda irked him, but since we went to the State Fair on his birthday he pretty much forgot about it I think.

Speaking of that, the kids had a blast at the State Fair this year. We got in cheap by donating toiletries for Veterans, and the kids got to go on rides, thru the funhouses, played some games and went to the animatronic dinosaur exhibit they had going. Ryan started out gung-ho about the rides, but after he got a closer look at some of them he decided against them, like the swings that go high in the air. But he went on the logride with Daddy and Sean (who went reluctantly and was almost crying after the big drop but later said he loved it) and some other smaller rides. Sean and Evie went with Daddy on the gigantic ferris wheel and had a blast. Evie went on the smaller swing ride all by herself and then again with the brothers. Overall we had a great time this year since the kids are finally getting big enough to ride on a lot more things.

Dinosaur Exhibit

Evie on the Swings

Rich & Sarah

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T21:25:00.000-07:00

The Family

The kids had a great time this year. They went around the block on one side of the street, had to come back home in order to empty their completely full treat buckets, then proceeded to canvass the other side of the street. The older kids went out with Rich while I stayed home with the baby. We got lots of compliments on our pumpkins and our decor. I was so proud!

After they got home I gave them 5 minutes to eat as much as they could before bedtime. I had to give them an extra 2 minutes due to parental interference - Rich kept trying to steal Ryan's candy and it distracted the boy from being able to eat as much as he wanted. After that everyone got changed into their jammies and their teeth brushed, then we figured we'd let them play for a bit to burn off some of the excess excitement before bedtime. However when I walked into the living room a few minutes later, everyone was on the couch in a daze. We read Cinderella and shooed everyone off to bed.

Enjoying the splendor of their bounty. Except Rich - he's noshing on grapes.

The next challenge comes on Wednesday. It's Ryan's 7th Birthday and (coincidentally) we're going to the State Fair. We lost Sean at the zoo just a few weeks ago, please wish us luck to not lose any kids at the fair. They are slippery little creatures you know.

Reigning Champion!

2010-10-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

Our day was jam-packed today. This morning the boys did their chores, I mowed the front and back lawn, Evie and Daddy went to Gymboree, the boys and I got the pumpkins cleaned out and ready for carving, we got some lunch, picked up Ryan's 7 year old footprint tile, carved the pumpkins and then went to the block party. Whew! We barely had a minute to catch our breath!

The block party was pretty fun for the kids. We were one of the first ones there and things started out pretty slow. There was a game of cakewalk and each of the kids won a cupcake. The boys polished those off in a matter of seconds. Evie took her time. Then the kids were bored for a while until some more kids showed up. There was some fascination at the sight of a friendly neighborhood cat - the kids followed it around like it were a big bag o'candy. Everyone voted on their favorite pumpkin (the kids all liked mine the best). The kids ran around like a bunch of hooligans. Evie tried running around too but fell into a stinky mud puddle and got her dress and legs all dirty with mud. Our poor little princess...

The hostess finally called us over to announce the winner of the pumpkin carving contest and... I won again! Woo Hoo!! 2 years in a row. Makes me kinda sad that we'll be moving soon (hopefully) and I won't get to try for a threepeat. Here's my winner -

Rich was very miffed, because he made a very cool skull design and the winner of second place was also a skull design. We all agreed the winner was not executed nearly as well as his. It seems that the young man who won 2nd place had done some ballot stuffing - a bunch of older boys were hanging around the voting place for too long. When I voted I saw a couple of slips of paper with obscenities written on them, so I sure don't doubt that they tried to rig it. I am hoping that we are teaching our children to be better people than their parents taught them to be. Anyhoo, here are all of our pumpkins together.

And we'll leave you with some brotherly love... <3

Tinkle or get off the pot

2010-10-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

Sean had his trip to Schnepf Farms Pumpkin Festival as well as his Halloween Party. Rich took him to Schnepf yesterday. I wanted Rich to write a blog post about Sean's interesting choice for his face painting, but he didn't seem interested, so I'll give it to you secondhand. Sean walked in the house yesterday fresh from the farm. I noticed he had gotten his face painted. I wasn't sure what I was seeing. I squinted. I pondered. Then finally I asked "Sean, is that a spiderweb and a mouse on your face?" Sure enough it was. Apparently the face painting guy gave him a choice when he met Sean. A spider, a pumpkin or a ghost. Sean requested a mouse on a spiderweb. Rich said this solicited a mildly confused, blank stare from said face painting guy. Sean must have thrown him for a loop with that request! So what Sean wound up with was this:

An orange "mouse" dangling from a web.
Um, nice? I suppose he worked with what he had.

Sean's Halloween party was pretty fun for him. It started at 2:45, so after I dropped him off at K-Prep I figured it would be dumb to try to get Evie & Quin down for naps and then wake them up early and make them all cranky, so I just kept everyone awake. Evie would be fine, she hasn't been taking good naps lately anyway, but I wanted to make sure Quin slept while we were at the party so I wouldn't have to carry him around while trying to do all the crafts and games with Evie & Sean. I kept him awake no problem, and he feel asleep in the car on the way to Sean's school. Unexpectedly, so did Evie. She rarely falls asleep in the car. But I woke her up and made a big deal about her falling asleep to make her giggle and luckily I was able to ward off any grumpiness that may have ensued.

So we got to the classroom and Quin wakes up not even 5 minutes after we walk through the door. So I would up having to carry him around and try to spread icing on the cookies and glue faces onto pumpkins and so on and so forth. Can't win 'em all, right? The kids had fun, though, so I suppose it worked out pretty well.

Evie is pretty gung-ho about going potty now. She prefers undies over diapers (which is good) but she doesn't get the whole "#2 in the potty" idea yet. Ugh, gross, I know, I'll spare you the details. Her #1 success varies day to day, but at least she's interested and will soon be out of diapers. In the meantime I will have to deal with many a trip to the bathroom consisting of what happened today when I went to get my allergy shots. Here's how it went. Evie sits on the potty. Says she doesn't have any pee. Requests to get off. I take her off, pull up her undies and pants. She immediately says that NOW she has to go. No big deal. Put her on. Whoops, she says she was mistaken, she doesn't actually need to go. Grrrr. Take her off. Pull up undies and pants. Leave stall (waiting for Sean to finish up in other stall). OH WAIT, NOW she has to go for real. Go back in. Put her on. She smiles at me. Whoops, false alert again. OMFG. Take her off, up pants, out of stall. Still waiting on Sean. She says "Mommy, I need to go pee now". I say "IF YOU DON'T GO THIS TIME I SWEAR YOU'LL BE IN BIG TROUBLE." I really have no idea what kind of trouble since everyone says to not pressure kids during potty training, but what else am I going to say? I can't let her just mess with me all day, ya know? So I put her on and she finally tinkles. Success! Of course, Quin was crying his head off through half of this to add to the drama. If nothing else, having children teaches you patience. Oh yeah, and how to resist the urge to strangle people.

In other news, it looks like Ryan's front top teeth should be coming out soon. They are quite wiggly, and he informed me this evening as he was brushing his teeth that if he reached up behind one of his front teeth, he could stick his fingernail between the edge of the tooth that used to be the root and his gums. I promptly yelled "EWWWWWWW!" at him and informed me to never tell me anything like that again. It totally gives me the ookies to hear him say things like that. In any case, I am quite happy to hear this because I was really hoping he'd be missing at least one of his front teeth for our family pictures next month. It'll be so cute.

We are carving the pumpkins tomorrow, then we'll be off to the block party (woo-hoo!) I am the reigning champion at the pumpkin carving contest, so I had better come up with something good this year so as to retain my title. I have to pause when I realize that I really have to carve 3 pumpkins - mine and 2 kids since we all got them this year, even Quin. Boy are my hands going to be aching from all that cutting and sawing. But hopefully it will be worth it. The kids are sure excited. Part of Sean's "homework" is a recipe to bake pumpkin seeds, and man is he excited about that! I think he gets very jealous that Ryan gets to cook in his Easy Bake Oven and he doesn't. In fact, both he and Evie have requested their own Easy Bake Ovens for Christmas. I'm going to have to teach these kids to cook! Take a load off my back...

So Proud

2010-10-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

This week was parent teacher conferences at the boys' schools. I am happy to report that both of the boys are doing phenomenal jobs in their classes. Sean's teacher said he is very smart for his age and has excellent fine motor skills. He also is stellar at listening and following directions and he's very well behaved. She said she hasn't had to discipline him once! I'm not sure why he can't be like that at home more often...

Ryan's teacher also had good things to say. He's well behaved and made all A's. He's in 2nd grade (the youngest in his class, btw), and he's doing 3rd grade math, reading at a 4th grade level and spelling as well as a kid halfway through the 4th grade according to his tests. Seems to me they might just as well plop him in the 3rd grade already.

Evie is doing great also. She's starting to potty train - she's a bit random with going right now, and she'd rather wear diapers than undies, but she is showing interest. Her sense of humor is developing well, too. She slips little "jokes" in at the dinner table all the time, says funny things, and boy does she have a large inventory of crazy facial expressions to throw at us.

And last but not least, little Quin is also doing fine. He's 3 months old now. He likes very much sleeping with mommy in bed rather than in his own bed, but luckily mommy doesn't really mind. I think I'm going to have a hard time banishing him to his own bed simply because he's my last baby. Plus he's so warm and cuddly. But he's smiling at everyone, and if he sees someone he especially likes he'll start cooing and talking to them too. He's discovering his hands - they seem to be in his mouth all the time now.

We've been doing a lot of fun things lately. Ryan and I made some Halloween decorations for the front yard – I made ghosts as well as gravestones complete with dripping blood and Ryan made ominous signs (Keep Out, Danger, etc). We made cool bracelets and we tie-dyed some more t-shirts, which the kids absolutely LOVE doing. We went to the zoo and Sea Life aquarium last week, too. Today Ryan and I went to the pottery place and I painted his 7-year-old tile while he painted a jet fighter airplane. Then we went to the "pumpkin patch" and chose our pumpkins. Tomorrow the boys are going with Nana to see Beauty and the Beast at Gammage and I'm taking Evie to play minigolf. Next week Sean gets to go to the Pumpkin Festival at Schnepf Farms with Daddy, then he has a class Halloween party that Evie, Quin and I get to go to. Next Saturday we are carving our pumpkins and going to the block party, then the big day that the kids have been awaiting comes! Whew! It's tiring just thinking about all that we've been up to.

And that's that. I'm going to have to try a bit harder to keep this blog updated, I think. I'm forgetting a lot of fun and interesting things by not writing them down! I think I'll try to set a goal of two blog entries a week. Let's see how that goes.

The Haps'

2010-09-03T09:50:00.001-07:00

Quin - 3 1/2 weeks old
Mommy & Quin

My Boys

Evie Nurses her Baby

Evie's haircut

We haven't been up to much lately. The boys have gone back to school and seem to be doing well so far. Ryan is the only kid in his homeroom class in the Advanced Math class, and he's top of the class in his reading ability as well. Sean finally got homework in his class - and he's thrilled to do it. I'm not sure that he likes the class all that much though, the first couple of weeks he kept telling me that when I left after dropping him off that he'd make a sad face. I think that was his way of telling me that he doesn't really like his teacher. One homework question was to list of three things he liked about his teacher. He thought for a moment, and said "She doesn't think I'm bad." I thought that was an interesting comment. Then I asked him for another thing he liked about her and he couldn't come up with anything. After cajoling him for a while he admitted he liked her wardrobe and the fact that she let him play on the playground, too. Other than that, she's not very high on his happy list I guess.

Sean has been a wealth of laughter for us lately, though. Yesterday he had two good ones. In the morning I was sitting on the couch nursing Quin. Sean comes into the living room and declares "I changed Evie's diaper - you don't have to do it anymore!" My first thought was of course - "Was it poopy? - with fear of the mess he may have created rumbling in my head. He said no, thankfully. It turns out he just undid the tabs of her diaper and re-closed them. No harm no foul. Then, later in the morning he comes running up to me and says Evie has a poop. I asked him "Aren't you in charge of changing her now?" He just scrunched his nose and made a disgusted face at me and said "Well, it's gross." Ah well.

Then on the way home from dinner last night we got an apple pie. The kids were very interested in eating the apple pie. (I bet you didn't know that...) So with the prospect of apple pie hanging in the balance, Sean declared to Evie "It's time to be good for the rest of your life. Even with Mommy and Daddy." Nice, Sean. Real nice.

We have been struggling with Evie's hair lately. It seems that no matter what we do it always looks messy. I took her to the kids haircut place and had them trim some of her length off, and that certainly helped with all the tangles, but unless she just took a bath her hair is all over the place unless I pull it up into pigtails (which she won't let me do every day). So the other day I said to her "Evie, what are we going to do with your hair!" out of exasperation. She promptly replied "Put it in timeout!!!"

Quin Alexander Wallace

2010-07-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Quin arrived July 22nd, 2010 at 11:13 AM. He weighed in at a healthy 8 lbs 3 oz, and is 20" long. That officially makes him the smallest of my children. He is already an expert nursling, too. The other kids have accepted him very well, even Evie enjoys holding him and giving him kisses. So far so good!

I'm recovering pretty well, although this c-section was quite a bit harder than the last one was for me. I was much more sore this time around. But I'm starting to feel better now, and hopefully I'll get back into fighting shape soon, lest the kids try to devour me!

Are We There Yet?

2010-07-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd be ambitious today and take the kids to a splash pad. We don't get out much lately due to the heat and my being preggo and all. I figured we'd go to San Tan Mall since they have a gentle little splash pad and it's shaded so I wouldn't have to sunscreen the kids. So I got the kids out of the car & was all ready to walk down to the splash pad when a security guard comes by and lets us know it's closed. Bummer. So to not disappoint the kids I make an executive decision and drive for 15 min over to Espee Spray Park. We get out, I get the kids all sun-screened just in time for the water to turn off for the 15 min break. Meanwhile, Sean gets sunscreen in his eyes even after I specifically tell him not to touch or rub his eyes and he's howling. The water finally turns back on, but instead of playing in it Evie is scared of it because the water jets very high up into the air and is unpredictable and she won't get anywhere near it. Sean is still ticked about the sunscreen in the eyes and won't go near the splashpad, and Ryan is mad b/c only a couple features "spray" at the same time and there are too many kids gathered around them, so he only spends a couple min in the water then goes to play on the playground while the rest of us sit around in the shade sweating our buns off b/c it's already 105 degrees outside today. Nobody had fun and I'm completely exhausted. Total Fail.

In other news, I took Ryan & Sean to the dentist on Monday. Both checked out wonderfully (as usual) with no cavities. Ryan's 2nd permanent tooth erupted quite a bit behind one of his baby teeth 3 weeks ago. The baby tooth didn't fall out, it just started getting pushed forward by the permanent tooth. They call it "Shark Teeth" when that happens. The dentist pulled that baby tooth for him. The bottom two permanent teeth are pretty crooked as of now, and the dentist says we'll just have to wait and see if they straighten out or not. We were sure Ry would be the kid that didn't need the braces since his baby teeth were so spaced out, but it looks like that might not be the case.

So Monday night he put his tooth in his tooth fairy pillow, and doggone it the Tooth Fairy totally didn't come. I don't know what was up with that. **face turning red** So Ryan exclaims Tuesday morning that she didn't come and he's all upset. I told him that maybe she didn't get word of the lost tooth since the dentist pulled it instead of it coming out on his own. He agreed with me. So Wednesday morning rolls around and the Tooth Fairy STILL did not come get his tooth. **FACEPALM** WTF is wrong with the Tooth Fairy? She must be a total ditz. Or maybe she's just 9 mos pregnant. Whatever. In any case, I had Ryan email the Tooth Fairy to see what was up, and she emailed back and said that she tried to come but Ryan was still awake reading (Rich said he was still reading in bed as of 10pm), and he should go to bed extra early Wednesday night to be sure that he was asleep when she came back. (Good idea, Tooth Fairy!) And she finally remembered to come on Wednesday night. I'm wondering how long the Santa and Tooth Fairy are going to last with Ryan. He seems to be getting too old for it...

The countdown is on now, only 1 week until my 29AgainAgain birthday and Rich & my 10 year anniversary. And only 3 weeks until the baby comes. Waiting, waiting, waiting. It will be so nice to get this baby out and get on with life already.

We're also in full house hunting mode. Got approved for a sweet mortgage (thank you low interest rates!) so now it's just a matter of finding the perfect house and getting the timing right for vacating this rental in October. I have a feeling that this fall is going to be nuthouse crazy around here with carting the older boys to two different schools every day, the new baby coming, as well as house hunting and moving. Just thinking about it makes me want to take a nap.

Is Anyone Around Here Missing A Tooth?

2010-05-15T20:34:00.001-07:00

I know someone who is.....

His bottom two teeth have been wiggly for a few weeks. Not super wiggly, but just wiggly. Then on Monday morning he woke up and all of a sudden his tooth was super wiggly. I said "Wow! I bet that'll come out today or tomorrow!". Then Monday went by, then Tuesday. No tooth. Then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That little sucker just got more wiggly - so much so that he could bend it all the way back and all the way to the front. It started getting him upset when it started getting caught behind his other bottom wiggly tooth. Rich and I tried to convince him a dozen times to just let us pull it, but he adamantly refused. Finally today he was getting all uppity about it getting caught behind that other tooth. At dinner we convinced him to let us pull it. We reminded him of America's Funniest Home Videos where the kids get the teeth pulled in all sorts of ways. None of the kids start crying in pain when the tooth actually comes out, you see, they are all ecstatic that the tooth is just out! So we got home and went upstairs so the kids could get ready for bed. Rich grabbed the tooth with a bit of TP and started pulling. I could hear Ryan "Ehhh EHHHH EHHHHH!" starting to freak out, but before he knew it that little tooth was out. The kid was grinning from ear to ear, jumping up and down, staring at his new holey smile in the mirror. So now his tooth is tucked safely away in his Tooth Fairy Pillow I made for him, and he's waiting for the Tooth Fairy to deliver his bazillion bucks. Such excitement!

In other news, school is wrapping up for the boys. Just a smidge under two weeks left. I'm not sure if that's good or bad at this point. Good - no more traveling to the school four times a day to drop off and pick up children. Bad - kids whining about how bored they are for almost 3 months straight. Hmmmm, tough call.

The kids are all very excited about their upcoming camping trip with Daddy. He'll be taking the lot of them up north to camp for a whole week. I'll stay at home and lounge around and enjoy the calm before the storm.

The boys are also looking forward to their trip with Nana to see Aunt Kristen in Seattle. I'm just hoping Evie doesn't get too lonely staying here all alone with Daddy & me. She'll get a brief look at what it feels like to be an only child, I suppose.

We've updated the chores around the house, too. Now Evie sets the table for dinner - surprisingly she does a darn good job of it for a kid who's not quite two yet. She gets the plates and cups where they are supposed to go, but the silverware is still a bit willy-nilly. I'm sure she'll get it down pat in a few weeks. Sean now clears the table and puts the dishes in the dishwasher. And Ryan, that dear soul, has a bunch more to do. Like last summer, he's doing his own laundry and cleaning his bathroom & taking out the trash, and now he gets to wipe off the table after dinner and mop the kitchen floor once a week. He's eager to get an allowance now that he's discovered Amazon.com and ToysRUs.com.

