What's with These Kids

4th of July? Time to make pie!

2010-07-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

After 3 days of the children being deprived of swimming pools due to thunderstorms and heavy rain, my indoor summer activities list is getting pretty played out. With the 4th of July only a few days away, I figured we could make a pie. But not just any pie, no... Look at the picture, can you guess? Yes that's right - a watermelon cream pie! Now before you go saying, "EEEWW!," and "WHY??" just admit to yourself that berry pies are played out and you are intrigued, so read on -

The recipe is basically this one
that turns out to be very preschool princess friendly in the preparation department.

2 & 1/2 cups of watermelon chunks diced into small cubes. (seedless is probably the way to go here)
1 /2 cup sugar
1 8oz. package cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 drops of red food coloring (who doesn't love a pink pie!)
1 prepared pie crust
2 cups prepared whipped cream for topping (you had to buy some for this recipe anyway so why not whip your own?)
Whip sugar, cream cheese, sour cream, heavy whipping cream, and food coloring together until smooth and fluffy, about two minutes. Drain any excess liquid from your diced watermelon, then using a spoon or rubber spatula, fold the watermelon into your cream mixture.
Spoon into prepared crust and top with whipped cream. Chill for at least one hour if possible -

or just eat right away.

Happy Mother's Day to me...

2009-05-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

NOt too exciting as Mother's Day's go, Tayne has found a new hobby using the Flip Mino HD though,

and I'm sure there will be many more interesting videos to come...
and like this one,

I'm sure many of them will be iDog related...

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

I'd like to thank the good folks at Nickelodeon and my lack of eco-preparedness for a lovely morning at the beach!

Of course I had no good answer (or projects) pepared for the question "Hey, what are we doing for Earth Day?" that my not usually hyper-environmentally-concerned child uncharacteristically yell at me this morning - Usually only influenced by the commericals to buy exciting things like Bendaroos and Moonsand, somehow he was spurred into awareness and demands for action around 8:45 in the morning by his TV "friends" who have yet again betrayed me when I was counting on them to distract him while I did something selfish -you know, like doing laundry or the dishes or taking a shower -

Garbage (AND recycling) day is Tuesday so I was out of luck on an easy save there, so I decided to distract him with the nature appreciation angle - who doesn't love being distracted by a trip to the beach?

It was supposed to be a "wading only" trip, but as you can see, the gulf waters have warmed up nicely even and even thought nights around here keep it a little too chilly for unheated swimming pools, the beach is ready and waiting (not to mention full of fun suprizes like giant random logs too)!

Now we're back home and tired lunched up kids are taking a break, now I just need the internet to tell me what kids want to do on Earth Day - Nickelodeon got me into this, I'm sure their website can help me out...

Pay your Taxes ALREADY!

2009-04-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

Ah, what an exciting afternoon - beautiful weather so I decided to take the kids to the park - well, it turned out that was the park they were having the Clear Lake "Tea Party" - I thought, "Oh well, it's a big park and the kids will probably be tired by the time this thing gets going so we'll just stay" - It was a great day park wise, Pallas has mastered the little slides, she can go down all by herself as long as you get her sitting down first (the "toddler" play space was killing me - everything was on criss -cross sides so if I helped her onto something I practically had to be on the other side so she didn't plunge down a slide, or if I was on the side with the slide there was a big opening for her to leap out of - sheesh!) ANd Tayne had other kids to play with so he could put up with me just kind of waving at him while saving his sister from walking off this or that... it wasn't until we were ready to start heading back to the parking lot that Tayne saw the party setting up -
Tayne : (while still far away and out of earshot) THat's crazy, why is there a party?
Me : Well, those people are having a party to tell the government they don't like how their tax money is being spent.
Tayne : (yelling) We don't want your party!
Me : Oh, don't say that!
Tayne : I was just electing not to participate
Me : That's fine, but maybe you should say that or just keep it to yourself and show them (you don't want to go to their party) by just walking to the car.
Tayne : ok
Tayne : (as we are practically walking through the party set-up and just after refusing a tiny American flag from some kind older woman) Attention everybody, attention - this is not the 4th of July, it's April 15th -go pay your taxes already! Sheesh!
Me : Uh, no - he didn't mean... um, he's just...oh well, you know freedom of speech goes both ways. And have a lovely party!

I hope they enjoy their protest, and I hope they've all paid their taxes (because if they haven't, they've been warned!)

Who's ready for Easter?

2009-04-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

Long time no see eh? Well, here are a few pictures from Troy's birthday (celebrated at Chuck-e-cheese of course)

Pallas really enjoyed the games

Well, ok, she really didn't understand most of the games, but she did love pushing the buttons

Tayne really couldn't be bothered to smile, you know how 8 year olds are...

But enough of that - here's some pre-Easter photos of our little fashonista - these were the only shoes she wanted (and the only ones not on sale...grrr!)

-Can you believe this? Not even 2 years old and she chooses a shoe with a little wedge heel, it didn't even slow her down & it was incredibly cute at the store when she kept almost kicking the other Easter shoes shopping mommies in an attempt to show everyone how great her new shoes looked on her...

And it the shoes weren't cute enough - Grandma and Grandpa P. brought her this new outfit (complete with ears, I would say optional ears, but are they really optional this time of year???)

Hopefully the weather will be nice for Easter weekend, I look forward to getting outdoors and watching the kids run around, this winter has been too long, and the sidewalk chalk marks on all my indoor walls tells me these kids need to be supervised more and inside less!

Spring is coming

2009-02-18T06:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, so if you are looking closely you'll notice the Christmas decoration in this picture, no - they aren't still up, this was actually taken on a warm day before Christmas (I've been horrible at taking photos, much less putting those few somewhere people can see them)
- but the yard still looks like this - we'll have to mow the grass soon, and we've been spending the weekends and days before trash day cleaning up the back yard before the bugs start getting too busy. Usually this time of year I'm thumbing through the seed and plant catalogs and dreaming of what type of garden I'll get around to planting this year - but instead this year we are busy trimming things back and taking out plants that are too wild and need to be moved - this year instead of adding we are making more space,

because these two need some room to run!

Where does the time go?

2008-12-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

It's VISTA-tastic

2008-11-22T17:02:00.000-08:00

That was aA movie made up of freeze shots from my laptop's camera, as you can tell the kids love it. And it turns out VISTA isn't as horrible as I thought it would be, it even came with the software to make this little movie. Too fun!

Aquatica, SeaWorld Orlando, and Halloween - Friday to Friday it was a busy week...

2008-11-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if these are the best photos from the past week's adventures, but at least it's a start. Besides, if I didn't put something up now, I'm not sure when I'd get back to it.
Our whirlwind Florida vacation was super awesome! - No, we didn't do anything Disney - While we were there we checked out the new SeaWorld Aquatica water park & SeaWorld Orlando.

Aquatica was lots of fun, full of splash pools, water slides, and plenty of sunchairs to relax on if the excitement got to be too much.

The water park also had a few animal exhibits and interaction areas - here's Tayne with a lizard.

And a neat feature was the lazy river that took you past 2 fish tanks and the Commerson's dolphins (pictured further down) Here's a picture of the whole group (Troy, Tayne, Troy's Parents, and Pallas) before going around.

I think Tayne's favorite was walkabout waters - a giant water playground, I think it took him a couple of hours to explore everything to his satisfaction. Pallas got some splashing around in too.

Here are the fun little Commerson's dolphins - they were so cute, almost like little Shamus (probably why they chose them for this park) -There was a nice area where you could watch them underwater and that tube you see is part of a slide that runs through the tank (supposedly so you can see the dolphins as you go streaking past, but I think it's probably more entertaining for the dolphins)

Moving on to SeaWorld - Here's Tayne with some of the costumed characters they had for the Halloween trick-or-treating (Did you guess it was a school of fish and their teacher?)

Pallas and I were busy playing in the sandbox while Troy and Tayne went exploring, but as you can see they had to get in on the grainy fun.

Did I mention there were bubbles everywhere on the way to Shamu (yes, including in kids eyes)

Both kids had a great time though, here's Pallas and Tayne waiting for Troy and his mom to come by on an insane roller coaster (it not only flipped them upside down, it also went underground 3 times)

Here's Pallas enjoying some of the animals (Seals and Sea Lions and weird looking birds)

And now on to Halloween -

Here's Tayne at the spooky house -

And Pallas at the community carnival - she had a great time and lots of admirers (I think other people took her picture more times than we did - but to be fair I had to keep chasing after her as she toddled around)

Here she is on the move -

Not a baby anymore!

