Fernbank and Flowers

So yesterday, Fernbank was having a Dinosaur party in honor of their new dinosaur exhibit. The exhibit had some neat stuff in it. Although Kate and her cousin James enjoyed the Senses exhibit the most. Which if I remember rightly, was the same one she enjoyed the last time. The big bubble making wands were of course a huge hit. As was the dinosaur tatoos, temporary of course. Sam, well, he didn't think much to I think. Lots of stuff for him to look at, but actually be interested in, probably not. But nevertheless, the kids had a blast. It was fairly educational for them and something different to do. I always love the 3 colored lights. I love the colored shadows. It just makes me go all shutter crazy. Trying to get all three shadow colors and a cute expression from Katie. :) Anyway, I'm glad I got the season passes there, Kate wants to go back soon. And I still have to take her to the Planetarium. I KNOW she will adore it. She loves the stars So anyway, that was yesterday. Today we were doing a treasure hunt for flowers. Flowers, obviously, being the treasures we found. Because, yes, my fellow readers, the sleepy little flowers are raising out of the ground and the buds are forming on the trees. Some little buds are already fortunate enough to have bloomed into flowers. So we went a-hunting and this is what we found.

The first kiss of the day goes to Daddy.

Happy Valentine's day, ya'll. Yeah, yeah...I know I'm a day early, but I don't have high hopes of posting tomorrow. :) These are pillows Katie made herself this morning. OK, well I helped cut them out, but she did the stuffing, gluing and decorating. Oh yeah, and I did the writing. ;) The first pillow we made, a kiss, was decorated especially for her Daddy. So that one is a special shout out to Miguel.
Oh and since we only made a few of these, and they were only sent out to a select few, I thought I would post a picture of the Valentine's Day cards we made. Katie decorated, I just put on the picture.

For those of you who haven't read this...

It's so true.....

TELL ME ABOUT IT ®

By Carolyn Hax
Wednesday, May 23, 2007; Page C10
The Washington Post

Carolyn:

Best friend has child. Her: exhausted, busy, no time for self, no time for me, etc. Me (no kids): Wow. Sorry. What'd you do today? Her: Park, play group . . .

Okay. I've done Internet searches, I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners . . . I do all those things, too, and I don't do them EVERY DAY. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail? I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events) and I manage to get it all done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy -- not a bad thing at all -- but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth? Is this a peeing contest ("My life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal? I've got friends with and without kids and all us child-free folks get the same story and have the same questions.

Tacoma, Wash.

Answer:
"Relax and enjoy. You're funny.

Or you're lying about having friends with kids.

Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them.

Internet searches?

I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand, while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom-friends are either lying or competing with you, is disingenuous indeed.

So, since it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. In list form. When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming that gets the checkout line shaking its head.

It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends, well-meaning and otherwise. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.

It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you to mutual friends, or marvel how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand or keep your snit to yourself."

Ok, so while I really don't have any friends who I think think this way, I have seen that look in people's (acquaintances) eyes when I tell them I am exhausted after going to the grocery store and running errands by myself. I am pretty darn good shape, you would think I should be able to handle it, but it's not that it's physically exhausting. It totally wears you out mentally. Anyway, I just wanted to give the answer in this article a good, "Here, here!! Well said!".

Katie's draws from memory.....

So yesterday while I was working, Katie spent most of her time drawing. Now remember last week we went to aquarium. So this is what she drew for me while she sat at her table. She also drew a couple of other animals. I'll let you look them over and see if you can figure out what they are. ;)

#1


#2

#3

#4


#1. A Turkey
#2. A Pig
#3. A Jellyfish
#4. A Beluga Whale

Yesterday's Engagement Shoot

I got the chance to photograph another couple of happy lovebirds (and their beautiful Golden) yesterday and I thought I'd share with you a few of their shots. :)

Heh heh heh, he can model too.

He was so not into taking pics this morning. This was the only one I got of him. Oh well. It's cute. I gave this one a more boyish feel, rather than the all the pink and girliness like the one with Katie.

She can really model when she wants to. :)

Back to the world of picnics and parks...

It's been awhile since it was nice enough to go picnic at the park. Today was a perfect day for it. Warm, a little bit of a breeze, sunny...just beautiful. So I told Katie we were going to the park and she insisted we have a picnic there. We picnic'd (sp? grammar? is that a verb, really?) Katie style. PB & J, "cuppy" oranges, a banana, and some strawberry Kefir. Sam even enjoyed the sun and the grass. It was nice to get out and enjoy the day. We spent the rest of the time with Katie running around and her getting more confident about conquering her fear of heights. Sam climbed a little on the baby playground and Katie took him down the slide a few times. It was a glimpse of the future. Hopefully they'll play nicely together on the playground in the years to come. Here's a couple more pics for your viewing pleasure.