I'm hanging in there with the pregnancy. I've been seeing a chiropractor, and it's helped with the tailbone pain (wOOt!). Still having killer symphysis pain, though. I've just got to power through these last couple of months.

It's Been Awhile

2010-04-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

We went to San Diego for Spring Break. Took in Legoland, the aquarium at Legoland as well as Sea World with Nana and Poppop. The kids had a blast, although Evie was miffed that she didn't get to ride all the rides. That girl knows what she wants. Ryan rode the rollercoasters at Legoland and Sea World - and loved it! Finally someone other than me can go with Rich on the coasters. I wish I'd blogged this right after the trip - I've forgotten a lot already. Both Ryan and Sean were just an inch shy of getting to ride the bigger rides that they wanted to, but they both wound up being happy enough. Ryan's favorite ride was at Legoland - they had little Lego cars for the kids to drive, and a city-street type setup with stoplights and signs. There was a similar one for younger kids that just went around an oval track that Sean got a kick out of. They both loved a boat-type ride that let you spray other people as you went along. And surprisingly, the miniland display with all the miniature replicas of American cities was a big hit. They liked pushing the buttons to make stuff happen and noticing all the little things.

At Sea World they really liked our lunch with the dolphins. The sea lion show and the killer whale show were fun. They loved the giant playground, too. Evie very much enjoyed chasing the bunnies around the sidewalks while everyone else went on the skyride.

After the amusement parks Nana and Poppop left for AZ and we met up with Grandma Hoppe and took a day at the beach. The kids had a blast there. They played in the sand, made little friends, and Ryan collected a whole bucket of seashells. It was gorgeous weather even if the water was freezing.

The next day we took a whale watching cruise out on the ocean. We saw dolphins and whales - it was awesome. Luckily none of us got very sick(except for me) but it seemed like people were losing their lunch left and right all around us. We had lunch in a nice restaurant on their glass-enclosed patio right on the water of San Diego Bay.

Surprisingly, the drive there and back was quite bearable. The kids kept busy and behaved themselves pretty darn well. Evie really liked the trip home because Grandma Hoppe sat next to her the whole time. She still refers to the seat next to her as "Grandma Hoppe's seat" and that window is "Grandma Hoppe's window" when she wants the window opened or closed.

Let's see, the next weekend we had Sean's 4th birthday party. He had a great time playing with his friends from preschool and the cousins too. We had it at the same park that Ryan had his 6th birthday party at. He got a new bike for his birthday - it was supposed to be his super-cool big present, but he hates it. He refuses to ride it. He prefers his little bitty bike because it's easier for him to get going on it since his feet touch the ground when his tush is on the seat. I'm hoping the new one will grow on him. Either way, he'll grow to fit it!

The boys are growing like weeds. None of their winter clothes really fit anymore, and Ryan will need a new wardrobe for this summer - his shorts are too short and his shirts are too tight. Same for Sean, but luckily he can just wear what Ryan wore last summer. I took Sean to the Dr for his 4 year old check up last week, and he's in the 75th percentile for both height and weight now. Wow. Kiddo had to get 4 shots, too, and was doing great until the last shot. That one was a doozie. His resolve broke down and he was just bawling. But a leisurely lunch at Chick Fil A with a brownie to top it off made everything better.

Evie is getting big, too. She's still skinny - I got her a summer wardrobe and I had to stick with 18 month old shorts for some styles b/c she's too skinny to keep up the 24mos/2T's. Luckily with shorts we don't have to worry about the length since she's tall for her age. Next winter will be interesting, though.

She's talking our ears off. Sassing us at every chance, too. We are in the market for a toddler bed since she can easily climb out of her crib if she wants - luckily she hasn't attempted it yet. And her hair is just so darn cute in pigtails. I'm loving it.

Meanwhile, I'm damn near miserable. I'm wondering if I can possibly make it until July to have this baby. In addition to my pubic symphysis pain that I've had with every pregnancy, now I've got this wonderful tailbone pain that makes it a literal pain in the tukus to sit. So the only comfortable position is laying down now. And I have to take 4 more months of this?!? Ugh. Thank goodness this is the last one. Plus, we got a super-comfy memory foam mattress topper recently that has eliminated a problem I've had with my arms and legs falling asleep at night, which really helps me sleep better. Now if only there was a cure for needing to get up several times a night to pee. Have I mentioned that I hate being pregnant?

One thing that occured to me this last week was that I'm finally getting the feeling that our family will be complete after this baby comes. It's an odd feeling, not having to wonder what our future kids will be like because there won't be any more. But it's good. It's hard to describe - it's just a "This is Us" feeling. I dunno.

We bought a couple of blow-up pools for this summer. I filled them up yesterday and the kids went for a dip yesterday and today. The water was freezing! Yesterday everyone was shivering and the dip only lasted about 20 minutes. It was almost 90 outside today, but not quite warm enough to heat up that water! Today I took pity on the poor kiddos and poured a few buckets of hot water into Evie's little pool to warm it up. They played for about an hour. Evie and Sean did not want to come out. They were having so much fun! It's going to be a blast when they start going to swim lessons this summer. Rich is going to take Evie for parent/tot lessons while the boys take their own classes and I lounge around the house being miserable. It'll be great for everyone!

Getting Along

2010-03-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

Not much happening around here lately.

Sean has fully learned to ride his bike on his own without training wheels. He's an old pro now! He's also doing excellent in preschool - his teacher says he's advanced in every way for his age and it's quite likely he'll be placed in the gifted program once he's eligible in 2nd grade! I'm so proud of him!! I'm going to start him on the addition flash cards and the Spalding flash cards soon so we can get him reading. He is very interested in both math and reading. He can't wait to start.

Evie is talking up a STORM. This kid is a regular chatterbox. She's not even 21 months yet and making 5 word sentences. She can identify almost anything you point out to her, and she speaks so clearly! I'm just blown away by her verbal abilities. And she, like her brothers, listens to every. single. word. you say. There are no secrets in this house any more. These kids can hear every whisper we make. Unless, of course, we're telling them to do something.

And Ryan. Oh, Ryan. Our social butterfly has started getting carried away in the wind. He's been getting in trouble for chatting too much with his friends at school. In fact, he's grounded for the entire week this week because he's talking at school too much. Which means that he can't call his girlfriends - Avery and Lindsey - which disappoints him greatly. But he's doing great in school - all A's. His latest obsession is asking "What If" questions about EVERYTHING. At first I was answering everything, but I've found it much more efficient to just ask him what he thinks will happen, because usually he already knows. That kid. Oh yeah, he's also decided that I no longer need to make his lunch for him. He does it himself now. This kid seriously only needs me to take him to and from school. He can do everything else all by himself now. Except not make a huge toothpasty mess in the bathroom. He still has issues with that.

Ryan has also been nagging us to take ice skating lessons. He saw some ice skating on the Olympics and decided that he needed to do it. So I signed him up for a Learn-to-Skate class in June. We'll see how that goes. I'm anticipating tears, but you never know with him. Hopefully as long as a stranger is telling him what to do he'll manage to suck it up and keep going. If it were Rich or I teaching him he'd just give up after bonking down on his butt too many times. There's something about our kids (maybe everyone has this problem?) where they will break down in tears at a moment's notice for us, but for teachers and other strangers they simply don't cry or argue or balk. Is that just the joy of being a parent? Your kid gives you a tough time constantly, but is a perfect angel for EVERYONE else?

I took Ryan to see Mary Poppins at the big Gammage Auditorium in Tempe last Friday. He absolutely LOVED it. The whole time he kept asking me when the rooftop scene would happen (it's his favorite). He was a bit scared at how high we were - we had to sit on the upper balcony since it was the cheapest. The first five minutes I spent reassuring him that there was no way he'd fall down off the front of the balcony. Then he settled down after a while and was just enthralled with the show. After the show we hit the bathroom quick right before we left. Ryan showed me what an awesome kid he was by loudly stating (unsolicited from me) "Thank You for taking me to this play, Mom!" in front of everyone in the bathroom. He learned long ago that he gets extra brownie points for proclaiming his appreciation for the nice things we do for him. Then we exited the theater and I proceeded to get us lost. We had to park in a lot about a quarter of a mile away because we didn't get there early enough to park in the Gammage lot, and we exited at a totally different place than we came in. Ryan thought it was quite funny. Luckily I was able to pop up our position on google maps on my phone and got us heading in the right direction within a couple of minutes. We didn't get home until 11 that night, and Ryan's head hit the pillow and he was out like a light. I'm going to take Sean to a play sometime, too, but he's turning out to be picky. I don't know when a play will be showing that he actually wants to see - he's pretty much rejected everything available to us at the moment.

Then there's me. I'm finally feeling better with regard to my morning sickness, and I haven't gotten to the point in the pregnancy where I'm terribly uncomfortable, so times are good. We should be finding out whether we're having a boy or a girl next week, right before our much anticipated trip to Cali for a quick vacation. The baby better cooperate - I'm eager to get things rolling in preparation for the new baby. We have to know if we'll need a new little boy's wardrobe or not! I still think I'm having a boy, so we'll see if I need to eat my words or not soon.

I've been feeling the little kicks and pokes more often lately (I'll be 19 weeks tomorrow). I'm really looking forward to later on when you get to feel the big kicks and elbows and feet poking around. It's so comforting to be able to feel the little one moving around in there so you know the baby is ok.

Sean's Turn

2010-02-14T18:38:00.000-08:00

We were all outside today enjoying the B-E-A-utiful day today. Rich and the boys (and Evie) had fun playing basketball. Then the neighbor girl came over and stole Ryan away to play badminton in the street. Rich pushed Evie around on the tricycle and I asked Sean if he wanted to take a shot at riding his bike without training wheels. He actually accepted the offer! I've been asking him for the last several months if he wanted to, but has always declined.

So I took off his training wheels and told him to go tell Daddy that he wanted to take a ride. I'd help him, but my knee is preventing me from any sort of rushed locomotion.

So Sean and Daddy went back and forth down the street a few times. Sean did a great job - rode by himself for several seconds a few times. He got mad at Ryan for biking too close to him once and "making" him crash.

Overall it was a great success and Sean had a great time. I'm so proud of him - learning to ride without training wheels and he's not even 4 yet!

Sleepwalker

2010-01-10T20:08:00.000-08:00

A few months ago the kids were staying at their grandparents house. Ryan had a sleepwalking incident where he went to the fridge - Poppop was a witness.

Well, it seems that he's repeating his performance. He went to bed an hour and a half ago, and just a few minutes ago came downstairs to the living room where I'm watching TV and declared "I'm done, I'm done".

So I asked him "Done with what?"

And he just repeated himself "I'm done" and turned around and walked away. He didn't look at me at all.

I sat there for a minute, confused.

Then I decided to follow him to see what he was up to. I went upstairs and looked in his bed in Daddy's office. It was empty. Hmmm. I went to peek in our bedroom where Rich was in bed reading. Not there. Where did he go?

I recruited Richard to help me search. Next stop was the boys bedroom where Sean was sleeping. To my amusement, Ryan was curled up next to his brother in bed.

So Rich picked him up and put him back in his bed in the office. Ryan had no comment.

That was an odd experience. He seemed so awake, yet so gone at the same time. I hope this doesn't become a recurring issue. It's really creepy.

Another New Year...

2010-01-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

Ryan and Sean both attempted to stay up until midnight last night. They both had a big day yesterday. They stayed at Nana & Poppop's the night before, woke up early and had a full day at the zoo. After all that I didn't really expect them to last the whole night. After we got home from dinner with the G-parents we let them play a bit until Evie's bedtime. After she went to bed we turned on the boob tube. We watched a couple of old Twilight Zone episodes in black & white - surprisingly neither of the kids complained and asked to watch something else. After those we watched Mike Meyers' "The Cat in the Hat". They both enjoyed that. Then we watched "Ghostbusters". Sean fell asleep a little after 11. He had been fidgeting and wouldn't sit still for the previous half hour in a vain attempt to keep himself awake. Rich and I were amazed he lasted as long as he did. Ryan made it through the long haul. We cracked open party crackers, said "Happy New Year" and went to bed.

So it's a new year again. My resolution for this year is to simplify. I figure I'll need it since we'll have 4 kids by year's end.

So the plan is to give away or sell any things that we do not use or need. We will pare down the kids toys. They have an extreme overabundance of toys in the playroom. It's ridiculous.

We are also planning to go organic this year. Not so much for the environment or animal rights or any of that, but we don't think the kids should be eating all of the pesticides, antibiotics, steroids and hormones that are added to almost all the food we eat. I've been reading a lot regarding the effects of these things on our bodies and it's upsetting. So I determined that it would be worth spending a little more money to ensure that our kids will be healthier and not subject to all the nasty things that corporations are filling our food with because they care more about money than people. We'll have to cut out some meat from our diet and replace it with other protein, which Ryan may object to because I imagine that will consist of a lot of beans. He'll just have to learn to live with it, right?

We are also going to stop eating out. This is our big downfall. I don't like cooking, and with the pregnancy and all it will get even more tedious as the months go by, but it is a big financial drain. It will also be healthier for us to just eat at home, too.

I'm going to watch less TV and spend less time online. I'll read more books and try to keep up on housework better, maybe even start a hobby of some sort.

So we'll see how it goes. With any luck we'll buy our own house before year end. Then finally we'll feel at home, too.

:)

THERE'S NO COAL!

2009-12-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

I get up at 7:30 today and the boys are patiently waiting in their bedrooms. I give the OK for them to go downstairs. Ryan rushes down the stairs, straight to the living room. I hear shrieking.

"There's no coal! There's no coal in my stocking! Just TOYS!" he says.

Apparently he was quite worried last night and this morning. Wonder why.

Anyway, I made a nice pancake and egg and bacon breakfast and then let the kids at the presents.

Ryan went to open his first present - the big box. Rich and I talked the night before about the implications of writing "COAL" on the outside of this plain cardboard box holding his "new" used laptop from Poppop. What if he freaks out? Well, you never know until you try, right?

So he tore off the wrapping paper and saw that COAL was written all over it in big red letters. He stopped for a moment and looked at me slackjawed. I could hear his little mind working - is it really coal? Naw, it can't be. So he opened up his box and found the computer and was quite happy to find no coal. He was very worried for a second there, though. I'm hoping that will teach him a lesson for next year.

Everyone had a great time. Sean tore through all of his presents like a tornado. He was the first one done. Ryan paced himself pretty well. Evie got more interested in playing with what she had already opened rather than opening more. She got some stacking cups that she played with for a LONG time. Very patiently she'd try to nest them back together in the right order. That was really amazing to watch.

At the end of it all everyone was very grateful for what they got, and they heeded my warnings to be respectful and not say "Is that all I got?" and other obnoxious things like that. We unpackaged, batteried, cleaned up and played all morning long.

Everyone played pretty nicely with each other all day long. We had a nice Christmas dinner, too. Overall a resounding success. And of course, as per Ryan, it was "The Best Christmas Ever." Aren't they all? I think for us adults, it gets better and better because the kids presents get more fun for us to play with. Like now - Rich is playing Ryan's Wii game. The game is a bit too challenging for Ryan at this point, so Rich is playing all the games to unlock them so Ry can play them individually at his leisure, rather than in the order the game wants him to play. One of Sean's presents was a marble race game where you have chutes and slides and such to put together then drop a marble in and watch it make it's way to the bottom. I had a great time putting that together for the kids and playing with it. Oh - and the Nerf guns. Rich played with the boys for an eternity in the front yard shooting at each other back and forth across the street. So much fun!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T18:58:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that. We've been up to our ears in activities and such. Plus morning sickness really kills my urge to do anything, nevermind blogging... :)

Let's see... Thanksgiving was great, went to the zoo Black Friday. Then we went to Zoolights two weekends after that. That was awesome - the weather was perfect and the crowds not too huge.

The next weekend we went up to Flagstaff with the Wallaces. We went up a day before everyone else and rode the Polar Express in Williams. That was a big hit. All the kids just loved it. Then we hung out with family on Saturday and went to cut down out tree on Sunday. We got back to Phoenix Sunday night, right before a big blizzard hit the high country. Our tree is awesome - huge - Rich nearly killed himself dragging it back to the car after he cut it down.

Ryan is doing excellent in school, all 99 and 100%'s. Sean is doing fine as well. His class had the Build-a-Bear lady come in last week and they each got to make a holiday puppy. What a treat!

But this week... Ugh. It's hard for kids to behave in the week before Christmas when there's no school. Fights, tattle-telling, whining, peeing in trash cans (Ryan), shattering snow globe stocking holders (Sean), etc, etc, etc. It's been a tough week. It all comes to a crescendo tomorrow morning.

The kids are super-excited for tomorrow morning (of course). I'm excited, too. It should be fun to see all the kids open their presents. I'll try to update tomorrow with the low-down on what happens.

Ice Queen

2009-11-14T19:47:00.000-08:00

Rich and I had a date night tonight. It's been a while since Nana & Poppop had the kids overnight, so we were looking forward to tonight for a long time. I figured we'd do something different than dinner and a movie. Ice Skating! BAM! That's different!

Proof that we were ice skating.

So we went to a nice dinner at some overpriced Italian joint. Then we goofed around at the Dick's Sporting Goods store while looking for frisbee golf discs. After that it was time to skate.

For some reason Rich was less than thrilled with the idea. I can't imagine why.

In any case, we got our skates on and headed out. We haven't been out ice skating in well over a decade.

Did I really just say that? Now I judge my life by how many decades have gone by since I've done something? That's not good. Not at all.

So of course it started out a little shaky. I had a few "Woooo-ooooohhh's" and some "Eeeeeee-aaaaaahhhhhs" - stumbling, but no falling. I had fun giggling at the people who were falling. I had a nice laugh over the huge banner over the rink advertising the local emergency hospital's short wait times, and the orthodontist's ads on the boards.

Rich warned me before we got there that we'd be the oldest people in the place. Boy was he right. Well, there were people older than us in attendance but they were all sitting on the bleachers watching their kids wreak havoc on the ice and try to kill people.

So now I'm sure you want the juicy details. Well, Rich fell first. He said I took off like a bat out of hell and he tried to follow me but someone cut him off or something and he went down. He said it was pretty graceful (not a booty fall) and he got right back up. We went around a few more times and took a break.

While we were sitting there chilling, we had a discussion on whether or not we should go back out on the ice. Rich said his feet hurt, but he was fine going back out. We had hardly been out there for half an hour and we didn't really feel we got our money's worth yet. I debated: should I give up while I'm ahead of the game (no falls!) or go till I fall? I figured I'd push my luck and we'd have a little more fun. So back out we went.

We had a good time if you don't include all the times we almost got creamed by punks going to fast or the times we almost crushed the little kids who cut in front of us or the dopes who stopped short in front of us. My knee started hurting a bit too much so I told Rich we'd go around a couple more times then be done. Finally, it was time to get off the ice. I was feeling quite proud that I managed to stay erect the whole time! I headed toward the exit. There were a gaggle of pre-teens clustered on one corner of the exit, so I tried to angle to the other one to grab on and stop, but some kids did the whole run-out-on-the-ice-as-fast-as-possible on that side right as I was going for it, so I had to try to go straight thru the center and hope I could get off the ice without the support of the side walls.

It didn't work.

