Halloween 2009

Halloween was a success - Nicole got the phrase "trick or treat" down and she definitely got the hang of "when the bowl comes out I get candy". She got a bit shy and normally always whispered her "thank you"'s but she often did it without me prompting so I'll take it.

Here's us prepping the pumpkin:

This was my first time scraping (versus just straight carving) and while I appreciate the potential, it was MESSY. Fortunately Jim was eager to get it cleaned up.

And the pumpkin glowing:

Chris didn't go out this year - it was a bit too cold. He'll head out next year. I'm already thinking of what they can be that compliments each other - you know like Dorothy and a scarecrow or a cheerleader and a football player. Something like that.

Nicole used a borrowed costume this year and went as a ladybug.

We way over-bought candy and had about 30 trick-or-treaters. As the neighborhood grows we'll obviously get more but as it stands we have 4 completey unopened bags of candy + the leftovers from the first three bags. Geesh!

Jim & Karen circa 2002

Normal, Everyday Thursday Night

Nothing special about this Thursday. Putting up pictures/video because I often like to read about people's everyday life- you know, who they are "normally".

16.9lbs. as recorded at the doctor's office on Thursday. This means he's over 2X his birthweight and he's not even 4 months old yet (standard saying is 2X at 6 mo, 3X at a year). He wears 9mo PJs!

Bath time for 2 kiddies. Nicole styled her own hair in the reflection of the water knob (under the wash cloth to her right). Snazzy, eh?

Evening snack - pomogranate can get kinda messy if they squirt so we haven't gotten pajamas on quite yet. This is pretty typical interaction between the two of them.

Past 3 days

On my way to work today I watched a school bus doing their emergency evacuation drill. You know the one where all the kids jump out of the back of the bus? I remember in gradeschool always getting a little nervous about that leap even though there were 8th grade boys on the ground to help me down.

Chris has croup again. He went to the doctor yesterday and got another steroid treatment. He also has the first beginnings of an ear infection though the doctor recommended I wait to give him the amoxicillin she prescribed until he seems bothered by it.

On Sunday we bowled (4/4!! and now in 1st place!) and when we got back to my mom's we were surprised to find Ryann there as well. Ryann is now fully potty-trained so when she said she needed to go Nicole claimed she did too and followed her to the bathroom. After BOTH girls did their thing Nicole told Ry she needed "some paper". That helpful little cousin of hers not only got her TP but wiped her too! When Nicole got down Ryann went to pull up her panties (we're letting Nicole wear princess panties on OVER her diaper/pull-up in an effort to build excitement) for her. Mom offered to help but Ryann sternly told her "no, I help Ni-cole" and she did- underwear and pants too. It was laugh out loud funny. If you ask Nicole now "how did Ryann help you?" she answers "Ry Ry pulled my pants up!" I hope Chris and his cousin-to-be get along so well!

Attending Aubreigh and Noah's baptisms this weekend reminds me that I need to start planning Chris's.....

Friends

We don't have to change friends if

we understand friends change.

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I got an email from my aunt this morning with this statement in it. I see it as a positive quality about myself that I have friends from several different time periods in my life. Alissa and I met in dance class when I was 3 years old; we still talk and see one another somewhat regurally. Jessica and I met in first grade and have been on-going friends since. I visited her in the hospital a week ago!

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Mark and I met when I was 13 at the swim club we both belonged to; we made it through those "finding yourself" years through today when he moved into my neighborhood. I even wrote my college admission essay about him.

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I have a long list of friends from High School - the girls and I get together for lunch several times a year formally in addition to our 1-on-1 hanging out. Most of the guys are at minimum Facebook friends that I keep track of their status or people still active in my life like Sean Murphy who just attended my birthday party.

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College formed some of my strongest friendships as I think living/partying/laughing/crying/experiencing together tends to do when you're away from your family and form new "families" with your friends.

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Once I met Jim I inherited a whole new set of adult friends- people he'd met once he moved to Cincinnati like Dale, Tom, David, Anjali, Jamie, etc. as well as his childhood friends from Spencerville. Though they were his friends first I think I'm correct in saying that they're full-out my friends too.

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Good news for me is that I'm still making friends in my adult life though I find that the common link is work - Annie was a former manager of mine, Chuck a networking partner, my co-workers all attended my wedding not because I should invite them but because I wanted to.

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Probably my newest friends are the teachers at Nicole and Chris's daycare. Since I'm there 3-5 days a week and talking with them, learning about their lives, and them about mine I feel (and I assume they do too) that we're more than just teacher-client. This friendship I value because it's deepened my comfort and trust for them as caregivers to my kids.

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Bringing this full circle, I think that a lot of these people are still friends because even though they've changed, we often change together. We start dating and let that relationship take priority for a while - but as the friend we understand why because we've been there too. We cancel plans because work ran late but the other person gets it because they've had to cancel before too. We go for weeks without talking (I mean talking talking, not online talking) but don't take it personally because we all recognize that day-to-day life gets in the way and it's nothing personal.

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The friends that have "slipped" I think are mostly a result life moving on and in a direction that no longer makes cultivating/maintaing that relationship a priority. Let's be honest, some people we honestly don't care about that much (in comparison to other things/people) at the time so losing them in the future isn't really a loss. This is what leads me to ignore Facebook friend requests. Other friends move in directions that the effort isn't worth following mostly because you don't care about/agree with the new path or because your path is diverging too. I have an ex who I think of sometimes and wonder what he's up to. He's on the West coast and last I knew still living the single life of partying, working too many hours, etc. versus my path of Midwestern married with kids. We don't have much in common other than our memories I suspect. My thoughts of him are curiosity-based because I once knew him, not because I want to know him.

