AJZ & JAZ

rub a dub dub...3 kids in a tub

2012-02-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

ok, that was a cheesy title, but i couldn't resist.. how cute are they?? usually aidric and juliet take a shower while i bathe cormac in his eurotub. but i was doing baths without chris's help last week one night and decided to put cormac in with the older 2. c's time in there was very short, but so easy! aidric and juliet thought it was fun to have him join them. and i can't believe we're really only a couple of months away from him REALLY being able to join them. that will make bath time so much easier!

Snugglesaurus

2012-02-11T20:57:00.000-08:00

So many things to say about these pictures.
*One of Coramc's nicknames is Cormacsaurus
*These (hand me down) dinosaur jammies actually say "snugglesaurus" on them
*Aidric LOVES dinosaurs, loves to wear jammies that match Coramc's and is THRILLED that they both have dinosaur jammies AND that Coramc's say "snugglesaurus".
*Morning snuggles between Cormac and Aidric are a regular occurrence. Aidric creeps into our room and if Cormac is already awake, he climbs into bed with us snuggle up with him.

Cormac 5 months continued :)

2012-02-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

I was tired last night and didn't have a chance to put these pics in the 5 month post...his first time in the exeersaucer (january 10th)

and his first rice cereal (january 11th). Hmm, so I guess those should really have gone in a 4 month post. So, I'm behind. At least I'm taking the pics :)

And one more...I tried to take a picture I had seen on pinterest and loved. Since I don't own any red lipstick, I bought some...but it turned out to be too glossy. I kept meaning to re-do the pic, but let's face it...I probably never will. So, here it is. Smeared kiss and all, he's still adorable.

5 months

2012-02-09T22:50:00.000-08:00

How is it possible that my little guy is FIVE MONTHS old already??? This past month has brought a lot of change for him. We've done a lot of trial and error with medication to treat his reflux and have seen a GI specialist. He seemed to be doing sooo much better, but the last few days/nights have been rough. Not sure if that's the reflux raring up again or if we're dealing with something new. He JUST got over an ear infection....he's definitely teething, but teething alone never kept the other two up at night so who knows. I just sooo wish they came with a manual :)

I think I mentioned he started rice cereal right at 4 months, per Dr. Daisy's suggestion to help with the reflux. Not sure if it helped, but he loves it. He has shocked me with how he "gets it"- just gobbling it up! After a month with just cereal, he had his first veggies this past week, and we started with green beans. He loved those too....and he's got the stats to show his love of food :) I'll have to weigh him soon, but 2 weeks ago at the GI specialist, he was 16 lbs. and 26". Big boy!!

He loves his exersaucer, but loves it even more when someone (usually Aidric or Jules) stands there and plays with him when he's in it. I can't believe it is already time to get out the bins of baby toys I had stashed away. I can't believe it's time to get out the 6-12 month clothing bins already. It's going WAY too fast!!!!!!

to do list 2009

2012-02-07T15:07:00.000-08:00

I just pulled out my copy of Richard Ferber's "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" the other day...and cracked up when I found this to-do list I was using as a bookmark.

I don't know if the picture is big enough to read, so here's what it says:

paint b-room door
power wash steps
return plant

scrapbook store
Carters
central market

dye eggs
finish pops
run
jumperoo out
order k-cups
solve juliet's sleep issues

ha!! there are check marks next to the things that are done and the circled ones are the the "high priority" items. i love finding little things like this...a perfect glance back at everyday life. we were getting the house in austin ready to put on the market, hence the home improvement items at the beginning of the list. juliet would have been around 6-7 months old at the time. i remember she was waking up and screaming in the middle of the night (after previously sleeping through the night just fine)...and when i would go in, she'd quiet down immediately. didn't need to be fed. just wanted mommy time. which is really sweet...but also really tiring :)

it's funny b/c i could make SUCH a similar list today...the house projects are never ending around here, the errands/returns/to buy list is ongoing of course, we just put the swing away and got out the exersaucer and i need to start baking for the valentine's candy boxes/goodies we're making for the kids' teachers. and of course, we DO need to solve cormac's "sleep issues" :)

Indiana Visit Part III

2012-01-24T21:26:00.001-08:00

Chris and I picked my brother up from the airport the night before we were flying out. I was bummed we couldn't overlap visits longer, but at least we got to catch up a little and the kids got to spend some time with him.

Snuggles with Grandma

Doing a little drawing the day we were leaving

Indiana Visit Part II

2012-01-24T21:19:00.000-08:00

opening presents:

Juliet opened her first gift which was packaged in a chocolate box. she thought it was truly a box of chocolates and i don't think she could have been happier. she shrieked, hugged the box and then proceeded to skip around the room screaming, "i got chocolate!!!!" she is her mother's daughter :)

4 generations

Papa playing with Aidric's present from Grandma Ruth

a glance at our time with grandma and papa sytsma

2012-01-24T21:01:00.000-08:00

Grandma and Papa with all the grandkids

It's really not possible to show how many lights are on his house. It's just a crazy display!! They even have a real santa and we happened to be in town on the night he comes so we took the kids to see him.

Papa and Cormac

the cousins

children's message during church

Cousin Bath! (the insane amount of bubbles are what you get when grandma is in charge of bathtime)

We spent one morning climbing on tractors and trucks at Sipkema Farms.

sleepless nights and belly laughs

2012-01-22T22:00:00.001-08:00

it's the belly laughs that make the sleepless nights more bearable...

A quick stop in Illinois

2012-01-11T09:46:00.000-08:00

On our way to see Grandma and Papa (those pics coming next!) we stayed a few nights with our very good friends, the Nords. Can not even tell you what a GREAT visit we had. I didn't know it was possible to have 5 children in a house and call it peaceful, but it really was. Claudia (4 years old) answered the door and greeted Juliet with, "Hi Juliet, do you want to come play with my toys?" So cute!! And they did...for most of the visit! Once Ryder and Aidric got over their initial "shyness" with each other, they were best buds. There are 2 years between them, but each time we visit, the age gap matters a little bit less. Aidric slept on a travel mattress in Ryder's room and when Gretchen checked on them the second night, Aidric was IN Ryder's best, only inches between their faces as they were "telling secrets and jokes". Gretchen has been one of my very best friends since College. I couldn't feel any luckier that our husbands are now great friends and our kids get along so well too. We're already planning our next trip with them!

We went bowling, to the Botanical Gardens to see the Christmas display and hired a sitter one night to go out for dinner and drinks sans kids. We were thrilled when we woke up to snow on our last day there. It wasn't much, but I'm so glad we got the kids out to play in it, b/c it didn't snow again while we were in Indiana.

4 months old

2012-01-09T22:15:00.000-08:00

Cormacsaurus is 4 months old!! So hard to believe but this time is FLYING by. I got the exersaucer out today..isn't that supposed to be for "older" babies?? How can he possible fit into that category already??

Good news/Bad news...we'll start with the bad. The past 6 weeks or so have seen a steady decline in his sleeping habits. He was generally going down around 7:30 and not waking until 2 or 3 and then again around 5 or 6 in the morning, sometimes later. We saw more than a handful of 8-10 hour nights as well. He was doing great!! Then, 2:00 became 1:00 and then it became 12:00. This past week, it became 10:00 and 9:30. 2 wakings a night became 3 and then 4...pretty soon, I found myself sitting upright most of the night holding him so that any of us could get some sleep. Exhausting!!

After just a HORRIBLE night last night, when he cried even if I was holding him, I took him to the pedi this morning. She hadn't spent more than 2 minutes in the room when she said it sounded like he had reflux. After a lot of brainstorming with friends this was the diagnosis I was headed towards as well (I'm sure doctors love us parents who go in with a diagnosis :). They had squeezed us in for an appointment so our pedi didn't have a ton of time, but in the short time that we were in there, she heard him do his little choking/gagging thing where it sounds like he's just trying to swallow back whatever is coming up. So sad...and probably pretty uncomfortable for the poor guy!

He had previously been on zantac, which we had weaned him off of at 2 months b/c he was doing so much better with the spit up (after I cut out dairy). Now I feel horrible for weaning him off- he obviously still needed it! But, the good news is we can get back on track and hopefully we'll all get our sleep back too!

Today wasn't his official 4 month visit - that's not scheduled until the 20th. But, they did weigh/measure him and he was 15 lbs. 7 oz and 25.5". I think that's around 75% height and 50% for weight.

Even bigger news..he rolled over this morning!! Aidric saw it before I did. We came down for breakfast and Aidric reminded me that we forgot to do tummy time last night. I brought Cormac into the front room to have some tummy time with his big bro while I made breakfast and then I heard Aidric yelling for me that he rolled over. Aidric rolled over at exactly 4 months too, but since Juliet was sooooo behind on all developmental milestones, I guess that was still in my head and I was shocked that Cormac was rolling already! I figure Aidric had "assisted" the roll, so I went in and flipped him back to his tummy. He surprised me by pushing up on his arms and flipping right back over!

I have a feeling these back pictures are going to get even harder to take going forward!

Happy 4 months Cormac!!!

4 month comparison

2012-01-07T20:11:00.000-08:00

Everyone keeps speculating whether Cormac looks like Aidric or Juliet and I honestly don't think he looks like either. After I took some pics of him the other day, I realized I had some similar ones of Aidric and Jules at around the same age. So, what do you think??

Oh Christmas Tree

2011-12-30T18:05:00.000-08:00

Oh (SAD little) Christmas Tree!

We purchased our tree when we lived in Austin. Our house in Austin had 10' ceilings. Last year, when we put it up here, we put it in the back of the house...coincidentally, it's the only room downstairs that has high ceilings. Since last year, Chris has built a banquet eating area in that space so we needed a new spot for the tree. We decided to put it in the front room. W/o thinking at all about the ceiling height. And that's the story of why our tree was missing it's top third =)

The kids didn't care though. Aidric LOOOOVED decorating it. He was so into it, I honestly barely touched the ornaments. We did it one afternoon when our babysitter Shelby was here. I thought she'd watch Cormac and the "big" kids and I would decorate. In the end, Aidric did almost all of the decorating. We had some hot cocoa and listened to Christmas songs too. It was really a great night! (and believe it or not, my type A personality just let go of the way the tree looked and it barely bothered me that all of the ornaments were on the bottom half of the tree and clumped together in spots)

Here she is in all her glory :)

Ice Skating

2011-12-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

Aidric and Juliet finished up an 8 week ice skating class right before Christmas. They absolutely LOVED it. Their instructor was amazing and made it really fun for them. It was fun for me to have them in the same class. They both did really well, learned how to fall first and then how to stand up on their own. They both do pretty well going forward (though Juliet "steps" more than she skates) and can kind of shimmy their way backwards. Not sure if we'll be signing up for the next session...I'd love to see them do it again, but Juliet is BEGGING to go back to dance and Tee Ball starts for Aidric next month, so we'll see.

Juliet all ready to go- I would generally get Aidric's skates on and send him out there b/c we were of course a few minutes late by the time we got everything on!

She caught up to him before the class started though and it melted me when I walked over to find them standing there holding hands.

On the ice!