I wound up doing something resembling a pirouette, flailed wildly and uselessly for the sidewall, and I might have stayed on my feet had I not skated backward into the edge of the rink, bumped my skates into it then crashed mercilessly on my tushie. I had a hard time getting up since I didn't want to put my hands on the ice for fear of my fingers being cut off my some speed skater. So Rich kindly helped me up. All the little girls hanging around the entrance/exit (who were all up in my way when I was trying to exit when I still had my pride) were all exclaiming "OMG are you OK?" as if I were their grandma and broke my hip or something. I hobbled over to where our shoes were and couldn't stop giggling.

All in all, it was a LOT of fun. I almost made it out unscathed, even. Leave it to me to manage to fall hard in literally the very last second that I could have fallen before being completely safe and steady.

My butt still hurts. I'm going to have a killer bruise tomorrow. It was totally worth it.

So busy....

2009-11-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

Wow, we've been busy lately. Between T-Ball, Bowling, Karate, Birthdays, the State Fair, Halloween and everything occasionally I get to breathe.

You should see the pile of laundry I had this morning. Actually, you still can. It's not exactly done yet.

We hit the State Fair on Sunday. Got in on Free Admission, but was boonswaggled with the cost of unlimited ride wristbands. But the boys had an absolute blast. They got our money's worth!

The boys had their first karate class yesterday evening. Ryan was so thrilled. We walked in and they got their uniforms. That sent Ryan into a tizzy, he was punching and kicking all over the place. The Sean got in on the act and they had a quick (no-touch) sparring session. By that time class was starting. They met the teacher and I must say, he was great at keeping the kids attention. He had them punching, blocking and kicking in no time. Sean will take some more practice to get the hang of it (coordination is hard!), but they both did great and can't wait for their next class on Thursday. We might have a winner here in terms of the kids favorite sport. Both Rich and I agree that Karate would be an excellent sport to learn. Discipline, exercise and self-defense skills abound. Sounds good to me!

Nana Wallace bought some hairties for Evie. When I came home from work yesterday afternoon she had Evie's hair up in pigtails. Yes, I know Nana, you call them donkey tails, but I grew up with curly-haired pigtails, not straight-haired donkey tails ; ). It was the CUTEST thing I've ever seen. She looked so much older! How can such a small thing as a hairdo make such a big difference? Anyway, I can't get the kid to keep them in for more than a few minutes, but I'll keep trying every day and eventually she'll get used to them. Hopefully....

This pic doesn't do them justice. She is just so adorable. She's feeling much better lately, she finally broke all 4 of those pesky molars and she's been eating like a linebacker again.

Friday is Ryan's school's Fall Picnic. That should be pretty fun, games and contests and such.

Saturday is Ryan's birthday party. We have several of his classmates coming and a bunch of his cousins, too. He's really looking forward to it. As long as it doesn't rain it will be great. I have all sorts of games and activities lined up for the little rascals. I think I'm as excited as he is.

Sunday we're celebrating Poppop's birthday. I think that might be a little more low-key than Ryan's...

Ah - just so much to do. November and December will be so busy! I'm looking forward to January when things will (hopefully) calm down a bit. I need a nap.

Happy Birthday Dear Ryan,

2009-11-03T20:11:00.000-08:00

Ry is officially 6 today. WOW.

Only 4 years until he hits the double digits.

Only 7 years until he's a teenager (what!?!!1?!).

Only 10 years until he learns to drive.

Only 12 years until we kick him out of the house and he can vote.

But for now, he's a spunky, bright eyed, big hearted, wonderful, sweet little 1st grader who just turned 6. He got a new bike from Mommy & Daddy for his present (which he chose a week and a half ago and has been sitting in the garage the whole time just begging to be ridden) that he got to ride for the first time this morning.

He requested that we all sing him "Happy Birthday" first thing this morning. Then we got to repeat the performance with Nana & Poppop this evening at his special dinner (he chose Olive Garden). He went to school happy as a lark that he got to bring cookies to his class for his birthday. He came hope just as happy b/c he got a goodie bag at school for his birthday.

He asked if he could stay up late tonight since it was his birthday. He wanted to stay up till 9 and we agreed. He got to play Wii with Daddy. He got his presents from Aunt Kristen in the mail and had an awesome time swordfighting with his brother and shooting darts at EVERYTHING! He absolutely loves the Nerf Dart gun she got him.

And now he's curled up in bed, probably thinking about all the awesome things that are yet to come at his birthday party on Saturday.

I forgot how exciting birthdays used to be. But that's okay, because I think it is even more fun to be washed in the pure joy that is my children's birthdays. : )

What. A. Day!

2009-10-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

We had a crazy day today.

First there was T-ball for Sean. I was not happy about getting up super-early to attend an 8:00 AM game. But I did it anyway, of course. The boys were already wide awake (as usual), and Evie didn't need much prodding. The best part though was that on the way to the ballfield we saw a cluster of hot air balloons flying over Chandler. The kids were absolutely enthralled. As we traveled down the 202 the balloons got closer and closer. Finally we caught up to one of them right as we came up to our exit so the kids got a great close-up look at it. It just made their day! That made it worth getting up so early. The game was fine. Sean is doing a better job every single game of paying attention and running the bases like a pro. He was quite excited to be the bearer of snacks today - as was Ryan. They are such sweet little hosts.

After the game we came home and did a quick clean up of the house. It's amazing how quickly those kids turn the house from somewhat resembling clean to a total pig sty. Thankfully I've taught them how to clean up after themselves and put all those toys away. Most of the time they do it without complaing, too!

After that we went to the new YMCA's open house. It's only a couple miles from us so it will be a nice change from the trek over to Mesa to go to the old Y. They have truly state of the art equipment there, too. Every piece of cardio equipment has an interactive touch screen that can let you watch live TV or movies from your ipod, and you can plug in your own headphones to listen. They also have "Personal Trainer" programs and who know what else built in. I didn't get to listen to the tour guide too well since I had to chase around the three kids to make sure no one was monkeying around on the equipment and trying to lose a finger or something. But it looks amazing!

Next we swung by Costco to order Ry's b-day cake. I let him choose all the details - he was quite pleased about that. We had a quick cheap lunch at Costco.

Then we hopped over to the Toys R Us to get Ryan his reward for all A's this quarter. His teacher said he's doing just GREAT - he's fun to have in class, a good role model, a problem solver, an excellent reader, etc, etc, etc. His only weakness is trying to get thru his work so fast that he makes silly little mistakes. She said we absolutely need to get him tested when the time comes in the spring to get into the accelerated program. She gave me a little flyer on how to identify a gifted child. HOLY COW! I can't even say how proud of him I am! Anyway, his reward was that he could either go out for ice cream or choose a new toy. He went the toy route. I gave him a $30 limit. After much deliberation at the store he chose a new microscope. He was buzzing with excitement. Jumping up and down, twirling around, going "EEEEEEE!" So we get home and open it up. I go through and show him how to use it, how to focus and what he needs to do to get stuff on the slides. Everything was fuzzy no matter how carefully you tried to focus, and you really couldn't see much of anything at the highest magnification (600X). He was thoroughly disappointed in the quality of his microscope and lost interest quickly. That was the worst part of the day - seeing his extreme enthusiasm be tempered by a cruddy toy. So... we'll have to see what we can do about getting him a better one so that he can keep his interest in science alive.

Alright. That was the morning. Whew! I put Evie to bed so she could have her traditional brief nap. The boys watched Chicken Little.

Finally we come to the hilight of the day. I told the boys we were going on a bike ride down to Freestone park. I packed Evie and Sean into the bike trailer and Ry took his own ride. They thought it was just a run of the mill park trip, but I had a surprise for them. We were coming up on the park and Ryan saw some of the inflatables for the Gilbert Halloween Carnival that they had set up on the ballfields. He said "Someone's having a party!" He still didn't realize that we were going to the party. So I let them in on the surprise. Sean & Ry gave out some happy yells and we made our way on over. We locked up the bikes and made our way in. I bought what turned out to be too many ride tickets, and we started hitting the booths. The kids got a bunch of candy, pencils, pens, toys, coloring books, coupons, and more. I signed them up for some cheap karate lessons, too. I know Ry was interested, who knows what Sean will think about it.

Anyway, they got to go on tons of bouncy things, a little train that went all around, all sorts of carnival games and such. Poor Evie wanted to go on everything with her brothers but she was too little. She refused to stay in the bike trailer (which I took off the bike and was pushing around like a stroller). She preferred to try to run away from me as quickly as possible into the crowd. It was fun, especially when the boys were on one of the obstacle course bouncy things that lets the kids in one end and out on the opposite side and I couldn't see them come out because I'm stuck in the front of it wondering from which side they are going to come out so I can gather them up again. It was... um... nerve wracking.

I only lost Sean once. We were in a little kids activity area that was all fenced in. Evie and Sean were playing in there and Ryan was sitting with me b/c he was too big to play. I determined that it was time to leave and gathered Evie up. I went over to Sean to tell him it was time to go and he nicely put down the toys he was playing with and came with me. By the time I got back to the bike trailer just a few feet from the entrance and put Evie inside, I turned around to put Sean in and he was GONE. Ah crap. So I take a few steps back, tell Ry to keep a lookout for Sean and peer through the crowds. I would have yelled for him but my voice is almost gone from a cold I've gotten so he wouldn't have heard me anyway. So 45 seconds went by (which is an eternity when your kid is missing) and I see him about 30 feet away - he's on the verge of crying, walking around looking up at all the people. I went and got him, consoled him and then lectured him (again) on staying with me. I was glad I wrote my phone number on his (and Evie and Ryan's) arm when we got there! That kid needs a leash. I'm thinking he must have followed someone else thinking that I was them since there were so many people around. I guess I have a common looking booty.

Anyway, Evie started getting extremely antsy toward the end of our melee. She was tired and hungry and feeling cooped up since I wouldn't let her run around. So I tried to hurry the boys along to get the rest of our ride tickets spent. Ryan lost his shoes for a while - he took them off at one ride and forgot to put them back on. (We did wind up finding them on the way out, though.) We were going to eat there but the crowds were way too heavy. We made our way to the exit. The only way I could get Evie back into the bike trailer without a screaming fit was to bribe the little darling with a lollipop. It worked wonderfully. We made the quick ride home, had a fast dinner and the kids were tossed into bed. Aaaaahhhhhh. Peace and quiet.

Riding the "train".

I don't know why Sean didn't smile. I swear he was stoked to be wearing the glasses...

I have to say - today was a good day.

Halloween is coming...

2009-10-04T14:53:00.001-07:00

We are gearing up for Halloween this weekend. We got out the decorations, made some of our own and went to get the costumes.

Evie will be a fairy princess, with a beautiful pink dress and cute little wings. Sean is a scary skeleton. Ryan will continue with the prior 2 years' theme: Public Service. He's going to be a SWAT officer. (He was a police officer 2 years ago and a firefighter last year.) We have a feeling Ryan might be enlisting when he turns 18....

They are all very excited. Every year Halloween gets more and more fun with these guys.

Slapstick

2009-09-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

So the boys and I have this this little game we play. It's probably not a good game to play... I suppose it's actually not setting a good example for the kids, but it's just so fun.

Here's how the game goes: they sneak up and whack me with their hand. Then I hit them upside the head with my hand before they can run away. The harder they hit me, the harder I hit them. Is that bad? They think it's hilarious. It's one of their favorite games!

So anyway..... We were playing the whack-a-you--whack-a-me the game this evening. Ryan slipped one in and I wasn't quick enough to whack him back. So I chased him down. What!?!? What's wrong with that? Anyway, I intended to give him a loving whack on the booty, but I missed and slapped him on the lower back. HARD. The instant I hit him I knew it was way too hard. My hand was stinging. I waited for the screams to come. But instead he LAUGHED. I couldn't believe it. I declared the game over on account of my bad behavior.

After that we declared it bedtime and I had Sean go choose a book. While we were waiting I took a peek at Ryan's back to see if any damage was done. He had a BIG RED HANDPRINT on his back. I felt really bad at that point.

Then we read the story and went upstairs to brush teeth. Ryan raised up his shirt and snuck a look at his back. He saw the handprint and declared it to be "AWESOME!!!". Then as I was tucking them into bed he asked me to whack him again. At least I'm teaching him to be tough, right? And I didn't feel quite so bad anymore.

Skinny Mini and other news.

2009-09-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Evie had her 15 month checkup yesterday. All seems well and fine - for the most part. Her height is 31.5 in (75-90th percentile), her head circumference is in the 50th percentile, but she only weights 20lb 8oz - which is the 10th percentile! But the Dr. asked me if she eats well, to which I replied she does. Upon hearing that he is completely unconcerned. He said she could weigh 3lbs less than she does now and still be healthy as long as she eats a good amount of food. She's just tall and skinny.

The poor little lady had to get 3 shots in her tiny thighs, but luckily she won't have to go to the Dr's office again until she's 2. Barring any illness of course. She took them pretty well - only cried for a minute and then she was just fine.

Sean's teacher informed me today that he is doing excellent. He's very well off both physically and developmentally for a 3 year old. She's impressed! But we all already knew that, didn't we? We're going to go ahead and switch him to the 5 day a week preschool sometime soon. He really loves the preschool - looks forward to it every day - and our routines are really messed up on Mondays and Fridays when he doesn't have school. I still have to call the office to switch, but hopefully he'll be able to switch soon.

Meanwhile, Ryan had his first "yellow" day at school. The kids in school all start at the "green" level every day on the discipline chart. After one infraction they get moved to yellow, then to red, then blue (the principal's office). I guess he wasn't listening to the teacher and touched a container of pennies that the teacher told them not to touch. Rich and I were surprised. I suppose there's a first for everything.

In other exciting news, Rich is going in for LASIK on Friday. He's been wanting it for a while, and recently was told by the optometrist that he should wear sunglasses every day. He tried a couple of times to get prescriptions sunglasses, but they didn't work very well and gave him double vision and disorientation. So we figured now was a perfect time to get zapped in the eye by a frickin laser beam. I suppose I'll have to wait. Sigh.

Oh yes, I'm going back to work for just a few hours a week at Ben's accounting office. Rich's mom will come over to watch the kiddos and take over kid-shuttle duties for a couple days a week. I don't know how long I'll be needed at the job, but it will be a welcome change from the tedium of being at home every single day. Plus I'll earn a few bucks to stash in my retirement account. Woo-hoo.

Stormy Night

2009-08-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

Finally tonight we are having what amounts to a teeny monsoon storm. No torrential downpour, though, but lots of wind, lightning and thunder, which is nice for a change. Been a pretty lame monsoon this year overall, though.

We're getting along just fine. Nuthin' special happening lately.

Rich is turning 30 on Saturday. Yay! We're just going to BBQ with Rich's parents at our house on Saturday. Low-key, easy on the budget.

Let's see... Ryan is doing well in school. His teacher says he's a "real sweetie". He has a list of friends he wants to invite to his birthday party already (which is pretty much his whole class...). That goes with a birthday present wish list about a mile long. A boy can dream.

Sean is doing great in preschool. He's much more excited about this preschool than he was about the Y's or the city of Gilbert's. He is a bit peeved that it's only 3 days a week, and that he can't go in the morning, too. I think if it were up to him he'd attend all day long, just like his brother. He seems to be doing really well and that makes me extremely happy. He is also a puzzle master. He LOVES the puzzles. Nana brought him one on Saturday night from her trip to Seattle, and first thing Sunday morning he was putting it together. I thought he might get frustrated with it since it's a few more pieces than the ones he usually does and since it was brand new, but he powered through it and did it all on his own. Marvelous!

Evie. What's she been up to? Her latest hobbies include: putting anything she finds on the floor into the trash, wearing shoes, changing her shoes to different shoes, having books read to her over and over and over again, getting stuck in places that she can't get down from, begging for snacks, eating, eating, eating, helping with the laundry, not napping, wearing her beads and bracelets, playing with RC cars and being terribly cute. She also loves getting the games out of the game closet and ripping them to shreds before re-depositing them around the house. That's one of my favs. She's understanding more and more every day, it's fun to talk to her and ask her to do things and watch her follow my directions. She's so smart! :)

I can smell the rain in the air now. Not a downpour, just a solid sprinkle, I guess. Tis a good smell.

I can't believe it's September already. How time flies. Two months and Ryan will be 6. He'll start getting wiggly teeth. He's getting bigger every day, I swear. I thought his pants from last year would fit fine this winter, but I don't think they will after all. Wow.

I'm at the point where I can't wait for summer temperatures to end. I'm pining for those brisk 80 degree November days.... aaah... I can feel the fuzzy sweaters and long pants keeping me from being chilled. PFFFTTTTT. Summer in Phoenix sux.

Sean's First Day at (Real) Preschool

2009-08-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

Rich, Evie and I dropped Sean off for his first day of real preschool this afternoon. He was pretty happy, but we were wary because this morning he was tempermental and crying a lot. He told me he didn't want to go to preschool. But by the time we were to leave he was feeling better and quite excited about preschool.

We got there and the teacher informed us that Ryan had dropped by (read: barged in) the classroom that morning to see if Sean was there. She told him to come by in the afternoon. Well, no sooner than we got there and started saying our goodbyes to Sean, there was a noise at one of the classroom doors (like someone was trying to open it). The assistant went over and opened it and lo and behold, there was Ryan, right on cue. He said a huge hello to Sean, then came over and gave me a hug. What a sweetie. I'm sure that helped Sean feel better about his first day at preschool if he was having any qualms at all. I informed Ryan that he couldn't come barging in every day, though. The teachers and other parents thought it was really cute and sweet. Because it was.

So we left Sean to do his work. They had puzzles (PUZZLES! WooT!) laid out on the ground under laminated papers with the kids' names on them. He found his name and went right to work on the puzzle. I hope they have more complicated puzzles, b/c those were so simple he'll be bored in a matter of seconds. Numbers 0-9, basic shapes, 5 piece puzzles... gimme a break, Sean can do those in his sleep- c'mon, doesn't every preschooler know how to put together a puzzle with all 5o states both right side up and upside down? Psssht. That's cake for Sean.

Anyhoo. I forgot to take pics of him going to class, so I'll have to take some pics of him leaving class. I'll just make him walk backwards and it'll look the same, right?

. . .

Evie (the Diva) is such a ham. She loves wearing her beads, hats, and (courtesy of Grandma Hoppe) sunglasses. She ROCKS the sunglasses.

Here are some other recent photos for your viewing pleasure:

Updates

2009-08-11T20:44:00.001-07:00

Ryan had his first day of school yesterday. Seems to be liking it just fine. He was pretty excited.

Sean starts preschool next Tuesday. They altered the schedule so he will start at 1130ish and get out at 230ish. Then Ry gets out at 325. PM preschool was supposed to let out about 15 min before regular school but some numbnut decided to change it. This will waste a LOT of my time, now I'll have to drive back and forth from the school 4 times instead of 3. And poor Sean will have to eat his lunch at 1030 in order to get to school on time! How stupid. I'm so angry about this. I sent an email to the preschool coordinator last week but have not gotten a response. I'll have to call her up tomorrow.

Evie is now officially a full time walker. We're so proud! She has a favorite book now, her numbers book. It's a simple little one that goes 1-10 with cutesy pictures. She has me reading it several times a day. She's got the beginning of several "words" in her vocabulary, such as milk, bird, uh-oh, BAM! and poop. Really, what more does she need to know? ; )

It's been quiet around the house during the day with just Sean, Evie and I, but once Ryan gets home all hell breaks loose. Sean doesn't like the competition for my time, and Ryan seems to feel the need to nag Sean incessantly. So it's all tears and yelling until dinnertime. Hopefully this will settle down within the next couple of weeks.