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This was long. Not sure it really has a point other than just documenting thoughts on "paper". I guess that's good sometimes too...

Life Update

I'm growing my hair [for Jim] and it's at that annoying point where I am constantly flipping it out of my collar. ugh- annoying.

Photos and Videos of the Kids

Chuck sent me an email saying that he and Kristi like to see photos and videos. They might just be polite in saying so but even if they are can't say I mind showing off the little ones....

Using the new stool great-grandpa wolf made

Apple Daze festival - listening to a little blue grass music

WaHoo! Moonwalk!



Enjoying an obligatory apple fritter at the Apple Daze festival

Flying is fun!

Happy Birthday Serenade

Mid-Week Report

I like McDonald's. I like board games. Naturally, therefore, I like when McDonald's has Monopoly. What I like more than anything though is saving money so given the choice yesterday in the drive through of a 10 piece chicken nugget that would have given me two game pieces or getting my normal order, I chose to save $.60.

Yesterday Jim was trying to remind Nicole that her "Sleepy Bear" (lovey) is only for night time and is not to come downstairs during the day or evening. She sternly looked at him and said "Leave my Sleepy Bear alone!" It's so hard to take her seriously when her stern is so cute and I'm so proud that she's using complete sentences.

Chris has a new passion in life and that's playing "airplane". I worry in the back of my mind that I'm putting too much pressure on his ribs when I hold him over my head but the kid laughs hysterically when I do it, especially when I lower him down to my face for a kiss.

We got DVR on Saturday (way behind the curve on this one I know) and started recording shows for both kids and us (Dora, The Wiggles & iCarly for Nicole, So You Think You Can Dance, The Office and Shark Tank for Jim and I). Nicole watched Dora the other day and was ECSTATIC that it was on at 6pm. Last night we put on Shark Tank via DVR and actually watched through the first set of commercials before it dawned on me we can fast forward through all of them.

10.5 lbs to my pre-Chris weight. All of my size 10 and most of my size 8 pants are fitting me again. I'm still an inch away from any of my size 6's closing though.... When I look at my profile in the mirror I don't think I look too bad but the linea nigra (line of darkened pigment on my stomach) hasn't faded yet at all. Looking on babycenter.com produced these tips to getting rid of it but noted that breastfeeding prolongs the fading. ugh.

Weekend of 10/2/09

Saturday night was my self-thrown 30th birthday party and I had so much fun. We went roller skating at the rink near my house which was a total throw-back to my grade school skating-party days. I heard over and over that my guests were telling their friends of their weekend plans and getting "that's so cool" responses. Made me happy to have at least a fun-sounding party. Here's the website to the pictures: http://karens30thbirthdayparty.shutterfly.com/

On Sunday we won all 4 games of bowling which puts us in second place, I think. Go us!

I'm always curious about "weird news", especially crazy animal actions/proportions/discoveries. Anyway, on CNN today there was a health "most embarrassing" stories section that made me chuckle. They're all female oriented but, since I am a woman, I can appreciate the story.

Potty Training

Nicole first started saying that she went “poo poo” at about the 18 month point. That had me excited – I pulled out the potty chair, encouraged and praised but got very little result actually in the potty. I don’t think her old sitter did much for her to make progress but she wasn’t even two yet so I didn’t worry.

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Now, in traditional daycare, she goes with her class to the bathroom every two hours. Most of the time she’s wet when she gets there but in the last several days she’s gone 4/5 trips. Wednesday she went twice at my moms after informing them she had to go. Apparently we need to work on getting her to "hold it" longer. How the heck do you do that?!

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Last night at JC Penney (we were getting Chris’s 3 mo pictures taken) she told me but it was too long of a trip to the bathroom to be successful by the time we got there. 15 minutes later she told me again but I had to put her off as I was in the middle of selecting pictures. Good thing she still wears diapers/pull-ups so even when getting there in time isn’t possible it’s not a huge mess.

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It’s a weird thing – I'm excited she’s fully in the throes of potty-training but man is it inconvenient at times… Sometimes I think I'm not helping the situation when I have to put her off like last night. I bought her princess panties but they didn’t have any plastic bloomers to put over them and I'm not willing to sacrifice my furniture to any accidents so they haven’t come out of the package yet.

Rocking Out

Last night Jim and I went to a winery to have dinner and hear one of his buddies play in a band. The drummer in Tim (the friend)’s band had a high school age son who also had a band and they headlined for his dad. I thought the three-piece rock band the son was in was really good and lead me to tell Jim that when the time came it would be cool if Nicole and/or Chris could jam out like that.

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I don’t think Jim would be embarrassed (too bad) for me to publically say that keeping a rhythm isn’t one of his strong suits. Admittedly I dance best to something choreographed or if I’ve had a glass of wine or three. Neither of us play and instrument though we both would like to. Our kids will be forced to learn piano (at least) because we think there are multiple benefits to playing. Our singing voices are best left to in the car or reciting nursery rhymes at bedtime. Nicole's too little to tell whether her willingness to belt out Itsy Bitsy Spider will lead her anywhere.

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But can they learn to be truly musical people when their parents lack the gene? Jim and I both appreciate music, but that’s not the same as being talented.

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At the end of the kids’ set I reiterated to Jim that the kids should be in a band.

“They’ll play piano,” he reminded me.

“Piano isn’t really a band-type instrument, dear,” I responded.

“Well, they can be in a classical band.”

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Ah…. A classical band.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my somethingorother birthday – I'm turning 30 on the 30^th. 30 doesn’t really bother me because 1) I haven’t dwelt on it much, 2) being in your thirties means you need to be a responsible adult and with two kids I'm that by default, and 3) I'm the last one in my group of friends (who graduated the same year) to turn 30 so many a brave soul has gone before me and still looks fabulous.

