This set of lines goes thru my head all the time, when I'm working on stuff. It's the nature of the job, and even though Hanks' character is an architect, I feel it's the same issue.
"She's on her sixth painter. And now she wants the fireplace rebricked.
- I know her. I could call her. - I'll just hit her with a brick.
That's so funny. You're so funny.
When she wants something done she says: "You know best."
"But couldn't we flip the house so the back is in front?"
"Put the front on a hinge so I can get in with a garage door opener."
- "Yes, we can. We'll just ..." - "Move the cabinets."
These are the photos that I meant to post last week. But just pretend they're fresh out of the oven.
Kid C really loves ballet, as you all know, but Baby R doesn't want to miss out on any fun. Even if it involves a tutu. So from time to time, they both put on their tutus and dance. This time it was in the vegetable garden, with pea pods in hand.
Aforementioned pea pod.
Ballet and peas = exercise and greens.
Believe me, he asked me to put it on him. But he only wears the black one, and honestly, he never keeps it on longer than 5 minutes. I think he knows it's on the girly side.
Dirt face.
I encourage the dancing. I mean, he bites and hits and tackles- it all balances out.
Sunday's family activity last week was releasing ladybugs that we bought from the nursery. If you've never done it, it's good clean family fun. And they eat all your aphids off your plants, so, win-win.
I don't know if you can see here, but Mojito had ladybugs on his head. They were everywhere. If it was any other kind of bug, it would be gross. But they're cute, so it's like live-confetti.
I told Kevin to take a picture of me and the kids since there are so many of him and them and hardly any of me. And this is what he took. I'm just sayin'.
They liked climbing on us more than the rosebushes.
be free!
I have no idea why I took these photos. But it's Tuesday, let's put 'em out.
Yep, no idea.
Baby R likes to boogie. He likes to get down.
Kevin was invited to a "green data center" conference, or something like that, that was held at the California Academy of Sciences. And everyone who came got a free family pass for a visit to the museum. Which is awesome, because it's way too expensive to go there otherwise.
Like a science see-saw...that I was sure Baby R was going to injure himself on somehow.
Here the kids are having fun with a device meant to depress everyone about how much carbon we all produce and how much we have to change our behavior to do anything about it.
Yeah, you get the point.
On bottom floor there's an aquarium. And Baby R loves "issshhh."
He's blurry, but wow, look at that fish behind him. Wacky.
Crowd-pleasing giganta-fish** (**real names have been changed)
The taxidermied dioramas were definitely my favorite. And yes, they are more sideshow/freakshow than science. Although I wanted to not bring up the fact that the animals were dead and stuffed, Kid C worked it out of me. And then after I explained it, as nicely as I could, she kept asking how each animal we saw "got dead." As in "Oh Lions. How did these lions get dead?" It cracked me up and then I had to say something like "maybe they got sick or got hit by a car." Instead of "some scientists use guns and kill the animals so they can stuff them and stick them in these boxes."
I made this design tonight for a friend who leads mission teams to Laos. I hope he likes it, I just emailed it to him just now. Man, I'm tired, and it won't end until Easter is over. I have a ton to do....
The more time I spend with other house-mom's the more I compare myself to them. And lately I've noticed I'm not playing with the same rule book as other moms. And I have no intention of changing my ways right now. But I have to get it off my chest:
1. Calling other adults Mr. or Mrs. I knew as a kid, if I ever had to address one of my friends' parents, I would have to use the Mr./Mrs. formula. So no joke, I avoided addressing parents at every turn. I think I was backed into a corner once and had to say it, but it has always weirded me out and made me feel like a dork. When I was ever in a K-12 classroom as an adult during college, I wanted the kids to just call me Charlie, but I compromised with the law of the land and went with Miss Charlie. I seem to be the only one that sees our society as not-really-formal, at least in the house-mom world. Maybe moms that stay home are more traditional? Because they embrace the traditional role of a woman in the home? (Ugh, the sound of that kind of turns my stomach...)
2. Asking permission to play with a toy Now, if I didn't know how park dynamics worked, this one would come really naturally: if you want to play with someone's shovel/truck/ball, you should ask him/her first. However, park playgrounds are a giant mixed salad of toys everywhere, if 2yr old kid, not even mine per se, had to locate the owner of a toy, then ask, for every toy that he/she wanted to play with, we'd be there all day. I don't expect the other kids to ask to use our stuff. I dump it all out, and whoever wants to use it can use it until we leave.
3. Being excused from the table Baby R and Kid C eat like birds, and when they are done they cause a ruckus until I tell them to go away. I do intend to have them a) eat more b) sit longer for 5 min at the table when they are older, but right now, they would constantly be punished for not obeying the rules and no one would eat in peace for the next 2 years. This one embarrasses me the most when we go out. Because I have wolf-children.
4. Saying butt Who knew that this would matter? But I think I'm the only one that doesn't use a cute word instead of butt. I often get the nervous look from other moms when I say it around other kids or when Kid C says it. I'm completely unapologetic about this one.