Dog Days

2009-07-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

Ugh. It's hot.

Really hot. One of the hottest Julys on record so far. I suppose that's only fair after we had an unseasonably cool June, but jeez.

Well, things have been fairly boring around here lately. I'm (im)patiently waiting for the start of school.

Evie has started toddling around here a little. She'll walk a few steps here and there and then decide crawling is faster and just plop down. She's totally unmotivated to walk. I did buy her a cute pair of sandals today because I've started going back to the gym and the daycare there said that she needs to wear shoes. Even though she isn't actually walking yet. Gimme a break. But she seems to like them, she was wearing them almost all day long.

Ryan, meanwhile, found my old Razr phone yesterday. It still had a bit of power in it (remarkably) so he started fiddling around with it. He was simply thrilled. Within minutes he figured out how to take pictures, how to play the mp3's that I had on there, and how to play the games. That phone has been attached to him like super glue ever since. It didn't take him long to request that we activate service for it because he wants to call people. I told him he can get service when he's a teenager. We walked around the store today with him blaring those songs on the phone the whole time. It's amazing how easily he latches on to technology. He'll be a great programmer with Rich's influence. Don't worry, I've told him to NOT call 911 (because even if you don't pay for service the phone will still dial it.) But he still REALLY wants to be able to call whoever he wants whenever he wants, so I'm going to write down the family's phone #'s so that he can give you guys a call at his whim. We'll see if it works. If he bugs you too much I may have to set some rules. Just don't be surprised if you get a call from Ryan soon!

Sean is a little jealous. He wants to use one of Rich's old cell phones, but it doesn't have any songs on it, so that's a bummer. I'll have to see what I can do about that.

He's going to get his own apartment soon, too....

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

In addition to clearing the table after dinner, emptying the trash in the living room and bathrooms weekly, cleaning up the playroom, helping put the groceries in the car and bringing them into the house, wiping down the dinner table and wiping down the kitchen counter, Ryan has requested to do his own laundry.

Really. All this is under his own motivation.

He has been really enthusiastic about helping out around the house the past few days. He really wants chores to do in order to get an allowance. He wants to buy a battery-powered car that he and Sean can ride around in. We made a chore chart with all the things he can do to help out. He wanted to fold his own (and his brother's) laundry, so I showed him how. He does a good job at it!

Then today he requested that he does the washing and drying of the laundry, too! I considered how badly things could go wrong if he messed up (not very) and concluded that he could handle it. I went through the how-to with him and he seems to understand. So I set him loose! He's just finishing up his first load now - taking it upstairs to put away. Wow. I love his motivation!

I sure hope this enthusiasm he has for chores carries down to his siblings... It sure would be nice to have kids who actually LIKE to do their chores!

To Walk or Not to Walk

2009-07-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

Evie took her first steps last Monday. Don't worry, you didn't miss much. It was cute and all, mind you, but it was brief. And there has not yet been a repeat performance.

She just stood up that morning, all on her own, and she had a mischevious look about her. I egged her on by saying "C'mon Evie... are you going to walk for us? C'mon Evie!" She got a big smile on her face and started shuffling her feet. She took about 5 or 6 steps then bomped down on her butt. I told Ry to run upstairs to get Rich out of bed (sleepyhead.......). Ry dutifully did my bidding. Rich came down and after some cajoling Evie took a few more steps.

So this past week she hasn't walked another step. I suppose she just wanted to show us that she could walk but she CHOOSES not to. What a diva.

4th of July

2009-07-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

Evie wandering through the grass.

Fireworks Art

Ryan and Sean are disappointed.

We went out to Schnepf Farms for the 4th of July last night. It was ok... The boys were disappointed because they had activities to do, such as a rock climbing wall, bounce houses, water slides and pony rides. Rich took them to do some stuff while I waited at our spot with Evie, but they came back 30 min later without having done anything fun. The lines were so long and moving so slowly that they gave up. Ryan was very bummed, Sean was indifferent.

The mosquitos were out and biting (of course I didn't even think to bring repellant). The kids were very excited for the fireworks to start. Ryan was keeping close tabs on what time it was all evening. Finally they dimmed the lights and they started with those big BANG ones that are extremely loud. We had chosen a spot that was very close to where the fireworks were launched from and it was almost deafening. Evie freaked out. Sean freaked out. Ryan thought it was great. So Rich took Evie and Sean a bit farther away so they wouldn't be so upset and I sat and watched the show with Ryan. Ryan loved the fireworks. His favorites were the ones that changed to two or three different colors. When it was done Rich came back and got us. Evie had fallen asleep. We walked back to the car. The worst part of this experience was leaving. After we reached the car we had to wait almost an hour before we even LEFT the parking lot. I don't think we will be going back next year. When we went a few years ago it wasn't nearly that bad. We really like the wide open spaces and the proximity to the fireworks, but their management of the event is poor.

In any case, the kids were all exhausted and cranky Sunday. Go figure.

Whoops

2009-06-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

I seem to have entirely forgot about my blog for a few weeks. Huh.

Well, I suppose it took a while to read Rich's novella about camping and everyone needed a break after that!

It's been a month since school let out for Ryan. A Very. Long. Month. Sean and Ry seem to be at it like cats & dogs lately. Every day is a long line of tattle-tailing, whining, fighting and nagging. I can't wait for school to start again.

In a desperate attempt to placate the little ones, we have started building a cardboard "house" for them to play in. I first got a freezer box from the local appliance store. I cut out a door and some window holes. It was a big hit. Finding more boxes has been tough, but we got a few from some people who had some new furniture delivered to their house. One of those we made into a kitchen, complete with a sink and drawn-on stove, oven and microwave. Next we'll make a couple of bedrooms for the boys so I can send them to their own rooms when the misbehave. They seem to think it's lots of fun and we have lots of space in the playroom, so maybe this cardboard house will turn out to be a mansion! We can add a game room, a parlor, maybe even a laundry room. For some reason they really want a bathroom, but I think I'll have to pass on that one. I wouldn't want them getting carried away and "forgetting" that this is a PLAY house...

I went to visit the Hoppes out in California last week for Heather's graduation. Had a good time, went to the beach with Evie & hung out with the parental units. Evie loved playing in the sand at the beach - dumping it in and out of buckets, demolishing any structures I made, playing in the bucket of ocean water. The ocean itself was not appealing to her, she didn't even want to stick her feet in. I kinda expected that (it was cooooold!).

Evie's first birthday was the Wednedsay before last. We just had a dinner with Rich's parents and came back to our house for cake, ice cream and presents. I think she had a good time. She loved her presents: a ride on horsie, a doll that giggles maniacally, bathtub toys, a learning purse, a tea set, some new clothes. She loves everything. So do the brothers.

It's hard to believe she's already one. She's so big. Actually, techically she's on the small side. We had her one year checkup on Tuesday. She's in the 40th percentile for height and only the 20th for weight. So she's petite (but healthy, the Dr. assures us, so don't worry!). But she's soooo close to walking. She can stand up all on her own, but she just hasn't tried walking yet. I was sure she'd be our early walker! In any case, she's learning to use a spoon and fork. Just this afternoon she was using her fork and stabbing food and actually getting it into her mouth. I'm so proud!

The poor thing hasn't been feeling well for the past few days though. She's a bit constipated (which oddly enough none of our kids seems to have ever had a problem with) and very unhappy about it. She might be teething or have a virus, too. We went to a Fathers Day dinner with Rich's parents tonight and she refused to eat and just wanted to be held. She was whimpery and sad, which makes all of us sad. We're hoping she'll start feeling better tomorrow - we started giving her prune juice tonight to try an get things moving along.

The men-folk go camping

2009-06-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the boys and I borrowed my dads truck and headed up north to go camping. We left Sarah and Evie at home cause Sarah didn't really want to go unless she had a camper to sleep, shower and go to the bathroom in. Evie not walking yet was the final nail in the coffin - Sarah seems to be under the impression that a the forest ground is somehow not suitable for crawling.

The boys and I weren't camping alone, though. We met up with my Uncle Jim and Aunt Jordie and some of my cousins and their kids. This is something that I've been doing for almost as long as I can remember. I loved going up to the Rim twice every summer, for a week at a time and playing with my cousins and, when I got a bit older, going out with the grown ups and playing disc golf and volleyball and washing up in the creek. Then we'd all have dinner and sit around the camp fire. It was something I looked forward to every year, especially as it got hotter and hotter outside.

The boys and Sarah and I all went camping once before with Uncle Jim and the family. But that was 2 years ago before we moved to San Fransico, and even though Ryan still remembers it a little, Sean doesn't remember it at all. It was one of the reasons I wanted to move back, and what I was most excited about after we made the final decision.

This past weekend was awesome! The boys and I all had a blast from the moment we got there until it was time to go home. We left Friday after the boys finished their swimming class and we ate lunch. It took longer to get to the camp ground than I was hoping, mostly because the boys seemed to be on alternating potty schedules - every hour one of them wanted me to pull over so they could go to the bathroom. I'm pretty sure that Ryan's main incentive was the delight he gets from peeing on the side of the road, because he only ever needed to go when we were 50 miles away from any kind of rest area.

Eventually, we did finally make it to the camp site around 5pm. When we got there I stopped to chat with my Uncle to figure out where we should park the truck and setup our tent. And as soon as we stopped my cousin Tristens oldest boy, Colton, came running out to say hello. As soon as Ryan saw Colton he unstrapped and was leaning out the window screaming, "Colton!" Sean probably would have done the same but he's still in a car seat and hasn't quite mastered unbuckling himself. I decided to let the boys out so they could start to play while I was getting things setup and as soon as I went to get Ryan out he practically jumped out of the window. He wasn't going to wait for me to open the door, he insisted on coming out through the window, whether I helped him or not.

So, with the boys off playing I went about setting up our tent. It's a pretty easy tent to setup, the only problem with it is that the poles are supposed to all be connected by bungie cords and color coded, which makes it super simple to figure out even without instructions. But, a few of the colored stickers had pealed off the poles and the bungies broke on others, making it real pain to figure out even with the instructions. But with the help of my Uncle Jim and Uncle Danny - who, between the 2 of them probably have about 50-60 years of experience camping and setting up tents - it got done before it was very dark.

I was planning to make hots dogs for dinner for me and the boys that night, but my Aunt Jordie wasn't having any of that. She insisted that she had more than enough taco salad and that we should eat with them. I was tired and still needed to get our mattresses blown up and sleeping bags out, in addition to all the cooking gear, so I didn't argue to much.

After eating I got the mattresses blown up and everything unpacked and went to join the boys and everyone else by the campfire and say hello to everyone that was there that I hadn't said hello to yet - my cousin Lisa, Jims 3rd daughter who is only a few months younger than I am, and her daughter Gracie, Jims oldest daught Misti and her son Scotty and daughter Shanna, and Jims youngest, Sara, and her boyfriend Evan.

The boys were enthralled by the fire place. They'd seen fire in a fireplace at one of our old houses before, but neither of them have ever sat around a campfire. They thought it was the coolest thing ever, especially when Aunt Jordi and the girls went and got out the graham crackers, marshmellows and chocolate bars and announced it was time to make S'mores. Surprisingly, neither of them wanted to drink the hot chocolate that I made for them. Instead, as soon as they got their S'mores they were off to play in the dark with Gracie, Shanna and Colton. I'm not sure what they were doing since it was too dark to see them, but they sure sounded like they were having a bunch of fun, especially once I gave Ryan a flashlight.

I told the boys that they could stay up until they were ready to go to bed. After a while, Sean sat down in a chair next to me and a few minutes later looked over at me, bleary eyed, and said, "Daddy, I'm ready for bed." I was nervous about leaving him in the tent by himself since it was going to be dark, but I went and got him changed and read him - and Ryan and Colton, who weren't going to bed yet but wanted to listen - a story. I went back to the fire thinking he was too tired to care about it being dark. But a few minutes later everyone heard him screaming and I went to check on him and he was just upset because he couldn't get the tent door unzipped so he could go to the bathroom. After I opened it for him and he took care of business I didn't hear from him again until the middle of the night.

Ryan and I eventually went to bed around 9:30 or so, along with everyone else. We had two mattresses - one that was for a single person but double high, and another that was a king size but pretty thin. We had 2 regular, adult-sized sleeping bags and a little kids Thomas the Train sleeping bag that Ryan had used last time we went camping. I slept on the single person mattress taking one of the adult sleeping bags. I had Ryan and Sean sleep on the king size mattress with Ryan in the other adult sized sleeping bag and Sean using the Thomas the Train sleeping bag. It worked out pretty well at first, everyone got to sleep pretty well and was comfortable enough. Half way through the night, though, I heard a whining and wimpering coming from Sean. He'd managing to work his way out of his sleeping bag and was freezing code - it was much colder than I expected it to be, probably close to freezing. I let him come and sleep in bed with me for the rest of the night but knew that we'd have to change things up a bit the next night.

The next morning, the boys woke up and we left our tent to find that - surprise, surprise - we were the first ones up! I fed the boys a simple breakfast of cereal and a blueberry muffin - which Ryan refused! Eventually the rest of the camp woke up too - they didn't have much choice with the boys out playing, I did my best to keep them quiet but they're 3 and 5 years old, so there was only so much I could do.

Once everyone was up and had some coffee in them, the guys all headed out to play disc golf. This isn't like disc golf in the city, as you might imagine. Since we're out in the forest there are quite a few more obstacles and the course mostly consists of hitting stumps, dead trees and the occasional gnarly collection of branches. But it's lots of fun. I did surprisingly well, keeping within a few strokes of Jim and Danny throughout all 18 holes. Considering the last time I played disc golf was 2 years when we last went camping and they've been doing this regularly since before I was born, I consider that to be pretty dang outstanding.

It wasn't completely without casualities, however. I'm really sad to say that 2 of the discs that I've had for at least the past 15 years - since Uncle Jim gave them to me - bit the dust. In both cases I threw the disc, and it was a good throw. Hard, straight, not too low and not too high. Unfortunately, they weren't quite on target and smacked into trees. The collision was hard enough to split the discs almost in half. On one occasion I also managed to punch a tree. My first throw landed right next to a tree, and when I made my second throw, as I followed through after releasing the disc, my hand slammed into a tree. My hand got pretty torn up and swelled up a bit later in the afternoon, but it's feeling pretty good now.

Ryan, Sean and Colton all decided they wanted to go with us. They didn't last past the 5th or 6th hole. Not too much of a surprise I suppose, last time we went I wound up carrying Sean through the whole 18 holes and Ryan was complaining about being tired. But that was 2 years so I thought they might do better. But I think the allure of playing with around the camp was more compelling to them than trouncing about the forest after us old guys.

When we finished all 18 holes and got back to the camp, I found out that the boys had had a second breakfast of potatoes, eggs, and biscuits that Jordi made. Since there was plenty to go around I decided to have a second breakfast myself and it was yummy. While I was eating, Jordi came out and was eating her breakfast. She started talking about dinner, and said that they were going to barbeque steaks and chicken breats. Jordi asked me what I and the boys would prefer for dinner. I tried to protest, telling her that we had brought plenty of our own food and had meal plans all laid out and everything. Her response was, "Well, why did you do that?" What can I say, that's just Jordi. If you're around and she's cooking, she's going to feed you. I love her.

The next thing we did Saturday was to go mountain biking. Ryan really didn't want me to go. At first I asked him if he'd be okay with that. The answer was a big pouty face and a whiny, "Nooo." I really wanted to go so when everyone was heading off I put my foot down and told Ryan that I was going and he'd have to deal with it. I figured it wouldn't be much of a big deal because he hadn't really cared the rest of the time where I was as he was off playing and having fun. I knew he'd get over it. And sure enough he did. Aunt Jordi brought out giant sticker books for the kids to play with and she worked with Ryan on his. She said that after they finished up Ryan said, "I had so much fun I forgot my Daddy left." So I think I made the right decision, at least as far as the kids go.

I didn't have a bike of my own, so I rode Chads (Lisas husbands) bike. I was doing pretty well. I crashed a couple of times but was behind my cousin Sara who was really hauling butt in the lead. I was doing well for a city kid, until we hit a pretty good straightaway along a fence and I figured I'd put the petal to the metal and try and catch up with Sara. I was making up ground when I suddenly looked up and noticed a big log that had fallen along the path. I manage to vear left and not completely crash, but it was uphill and I was in the wrong gear for it. So I had to stop and walk around the log. After that there was an open field, pock marked with gopher holes. I made it across ok, but the gears were making strange noises. When I got the other side of the field and shifted gears to go up a hill the pedals just froze in place. I waited for Uncle Jim to catch up, cause he's an expert bike mechanic and asked him for help. Well, he couldn't figure out what I had done but it was completely broken. The best he managed to do was get the chain off the gears so I could at least push the bike. So that's what I did. All the way back to camp. It took about half an hour of going up and down steep hills and over rough terrain. And it started raining. But at least I managed to make it back to camp. Jim took a closer look at it after they got back and I completely destroyed the doo-dad that made the gear shifting work - somehow I managed to get the chain wrapped around it about 2 or 3 times. Luckily, he just happened to have a replacement doo-dad of exactly the same type in his tool case so he was able to fix it.

Later, we played volleyball. Another long time camping tradition. There were six of us playing, 3 to a team. It was me, my cousin Misti and Evan. On the other team were Lisa, Jim and Mistis son Scotty. My team won 3 out of 4 games, in no small part due to Misti who no one expected to do so well - least of all herself - but did a fantastic job! Maybe it was because of all the time she spent relaxing and rolling around on the floor after hitting the ball over the net for a point.

After those first 4 games, Chad, Lisas husband whose bike I had borrowed and broken so horribly, arrived. He joined in playing volleyball, giving me crap the whole time about his bike. He played on the other team and we picked up Sara. We didn't do so well. Our team chemistry was totally off from that point on. Oh well.

That night we barbequed chicken and steak over the fire on Chads grill. It was Chad and Evans idea, so they were in charge. They did a great job and it was delicious. It was cold outside so we all jammed into Mistis trailer. It's a large trailer, but with 5 kids 5 years of age and younger, a 13 year old and 8 adults, it was a little cramped. But it wasn't uncomfortably cramped and everyone enjoyed the food and the company - not to mention being out of the cold.

After that we stoked the fire again and sat around it. Jim brought out the Trivial Pursuit cards and we all settled in for another traditional camping pasttime of answering trivia questions around the campfire. My team swept at that. ;)

Sean was out pretty quickly. He came over and sat in my lap almost as soon as I sat down and within 15 minutes was out cold. Ryan is another story. He decided it was his job to keep the fire burning hot. We told him he could gather up an dry pine needles and pine cones he could find and toss them into the fire. And gather them he did. For an hour and a half. Non stop. Even when the Sun went down he was searching in the dark until I decided to let him have the flashlight. And every once in a while he'd surprise us by all of a sudden grabbing a log about the size of his arm and throwing it in too. Even Jim commented on his seemingly inexhaustable amount of energy - Colton collapsed on Jordi shortly after Sean collapsed on me. Eventually even Ryan tired out and went and sat on the chair next to me. He curled up on the little metal folding chair almost like a cat and started to fall asleep. After a while he sat up and said he was ready to go to bed. We were nearly done with a trivia game so I told him to wait a minute or 2. I watched him the next couple of minutes and he fought hard but just couldn't keep his eyes open or his head up.