Birthday Humor

The best card I got so far is from Chuck and Kristi – the outside said “You know 30 in roman numerals is XXX? Need I say more?” And on the inside Chuck wrote “… be sure to include Jim in your XXX plans!” ha!

A little TMI

Last night Jim teased that it was his last chance to fool around with a 20-something. I reminded him that he’ll only get one 30-something in his life too.

Philosophical Karen

Some things I’ve learned in the last 30 years:

• When everything’s going your way don’t spoil it by waiting for/worrying about the other shoe dropping.
• Even though loving completely sometimes hurt like a bitch, it was absolutely worth doing.
• I'm nosey, I can’t help it. But, I can keep a secret so I think it’s okay…
• I think I missed a good opportunity to be more independent after college.
• Worrying is a waste of time and accomplishes nothing but making you feel worse about the situation.
• In 1999 a person said to me “you’re so beautiful” with such sincerity that I not only believed that he truly felt so but that one comment has fueled me for the 10 years since.
• To some extent I will always be a pleaser.
• The things that have brought me the most success in life are, in order: my self confidence, my outgoing personality, and my ability to care, & my intelligence.
• I’ll never be able to help everybody but I could do more than I'm doing now.
• It might be wrong, but knowing that someone is envious of me motivates me to do even better.
• I enjoy the moment more when I'm not working to remember every detail while it’s happening and just live it.
• I will be a lifelong reader.
• Someone will always be better than me but that’s okay.
• Dwelling on the past does not help me live in the present.
• The greatest compliment that I have ever received was to be the person my friend turned to when they needed someone.
• There’s a lot of the world I want to see and it makes me sad that I’ll never get to some of the places I want to because of other people making it too dangerous to visit.
• It is my ambition that my children look to me with the same degree that I respect and admiration that I have for my mother.

Weekend of 9/25/09

I had one of the best weekends in a long time. Friday night the kids went to Aunt Lindsay’s so Jim and I could go birthday partying with friends. Since November 2006 I’ve been pregnant or nursing all but three months so I haven’t had the chance to fully “let my hair down” and I was itchy to do so and connect with my neighbors/make new friends. We hit up a local Thai place and then went to a bar that was walking distance from the restaurant that seemed to specialize in shots. Of course we had to participate! While this wasn’t Jim’s scene at all, I had a great time buying rounds, talking, and enjoying the live band. We got home from picking up the kids around 2:00am and just my first round of pumping and dumping was (Lisa, this is really to impress you) 11oz. Round two at 7am was another 7oz. The 7oz. alone is a record for me. Clearly lots of fluid intake = lots of fluid output. Know what, it didn’t even phase me to pour it down the drain I had such a good time. Further, I was smart and drank lots of water before bed so I didn’t have a hangover at all!

Picture taken by Derf - magazine of all things cool in Cincinnati- Jim snagged this from their website.

Saturday Jim helped Mike move furniture for a few hours and the kids and I had lots of downtime to hang out and eat ice cream which always puts at least Nicole and I in a good mood. That night we got the movie Push and after Nicole and Chris went to bed we watched the first half and turned in around 11pm. Chris slept through the night without eating for the fourth straight night which was enough for me to stamp him as officially and permanently without a mid-night feeding from here out.

Sunday, after sleeping in until 9am (glory!) we took the kids to the Apple Daze festival in Lebanon. We ate amazing apple fritters, listened to a band, let Nicole jump in the moonwalk and ride a pony in a circle. It was a fun time and, in my opinion, a very quintessential “autumn” thing to do. After dinner and putting the kids to bed we finished Push (rating = D) and headed upstairs to read (him – Dante’s Divine Comedy, me- People magazine).

Looking forward to another good time on Saturday!!! I'm already planning appetizers/desserts/drinks!

Life in on the West Side

• Nicole got a letter home from school saying that they want to move her up to the next class. This makes me very happy because she’s only been there about 6 weeks and the class they’re moving her to is slotted for 2.5-3 year-olds (so she’s moving about 3 months early). Ms. Megan told Jim that she is definitely ready to move up because she knows ½ of her alphabet by sight amongst other things. I'm also happy that when she moves she'll have 3 boys and 3 girls with her in the new class (she's in a group of all girls right now). Yesterday in school she got a smiley face eraser because she knew the numbers 1-9 by sight, out of order. Ms. Jami her Science teacher told me that she correctly identified a globe by telling her “Earth. That’s where we live.” “Earth” sounds more like “Earf” so it’s even cuter. This made Jami and I happy that she’s retaining what she’s learning and not just being talked to.
• She's still heavily into her Ice Ice Baby and Beth phase in the car. At home the current craze seems to be the second verse of Frère Jacques that goes "Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Brother John. Brother John. Morning Bells are ringing. Morning bells are ringing. Ding Dang Dong. Ding Dang Dong." She also likes Jim to change the speed that he sings in from extreemly fast to slow and drawn out. Hearing her sing in fast forward is funny.
• Chris was really coughy this weekend and it lead to an official croup diagnosis on Monday at the pediatrician. He’s been better but still not cured all week. Jim made me smile when he told me Monday night that if he was sick he’d want to be with his mom so he thought Chris should sleep with us until he’s better. Love the softer side of my husband. : ) Chris did sleep through the night last night (8 straight hours) which was both surprising and fabulous.
• At the doctor they weighed him and he's 15lbs. 1 oz. Holy Cow.
• On Friday Lindsay is watching the kids so we can go out for my neighbor’s birthday in a limo. Everything seems more special when you’re riding in a limo, don’t you think? Pumping and dumping will be a pain and a half but I was happy we were included and don’t want to be blacklisted for turning down too many invitations.
• My toenails aren’t painted and look incredibly naked.