Santa's Little Helper

2011-12-30T16:48:00.000-08:00

(pics taken December 5)

Most of you have heard me talk about my "online mom's group"- whenever one of us has a new babe, we are gifted one of these sweet "lovey" sized blankies custom made with baby's initial and minky on one side and a fabric chosen for that baby on the other side. I love ours!

Cards with Cormac

2011-12-30T14:34:00.000-08:00

These were taken on Juliet's birthday, so I'm approximately a month behind in blogging. Bear with me :)

I was taking a few pictures of the birthday girl and her little brother while Aidric was off at a playdate (or maybe school?).

After snapping the above pictures, I sat down on the couch to look at my viewfinder and see what I had gotten. I looked up and saw this:

I could have stopped her here, but I was too amused and with my camera already in hand, it was just too perfect. The look on his face and the card on his head just cracks me up. When I asked her what she was doing, she very simply answered, "I playing cards with Cormac mommy".

Getting themselves dressed

2011-12-10T22:08:00.000-08:00

Most days, Aidric picks out his own clothes. I try not to oppose his choices, even if they aren't my faves. I'll veto for weather or just let him know if something doesn't match...leaving up to him to change if he wants or not. (Though recently, I did strongly encourage him to choose something else when he came downstairs in dark, kelly green track pants and a lime-ish light green t-shirt. His defense? "Green and green mommy, it matches!")

Juliet chooses her own clothes on some days..I try to pick something out for her before I come down for breakfast. (Kids are usually up having breakfast with daddy). If I forget or don't have time though, she does choose her own. I often have to alter it a little...add a skirt over the leggings or somehow tie it all together.

A few weeks ago, there was a day when they both dressed themselves. And on that day, both outfits were photo worthy. And I don't mean that in a good way :)

First up, we have Juliet. Not a great choice, but it doesn't look too horrible, right?? The socks are an interesting choice and if we were going anywhere, I'd throw a black skirt over it to hide the fact that the leggings and shirt are not a great match. But we weren't going anywhere, so no big deal.

Here's the funny party...while in time out on the stairs, she decided to use that time wisely and put a second set of clothes on top of the first. The outfit on top was sitting on the stairs and she just put it on right over the other outfit. Wore both all day...when she got undressed for her bath that night we saw she even had two pairs of socks on!

And then there's Aidric. I need to preface this by telling you a little bit about our plans for the day...we had no plans. Weren't going anywhere or really doing anything..just hanging out at home.

So, why wouldn't he wear a button down shirt and tie??

Seriously, they crack me up!!

3 months old!

2011-12-10T20:58:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been 3 months! Love this kid SO SO much. He's so sweet and such a little cuddler. This is both good and bad. I love cuddling too, I just also like to sleep. He likes to sleep with me :)

He's a pretty happy baby these days, but he does like to make sure he is being paid attention to. Apparently, no one told him he's the 3rd child and we don't have oodles of time to dote on him and an extra set of hands to hold him ALL DAY LONG.

He rewards for the attention though. The smiles are so so sweet. And the coos melt my heart. Here's a quick video that's actually a few weeks old but shows it so perfectly. He had just finished eating and was full of coos and smiles until I turned the camera on. He clammed up and then broke it back out when I told him how cute he was. (MELT)

I put him on the scale during Juliet's doctor's appointment the other day- 14.5 lbs and I think around 25". According to the charts I found online, that around the 75% for both- WOW!

Ladybug Girl Birthday Party!

2011-12-05T21:01:00.000-08:00

It took forever for Juliet to decide what kind of birthday party she wanted, but after reading "Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad Playdate" over and over (a "big sister" gift from Aunt Sarah and family), I made the suggestion and it was an immediate YES! And I'm so glad b/c it was so much fun to see her in her ladybug girl outfit and loving everything about her party.

Ladybug Girl!

and ladybug girl's cousin, ladybug girl :)

Playing "pin the spots on the ladybug"

after the game:

Ladybug Cupcakes

Chocolate dipped pretzel rods

Blowing out her candles...in all my party planning, I forgot to buy candles! So...we held up a cupcake and she blew out 3 candles in our red holiday flutes!

Safe to say she loved the cupcake

Jumping in the bouncy house:

Cormac with Uncle Richard

Our latest 52 weeks picture

And birthday girl was DONE here, this family picture cracks me up!

Happy 3rd Birthday Juliet!!!

2011-12-01T19:27:00.001-08:00

Our sweet but oh so sassy little girl is THREE YEARS OLD!!!! I really need a long post about this child, but if I wait until that's ready to post, she'll be four by then :)

So, for now, a quick Happy Birthday and a few pics we snapped before preschool this morning!

Here's her fake smile

And here is the real, unedited, Juliet :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T21:42:00.000-08:00

We had a great day..I felt like such a grown-up, hosting my very first real holiday! The kids helped me make these cute placecards, everyone pitched in on the cooking and we all ate way too much. A great day!

(Juliet's finger prints)

(Aidric's finger prints)

Grandma getting some snuggles with Cormac

Turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, asparagus, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls...

Cormac spent his first Thanksgiving Dinner sleeping in the kitchen =)

I managed to catch a few pics of Grace and Max outside...when my own children ran away from me, I didn't even attempt to chase them =)

After naps/quiet time, we had dinner, did baths and put jammies on before heading over to Chris's cousin Jackie's house. We spent a few hours catching up with family and overeating dessert.

Our 52 weeks picture. This is week 49.

Weighing in at 12 lbs. 7 oz...

2011-11-08T21:35:00.001-08:00

Our little (not so little really) 2 month old! We had his well check and immunizations
today. He's in the 75% for weight and the 50% for height. If I remember correctly, these percentages are very consistent with Aidric and Juliet. They all ballooned between 2-6 months!

Other than that, no news is good news...nothing really remarkable to report. He's doing great...tiny bit of thrush (he had it about a month ago and it's back..hopefully we'll get rid of it for good this time!). Really nothing else to report!

puzzle mania

2011-11-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

This kid LOVES puzzles. He has spent over an hour a day working on them for the last week or so. His room is carpeted, so he goes in our (still unfinished) bathroom to put them together. I walked up there one day and saw the floor covered in puzzles and had to grab my camera.

3 adorable dinos

2011-11-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

I LOVE that Aidric and Juliet both wanted to be dinosaurs for Halloween this year. It was actually Juliet's idea. Aidric's love/obsession for dinosaurs has rubbed off on her. We have no less than 10 dinosaur books, which Aidric has the better parts of memorized. He can pronounce words such as "struthiomimus", "janenschia", "ceolophysis" and "euoplocephalus". It's pretty impressive.

They spend countless hours playing "dinosaur" in which she is usually the daddy, he is the mommy and "Annie" and "Buddy" are 2 plastic dinosaurs they carry around with them. LOVE the imaginary play!

Juliet also spends a LOT of time practicing her roar. She's actually a pretty scary t-rex...it's a deep, strong roar. Unfortunately, she generally chooses naptime to practice and the other night, she even decided to put in some practice time around 3 am. (I woke up to the noise and thought she was crying, I was on my way to her room when I realized it was not a cry at all, but a roar. As frustrating as it was to be awake and out of bed at 3 am, I couldn't help but laugh!)

Needless to say, their choice of dinosaurs for Halloween was fitting and perfect. Deciding what Cormac would be couldn't have been easier.

We started trick or treating this year at Riviera Village again while it was still light out. After dinner, we headed out in the neighborhood and kept it short. I love that we only went to 5 houses and yet they both had a blast and think they got a HUGE haul of candy.

Week 45 of our 52 week project.

We were parked along the water and I couldn't resist a few quick pics with the ocean behind them.

Thank you.

2011-10-28T14:47:00.001-07:00

I don't know about other bloggers, but for me...when I get behind in my blogging, I have to make a decision. Do I play catch up and go back and blog things that happened over a month ago? Or do I just pretend those things never happened and pick up at the current time? In general, I tend to take the easy route and do the latter. But today, I'm going back. Cormac is 7 weeks old. And I'm just now writing a post to say a huge public thank you to my mom.

Adjusting to life with 3 kids hasn't been easy. But we were so lucky to start that adjustment with an extra set of hands for almost 2 weeks! Someone asked me what it's like to have 3 kids and the first word that came to mind was BUSY. It's a lot of things, of course. It's amazing, wonderful, fulfilling, and absolutely a blessing. And then it's hard, crazy, exhausting, frustrating and overwhelming. But more than anything- it's just BUSY! We're settling in now- by no means would I say we've mastered it, but we're doing OK. However, I can't imagine doing it with just the 2 of us from day one. Having my mom here was absolutely WONDERFUL.

She came the day before my induction was scheduled. And before we even got home from the airport, she was on grandma duty. I had a dr.'s appointment and we had to go straight there. They were way behind and between the waiting and the appt, it was over an hour and half. Thankfully, grandma kept Aidric busy and happy out in the waiting room for me. (There may have been cookies involved here.)

While she was here, I'd like to note that a piece of laundry was not allowed to stay dirty for more than 24 hours. Seriously, I had to slow her down on Juliet's laundry. (I've learned that Juliet will wear the same (favorite) outfit over and over if it they are clean, so I only do her laundry once a week or less.)

She did much much more than just laundry though. The day before she left, she kept asking, "OK, is there anything you want me to do today before I go?" and I kept answering, "yes, change your plane ticket to next week" =) She cooked and cleaned and most importantly, spent quality time with whichever kiddo needed it at that moment. When I was feeding Cormac, she was outside with Aidric and Juliet. When I was trying to get him to sleep, she kept them busy in another room. When I needed a break from the baby, she took him in the other room for snuggles and I got to hang with the big kids. All in all, invaluable and I can't thank her enough. I know she enjoyed it, but was likely exhausted at the end of 2 weeks!

So...THANK YOU mom..and thank you dad too, for giving her up for 2 weeks! We want you to know how much we appreciated it. Love you!!

more bones

2011-10-23T10:36:00.001-07:00

If there is anything cuter than 2 siblings in matching jammies, as seen HERE, it's 3 siblings in matching jammies.

Pumpkin Patch 2011

2011-10-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

Quick trip on Sunday to a local pumpkin patch. Such a sad little excuse for a "patch" really...made me think of the years when I was younger...going over to my grandparent's house to pick our pumpkin out of an actual field!

Regardless, the kids enjoyed it...took a quick pony ride, jumped in the bouncy house, checked out the petting zoo and took a few pics with the piles of pumpkins. Good times =)

Our first attempt at a 52 week picture...

pumpkin pics

and our 2nd attempt at a 52 week pic

Public Service Announcement: Apple Crisp

2011-10-16T15:43:00.001-07:00

I know this blog is generally about the kids and what they are up to. But, this apple crisp truly deserves its own post. It is absolutely amazing. I can't give credit to the original baker b/c I have no idea who that is. My mom made it while she was here helping after Cormac was born and apparently, it's the recipe my dad is famous for using.

My pictures really don't do it justice and while I meant to just barely soften the butter, I accidentally melted it. That means the sugar/flour/butter mixture isn't as lumpy as it should be. Delicious despite that though!!