When we finished the trivia game I took both Sean and Ryan back to our tent. This was probably the worst part of the whole camping trip. It was super cold and the boys were both exhausted. But I needed to get them undressed and into their pajamas so they'd be warm enough. They both cried the whole time. Sean much worse than Ryan. Sean was full on wailing like he was in his own personal hell. Ryan whimpered and whined and let out the occasional sob but managed to get through it. Since the previous night hadn't worked out so well I decided to change the sleeping arrangements. Instead of me sleeping on the single person, double height mattress and the boys on the king sized, thinner mattress we all slept on the king sized mattress. I put one of the sleeping bags underneath us and the other on top of us. I slept in the middle so the boys could get some of my body heat. It worked out pretty well - for the boys. Neither of them woke up all night. I wish I could say the same for myself. I woke up several times with my lower back aching and tried getting into a more comfortable position, but it was hard without distrubing the boys. I made it through the night, but I didn't get much sleep and was sore the next morning.

But Sunday morning did come and, lo-and-behold, we were the first ones up again! I don't know what it is with those boys, but they play hard all day - longer than most kids - and start earlier in the morning. I'd say it's great they've got so much energy and are so healthy, but it's exhausting!

Sunday was much like Saturday. Disc golf in the morning - I did pretty well on the front 9, and was only 1 stroke behind the leader, Evan, when we finished them. But the back 9 were a whole different story. I lost about 4 or 5 strokes on the leader, Jim, after the first 3 or 4 holes. Surprisingly I was still closer to him than Evan or Chad. The final holes I was able to make up some strokes because I stopped trying to throw it so damn hard and just tried to get it to go straight. Amazing how things work when you try and do them properly. All the kids, including Shanna and Gracie, tried to come along with us again, but they peetered out on hole 4 or 5 and headed back to camp.

After eating a nice big breakfast of pancakes and sausages, everyone headed out to go biking again. Since Chad had arrived yesterday he rode his bike, so I had to stay at camp. I figured that was ok cause I didn't feeling like taking a bike on a walk again, and I needed to get our tent and everything else packed up so we could leave in the afternoon after volleyball. So I did all of that and had plenty of time left to play with the kids along with Jordi - we were the only adults left in the camp while everyone was out riding. Most of the time the kids took turns swinging from a swing that had been hung from a tree and playing in the back of Jims pickup truck. They all played really well together. The highlight for me was when Gracie asked Jordi what my name was. Jordi told her, "That's cousin Richard." and Gracie responded, "No, cousin Daddy." She's a sweet kid.

After everyone got back from biking and grabbed snacks it was time for volleyball again. This time it was me, Lisa and Jim on one team with Chad, Evan and Scotty on the other team. our team kicked butt. We played 8 games and my team won all but the last one, and even that one was close.

When we finished playing volleyball I went to gather the kids up and get ready to leave. Ryan immediately said, "I don't want to leave right now." I was fully expecting that so I replied, "Don't you want to get home and see Mommy and Evie? And go to McDonalds on the way?" To which he responded, "After we go to McDonalds can we come back?" Doing my best to stifle a laugh I told him we had to get home cause I had to work the next day and they had swimming lessons. So we said our goodbyes to the family and I eventually managed to get the boys loaded into the truck.

We headed to McDonalds on the way back home. We ate and the boys played and we got ice cream and cookies for dessert. We finally got home and got the boys bathed - we couldn't let them go to bed as filthy as they were! - and into bed. They were pretty much completely exhausted. Sean had fallen asleep in the car and didn't really wake up even during the bath.

All in all it was an awesome trip. My only regrets are that we didn't get to stay longer and that it was too cold to go swimming in any of the creeks. Oh well, something to look forward to next time!

Thiiiiiiis close...

2009-05-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Evie stood up on her own for the first time today. She was tooting around on the floor chewing on one of Sean's sandals and she just planted her feet, did a little squat and stood right up. She squealed with happiness! I was so excited!

It will just be a couple weeks before she starts walking now. She's so big. You should see her dance, too. She really shakes her booty. I've been trying to get a video of her gettin' down, but it's hard to tape her. Every time I whip out the camera she scoots right on over to it and just wants to watch herself on the lcd. She really loves herself. Is that so bad? I can't blame her, really. She's too cute.

Last Day of School!

2009-05-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

Today was Ryan's last day of Kindergarten (sniff, sniff...). I now have a first grader. omg I'm old.

He is so stoked about summer break. I predict the novelty will wear off at about 10:00am tomorrow morning, after he's stated that he's bored about 35 times and I've responded to him:

1) play with your brother.
2) play with one of your toys.
3) play outside.
4) what can you do to fix that?
5) what you want me to do about it?
6) when does school start again?
7) where's the duct tape for your mouth?
8) repeat steps 1) - 7) ad nauseum.

I don't think he understands that every day won't be a field day with Mommy going to the zoo, museums, swimming, etc, etc. I've told him that I'm not going to be his constant playmate throughout the summer, that he's going to have to keep himself busy, but I don't think that's registering. However I did sign the boys up for swimming lessons starting next week, as well as a weekly "play gym" class that I enrolled Ryan and Sean in to keep them busy one day each week for the whole summer. We'll also try to go to a few museums and other fun places, too, but not every day!

I'm going to try to keep them off the TV as much as possible, too. I have a feeling it will be easier said than done, though. When we get to the super-hot days of July and it's been 115 degrees for 20 days in a row and you don't even want to step foot outside for fear of the soles of your shoes melting and your lungs getting seared by the scorching heat it will be quite tempting to pull the shades and relax in a cocoon of sweet, crisp, chilled air while lazing about out in front of the tube. Sounds pretty good, actually.

Stairmaster

2009-05-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

Evie is going to be trouble.

I think I've mentioned this before. But that girl is smart.

We put up a makeshift baby barrier across the bottom of the stairs so Miss Getintoeverything didn't decide to take a hike upstairs and promptly fall to her ultimate demise below. It's really a metal dog "pen" type thing, with several wire panels that are joined together at the edges to form one long continous barrier. We just propped it up so we could easily swing it to or fro in order to get up the stairs.

We found out on Tuesday that it's easy for Evie to swing it to and fro as well.

I was on my computer in the living room while she was "playing" in the play room (where the stairs are). I heard some bumping around upstairs and I assumed it was Sean waking up from his nap. Then I realized that had been awfully quiet in the playroom. I hopped up from my seat and dashed into the playroom only to see the gate pulled back and my sweet baby was upstairs fooling around. Rich and I met at the top of the stairs; Evie was pleased as pie that the whole gang was together to party - she gave us a big smile and clapped.

So I tried to remember if I had left the gate open or if the little bugger opened it herself. Hmmm. Ponder, ponder. I think I must have just left it open. My bad. I took the kid back downstairs. She resumed playing happily with her toys and I put the gate soundly in place. I went around the corner back to my computer, reassured that she was secure to play in the baby-safe playroom.

I sat down for just a minute and again noticed the profound silence from the playroom. I went back around the corner and the gate was open and she was halfway up the stairs already.

Huh. Now I knew she was opening it on her own. I put her back in the playroom, closed the gate again, and watched her play for a few minutes. She seemd very involved in her toys so again I left her to herself. But this time I waited just around the corner. I gave her a few seconds then I peeked around the corner. As soon as she saw me leave she darted over to the gate and opened it up. Then she started booking it up the stairs. Caught red-handed.

The stairs wouldn't be such a big deal, but the landing is at an odd angle, so a normal pressure gate or railing gate won't fit without some major drilling into walls, and since we're renting that just won't work. So we have a pressure gate in a few steps up now, but the boys can't work the darn thing due to their lack of the necessary logic, motor skills and arm length. That's annoying for everyone. The boys don't like being restricted to the downstairs (even though they don't have any toys upstairs), so they devised a game. They throw something over the gate and then whine at me until I get it, or they try to get it themselves and henceforth knock down the gate (usually on top of themselves) and somehow get injured. It's already getting old.

Things I like about my minivan.

2009-05-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

A minivan is the bane of most young peoples' existence. You want to be cool, to have a sweet ride. You want to drive with the windows down, the breeze flowing through your hair, the radio cranked up. You want to zip around town and be carefree. Essentially you don't want a minivan.

However, kids need space and stuff, so we decided a while back to bite the bullet and get the nerd-mobile. At least the Odyssey is the sexiest of the bunch when it comes to minivans, IMHO.

But I love my minivan. I really do. Here's why:

1. It's red. Red cars are cool.
2. I can haul my husband, three kids, a double stroller, an umbrella stroller, a exersaucer, a swing, a pack and play, a cooler, and spare clothes, shoes, hats, sunscreen, water, & food for everyone all at once. Take that cool sportscar!
3. I get more bang for my buck at drive-in movies. Not that I've ever been to one.
4. I get better insurance rates. (Ugh - only old people say things like that.)
5. Don't people expect erratic driving from people in minivans? The whole distraction due to screaming children quotient? I've got that excuse in the bag.
6. Some of the doors automatically open when you push a button. Boo-yeah! Fancy Shmancy!
7. 13 Cupholders.
8. Quite comfy for long rides.
9. The most disruptive kids sit waaaaaay in the back seat. This means only 1/4 of the things they throw at me actually make contact.
10. Everybody knows minivans are luuuuv machines. Wink wink ;)

Sidenote: Does everyone name their cars? I do. The Saturn is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The Pilot was Big Red. And my Odyssey? The Shizz. Seriously. That's what I really named them. They like it when you name them.

Glory Days

2009-05-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

Sigh. What hams.

The boys and Rich and I went to a D-backs game last night. It was the boys' first real baseball game. They LOVED it. Imagine that - they were pretty much entertained throughout the whole night. By baseball, of all things. Of course I'm not sure if it was actually the game they were hyped about or the food high from the popcorn, Icees and Cold Stone Ice Cream. Things were starting to get a little hairy until the D-backs finally scored a run toward the end of the game. The the excitement was all fresh and new.

Of course the party couldn't last all night. This was the scene when we got home:

**Drool**

Sean was fine (he had a nap before we left) but poor Ry was down for the count. He fell right asleep when we got on the road.

They both agreed that they would like to go to another game. We also decided that this year we would try to go as many different types of professional sports games we can. Basketball, football, hockey (depending on if the Coyotes move or not), soccer (I don't even know if Phx has a soccer team???). Hopefully they will enjoy it for the sport and not just the abundance of food.

It's looking toothy around here.

2009-05-06T17:05:00.000-07:00

Evie is just popping teeth out left and right lately. She got one of her middle top teeth while we were at Disneyland, and yesterday the tooth to the left of her bottom middle teeth emerged. Her other top middle tooth is on the tippity-toppity verge of breaking through as well. Finally!

If you look reeeealllly close you can see the top one. She likes testing the new tooth out. She grinds it against her bottom teeth. And my nipples.

She's also started shuffling around with the aid of her little stroller/walker. She gets so mad when she hits a barrier and can't walk any further. But she can stand on her own for about 10 seconds at a time. Pretty soon she'll be running off into the sunset... She's so big already - I can't believe it.

Dun Dun Dun, Another One Bites the Dust....

2009-05-06T16:35:00.001-07:00

This morning I was warm in bed, snuggling and dozing with Evie. She slept all night in her crib without a fuss, but awoke early (5:30!) so I brought her back to bed with me for nursies. I figured I'd keep her in bed with me rather than chance the possibility that I put her back in her crib and she would fully awaken.

Anyhoo... I was dozing with the V. Right about 7:00 I am startled awake by a tremendous thump/crashing sound. It is obvious that something big has happened - I literally jump out of bed and run to the boys' room. By the time I reach my door the frantic scream-crying has also begun. I brace myself to find carnage.

Instead I find that Sean had just murdered piggy bank #2.

Oh, the horror!

The pic is after Ryan and I picked up the money. I had to do that right away due to the nature of the break - there were razor sharp shards of ceramic all over the carpet and the boys were trying to collect the money - I didn't need to deal with blood. Ry insisted on helping anyway, but I supervised carefully.

Why can't they make a Corelle piggy bank????

Anyway, Sean was B-A-W-L-I-N-G the whole time. It took him a long time to calm down enough to talk to him. Ryan immediately suggested he use some of his Target Gift Card money from his birthday to buy himself a new one. Excellent idea on behalf of the big one, I must say. That calmed Sean down right away.

So after preschool today we toddled down to the Target to scope out the piggy banks. The selection was worse than pitiful. He had his choice of a yellow, squared off elephant one (that was sooo ugly), and this one -

The next victim... er.. um.. bank...

Needless to say he went for the bling.

I told Sean that this is ABSOLUTELY his last piggy bank. If this one breaks it's tough luck - he'll have to stash his cash in his mattress or something.

Disneyland

2009-04-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

So we got back from Disneyland yesterday evening. Had lots of fun.

Let's see... Friday we left right after Ry got home from school. Drove to Blythe through lots of traffic b/c there was a race on the west side. Hotel pool in Blythe was closed, much to the boys' dismay. The hotel staff couldn't make the keycards work for the rooms they wanted us in originally, so they moved us to different rooms. One had three beds, the other a full kitchen. Worked out pretty well - the kids slept with Nana and Poppop and Rich & I and the baby got ours. Evie even slept through most of the night!

So in the morning we resumed our journey to Anaheim. We hit a ton of traffic when we got past Riverside. The hotel was great - two bedrooms and a living room with a small kitchen. We went to see Medievel Times for dinner and the kids LOVED it.

Sunday, Monday and Wednesday we headed off to Disneyland. It. Was. Hot. Unseasonably warm - highs near 100. We had a great time, we rode almost every ride - the Astro Orbiter, teacups, Astro Blasters, Nemo's submarines, Pirates of the Carribbean, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Peter Pan, Pooh, the Riverboat, Tom Sawyer's Island, Small World, Storybook ride, Star Tours, Carousel, Dumbo, Autopia, the Railroad, Casey Jr Train, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinnochio, Jungle Cruise, Tarzan Treehouse, Indiana Jones, Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Roger Rabbit. Wow. That's a lot! A bunch of them we rode more than once, even!

California Adventure on Tuesday was a bit less fun. We went on Soarin over California, the adventure trail, Maliboomer, Mulholland Madness, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Tower of Terror, Muppet Vision 3-D, Ladybug Boogie, Heimlich's train, and Tuck & Roll's buggies. We all liked the Soarin' over California (except Sean - he was too short to go). Rich and I loved Tower of Terror and Maliboomer (the one where they shoot you straight up in the air and then you freefall down). Turtle talk with Crush was a huge hit with Ryan. We got Ryan and Sean little brightly colored ball caps with propellers on the top on Tuesday, and those were their hats of choice for the remainder of the trip. Well "Crush" immediately singled out Ryan for a mini interview because of his hat. He asked Ry's name, and Ryan stuttered "R-Ryan". So Crush called him Rockin R-Ryan. He asked where Ry was from, which Ry correctly answered "Arizona". Then he asked Ry who he came with. Ry said "I don't know". Crush thought that was pretty funny. Then Crush wanted to talk to me. I was Surfin' Sarah. He asked how many kids I had, then made light of the fact that one had already disowned me. It was really funny. I think Crush was by far the hilight of Ryan's trip to California.

We wanted to go on the river rafting ride, but right after we got in line for it the ride broke. People were stranded in the rafts on the ramp up to the ride for at least half an hour, probably more. We were lucky we didn't get stuck there. Then we went on the Toy Story, and it kept breaking down right in the middle of our ride. We were stuck on it for at least 15 minutes just sitting there in the dark doing nothing. After that we decided against going on the roller coaster for fear of getting stuck on it. The ferris wheel wasn't even completed, the lagoon had no water in it, a lot of stuff was boarded off and under construction. The boys didn't want to ride the swings in the orange, the rockets, the bugs in the boxes ride, or most of the interesting rides, for that matter. They did have a whoopin good time at the splash play area, though.

Ryan liked many of the rides - we managed to get him on the Haunted Mansion, Matterhorn and Thunder Mountain, but he wouldn't go more than once on those. He chickened out for Splash Mountain and Space Mountain, though. Ryan's favorites were the Astro Blasters, Teacups and Alice in Wonderland. He had an absolutely wonderful time.

Sean liked Teacups the most, then Astro Blasters. We got him to go on the Matterhorn, but I really don't think he understood what he was in for. He didn't cry or anything like that, he said he liked it, but he wouldn't go on any other ride that was even remotely a little bit scary after that. He seemed happy enough going on the tame rides, though. I really didn't expect him to do many daring rides because whenever we go to a fair or amusement park he doesn't ride them. He enjoyed hanging out with Nana & Poppop a lot, though. He started getting tired on day 3, and he kept himself seated in the stroller most of the time.

Evie adored all the rides she went on, but she especially loved "it's a small world". She danced around and pointed at all of the things she saw. She was a great baby for the whole trip. She didn't get much sleep during the day since there was so much to look at, but she was her usual happy self. She loved the people watching, and she said and waved hi to everyone who glanced her way. Her only issue was that she couldn't get down on the ground and crawl around much on the vacation. There weren't any grassy areas in Disneyland that weren't fenced off, and putting her down on the asphalt with all the people was an obvious no-no. Indoor areas were just as bad. By the end of the day she was itching to get out of our hands and out of the stroller. Instead she was buckled into her carseat, where she promptly fell asleep every evening. That little girl got so tuckered out!

The parks were great - Sunday and Wednesday were the most crowded, but even then they weren't all that bad. We didn't have to wait in any line more than 20 minutes, and most of the time we only waited 5 min or just walked right on the ride. If it weren't so darn hot it would have been absolutely wonderful! The boys did enjoy swimming at the hotel pool almost every day, though. The hotel had a great continental breakfast every morning, too.

The boys were very well behaved for most of the days. We didn't have much whining, bickering or fighting for the most part until later on Tuesday. By Wednesday they were getting over tired and starting to have meltdowns. But by the time we got back home on Thursday, Ryan was over the edge. Everything that was said or done got met by a Ryan Tantrum. He didn't want to do anything or go anywhere but out front to play. Today it was Sean's turn to be a pill. Hopefully by tomorrow all will be well in the world again.

Rich and I have decided that we need a vacation from our vacation now. We had so much fun, now we need some relaxation!

Cutie with her ears.

Posin' with Mommy.

Treasure!!!

Waiting for Turtle Talk with Crush.

Peeking out.

Teacups!

The boys are ready to swim!

Evie's first bathing suit.
The boys wiped out.

Evie is tuckered out

Goin on a road trip

2009-04-15T13:54:00.001-07:00

We're getting ready for our super cool first non-annual totally beeotchin trip to Disneyland. Why is it always so much harder to do anything the week before a vacation?

Evie is all better from her roseola. I swear she's really teething now. It really looks like one of the top middle teeth is giong to break on thru. Really. I swear.

Ummmmmmm, gosh I just don't have much to say lately.