September Kid Update

Nicole has picked up a few things lately that I've noticed. I think it's very cool when she understands concepts versus things. For example, she says we "better" do this or that she "only" needs that. She's also using more prepositions which is sometimes funny to hear her be so specific about what she wants.

Nic can count to 15 but inevitably the number after fifteen is "thirty-teen".

Contrary to her cousin Ryann who has an amazing head of hair, at 27 months Nicole can finally manage to have pigtails put in. She was quite happy with them and wore them about 3X to school since.

I discovered that Chris is ticklish now - watch a cute video below!

The kids took their first bath together the other night. It was a success except for the quick education not to pull on Chris's "boy parts". Her response was basically "if I can't he can't" which came out "Then Chris no touch girl parts". Sounded like a fair deal to me.

I went to a jewelry part last night. A friend of ours who had a baby 14 months ago asked how big Chris was and was in awe to hear the answer. "Carrin at her year check-up was only 17 pounds and he's over 14 pounds at 2 1/2 months?!" yeah... big babies....

Chris slept in his own bed all night last night and only got up to eat once! New trend, new trend, new trend...

Bowling starts tomorrow! Yeah for our new team member Jen O.!

Excelling in Excel

I've been learning lots on Excel formulas lately between a project I'm on and Jim in an Excel-based finance class. I now know how to

• Paste Special (Values & Formats)
• Concantenate
• Change Rows into Columns and vice versa

Now, if I could grasp the concept of Pivot Tables....

Reflections on my other half

I have had several conversations with people regarding soul mates over the years. Tom P. introduced me to a theory that has stuck with me since he explained it. I did some research this morning and can’t find the origin (though many sites/people reference the concept no one seems to want to cite it) but I’ll explain it in general here.

The idea is that there is really just one soul that encompasses male and female (yin and yang, etc.). This soul is split into two halves and each part spends eternity trying to find its other half and make a perfect union. Literally a soul mate. Some things I read online refer to this as “twin flames”.

As you can tell, this theory is somewhat predicated on the concept of reincarnation which is a whole other blog post. Several things I read commented that your soul mate may not be a romantic relationship but could manifest itself in a mother-son, best friend, etc. type of arrangement. Some theorists even think that a person might not be able to handle their twin flame- that the connection might be too overwhelming to deal with given the current state of your existence (again, remember that this is connected with reincarnation and the current state of your karma) and it might be best to avoid your soul mate, at least for a time, and work with them later in your existence.

In the book I'm reading, Obsidian Butterfly, one character told the other that he felt she was his soul mate in that they have kindred spirits and a like-mindedness so strong that it’s both comfortable and competitive. There is no romantic feeling in the relationship at all. “Knowing” these characters I tend to agree with the assessment.

In general I tend to shy away from the idea that I have a true soul mate. Perhaps this is because I’ve not met the person and therefore haven’t found a “cosmic”–level connectedness with anyone. There are a lot of people that I obviously feel/have felt very strongly about but no one that I could genuinely say that I couldn't live without.

Some readers might frown that I say this (that there isn’t anyone I couldn’t live without) when my husband reads my blog. He and I have discussed before and he feels the same way I do so I'm pretty sure I'm not insulting him when I state I could live without him (in fact, we agree that since we could live without one another makes us respect our relationship more – we don’t want to live without the other if possible).

Some people might be critical of “settling” for “less” than your soul mate as a marriage partner. Even though I don’t view Jim as my soul mate, I certainly don’t regret marrying him (one of the best decisions of my whole life) or think I settled. My soul mate might be across the globe in Indonesia this life – if I spent my life looking for them I might miss out on living. I’d certainly miss out on the specific children I do have (and I do think they’re my children for a reason).

Though I don’t think that I have found a true soul mate, there are some people who I suspect might have. Dave and Carole Polley might just prove this 1 split soul theory true. Seeing them together is to see one spirit (by “spirit” I mean energy). Could you call that spirit a soul? I could buy that.

More than anything there’s often a person I feel is perhaps a soul mate of sort for a particular period in my life. Someone who impacted me or supported me emotionally/spiritually/intellectually and helped me grow as a person. To sit and try to list these people could be done almost with a year category assigned. For example, Mike C. would be that person for 1997. Lisa E. would be that person for 1998, etc. Fortunately for me most of these people/souls are still in my life and positively touching it, stronger at times and more passive in others.

This is a long post and I think I was definitive enough in my assessment of the subject given my current knowledge. If/when something changes I’ll let you know.

This was a weekend of visiting people - we saw my parents every day, went to my aunt/uncle's for my grandmother's 82nd birthday, Jim's cousins came in on Sunday and we saw greenhouse workers in nurseries all around town.

We bought $200 worth of plants, trees, and shrubs at Lowes and a nearby nursery. I got a major headache after all the running around so I didn't have the energy to actually plant them. Jim might take a half day off work tomorrow to make progress on this front. We might need to rent the sod-cutter again.....

Nicole is often the epitome of "sweet little girl" but when something frustrates her watch out, you're approaching Tantrum City at 80MPH. She's unfortunately in a screaming phase when something doesn't go her way. There are a few things that really drive me crazy - throwing food, high-pitched whining, and drooling. All of the above get 1 warning and then a time out. Yesterday I was hitting the limit of my patience. This cartoon about sums it up:

Last week and this weekend I spent some time doing clothes transitioning which, while time consuming, is never a chore. I pulled out one of my under-the-bed storage bins full of autumn clothes and tried on things for fit before I hung them. I separated the outgrown clothes Chris is borrowing from the ones he owns and pulled out his 6-9 month clothes for winter. Nicole is short on winter clothes so I didn't take the time to set hers out yet. I'll be buying new-to-her stuff at the mother's sale this weekend. Jim wears about the same clothes all year so he doesn't get the joy of re-discovering his wardrobe 2X/year.