Apple Crisp

4 c sliced apples
1/4 cup water
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter

Place apples in buttered baking dish. Add water and cinnamon. Combine flour, sugar and butter with fork. Sprinkle over apples. Bake at 350 for 40 minute. YUM. (serve plain or with ice cream over/on the side)

Sweet Girl

2011-10-14T14:51:00.001-07:00

We had a little scare yesterday. The kids and I were at the park, I was walking Cormac around in circles to keep him asleep when I heard Juliet screaming/crying. I looked up to see her laying on the ground, on her back, with her arms splayed out on either side. One arm, in particular, was in a really awkward position and I immediately thought it was broken. I ran over to her and couldn't get her to tell me anything, just continued sobbing. I didn't want to move her because I had NO idea what hurt at this point.

Eventually, I got her to lift her arms and move her body and I figured it was ok to move her. I picked her up, carried her over to a bench and sat down. She told me she fell from the top of the ladder onto her head. I have NO idea how this is possible and I'm still confused as to why she was face up. I continued to ask her to move things and everything seemed to be working fine. I asked her a few questions and she answered them correctly. She then told me she needed a bandaid for her face and promptly fell asleep. In my arms. At the park. Honestly, the falling asleep scared me more than anything! I called Chris and told him to get on google and see if this was a huge concern and told him we were on our way home.

He met us outside and carried her in. He woke her up a little and after our incredibly professional medical assessment, we both determined she was fine...sleepy, but fine. She had skipped her nap that day, which I had forgotten in my initial panic. She cuddled for about 10 more minutes before perking up and joining Aidric outside for a little soccer before dinner.

The whole thing just made me realize how quickly life can change. She's ok and I'm so thankful. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of her in this sweet moment of cuddling with daddy.

Milk Art

2011-10-14T14:31:00.001-07:00

One of our favorite (and easiest) ways to pass our afternoons is with an art project at the kitchen counter. I think this works well for a few reasons...

1) they love art
2) they are far enough away from each other that they can not touch each other

I like to mix it up and provide different materials for them. We do a lot of coloring, markers, watercolors and dot dot markers, but it's fun to go beyond those too. I found this idea on pinterest of course...the original blog post is here:

We used condensed milker to make it thicker and when I told them it was ok to lick the "paint" off their fingers if they wanted to, they tried it and declared it "basgusting" (juliet's word for disgusting). Regardless of not wanting to eat it, they loved painting with it!

I had Chris snap a few candids to use for my 52 week project. I really want some of those pictures to reflect what we are doing day to day..not just "smile for the camera" type pictures. And if that means a picture of me fresh out of the shower with no makeup on, so be it. (went for a quick run and grabbed a shower during naps!)

Cormac - 1 month!

2011-10-10T13:56:00.001-07:00

How has a whole MONTH already passed??? It's really going way too fast. I remember saying that Juliet's newborn/infant stage passed so quickly, but this is just flying by.

I took monthly pictures with both of the other kids, but I'm going to do something slightly differently with Cormac. Instead of a "sign" next to him with the number of months he is, I'm going to steal this idea from one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love.

So, here's Cormac's first monthly picture, admittedly taken one day late and posted 2 days late. What can I say..he's the third child. This is to be expected. At least I'm doing it!

I weighed him on the 8th...just our home scale, so who knows how accurate, but he was 10 lbs. even. This didn't really surprise me....even Aidric and Juliet say, "Cormac sure does love his milk!" b/c he eats ALL THE TIME! (well, about every 2-3 hours during the day)

Speaking of night...so far, I can't complain too much. There's only been one night he's been up more than twice, so I count myself lucky on that account. Starting around week 2, he struggled to go back to sleep after eating, but I realized soon enough it was directly related to being on his back. He would start groaning and grunting and eventually spit up all over, gagging on it in the process. I decided to try putting him in the Fisher Price Rock n Play and things got much easier. I can pretty much feed him, burp him, keep him upright for 10 minutes or so and then put him back in this for instant return to sleep. (knock on wood...I don't want to jinx anything here) Generally, the "schedule" he's kind of set for himself is bedtime around 7:30/8:00, up some time between 12:00-2:00 and then again between 3:30-6:00. I've been lucky enough to get a handful of nights when he's slept 6-7 hours straight for that first stretch, going down around 7:30 and not waking until 2:00!

I wish I could say his days are as blissful. He is by far, our fussiest baby. That's not saying too much though, considering the first two were such easy babies! Cormac has a hard time just chilling out. If he's awake, he likes to be held and he likes interaction. The longest I think he's gone "unattended" and awake is maybe 15 minutes? And that's been a RARE occasion. He has a super fussy period in the early evening..from about 5:30-7:30 (yes, right when I'm trying to make dinner and then we're trying to eat). He spends the large majority of these 2 hours screaming. And it's hard b/c it doesn't really matter if we're holding him and trying everything we can think of or if he's sitting in the swing by himself...he continues to scream.

Despite the fussy evenings, he's pretty amazing, and I'm more in love with him than I thought possible. I'm anxiously awaiting the first real smile, and I can't wait to start seeing glimpses of his personality...to find out who this little man is going to be. A sensitive, thoughtful people pleaser like his older brother? Or a spirited, independent goofball like his sister? I'm sure it will be some unique combination all his own and I'm so excited to get to know him too!

Cormac's BFF

2011-10-05T20:58:00.001-07:00

Cormac is only 3.5 weeks old, and yet he already has a BFF!! (That is Best Friend Forever for anyone who is not in the know).

Bonnie and I met the summer before 7th grade. It is hard to believe that was 1989. (Wow) We immediately became BFFs and were ridiculously inseparable for the following 10 years. We've taken different paths since High School, mine leading to Butler and then San Francisco, Austin and now Southern California. Hers has included Michigan, Houston, Seattle and now Washington DC! Though we haven't lived in the same state in 15 years, we've always kept in touch and the core of our friendship has never changed. We always joked in high school that we were never 'in sync', referring mostly to the fact that whenever one of us had a boyfriend, the other was single and vice-versa. Things are still pretty drastically different in our lives, but having little boys born exactly one month apart puts us pretty in sync!

Bonnie and Oliver came to visit for 3 days and it was SO great to see her and meet Oliver! He is SUCH a good, sweet little baby!! We did a lot of just hanging out and talking with a few outings mixed in to keep Aidric and Juliet entertained and happy. Sadly, we seriously neglected to document 95% of the visit. On their last night here, Bonnie and I were heading out to dinner with just the babies and we finally remembered to grab the camera. 3 days of a great visit and this is all we have to show for it!

Cormac's birth story

2011-10-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'm mostly putting this on the blog for my own documentation, but thought someone out there may be interested in reading it too...so here goes!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

So, we were scheduled for a 10:00 induction, but received a call at 7:45 saying they were full and had no nurses. She asked me to call and check in with her at 10:00 and she was hoping to tell me I could come in at 1:00. I was 100% fine with this, b/c it meant I got to be the one to pick Juliet up from her first day of preschool. I called back at 10:00 and learned that they were even busier and I would not be able to come in at 1:00. She asked me to call back again at 1:00. I spent the morning doing all the things you are supposed to do if you are trying to get labor started at home. I worked a few accupressure points while Aidric watched a show and definitely got some contractions going. After we picked up Juliet, my mom, Aidric, Jules and I went for a walk. I was having decent contractions, but knew they'd likely go away when we stopped walking.

Around 12:30, my phone rang and it was the hospital saying to go ahead and come in at 1:00! We walked back home, took a quick shower and grabbed our bags. Our last picture as a family of 4.

By the time we got to the hospital and were checked in, it was almost 2:00. They had just started the IV for fluids and were still doing intake information when my doctor came in. She checked my cervix to get a starting point of reference. I was 4 cm dilated; 85% effaced and baby at -1 station. She needed to get back into the office, so she broke my water before we had even started pitocin! That was at 2:12, the official start of my labor. 10 minutes later they started the pitocin and I'm not kidding you, by 2:25 I was asking for an epidural. My labors with Aidric and Juliet were both fast, but I was in no way prepared for things to move as quickly as they did. The nurse left the room and 5 minutes later the anesthesiologist walked in. The contractions were already coming less than 2 minutes apart and they were STRONG! She turned off the pit so that she could get the epidural in. (They never turned it back on b/c my contractions were coming so fast and strong w/o it, there was no need.)

The epidural was not easy. Worth it in the end, but not easy. First, there were the normal aches and pains of the lidocaine needle and the insertion of the epidural needle itself. There was a little cursing and moaning on my end and several pauses in the process to get through a few contractions. Just when I thought the worst was behind me (b/c she TOLD me it was), I relaxed and said with relief how that wasn't as bad as the epidural process with Juliet. Oh, how I would eat those words. Immediately after that, she was inserting the actual catheter and I felt a stinging/electric sensation jolt through my left leg and lower back. She continued to work on it and then said it had popped out!! She told me she'd have to start over and do it again. Pretty much repeat above, including the jolting pain at the end. (2nd epidural was in at 2:45) Wouldn't have been so horrible if that was the end of it. But it was unfortunately not over. I can't even describe how quickly this happened, but as I sat there with her finishing the epidural, I had a horrible stabbing pain in my head. I couldn't call it a headache as much as just an intense stabbing. I've never felt anything like it. She checked for a leakage of something or other and confirmed that wasn't a problem. First thing they tried to relieve it was a diet pepsi (for the caffeine) and a tylenol. In addition to the head pain at this time, I was still feeling intense contractions b/c I hadn't even finished the first bag of IV fluids and the anesthesiologist didn't want to up the epidural meds until I had finished those b/c of some other possible complication if she did.

My head pain had subsided a little and my nurse decided to check for progress. At 3:10, one hour into the process, I was 100% effaced and 5-6 cm dilated. She started to insert a catheter when the head pain just completely overwhelmed me. It was definitely scary to experience something like that..just so strange and unexplained. It was obviously related to the epidural but the anesthesiologist couldn't say WHY it was there. She explained a treatment she could try called a blood patch. W/o even fully understanding it, I agreed to have her do it. Weirdest thing - she took about 20 ML of blood from my arm, apparently from a very specific blood vessel there, and then inserted that same blood into the epidural. I can't say I understand the process and she even said they don't know WHY it works. She acted as though it was going to be an instant 100% cure and I wanted that to be true, but while it wasn't, it helped tremendously. And thank God it did, b/c I can't even imagine going through labor with that pain!

Over the next 20 minutes, the contractions got less and less painful as she was able to increase my epidural up to the normal amount. I could still feel them and I could even move my legs and lift my body up when the nurse needed me to. This surprised me as I remember being completely numb with Juliet. I voiced this concern several times =) (not b/c I was in pain, just b/c I was so worried I would feel baby coming out and I am all about avoiding pain- heck, I'd gone through all of the pain to GET the epidural, I wanted to put it to good use!) The anesthesiologist informed me that the new standard of practice is use a lower level epidural b/c in the past women weren't pushing effectively with the amounts they were using. I tried to promise her I would be a good pusher, but she held her ground. It was fine though and even w/o her increasing it, the pain was mostly gone and we enjoyed the next hour of hanging out and waiting to be ready. Yes, I said hour. That's how long it took before I felt pressure and let my nurse know she should probably check me.