Maddie

2009-04-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

I regularly read a mommy blog by Heather Spohr. She had a daughter, Maddie, who passed away the day before yesterday. I didn't personally know Heather and Maddie, but I've read about Maddie for months on her mom's blog. I feel so bad for the Spohr family and I cannot even comprehend how they must feel. Maddie was only 17 months old. She was born prematurely and has been in and out of the hospital a lot for various things. She started coughing on Saturday and Sunday, so Heather took her to the Doctor's office on Monday. The doctor couldn't get her oxygen saturation up in the office so they called 911. Poor Maddie had too much difficulty breathing and she couldn't hold on any longer and died Tuesday night.

I can't get her out of my head. I was really upset Tuesday night after I found out. It's making me worry even more than usual about my own kids. I cannot even express how grateful I am that all of my kids have been born strong and healthy with no medical conditions or problems, and that they have avoided any catastrophies, but I still worry too much.

Evie is getting extra big hugs lately, I'll tell you what. She's driving me crazy, too. All of a sudden she has started sleeping well at night again. Last night she slept from 10:30-4:30 straight! Which I love, but due to paranoia I wake up every hour with an intense need to go check on her. So even when she does sleep I can't get any sleep. No win situation.

I'm sure I'll calm down about this in a few days and things will return to normal and I'll just worry a whole bunch instead of all the time. But my heart still goes out to the Spohrs and little Maddie.

Here's a link to Heather's site: remembermaddie.com

Evie's fever

2009-04-06T20:42:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Evie broke out in a rash. It wasn't too bad, just red spots all over her torso. Didn't seem to bother her or make her itch or anything like that. I looked up all of the symptoms she's been having (fever, not eating, loose poops, etc) online and came to the conclusion that it was roseola. I'd never heard of it before - apparently it's just some little virus - not a big deal. She still had the rash this morning so I called the Dr just to make sure and spoke with the triage nurse, who confirmed my diagnosis. Darn, not teething after all. She's still not sleeping well (no surprise there).

She'll be fine in a day or two.

Ho Hum

2009-04-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well, not much going on lately. Evie is still getting fevers, they come and go. We're hoping it's just associated with teething - her top two should be coming in any day now. She didn't eat much today, hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow so she can come with us to Grandma & Grandpa Wallaces'. She's actually been in a somewhat bad mood the past couple of days. Crying a lot, it's hard to console her and she's been clingy to me. She's been getting Tylenol every now and then when she's in an especially bad mood. I can't wait for her to get back to her usually happy, perky self. She is a little behind in her teething - she has the bottom two that she got at 7 months, but since then it's been a dry spell. Looking online I see that by now she should have 4 on top and bottom in the front and be starting in on her molars. Her first two were pretty easy on her which makes me wonder - I hope she's not getting several all at once. My poor baby...

Sean got accepted to the Amanecer Preschool thru Gilbert Public Schools, so it looks like he'll be going to the same school as Ryan in the fall. I put him in the PM class. Hopefully this will help Evie take better afternoon naps. I'm hoping it's a good program - the class consists of about 4 regular-needs kids to about 10 special-needs kids. The staff person I talked to said that most of the special-needs kids have speech difficulties. The regular kids are set up to be mentors for the others, and I was assured that he would definitely be getting a top-notch preschool education. This should be a good set-up for the speech difficulties kids since Sean is such a great and clear talker. He's been doing well in his regular preschool, too. His teacher really seems to like him (even if she can't always get his name right.)

Mr. Ryan has gotten the tantrum fever bad lately. Whenever something doesn't go his way he starts in with the waterworks and whining. It's so annoying and we have no idea how to quash it. Rich got a big taste of it today when he took the kids out to fly kites before dinner. Tantrum after tantrum from Ryan. Rich wasn't happy when they got home.

Rich is doing well. He's been doing the stretches/exercises that his PT showed him. He seems to be managing well. We've finally hit our deductible amount for our insurance- but I'm not sure if that's good or bad. We've had an expensive medical year so far, what with Rich's back, my allergies and Sean's stitches!

Only two weeks till Disneyland. We're gearing up. It's going to be the most exhausting vacation EVER. We have a 4 day park hopper pass. I'm expecting my feet to hurt very badly. We'll have to take turns taking Evie back to the hotel for rests. Or maybe she and I will just chill by the pool and live off of room service the whole time. Booyeah! That's the new plan!

Stitches out...

2009-04-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to report that Sean did a great job getting his stitches out this afternoon. They decided to strap him down to that horrible board again, but he was cool, calm and collected. The Dr. spent just a couple of minutes cutting the sutures and viola - he was done.

Gotta keep it short today - Evie is running a fever and starting to cry... Bye!

Sean's 3rd Birthday

2009-03-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday dear Sean,

Happy birthday to you.

Now blow out your candles!

Sweet little Sean turned three today. Hooray!

I spent all morning baking his preferred treat for this birthday. A special brownie "cake". I made three circular brownies of differing diameters, stacked them accordingly and decorated. He has been looking forward to his brownie cake all week long. Rich asked him yesterday what he was most excited about and it was the brownie. So the pressure was on for me to not screw it up. I did fine I think - it looked and tasted pretty darn good. Sean was quite happy with it - he scarfed it down lickity-split.

We had his party at the infamous Chuck E Cheese's. He had a bunch of fun playing with Colton, Grace, Shayna, Noah and his brother, of course. The best part was that as everyone was coming in they said "Happy Birthday" to him, and he just said "Happy Birthday" right back. He did this all evening long, even after we told him he should just say "Thanks" or something. It was so cute.

He got a remote control car like his brother's, a book, a game, aquarium train cars for the wooden train table, a hula hoop, some transformers, a hot-wheels shark thing, a Wii game, a Leapster game, a couple of gift cards, a boomerang, a kite and I don't know what else. Last week when Grandma Hoppe was here he got a mini-birthday party at Red Robin. She got him a different kind of remote control car (one that flips over and can keep going), and bubbles and a Wall-E giant coloring book. He's going to have another mini-party tomorrow when we go over to Nana's so Mommom can have some time with him, too. Talk about spoiled!

Rich and I have decided that this will be the last big birthday party for our kids. From now on we'll just do them at the park or at home where it's free. We felt that Sean should have a big one since Ryan's was at Amazing Jake's. We didn't want him to feel less loved because he had a smaller party, I guess. Evie is too young to care. Ryan also complained that he didn't get to play with the other kids as much as he would have liked today, which is true. Places like Amazing Jake's and C.E.C's are a bunch of fun, but it's not group fun, it's individuals playing games to get tickets. Rich pointed out that he had a lot more fun (as did Ryan) at a recent party they went to for one of Ryan's classmates at a local park. The kids got to interact with each other much more there, with kites and a pinata and other group things.

We came home after the party and gave the boys some extra time to play with some of the new toys. Everyone was so well behaved today. They even went right to bed. Well, Sean had to come down to get more water, but he was very nice about it.

I have to say, today was a good day.

In Stitches...

2009-03-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

First off, sorry for the hiatus. Been busy, had Grandma Hoppe visiting last week for Spring Break. Had a bunch of fun, went to the zoo, bowling, had a playdate. It was very tiring!

So I'll try to get back in the swing of things by giving a brief summary of the biggest physical disaster to bedevil one of our precious little chitlins. If reading of blood makes you ill please read no further...

Last night we went to dinner at Rumbi. We had a buy one get one free coupon - sweet! After dinner we had some time to kill so we went to Fiesta Mall so the kids could burn off some energy in the play area.

Things were going great - no tantrums and the boys found a couple of other boys to play a game of freeze tag. Everyone was having a grand old time right up until Sean tripped over one of the low-profile soft play structures and smashed his head on the only corner they have in the place. He immediately jumped up and ran full-throttle to me and his head was just gushing blood. I put my hand over his head for a second while I rummaged out one of Evie's bibs from my purse to hold against it. By then Rich had gotten over to us and took Sean from me and applied pressure to the wound with the bib. My hands had never been so covered with blood.

One of the other parents ran off to get us some paper towels and someone else called Mall Security for us. In a couple of minutes the security guard came over with a little medical kit and gave us a pad to absorb the blood and a cold pack. By then Sean's bleeding had dramatically slowed and he had stopped crying, so we knew he'd be okay. He took our info while I tried my best to get the blood off of everything.

We weren't sure what to do - neither of us have had experiences with cuts of this magnitude. Was it deep enough to require stitches? We were pretty sure the little guy didn't have a concussion since there was no passing out or pupil dilation or lethargy or anything like that. The security guard said he could call the fire department for us, but that really seemed unnecessary, so we told him he could go. I called up Rich's mom for advice (especially since she has recent experience on the subject...), and that along with another look at Sean's head convinced me that he needed stitches. The cut was gaping a bit. I couldn't see bone (thank goodness), but there was no way the skin was going to fix itself.

Fiesta Mall is right next to a hospital known for its pediatric care, so we hopped in the car to go to the emergency room. We checked in and had a seat but the place was a-hoppin. Lots of people there - it would take us hours just to be seen in triage, I think. I had to do some rooting around but I found the number to the pediatric urgent care place we went to once before that has after-hours care. I called them up and crossed my fingers that they could do stitches. We were in luck! So we discharged ourselves from the packed emergency room and went ahead home so Rich could drop off the baby, Ryan and me.

Rich told me what happened at the urgent care place after they got back a couple hours later. It was absolutely heart-breaking. Sean was so good throughout all of this, he napped a bit here and there during the wait, but right before the Dr. came in to the exam room to do the stitches he fell fast asleep. Rich couldn't wake him up when the Dr. arrived. The kid was zonked. So they strapped him down to this blue board with his arms out to the sides. Someone held his head still in their hands then the Dr. started the injections on his forehead for the anesthetic. This woke him up. The poor kid was so scared - Rich said he was screaming at everyone to stop, to let him go, to free his arms. I was crying as Rich described the scene to me, I can't imagine how frightened Sean was.

Eventually they finished the stitches. The thing that struck Rich and the Dr. the most was how clearly Sean was speaking when he was screaming and pleading for everyone to let him free and leave him alone. "Doctor - stop it! Let my arms go! Get your hands off me!" You'd expect a hysterical child to be screaming gibberish and just making a bunch of noise, but Rich said he'd never heard Sean speak so clearly. Sean is a pretty clear speaker as it is, so it must have been interesting to hear.

He wound up with four stitches. He went to bed last night with a sippy cup of chocolate milk and fell right asleep (and we know kids shouldn't go to bed with sippy cups of milk due to the potential for tooth decay - but this was certainly a special occasion). He woke up fairly early this morning, and besides being tired, seemed no worse for the wear.

We hope this didn't do any lasting psychological damage - it must have been pretty damn traumatic for him. I'm not looking forward to Wednesday - we'll have to go back to the pediatrician to get the stitches out. But he was very cheerful today anyway... it was his birthday after all.

Interesting side note: The night before Ryan's 2nd birthday was when he first got croup and we had to call an ambulance and wound up in the emergency room. So the night before Sean's 3rd birthday we also wind up in an emergency room. Anyone wanna bet where we'll be the night before Evie's 4th birthday? Knock on wood.

Poking

2009-03-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

I visited the allergy doctor again today. I got my first allergy shot. Actually, I'm allergic to so many things I have to have 3 shots at a time. They couldn't fit it into one or two. So I have to go twice a week for the first 3 months to get 3 shots in each visit. That's 72 shots in 3 months. Sound like fun.

But... the good news is that Aetna approved my application for Xolair, which is the shot that will (hopefully) eliminate my allergic asthma - which is my most prominent problem. I can take the hives and sneezing and runny nose around dogs & cats & etc, but the whole "not breathing" thing is kind of a b#(@*. Oh yes, this may add up to 3 more injections every two weeks. Which works out to... 90 shots in 3 mos. Thank goodness I'm not afraid of needles.

The good news is that after the first prickly three months the shots taper off. I'll only have to go weekly for the allergy shots for a few months, then every couple weeks for several months, then monthly for a couple years. Hopefully the allergy shots will work well enough after a few years that I'll be "cured". The Xolair works differently, though. It merely prevents the symptoms of allergic asthma, it doesn't cure anything. It wears off after a month or so, so I'll have to be on that for the rest of my life (or until they develop something that works better/more long term.)

So I'm excited about not having a constant runny nose or worrying about a dog licking me or accidentally rubbing my eyes after petting an animal or succumbing to an asthma attack while visiting someone with dogs. Now if only I could get a tummy tuck and LASIK my bod would be super-duper. Boo-YA!

Expert

2009-03-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I attempted to ride my bike (with Sean & Evie in a trailer) with Ryan to his school. He was adamant that he could do it on his own. It was a complete failure. I don't know if it was just the pressure of needing to be at a specific place at a specific time or that he was just off that day, but he couldn't get started on his bike for the life of him. When he did finally get started he kept veering left. He couldn't ride straight. Maybe I shouldn't give him Mai Tais before school? Just Kidding! Jeez.

In any case he cried most of the way there out of frustration. He refused to walk his bike - he only wanted to ride it. I suggested that maybe I could just chain it up to a tree and come back and get it later since he couldn't seem to ride it that morning but he didn't care for that idea. So the ride to school should have taken 10 minutes but it took 40. He was late for school by the time we got there.

The ride home wasn't much better. More freaking out and crying. After a few minutes he finally let me put his training wheels back on after I threatened him with not letting him ride his bike when we got home (irony, anyone?)

So we got home and he demanded that I remove his training wheels. He proceeded to bike around like it was nothing. What the heck?

In any case he practiced without training wheels all weekend. Today we again attempted the ride to his school without the wheels and his performance was flawless. He stayed on the sidewalk and had no problem starting off at all. He was thrilled. I was thrilled!

Ryan has really started becoming headstrong. When he wants to learn to do something he'll practice it over and over and over until he gets it. He learned to snap, whistle and now ride without training wheels. It's nice - he used to get frustrated very easily and just give up. It annoyed me greatly when he did that. Now he still gets angry, and even cries, but he insists on staying the course. Determination!

Ryan's new talent

2009-03-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

So Ryan insisted that I remove his training wheels yesterday. This was prompted by our decision to ride bikes to and from his school in lieu of him taking the bus everyday. Our test ride (with training wheels) went well, and he decided that when we got home he was going to try to ride without them. I think he thought he'd be embarassed to ride to school with them on. So I obliged.

We've tried riding without the training wheels before, a couple of months ago. It was a total failure. We got as far as the next door neighbor's house before he burst into tears because he couldn't keep from leaning over to the side. So I wasn't expecting much from this try, either.

Upon removing the training wheels we proceeded to follow the timeless recipe of learning to ride a bike. Ingredients: One shaky kid on a bike sans training wheels, one helmet, knee & elbow pads, one mom crossing her fingers and a wide open street. Directions: First position child in street. Provide verbal support. Reassure that they will fall but it won't hurt too much. Provide brief synopsis of how biking works. Next start running while holding handlebar and seat with child pedaling the bike. Try frantically to hold child erect. Fall a couple times. Repeat several times going up and down street. Stop to catch your breath. Go once more but let go of kid briefly. Scream "YOU'RE DOING IT ALL BY YOURSELF!!!!". Repeat several times. Finally, just let the kid go for himself. Observe look of pure joy on child's face and listen to "I'M RIDING WITH NO TRAINING WHEELS!!!" about five dozen times.

I'm so proud of the little guy : )

Vandalism

2009-03-05T21:17:00.000-08:00

OK, so I thought it would be a good idea to wait until a month or so after the new year began before I got my new calendar for the bathroom. They are at least 50% off by then. I always have a calendar in the bathroom. I don't really use it, but I get it anyway.

Anyhoo, the problem with that is that you get a... limited selection... of calendars to choose from.

I could have gotten horses (blech), or High School Musical (barf) or even quilt calendars (snooze).

But they had something much better.

Dirty Dancing calendar! I love that movie. Stop laughing. Really, I do. Nobody puts Baby in a corner. Come on!

In any case, I don't think Rich feels the same sentiment. Especially regarding Mr. March...

Ryan alerted me to the first act of vandalism on Sunday morning. See below.

Little did I know that the psychological high Rich got from defacing my super duper calendar would induce him to a maniacal scribbling madman. The next day I saw this...

Then he added more little touches. On Tuesday he sketched the eyebrows, then the scar on Wednesday. Sweet scar, btw. Patrick looks so much more butch. (stifled snort)

Lastly, today I discovered the new growth on poor Mr. Swayze's chest. Kinda hard to see in the pic, but he has a nice mat of pec fur now.

It's simply obscene. You'd think that Rich didn't like Pat or something! What is there to be threatened about? Isn't he like... 60 or something now? And really, he's not the best looking dude or a very good actor, for however much that counts. Actually, I've really enjoyed the daily doodles. It's like an advent calendar. A new surprise every day!

Ryan is officially hooked...

2009-03-03T20:08:00.000-08:00

on his "new" laptop.

I finally handed over the reigns on my old laptop to Ryan. He is hooked. He wants to check his "mail" all the time, and he loves playing the games and activities online.

I'm hoping this will help his reading skills, too. I e-mailed his teacher yesterday to get an update on how he's doing, and she says he's doing great. She's going to start him in the Accelerated Reader program soon. He just loves reading - and he's good at it! Yay!

Spontaneous Snoozing

2009-03-01T14:55:00.001-08:00

We've always been big fans of America's Funniest Home Videos. I love that slapstick, kick in the nuts, fall on the butt kind of humor.

Some of the videos feature children falling asleep in odd places. You wonder just how a kid can be tired enough to fall asleep in these places. I mean, do they have horrible mommies and daddies who sleep deprive them, then force them to sit in a highchair until they fall asleep? What the heck? What kind of monsters are these people?

Hmm. That appears to be my child asleep in a highchair in a restaurant. Most interesting.

She went to bed a little late but not late enough to warrant a mid-lunch snoozefest. She slept very soundly last night, too. She only woke once to eat. And she even let us sleep in until 8!

Lunch was close to her usual "naptime", but she's not much of a napper. She'll only sleep for half an hour to an hour every day for naptime. She'll sometimes fall asleep in the car if it's close to naptime, but she tends to be a real trooper at staying awake.

But when we got to "My Big Fat Greek Restaurant" - where kids eat free every day - she had a little of her green beans from a jar, and started nibbling on some of Daddy's rice and potatoes. She seemed fine. Then all of a sudden she started rubbing her eyes. She started swaying around after that. She laid her head down briefly on the table, then was up rubbing the eyes again. Her eyes started to droop, she couldn't sit up any longer. Then she placed her little hands on the table and laid her head on them. And she was OUT. The whole thing took about 30 seconds.

Rich and I have never seen such a display from any of our kids until that moment. We cracked up. I was giggling so hard my eyes were tearing up. I never imagined that kids really could just spontaneously fall asleep like that. We let her stay like that just a few minutes until we finished eating, then Rich picked her up and held her. She even stayed asleep when we put her into the car for the trip home. She did wake up by the time we got home, and she seems no worse for the wear.

You learn something new every day.

It's getting fun now!

2009-02-24T20:39:00.000-08:00

Evie has really started coming in to her own. She's developing her own little personality. And I love it.

She is such a happy kid. I really can't get over it. She's so content. She'll only get annoyed if she wants to be held and you don't pick her up. But once you pick her up she's fine. Before you know it she'll be wiggling her way out of your arms trying to get back on the floor or to crawl across the couch.

She just adores the boys, too. She follows them everywhere they go. She screams when they scream. She laughs at the faces they make for her. It's great!

