Nicole's Art

This was the peacock she made with a handstamp (birthday card for Aunt Jenna)



This is the drawing she drew all by herself of "Dora's Mommy" for Lisa, Kendall & Max (which we forgot to take to Dayton with us on Saturday). The green is "bushes" and the blue is "clouds".

Nicole

• One of Nicole's favorite crafty things to do is make hand prints. She's all about painting her hand and putting it to paper. So, her mother has to get creative when it comes to turning all these hand prints into something interesting. So far we've made turkeys (fingers are tail feathers) to tell her teachers she's thankful for them and flower pots (her hand is the pot and fingers are the flower stems; fingerprints make the center of the flowers) amongst others. Last night we finished up a peacock where I let her glue on googly eyes and sequins to make it beautiful.
• 5 is her favorite number. Everything in her mind should come in fives - five books before bedtime, five minutes of cuddling, five blackberries for breakfast, etc.


• She astounds me with the volume of song lyrics she knows. She gets a smattering of nursery rhymes (Row Row Row your Boat) and Mom-made-up songs (Your Mommy Loves You) at home, songs off the radio/cd player (I Love Rock n' Roll), songs from her dance parties at school (Hey Mickey), and songs from music class at school (Miss Lucy). She'll randomly break into song and it could be from any of these "genres". The song she sings a lot recently about a turtle in a bathtub was really really cute though.


• She moves up to the 3-4 year old room next Monday at school. There are a mix of kids from her current class who are also getting moved and some that are 3 1/2 so they're already in this room. We'll see how it goes - I'm optimistic!
• Her coloring/art is also showing progress. She gets now that you don't just scribble all over the page (though she often does that too) that objects have color and you need to color it accordingly. For example, Pooh's tummy is yellow but his shirt is red. She's also drawing more independant objects like "Dora's Mommy" that she made for the Erdahls. It does somewhat resemble a person (has hair, eyes, a mouth, and is long with limb-like looking things).


• Mark took some pictures of the kids on Saturday which was really nice of him. It's a further developing hobby of his from what I'm gathering. Both kids were constantly in motion so not all of the pictures are great (an issue with the models, not the photographer) but a lot of them are really fantastic! Since then she's all about posing for pictures....

And in case you were concerned that my kids are perfect (ha ha):

Pictures from New York

At Grimaldi's Pizza (as referenced in 1000 Things to see in the US before you die book)

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge

Hanging out in Times Square



The whole gang at the Irish Famine Memorial

Looking at their apartment from the garden rooftop of a sister building

So in love!

Swinging at Central Park

$2 carousel at Central Park

Shopping in New York

Parking in New York

New York & Wapakoneta

Things in the last several days have been highs and lows of stress and relaxation.

We went to NYC to stay with friends of ours this past weekend - a trip we've had planned for several weeks. The morning that we were to leave, Thursday, we got a call that Jim's stepfather had been taken into emergency surgery and the outlook wasn't good. Our trip hung in the balance for several hours until he was successfully out of surgery and we decided to go out of town as planned.

We called Jim's mom while we were taxing in NYC and learned that Doug had passed away a half hour before. Ugh.

We ended up staying in NYC, a fact that had me teetering on guilt several times but I'm glad we did, and coming home on Sunday on our original flight. What did we do in NY?

• Nicole rode in a shuttle, airplane, taxi, subway, & town car all for the first time
• Hung out at the really great park by John & Ruth's apartment
• Ate lunch at Grimaldi's pizza
• Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge
• Went to Macy's
• Had a lousy experience in Chinatown - bathroom incident with Nicole & it was SOOOO crowded!
• Sipped Starbucks frappacinos on Time's Square
• Played Central Park and rode the carousel
• Went out for a nice adults only dinner (if you're wondering, a babysitter for 4 kids for four hours is $100), split a $4 cupcake, and played chess on Union Square

All in all a WONDERFUL weekend away. Pictures to follow....

All of our down time was spent talking about what to do about Jim's mom so there was a necessary serious undertone to the quiet times of the trip.

When we got home and picked up Chris I got to witness some new things he'd learned - how to pull himself up well (he was casual about using this skill before) and how to climb up steps (greeeeaaaattttt). He's since climbed the entire staircase at our house (with me right behind him just in case!) so he's got it down pretty good. While we were gone he attended a Reds game, graduation party, and generally seemed to enjoy being doted on.

On Monday we took the kids to daycare and drove north for the funeral. It was strange because Jim and I both went into auto-pilot the whole weekend but when we were there, amongst the pictures, the tears, and the memories, things got emotional real fast. The service was very nice in general and I was glad to see that Vickie decided to put Doug in the clothes he would have normally worn, not some stuffy suit "because she should". He looked very Doug.

The conversations with Jim's mom went well. She has some options which is good. She also has a lot of legitimate concerns. We offered to let her move to Cincinnati but she wasn't at all interested in that which made me sigh with selfish relief. She's playing things by ear right now until she gets a death certificate and can start actually making some legal changes.