Still no deck furniture but the grill is looking spiffy though unused.

Cause with some humor

Saw this bumper sticker on my way to work this morning. Made me smile. :)

Now, if I had seen this guy walking down the street I would have been laughing like a hyena. (got the image from the savethetatas.com website product catalog).

Outdoor Non-Life

We are making SLOW progress on the deck. It pains me to think that we worked to get it installed and finished by mid-July and other than Nicole’s roller-skating and sandbox have not gotten any utility out of it at all. This weekend I picked up our landscape design from the local nursery. It’ll amount to thousands of dollars of plants for the entire house but we expected that as there are hundreds of plants in the spec. There are a few changes we know we want to make including the addition of a vegetable garden and some landscape borders. He made some great suggestions on trees and plant placement though. We’ll be going in babysteps.

Yesterday at lunch Jim went to Lowes and found us a grill on clearance that we both like. We ended up getting it for more than half off making it very reasonable cost-wise. It has a fridge built in! We’ll pick it up on Wednesday I think.

Still no luck on the furniture. I’ve looked at
Watson’s (3X)
Furniture Fair (3X)
Costco
Home Depot
Sam’s
Lowes
Wal-Mart
Menards
Target
Overstock.com
Patio & Hearth
Sunspot Pool and Patio
Kroger
Meijer
Pottery Barn
Crate & Barrel
Garden Ridge

I think I define “thorough” and “picky”. I'm going to try to make my way to Frontgate sometime soon but not sure if there’ll be anything I like or that is price reasonable. Jim saw a set he really liked but I wasn’t willing to spend $10,000 on furniture and an umbrella. No way, no how.

While Overstock.com and HomeDepot.com both had sets I liked they’re only available online and I'm very leery about buying furniture I’ve never seen in person or actually sat in…..

SUGGESTIONS APPRECIATED.

Totally Random note – Jim makes me a PB&J sandwich to eat on my way to work nearly every morning. It just feels weird to eat it from the flat side down versus starting at the arched end.

Recent Pictures & kidd-isms

Nicole's recent phrase of choice has been "no way, jose" which she uses appropriately in funny situations. Tonight at the neighbors their large golden retriever was trying to kiss her and she told him "no way, jo-doggy".

Nicole dressed herself. This is what Jim gets for going shirtless so often.

Chris had his 2-month well-baby check-up on Thursday. He weighed 13lbs. 6 oz which puts him in the 85%ile for weight. He's in the 75% for height and 25%ile for head size. All of these measurements are almost exactly what Nicole's were (and continued to be). Developmentally he's doing great and is right where he should be for his age (cooing, smiling, eye contact, following moving objects, startling at sudden sounds, etc.).

He's taken to sucking his thumb in the last week - unlike Nicole when she started around 4 months and quit after a week, I suspect this might stick with him... he's doing it more often and not just when he's upset.

Just getting the hang of this thumb thing and where it goes

Nicole has always been incredibly loving, curious, and hands-on with Chris much to my GREAT surprise. Our friend Ryan C. lent Chris his baby toys (as he did so generously for Nicole too) so now we have more means of stimulating our newbie. I suspect the toys look familiar to Nicole... that or she's just interested in the "new" toys that have arrived. She crawled under this light/music bridge with him this afternoon and tries to remind him that everything is hers ("those are MY keys, baby Chris", "this is MY doggy, baby Chris", etc.) but she doesn't take the item away from him... most of the time anyway.

A list kind of week...

Nicole (25 months)

• Apparently last week's $180/week daycare tuition went to Nicole learning “Ring Around the Rosy”. I haven’t heard her recite any states from Geography class yet…. She learned about Alaska yesterday.
• She actually goes on the potty about 1/day now. Yesterday she went 2X (once at school and once at home) which earned her 8 chocolate chips and 10 pennies to put in her bank. Ryann is almost potty-trained and I feel jealous and all the more eager to get Nicole there.
• She knows all of her colors except grey which I never thought to teach her.
• My project with her is shapes (she knows triangle and that’s it for right now). Jim’s project is counting (actually understanding the concept of quantity). Our projects are very reflective of our personalities/interests. Jim’s got a 2 week jump on me but he’s doing better than I am.
• Every morning after the kids get dropped off Jim calls to tell me how it went. I really look forward to these calls.

Me (29 years, 329 days)

• Contrary to Pandora’s assumption, I do not like any Audioslave music.
• I called one place about my 30th birthday party plans (5 weeks!!) and have a few other options to check into today. I hope to have a firm plan by the end of the weekend. It’s looking like October 3rd’ll be the date. Plan ahead now!
• Work is in full-swing and going well. I like the projects I'm working on and my lunch visits with Chris help with any guilt I'm feeling about leaving him.
• I'm reading the 7th book in the series Jenny lent me – I’d say it’s a fair statement that I'm “engrossed”. Fortunately there are at least 4 more books after the one I'm reading to keep me involved.
• I'm bored of hearing how Kate Gosselin is “totally for her kids”.

Chris (2 months)

• He loves to be talked to and will smile and coo back to you when you give him your full attention.
• He’s very patient with a sometimes overly-loving sister.
• Bath-time (sponge baths on the kitchen counter) is never met with resistance.
• He’s eating 4oz every 2.5-3 hours during the day and every 2 hours at night.
• The little bugger still manipulates his way into his too-tired-to-argue parents’ bed in the middle of the night.
• Chris is totally grown out of newborn clothes and is firmly in the 3 month size.