She checked me at 4:15 and basically said, "I'm going to call your doctor, please don't have the baby while I'm gone. Call me if you hear crying from under the blanket." Baby was already at +2 station!!! 100% effaced and 10 cm dilated- very much ready to be born! My doctor was there within minutes and got everything set up for delivery.

(right before pushing)

I started pushing at 4:35 and our little boy was born at 4:39. Even for me, that was fast. His birth was absolutely incredible. My mom and my sister-in-law Sarah were both here and I had requested a mirror. We all watched his amazing entry into the world. I think it was the 2nd contraction of pushing that his head came out. We were talking and laughing and when I laughed, the pressure pushed him out just a little more. My doctor basically said, "let's go with that...don't push anymore, just laugh." So, I did and he pretty much slid the rest of the way out on his own. SOOOOOOOO cool!! As she was sliding him out, Dr. Richey turned his body towards Chris and I so we would have the first view of the privates. Immediately, I could see he was a boy and I have to say I was shocked! My intuition from day 1 was that he was a boy, but soooo many people were guessing girl that I let myself be convinced it would be a girl. Not knowing the gender ahead of time was a pretty awesome experience. It was just sooo exciting to have that surprise to look forward to at the end of labor. Sarah took some great pictures and the looks on Chris and my faces say it all. Just soooo happy and excited to be meeting our little boy.

She put him right on my belly/chest and he seemed to snuggle right in. My mom cut the cord and he just chilled. I love that the policies at this hospital did not require that he be taken from me at any exact time. I got to hold and cuddle with him for quite awhile before I handed him over to be weighed/cleaned off and checked out. He got 9/9 on his apgars and weighed in at 7 lbs. 13 oz. He was 20" long with a head circumference of 14".

When the nurse was finished with him, Chris held him and within just a few minutes, Grandma Porras showed up with Aidric and Juliet, who were ecstatic to meet him. They ran over to the chair and just dove right in. Juliet kept exclaiming, "oooooh, baby, baby, baby- look at the teeny, tiny, little baby!!" and then, "Can I hold it??". So cute! Aidric started rubbing his head and then sang him a song. They were both so sweet. Juliet got to hold him first and she probably kept him for almost 5 minutes before deciding she was done. Aidric was next and almost immediately, Juliet wanted another turn. That went on for about 20 minutes or so and then they went for a walk with my mom so everyone else could get a turn.

I was a little worried about the kids' reaction to my holding him and nursing him for the first time. I remember Aidric really didn't like seeing me with Juliet when he first came to the hospital to meet her. It didn't phase them a bit though! They just wanted to be a part of it, and kept reaching out to touch him.

All in all, it was an amazing day. How could it be anything less considering it's the day we were blessed with this absolutely amazing little boy!

dinos on the magna doodle

2011-09-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

Aidric spent A LOT of time working on these dinos and he was able to tell me exactly what kind of dinosaur each one was. I wish I could remember them all, but I do know we have a t-rex, stegasaurs, brachiosaurus, and "raptor". He was sooo proud when I told him I wanted to take a picture of his drawing so we could always have it.

Juliet drew.....ummm, this. I have no idea what it is, but she wanted her picture taken with it too =)

Phototherapy ...it's a threepeat

2011-09-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Remember this?

click here

And this?

and here

Well, this time, we had this:

And these crack me up. Aidric and Juliet came to visit, but no one told them Cormac was under phototherapy lights. Aidric walked in and just stopped and froze when he saw him, kind of freaked out. He didn't want to go anywhere near him. Juliet walked in and immediately pulled up a chair for a better look. She then sang him a few songs that went something like, "don't cry baby brother, we're here now...there's nothing to cry about...you ok".

When that didn't stop him from crying, she resorted to making funny faces.

He was under the lights for just under 24 hours. His bilirubin levels were actually higher than either Aidric or Juliet's were. 14.3 at 70 hours old. I'm not going to lie, I was incredibly unhappy that the hospital staff hadn't been more proactive. 70 hours old was the first time they checked his bili levels, despite my repeatedly asking them to and reminding them of his increased risk factors. (coombs+ and 2 siblings who had high levels that required treatment). All is well that ends well though and after 24 hours, his levels were down to 11.3 and he was discharged shortly after!

Aidric's First Day of Preschool 2011

2011-09-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

Aidric is back at the same school for the 2nd year, but has a new teacher. One of his best friend's mom offered to pick him up for school to help us out. I was a little leery at first..it was his first day!! But, when I gave him the choice, he immediately said yes, he wanted to go with Benjamin. We were off to a late start that morning and with 5 minutes to go before she was picking him up, we still needed to pack a snack, find his backpack and get dressed! We rushed around for 5 minutes and when she pulled up, it was to find us in the driveway, Aidric in the backseat of our car getting his back pack and me still in my jammies but with a camera in hand.

Instead of the usual 50 pictures, Aidric lucked out b/c we only had time for 3. I lucked out b/c I absolutely LOVE this one. Cheesy little smile and all, this kid is CUTE =)

Sibling Moments

2011-09-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

I am crossing my fingers as I write this and knocking on wood too, but so far, Aidric and Juliet are both pretty in love with Cormac. We're definitely seeing some attention getting behavior from them both, but no outright jealousy issues directed at him. They both look for him the minute they walk in the room, insist on kisses all day long and hate to hear him cry. (which, luckily, he does not do too much of)

The other day, Aidric was holding him and wanted to read him a book. I went and got him one, and he sat there turning the pages for him

Juliet generally asks to "hold it".

And because I can't resist him....just a few more.

Sidenote...I shamefully admit that that is indeed a pink boppy cover he's resting on. I had the blue one on initially, but he is a spitter and nothing lasts long around here!

On September 8, 2011...

2011-09-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

Our family went from this:

to this:

Cormac Steven Zohlen was born at 3:39 PM

7 lbs. 13 oz.

20 inches

less than one hour old

one day old

Juliet's First day of Preschool

2011-09-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, we just had a baby! But while he gets some love from daddy and the 398 pictures we took of his first 5 hours are importing, I thought I'd do a quick post about Juliet's first day of Preschool. She looooooooooved it. Love might not even be enough to express her feelings for it. She's been ready to go to preschool since last September when we dropped Aidric off for his first day. She spent the whole year begging to stay every time we dropped him off.

So, this morning she was beyond elated that it was finally her turn. She ran around the house singing about her very first day of preschool. I love how happy she was to be going!

In all honesty, Aidric was more hesitant about her going than she was! I asked if he wanted to say goodbye to her and he gave her this huge hug and told her he loved her. So sweet!

When we got there, she seemed overwhelmed for about 2 seconds before she told her teacher her name and we found her cubby. She sat down and played playdough and then did a quick drawing with markers. She wasn't AT ALL concerned when I told her it was time for me to go. Answered with a quick, "OK Mommy, bye bye!"

When I picked her up, she saw me, exclaimed, "MY MOMMY!!!" and came running. Made me feel a little better that she didn't care when I left. I asked if she liked her first day and she said, "I WUVED it mommy!! It was the best preschool in the world EVER EVER EVER." You know, b/c she has such a strong basis for comparison =) I'm so glad she loved it and I think she's going to thrive there this year!! (Her teacher told me she was a great listener, a big helper.....and they've already seen her sassy side when a little boy tried to take her watering can away and she gave him a piece of her mind and held her ground- yikes.)

oobleck

2011-09-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

I highly recommend this super easy activity! We used to do it at the preschool I worked at in grad school, and it's been on my mental list of things to do with Aidric and Juliet for awhile...then, I put it on the "summer list" and that gave me the push to get it done! All you need is cornstarch, water and some coloring agent. (I used food coloring, in the preschool we used a special art coloring that doesn't stain your hands like food coloring can.)

You just mix up the ingredients together until you have the right consistency. The right consistency is hard to describe. It's liquidy when you touch it softly..flows right through your fingers like water. But, when yo squeeze it or hit it, it is hard. You can actually grab a handful of it, it will kind of make a solid ball or shape in your hand, but when you release the pressure on it, it just flows out. How cool is that?? It's so hard to describe, but seriously, when we made it, I couldn't keep my hands out of it and neither could the kids.

bones

2011-09-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken because a very strange thing happened one morning last week. After breakfast, both kids went into the playroom while I cleaned up the kitchen. I cleaned the kitchen, sat down and finished my coffee and realized something was different. There was no yelling. No fighting. No crying. And they were alone, together, in the playroom. For a longish time. (Long for them, anyway...means maybe 10 minutes had passed??)

So, I peaked in and could not believe that they were actually engaged together in an activity and STILL were not fighting. (I would have been more likely to believe that they had each just found something on their own to be engaged in.) I knew the moment would likely be over, but I couldn't help snapping a few shots. Once I had interrupted the game anyway, I asked if I could take a few of them together in their "bone jammies", which are their absolute FAVORITE jammies and which they insist on wearing at the same time. (which you know I love)

The photo session wasn't quite as peaceful as their playing had been. Aidric was NOT feeling it and was not a gracious recipient of Juliet's hugs and kisses until I finally promised him a treat if he cooperated.

Yahtzee Junior

2011-09-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

It was the summer of Yahtzee Jr. at our house. (or maybe still is?)

Aidric received this game from his friend Jack for his birthday. He loooooves it. And I have to admit, I'm also a big fan. (such a welcome departure from a game like Trouble or Candyland, when you get sent back home and have to start over a millions times resulting in never ending games)

I took these one day just to document/remember one of his favorite things to do at age 4!

(Oh, and hidden bonus of yahtzee jr. is that he is learning to add! At the end of each game, you have to add up your score. We have him help us and he's really caught on. He's memorized most of the sums between 1+1 and 5+5, but he also knows how to count it out to add other combos.)

Aidric's Quiet Time

2011-08-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

Aidric stopped napping over a year ago. But, in order to maintain my sanity, I've continued to enforce a "quiet time" in the afternoon. He has to stay in his room for about an hour to an hour and a half. He doesn't have to sleep or even lay down...he has free reign in there with a ton of toys, books, puzzles, etc. to occupy him. But, the thing is, he is TIRED. He is stubborn and refuses to sleep, but he's tired.

We've found that he spends a good portion of this time laying on his bed, just snuggling with his blanket. (and yes, sucking his thumb...not sure when we need to really work on breaking this habit- he ONLY does it at home and generally only does it when he is holding this blanket!)

He knows that he can't come out until his clock says "THREE ZERO ZERO" and several times throughout QT, I'll hear his little voice at the stairs announcing the current time, "TWO FOUR EIGHT". He doesn't totally grasp the concept of time though and really know when THREE ZERO ZERO is coming. So, he stares at his clock a lot in anticipation; I think partially afraid that if he looks away, he's going to miss the big moment.

Anyway, Chris walked into the hallway during QT yesterday and saw this. He often pulls his blanket out into the hall for some reason. But the addition of pulling his clock out there with him yesterday just cracked me up!

52 weeks with my kids..Weeks 32-34

2011-08-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

Week 32
We were getting ready to grab a quick snapshot in the backyard, but Juliet (the drama queen) tripped on her way over to Aidric and me. Chris took this picture of our group hug while consoling her.

Week 33
I've wanted to take a picture like this since I saw a similar shot on pinterest at the beginning of my pregnancy. Thankfully, Chris has been awesome at accommodating my many photo shoot requests and he did a great job taking this.