2008-10-15T05:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Tayne and I were talking and Pallas was being cranky so I told him that she needed a nap. He asked if it was because babies need more sleep, and I said yes, then he informed me that Pallas was being a baby today but that tomorrow she wouldn't be a baby. I started to tell him no, that babies stayed babies for quite a long time when it dawned on me he was talking about tomorrow (which is today) being her birthday - sniff!- as usual he was right, my baby isn't such a baby anymore, she's a one year old (and since she's walking pretty consistently these days we'll bestow upon her the title of toddler which is acceptable to Tayne as of October 15th because Wikipedia's definition of toddler includes ages 12- 36 months and he's a stickler for details). Anyway, because I'm to lazy to do a montage of then and now pictures, or through the first 12 months pictures, I'll instead leave you with a collection of brand new pictures from our San Antonio trip & party with the cousins!

Naturally we went to Sea World San Antonio, but since you've seen pictures of pretty much everything they have there I'll just include a couple of new things - here's Tayne showing us the Halloween version of the park map - Spooky!

We did visit the usual stuff, you'll be happy to know the penguins are doing well, and it's fun to watch Pallas there, you can tell she just wants to pick those penguins up and squeeze them if she could only devise a plan that would get her past the thick glass and through the water over to the island where they are standing, I really should get a picture or movie of her little hands doing that little finger wiggle over an imaginary ball/penguin while she watches them, it's too funny! AND yes, I realize this story has nothing to do with the picture of Tayne walking in the sand, but I only took movies (no pictures) at the penguin exhibit and I didn't bother to add those here.
Tayne had a good time trying to fling sand up at the people who would pass overhead climbing the nets, but as gravity is a harsh mistress, he didn't manage to get sand on anyone but himself - luckily he didn't get too much sand in his eyes -
This picture was just too cute with the two of them playing together in the sand... Now we move onto the "party with the cousins" photos - all three girls were wearing pink stuff (though you can't see Megan's shirt, it has pink on it and she's got a pink skirt on), being cute and posing for photos so there are probably more shots of them than Tayne in here - he was kind of outnumbered - but he had a good time too!)

Grandma Dee had lots of activities to keep everyone busy, here they are decorating pumpkins. Lindsey made a vampire dog, Tayne made an elevator, and I think Megan just drew a face on hers.
Pallas was a bit stumped for ideas so Lindsey did a face for her pumpkin. Here she's trying to convince Pallas to let her give that plain pumpkin a makeover - sassy!
We opened the gifts early, before candles and cake, mostly because the guests weren't hungry yet but they were interested in playing with the presents. Here they are discussing the ground rules for a game of cow bowling (one of the joys of infant and toddler games for the older kids is the lack of written rules for how to play, leaving them free to decide their own rules).
Tayne is busy timing something...
Time for an art lesson - here Megan is showing Pallas how to draw correctly after Pallas was only able to scribble on the paper she was given, I thought this picture was funny because it looks like she's giving Megan's picture a thumbs down rating (as if to say, "You didn't think I could draw, well this is what I think of your picture...")- every one's a critic!

I just couldn't believe how much she looks like a toddler and not a little baby in this picture...
Watch out Tayne! Crazy girls in pink are coming at ya!
They are really playing catch and throw here, I know it looks like Pallas is mad, but really she just threw the ball.
Here's another one of the girls being goofy and Tayne being "outta here"

You've gotta toot your own horn sometimes!

Just me moving Pallas somewhere (maybe over to her highchair for cake and candle time?)
Ah-ha! I was right, this picture she looks grumpy because she twice burned her finger putting out the candle before the song was done and we got to the "BLOW it out" instructions. Her little face is saying, "I'm only one, this is my first time at this, why would they stick something so flickery and interesting in front of me and not bother to tell me I'm supposed to blow on it instead of touch it, saying, "blow it out and make a wish" should not be the last thing it should be the first thing they tell me!"
Here Pallas and Megan were sharing a rocking chair, Pallas had fun but Megan was rocking too slow for her taste (see the happy smile on Megan and the weak, "yeah this is fun I guess..." smile on Pallas), sometimes she felt like she needed to lean forward and push on the cushion to make it rock faster. What a little daredevil.

That's all for now, gotta go play with the birthday girl and her super cool brother! The days are going by too fast.

It's coming

2008-10-05T19:27:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween Comments
- Can you tell I'm itching to decorate for Halloween? -I know, I've really been oranging up the blog here lately, probably because I'm too cheap or lazy to buy things to put up at my real home (which is no real tragedy because most of you never actually come to my home, so I might as well decorate here instead), and the scariest thing about this was I could post it right from the critical layouts site, I didn't even have to cut and paste code - they could transport the Great Pumpkin here by magic! Whooooo!

You can tell its October when...

2008-10-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the funeral park we often drive by on the way home & the description from their website -

"Forest Park East Funeral Home and Cemetery has been a part of the Webster community since its founding in 1951 by the Eubanks family. Conveniently located adjacent to the cemetery grounds, our funeral home offers a large cathedral-type chapel replete with beautiful stained glass. Situated on approximately 143 acres, our cemetery boasts stately oak and pecan trees on meticulously maintained grounds that provide a quiet and picturesque park-like setting in which to honor the memory of your loved one."

-and what does Tayne ask as we are driving by the other day (after buying his Halloween costume no less)?

Tayne: "Is that a bone yard?"

Me: "A what!?"

Tayne: "A bone yard, where the RIPs are staying."

Me: "Oh, um I think the preferred term is cemetery, and by the way, are they running Spongebob Halloween cartoons On Demand already?" - (thinking "Thanks a lot Comcast!")

On the upside, Tayne found a Halloween costume he loves, and I've set a new record for getting the Halloween costumes for the kids squared away!

** No, I won't tell you what the costumes are - you'll have to be surprised on Halloween!**

Sept 27th Swim Meet

2008-09-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

It's fall and the water may be cooling off, but the competition is heating up! I can't think of a better way to spend 6 hours on a Saturday than hanging out at the pool~

Tayne is all business as he makes ready for his first race

That water is colder than it looks
Pallas loves being part of the action - she had the very important job of keeping track of the goggles between races
Here's a video of Tayn'e last race of the day -

and just so she doesn't feel left out, here's one of Pallas walking

and some random flashing to remind us all how fun Market Square in San Antonio is

Back home!

2008-09-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

Even though our "hurrication" to San Antonio was fun, it's good to be back home. Luckily there was only a little damage to our yard and carport - the house, fences and even our shed held up pretty well -so it's basically just sweeping up, killing mosquitoes, and raking leaves/tree debris to get our place back to it's normal state. We did see quite a lot of damage to trees, fences and roofs as we drove into town yesterday and while driving around today- and there are traffic lights out randomly pretty much everywhere (but at least most of the homes and businesses have power, so nobody is really questioning the electric company's priorities) it just takes some planning and extra time for the 4-way stops. Overall things are getting back to normalish (which is normal except for the lack of fresh carrots in the grocery stores -why doesn't anyone have fresh carrots???) I'd like to think we were pretty smart and that's why we came through the storm so well off (after all we before we bought we researched the flood and storm surge maps, and had the place inspected so that it met windstorm standards, etc. etc.) but the truth is we were just really lucky & luckier still some of the bananas were ripe enough to keep even though the plants themselves had to be cut back or down - so there's hope for banana bread soon, but carrot cake it seems is a no-go, at least for the time being.
*FYI - I'll try to add some cool storm damage pictures later, today we were just settling back in so I didn't get a chance to take many yet. Sadly, there will be plenty to photograph around here for quite a while, Ike was quite a storm...

Travel makes you do strange things...

2008-09-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

No, it's not Halloween yet,
but Friday the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile rolled into San Antonio - it's seems these days you can't just get your picture taken next to the wienermobile, as if that wouldn't be embarrassing enough, now they want you to hold up the wienie costume - whatever, as you can see Troy wouldn't even pose with us, and I tried to hide behind the baby - the kids had fun though and that's what counts.

Update after Ike...

2008-09-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

As you can see, some of us got up pretty early this morning to see what the weather was doing -
Then later, because we needed something to do while we waited to hear news about what was going on back home in Houston, we strolled it on over to SeaWorld San Antonio -
Always lots of whales, fun, and walking...
No word on when the power in our area will be back, and no word on when Troy has to go back to work yet, but we did hear from a couple of friends who stayed in town and weathered the storm - it seems our house made it through pretty well (yeah!) -and it seems our neighbor who stayed for the storm is doing ok too.- So thanks to everybody who was thinking good thoughts and sending your prayers our way.

Cross your fingers!

2008-09-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like hurricane Ike has decided to check out Galveston this weekend - frankly, I blame their tourism board and their heavy advertising to attract new and international visitors - see what it get's ya, Galveston?!?, Anyway -after watching the track of the storm shift toward us twice last evening, we decided to get out last night in the wee hours before too many other people got the same idea. Lucky we did, this Thursday morning they are calling for lots and lots of mandatory evacuations from our area - I don't envy the lots and lots of traffic on the road today- long story short, we're already in San Antonio so there's no need to worry about us - but feel free to say a prayer for our house, er I mean neighbors -yeah, neighbors...

Summer wrap-up...