Jim (32 years, 8.5 mo)

• Jim plays a potential triple header tonight (every game he wins means he plays immediately following). We won’t be staying for the whole thing but I hope he does.
• He started another MBA class last night. This means that one of the two of us have been on XU’s campus at least once/week for the last 10 straight years. Sheesh.
• Jim redid our 2009 taxes on Turbo Tax in an effort to match our accountant’s results. If he is close we’ll do our own taxes next year and save the $500+ in preparation fees. I'm glad he’s willing to do this because I don’t have any desire to do it but want the results.
• Jim mows about 1/week and when he’s done we both sit and admire the lawn. He does such a good job. It makes me feel kinda old to be one of “those people” who sits around admiring grass.
• He’s been tucking Nicole in lately and they seem to have a good routine – they read books (Bamboozled is the new favorite) and sing songs. We had to look up the words to Frere Jacques as neither of us could remember what came after “Dormez-vous?”

Various things to comment on

This weekend was quick but not stressful. I got to hang out with the girls on Friday, we had dinner with my folks, went to the park, did chores around the house, etc.

This was a CNN article last week that I liked about Facebookers. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/20/annoying.facebook.updaters/index.html It made me LOL because I know someone in every category unfortunately. I don’t think I'm one of the annoying people… am i?

Mom and Dad introduced us to a new show, Shark Tank, which was on last night. Reminds me of something Dale/Tom/Dave would like. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I want to go on and sell my passport idea.

Jim starts school tomorrow (XU). Makes me kinda sad I'm not teaching this semester….

I'm VERY proud of Jenna’s smoking staus.

I had several moments of “oh she’s growing so big” (physically I mean) with Nicole this weekend. She did look little though when she put Jim’s t-shirt on and it drug on the ground and the sleeves rested at her wrists.

I REALLY like the daily reports our daycare gives us. I also like going to visit Nic and Chris at lunch. Wish it was geographically closer to my office though….

I'm wearing “normal” pants to work today and they aren’t digging into my gut!

I added Dale's Sabbatical to my blogroll - check out his adventures!

Random Thoughts

• I like the show Wipeout but think the Japanese (?) version is better (as seek on Spike TV)


• I know my friends have sex, or at least I hope they do. I can not picture it at all. Not that I sit around trying to picture it. …but even making out- I can’t reconcile the image in my head. My friends are probably happy to know this.


• I was told by a co-worker that I’m a “real woman” for putting in the time/energy to pump at work. TMI Portion of this bullet point: Fortunately this time around that’s going MUCH better than with Nicole. I’m attributing it to the water I drink following nursing (I attempt to drink 2X as much as I think he drank).


• Bowling starts 9-20-09 but I’ve been too sick with a cold to pass out flyers to my neighbors’ mailboxes. Tonight when I’m physically up for it it rains.


• The McDonald’s by Nic/Chris’s daycare has the best chicken nuggets of any McD’s I’ve ever had. What makes it even better is that they are consistently better.


• I got mail over the last two weeks that made me smile – a postcard from Alaska, a hand-drawn plant, and today a “I’m glad we’re friends” card. I love mail. I love my friends. Thanks.


• For Viki – I’m in that stupid phase where maternity clothes are too big and my normal clothes are too tight. I have about a half inch to go before I can button the fly on any of my jeans. So, I wear a lot of skirts. My shirts all show my still-existing pooch though. People at the grocery store probably think I’m pregnant. I wouldn’t blame them for thinking so. (I know, the standard response to this is that I was just pregnant. I know, I don’t feel bad about my figure (yet) and am not complaining (yet), just commenting).

DWTS Annoyance

I don't watch Dancing with the Stars but I am interested every year who the "B-list" stars they put in the competition are. I was VERY dismayed however at this year's line up. At least three of the people on the list are not the types of people that I'd call "role models". Two have been arrested and spent time in rehab for drug use and one politician had to resign for campaign violations.

It's frustrating to see that "better" people aren't rewarded with 15+ minutes of fame. I'm all for the Olympic athletes, TV stars, even the swimsuit model. But really, aren't there any other people who haven't spent time in front of a judge that could be on TV?

Life returning to "normal"

Nicole has been at her new daycare for a week now. I was shocked to hear on Friday “oh, she talks!” when I had her with me in the nursery. Apparently my very outgoing daughter is shy at school. I’m chalking it up to still being new and her not knowing anyone there yet. Everyone has said how well-behaved she is so at least there’s that…





Chris is in the nursery there as his babysitter is indefinitely decommissioned. I like the caregivers there, many have been employed at TLC for 5+ years which I think says a lot. It’s a state law apparently that if a child falls asleep in a swing for more than 10 minutes s/he need to be moved to a crib. Well, our dear son doesn’t like cribs so I’m curious how they’re doing that. I’m trying to mimic this at home too so that things are consistent and to prep him for sleeping on his own ASAP. Right now he’s upstairs crying because he’s alone. :( He seems to have a radar on me that if I’m further than 6 feet when he’s sleeping he wakes up all frantic. This is frustrating at 4:00am when I need to go pump downstairs and everyone should be sleeping, including him.



Tonight we’re headed to a festival which should be fun for Nicole.

I have found 2 possibilities for conversation furniture for the deck but none for the table… making a stop to check out anther place this afternoon.



Video sample of daily life around here:

I go full-time back to work on Monday. This week was a good ease into it and I’m looking forward to starting as I’m already behind due to the short work-week and I have the confidence that the kids are in good hands so it doesn’t make me anxious to leave them.