5. Yelling and Screaming I have realized in the past few months that my kids are total loudmouths. Kid C couldn't say a quiet statement if she had a bandana around her mouth. I'm pretty sure I'm suffering hearing loss from it. Baby R can hardly talk at all, but his babble is on Level 10 volume all day long. I have shushed and shushed and shushed and shushed, but they are just loud talkers. Kid C in particular does the little girl shriek which is so-- horrible.
6. Peeing in public Kid C now fears all public toilets, except for the little ones at church. It began with the auto-flush and now she fears them all. But as you all know, she has no problem droppin' her drawers in public and peeing in nature. And if I tell her she has to use a toilet or wait until we get home, she pees in her pants (which comes at a cost of an hour long time out.) That's how much she fears the bathrooms. So I let her pee behind rocks and bushes. I know it's bad, but I don't have alot of options. I feel like I should take photos because of all the exotic locales she has left her mark. If I'm ever arrested, I think it will be related to my daughter urinating in public.
I saw on Yahoo's homepage that a new UK store was opening it's first cross-pond store in NYC this week. And there was something about it being some sort of recession-friendly store.
I mean honestly, RuPaul would probably put this back.
It caters to that annoying NYLON magazine demographic. The young, wealthy, trust-funders that live in big cities go to silly parties and never have real jobs. Very annoying. Total drivel.
(I know too much about them because I got a subscription to that magazine for free, thinking that it was more like a Glamour magazine or a Lucky magazine. But it's totally not.)
I need to get the kids up really soon, but since (if you reference my weekly chart!) it's beach day, then I know it's possible that I may not have alot of time later. Plus, I have a ton of photos this week.
Kevin plays soccer whenever and whereever. Even when he's on call. Because he's worked out a deal that if I come with him and hold his phone, I can flag him down when he gets a work call. So that leaves me at a soccer field when 2 hours to kill with the kids.
The fountain was inevitable.
In fact, I had always secretly wanted to jump in the one of many eBay campus fountains. But an adult can't just go jumping into corporate fountains. But little kids can! So after walking the perimeter of the soccer field, and angering ant hills, and pointing out birds and butterflies and drainage pipe accesses, I thought we'd hit the water. It was fun...and then Ransom fell in, and he was mad and we had to vacate. Him falling in was pretty funny because it was really shallow and he was just so mad about it.
Also, following the week chart, we had one on one Cricket sewing time. And here is what we made. A little quilt and matching pillow for her doll. She loves it, to my surprise and so does Ransom. He likes to situate the perfect placement of the 3 elements- doll, pillow and blanket and announce "nap" and then re-arrange and say "nap" and so on .
5 dollar days on Threadless.com! I finally got some t shirts from them (because they are usually way more pricey, and I am too cheap to pay more). Kevin got two too (by way of my choosing them). Even though the twohe actually wanted were sold out of his size. I wanted some that were sold out of my size too. Sad.
Kevin thought the walrus and the ice cream truck was dumb. But I like it! A giant walrus is blocking the road and the ice cream truck can't get by! It's funny. Oh, and as you see, I got it in orange. Because I am one of 17 people in America that will wear the color orange. The Gossamer one and the headhunter one, they are more to just look pretty. And the walrus and the skyscraper ones I got because I liked the concept.
I have noticed, especially since trying to keep my new "schedule" that if I sit down, all my momentum dies. But if I don't sit down, I think I may have a heart-attack. After all, I have to sit at some point.
This morning I got up, did my [cardio] walk, took a shower and made the kids breakfast that would fit in their laps on the way to MOPS (it starts early). Then on the way home from MOPS I went to Trader Joes and picked up some groceries, everything was smooth and productive-- And then Kid C had a tantrum because I told her to get out of the car through *her* door and not the front passenger door. I have no idea where she came up with the idea that she *should* get out any other way but out her door. But logic didn't matter, she melted down. So much so, that she's now in her room. And I thought I'd sit for a moment to collect my thoughts while she trips out-- and now I don't want to even get out of my chair to unload the groceries.
It's only 12:20, I might need some caffiene or something.
This is big for me. I have always hated regular schedules and daytimers and planners, etc.
But this morning, I saw that I have gained 5 lbs. And I said "that's it, I'm gonna pull it together! No more!!!"
So I made myself a chart on what I'm going to do everyday-- and then I made a huge one that just pertained to the kids and their days' activities. Kid C helped me make it, and she did pretty good for most of it, cooperating-wise, and then at the end she lost it and had to go in her room to calm down for a while.
And here it is, the giant kid chart of M-F every week. It's hanging in our kitchen for all to see!
There are no times on it, just morning, naptime, afternoon and night. I cut out cheezy clip art images so the kids could look and see for themselves.