2008-09-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Well, since we didn't have to flee a hurricane at the tail end of this Labor Day weekend, and seeing how we previously canceled our other plans for the long weekend, I guess this is a good a time as any to catch up on what these kids have been doing with their summer.

JULY:
The 4th was too dry for fireworks (at home) which was ok, because dry weather equals less summer mosquitoes - and there's always glo-sticks!

probably safer for Pallas anyway...
And there were professional fireworks put on in the local park. Ah, memories...

Cindy, Everett, and Oakley came for a visit - and what visit would be complete without a trip to Space Center Houston?!?

AUGUST:
We didn't travel at all this month. Pallas entered that jabber-walky stage, not quite talking/but adding her jabbers to the conversation and not quite walking/but more step-step-dive. (*Sept. update - She's really getting better at the walking, she can take 3 or 4 steps, so maybe she'll be getting around on her feet by her birthday next month)
Tayne's room got a bit of a makeover - a new computer desk (that doesn't wobble when you bump it or turn on the fan, or look at it funny...) and a new computer chair (his old chair had to replace a bench from the living room that Pallas' jabberwalking kept tipping over on top of her and somehow I didn't think a straight trade, bench for chair, would be the way to go. -Look at this kid, would you trust him with a bench???) And last but not least, Troy. No, he did not run away to join the circus, the Space Center had an interactive exhibit with all sorts of crazy stunt stuff - I guess the trapeze swing was calling to him, it's debatable whether he knew we were getting this on video....

That's pretty much it for our summer - now it's back to school work, and building the new BBQ grill that was my "birthday present"/ "for hurricane preparedness" (if the power goes out you have to cook somehow right???)

Father's Day weekend

2008-06-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

Father's Day weekend we got a big surprise - Troy's parents decided to spend a long the weekend down at the beach, so luckily for Troy our plans got a whole lot more beach related...

The kiddos love the hotel lifestyle - I think the beds are bouncier than the ones we have at home.

Saturday we headed over to the aquarium - Tayne was in charge of directions, Pallas was bitter that she had to sit in the stroller while I took their picture. Honestly I don't know why I bothered to bring that huge thing, I ended up caring her most of the time so she could get a better look at the exhibits, guess it was good for hauling all our stuff though.
Here's one of the pictures Tayne took - nice penguin shot (really it was) they were tricky to see because they had the water dark to simulate their natural habitat winter. Pallas had lots of fun trying to see them and then being surprised when they would zoom up close to the glass then zoom away back into the darkness.
Penguin lineup time again....
Can you tell this is a favorite?
Thankfully this was the only jellyfish we saw (or felt) this weekend -
Sunday we headed over to the beach to get some sand, sun, and salt(water).
It was Pallas' first time actually in the ocean and she loved it! Grandma didn't love it as much, a wave knocked her glasses off and sadly they remain the property of the sea.
Pallas loved everything - and even being damp didn't stop her from crawling along the sand - she would just be sitting on the mat one second and then she'd decide to take off down the beach, such an explorer!
Oh, and happy father's day to all the dad's out there! If you couldn't be at the beach I hope you had fun wherever you were!

Shopping Today

2008-06-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

No pictures tonight, but I did have an awesome shopping day
- I got gas for only $3.75/gallon - without going out of my way -
whoo-hoo! (I know, not really something to cheer about, but I'm happy I missed last weeks' spike and saved about 20 cents a gallon.) Also, in a small victory, I talked Tayne into buying new shoes and being happy about the switch! I only had to go to 2 stores to make it happen (Sneakers and dress shoes were everywhere, but heaven forbid anyone stock sandals in June...), plus I was able to find 2 more swimming suits in the correct size for him (this is the third size change this spring/summer, I think I'm firing his father from dressing room fit judge!) and he even had a choice of colors and patterns (ended up with blue and light blue). And to cap off my pre-summer spending spree we got a new ice chest/cooler for 50% off! - I am now the proud owner of a green Igloo wheelie cool -42 which, it turns out, is the perfect size for Pallas to push around the living room as a makeshift walker -she's so goofy when she finds something new to do!

Not much else going on around here - I did surprise Tayne with a picture montage/post on his blog showing photos of him doing things and photos of Troy as a child doing similar things - it came about when I was looking through the old pictures of Troy's -I was looking for something specific so I was just skimming over them, but they kept reminding me of one's we took of Tayne and when I started comparing I thought they would make a nice scrapbook, but with Pallas eating all my supplies if they are anywhere near her, I knew I wouldn't have time to put together anything nice anytime soon - so I just slapped them up for Tayne and Troy to enjoy. (Boys don't need all that fancy stuff and journaling anyway, right?)

Father's Day should be fun this year, with Pallas and Tayne working together, something fun is bound to come Troy's way (I just have to remember to bring the camera and my wallet)!

You know you want to try it...

2008-06-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

Have salmonella-y tomatoes got you in a quandry about what to serve at your "end of the school year" celebration? Is it not a party without salsa?-No worries! It turns out you can make your salsa with watermelon instead!

> ~ Watermelon Fire and Ice Salsa ~

(MAKES approx 4 cups)

You need:

3 cups watermelon -- chopped
1/2 cup green bell pepper -- chopped
1/2 cup peeled and chopped cucumber or sweet onion -- chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice -- fresh
1 tablespoon cilantro -- Fresh, chopped
1/2 bunch green onion -- chopped
1-2 tablespoons fresh jalapeno pepper-- chopped
1/2 teaspoon Garlic salt (or you can use fresh garlic minced and salt to taste)

* A few tips:
drain the excess juice from the chopped watermelon first
and obviously you can adjust the seasonings and heat to your taste.

What to do:
Combine all ingredients mix well, cover and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

Dance, Sing, Floss and Travel

2008-06-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

The computer is back, and after spending the day reinstalling things I was so ready for a little tv time tonight - I'm so excited because So You Think You Can Dance is finally back for the summer! (Ok, they've been back for a couple of weeks, but that was just the auditions -next week they are down to the top 20 so really you haven't missed anything good yet.) The talent on that show is so amazing, I just love it! The kids love it too because they get to leap around, twirl, wiggle, roll on the floor and basically illustrate to anyone available how they too, can dance. (*Not to mention it's like 2 hours long and comes on two nights a week so Tayne gets to stay up an extra hour each time.) Speaking of the kids,
Here's Tayne making use of our computer table while the CPU was away. Here's Pallas being tall and thinking about grabbing Tayne's basket, can you believe she's only 7 going on 8 months old?!
So, after the show, I decided to catch up on my emails and put some of my lost links back into my favorites folder when I came something I'd forgotten all about :

The Lululemon Manifesto ( Lululemon makes yoga and fitness clothes in case you were wondering and yes, I know of them because I like yoga pants...) -

For those of you who don't like to squint all that much, here's the text version :
*Drink FRESH water and as much water as you can. Water flushes unwanted toxins from your body and keeps your brain sharp.
*A daily hit of athletic-induced endorphins gives you the power to make better decisions, helps you be at peace with yourself, and offsets stress.
*Do one thing a day that scares you.
*Listen, listen, listen, and then ask strategic questions.
*Write down your short and long-term GOALS four times a year. Two personal, two business and two health goals for the next 1, 5 and 10 years. Goal setting triggers your subconscious computer.
*Life is full of setbacks. Success is determined by how you handle setbacks.
*Your outlook on life is a direct reflection of how much you like yourself.
*That which matters the most should never give way to that which matters the least.
*Stress is related to 99% of all illness.
*Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to.
*The world is changing at such a rapid rate that waiting to implement changes will leave you 2 steps behind. DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW!
*Friends are more important than money.
*Breathe deeply and appreciate the moment. Living in the moment could be the meaning of life.
*Take various vitamins. You never know what small mineral can eliminate the bottleneck to everlasting health.
*Don’t trust that an old age pension will be sufficient.
*Visualize your eventual demise. It can have an amazing effect on how you live for the moment.
*The conscious brain can only hold one thought at a time. Choose a positive thought.
*Live near the ocean and inhale the pure salt air that flows over the water, Vancouver will do nicely.
*Observe a plant before and after watering and relate these benefits to your body and brain.
*Practice yoga so you can remain active in physical sports as you age.
*Dance, sing, floss and travel.
*Children are the orgasm of life. Just like you did not know what an orgasm was before you had one, nature does not let you know how great children are until you have them.
*Successful people replace the words “wish”, “should” and “try” with “I will”.
*Creativity is maximized when you’re living in the moment.
*Nature wants us to be mediocre because we have a greater chance to survive and reproduce. *Mediocre is as close to the bottom as it is to the top, and will give you a lousy life.
*Do not use cleaning chemicals on your kitchen counters. Someone will inevitably make a sandwich on your counter.
*The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness.

