Baby Tuesday on Wednesday

I tried really hard to post my Baby Tuesday from my new iPhone last night! I really tried, but forces aligned against me and I was unsuccessful. Boo.

But to celebrate the arrival of "snowball jr." my new iPhone, I will post all my iphone pics on this edition:

I took this photo of Kid C last night after she splashed permanent pink ink all over the dining room carpet, the hall carpet, the dining room table and herself.

I was mad.

You can see on her hands is the pink ink stains.

The only thing I managed to get the pink out of was the table, but I had to sacrifice the veneer a little bit to get it out.

Kids, they will make you crazy.

Ah, MoBo, always a crowd pleaser. See below for video of him in action.

Monday we had a different schedule so we went to go "watch" Kevin play in the eBay soccer tournament final. Baby R however just wanted to wander off. Kid C was pretty good for a while and then she got iPhone happy and then shortly after we had to call it a day and leave.

Kid C made this necklace for me out of Baby R's snowboot tag elastic and a Barbie purse. And then she insisted on taking a picture of it with my phone.

We had some friends over on Friday night and one friend brought her daughter Kid V along. I told Kid C she could stay up and play with her, and that's just what she did. Until midnight, they played and played and played. Here she is post-dress-up in her undies. All hopped up on marshmallows.

I accidentally dressed my son as a farm boy last week. I had to buy him snow boots because at Target, they don't sell "wellies" in October. And they sell rain boots in the spring, when we in California don't get rain anymore. Aren't there enough of us here that they can sell us some rain boots? And what about Florida? C'mon.

You will see that he's wearing heavy duty boots, Wranglers and a western shirt. All he needs is a little ATV and a mesh-back hat and I'd make him carry around a little cannister of Skoal in his back pocket to complete the ensemble.

This is the cute pout. It's blurry, but I think you can make out the cuteness.

Baby Tuesday on Thursday

Oldies week.

I took this at the SF in the summer.

After I uploaded this, I realized that you can barely make out the kids riding the carousel all by themselves.

Hmm, what else do I have? I'm too tired to go find the camera and upload this week...

This one must be pretty darn old because Baby R is still in cloth diapers. But I don't know if I ever posted it. So enjoy the retro cuteness.

2000 is a big number

I am training to run in half marathon.

Why?

Only because it raises money for Leukemia and Lymphoma research and patient services. And in order to race, I need to bring in 2000.00 in donations.

So I made a special page on my Pull It Together website just for my fundraising.



Please check it out.

And of course, if you don't want art, you can simply donate straight to my donation page and get your tax deduction in before the end of 2009, easy peasy.

thanks so much. I'll be giving updates on my sorry-butt getting kicked by the TNT trainers. omg...

poster of the wee hours

This is the rough draft, I know there are problems with it.



inside folding part of of the poster. It folds open twice.
And then the back is below, when it's all unfolded...

it's here

oh happy day.

craft fair cards

nope I'm not at the craft fair, but my friend will be, and here are her cards I made:


front back

Baby Tuesday

I'm super tired tonight. Excuse my brevity.



These are in reverse chronilogical order. We begin on Saturday evening. We paid a visit to "Crazy Uncle Brad" up in his bachelor pad in the city (after we partied at the concert). Bachelor = breakables and dangers, but they didn't seem to notice anything different.


This is classic. They were jittering around like caffeinated honeybees. Stairs, they get excited about stairs.



Baby R peering out to the awesome view out his bedroom window down upon beautiful San Francisco.


Djembe drum was under attack big time. Adult conversation? Very difficult with this going on.


Um, I have nothing clever to say here.


And again with the drumming. I will go deaf because of these kids, mark my words.


Heart-melter! Kevin held Kid C for a little bit while we listened to Old 97's at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival @ Golden Gate Park. Best part: it was totally free, even parking. Glorious. Very good day.



Thankfully we found some open space so they/we could run around. Otherwise, it could have gotten complicated.


Hipster family, part of 4! ;D That Baby R, he just wanted to watch the band. Photos shmotos, I'm checking out my namesake.


That line of people behind us was incredibly long and slow moving. It belonged to the food cart. I was so glad we ate on the drive up. Whew!



It felt a little Woodstock-esc. But way less insane. There were plenty of dogs and kids (but also smoke and miscreants).


Kid C told me she wanted to go back to see the seals. She meant the elephant seals that live at Ano Nuevo. I vowed not to go back there for a very long time. But then I remembered that sealions hang out at the wharf in Santa Cruz. I couldn't gurantee it, but I told the kids that's what we were headed-- sea lion ville. Thank goodness the sealions were there, or I would have had serious problems. They were so unbelievably charming and cute.


You could bascially walk down those stairs and wallow with them if one were so inclined. Some people walked down and got pretty dang close. Like inches away. But they yelled out how stinky they were, ha.
I didn't want to fish any kids out of the Pacific or do first aid on a sea lion bite, so we stayed a decent distance away. Worth the drive for sure. It ended in a tantrum like most trips, but hey I can't win 'em all.




Random video of pre-ballet class time killing. I learned my lesson this day and did not repeat the 45 min earliness to class, despite that her preschool class gets out then only a few doors down. Baby R lost his everlovin' mind.

Freeze punks! Drop the gloss! Beauty Control** officer!

I spent last weekend with some friends, one of which is in the beauty business and she motivated me to change my make-up.
I'll be honest, my usual opinion on the cosmetics industry is that it's all the same and kinda weird how much women spend on it. I feel more strongly that skin care stuff is mostly snake-oil because it has never mattered what I did to my skin, it just is what it is. Period*

But Stephanie, I trust her. Mostly because she wasn't trying to sell me anything. Unbiased, if you will. And over the weekend she had to look at my mug more than I did. Sat night she did my make-up with the stuff out of her bag and I had to admit, I looked a helluva lot better.