And I spared Chris this one and asked our babysitter to snap it for me one day last week.

Homemade Ice Cream

2011-08-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

Easiest and most delicious thing ever!!! I read the directions, so I was prepared for it to be easy. I was not prepared to enjoy eating it more than Haagen Daaz. It's sooooo goood!!!! Who knew???

Link to recipe here

Mini Golf

2011-08-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

This was both kids first time miniature golfing. It was on our Summer Fun List and they both loved it. They honestly didn't seem all that into it at the time, but since that day (about 2 weeks ago) they have asked several times if we can go do it again!

Week 31 of our 52 Week Project

Last Soccer Game

2011-08-04T22:16:00.000-07:00

Aidric's first season of soccer has come and gone. It was a very quick summer league, but a great experience for him! He had a wonderful coach, who was positive and fun, but managed to teach him a few things too =)

At first, he did NOT want to play. We couldn't figure out why since he had enjoyed tee ball so much. Finally, the day of the first game, he said, "mommy, I'm scared that I'm not going to make a goal." Awww!! Broke my heart that he was soooo focused on scoring; I worried that maybe we had stressed that unintentionally? We tried to reassure him that the fun of soccer was just playing and it didn't matter if he scored a goal. We went to the first game and he did not score a goal, but despite himself, he DID have fun. During the second game and I think every game after, he managed to score at least once and all was well. He ended up loving soccer and we've signed him up for the fall league.

A few pictures of his last game...thanks to Gretchen, Ryder and Claudia for coming out to support the "Red Superheroes"!

I was lucky enough to have the camera ready here..this is actually him scoring a goal!

High Fives after the goal!

Once their snacks were gone, Juliet, Ryder and Claudia were pretty much done with the game. I was at the end of the field taking the above pictures and managed to get a few of the girls and Chris playing.

And then Claudia came over to model for me...love that!

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

2011-08-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

Another item on our summer "to do" list..we checked it off last week and have done it again since. I got the idea from a blog...I won't repeat the instructions b/c you can find them here if you are interested!

sidewalk chalk paint

They loved everything about this! Making the paint was probably almost as fun as using it for them. I didn't take pictures of that part b/c it required my help to ensure no fingers were smashed along with the chalk.

Yes, Juliet is only wearing her underwear. She had a super cute dress on that day and I didn't want to risk staining...it likely wouldn't have stained, but I wasn't taking any chances =)

Beach Day with the Nords

2011-07-30T22:21:00.000-07:00

We had a quick, but great visit from my best friend, Gretchen and her family. It is always so great to see them. Even though the kids span almost 4 years in age, they get along really well...and each visit brings more independent play from all of them, which is very welcome =) (and will of course change when #3 arrives next month!)

We started Monday morning with a maternity photo session at the beach....Gretchen took some great pictures for me and I'll be sharing them soon! We went back to the beach a few hours later with the kids. Chris and Brent are absent from these pictures, but really shouldn't be considering they were awesome and played non-stop with them the whole time we were there, giving Gretchen and I the opportunity to just sit and talk. That night, we had a babysitter and went out for a great dinner...more pics to come!

bikes and scooters

2011-07-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

I really really wish we lived on a street that had more room for riding bikes or at least a big driveway suitable for the job. But, we don't. And we have to make do with going up and down a tiny stretch of road between our house and 2 down. These are from one afternoon last week...the afternoon Juliet finally started to "get" pedaling and steering!

Aidric rides the scooter for a little while...and then he inevitably wants to ride the tricycle with Juliet. I absolutely love watching them go up and down the street like this!

Juliet gets a turn to drive too...and these count as our 28 week pictures for the 52 week project!

My girly girl

2011-07-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

Pictures of Aidric coming in the next post, I promise!

A few pictures of the princess with her freshly painted nails.

Gymboree Supermodel

2011-07-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

I promise I do not conduct a photo session every time I put a bathing suit on Juliet. But once again, this one was too cute not to! I bought it when she was an infant, off the clearance rack..and almost forgot about it this year! She wore it to go swimming at Grandma and Papa's a few weeks ago, and I couldn't resist snapping just a few.

Our Tiny Dancer

2011-07-21T22:07:00.001-07:00

This child LOOOOVES her dance class! She's only gone two weeks now, but every day she wakes up and asks, "Today I go to dance class, mommy?" On the days I say no she gets mad, pouts and screams that she WANTS to go dance class. The day I said, "yes, today you get to go to dance class", she exclaimed, "Thank you mommy!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!"

The studio has windows parents can watch through, so this is taken on my iphone through the window:

The last 10 minutes of the class is tap. Could the hip wiggling be any cuter??? Oh my gosh, I love this girl!!

A few pics, but there are more on facebook! (these were taken the first week)

uncooperative goofballs

2011-07-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

We were outside playing one morning last week and I noticed the light was absolutely perfect for pictures. The sun was out, sky was blue, and there was the perfect amount of shade over in the driveway by the shrubs. Aidric was wearing a blue shirt that combined with the light made his eyes practically glitter.

All that is to say, my children were incredibly uncooperative despite my offering to bribe them with anything I could think of. Enjoy the "perfect light" in the waaaay less than perfect pictures =)

Little Fishies

2011-07-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

7 lessons in and I am seriously so impressed with this swim school and the progress both kids are making! Aidric was nervous for his first 2 lessons. Now?? He's jumping into the pool by HIMSELF (teacher out of the water), rolling onto his back and floating on his back! He's also working on his kicks while swimming with his head in the water.

He did his first jump into the pool today and I missed getting it on video. He was getting ready to jump again, and I had the camera ready. His teacher saw me - she asked Aidric to look for me and then told him to wave to me. I was shocked when she then PUSHED him into the water. Without warning! I was so scared for him that he was going to be terrified and never want to go back to swimming. But, it makes sense. After learning the steps, anyone can prepare himself to jump into the pool and float. But, being able to do so under pressure and with fear is a different and more important skill.

As you can see in the video, the first time she pushes him in, he didn't float. He doggy paddled and just tried to keep his head up, which is a natural first instinct. You can see she jumps in to help him and he gets into a float. Then, they both get out and she tells him to jump, but then pushes him before he jumps himself. That time, he turned and did the back float perfectly. Whew! Stressful to be the mom watching this!!

Juliet has been working on the same skill, but again, I missed getting it on tape when she jumped into the pool from the side. She needs a tap on the head 'reminder' to turn, so her teacher then kept her in the pool and just drilled that.

LA Zoo!

2011-06-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

Backtracking here on the blog, but my sister-in-law, Sarah and I took the four kiddos to the LA Zoo a few weeks ago. We had a really great day with relatively few meltdowns. Walking around all day definitely reminded me that I am in the 3rd trimester...it was doable but a lot more tiring than usual! (the zoo was another "summer list" item in case you are keeping track =)

I love this shot of Sarah, Grace and Max!

Some of the animals we saw...

This is such a random shot, but Aidric is in love with having pockets right now and he found a penny on the ground. He walked around with his hand in his pocket to keep track of his penny the whole day. I just thought it was too cute!

Name that tune..

2011-06-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

choco bananas!

2011-06-23T15:57:00.000-07:00

This recipe was one I ran across in my search for items to put on our "summer list" and we checked it off yesterday. Though, when I say "checked it off", I should note that we will be making these again. Sooo yummy!! I found the recipe on epicurious here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Frozen-Chocolate-Bananas-240064

I used granaola to cover Chris's and mine and the kids chose to douse theirs with sprinkles. No pictures of the actual "making" of them b/c it definitely took both hands to help contain the mess.

She was a little leery at first. Fruit as a "special treat"?? Hmmmm....

One taste of sweet chocolate though and she was all in =)

Aidric loves fruit of any kind and he loves chocolate, so it was an EASY sell for him.

And if we don't get another 52 week project picture this week, we'll use this one!

Summer "to do" list

2011-06-19T16:05:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I started brainstorming a list of things we'd do to fill up the days this summer. It was helpful to me to feel like we had some things planned instead of just winging it each day. I signed the kids up for some lessons, researched some local free activities and scoured blogs and the web for craft/recipe ideas. I came up with this list and turned it into subway art to frame and hang in the playroom.

Then, I saw this cute picture idea on pinterest (LOOOVE this website, not sure if this link will work, but you can try clicking here if you want to "follow" my boards... http://pinterest.com/staciz/ ), so I made one for both kids:

Here's how they look hanging up in the playroom. (I had all of these frames already and even had the primer and paint from past projects, so total cost of adding this "artwork" to the playroom was under $10 for the prints!)

(The playroom is a work in progress...either need to put a door or curtain or some kind on that closet!)

52 weeks project- weeks 18-24!

2011-06-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

They are not all great pictures, but so far, we haven't missed a week! I can't wait to make my "52 week" book!!

Week 18..Mother's Day Brunch at preschool.

Week 19..pancakes for breakfast- family fave!

Week 20..at the beach for "beach day" with Aidric's class. I am always FREEZING at the beach unless it's over 70, so note my sweatshirt and jeans while the kids are running around in bathing suits!

Week 21...at the aquarium- I did mention the pictures weren't all that great, didn't I? =)

Week 22...Aidric's 4th birthday party! (yes, I am sporting a dinosaur tatoo on my bicep)

Week 23...Aidric's preschool graduation- impossible moment for picture cooperation, but oh well!

Week 24..at the Zoo just a few days ago - Sarah and I spent 5 hours there with a 1, 2, 3 and 4 year old! (Grace will be 4 this month, but it's kind of fun to list their ages like that =)
(side note..I'm 27 weeks in this picture- can't believe the third trimester has already arrived!!)

First year of preschool has come to an end!!

2011-06-14T15:07:00.001-07:00

I can't believe Aidric has finished a whole year of preschool!! He really loved his school, his teacher and all of the great friends he made. He had a ceremony last week to honor the kids moving on to Kindergarten and just celebrate the year. Before we left, I talked him into a super quick photo session. I just love all his cute little expressions.

Here he is during the ceremony:

And our really bad attempt at the 52 weeks project.

Tee Ball!

2011-06-01T21:41:00.000-07:00

Aidric started tee ball in February and he loves it. Chris takes him to all his practices and is generally on the field during all the games. In addition to Aidric loving tee ball, it's been a great bonding activity for them!

Aidric really takes it seriously....he constantly asks us to pitch to him at home so he can practice and when he's on the field, he is in the "fielding stance" 100% of the time. He is a great listener and quick to improve. Although it is "tee" ball, they get about 3-4 pitches from the coach during each at bat. If they don't get a hit after those pitches, they use the tee. At the beginning of the season, Aidric was hitting about 1 ball off the pitch during a game (3 at bats). Now, he rarely uses the tee!! We are sooo proud of him!!

he goes by "AJ" in tee ball. he's been pretty firm on being called Aidric, not AJ, whenever we've asked him for a preference, but for some reason, he OK'd AJ for his tee ball team/coaches. apparently it's his sports name!

the stance =)

that's him fielding the ball

that's his friend jack...he likes to have a good time =)

here's jack trying to "block" aidric's throw from getting to first- you've got to love 4 year olds playing ball!