*SWEAT once a day to regenerate your skin.
*Communication is COMPLICATED. We are all raised in a different family with slightly different definitions of every word. An agreement is an agreement only if each party knows the conditions for satisfaction and a time is set for satisfaction to occur.
*What we do to the earth we do to ourselves.

Some of it's motivational, some of it's designed to make you buy water bottles, all in all I thought it was worth reading again - maybe once I reinstall my printer I'll print out a copy to put on the fridge - my days here lately have been pretty full, and I think I could use a reminder to dance, sing, floss and travel more often.

We've all caught June Bugs!.

2008-06-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

Not more than a few days into June and it seems almost everyone and everything here is under the weather - including our main computer. Taken ill in the middle of the night, this morning it refused to do anything - so we sent it off to the repair shop and have our fingers crossed they can fix it without wiping all the data I haven't been backing up these past 5 months ( I know, shame on me!). So annoying!
On a happier note, last night Pallas finally got the hang of waving to people - she was so cute flapping her arm and smiling at me or TROY until we would say, "Oh, hi!" and wave back to her. -She was so excited about it that it took an extra hour to get her settled down to go to sleep, but fickle as kids are, today when I tried to take a video of her doing it -nothing -but to be fair, she isn't feeling great either. The camera is charged up though, so I'm bound to catch her in a good mood sooner or later!

Lyle Anglesey -He will be missed.

2008-06-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Carina

2008-05-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

I smooshed together the photos from Carina's first birthday party - here's a taste of the action...

Sadly, Carina ended up needing a nap after sorting through the huge present pile, and she missed the outdoor portion of her own party, but Tayne, Pallas and the other "kids" were more than happy to test out the slip-n-slide and kiddie pool anyway (come to think of it, I'm not so sure they even realized she wasn't there). Also, we ended up leaving before the cake, I guess seeing someone else blow out only one candle wasn't enough excitement for Tayne.

I know we are just heading into summer, but it already feels like October will be here all too soon and we'll be celebrating for Pallas (I'll definitely have to make her a little soft party hat as well, if she had a paper one she'd just end up eating it!)- it's funny how time with babies plays havoc on you - most days it feels like they've been around forever, you can't remember not accommodating them and working them into your routines but when those milestones come around you feel like they can't possibly be that old already.

Oh, and what else did we do this weekend?

Seriously, did you have to ask???

2008-05-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend is here - I would be sad we aren't going out of town, but not with gas prices like they are.

Are you sick of seeing photos from this family fun pool yet?

2008-05-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

Are you sick of seeing photos from this family fun pool yet? Well, you'll have to suffer though a few more, because I take them at Tayne's request then end up thinking they are just too cute not to share. We spend so much time there that pretty soon I'll have it all blocked out to get the perfect family photo with Splash Pool as a background. Here's a test group photo -

See the little white square through the fence? Why yes, that is a large banana tree next to it. If you guessed it's the shed in our back yard you would be correct. We are that close - although it takes a bit longer to walk over than this picture would indicate (we walk around the block instead of cutting though the field -easier on the stroller and less buggy on the people) we can get over to the pool pretty fast from they time Tayne walks out to the back fence to see if they've got the splash fountains turned on and the lifeguards walking around or in their little chairs.
The nights have been a bit cool around here for a few days so the water was a bit brisk this weekend. It didn't seem to bother most of the kids though, Tayne played here...
Pallas and Troy played here. (See how Troy manages to stay pretty much out of the water) Pallas usually doesn't like the cold water either, but it didn't seem to bother her this time -we just had to keep her from sticking her head down to taste it, in fact the little boy talking to Troy was telling him how Pallas shouldn't drink the water after his warning to her seemed to be largely ignored.
I think what I find most amusing about going here is the amount of fun Tayne has in the spray and play area. Here's a kid that thinks we should go anywhere or do anything if it's even slightly raining for real (you should see the looks I get for even suggesting that he might want to go out and play in the rain), but at this spray place (which is basically the same thing as walking in the rain) he runs around laughing, being sprayed without a care in the world -I don't know, maybe you just have to be dressed for it.
So this is our free time on weekends now,
as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, we'll -"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air."

-ok, so the family fun pool isn't exactly the sea, but I wouldn't want to fight with Pallas about drinking sea water, let alone putting her down on that sand, so just go with poetic licence on this one.

Last meet of the season.

2008-05-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

Today was the last swim meet of the spring season. It was an hour north of where we live but the weather was great (overcast and not too hot) so we all had a good time. Tayne swims in 2 races, the freestlye and the breaststroke -events which, as is often the way with kid activities, are at the very beginning and the very end of the program with a long wait in between -but when it's time to race it's worth the trouble and the waiting. -Doesn't he look so happy in the water?

We usually give him a suprise at the end of the season for working so hard, this time I made him a stuffed animal out of an extra swim team t-shirt. I guess if I had to say exactly what animal it is I'm thinking koala. It was kind of tricky to get all the graphics where I wanted them - his ear is tagged with the small logo from the front of the shirt and he had to have quite a wide tummy to get the whole graphic on there (it just didn't look right any other way I could think of), but I think it turned out pretty cute. At least he should be a good size to bring along for napping since we have to get such an early start to be to these places on time.

Today was the transition for us from spring to summer water sports -less structure and more family free swim and play -which is good because I think Pallas will be happy to finally get in on the fun. It's too early to tell if she wants to be a swimmer too, but one things for sure - she doesn't like being left out of the action!

Go read something else

2008-05-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

I don't know this info of this picture.

Tomorrow is the last swim meet of the season. Consequently, I find this evening I'm way to busy to write my own blog but of course I'm not too busy to surf the internet randomly while checking my emails (I know, such a bad habit!-The procrastinating by lolling on the internet, not the checking emails.) ANYWAY, if you must read something new read this blog One Day I Chanced Upon a Mystery (Wherein I Encountered Dollar Store Mystery Bags). I laughed till I cried (and was promptly busted for not "just checking email") then I realized I'd better get back to real life chores or something.

Mother's Day

2008-05-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

I remember being told once -There's a lot more to being a woman than being a mother, but there's a heck of a lot more to being a mother than most people suspect. Which is why I was so glad to spend Mother's Day in San Antonio where the kids could spend some quality time with MY wonderful mother! (and Grandpa Terry over there in the back) Tayne's favorite part of Mother's Day was riding the trolly downtown. (He only looks unhappy here because he had to wait for me to take his picture before he could get on the trolly - what a good sport, humoring me on Mother's Day.)
Pallas was excited because she actually got to come along this time. Her first trolly ride had her taking in the sights of downtown -will she remember the Alamo? Probably not, but I'm sure we'll be back plenty of times.

Yes, as Mother's Day's go this was a pretty good one - although my present was a new tire (to replace the one a chunk of concrete laced with rebar tore a huge gash into as I swerved in vain to miss it - I do so love the children in this neighborhood!) I did get it a few days early and we were able to take a trip to San Antonio to spend the weekend with family. My other present was watching Tayne give out Mother's Day gifts to his grandmas - he's such a sweetie!

Fortune Cookies or Brainwashing Cookies?

2008-05-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

Tayne loves fortune cookies so we usually give him ours. He's adamant about saving the fortunes (they have numbers on them) which he then leaves lying forgotten in random places. As I was cleaning last night I found a few he had left behind -

I'm starting to think the economy is really taking a down turn when even fortune cookies are trying to drive up sales by spouting things like this :

"You hunger for the finer things."
"Your fortune said you need to make a donation. Give it to the chef."
"You love Chinese food."

"Cooking is easy. Tasting good is hard. That's why you order takeout."

-Are these fortune cookies or propaganda? Lucky for me, Tayne is more interested in the lucky numbers than the fortunes, but all the same maybe I need to find a less suggestive dessert.

The sun is hot and the water is fine...

2008-05-05T05:01:00.000-07:00

Can you guess how Tayne (and by default Pallas and I) spent this past Saturday afternoon?
That's right - the family fun pool at the YMCA is finally open for the summer season!

Even Pallas had a great time in and out of the pool. (I forgot to pack her hat though, so the poor thing had to have her head slathered in sunscreen - still not enough hair to protect that precious head from the sun!)

Because Tayne made me take them, and because they show the excitement and fun of the family pool I've included a couple of my seriously armature videos of our trip.

Perhaps the excitement was too much for Pallas. She fell asleep like this and wouldn't be moved into (what I thought) a more comfortable position. To each his or her own I guess.

Ok -as you can see, I need to practice taking movies, but I wanted to include this one because I don't think I have any pictures of the other side (non bucket side?) of the big play structure. This really is a neat pool and I'm sure you'll be seeing more pictures and movies of it as the summer progresses.

Kudos to you Evenflo.