Here it is Thursday and we're all back in our normal routines. Jim and I both went back to work on Tuesday, he played softball yesterday, Nicole and I planted some seeds in a cup and are going to watch them grow (hopefully).

Put this kid in the circus- she's a FREAK!

Nicole has this amazing ability to go to bed at 8:45, keep her panties dry all night, wake up at 7:00am and go to the bathroom around 7:30.

How does she do that?!

When I wake up, as soon as I'm vertical I'm headed to the bathroom. This kid eats a full meal, gets dressed, plays, and pees like it's an afterthought.

Hello, world

• HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESSICA!!
• I've lately gotten into wearing long necklaces. I think they're very flattering. I hope I don't get into a rut....
• The school year is over and I have half of my grades already submitted! HOORAY! With about another hour's worth of effort I'll be totally done. If I could only get the ideas for another new class out of my head I could take a scholastic break!
• Chris has a new tooth- top left.
• Mother's Day was very nice - Mom stole Nicole away and made a darling flower pot project for me. Jim made me breakfast, bought me roses, and we all took a trip to the zoo. Dinner at my mom's finished out a wonderful holiday.
• My niece Ryann has gotten modest about her bathroom activities and told Nicole to "get out of here" when she wanted to go in. Nicole got her feelings hurt by it and after several minutes of sobbing pronounced "Ryann broke my heart". Mom and I tried desperately to not laugh because she was so serious and pathetic. Later on when she was getting buckled into the car Ry asked Mom "what's wrong with Nicole's heart?" and Mom explained that her feelings were hurt. With a dramatic sigh Ryann decided she'd go back in for a hug- an action that made Nicole very happy and Ryann get an appreciative hug from me too. Little kids crack me up.
• Since Martha's wedding I've been reconnecting via email with an old gradeschool friend, Katie (B) J. It's amazing - she's literally THE SAME PERSON and we've been able to pick back up pretty easily. Her email buddy is Martha and mine is Karen C. We both laughed because when we first started emailing frequently we felt like we were cheating on our electronic significant other.

It's Wednesday

Nicole and I are working on new colors - fuchsia, silver (shiny grey), gold (shiny yellow), pearl (shiny white), and turquoise. We do "color hunts" around the house looking for new colors- our kitchen is painted turquoise, the cabinet pulls are silver and the door handles are gold. She doesn't seem to realize we look at the same objects each hunt (or she's pretending not to). Today she correctly and unprompted (!) told me that her cup was fuchsia- hooray! It's sinking in!

Jim expressed to me last night all of his frustrations about work. After he's been so supportive of me on this front I want to fully return the favor to the level he did. I'm trying and hope he knows how encouraging I am/want to be.

I'm sharing my office now at work with my boss. It was my offer to let him move in and functionally/physically it only made logical sense. This is the first time in my entire professional career that I don't have my own office. Know what? For the same reasons that I wanted a roommate in college I really like having a roommate at work. It's working out great.

Chris's biting is getting significantly better- it's so nice to be able to fully enjoy his slobbery kisses without being on-guard for the potential chomp.

Going out on a limb

I watched a Biography channel special on Cher



the other night (don't ask how I got all wrapped up into that)




and something struck me as they flashed the images of her through the years...



She reminded me of someone....

Life in these parts....

Things have been very very busy professionally lately so I'm behind in posting some stuff....

Here's the recent kitchen investment we made- granite countertops.

BEFORE

AFTER

yeah, that was like 3 weeks ago now....





We also started the process of building a wall. I decided I wanted to go with natural stone in lieu of concrete blocks which made this project 1) more expensive and 2) more time consuming as each rock needs to be individually placed and leveled. However, Jim (with Jason's initial guidance and sweat) has done a BEAUTIFUL job. He's done with the whole front yard and will be starting on the backyard as early as this weekend perhaps.

You're looking at 8 tons of natural stone!

Work in progress... he's done now but we haven't gotten a picture due to the rain this weekend.

Finally, we had an uninterrupted FAMILY weekend. No plans, no parties, no nothing but us four hanging out. Chris had a cough that left him gagging/gasping for air that had us a bit worried so we took him to the doctor on Saturday. Jim thinks that Chris has been sick his entire life and I understand why he thinks so. Kid's had pink eye, croup, ear infections galore, acute sinus infections, and now, according to the pediatrician, acid reflux. Not sure I totally agree with this diagnosis but don't feel medically intelligent enough to argue. So, he's back on some amoxicillin derivative and now Xantax.

Nicole has been in an especially imaginative mood lately. Dress-up was part of our Saturday night. She told me I was the prince and we danced and twirled in her bedroom. After I'd had my turn being the prince, it was Daddy's turn. The "poofing" part caught me off-guard at first....

Looking forward to a slower-paced week all the way around. My class ends on Thursday, our bowling league is only 1 more session and we had out to NYC mid-month for a much-needed mini-vacation.