Oh yeah, and for all you northerners freezing your toushie's off (ok, maybe you're not today, but I'm sure that will change soon), spring's coming here, soon. :)

Ok. Here's one that makes me feel good about myself .

Because I am happy with the amount of weight I have lost. And because it is important to be proud of your accomplishments, especially when there was a lot of hard work that went into it. I'm still not where I want to be forever. I have more toning to do and about 10-15 more lbs to lose. But overall, if I never lost another lb or made it down another size, I'd be comfortable and happy. I really love working out though. Don't get me wrong, in the middle of a workout I question why I do this to myself day in and day out. But after a workout, I just feel so good and happy. So anyway, the pictures are of me with my size 18 jeans that I was wearing right after I had Sam and then me being goofy. Next time I take one of these shots, I need to wear something a little tighter I think. But I think you guys get the gist anyway. I did at one point have a pair of size 20 shorts, but thankfully, those are long gone. Although it would be nice to have those just to see how much I have lost since I wore those (which was before I had Katie). Mostly, I can thank my hubby for the motivation, and Crossfit for getting to this point.

The World's Largest Aquarium

Or at least I think it's ONE of the world's largest aquariums. In any case, we took Katie there yesterday on a surprise field trip. We hadn't taken her since she was little, little. Like maybe about a year old or so. Once we got in there she was so so excited to see everything and couldn't get enough of all the fish. I think her favorite was the tunnel and the coral reef. Oh and the alligators and turtles. Sam did enjoy looking at the fish, but it was more like tv to him than anything I think. Just something interesting to look at. So I put a few of the pics from the aquarium on flickr. I'll add more as I feel like it. There are some cool pics of fish and seadragons and otters that I have yet to add. :)

LOL!! Too funny...if only it were this easy...

My conversation from 5 minutes ago with Kate....

"Kate: Mom, Why did you write your words in my notebook?
Me: Because I needed a piece of paper to write my list on.
Kate: Mom, that list sure is long. Maybe you could use my school work scissors to cut the list.
Me: You mean to make it shorter?
Kate: Yeah."

If it only it were that easy to make my to do list shorter. If only....

So...you want to hear about the kids?

The kids are fun. All be it incredibly frustrating at times, but I'll get to that later. First off Miss Kate. She is growing in leaps and bounds. She is a total mimic in so many ways. We have to watch everything we say and do because little eyes are watching. She loves to mimic our workouts to the best of her ability. She can almost do a push up, she does sit ups, and she likes to do pull ups. She makes her Daddy especially proud with the pull ups. :) Yesterday when we went to the park, Kate also started conquering her fear of heights. She climbed all the way up the climbing wall, and she also came down the big slide. These are things she hasn't done in forever.
Kate has started to take interest in reading. We've been practicing her sounds and occasionally she will sound out a word for me. Maybe by the time she is four, she'll be reading beginner readers books. Yay!! She's also starting to try to write. It all depends on the day. Sometimes she can kind of write her name, other days she swears she can't do it. It'll be neat when she writes her first letter to Santa. Her imagination runs away with her as in we definitely have a story teller. The other day she was pretending to be a princess and she had to narrate everything she did. "The princess is going to eat her food. The princess is picking up her spoon." LOL Very cute. I can't think of all the cute and funny things she says now. It's really funny when big words come out of her mouth when she's telling me things. Even funnier when she doesn't use them correctly, which happens fairly often. Anyway, I'm sure I could go on and on about the stuff she does, but I also wanted to talk about Sam.

Sam got his 3rd tooth last night. It's a random tooth, not one of his two top front ones, but the next one over. But anyway, it ight explain his crazy and annoying clingyness (sp? I have no idea if it's even a word). I still think he's about 2 months from walking. Although he's doing his crazy "spiderman" walk more and more. I just know that he's going to be way into EVERYTHING once he can walk. He's bad enough as a crawler. :) He's already learned how to open and close the cabinets and drawers. He opens them in hopes of finding something to chew on. Because, yeah, he chews on whatever he can fit into his mouth. He's way cute though. Such a sweet snuggler. On Saturday he gave me a kiss on the lips for the first time. It was just too sweet. He likes to play shy with people, but don't worry it's just a game. He'll turn into my shoulder and then sneak a peak to see if your still looking. Silly boy. He's also starting to babble in a more conversational way. Like in response to something we say or to something that happened. Still no real words other than Dada, Dadad (me), and the occasional Momma (when he's upset). But I feel a word explosion coming soon. I know he'll be a lot of fun just like Kate, but this one is going to be T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

Cake Smash

Mmmmm....yummy! For Zoe who turns one this month. You're a cutie Zoe!