2008-05-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

So I was cleaning Pallas' high chair today, with a little help from Tayne, when it dawned on me - these people are truly clever when it came to selecting a color scheme.
I don't know how well you can tell from the picture, but the colors match up pretty true to every stain in a baby's diet. There's the main oatmealy color that goes blends well with cereal and apple or pear stains, and the maroons to go with plums and prunes, yellows, oranges, and greens are obvious color matches to the baby veggies and fruits of those colors, and there's even a tan that resembles the color of banana when you miss a spot wiping up and come back to find it later. Even though the fabric is stain treated (you can wipe it clean pretty easily), I thought it was a pretty clever touch. I don't know why they didn't make this a selling point in the first place - I probably would have paid more for a chair with this feature - but I guess they don't like to advertise that your baby might in any way leave a stain and/or that it would be ok if said stain was so intense that you may have trouble removing it from their fabric. At least now I finally know why they make baby accessories with colors such as maroon, grey, oatmeal, green and yellow (coincidentally my playpen has these colors as well in the form of little spots to break up the overall dark blue color on the side rails and bottom mat). Yes, it seems designers of baby things are much more clever than I have been giving them credit for, at least I was smart enough to like those color combinations in baby items (here I thought I was buying neutral unisex items that would blend well into my home decor) even if I didn't know how useful they would really be.

Weekly wrap-up

2008-05-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

Busy week, but then aren't they always. It was also a fun one when I look back over it- but very hectic when I was living it. I think I need to get more organized. Anyway,
Tayne lost a baby tooth this week. When it was loose it really bothered him to eat solid food but when he saw me with a handful of Oreos he asked to have one, and by the time it was gone so was his tooth. (Sorry toothfairy, another one got away without you collecting it!)

Pallas is such a drama queen - she's pretty good at crawling now - she's pretty fast at chasing me down when I leave her to play so I can do something else (translation nothing much that she can't be a part of gets done these days without her complaining loudly about being left out - and tugging at your leg). But she's still such a fun little chick I suppose I can suffer through until she gets old enough to either really help me or lose interest in helping and supervising everything that goes on in our house. Here are some funny model shots Troy took in the car the other day - the plaid in the corner of the pictures is me driving, I know it's nice to see photos of me in here isn't it!
After the first one she decided to really get into it -
Somebody either really loves her daddy or the camera...
Ok, fun's over - time to tighten that seat belt and head off to a world of errands - this may look like a cute stick your tongue out shot, but I think she's gonna blow a raspberry instead.
Yep, it was time to put the camera away and clean the lens when we got home. Ah babies, such fun! And just when I think the older ones are easier they come with their troubles too! - The tooth may be out and he can eat again, but what to do about compensation from the toothfairy when you have nothing to trade for???

They fancied up the park...

2008-04-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

The weather was too nice yesterday afternoon not to go outside so we went to one of the parks we haven't been to very often since we moved from the apartments to our house - and boy-howdy have they been busy updating it! I don't know this info of this picture.
Ok, so the stuff in that first picture wasn't new, but these big sun tarps (screens I guess would be a better term?) over all the play areas are!

Ok, so it doesn't look like they are doing much for sun coverage in this picture, but they are really more for mid-day sun not 6pm sun, and hopefully they will help keep the play structures and slides cool this summer.
In addition to the new sun shades, they completely replaced one of the child playscapes - the new one is all fancy and space themed, although I'm not sure why they would want to replace the old one where hornets and bees would nest in the tube slides and canopy - how will unsuspecting park-goers find out their children have horrible bee sting allergies now?
When we got there we realized why we didn't go there more often - all the play areas are surrounded by seas of mini-pebbles. Pallas was very miffed that she wasn't allowed to inspect the pebbles any closer (a privilege she lost after trying to eat as many pebbles as she could get her hands on).

Mini-pebbles and sandals don't mix.
Tayne found some kids to throw a football around with - you can gauge my faith in his skill level by where Pallas and I are sitting in the grass to watch the action.
Tayne even took Pallas down a few slides. He's such a good big brother, even when he has to wait for a baby and listen to the safety lecture about sliding with babies before going down he actually was willing to slide with her more than once. You can check out his videos of them sliding together over on his blog.

Internet service restored!

2008-04-26T05:46:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like your internet connection being down for 24+ hours for making you want to write a blog, which is something I haven't done a lot of lately. It's not for lack of excitement or photographable activities - this week Pallas had her first real lunch complete with cup of water and crackers in addition to baby food. Yum, yum, yummy!
See the bit of cracker in her hair? That was probably the cutest place it ended up, after eating we needed a trip to Wal-Mart to stock up on floor tarps - ah the joys of giving someone with limited motor control crumbly food (which will be placed in the mouth, become gummy and gross and end up back outside the mouth to end up all over the baby, the tray, and basically everywhere). I am so looking forward to watching her eat more solid food *sigh!*
Also, I suppose my time for computer using and blogging has slowed because things have been a little hectic here as I switch over to "mobile baby" mode. I've had to step up my floor cleaning schedule, although you wouldn't know it if you came over because now its not just the living room/play area floor constantly covered in little baby friendly bits (small non choke-ables) they've migrated to all parts of the house - where the wall meets the floor down the hall, next to the entrances of various rooms, etc. and while I make sure they are clean I pretty much leave them scattered as bait to slow her down so she doesn't get too far or in too much trouble when she wanders after us. I don't know why she's in such a hurry to grow up, but it's cute to see her enjoying herself so we try to let her have (supervised) free roaming privileges as much as possible. Although since she doesn't like to nap for very long I do get a bit paranoid about letting her out of my sight when I have to do something that takes my attention away from her for very long, so we've set up the Pack n' Play -which, as it turns out, is roomy enough for two ( as you can see she's so thrilled about sharing).

- and this by the way, is why you don't let a 7 year old babysit... See you later, sucker!
Yes, it's a good thing the internet is working here again, because I know these are the type of things you just need to hear from us every week - LOL!

Growin' up!

2008-04-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

Pallas had her 6 month check-up today ( I think Tayne is writing a blog about it, so I won't bore you with the details here)

As you can see, Tayne had a watchful eye on the situation...
But everyone survived and everything checks out ok -

Here's her new stats just in case Tayne doesn't post them -

Weight : 19 lbs. 1.5 oz. (95%) Length : 28.25 in. (95%) Head : 42.5 cm. (50%)
On the developmental front she's she's speeding right along- she can crawl now (I'm not real excited about this because she also loves to eat things and pull things down to get into and/or taste -so I really have to watch what she's doing constantly now and between chasing her and the humid sticky weather I'm worn out! ) and even though she still doesn't have any teeth she thinks she should be allowed all sorts of "people food" (basically whatever anyone else in her line of sight is eating) and gets very upset when that doesn't happen (sorry Pallas, I know daddy is eating it, but I think steamed crab legs are a bit advanced for a 6 month old baby...). She's a cutie though, and a happy one at that, which makes her demands and complaints easier to put up with, but with all she has her eye on now, I can't imagine what she'll be asking for when she starts talking!

Busy week

2008-04-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

I guess I really haven't been in a blogging mood this week -but here's some cute pictures Troy took at Saturday's swim meet. Annoyingly I charged up the camera battery then left the memory card at home, so these are from his phone.

It was soooooo early in the morning! All business - Tayne is waiting for his race (girls go first -isn't that sweet!)
Pallas is just hanging out - sadly facing away from the pool was the only way to keep the sun out of our eyes (and no, turning the hat around wasn't an option for this mini fashionista)

Isn't that guy done yet?
Finally he gets to race!

We all had lots of fun, got too much sun, and just can't wait until the next one.

*Oh, and there's more about the swim meet over at Tayne's blog so head over and read what he has to say!

Lookout world!

2008-04-15T05:40:00.000-07:00

Oh he's trouble now - he's got his own blog!
We shall see if the power of the pen is indeed mighter than the Nintendo swords...

march08seaworld

2008-04-14T05:43:00.000-07:00

Ok Here's Tayne's thoughts on our first trip to SeaWorld for the 2008 season -more specifically, he'll be reviewing the water park part (Lost Lagoon) * -

Pallas: We love Lost Lagoon!
We heard the dings...
Splash attack is wanted to play with them, and
we played see-saw.
It got bigger...

And even BIGGER!

Handy: We should do squirting!

Handy squirted me, and anonymous squirted

Handy.

Somebody was squirting, and we and Handy

and anonymous.

We love the blue side that gets somebody else,
than that's all for now. Bye!

I make her bows, she makes more work for me...

2008-04-08T05:32:00.000-07:00

Isn't she a cutie with her little bows! But CAUTION! Don't let the sweet act and the fact she just turned 6 months old fool you! -As of Sunday she's mastered getting to a sitting position from being on her stomach! She still can't quite crawl, but she rolls or drags herself to where she wants to be then can get herself into a sitting position so she can reach higher stuff or better play with whatever she moved toward so she could reach. Yesterday (Monday) we spent the day watching her move around, sit up, and then smile really big as if to say, "Did you see? I got back up! You can put me down where you want, but I can just go where I want! Ha Ha!" and while I'm excited and happy for her, I'm kinda bummed out that we have to lower the crib floor setting so soon, it was such a pain to adjust - sigh!