Today Evie and I went to the mall while Rich took the boys mini-golfing. She was happy to be wheeled around in her stroller most of the time, twirling her little feet around in circles. That's her thing, by the way. She loves twirling her feet and hands around. It is so terribly cute. She finally started to get fussy so I carried her the rest of the way with no complaints. Then we visited the kids play area at the mall. I set her down in the "crawlers" area to let her play. She crawled around everywhere, did a couple of laps, tried to flee a couple of times. She is so good at crawling, too. She managed to climb into one of the soft structures - this one was shaped to look like a couple of gopher holes. She just crawled all over it with no problems. She reminded me of a little gecko when she was doing it. She didn't slip, didn't bump her head, didn't even teeter. The boys at her age weren't quite as coordinated. They would slip off of a lip two inches high and crash down and bump their heads.

She's also started seeing the humor in being chased by me. Rich was getting the boys ready this evening while I was putting the sheets on Sean's new bed. Evie was supposed to be hanging with me in the boys room, but she kept sneaking out into the hallway. I had to go get her every time she escaped since she can get herself into trouble in multiple ways - slipping through the stair railing, falling down the stairs, playing in the bathroom, etc. After the third time I picked her up after she escaped and brought her back she started to think it was a game. She darted back out into the hall at full speed and when she realized I was coming for her she turned on the afterburners and started giggling her little booty off. I love the "gonna getcha" game. It's one of my favorites to play with babies.

I'll have to tell you about Sean's new big boy bed tomorrow...

Sean's weird.

2009-02-23T12:32:00.000-08:00

So Sean doesn't really pay attention to commericals too much.

But there's one that always catches his eye. We'll be sitting on the couch and he'll start pointing to the tv and saying "I want thaaaaat. I want thaaaaat Mommy. Hey Mommy, I want thaaaaat."

Now you would assume that it's a commercial for a toy or some junk food or something, right?

Well, you're wrong. It's a commercial for Assurant Insurance. Ya, insurance. I couldn't figure out at first if there was a kid playing with a toy or something else he saw in the commercial that interested him. But it's just people doing "health-related" things and looking generally happy.

I ask him "What do you want?"

He says "Thaaaaat."

I say "You want insurance?"

He says "Yeah."

This has happened a couple of times, now, so it's not just a fluke. There's something about the commercial that attracts him. I think it may be subliminal messages. Apparently they're trying to hook 'em young with the insurance now, too.

Bastards!

Thoughtful

2009-02-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

As I was browsing the wonderful cakewrecks.blogspot.com, Ryan noticed when I was on this page.

His comment?

"Are you going to get that for Evie's birthday?"

Priceless.

Yay!

2009-02-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

Rich got back home today, safe and sound. We're all happy to see him back. Poor boy was so tired when he got here, we had an early dinner and after we got home he lasted a little while before falling asleep on the couch. Hopefully he'll feel more peppy tomorrow.

Hm. And that's all I can think of today...

Twofer

2009-02-18T21:27:00.001-08:00

Haha! You get an extra post today.

This evening we watched the classic movie "Annie". It's rated PG. I haven't watched it since I was a very young kid. I've read the book to the boys - it's in their little library. The book leaves out some very interesting parts though. Namely the ABSOLUTE UNABASHED DRUNKENNESS of the orphanage-operator lady who's name I've already forgotten. Then there's the profuse smoking throughout the movie. Of course you can't forget the swearing - multiple "God Damns". Oh yes, and there's the scene where "Rooster" (the bad guy who pretends to be Annie's dad) hits the orphanage-operator lady unconcious.

I had NO FRIGGIN IDEA that this movie was so inappropriate for my kids to watch. After the "God Damns" I was just about ready to turn the movie off, however I didn't because the kids would have had a meltdown. I don't think they were paying very good attention, anyway. But still, I don't want my kids to see all that crap!

Mind you, I'm not a prude. A little drink every now and then won't hurt. But kids shouldn't have to wonder why the lady who runs the orphanage acts so weirdly and is always carrying around a bottle. And I certainly don't want to explain to them what a drunk is at their age.

Everyone knows smoking is stupid. We've gone over it with the kids and they understand so much. But Daddy Warbucks seems to think it's a good idea.

I'm not religious in any way shape or form. However, the past couple of weeks Ryan has started saying "Oh God!" as an excalmation whenever anything silly happens. I told him that he can't say that - it will make people who believe in God upset. He understands that and has started correcting himself - he'll say "Oh gosh" instead. Then we watch this movie and they are "God Damning" all over the place - that's a crappy example to set for the kid. Not to mention the cussing. I've really cleaned up my language around the kids, and I'd prefer to keep their little mouths potty-free as long as I can, thankyouverymuch.

And of course, such blatant violence is not acceptable in a kids movie.

Anyway, it just made me think about how different kids movies are now than they were twenty years ago. I doubt "Annie" made a blip on the radar back then, but compared to what the kids watch today "Annie" is absolute garbage. I won't let the kids watch it again until they're a lot older. If a movie like that came out today there's no way it would have a PG rating. I know PG stands for Parental Guidance suggested, but should I really have to stop and point out the things that are bad every couple minutes? I've noticed this a few times I've let the kids watch older "kids" movies. Lots of drinking, smoking, language I don't prefer the kids use, etc.

Am I wrong? Is it really OK for a movie with excessive drinking, smoking, cussing and violence against women really appropriate for a PG rating? Or am I being overprotective of the kids? I know eventually they will be exposed to all of these issues, but really? Really? I don't want to desensitize them to these things. I saw something the other day that said by the time a kid is 12 they've watched 8,000 killings on TV. How is that in any way acceptable?

Allergy Tests and etc.

2009-02-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

I went in for allergy tests today. The first thing they did was have me take off my shirt and the nurse gave me the "scratch" test. It was more like a "prick you on the back with 78 tiny needles" test. But I now know for certain what I'm allergic to. I'm extremely allergic to dogs (knew that). I'm also extremely allergic to cats (knew that, too). Then there's dust (yup). Now here's the interesting one... get ready... horses. Ya. Apparently I'm quite allergic to our hooved friends. Didn't know that. Then there's a few trees and grasses and such. It was interesting to find out exactly what sets me off.

I should be starting allergy shots next month. Apparently when you start you come in 2-3 times a week for the first several months, then the visits taper off a bit. After a year if you don't see an improvement in your symptoms they deem you incurable and stop the shots. But if you see results, eventually (after 3 years) the shots taper down to one a month. Luckily I'm not afraid of needles because I'm going to feel like a pincushion pretty soon.

The other thing I found out about was xolair. It's a new monthly shot for allergic asthma. It is supposed to be reeeeaaallly effective. Dr said 82% of people who get the shot see a very significant improvement in their symptoms. That would be great for me - together with the allergy shots I could probably visit people with dogs without almost dying! Sweet. Only issue is that it's really expensive and insurance sometimes won't cover it or makes you pay a huge copay, so we'll see what Aetna says about that.

So overall I think it was positive news.

So now the bad... Poor Ryan has a "very sore throat". He's been coughing pretty badly the past couple of days, and tonight he was complaining of the sore throat. So we'll see if it still hurts tomorrow and maybe we'll have to visit the Dr to rule out strep. We got a letter from the school nurse last week that said strep was going around his class, so I wouldn't be surprised if he did get it. I just had to go calm him down in bed, he's crying and really upset about the sore throat.

And Sean. The poor kid seems to have sores in his mouth and on his gums - so bad he hasn't wanted me to brush his teeth for the past two nights. I'm going to call the dentist tomorrow morning to see if he can be seen in the afternoon. Sigh.

After all that's gone on these past couple of months, I am very glad we have insurance. It still sucks that we have to pay all the bills upfront until we meet our deductible ($3000 for individual, $4000 family - yeouch!), but the way it's going this year it looks like we'll hit that pretty quickly.

It's just wonderful that everyone decided to be sick the week daddy is gone. I bet Saturday (when Rich gets back) rolls around and everyone will be hunky-dory again.

Evie is doing well, though. Her runny nose is tapering off and she doesn't seem to be in a bad mood like I would expect if she had a sore throat or ear infection or something of the like. She has been eating up a storm, too. That girl will pack in anything that you give her. Everything soft is fair game. She's been eating all sorts of chicken, roast beef, noodles, veggies, fruits - essentially if I have something to eat that I think she can gum and swallow I'll give it to her. She cleans her plate! She has even started fishing out bits that she accidentally drops in the sides of her highchair to eat them, too. The girl is voracious.

OK, so it's been a few days

2009-02-17T21:23:00.000-08:00

But I've been busy, ya know?

Rich is in Sydney on a business trip. He left on Friday. Then all hell broke loose.

OK, not really.

But we had some tiring events - Saturday we went over to Nana & Poppop's for V-Day & had a nice dinner. But when Nana came out to help us out to the car with all the kids and related paraphenilia, Sean managed to get underfoot and trip her. She fell pretty hard and wound up getting punctured on her arm and leg by assorted plants. Sean was OK, just a little banged up, but poor Nana had to kick it to the emergency room to get some stitches. Not fun, but she's doing alright.

Then that night I had a headache and was calling the kids to come upstairs to get ready for bed. Sean started up the stairs with a couple of airplanes in his hands, and I met him halfway to take the planes away b/c we don't allow toys upstairs. He was cool with it and handed them right over, but as I went to take the next step on the stairs my foot slipped and I bomped down a few stairs on my hiney and arm. Got a couple of bruises, but the bad part is that it re-started the back pain I had just before Evie was born. I went to a chiropractor to try to fix it back then but he didn't help. So I'm popping the pain pills that the Dr gave me after Evie's C-section. Don't worry, it's just ibuprofen. Although I wouldn't mind something stronger at this point! If it doesn't go away in the next week or so I suppose I'll mosey on over to the Dr's office. At least the pain pills are helping my headache go away.

So Rich is having fun telling his co-workers that we're falling to pieces without him. Haha Ricky.

Anyway, I've been distracted by spills, falls, headaches and an overexposure to the short-statured variety of human so I missed a couple of posts.

Wise Man

2009-02-13T20:52:00.000-08:00

Conversation with Ryan this morning:

Mom: "Hey Ryan, do you know what day it is today?"

Ryan: "Friday?"

Mom: "Not just Friday, it's Friday the 13th. Do you know what is special about Friday the 13th?"

Ryan: "Uh..."

Mom: "Some people think Friday the 13th is a very unlucky day."

Ryan (with attitude like Mom is an idiot): "Well, it's not. Days are just days."

Well said. He's turning out to be a real wiseacre.

Great Screaming Lizards

2009-02-12T20:29:00.000-08:00

I have a feeling Evie is going to be a troublemaker.

She has displayed this trait in the following ways:

1) She's adorable and she knows it.

2) She grumbles a lot.

3) She gets very angry when you take away something she's playing with.

4) She attempted to gnaw brother's foot off for a minor offense.

5) She's a quick learner.

6) She's not a very deep sleeper.

7) Her "happy" screams sound very much like whistling teakettle being strangled by barbed wire.

She nearly deafened us at dinner tonight with the damn loudest shrieks I've ever heard coming from the mouth of a baby. She prefers to make these shrieks when we're out in public. I think she knows the acoustics are better than at home and the audience is bigger. She opens her little mouth wide as she can and just makes the most gawd-awful noise. I told Rich that I sure hope she doesn't decide to have a singing career because that just ain't gonna happen. It would be different if she were mad, but she's just as happy as can be - enjoying the attention. The waitresses said they thought she was just so cute and they liked her singing, but I think they were just hoping for a bigger tip.

She might be able to scoop up a part in a horror film. Casting Call - qualifications: beautiful actress who doesn't take guff from anyone and can hold her own in a fight needed to release the most hellish, bloodcurdling screams in the history of film. Extra consideration given for candidate that does not need sleep. Ever.

D'oh!

2009-02-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of Evie looking incredulous because I forgot to post yesterday.

My bad.

Anyhoo, it looks like Sean will be going to the Town of Gilbert's preschool program the week after next. They called to say they had an opening for him. Sweet! It's not for as long - only 1.5 hours on Mon and Wed, but it's a LOT cheaper and a whole lot closer. The driving time will be cut down substantially. Sean seems to be okay with going to a new school. I feel kinda bad about pulling him out of the Y already, because he seems to already have some friends. Including Shayla... who apparently has a very spiffy Little Mermaid blanket for naptime. I don't want to offend the teachers, either. They seem like very nice ladies and Sean likes them. But it's not about them, it's about us, right? I shouldn't feel guilty for something that will be for us all around.

Ryan has a slight cold. He was feeling down yesterday and is coughing and sniffly today. Sean's got a cough, too. Evie has a runny nose and was very cranky this morning. I'm hoping everyone feels better before Rich leaves on Friday. Also hoping Rich & I don't get anything, either.

And that's it I guess. I'm having a hard time finding funny things to talk about lately. I'm a bit frustrated with Sean - he seems to be on a hardcore kick to tick me off lately. Not listening, purposely doing things they know I don't approve of. Sean seems to think it's ok to knock Evie around and "accidentally" hit her whenever I leave the room. He never does it when I am nearby, but if she crawls into the other room when he's there and I don't follow her, she winds up crying within a couple of minutes because he did something to her. He's also taken up boycotting naptime. Just when you think things are starting to turn around... I'm hoping it's just the excitement of being a preschooler that has him off-kilter lately.

Second Day of School

2009-02-09T21:13:00.001-08:00

Sean had his second day of preschool today. He didn't really want to go - he was in a bad mood this morning and said he'd rather stay home with me.

I reminded him that he gets to eat his lunch at school (PB&J and grapes - WOW!) and he changed his mind. Sometimes it's so easy to change his mind.

I called to find out more about Gilbert Public School's preschool program - they combine "special needs" kids with "regular" kids. They said that there is a ratio of about 10 special needs to 4 regular kids per class. Almost all the special needs kids are just there for delayed speech problems, apparently. The regular kids act like mentors for the others. The lady I spoke with said that it's just as advanced as a normal preschool, if not more so. So I think we'll go for it. I'll have to enter his name in the "lottery" to see if he can get accepted this fall to Ryan's school.

It'll be nice to have a shorter commute to his school!

Well, I'm trying!

2009-02-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

Day One - Quest to blog every day.

Hmmmmm.

What happened today? Went to the mall to let the kids play. Tantrum over where to eat. Eat lunch. Came hope for naptime. No one napped. Went to grocery store. Child care area at grocery store closed. Cry. Drag kids around grocery store. Tell kids not to touch about 123,304 times. Get home. Chill. Dinner with Nana and Poppop. Back home. Bathtime. Bedtime.

Were there any lessons learned? Call ahead to the child care place at the store BEFORE you go. Don't let the kids choose where to eat before you're SURE you might want to eat there. Meh. Nothing too interesting.

Maybe I'll have more luck tomorrow.

Ho Hum

2009-02-07T18:58:00.000-08:00

Well, this week Richard got confirmation that he has a herniated disk. He's started going to physical therapy for it, so hopefully that will help relieve his pain and get him back in fighting form. If not it looks like he'll have surgery for it. He said the physical therapist said that a herniated disk never really fixes itself, even if your pain goes away. The only way to really make it go away is surgery. So we'll see how it goes...

Sean had his first day of preschool at the Y yesterday. Everything went well - he was excited to be there and it looks like he had fun. He didn't have any potty accidents either. He got to paint with watercolors and watch a movie. Sounds like he'll be happy there! I wish the Y was closer to our house - I'll have to spend about an hour every M, W and F driving him back and forth. That kinda stinks, but I couldn't find another affordable preschool program any closer. Our city has a preschool program, but we didn't get registered in time to get him in there. Apparently all the openings fill up pretty much on the day registration starts. That's a bummer. We'll have to see what happens for him in the fall. Ryan's school district has a preschool program, but it combines regular kids with special needs kids, and we're not too sure about it. Ryan's principal at the school he'll go to in the fall said it is just for the special needs kids, not regular ones, so I'll have to make some calls to see exactly what is going on with the preschool.

So about Ryan's new school - he got accepted into the "Gilbert Traditional Academy", which is a part of the Gilbert Unified School District, but they do their teaching differently. All the kids (even K), sit at their own desk that faces the teacher at the front of the class. None of that "pod" nonsense. They said that the kids there are actually learning at the grade level above whatever grade they're in (which is awesome) and they consistently do excellent on the AIMS test (which is AZ's standardized test). We're excited for him to be able to go there. Since he's in, Sean will be a shoo-in when it's time for him to enter K, too. Hopefully this school will set up a good foundation for the kids to get their learnin' on!

Let's see... what's new with Evie? That new trick I told you about before - she can wave "hello". It always seems to be hello - she hasn't gotten around to associating it with goodbye yet. It's very cute, she sticks her arm straight out and opens and closes her hand. It just amazes me how quickly these little creatures learn. I've taught her "up" too, for when she wants me to pick her up. She'll put both arms up over her head and open and close her hands. She's such a bright little cookie. I love babies. I've already started getting sad knowing that the next one we have will be our last. Which is totally ridiculous, I know. I haven't even had the kid yet and I'm upset that it will be the end of my baby days. But like I've told Rich, there's always foster parenting and adoption... like we could afford it! These flippin kids are getting expensive!

I've been thinking about getting a part-time job after I wean Evie. Just something to fill a couple of weekday evenings and maybe one day on the weekend to get me out of the house and around some adults, as well as bring in a few extra dollars. I don't know what I'd do, though. I'd like to have a job I enjoy since it's not really necessary for me to work. So that rules out... well... just about everything I'm qualified for. I don't know - I have a few more months to think about it I suppose.

Rich will be leaving for Australia this Friday. For another whole week. Ugh. He's not looking forward to it, mostly because sitting for a long time hurts his back more (and the flight from LA to Australia is about 14 hours!) I'd be excited if I were him - I mean he'll be on the other side of the world! In a totally different country (Canada and Mexico don't count as different countries IMHO, they are too close to us)! It will be so weird. I'm very jealous of him. Not only does he get to go to a different country, but he gets to have a va-kay from the mundanity of the house and child-care. Is mundanity a word?

. . .

I've been trying to drum up the motivation to make daily posts on here, but every time I go to write I can't think of anything interesting. Or whatever I think of might be... I don't want to say inappropriate... maybe too... what's the word... well, I just don't want to be ranting on about stupid stuff. This blog is like a diary - my motivation for writing it is because my memory is not as good as I wish it was. I have already forgotten a lot of how I felt when Ryan was a baby, and a great deal of what was going on in our lives before kids. I oftentimes feel guilty because I can't remember things that people are supposed to remember, like their kids first steps and first words and the like. So I'm trying to make this a collection of nice moments that I can look back on years from now and say "Oh! Yes! I remember that!". I don't think I could come up with something that interesting every day. Meh. Maybe I'll try.

She's full of surprises...

2009-01-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

Evie learned a new trick today. I would tell you what it is, but I want to keep the anticipation high for Rich, because he gets back from San Francisco tomorrow morning and I'm hoping she'll show her stuff for him at the airport when we pick him up. It thoroughly tickled Ryan, Sean and me this evening, though.

Today has been tough for us. Sean had two potty accidents (one at the Ikea kids play area - oops) and has been *incredibly* whiny and had a lot of temper tantrums today. After such a good day yesterday it's really just evening the score, I guess. He didn't want to nap. He was hollering and screaming in the morning before I got up (this has been a continuing issue I'll go into later). He's been ignoring me when I ask him to do something. Hopefully things will be better next week after we get back to normal with Rich coming home.