Swimming Lessons

2011-05-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

Today the kids had their third swimming lessons. I am SO proud of both of them. Juliet just absolutely LOOOVES everything about it. When I tell her on Friday mornings that it is swimming lesson day, she picks out a bathing suit and carries it around with her until we leave. She talks about it and all the things her teacher tells her and what she is going to do. Today, she impressed her teacher too! The teacher was having her jump off a platform in the water to practice her "head down barracuda" but Jules started climbing out of the pool and said she wanted to jump from the side. That's a skill on the next level, but her teacher went with it and she did fine! She also passed another skill that is for the next level as well...floating on her back unsupported! Here she is doing the barracuda, the back float and then going under and back up.

Last week, Aidric was really nervous. He swallowed some water during his first class and while he stayed in the water and did fine, he didn't forget. By the time we got there last week, he refused to get in. Hid his face by my side and wouldn't even watch the other boy swimming. I finally handed him over to his teacher kicking and crying. That lasted all of 5 seconds before he really began to enjoy himself! This week, he told me on the way there, "I'm going to get RIGHT in the water today mommy!" ...and he did! He did a great job, doing everything she asked him to do. She is taking it slow with him so he doesn't get freaked out (which I'm thankful for!)

And this video has nothing at all to do with swimming, but it cracks me up. Aidric is in tee ball and loving it. I really need to post some of those videos...will put that on the to do list =) But, here he is trying to pitch to Juliet the way his coach pitches to him...and instructing her....and hitting her in the chest with every other pitch!! (Oh, and all of those black things on the porch behind her are the snails she collected right before...when she realized the snails were escaping, the baseball lesson came to an abrupt end!)

What's that saying about little boys, snails and puppy dog tails???

2011-05-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

Does that work for girls too? Aidric has never been particularly fond of bugs, worms or anything that moves really. He likes dogs in theory, but not too close. Juliet is the exact opposite. We can't walk from the front door to the car without her searching for snails and trying to take one with us.

Chris and Aidric were doing a Home Depot run and when I asked Juliet what she wanted to do, she immediately said, "Play outside!"...we went out and I realized when she immediately went to the plants to start her search, it was a good opportunity to document her current favorite hobby.

By the time I grabbed my camera, she had her first capture....

She miraculously looked at the camera AND smiled for me...once. After that, I had to settle for profiles and back shots. She was busy with her snails.

She likes to move the snails to a new spot..it's usually the rock, but for some reason, it was the front steps on this day.

But one snail wasn't enough..she went back in to find another.

This is where she likes to "collect" them.

Oh, my girl! She begs to wear a tutu or a pwetty fwess every day, but do not mistake her for being a girly girl!

Height Chart..September to May

2011-05-19T09:04:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of the school year, one of the moms took all of the kids' pictures in front of the giraffe height chart. I didn't even know she had done it, but just saw them last week and am SO grateful she did it. How CUTE is the first picture?? Did I even LOOK at his hair that morning?? I have no excuses...he used to cry a lot when I combed his hair, so I just didn't =) But seriously, I love it...it is SO him.

I worked at the school yesterday, so I took an "end of the year" photo of each kid.

Here are Aidric's pics. You have to zoom in to see the numbers, but (w/o counting the hair) he was 38" at the beginning of the year and is 39.5" now.

Sick Days and Dirt Pudding

2011-05-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

Juliet has been sick for a week and it caught up with Aidric and me over the weekend. We stayed home all day Monday and Tuesday, just resting/recovering and trying not to pass our germs around.

When I first realized we would not only need to skip our playdate on Monday, but should probably not leave the house at all, I DREADED the day. We never stay home all day...just isn't "us". So, I knew I'd need a plan. I thought of some things we "needed" to do (water the garden, laundry) mixed with some new, different things we'd add in for fun (drink hot chocolate while working on a craft project). We ended up having 2 really, really great days. If you ask Aidric, he will now tell you that watching a movie during the day is what you do when you are sick! (Land Before Time on Monday and Tangled on Tuesday)

I should have taken a few more pictures, but I just didn't think of it until Tuesday afternoon when we were making dirt pudding. So, of our 2 full days at home, all I have documented is dirt pudding =)

Health Update: Juliet is about 90% recovered...Aidric has a lingering cough but not so mucousy or harsh and I'm probably the only one who is actually worse. Last night was the first night my kids let me sleep w/o someone needing something in about a week and I was up b/c my throat hurt so bad I couldn't sleep!

Mini Session with Grandma

2011-05-17T15:03:00.001-07:00

I did share these on my photo blog, but I want them here to make it easier on me when I make the 2011 blurb book. (Not sure if I ever shared pics of the 2010 book?? Love how it turned out!!)

Randomness

2011-05-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

Just catching up a little....first 3 are what most of our afternoons look like. After naps, we generally spend a little time out in the backyard...watering the garden, blowing bubbles, playing kickball and teeball (Aidric appoints Juliet the "coach" which means he hits over and over again while she chases his balls :), jumping on the trampoline, follow the leader, red light/green light, Simon Says, etc.

I'm pretty sure we made cupcakes for no good reason other than the box mix caught Aidric's eye while we were at Target...and they had been so good in the store, I figured why not.

Totally random...I feel like this SHOULD be from at least 10 weeks ago considering my "bump" no longer looks anything like this. I'll post a pic soon, but it's a full blown pregnant belly at just 23 weeks now! This was taken April 13...so 5 weeks ago, which means I was 18 weeks.

Just a few pics hanging out with grandma during her visit!

Build A Bear

2011-05-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

This was our first time at Build-A-Bear. A great activity to do with grandma! Juliet chose a lamb (later named "Little Lamby") and Aidric chose a rock star bear with music.

Can we pretend it's April 6th for a minute?

2011-05-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

B/c that's how far behind I am in blogging. These are just some pics I took of Juliet one afternoon while Aidric and Chris were at tee ball. She had a horrible runny nose and wasn't feeling great, but she loved her "2 ponies" on top of her head and this is one of her top choice dresses, so I just wanted to capture the "look". She also loves the dollhouse Santa brought!

By the way, we'll be "pretending" it's April for a few more posts =)

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-10T14:23:00.001-07:00

I am a lucky, lucky mommy! I spent Mother's Day in Washington DC with one of my best friends. And while I didn't mean to plan my trip for mother's day weekend and was super sad when I first realized that I had done it, it worked out really well. I spent the weekend gushing to Bonnie about how much I love these kiddos and how amazing they are. Sometimes, you need a little time away to remember and appreciate all the little things. It didn't hurt that I was able to sleep in, eat numerous meals in peace, get a mani/pedi, go shopping and overall just RELAX for an entire weekend. Amazing!!! I received this video from Chris on Sunday and watched it a billion times, smiling the entire time. I love how seriously they are taking their production...I love how their personalities come through. Aidric is concentrating on getting it right and Juliet just can't contain herself to stand still. And I can't neglect to mention my niece Grace who got in on the action too- I love that they were all about to spend the weekend together!

San Francisco: Part 2

2011-04-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

I slept in the guest bedroom with Juliet on Saturday night...and woke up to her standing in the co-sleeper calling my name around 3:00 AM. When I opened my eyes to look at her, she said, "I snuggle you mommy." I couldn't resist that, so I pulled her into bed with me. She was surprisingly easy to sleep with...didn't kick me in the back all night like Aidric likes to do.

However, our sleepover did mean an early rising time. So, we got dressed and tried to sneak out of the apartment without waking anyone else up. John had slept on the couch though, so he ended up joining us for a walk down to Polk Street for Peet's Coffee and bagels from the Bagelry.

We brought them home and after we ate, we headed to Golden Gate Park. I'd been there before, but never to the Children's Playground area, which is SO fun!! The kids loved it. I've never seen anything like these cement slides before.

Lots of climbing for both kids..

On the carousel:

A few quick pictures with grandma:

And a little more climbing...

After the playground, we ate at Park Chow, an old fave from when I worked at UCSF. Then, the kids and I walked to the hospital to meet up with one of my former co-workers and good friend, Becky. The kids enjoyed the playroom while Beck and I did our best to catch up in 20 minutes.

We headed back to John's then and made some time for naps. I wish I had pictures of the rest of the day, but I decided to free myself from the camera! I had googled "things to do with kids in SF" and found something I'd never done before. It's called the "Wave Organ". It's so hard to describe, but it was very cool and I'm glad we checked it out. You walk out on a jetty to get there, which was a little terrifying with a 2 year old and 3 year old, I'm not going to lie. More info here if you're planning a trip and interested:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/plan_your_visit/wave_organ/

We capped our day with the ultimate SF tourist treat...a trip to Ghirardelli Square. We ate at The Pub and then devoured two sundaes between the 5 of us at Ghirardelli.

Overall, a FANTASTIC weekend...thanks for having us John and mom, thanks for letting the kids and I crash what would have been a much more relaxing weekend for you in San Francisco =)

San Francisco in 48 hours

2011-04-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

My mom came to visit last week, and we took a road trip with the kids to see my brother in San Francisco. It was SOOOO great to be there...I immediately called Chris to ask when we could move back. The kids LOVED spending time with Uncle John, and I think he enjoyed it too. (that's not to say he wasn't ready for us to go and may never have children of his own now :)

We covered a LOT of ground in just a little over 48 hours. We arrived Friday afternoon around 5:00. Walked to Zarzuelas for dinner and then Swenson's for ice cream cones. (A quick stop at the market where I spent $28 on THREE things..a box of cheerios, a box of oatmeal and a loaf of bread.) Guess there are some things I don't miss =)

Saturday morning we took a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf, walked to Pier 39, had some donut holes, saw the sea lions, rode the carousel, checked out the candy store and John and Aidric went on a 4D "ride" that Aidric proclaimed was, "just a little bit scary".

Getting ready to start the day.

On the cable car- it's REALLY hard to take a picture in such a tight space in a moving vehicle.

Watching the bakers at Boudin Bakery

The sea lions

Carousel on Pier 39

Juliet at the candy store

We jumped on the ferry to Sausalito..Aidric originally did NOT want to get on..told us he wasn't going to get on with us. He obviously changed his mind and ended up loving the ride. Once we got there, we walked down to Horizon's...a great restaurant on the water. (I have one other picture from the ferry ride to share, but it's so good it deserves it's own post..wait for it :)

This guy is either new here or I just don't remember him from any previous trips to Sausalito. But, he's pretty amazing...he stacks rocks and balances them on each other. We actually watched him stack a few and it's unbelievable!

After a ferry ride back to the city and a cab ride from there, we finally made our way to John's around 4:30. Juliet's nap time generally starts at 1:00! She ended up not even napping, so I knew there was no way we were going out to dinner. We ordered Tony's Pizza from North Beach...I'd never had it before, but it was great! I think I fell asleep on the couch by 9:15. Looong day, but so fun!! I love that Aidric and Juliet are at the age where we can go do this kind of stuff and they enjoy it and "get it". We need to pack more of this "stuff" in before #3 arrives! There is another post coming covering day 2 =)

How big are HIS feet daddy??