Happy Birthday? -Troy

2008-04-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

I don't know how much of fun birthday this will be for Troy, busy is the word for the whole weekend. He's taking the 2nd half of his lifeguard certification classes this weekend so he's been at the YMCA all Friday night, all day today and all day Sunday. Plus, today was the first swim meet of the season - Luckily it was at our YMCA so Tayne could go and Troy could be there for a bit before his class started at 9am. Here's a picture of his cupcakes - it's supposed to be a swimming pool (the red ones are lifeguard stands and the swirls are the ropes that divide the deep end from the shallow end of the pool) -even Pallas got to help, we used her puffy cereal as little people swimming in the pool and as the lifeguards. I thought it turned out pretty cute - although I had to learn the hard way that if you are frosting a group of cupcakes you should probably put little pieces of tinfoil down to fill in the spaces before you frost over them as a solid group. - Luckily it's a yummy mistake to recover from (smile)! The swim meet was well attended, even though it's probably the coldest morning we've had in a month here. (Tayne and Troy are in the lower right corner getting ready for his event - I couldn't get up to take a better picture because Pallas was rolling around everywhere and I didn't think it would improve the shot any to be juggling a grabby baby and the camera)
Nice two hand touch!
I wish I didn't have the flu or whatever - it's been coordinating this stuff even more difficult than it would otherwise be, but hopefully I can rest up this afternoon and feel better so we can take Troy out to dinner when he comes home this evening. Otherwise I feel kind of bad for him because so far it's shaping up to be a pretty old man birthday -it's get up at 5:30am, work all day and then the only gift we got him was a Pant Ladder Valet so he'll stop leaving his clothes all over the floor ( Hum, maybe I shouldn't shop for gifts when I'm sick.)

The weather's been good and the kids have too...

2008-04-04T03:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty slow week around here. The squirrels seem to have been successfully relocated (possibly to heaven), and Tayne has been busy preparing for his first swim meet on Saturday - doesn't he look serious!?
This one is a good example of why he should wear his goggles, the backstroke is a splashy mistress...
We've been able to play outdoors again -there was a small mosquito herd last weekend and I was a little worried they would stick around, but by the middle of this week they didn't seem to be around anymore - so it was safe to venture out to the swings again!

-See Tayne's new red shorts? He seemed to think they were fancier than his other shorts because they were red, I can't wait to hear what he thinks of the bright royal blue ones he hasn't seen yet. Pallas got new clothes too - nothing she in the size she is wearing right now, but when I was relpenishing Tayne's wardrobe for spring/summer I started to get paranoid that she'll go up to the next size sometime over the summer but late enough in the season that the store will have nothing but fall clothes just when the weather is the hottest around here, so I bought her some shirts and shorts now while they are just starting to put stuff out.

Pallas got something else this week too - see her new little friend? It's like she found a mini-her (same nose, similar hairstyle, and here Pallas is even doing the mouth open a little look that the doll is sporting) it was too cute not to buy -although I think I spend more on glue to secure the head arms and legs (once movable, not anymore) so I don't have to worry about her ripping one off and choking on it -ah, the joys of parenthood!

Humm, apparently there's not enough room in this swing for two...
Tayne's been having fun playing with Pallas and mini-Pallas -

And as you can see from the picture above and the one below, Pallas is getting plenty of exercise trying to get her back from Tayne (the doll and Pallas have both moved in a counter clockwise direction -it continues like that until the doll gets so far away that Pallas tips over, then I have to sit her back up so I don't have to worry about her chewing on the grass - it's a no grazing zone!)

And one last shot - I love the look on Tayne's face, I think my favorite pictures of the two of them are the ones where one of them is doing something and the other one has a crazy look on their face that says - "What is that kid doing?!" or, "I don't know about this..."

Well that's about it for the week here - the weather's been good and the kids have too!

Stains,Squirrels, and Perspective.

2008-03-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Pallas is in that stage now where I have to be an expert at removing all sorts of weird stains, it’s been coming for some time now, she’s a very involved eater - we moved from those cute little bibs to more of an all over bib, but and even when she wears the bib-blanket she manages to get her hands messy and then under the bib - sheesh! Since I’m running out of clothes I can deem "play clothes" (IE-things that are stained but would look worse if I bleached them to get the stains out) I figure I’d better step up my game when it comes to laundry or start buying baby clothes in bulk. So today the Shout was set aside (after failing me horribly on the orange-ier variety of stains) so I could audition replacements in the laundry, and because I don’t have total faith in the Zout yet, I played it safe by serving a breakfast menu of pears to a baby wearing a t-shirt in a size too large. Here’s the shirt - (in case you can’t make it out, the caption says, "My brother did it!")

And Tayne’s reaction to seeing the shirt for the first time? It never occurred to him that the shirt meant to shift blame from her onto him, instead he took it to be sort of a cheer as in -
Yay for him! He did it! Way to go! Whoo-hoo!
It must be nice to be 7 years old and to have your first assumption be that everyone is cheering for you instead of blaming you for things gone wrong.

You go Tayne!

On an unrelated note, as I was putting away the Easter stuff today I decided to make Pallas’ basket into a holder for her pacifiers and burp cloths since I can never find either when we are headed out the door. I don’t know why I didn’t think of doing it before, but I’m really pleased it occured to me before I got the baskets put away -now I can keep her towels separate from the kitchen ones and I have a place for the pacifiers to hang after they’ve been cleaned.
And on tap for the weekend? Clearing squirrels from the attic- sadly that's not a folksy way of saying something else, we really do have squirrels in our roof. I'm not sure how long they've been in there, but let's just say that bird feeder we put up after Christmas was not our best idea -what's even more annoying is that they chewed a hole from the inside so they could get out easier - so now we have to clear them out and patch/touch up the house (note the expanding foam that will have to be sanded and painted which is covering at least one of their previous entrances & where they like to play (which is just off our bedroom-sigh!)) - the fun of home ownership never ends I guess.

Grandma Dee's gonna run out of printer paper...

2008-03-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. Here's some pictures from our weekend (sorry grandma - this is as condensed as I could get it! )

We colored eggs. (I let Pallas inspect each of mine - and her breakage record (eggs broken: 0) is better than mine or Troy's - I broke 1 before we even started boiling them (I swear it just jumped up out of the carton and onto the floor!) and Troy broke at least 2 when we were coloring them (he swears he was just holding them - must not know his own strength -ha,ha,ha!)

Easter baskets were filled with fun -although I think the entertainment value for Pallas was greatly increased by the people presenting (for Grandma and Grandpa that plastic chicken got great chuckles of laughter, when I squeeze it she just looks at me like it's the stupidest thing I've yet to offer her).
Eggs were everywhere (see Tayne shaking it to determine if the contents could be moolah -which would elicit a smile an the declaration, "Yes! Moolah!" - or merely candy -the disappointment at finding "Candy - (dramatically sad sigh)." was tempered only by the sheer number of eggs and the possibility that the next one would again have that tell-tell rattle of cold hard cash!)
Here Tayne and Pallas are looking over their findings
(Tayne thought they should be divided this way - *of course those generously placed in front of Pallas contain candy and not moolah ) (Pallas felt this was a better distribution, as long as she also gets that blue egg too...)
We played some outdoor games (This one consisted of waiting for plastic bunnies and eggs to spring up at which time you catch them in a little basket -they figured out if you wet the suction cups first they would take longer to pop up giving a better chance to net them)
Or if you are little like Pallas you don't worry about waiting for them to pop, you just grab them while everyone else is distracted.
Here's the group shot of those with Easter Hats - Pallas' bonnet was still a bit big so she swapped it out for her puppy jacket (with the cute puppy face hood) which made people think she was wearing a bunny costume - Who would have thought the only jacket that fits her would be so perfect for the season?

There were games to be played at the Easter celebration as well - we'll call the theme of these next 4 picts "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better"...

Tayne: Hula Hoop?
Troy: Why yes I do, just a little...
Tayne: Jump rope?
Troy: That's nothing, check me out! (ouch?)
Pallas decided to stay out of the fray - this picture was all snuggle, no bunny (jacket ears not visible)

I don't know what Tayne was more excited about here -getting to play with the animals in the petting zoo, or the fact he made it through the line and inside for his turn before the egg hunt started...
Here's the shot of the Easter Egg Scramble (it's not really a hunt when the eggs are just laying on the ground) - he got that far away, picking up eggs as he went of course, before I realized I wasn't taking pictures.
After all the outdoor fun, we decided to walk through the aquarium...
Here they are in a penguin line-up...
After all the fun we drove home and had a nice dinner, which everyone was really still too full to eat after brunch, and reflected on the day. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all those hard boiled eggs since our guests left early this morning without eating any breakfast and Pallas is too little to have them, and Tayne classifies them as a "yuck food."