Let's all pray that I can stick to it. And more importantly, may I stick to my schedule for myself. It involves getting up at a regular time every morning and walking the dogs for an hour. I think that will cut my 5 lbs off and cut down on the disgruntled dog peeing in the house.
Now, all I have to do now is figure out the way weekends are going to work and meal preparation, and possibly when I'm going to take a shower...in there somewhere...
Yeah I forgot all about Baby Tuesday until Kevin called me to tell me he was coming home a few minutes ago and reminded me.
This morning I tried to be productive and clean stuff and then we took a really long drive around the central coast area. 'Slipped my mind.
Here is Baby R at the park on Saturday. He was kinda sad and sluggish and I thought something must be up. And when we get home I put him in bed and he didn't want to sleep, which I also thought was weird. I finally got him out of bed and set him on my lap to see if he wanted something to eat and BARF!!! And it continued that way for the rest of the day. I had planned to go out with a friend, which I haven't done in months, but I couldn't leave him, so I didn't go. He actually got better right before bedtime, but I had already called my friend and canceled, so I just worked on work projects instead. Hot Saturday night :/ .
I took this photo today. Someone (hippies probably) built some little wigwams at the beach out of driftwood and the kids busied themselves in the huts for over an hour. If it wasn't for Kid C's serious I-refuse-to-pee-in-a-toilet-with-automatic-flush psychosis, then we could have played longer.
We had plenty of time so I drove up Hwy 1 from Capitola to Half Moon Bay instead of just driving up 17 (the direct route). Everytime I do that, I love the drive until I get about 3/4 through and then I'm like "just get me home!" Kid C didn't nap at all, which foiled my plan of a peaceful drive along the coast with my music. Baby R slept, but she was such a loud-mouth that he didn't sleep very much (nostril flare).
There are still a bunch of places along Hwy 1 that are left unexplored (by me at least). I haven't seen the molting elephant seals at Ano Nuevo and there are all kinds of little hidden camps and farms and stuff like that along that stretch of road. I like that area so much that I really wanted to get married at a church in Davenport, but apparently we would have had to show that we were Catholic. So-- that--- didn't happen. Moving on...
Kid C found a stash of little plastic barrettes and insisted I put them ALL in her hair at once. I negotiated her down to a little more than half of them, and this was the outcome.
Have you ever talked to someone that says "I think I look like ____ [celebrity" and you're thinking "uh yeah, right! no!" ?
I just realized I may be guilty of that.
Because I think I look like Lily Allen(okay, I look more like her here).
But then people have never said that about me-- people have said I look like Chloe from 24 and Judy Greer. Gee, thanks. I'm gonna go put a bag over my head now.
The next series is about 1 Corinthians 13, the one that you hear at lots of weddings:
This is the manlier design, the second one I made.
The is the first one I did, which is kind of feminine, but then the title is logically feminine and silly. So we had to get a new title.
Why can't it be feminine you ask? We have a shortage of Christian men on a global scale. And they scare easily. So you have to make it manly or men think church is a Jesus-sewing-circle or something like that. Irritating and sad but true.
But if I have learned anything from Battlestar Galactica, it's that women love religion.
I really love World Vision. I love everything about them. They are all over the globe, they help people in the name of Jesus, and they run their organization really well in every area...including their website. I wanted to see what their site looked like this month, and I'm clicking around-- click click click, and then I come across Emmanuel:
Could anyone turn Emmanuel down?! Look at him! (That's the same face Baby R makes when he says sorry to his sister for biting her.) Oh my gosh, his cuteness is killing me.
Nope, I simply couldn't click away. We're sponsoring him now.
Happy St. Patrick's Day. We're not Irish, but I give you my kids wearing green at the Oakland Zoo...
We drove all the way tot the East Bay to see elephants, the SF Zoo does not have them. Although they do have an empty building labeled "Pachyderms" from the 1930's.
And they put on a big show for us: #1 and #2, live in person! Oh, she does love a dromedary camel.
Seriously, she does.
Their friend Kid K turned had her birthday party on Saturday. Birthday party always put our parenting skills to the test, I tell ya.
Here, we have blogs crossing paths. The Appleby family was in town, and they brought their kids too. Their daughter also just wanted to play in the sandbox despite the jumphouse.
Those bug boxes were serious business to some of the kids, my Kid C included. They made sure they had the right number and throughout the afternoon kept checking to see where their box was and if someone had tampered with it.
"Who cares about the jump house, I have a sandbox to myself."
Kid C and Kid A searching for "bugs" on the plastic critter hunt.
There ended up being an acttal dead lizard that looked nearly identical to the rubber ones that were scattered throughout the yard. Thankfully a dad saw it first, and it didn't end up smashed in someone's bug box.
The kids helped me make biscuits.
When we were done, there was flour all over the floor and all of us, and the biscuits didn't rise. But hey.
They finally got in and jumped...and then Baby R got slammed by another kid, and Kid C barfed. My kid was the barfing kid. Thankfully she had already gotten out and barfed far away.