Better Late than Never

So I finally have a few minutes to sit down and go through all of the pics from our trip in December. I am still missing the pictures from Asheville, but I have all the ones from PA and DC on Flickr. Well all the ones I am willing to share. ;) The above picture is the only picture of the 4 of us ever. Well, I think maybe except from when Sam was born. I think there is one there of the 4 of us. In any case, Sam was cold and Kate had a busted mouth and tooth. It was a good time anyways. So check out the rest of the pics of the Washington trip and the Pennsylvania trip. Which, don't forgot were all the same trip. Long drive but so worth it to have our new car. Did I tell you guys how much I LOVE our new car? It's the bomb. The best ever. Anyway, when I find the Asheville pics, I'll be sure to add those in too.

Sam is 8 months old!!

Can you believe that? He turned 8 months old on Caleb's 4th birthday. :) Which just so happens to be the day I took the above picture. As soon as I am through with all this sickness and yuckiness, I hoping to be able to do some cute and sweet portraits with him. In just under 4 months I'll be having is 1st Birthday party. Wow.....time sure does fly by so so fast!!!! So anyway, on to what he's doing and not doing, etc. :) As I am sure you all are dying to know. He still will not say "Mama", he calls me "Dadad", or so it seems to me. Incidentally, he calls Miguel, "Dad". So at least he differentiates. He's become a super clingy baby. He will happily go to anyone, BUT, he will only give you a few minutes. As soon as he sees me, he does the "jellyfish" (you know throws himself backwards like a limp ragdoll) and cries until you give him back to me. Sigh...it's cute and it makes a Momma feel needed, but all the same, it's exhausting. He's started trying to wave and clap his hands. He still does it close-fisted, but he's getting there. He is a full blown crawler. Chases me around the entire house. Get's into stuff he shouldn't. He's also a climber. Miguel and I came into the living room (it's gated with plenty of play toys) to find him on top of a box I had innocently left next to the couch, trying to climb up onto the couch. Yes, ladies he is a full blown boy. He can be mean to boot. Likes to grab noses and faces. Oh and arms to pull himself up. Yup he pulls himself up too and is starting to cruise. He's trying to get the hang of pushing around his push toys, but he doesn't have the balance yet. He likes to have us walk him around the room and anywhere really. He'd much prefer to be on his feet, but he's probably a couple of months away from that first step. But, God help me, because when this little man gets to walking, my life will be much much HARDER. He's crazy....takes after his Dad I presume. ;) So there's the update on what used to be my laid back little baby. He's totally doing a 180 on me now. In a sense I had prepared myself for that. In another sense, I still wasn't ready for it.

Happy 4th Birthday Caleb!

I know we haven't been around much lately, but that's because things have just been so so crazy. In any case we went to Caleb's 4th Birthday party yesterday. Katie had tons of fun as usual, and I believe Caleb did too. I got to be the impromptu photographer of the day so I have a ton of pics to share. If you'd like to see them, check out Flickr. I'll be back later on with a more informative and interesting post. :) But right now, my lazy butt needs to go workout. Those size 6 jeans won't fit anytime soon, if I don't go bust my butt.

Emma's Birthday Party

We were invited to Emma's 4th birthday party yesterday (Thank You Heather!), and Kate had a blast. As did Sam. :) It was at Kangazoom, which I highly recommend to anyone looking for an awesome place for a birthday party. Especially where there might be babies around too. The kids bounced, slid, ran, hopped, you name it. Kate had pizza and cupcakes and got tons of candy from the pinata, so it was a total hit with her. Sam and Claire actually noticed one another yesterday. But they were more interested in scratching one another than any actual playing. One day soon, I know they'll be chasing one another around just like Kate and Caleb. And it'll be one day all too soon. Sniff..sniff...these kids grow up fast ya know! To see more pics from the party yesterday, check out Flickr.

Let's go back to New Year's Eve

So I never got to post about it because I came down with the flu on New Year's Eve. I was fine until very late into the evening, when I started to feel just icky. But anyway. We spent the evening with Miguel's family and had lots to drink. :) Is there really any more to say than that? The above picture was the first one of the New Year and it turned out pretty well. Even the subject looks decent (for as much as he had to drink already). LOL Alex and Connie made a yummy Chilean drink called Cola de mono. There were many other drinks too, but honestly I don't remember anymore. In any case, Sam and I woke up the next morning, sick as a dogs and not from alcohol. Spent the first 3 days of the New Year on the couch or in bed and I am only now feeling like myself. Not exactly my most favorite way to bring in the New Year, but hey maybe that way the rest of the year can only get better right? Right? If you'd like to see other pics from the night, you can see them on Flickr. I will tell you now that my flash does not work on my new camera, so therefore the pics are a little....artsy. Yeah, we'll leave it at that. Yup.

Some cute late Christmas pics

Caleb and Claire...