Good Friday

2008-03-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a sluggish week, but I think we are ready for a great Easter weekend. This morning when Tayne got up he was so excited because the calendar said it was Good Friday - he wasn't sure what that meant, but since they had labled it special on all our calendars he thought it must be something pretty great. He might have been a little disappointed in our morning, but with the arrival of Troy's parents this afternoon I think he perked up. I hope to get a lot of cute picts. of the kids this Easter - with Pallas sitting up by herself and interested in whatever someone else has I think it should be a fun one. I'll leave it with a series of attempts at a group photo on the couch. ( I never got everyone looking my way, but with the egg in his hair what would I have done with a "nice one" if I did snap it?) The collection gives you a sort of stop motion look into the deterimation of a baby sister when there are Easter baskets about ~

Chicken or egg? -In our house the chickens came first...
Then the egg in Tayne's hair? One down,
5 more to get...
-Easter morning should be fun (as long as we all guard our baskets from Little Miss Grabby!)

Park day

2008-03-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

What did we do today (other than try on headbands and pretend to be jazz dancers from the 70's and 80's)? Sensing a little bit of stir crazy (and you'll just have to trust me on this -I'll spare you the photos of the rest of us trying on the headbands to see if they could really be worn by all ages), we decided to head out the park!Tayne's first attempt (of the day) through the tubes -Yep, he still fits (and still hates stopping so someone can take a picture)!

Pallas' first attempt (ever) at the park swing - It's interesting how an action shot managed to capture her dead center so it doesn't look like the swing is moving at all. Let's just assume I meant to do that and all be impressed. Or you can marvel at how pink her stroller is (don't look at me, Tayne picked the color).
Her first (and probably Tayne's 1,450th) trip down the slide - as you can see, she was unimpressed and he was a bit jaded, you can tell he's thinking, "Seriously, why do we need a picture of this?"
Tayne: "Hey Pallas, let me show you how to cheat on a pull-up!"
Pallas: "No, Tayne - let me show you!"
As you can see by his finger, Tayne is in 1st place - yes, he beat out Pallas, who stopped to eat, me, who stopped to feed Pallas, and Troy, who stopped way back to take this picture documenting the sweet, sweet victory over all the people who didn't know they were racing. Way to go #1!

It was very humid today - so, sadly, no static hair at the bottom of the slide today -just the face of a surprised child who wasn't expecting someone to stick a camera up the slide to capture in photos his trip down -why do we do it?
After all that outdoor fun, I felt we needed something to remind us it's not truly spring yet (1st day of spring isn't until March 20th) -Behold the carrot cake snowman living top shelf in our fridge. I think he looks about as sad and deflated as any snowman you could make this late in the season and, given his delicious composition and covering of pineapple coconut cream cheese frosting, he'll probably last about as long too. Winter was fun while it lasted, but I'm ready to move on to spring.

Another Thursday Night.

2008-03-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

Troy's working late tonight, Pallas is asleep early, and Tayne has discovered he can play his 2 player battle game wirelessly over the Internet against people who are much better opponents than I
- and what do I do with my free time?

Online Kaleidoscope Designer
of course!

- Yep, if someone ever bequeaths me a magic toy 'Emporium' it wouldn't take me the equivalent of 93 movie minutes to realize, "Hey, this is a pretty cool job and I should keep it!"

A New Friend.

2008-03-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

~ A baby is sunshine and moonbeams and more, brightening your world as never before. ~

Some friends of ours had their first baby this week. In the pictures she looks so perfect! Squishy big cheeks, lots of fluffy hair, and so tiny - (Ok, so an 8lb. 21 in baby isn’t exactly tiny, but when I look at my little baby, who’s getting pretty hefty these days, 8lbs is tiny) - when I was looking at the pictures I couldn’t help thinking about how fast they change - Pallas has only been around 5 months, and some days I can’t believe the chubby ball of mischief she’s becoming compared to the sweet little sleeping thing we brought home last October. To illustrate my point: This was taken Monday (She got there after being placed on the black blanket to play while I went to help Tayne in the other room -2 minutes later this is were we found her happy as can be)

And Tuesday, in an attempt to accesorize her outfit, she rolled herself into this belt while I was in the kitchen fixing lunches.
Yes, yes - you look much more fashionable now! (Sheesh!) Even when they are full of mischief, and loudness, little girls are always a pleasure! So welcome to the world Katherine Renee Owens -

I'm sure your parents are in for more trouble and joy than they realize!

Spring Forward (and onto the beach)!

2008-03-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

2 days of semi-warm and sunny weather in a row this weekend - How could we not end up at the beach?

Let's start with a montage...

Pallas having fun and hiding from the sun!

A little soccer can help a body warm up between ocean runs.

A cute puppy jacket can save you from the wind (not the other dogs on the beach though - at least 2 doggies came over to see if she was a puppy!)

Troy and Tayne braved the waves while Pallas and I stayed on the beach!

(I thought I was clever and getting off easy staying on the beach -I didn't count on the wet sand under the tarp being ice cold.)

Cold or not, Tayne went in anyway. Look how happy he is!

A little more soccer to dry off and warm up!
Springing forward may have cut an hour out of our weekend, but the nice weather let us have enough fun to make up for lost time...

It takes two to make a thing go right...

2008-03-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

Easter is coming up fast, so I've been trying to find some cute matching outfits for the kids to wear, but tonight I realized no matter what I dress them in, they really couldn't be much cuter together than they already are. (Even when they aren't thrilled by the fact I'm interrupting by snapping photos, they make an adorable pair).
They love to monkey around together (here they are playing with and chatting about stuffed monkeys and their Pokemon equivalent Chimchar)
And share each others interests (Pallas gets a lesson in high finance -she has to learn her numbers so she can count her moolah!)
Their relationship is not one sided - she wants to do what he's doing almost as much as he wants her to join in - and even when she's in last place (with a score of double zero) she's almost always ready for the next round.

When I see them together and I think about what the future holds for them, I'm reminded of a quote by Barbara Alpert -“She is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best, and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. She is your teacher, your defense attorney, your personal press agent, even your shrink. Some days, she's the reason you wish you were an only child.”

But tonight they are just hanging out - sharing their private jokes, trying to be quiet enough that I will forget its time for baths and their own beds, being happy and inseparable -when it comes to being kind to your sister , Tayne knows all the tricks. So even if Easter is coming early this year, and the coordinating outfits don't survive the perils of grass stains and/or carrot drool, I don't think it will be a problem for anyone to recognize these two as brother and sister.

24 Carrots Baby!

2008-02-28T10:21:00.000-08:00

Pallas has been trying baby foods for a few weeks now and she seems to be happy with this new development. It’s been a new experience for me too since I decided to make baby food for her instead of buying all those jars . I’ve armed myself with some new supplies (believe it or not, I actually didn’t have any ice cube trays to freeze the food in. I guess they aren’t big sellers either because when I went to Wal-Mart to buy them I had to ask where to find them, and when we did find them they were covered in a layer of dust), and I was pleased to discover that it’s really not much of a hassle to fix the food for a baby - they like things like overcooked carrots and potatoes or a boiled or baked apples and pears -so it pretty well suits my cooking style of starting the pot, then promptly forgetting about it until someone walks into the kitchen and says, "Hey - what’s this cooking?" And because they like things soft and runny at first, my blender is seeing the most action it’s had since last Cinco De Mayo (Banana Colada anyone?)
I am a little disturbed however about the fact I seem to be obsessed with checking the recipes before working with each new single flavor food - after all there’s no seasoning involved and pretty much every recipe reads the same (wash, cut, boil or steam 8-10 minutes, puree…) but I keep checking my book anyway - I’ve even checked the internet for second opinions, to make sure I’m using the best recipe I guess, but after finding this applesauce recipe for slightly older babies -
Best Baby Applesauce
· One sweet apple, such as a Red Delicious or a Gala apple
· Heaping cup of Mother love
METHOD
Peel one half of a fresh apple. Hold the apple in your hand on the unpeeled side. Scrape the peeled side of the apple slowly with a spoon. This will puree the apple. Feed spoonfuls to the baby.
Babies eat slowly. By the time the first spoonful has been swallowed, you will have more ready. You are now in the same time zone with the child.
Relax and enjoy this moment with the baby.
I think I’ll just stick with the book.

And Tayne, well as you can see, he isn’t taking all this as well as Pallas - but we have reached a compromise. He’s agreed to try new foods that aren’t yucky - I for one can’t wait to discover what will meet that qualification.