2011-04-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

Aidric and Chris were sitting on the couch, immersed in some website that showed a picture of a dinosaur and then pronounced its name out loud...you could listen to it "growl" and then click on a page with statistics. I kept hearing Aidric ask Chris how big each dinosaurs feet were and thought that was an odd measurement for them to list..and for Aidric to be so interested in. Then, I walked into the room and heard Chris answer, "that dinosaur was 12 feet tall". Cracked me up that he continued to ask how big each dinosaur's feet were when Chris continued to tell him how TALL each dinosaur was. Hmmm, it's possible you had to be there for this one =)

Superman

2011-04-12T21:25:00.000-07:00

I posted some of these over on my photography blog, but wanted to add a few more here b/c he is just too cute to limit =)

Week 14 of 52 Weeks with my Kids

2011-04-04T22:05:00.001-07:00

This weekend, my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, niece and nephew came for a visit. We had a GREAT weekend, which included a lot of fun cousin time as well as a babysitter for a few hours so we could get out and watch Butler advance to the Championship game!

On Sunday morning, Sarah and I took the kids to Sea Lab in Redondo Beach, a small but very cool hands-on aquarium type place. I wish I had brought the camera, but an iphone pic will have to do for this week!

Oh My Goodness

2011-03-24T14:48:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness is one of the cutest things Juliet says on a regular basis. I wish I could get it on tape (in it's genuine state...not staged) so you all could hear. It's this adorable drawl.."oh my Gooooooodness!". SO cute.

Well, we were trying on her bathing suits tonight..going through the basket/bin to weed out the ones that don't fit from last year, etc. I bought this in the Gymboree sale a week or so ago and hadn't tried it on her yet, so I did tonight. And OH MY GOODNESS. How freaking cute is it??? I drug her downstairs to take some pics and she was loving every minute of it. Probably b/c I kept saying things like, "oh my goodness, you are so cute!". Aidric was at tee ball with Chris, so she was just eating up the attention and turned into a huge ham. I wish we had had a better background...there will most definitely be another "photo shoot" with Juliet in this suit in our future...

(my apologies if you've seen these on facebook....or OOF...I'm totally oversharing =)

Pwincess Juliet

2011-03-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

She's totally into being a princess lately and last weekend, she received this crown and jewelry set as a birthday party favor. She looooooves it and even carries the crown around after it falls off and I've gotten sick of putting it back on one too many times. I sat her down for a few quick pics, but it wasn't the most successful of "sessions".

This is the best we got:

This is her lovely "smile for the camera" smile:

And this one is more true to what she would have preferred to be doing at the time.

52 weeks catch up

2011-03-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

We're currently on week 10, and I've been faithfully taking pics every week. Just forgetting to post them. So, here's catch up!

Week 6
On our way out to dinner at Mexican Riviera Grill.

Week 7
Just watching our Saturday morning shows. (Diego)

Week 8
On our way out the door..heading to the gym, our typical Friday morning activity.

Week 9
After Aidric's first tee ball game.

Adventures in Potty Training

2011-03-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

I have been SUCH a horrible blogger lately. I wrote this post over 2 weeks ago and kept forgetting to add the pics and post it! Oops!

...................

So, this morning, Juliet kept telling me she was trying to poop while we were eating breakfast. After, I went to change her diaper and she hadn't pooped. So, I go the little potty out of her closet (she had never seen it/used it before) and put it in the bathroom. Brought her in there and had her sit down..told her to poop and I would give her a special treat. Totally didn't think she would.

I went back into her room to fold laundry and she and Aidric were in the bathroom. I hear him coaching her and telling her to push, etc. but I'm just going about my business. About 5 minutes go by and Aidric starts yelling, "She pooped!!! Mommy, she pooped!!" I went running in expecting to see poop on the floor or something, but she had done it!! Pooped in the potty! I was clapping, Aidric was clapping, she started clapping for herself and said, "I so essited (excited) mommy!! Special teaty pease!!"

So, I put her in underwear and brought her downstairs for a special treat. I snapped a picture of her in the underwear and while I was taking the picture, I see a puddle forming on the floor by her feet. Totally peed in them about 3 minutes after putting them on. :)

So, put a diaper on her and go about our day. We pick Aidric up from preschool and when we get home, they went upstairs for something. I'm in the kitchen making their lunch and they didn't come when I called them. So, I go up and hear them in the bathroom. Turn the corner and this is what I see:

I seriously about died laughing..told them to stay right where they were and ran to get my camera. Apparently, Aidric had to poop, so she decided she needed to go too. He must have helped her get her diaper off, b/c she could not do it herself. (cloth diaper with snaps)

I also realized that I hadn't put her potty back together after she pooped- I wiped it out with a wipe, put some soap and water in it and put the "pot" part in the tub so I could deal with it later. Aidric had emptied the water and put it back together for her! And she actually peed in it! (and her diaper was dry)

So, thanks to my 3.5 year old...we may have Juliet potty trained sooner rather than later. How cute is he??

........

UPDATE: As of today, she seems to be getting it!! She is now peeing on the potty most times when she tells me she needs to. And Aidric is still being a huge help! A lot of times she sits down, stands back up after 2 seconds and says, "I can't do it" but he encourages her to sit back down and even reads her books to keep her entertained there. Here's hoping we continue in this direction!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

I'm a horrible mother b/c Aidric has a custom Valentine's Card and Juliet doesn't. But his class had an exchange so he NEEDED a card...she doesn't have a class. I still feel bad, but not so bad that I'm not going to share his card here...he's just too cute not to share.

Aidric learned this little "Will you be my Valentine?" song at school and it's been NONSTOP singing for the last week. This first video was last week, when he didn't quite have the words down. The second one is from this morning- Juliet was supposed to do the "Yes, I'll be your Valentine..." part, but she chose to repeat the "Will you be my Valentine" part instead. =)

a plethora of colors

2011-02-05T20:07:00.001-08:00

She started out the day in a cute black and white dress with her sparkly red shoes. No fashion faux pas there, right?

But when she napped, I threw some purple leggings on to keep her legs warm. When she woke up, she wanted to keep them on. And then she wanted to go outside...and she put her red shoes back on. But it was cold, and this was the only hoodie we had downstairs.

Did we leave out any colors here??

When we hear ourselves...

2011-02-05T18:50:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been hearing a lot of myself in the kids. Admittedly, some of it does not make me proud, but most of it makes me giggle.

We are huge on choices around here...and Aidric has figured out that his 2 choices are often 2 things he doesn't want to do in a different form. "You can give Juliet a turn with the turn with the toy or mommy can take it away from you and I can give it to her. Those are your choices." or "You can choose mommy to brush your teeth or you can choose daddy. Those are your choices."

Lately, he's been giving me some choices of my own. We'd been outside for awhile one afternoon and we came back in because I was cold. About 10 minutes later, he asked to go back outside and I told him he had to wait until daddy was done working and he could ask him. He replied with, "Well mommy, we can go out the back door or we can go out the front door. Those are your choices." I seriously about fell over laughing. That is EXACTLY the kind of choice I would give him!

He's also been awarding me with one sticker on a regular basis, "Because you have been a good listener today, Mommy."

But tonight, it was Juliet who did it and I tried SOOO hard to keep a straight face and tell her sternly that it was not OK, but I failed miserably. I was giving them both a bath and they were taking turns fighting over EVERY toy in the tub. If one of them had it, the other one wanted it and tried to take it. I lost my patience and yelled, "I am going to take ALL of the toys away from both of you if you don't stop!"

Juliet stood up, looked at me and said, "I ah sick a ooh a-i-ude". I thought I understood her, b/c sometimes she's a little unclear, so I asked her to repeat herself. And then she said, clear as day, "I am sick of you attitude, mommy!" Oh my goodness. I couldn't even argue though...I was being pretty cranky. =)

52 weeks with my kids

2011-01-23T20:47:00.001-08:00

I've started a photo project for 2011 called 52 weeks with my kids...this is week 3. I described the project on my photography blog and you can see my week 2 picture there as well. I posted week 1 on my facebook business page.

While I am so excited to be doing this project, I am NOT so excited about this photo =) It was Saturday night..my last chance to get a picture for this week. We were rushing out, already late, to meet my in-laws at Buca di Beppo for a birthday dinner. Clearly, there was not a "are we picture ready" check before taking this. Please ignore the fact that my children look like they would rather be anywhere besides this photo...and while you are ignoring that, ignore the toothpaste splatters on my shirt (which I soaked out on the drive), the hanger straps hanging out of my shirt, and the fact that I forgot to take my little necklace off when I put my big one on (took care of this in the car as well). Regardless, I did it...week 3 complete. Here I am with the kiddos...

Funny Stuff

2011-01-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

Just some random funny stuff going on around here lately.

Juliet loves dresses and skirts. If I get her dressed in pants or shorts, it's fine with her...not much of a response. But, when I put a dress or skirt on her, she IMMEDIATELY goes into this funny falsetto singing and waving of her arms. I have NO idea where she got this. But it is HILARIOUS. The minute the dress is over her head, she starts it. I kept meaning to have the video ready to go and always forget, so I egged her on to do it after she was dressed.

Another funny Julietism...when asked what her name is, she replies with "Stinker Bug". Maybe we have taken that little nickname too far? She actually answered a stranger in the store yesterday with this.

Aidric is cracking me up too...he'll say something, but then when he is questioned and he realizes what he said wasn't correct, he quickly says, "I was just JOKING! Ha Ha...everything is a joke!" It seriously cracks me up every time!

He's also into TELLING jokes. Grandma Porras spent a night with the kids last weekend and they read a Pinkalicious book in which a joke was told..it is by far his favorite. "Knock Knock. Who's there? Pinky Stinky Underwear"

And we have Ryder Nord to thank for the last of our "funnies"...Ryder taught them a new version of Row Row Row Your Boat that ends with "If you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream." They've taken this a few steps further and everytime they sing it, they come up with a different "thing" to scream about..and they add "and yell" after the scream. No matter what Aidric makes up, Juliet responds with, "That's so siwwy!!" and then she says, "Watch me now" and proceeds to sing and make up her own version. Working on a video of this soon....

UPDATE:

quick video, though not as "genuine" since he was prompted to do it.

playing catch up

2011-01-20T20:13:00.001-08:00

It's the end of January. About time to post some Thanksgiving pictures, no?? The kids and I spent 11 days in Indiana over Thanksgiving!! Chris joined us for the last 4 (5? it's already a blur!)

I did not bring my "big" camera home with us...this was huge for me. I just wanted to be free of the NEED that I always have to document everything and get the perfect shot. Not to mention, our suit cases were full...I mentioned we went for 11 days, didn't I??? So, I dusted off my little point and shoot and we headed off.

I'd wish I could say that my little point and shoot did not disappoint. But it did. Oh, it did. We were bowling with Gretchen, Ryder and Claudia and after I took ONE picture, it died. It wasn't the battery though...it was something else. It just went black, even though the power light was still on.

So, on day one of our trip, I was left with nothing but my iphone! And since it was November in the midwest, most of our activities were inside. And the iphone does not have a flash. You get where I am going with this. These are not going to be PRETTY pictures. But they are our memories and that's what matters. So, here is our trip, as told through the iphone =)

reading with grandma

One day, we wandered out to the shed and my mom and I started going through some old bins (I think she thought she was actually going to get me to take some stuff home with me.) It's crazy to think these toys of my childhood are soooooo dated. I know..I'm 34. But it doesn't FEEL like it was that long ago!