So my prescription was: eyelash curler (which I have always feared like a torture device!), hazel-eye-specific mascara, mineral powder for my face, bronze colored eyeshadow, and brushable eyeliner.

I got to work and found some MaryKay stuff on eBay and the rest I got at Target. Funny story at Target:
I didn't realize that they had brand-specific consultants in the make-up aisles. But there was a woman there from Boots, a British company. Me, being of English heritage thought "perfect, they will understand me." However, this turned out not to be the case! The lightest shade of powder they make, was still too dark on my skin! Am I that pale? Reality check, I guess.
But no matter, white is beautiful. I went to the next aisle and bought Neutrogena instead.

I consider this part of my self-improvement-before-30-project. Losing 11 lbs so far, and the braces should come off within a few months. My make-up bag needed rennovating too.

*The one product that ever did anything different was so outrageously expensive that I cannot use it. It really made a difference, but I can't justify that cost. If I added up the cost of it over a year, I might as well get a face lift.

**Stephanie is going to become a BeautiControl rep. And I have always thought that the name of that company was hilarious. Like it's the ATF or something-- if you're too ugly or too pretty, they come in, flash their badges and get to work.

cards that empower!

My friend is starting her own eco-cleaning service. I'm doing her "corporate identity."

The company name is still up in the air.

fun.

Baby Tuesday

At Kid C's new Preschool, they do birthdays on one day a month. For Sept, that meant all of summer b-days too. Oh boy. So we parents were encouraged to come and join in. For me that meant showing up a bit late and then making sure Baby R didn't flip a table like Roadhouse or bite someone like Mike Tyson.
It was kinda cute seeing all of them with their little cookies.
I have a feeling Kid C was a behavior-tool placed between those two boys at her table, who I think are friends.



This one never stops being cute. Her little ears sticking out beneath her crown and her big cookie.


Baby R's little frienemy-girlfriend Baby R(2) had her 2nd birthday last week. We joined in the madness that is a 2yr old birthday party.


Or rather, as you can see, we moms tried to take a backseat to the madness.
(Heather and Christi...they kinda match here I guess)


Here I am. That's my playground face.


What?, am I about to break this dwarf chair?!


Points awarded to Jenn for her clever use of the radio flyer wagon-- drink cooler!


Baby R at the cookie decorating station. Otherwise known as the sprinkle-chugging station.


Gift opening. Pretty standard procedure.


I love watching Baby R play with other boys. He and Kid E play pretty good together.


Group shot, everyone, group shot.


The BFF's.


I don't know why I took this other than it included more than 2 people...




(here's a video of Baby R waving to the little train that goes thru the zoo. It's a few weeks old, but still good, hasn't expired yet.)

Baby Tuesday

(dangit, all these photos are "small" when you click them, sorry)

On Saturday we went up to the kite event that was happening in the city. I was actually supposed to be at a baby shower, but I didn't realize that until later. Hello!

Anyway, we had already gotten pretty far away from our car when I realized that I had left the camera in the car. I was going to just accept that reality, until I also realized moments later, that I didn't have any cash-- and like any good outdoor festival, there were jumphouses.

I had often noticed the Safeway by the Marina and I thought "what a funny place for a grocery store" but when we trekked over to it, I noted that it was the busiest Safeway I have ever been to. It was busier than the day before Thanksgiving. I bought some "pink milk," a bottle of water, a disposable camera, and got some cash back. The day was saved.

So that means what you are about to see, all of these photos, were taken with a little plastic Fujifilm camera. And I got them developed today. It had been such a long time since I had done that.

I have learned the value of those really long double strollers, that I like to call "limousine style."I think that keeps them from fighting and hurting one another. Which Baby R usually ends up resorting to, the violence. Always the violence.

I first let them out of the stroller here, and off they went like it was a track n' field event.


We're free! Kites! We're free to run around with the kites!!

They had music playing and these kids don't miss an opportunity to dance around.

Here Kid C is dancing to the Grateful Dead. Dad, this one's for you: your granddaughter dancing to the 'Dead in SF.

Jamba Juice had a hut at the event, so I called that "lunch."

More gettin' jiggy with the kites.


Afterward we walked back by the Palace of Fine Arts / Exploratorium, where I parked, because it was free. They begged not to get back in the car so we walked around the little pond, and had our second potty break in the bathrooms in the lobby of the Exploratorium.
(And Mom, this is where I was when I called you, fyi.)



I like this shot. It looks like no one is around. Nevermind there were like 3 weddings going on that afternoon, and lots of out-of-towners with their "Boston" or "Nebraska" sweatshirts on, I guess so no one would mistake them as locals(?).




Kid C chillin with her bribery fruit snacks. This is explained below...



I had to promise them that I would give them two bags of fruit snacks each if they would sit together like they liked each other and smiled and looked at the camera.


They delivered.


Oh, the love.

Here's the big finale. I asked them to hug and they did!!

more elementary dreams actualized

In my 3rd grade class with my teacher Mrs. Sparkman the very strange Catholic health food nut, my classmate and half-German friend Heidi Dinger brought in Dirt n' Worms instead of cake for her birthday.

I was fascinated. I wondered if it was German. And I loved that it broke-the-mold of birthday celebrations in our class. (To this day, whenever I think of air-popping popcorn, I think of bland Mrs. Sparkman and her moritorium on all things salty or sugary)

I've wanted to make it for years, but I never think of it at the right time.

But this afternoon while shopping in the "grocery" aisle of CVS, I thought "Pudding! Oreos! Gummi Worms! I can make Dirt n' Worms!"

And so I did. And I'm bringing it over to Kevin's parents for dessert.

**I just looked over and Baby R just stole a worm out of one of them! He's in time-out now for worm theft**