Ryan has adopted a decidedly gross habit this week too, he's sucking snot off his top lip. The poor kid has a snotty nose all the time now that we've moved back to Phoenix. (It wasn't much of an issue in S.F. - I think we're just all more allergic to Phx.) I always had a runny nose when I was a kid, and the poor thing seems to take after me in that regard. It embarasses me to say so, but I also remember having a, shall we say, nasal mucous ingesting issue. So I'm trying to break him of this as soon as possible. Luckily he makes it easy to see when he's doing it - his upper lip is chapped halfway up to his nose from the frequency of the sucking. So I've told him in no uncertain terms that any snot sucking or booger eating will meet with harsh consequences.

Ah, the pleasure of having children.

Look! I made a pretty!

2009-01-30T18:16:00.000-08:00

It's no surprise that I have been feeling a need lately to be all "domestic" and stuff. So after looking at the prices of baby girl dresses in the stores I said to myself "Hey self - I bet you can make dresses your own darn self."

And so I did. Here's my first attempt:

(Front)

(Back)

It didn't turn out too badly. The "simple" pattern was a bit confusing in areas, but thanks to the miracle called the internet I was able to look up all of the terms I didn't know and get pics of how to do things. It's a little rough around the top edge of the zipper b/c I didn't give enough seam allowance on the bodice, but overall I think it's quite cute and it looks half-decent. I'm sure Evie will enjoy wearing it this summer once she starts walking. She'll have to stick with pants and overalls until she does walk, I'd hate for those pretty knees to get all scraped up. I've already bought the fabric for her next outfit - a bright yellow number with red ladybugs.

I am currently working on a "hobo" bag/purse that I am "freehanding" since I thought it would be easy enough to do without a pattern. I got most of the body and lining of the bag done already (and I think it looks great!), and I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate the zipper into the top of the bag. I have a couple of ideas on what I might want to do but I can't decide - plus Evie hasn't been sleeping well from 8-12 pm so I haven't had a lot of time to work on it/think about it.

I think I could get quite good at this whole sewing thing. We'll see.

New Puter and other news

2009-01-24T13:58:00.000-08:00

I got my new Dell yesterday. It is so very much faster than my old mac. Web pages load in one or two seconds now, a ten-fold increase! Now I start the daunting task of transferring all of my pics and files and junk to the new one. Not fun.

The FedEx guy had me on pins and needles all day waiting for the package. I looked up the tracking info in the morning yesterday and it said it was on a truck for delivery. I waited and waited and waited. I worried when Rich & I went out to lunch that they'd bring it then. But they didn't. I went to check the door every time I heard a rumbling outside hoping it was the FedEx guy. Dinner time came around and STILL there was no package. So after dinner I took the boys to the gym while Rich stayed home with Evie (Evie is not fond of the babysitting at the gym). But apparently the babysitting at the gym closes early on Fridays so I didn't have enough time to work out. So we headed home and got there just before 8pm. And WOO! My computer finally arrived. It's not cool how late they make those FedEx guys work. Or maybe we got a reeeallly slow one and it takes him till 9 to do what a quick FedEx guy could do by 5.

In other news, I've decided to try making dresses for Evie for this spring/summer. I bought a "simple" pattern and some cute fabric and stuff today, and I think I'll give it a shot this week while Rich is out of town in San Francisco. I have to say, though, after looking at the pattern I'm wondering just what the pattern maker's definition of "simple" is. I'd hate to see a complicated one. I'll have to brush up on my sewing lingo. I did take a class back in... let me think... eighth grade? Maybe 9th. As I recall everything I made looked like crap. We'll see how it goes this time.

Boobs

2009-01-22T15:21:00.000-08:00

Since I've been nursing Evie, the boys have naturally had a good deal of curiosity toward the act. Ryan is pretty nonchalant about it, he initially had questions about breastfeeding, but now he knows what's happening and isn't really all that interested.

Sean, however... is very interested.

He talks about boobs a lot. He talks about nipples a lot. I went to find sports bras at Target the other day and I was grilled about all of the different bras. He noticed the pictures of women wearing their bras. He explained to me how babies drink milk from boobies. He chose some bras for me, even. Apparently he thinks I'm more well endowed than I actually am, because he chose some monster DD size ones. He got a bit offended when I told him that those wouldn't work because Mommy's boobs weren't the size of cantaloupes.

Today was an especially nipply day for him. As I was putting him into his carseat after our pre-Gymboree snack, he decided to play "I got your nipples!" as if it were the "I got your nose!" game. He pinched me in the appropriate area and pretended to hide them. Not cool. But frickin hilarious.

Then on the way home from lunch he was just babbling along about nothing in particular (I don't know what about - I tend to stop paying attention to him after a while because 2 year old conversation is a bit... drab) when all of a sudden he needed to tell me something very important. He said "If we had 3 babies we couldn't feed them with 2 nipples." My first thought was "If we had 3 babies I'd go insane", but then I realized what he was talking about. It sure would be hard to breastfeed 3 at the same time. It's interesting how his little mind works. It is really weird to think that he ponders my nipples and different situations that they could be used in in his little head.

Teething

2009-01-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

Evie is about to pop her first tooth. I took this pic yesterday - her last all-gum picture. Gawd she's adorable. Sniff sniff. I really love her sweet little baby-gum pictures. Plus I'm not looking forward to nursing with a toothed child. She bites enough as it is. It's about time for teeth, too. Most babies teethe around 3-7 months of age, and she was 7 months 6 days ago. I was getting a bit anxious to tell you the truth.

Evie has been in the habit lately of waking up every hour or so during the night to nurse. Her sleep habits were always very erratic as it is. When she was just several weeks old she had nights where she'd sleep six or more hours at a stretch. Then she went to a wake every 2 or 3 hour schedule. Now I never know what I'm going to get. But due to her teething (I assume) I've had several nights in a row this past week of hourly wakings. It was wearing me down. All of a sudden, though, the past two nights she's gone down at 8pm, woke around 2 or 3 am to nurse, then slept again until 7. It's been awesome. But it's weird because we know she's been teething the past couple days - we can see the white outline of the teeth coming through her gums, and today there's a little "break" in her gum where the tooth is just beginning to peek through the swelling. I'd think that she'd be getting even less sleep with the discomfort, but it seems to be opposite. Rich and I both agree that her teething is going much better than the boys' did.

The little girl is well on her way to crawling now, too. She can move her arms and legs forward in one or two shuffles before she lunges and flops her belly down on the floor to get forward. She's trying her best to get around.

As I type this she is trying desperately to get out of her bouncy seat, twisting around and arching her back and pulling herself up by the accessory bar. Not crying at all, just determined to get down on the ground to scoot around. (The kids and I are outside so the boys can ride their bikes and create neighborhood havoc.) So with that I bid you adieu in order to make sure she doesn't actually get out and crack her noggin on the pavement. Ta-ta!

Sooper Pooper

2009-01-16T14:08:00.001-08:00

Sean has finally taken the bait.

Rich came up with a great motivator to get the little whippersnapper to use the potty. Preschool.

He let Sean know a couple weeks ago that as soon as he learns to use the potty he's eligible to become an official preschool student. Sean was extremely excited at the prospect. Of course, after the first time he went pee on the potty he expected that he would immediately start going to preschool. (You'd think that since he's our second kid we'd be better at "Clarification of the Terms of the Contract" with the kids, but they still get you sometimes.) He was quite disappointed when I informed him that he needs to go potty ALL the time in order to gain entry into said Heaven called Preschool. Magically, the boy now insists on using the potty. All the time. Sometimes several times in a 5 minute period! It's a lot of fun... for him.

At first he was only having luck getting the #1's in there, but for the past 3 days he's made the #2's in the potty, too!

He even went at Gymboree yesterday. (They have a fully functional mini-toilet there, it's so cute!) When we got there he declared that he needed to go. So we went and he made a little pee. "Yippe!", I said, trying to keep up the encouragement. We flushed and washed and did all that needed to be done. Then two minutes later he needed to go again. I eyed him suspiciously. I don't ever want to tell him he can't go potty because 1) why would I discourage something that results in me not having to wipe poo off his boo-hiney anymore and 2) he might really need to go. So again we made the trip. No go that time. So we washed and made our way out again. LITERALLY two minutes later he needed to go again. Now I'm thinking that the mini-potty is maybe sending out some kind of ultrasonic beacon signal to his wee brain telling him to come hither. But, hell, what else have I got to do - the songs they make you sing at Gymboree about equal the excitement of going potty, anyway. So we go again. My little guy did not disappoint this time - he made a nice #2. I suppose he was trying the other two times but had to work up the courage or something. In any case, I was super happy and did a little dance for him. The only bad part was for poor Evie. I had her strapped onto my front in her little Snuggly. I had to bend over to wipe his little hiney, which resulted in Evie's precious face being mere inches from said hiney. I tried to contort myself to in order to hold him still and wipe him without sacrificing Evie's breathing area, but it could not be done. Poor child.

He isn't 100% accurate yet and sometimes has a wet diaper, but he has made great strides this week. Here's to hoping nothing comes along to throw us off track for the next few weeks. Ergo, I am going to have to start looking for preschools soon. Woot!

Goodness Me

2009-01-16T14:01:00.001-08:00

You know when it's been too long since your last blog post when you've forgotten your stupid password.

In any case, I've recovered my password and am ready to spout off a couple of blogs.

Things have been slow around here and my poor sleep-deprived brain has had a difficult time coming up with interesting fodder for this site, hence the lack of recent content. I could blog about how the weeds have taken over the back lawn, or how it's simply beeeautiful weather here (80 degrees today here - sucks for all you imaginary east coast Wallace Pack blog readers who are living in an arctic hell! But I won't get too full of myself, because 80 in January means 125 in August...), or how the hermit crabs make noises that severely creep Rich out. But those just aren't that interesting.

However there have been some interesting events shaping up in the last couple of days. Well, interesting to a mommy, anyway. So I suppose I'll get those underway as of.... now!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T19:38:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. We had a great Christmas this year - the boys are finally starting to wind down after a super-exciting day.

They had a hard time getting to sleep last night in anticipation of the Big Day. After we put them to bed I tried cleaning up the playroom as quietly as I could, but after a minute or so I heard the murmur of their little voices. I'm sure they were discussing the likelihood of those noises they heard being Santa. Apparently Ryan decided to brave it and peek out of his room over the balcony to see if it was really Santa. I caught him peeking and gave him a warning about Santa not coming unless he's asleep and he made up a quick excuse as to why he was up - apparently he needed to say good night to me again.

Ryan was up very early but kept fairly quiet for a while. Eventually Sean woke up, so with both of them awake there is no way anyone else in the house could stay asleep. They started horsing around in their room and upstairs (because Rich told them not to go downstairs until we woke up). So finally we all got up. Ry saw the big present (which I did wrap despite its size) and declared that Santa had brought him his doughnut maker. We had warned him that Santa might not get it because it is too dangerous for a kid to be playing around with hot oil, but apparently he has strong faith in Santa. I had him read the tag - To: All The Kids From: Mommy and Daddy. He was still convinced that it was a doughnut maker.

After Nana, Poppop and Mommom came over I made breakfast for everyone. Ryan ate next to nothing - he was excited and I'm sure he was anticipating making a hoard of doughnuts with his new doughnut maker. When breakfast was over they got to open the big present together. There was very slight disappointment on Ryan's part, but overall the train table was a huge hit. Sean didn't even want to leave the train table to open his other presents. Ryan's other favorite toy was the light sabers. He and Daddy had a field day with those! Sean got his much-anticipated Piggy Bank and also a new bike from Santa and a fishing rod of his own from Mommy & Daddy. Sean got a drum from his Aunt Kristen, and Ryan got a sax, so they have half a jazz band set up now. They each got some new clothes & books from Nana & Poppop. They also gave Sean a GeoTrax Airport set and Ryan a Hot Wheels Dinosaur-destroys-the-city toy. Both were also very big hits. Essentially all the toys were big hits, really.

So the day has come to a close. We are all very thankful for all that we have and for all of our great family. It was a truly awesome Christmas. Yesterday when we went to Jim & Jordy's for the ritual Christmas Eve get together I couldn't believe how much everyone else's kids had grown in the past 12 years that I've been attending their ritual gathering. Then I had to take a look at our kids and realize that they had grown just as much. What a difference a few years makes - Ryan was so eager for Christmas this year now that he's got a firm grasp of time. Sean just went along for the ride with Ryan, feeding off of his energy. And little Evie got to be passed among so many family members this past month and didn't even fuss about it much. I'm so proud of all the kids. Everyone always remarks on how well behaved they are... I think everyone may be on acid. No, really, the kids are actually so good. We'll have to work on Sean's table manners (I was so embarrassed when he burped as loud as possible at BOTH breakfast and dinner with Mommom today) but it's great to see how well Sean and Ryan really get along and how much they adore their little sister.

The boys are very excited for the upcoming visit from Grandma Hoppe and Auntie Heather next week, too. It's going to be a mini-Christmas again for them. And I'm sure there will be tons of swing-pushing and train-playing, too. We'll see ya soon, guys!

Warning - Do Not Enter Our House!

2008-12-11T20:52:00.000-08:00

This last week has seen all of the children get sick. First Sean got sick on our trip up to Flagstaff. He got pinkeye and (supposedly) an infection in the sinus around his eye. Then the next day he had a stomach flu - yuck coming out of both ends. He was moping around here for a couple of days but he seems better now.

Rich got a cold over the weekend and is now doing better.

Ryan came home from school complaining of being "really hungry", had a snack, and proceeded to barf all over himself in the car as we were going to the store. I scurried home to get him changed and clean up the car, and he was sick again, this time with the ookie 2's too (you know what I mean?)

Then I get out of the house to go to the store after dinner (like I was planning on doing earlier) and get home & put away the groceries. Evie wakes up from her nap in Daddy's arms so I pick her up to get her ready for bed & she vomited all over me. Her being sick is a little more tricky for me since she's breastfeeding - I tried letting her eat again after a while and she immediately threw it up again. I'm not sure what to do - if she eats she gets sick, but if she doesn't I'll be quite uncomfortable... I'll see what the Doctor says in the morning.

I, on the other hand, seem to be doing OK. Had a sore throat for a couple days and I have a bit of a cough that seems to be asthma related, but otherwise I'm doing fine. Knock on wood.

Hopefully we'll all get over this and be done with it for the rest of the cold/flu season.

Sopapillas Anyone?

2008-12-09T15:09:00.000-08:00

So I've been experimenting with baking lately. Yesterday I made French Bread that didn't rise very well (tasted OK, though.) Today I made this:

As you can expect, they were mostly inedible. I even reduced the heat but just got golden blocks of sopapilla bread. I did throw some of the dough in the oven and bake it like bread - they tasted just like sweet rolls. Good, yes, but not the intended result. Sigh. I'm really glad my career ambitions did not include being a chef.

Generosity

2008-11-26T20:18:00.000-08:00

We went to dinner tonight at Buffalo Wild Wings (because kids eat for $2 on Wed nights). We had a great time, the kids were being great and having fun, the food was great. We wrapped up the meal and I went to hand the waiter my card and he shook his head no. He said the meal was paid for us.

I said "Are you serious?" I really thought he was joking. But he assured us that it was true. We asked who, he said just some guy. Just for us or everyone? Just for us. We were actually stunned!

So above and beyond having a great, happy dinner with our little family, we had some awesome anonymous super sweet person pay the bill. It gave Richard and I a severe case of the warm fuzzies. I swear I almost got teary. I've got visions of Pay It Forward in my head now. I'm going to have to find a way to give some warm fuzzies to someone else now.

So even though it is nearly impossible that the person who did it will read this, I just wanted to give out a big THANK YOU to whoever it was that was so generous to us tonight. I'll be sure to pass it on.

It's been too long!

2008-11-15T20:21:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. About a month. We've been soooo busy moving back to Phoenix that I haven't had a chance to sit down and post.

So here's a brief synopsis:

We had a good move, the kids flew with me and Rich drove the van. Movers made me mad, blah blah blah. Sean had fun finding new ways to get into trouble:

We got here and went right to the State Fair. Ry and Sean had lots of fun and junk food.
Evie thought the brochure tasted good:

Halloween was fun, Ry was a Firefighter, Sean was Thomas the Train and Evie was a Mermaid. They got a great haul at our new neighborhood, which, by the way, is soooooooo much nicer and more kid-friendly than the old one. We love the new house and the new elementary school.

Ryan's birthday party was great, we had it at Amazing Jakes and he had a blast. He had a great time playing games and rode almost all of the rides:

So that's the gist of it. Things are finally calming down, Grandma Hoppe has been visiting for the past week, much to the boys' delight. They just adore her and had a great time playing in the backyard, playing board games and coloring. She'll have to go home tomorrow and I'm sure the boys will have Grandma withdrawl since Mommy doesn't say yes to everything : )

Panky Bank

2008-10-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

Sean and I had a little conversation about what he wants for Christmas.

He's such a silly little thing. We were talking about his "panky bank" and Santa for a while before I started filming this, then I whip out the camera and outta nowhere he just started spouting off about baseball and candy! Sean got a piggy bank earlier this year, however after being told not to play with it about, oh, I don't know, a gazillion times, he managed to smash it to smithereens on his (carpeted) bedroom floor the day after we got it. He's been talking about getting a new one ever since. And he's promised not to play with the new one. I imagine that'll happen when piggy banks fly.

Flying Solo

2008-10-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Ryan had his first playdate at another kid's house without Rich or I there. It was kinda weird to just send him off to an almost stranger's house and not know what he was doing, hoping that he was being a good boy and following the rules. The mom said he was great and had lots of fun with her little guy. So he went back this afternoon for some more fun since we'll be moving in a little over a week and he won't get to see this little friend again after we're gone.

I have the same feelings of curiosity and anxiety when he goes to school. It seems that now my little 4 (almost 5!) year old has a life of his own. I don't know what he's doing, or who he's hanging out with, except for what little tidbits he remembers to tell us. Then, when he does remember to tell us things, his limited understanding of the world makes his stories a little... hard to understand at times.

The amazing part is that he's just beginning this transition from my little guy to an independent person. He has so much more growing up to do. When they are his age, words run out of their mouths like water from an open fire hydrant. Thoughts just spew forth right as they pop into the kid's head. But I know that I'll know less and less about those inner thoughts as the years go by. He'll start to pick and choose what he wants me to know. He'll leave out the bad parts and emphasize the good. Maybe he'll be one of those moody teenagers who can't even bother to say "Hi" to me when they get home from school, or who feels like I'm prying into their personal business when I ask how their day was. I hope not. I hope Ryan stays a sweet, cheerful, loving person who absolutely adores his mommy for the rest of his life. Not that I want a mama's boy, right? Well, now that I think about it... yeah I do.

Making Progress

2008-10-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

So we've made good progress packing this last week. Got the boys' rooms packed up, the kitchen, the garage. We even had a garage sale yesterday and made some bank.

The kids agreed to let me pack up all of their toys today as long as they can watch as much TV and play as much Wii as they want. Which is OK with me, I suppose, because its only for a week and they are like zombies when they watch TV. They just sit there on the couch, slack jawed, transfixed. It will be a break of sorts from me - if there are no toys there will be no fights over toys, right??? That's the main reason they fight.

I think we might be able to do this thing!