Juliet loves the many (let me stress MANY) singing, dancing stuffed animals grandma has.

Aidric and Jules both love "wagon" rides on the back of Papa's tractor.

This cracks me up. My mom had not sat down for breakfast yet and this is how Aidric arranged their chairs..pulled hers up next to his. So cute!

Hanging out on a bale of hay in my parents front yard. You didn't do this over Thanksgiving?

We took them to a great indoor play place called Bellaboos. I was seriously SO impressed! This was the "water room".

And this was a cooking class...they put some frosting in bugles and added some fruity pebbles. It was a cornucopia =)

On Thanksgiving day...these 3 were born within 25 days of each other...all in May!

And what's Thanksgiving without a Peppermint Chocolate Martini? YUM!

Riding bikes

2011-01-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

Bike riding is a favorite activity around here lately! Aidric got his bike over the summer and has been reluctant to really ride it. Then, Juliet got this tricycle for her birthday from Grandma and Papa Porras and she loooves it. And Aidric, being ever the little follower, followed suit of course =)

These just crack me up. Aidric LOVED "driving" her around.

we're still here...

2011-01-13T21:23:00.000-08:00

and they are still as cute as ever =)

Christmas Eve 2010

2010-12-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

We stayed home tonight. While we were at our own home for Christmas the year Juliet was born, it wasn't quite the same. We had a 19 month old and a 4 week old...while there were presents and decorations, there was no excitement, anticipation and understand. This year, we had all of those things and it was awesome!

During naps/quiet time, Chris (after napping) put Juliet's doll house together and I got the appetizers ready for our dinner as well as the overnight cinnamon rolls we'll have in the morning.

When Aidric's quiet time was over, he and I went outside and he sprinkled his reindeer food on the front lawn. At first, he thought he was supposed to just set the bag down somewhere..he was excited to learn he actually got to throw it around =)

When Juliet woke up, I insisted on a family self-portrait in front of the tree. The picture quality is horrible...but I love it anyway! (In an attempt to keep things peaceful here, we only took two shots...I really should have included the other one as well...Juliet has discovered the joy of picking her nose and I swear she stuck her finger in there the second before the shutter clicked.)

After that, it was straight to presents. Aidric dove in to find all of his presents.

It's definitely not that cold out, but something about a fire makes it FEEL like it is =)

slippers for mommy

play-doh set for jules

thomas puzzle for aidric

I put down the camera for awhile, so this was after Jules had opened a few more...a bike helmet, a silver purse that is just outside of this picture and some books. She sat down like this and completely ignored the rest of us until we had to beg her to open some more presents!

And one video of Aidric...he tends to show a little enthusiasm when receiving gifts..his response to most gifts were something like this, as well comments such as, "this is JUST what I have been asking for!!" and "These are the books I just LOVE!"

I swear..he HAS a bed....

2010-12-13T17:42:00.000-08:00

The night after I found Aidric on the stairs, I went up to go to bed myself and look what I found:

He was sick a few weeks ago and I let him sleep in our bed. Ever since, he's been climbing in with us EVERY night between midnight and 4 AM. I guess he figured he'd just cut to the chase and start the night where he wanted to be. And I VERY rarely make our bed, but Juliet's party was that day, so rather than take the pillows off and cover up, he just found a way to be cozy amongst them.

And then there was last night. After putting him to bed, he started calling me from the stairs. I told him to go to bed and he said he was going to wait for me. I told him I was going to be awhile and he said he was just going to wait. I find it's easier to not argue with him on stuff like this, so I just didn't answer. And this is where he chose to wait for me...on the floor at the top of the stairs.

Oh this boy...

2010-12-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

We've had some challenging times with him lately- he's been pushing every button and I've gone as far as talking to his preschool teacher and pediatrician about his behavior. (Preschool teacher's assessment is that she'd like to clone him and have 23 more of him in the classroom b/c he is so sweet and a great listener...pediatrician commented how good he always is in the office and said that based on preschool teacher's assessment, she's not worried...he's just testing his limits at home.) Despite those challenging times, the last few days have been fantastic...now that we're not sick..we've just been having fun. We're digging into all the great gifts he and Juliet received in Indiana when we celebrated an early Christmas with my parents and brothers. I'm getting random, "I just LOVE you mommy"s on a regular basis and the snuggles are out of control wonderful =) A challenge that remains is that he never wants me to leave his room at night. It doesn't matter how many books are read and songs are sung, it's always, "just stay for one more minute". Tonight was no exception and he followed me out of his room. I told him I needed to go downstairs and finish getting things ready for the bday party tomorrow. He told me he was NOT going to go back in his room. I was in no mood to argue, so I said, "fine...I don't care..but you may NOT come downstairs."

About 2 hours later, I needed to run upstairs for something. I turned the corner, looked up and saw this:

What a stubborn, determined little boy!! I about died laughing and then grabbed my camera. I love this kid =)

A few aidricisms I've jotted down to remember.....

The other day we were outside cleaning up the garden and talking. I wish I could remember the exact conversation, but somehow we ended up talking about big girls/boys versus babies versus grown ups. Aidric wanted to be a grown up and I told him I would miss him. I explained how he wouldn't live with mommy anymore b/c he would have his own house, wife, kids, etc. He stopped digging for a minute, just looked up at me and said (exact words), "No thank you mommy. I would rather just stay here with you."

As I was getting Aidric and Jules into the bath Aidric told me to make sure Juliet did not poop. I reminded him that it had been a LONG time since she had done that and he didn't have to worry b/c she is a big girl now. He said he was a big boy and she was a big girl and that meant we didn't have any babies in our house anymore. He then said, "Mom, we NEED a baby. We just need one. Do you want to have another one just like Juliet? Can we do that mommy?"

Yesterday, we were talking about what he wanted for his snack and he asked for goldfish. I told him we didn't have any. I knew we did, but I was saving them for Juliet's birthday party, so I figured it was easiest to say we didn't have any. He walks over to the pantry, opens it, points at the goldfish and says, "We DO have some mommy, right here." As I was caught, I just said, "Oh, you're right honey, we do have some." I admitted that he was right. Was that enough for him?? Oh no..he had to go on with, "Yes mommy, I WAS right..and you were WRONG. But oh well mommy, maybe next time you will be right. Maybe tomorrow you will be right." Hmm, well, we all know that if I'm not, he'll definitely let me know!

Hide and seek is huge in this house right now. When it's our (mine or Chris's) turn to hide, he says, "OK, I will count...now, where are you going to hide?" And then he gets mad if we won't tell him!

The other day, he told me he had a secret and could not tell me what it was because it was a secret. I said something about how that was fine...and then he went on to say, "So mommy, I can not tell you that I am going to hide in my tent now, b/c that is my secret." I love 3 year old secrets.

Monkey See...Monkey Do

2010-12-09T21:33:00.001-08:00

Santa came to our street!

2010-12-08T22:02:00.000-08:00

Every year, the Torrance Fire Department sends Santa out to visit neighborhoods..I have no idea if it's EVERY neighborhood or certain ones, but I know he comes to our street every year. And for about 15 years the neighbors on our street have been organizing a Christmas "block party" for the evening he comes! So fun!

We ventured 5 houses down on Monday night for some neighborly mingling and a quick visit with Santa. The kids loved it- they were SO excited when Santa pulled up. Aidric and I did have to have a LONG talk that night about why he didn't fly. My explanation? "He flies to CA from the North Pole, but once he's here, his sleigh gets wheels so he can drive around." This sounds reasonable, no??

Happy 2nd Birthday Juliet!!

2010-12-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

Oh how to even DESCRIBE her?? I've been using the word sassy for awhile...and it's still accurate, but I'm wondering if there is a more extreme version of sassy that I could switch to? Complete terror? No...too harsh. Something between sassy and terror...let me know if you have the word for that.

Like tonight, Chris told her to say goodnight to Aidric and me so the two of them could go into her room to read stories. She answered with a defiant, "NO! I NOT going to do that!" And then, 20 seconds later, she ran towards me to fling herself on me for a hug. She just wants it to be HER idea. Lord HELP us.

Things we adore about our sassy ~~teenager~~ two year old:

1. When someone gets hurt (usually Aidric) she's the first one there to give a hug, rub his back or head in comfort.

2. The way she sings Tinkle Tinkle Ittle Ar at the top of her lungs...we need to get that on video.

3. The hugs that start from her standing and go to a free fall onto the person she is hugging.

4. Her ridiculously coy little smile when she knows she's done something she shouldn't but is "talking" her way out of it.

5. Her independence- everything is met with an "I do it SELF".

6. When she is playing with something and Aidric asks for a turn, the IMMEDIATE response is "2 minutes"...telling him how long before he can have it. I think we started this by forcing turn taking, but allowing the current "holder" of the toy to determine WHEN the other could play with it. Unfortunately, she now uses it on us...example:
Mommy: "Juliet, you need to come here."
Juliet: "2 minutes"

7. Her run/waddle...she gets going with her arms kind of bent up like a chicken, and she just GOES. Also need a video of this.

8. When we say, "Juliet, do you want to have a timeout?" and she answers "yeh" and then runs to time out to stand there for about 5 seconds before yelling, "I ready mommy". Real effective.

9. When we put ANYTHING in her crib besides the beloved lovies and 2 specific blankets, we are met with an "I no NEED that" as she throws it out. No luck trying to sneak an extra blanket in in the middle of the night..she'll have it on the floor before morning.

10. How lately, the minute she starts to get scolded, she holds her arms out and asks sweetly, "hug?" This is especially common when she's in a shopping cart and she wants us to walk through the store in an embrace.

11. The way she passionately rambles about any random topic. She actually has decent verbal skills when she knows what she wants to say. The rambling is more when she's really excited and she has all the attention and wants to keep it. She can talk jibberish for a good 30-60 seconds NONSTOP throwing only a random REAL word in every now and then. This morning, it was about her puppy. So, it went something like this.

joopudubye.menomesibadu.PUPPY.appamiabu.balamatobebuh.

But imagine that for at least 100 more lines.

I wish I had a super amazing picture to go with this post, but I'll put taking pictures of Juliet on the "things I do not love right now" list. I put her in her "2" shirt this morning and tried to get just ONE decent shot, but we only lasted about 30 seconds before I realized it wasn't going to happen. Poor thing...you can see in her eyes that she's starting to get whatever Aidric and I have had.

Sick Day

2010-11-30T09:12:00.000-08:00

Aidric and I are both sick and Juliet is getting there. We spent as much of the day as we could in jammies and (new from Grandma and Papa) slippers. Hot chocolate was an important part of our day as well.

Being sick sucks. Being sick and taking care of a sick child sounds like it would be even worse, but it's actually working out to our advantage. Neither of us have ANY energy and we've spent a LOT of time cuddling..no tv on or computer or leapster game..just cuddling. I have to admit, while being sick sucks, the side benefits of us being sick together are kind of awesome.

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

2010-11-02T15:12:00.001-07:00

Wish we could be there to sing in person! (And Aidric really wishes we could be there b/c "Happy Birthday" equals cake to him!)