Life Update

A few notes on our vacation to Ocean City, MD:

1) It was a LONG drive made longer by Chris needing to eat every 3 hours. We left the day before and all in all it took us about 19 hours (including stops and meals and searching for hotels in 4 cities). Coming home was better - the 11.5 hour trip only about 16 hours. Fortunately this won't be an issue here forward (we hope...). It continues to amaze us the totally uncomfortable [looking] positions children are able to sleep in....

2) Not much is going on in OC, MD. We went to the ocean every day and Nicole liked it as long as she was with an adult (obviously we wouldn't leave her at this age anyway). Without direct contact she was a bit overwhelmed. The pool, however was a hit! We had 2 buffets which constituted 2 more buffets than I've eaten in a year. Meals were expensive in general but Nicole mostly ate free which was nice.

3) Chris's favorite activity was to have Grandma hold him in the rocking chair. S-P-O-I-L-E-D We would have put him in the ocean once the sun went down but it rained our last night there so he never did get in the water. :(

Jenny got Nicole a book called "Bamboozled" chosen so Nicole could have fun pronouncing the title. Here she is practicing some hard words on our way to dinner one night:

On another front, Nicole started a new daycare yesterday. This place does 5 classroom rotations (math, language arts, art/dramatic play, science and geography) as well as include a 2-hour nap, gym/outdoor time, lunch and free-play. She's gotten good progress reports each day and already has a friend who's hand she holds "all day" according to her science teacher Ms. Jami.

Chris was scheduled to go to Nicole's old sitter for the first portion of his life but when I went to drop him off on Monday morning I was surprised to find out that the main sitter had a stroke and is hospitalized indefinitely. They did call and leave a message, I just didn't get it in time.... As a result, Chris came to work with me on Monday for a half day (I'm all half days this week). Chris is now enrolled in Nicole's school and started this morning. His daily report was good too. :)

first smile caught on "film"

He's been smiling and coo'ing for about a week and a half now but we never seem to have a camera around/quick enough. He was very happy and chatty this afternoon while leaning against my legs! :)

Mike's Baseball Game

Last night we went to the Reds Game to watch my brother, Mike, throw out the first pitch. He won a contest that Lindsay entered him in and got tickets, the opportunity to watch batting practice and throw the first pitch as previously mentioned.

A bunch of us all went down to watch the festivities and we scored big time in my opinion with $5 seats that allowed us entry into the ballpark and access to sitting anywhere (we were about half way up the lower section on the third base line). To top it all off, the Reds actually WON!

Here’s Mike and his big honor!

The best news however was announced during the game. Can you tell from the pictures below?

Respecting Greatness

I'm going to be an aunt again!

Enjoying the game with my two kids

Our goal was to convert her to be a Reds fan... at least we got a shirt out of her...

Firsts

Yesterday was a day of firsts for Chris:

1) he gave me my first moment of Chris panic – In the bathroom of Chik-fil-a I was using the restroom and Nicole pulled on the plastic bag of the sanitary napkin trash bin. It fell off the shelf and landed on Chris. All three of us went into alarm mode and both kids started crying. I pulled it off him, unbuckled him out of the car seat and picked him up right away. Fortunately his crying subsided almost immediately upon being held. Nicole on the other hand was scared and kept saying “sorry, baby Chris”- she took more effort to stop the tears. I called the doctor and asked what types of signs to look for should he have any head trauma (I think it just landed in his lap versus hitting his head) and in the last 24 hours I haven’t seen any of said symptoms so I’m assuming he’s okay.

2) We got recognized by a stranger- another mom at the Chick-fil-a playground started talking to me and asked “weren’t you at Parky’s Farm the other day?” Wow… I’m getting in with the stay-at-home mom crowd.

3) First blow-out- Chris’s poops are textbook new baby – mustard yellow, thin and seedy. I can always tell when he’s about to poop though – he gets wiggly, crunches his legs up and contorts his face as if he’s pushing a boulder through his bowels. His poops are always very audible and incredibly forceful. I have no idea why pooping the equivalent texture of pea soup takes so much effort, but apparently it does. Yesterday’s poop was no different in the signs leading up to it but the squirt seemed louder and longer… when I picked him up my fingertips were wet and the really cute outfit I had on him was all slimy with baby poop at the leg and up the back. Fortunately I’ve developed an amazing tolerance for poop of all textures and quantities, a skill I’m not proud of but routinely grateful for (poor Jim still sometimes gags…).

1 month and 1 day – kid’s still alive and I’m still sane! Wa-hoo!

Long Life Updates

Deck Photos

Chris lets me work on the computer (aka he sits with me while I type). This is great and something his sister would never do. In general things with him are going well. He eats at 10:30ish and we both get up at 3:00 (without an alarm!) to feed again. Sleep is at about 6.5 hours for me/night now which is enough that I function all day and only nap on weekends. He's SUCH a better eater than Nicole in general at this point which has made feeding him much more efficient/relaxing. He's got a set schedule now that we stick to and since it's 3 hour time increments it's even better.

Jenny J. lent me some books – a vampire series she’s a big fan of. I finished the first one in a few days and gave it a D which was very disappointing as I was looking forward to the books. It was the writing style that I didn’t like and the plot was only “eh”. However, I trust Jenny’s opinion so I started the second book. I’m only 100 pages in in 2 days and already it’s SO MUCH better. At this rate I will keep plowing through the series. I have to admit that I like Twilight's twist on vampirism better in general though...

In the 3.5 weeks I’ve been home with the kids only once have we not gone somewhere. Today I told Nicole we were going to pretend we were Kipps and go hiking in the nature preserve near our house. Chris slept most of the walk and Nicole wanted to be carried for about 40% of it but the hike was a success overall. :) Pictures for Ella:

Christopher enjoying the ride.

Girl after my own heart - a tree-hugger!

Stopping to smell the ... flowers.

While I was pregnant Martha asked me about any food cravings I was having. While I wouldn’t classify them as cravings, I found myself buying and eating sautéed mushrooms and orange bell peppers for the first time in my life (that I made at home, I’d eaten both before). These two have become somewhat staples in my diet now and I purchase at least one package of sliced mushrooms and one pepper a week. I’m the only one in the family who’ll eat either though, which is fine by me.

For Lisa: Here’s Nicole eating her first (technically second, this bowl is her second helping!) Skyline 3-way.

Truly a Cincinnati native

I’ve lost 26lbs. of the 50 (I know, I know…) that I gained with my pregnancy. This makes me very happy to have done in just four weeks but I’m very aware that 1) half of this was shed immediately between Chris himself and the water and 2) my sweet-tooth and pension for snacking on cupcakes and ice cream will limit me from maintaining this weight loss speed. Is it worth giving up/limiting sweets though… haven’t decided… I'm about half and half maternity clothes and non at this point.

2 more weeks and we go on vacation! 3 more weeks and I'm back to work!

Mother of a 2-year old

Nicole's second birthday is now past. All the rush to get the deck done for the party and then... it rains. :P

The morning was low-key as we were out at a grill-out the night before and all went to bed late. Her nap was 3.5 hours long and ended in my waking her which meant she was not in the best mood. True to her age she threw a fit because she wanted to wear PJ's and not her dress to the party - wouldn't have been a big deal but she was hollering with guests downstairs which is not the impression I like to make, even with family. Fortunately the tantrum was short-lived.

We had about 25 family members over for the celebration. Lots of wonderful, generous presents, many of which were Dora or Sesame Street themed so they went over real big. Her new pool will be blown up for swimming tomorrow as she keeps asking for it and the sand/water table is already assembled and in use. I have a cute video of all the kids jumping on Mike (below) which illustrates their enthusiasm pretty much the entire time.

Our last guests left around 10:15pm and Jim did some cleaning before bed.

Her 2-year well-baby check-up was this morning and she's doing great. 75%ile for height (2'11"), weight (28lbs) and 65th %ile for head - very proportionate. Overall she

• knows her ABC's, can count 1-13, knows nearly all body parts by name including the "odd" ones like ankle, jaw, etc.
• I've heard her say 6-word sentences before but 3-5 words strung together is most common.
• Her most favorite phrase is "this is mine" or "I want ____" which I hear over and over all day long.
• I try to give her options for things like which cup to drink from but she can be frequently indecisive which makes me regret giving her a choice at all some times.
• Her ability and desire to pick clothing is very clear but the child has no fashion sense what-so-ever so I don't often let her go out in public with the outfit she's put together. We're learning to "work together" (a new favorite phrase of mine!) where she picks one item like a skirt or a shirt and I get to pick the coordinating piece.
• She's OCD about her sippy cups and won't touch them if her hands are dirty. I get lots of "mommy, hold" at meal times.
• Her favorite song, which is on repeat in the car for as long as we can tolerate it, is Ice Ice Baby. Working on getting a video of her singing and dancing...

The In The Next Year sheet the doctor's office gave us was oh-so encouraging with things like "shows Independence by saying 'no' to everything", "hits, pushes and bites other children", "can not often be reasoned with", and "begins to resist bedtime". Ohhhh, can't wait!

Updates

AHhhhhhhhhhhhh! 8:15 and no kids awake! Nicole and Chris seem to have opposite schedules – if she’s awake, he’s asleep and vice versa. The end result is me not getting hardly anything productively done but quality time, a situation that’s hard to be frustrated about but doesn’t help the to-do list get any shorter.

I’ve been leaving the house with the kids every day so far. We’ve taken trips to the library, to lunch and the pool with my aunt, shopping with my grandparents, etc. It makes the day go faster and keeps Nicole away from the TV which she frequently asks for (old habits from daycare die hard…). Places I still want to take her: the zoo, Parky’s Farm, the water park, Make-a-Mess Thursday (arts and crafts), and the bounce and play at the library which is today but we won’t make due to lunch with Martha.

Nicole’s birthday is Saturday – I’ve ordered her balloons and have a to-buy list already made for today/tomorrow’s shopping trip. We’ll be having Mexican for dinner and she’ll have about 25 guests, all family, attending.

Nicole feeding baby Allison

Chris is doing well – he’s dropped his sleeping from 20 hours a day to about 18 and is happy all but about 2 hours of the 6. Crying’s part of being a baby though and while it doesn’t bother me the sound does get on Jim’s nerves. Unfortunately for me he still wants to eat every 2 hours-ish which makes coordinating outings, etc. more challenging. Last night he extended his sleeping to 4 hours before he wanted to eat so that was a nice break except for Nicole waking up around 3 and needing to be changed/cuddled. His cord fell off over a week ago, the circumcision has totally healed and I’ve not gotten hit with “the fountain” in over a week! I’m learning how to take care of a boy!

The deck is really coming along. It will be done tomorrow but unfortunately I haven’t found any furniture that’s blown me over to buy and fill it with. Though I want it to look as “real” as possible for the party I don’t want to be hasty with spending money on thing just to have them in time. Pictures to follow tomorrow upon completion!

I’m down 23lbs but that still leaves me much to go. Damn sweet tooth…. I finished the Twilight series and a book Lisa gave me a while ago. Jenny’s going to lend me a new vampire series today when I see her for lunch. All of the above are great for keeping me awake/not bored during these late-night feedings (which Jim blissfully sleeps through for the most part- the one big downside to breast-feeding is that the husband doesn’t have much he can do to help….).

On to productive things while I still have some time!!!