Almost March Madness

2008-02-26T07:37:00.000-08:00

Its almost March, and that means something important is coming up soon here in Texas. Something that has our family eager to participate and energized in a way that makes the senders of promotional mailings proud of their work. Sorry Hillary and Barack, I’m not talking about the Texas primary - I’m talking about the 20th Anniversary season of Sea World Texas.
Personally, I can’t believe it’s been 20 years - I don’t like to think about it too much, because then I have to reconcile my age with memories of going to the park when it first opened here in Texas, and I clearly have memories of being a teenager instead of being the 7 or 8 years old the age I currently like to consider myself would require me to have been at the time…er, uh -enough about me! It's about the kids...
Since the day the flyer came in the mail Tayne has been planning - Swimsuits have been tried on, the official park season calendar consulted, and the official Sea World Texas website mysteriously added to my homepage tabs. Not to mention the frequent reminders to, "Buy season passes today!" -the price of which, a mere $219 plus tax for 4 when purchased on the website, Tayne felt was a little steep until he realized that each person only had to come up with $55 (an amount right around what he has saved up in the bank) - after this in addition to the frequent calls to "buy now, so we don’t miss a minute of the fun!" (Never mind the fact that he specifically refused to consider any of those minutes that the park is open the entire month of March because the Lost Lagoon water park doesn’t open until April- it seems he’s discovered arguments provided by advertisers can be a strong ally when making your case to the unconvinced ) came the questions, -Do you have $55 dollars saved? Do you think Grandma Dee has $55 dollars? Do you think that’s a lot of money? Does Sea World like a lot of money?… So, when Grandma Dee called last night to say she was buying the tickets (online no less!) Tayne had a new hero!
So get ready whales, and photo department at Wal-Mart, we’re coming back to San Antonio - and this year Pallas is ready for the fun!

What goes on in a week that we don't speak about...

2008-02-21T06:09:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick review of some of the things I didn't get around to blogging about this week -

*Went out to see if I could snap a photo of some of the birds who come to our feeder and instead I found this -
-Not exactly a ninja are you there squirrel.

*Helped to finish off these -
Why yes, it is a significantly larger than normal box of chocolates, but there is much love in our home when it can be expressed by chocolate. Besides, it was 50% off on Saturday after Valentine’s - sadly not 50% off calories.

*Remembered I planted this about two weeks ago -
What is it, you say? Why it's a gooseberry bush! They aren't supposed to do well here in the heat, but he's tucked away somewhere that get's afternoon shade so we'll just see how he does come summer. The soil seems to agree with him so far -am I a great gardener or what!?!

*Cooked and ate some of these - Rutabags of course- don't feel bad if you didn't get it, I'd never had one either. But apparently babies are supposed to love the taste of them. To me they tasted like a potato with a slight cabbage taste (Troy said potato and squash, but he doesn't eat a lot of vegetables, and I've never once seen him eat squash since we've been together, so I'm not sure what he's basing that on.)The guy at the checkout didn't know what they were either - when he asked me if they were turnips, I said no, they were rutabagas, so he saved them until the last thing to scan - looked it up on the little code chart they had - typed it in super fast and hit total even faster (yep, he counted them as turnips). -Why ask if you aren't going to believe me???

*And started work on these -I'm crocheting crazy chickens/birds for Easter. They cover a large plastic egg, and are just super cute. The second from the left is the original that I'm basing them off of. I'll show them off again when I finish them.

See, this is the type of stuff going on when I say, "I've been busy." Now, the kids are up so I've really got to go. Today is Thursday, those are always pretty busy...

Nintendo has done it again

2008-02-17T07:18:00.001-08:00

Yes, Nintendo has done it again - Tayne is now convinced that Pallas needs a Nintendo DS and that he will save his own money to buy her one. I can’t image where he got the idea he could save $129.95 on his non-existent income, perhaps it’s from playing these Nintendo games full of characters running around collecting gold coins from sewers, clouds, oceans, etc. as a means of getting rich. Needless to say, such a noble goal deserves a little help, so we’ve decided to start giving him an allowance -sort of. I guess you could consider it more tipping, than a salary or allowance, because he really doesn’t have a choice whether or not to complete whatever we are asking him to do - the tasks/chores are not optional -but we decided to offer him payment for excellence or hassle free completion (doing the task independently without constant reminders, or having a good attitude and/or prompt attention to the given task when asked to complete it). Hopefully it will teach him a few things like: 1) to recognize the difference between quality work and just completed work. 2)Even if you aren’t that into a task faking a good attitude and just getting it done and over with takes a lot less time and is more rewarding than complaining endlessly about the injustice and being forced to eventually complete it anyway. 3) Even when the pay is small, if you work hard for enough of it things start to add up. And believe me the pay is pretty small - we’ve talked him into accepting 50 cents per task (quite a fine negotiation down from the initial figure of $10 per task he felt his services were worth) that we deem payable (obviously we aren’t going to pay him to do everything) - and bottom line - he has the potential to earn about $15 a week. Another requirement we’ve placed on him is savings. So we don’t have to lug around endless supplies of quarters we’ve agreed to cash him out once a week and he is required to put at least 1 / 2 in the bank to save for long term projects - the only problem he could see with this arrangement was that he didn’t have a bank account, so Saturday it was off to the credit union to open a new account! He had a great time setting up his account. As Troy filled out the paperwork Tayne supplied the information such as birthday, address, phone number, and any time Troy came to a space that he could leave blank or skip Tayne would insist (much to the amusement of the bank officer), "Just draw a line through it!" -gee, it’s nice to know he’s learned something from doing the written portion of his school work (sigh!). Even though he had to leave his money in the bank, he came out of there pretty well off - not only did he get the receipt for his deposit (very important for his home bookkeeping as he is keeping a running total of cash in bank and cash on hand while saving for his goal) he got a free t-shirt as well. I was a little miffed about that because I’ve been banking at the same place for over 7 years and they’ve never offered me a free t-shirt, come to think of it I don’t even think my first box of checks were free. I wonder why these mini-customers get all the perks- not just the free t-shirts, they have huge bowls of suckers everywhere in there - it’s like little piles of rainbows at the teller windows and the tables where you fill out deposit slips -the kids don’t even have to ask for one,they are just there for the taking. Meanwhile,here I am stuck using a pen that’s attached to the counter with a chain. I guess adults are supposed to find fiscal solvency fun in itself. - Yay!?!

On a totally unrelated note - it occured to me that I don't think I ever took any pictures of Pallas' butterfly crib bumper after I finished it. Just Chillin' in her crib...
If you squint maybe you can see her in there!

My funny Val & Tayne

2008-02-14T06:20:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine’s Day - When Tayne was little we used to call it Val & Tayne’s Day, but now that has to work on spelling and grammar every day he doesn’t think that’s cute, and he tells us we are incorrect, which I don’t think is cute, so we are back to the more traditional spelling and pronunciation.Most of the surprises were given last night - both Troy and Tayne bought me flowers -Troy bought a dozen roses for me (well, there were 11 the same shape and color and one mismatched one stuck in the back and off to the side that when commented on was hastily deemed representative of the uniqueness of our love, or possibly meant for Pallas - I think someone just screwed up making the arrangements (I'm more of a cynic than a romantic -which is probably why I don't get flowers all that often), but a rose is a rose I guess...) Tayne is a guy after my own heart - whenever he picks out the flowers he always brings me something that looks like a sad little bundle of weeds - I’m always surprised the flowers he brings home are even for sale - but I really kind of enjoy them because secretly dandelions are my favorite flowers - they are so cheery and you can’t just get them at a store - it’s really the effort I enjoy more than the flowers & Tayne always seems to find a way to combine the two (effort and sad flowers) in a way only a mother could love; seriously though if he ever brings flowers to a girl I think it would be a deal breaker…
There were also treats to be made - Tayne picked out some peel and bake cookies from the store where he got the flowers, so we made those up before bedtime. They didn’t turn out so stellar, they looked about the same uncooked as they did when cooked (although less floppy) and they tasted heavily of the excess red dye pumped into them - but it was a fun activity with the kids.
I did discover something puzzling though - the tray on the highchair is as big as a cookie sheet. Why? Why does and infant or even a toddler need that much space for food? Their food comes in tiny jars, and the store is full of toddler size food accessories that are tiny and therefore somehow more appealing and friendly then my full sized dinnerware and utensils… but that’s a rant for another day - The kids are up, and I’m sure we’ve got plans, hopefully we can all survive the love!

Cameras and Kids

2008-02-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

Exciting day all around! I finally have a new camera -which explains the close up flower photo (testing out the macro function in outdoor light)-Granted, I don't really know what I'm doing,and I therefore I'm not sure if this shot is impressive or not, but even if you aren't impressed with the photo, you can marvel at the fact that I have blooming hibiscus in early Feburary -I'm probably even less talented at and knowledgable about gardening than photography, so I was pretty pleased with both the subject of the photo and the outcome of my camera work.
The camera actually arrived last night (after riding around all day on the UPS truck leaving around 4:18 am - thank you online tracking info -from the depot literally right across the highway from our house, extra annoying to me because it was supposed to be here last Friday BEFORE Tayne's birthday (didn't happen - lazy UPS!) and they don't deliver on the weekends...so much ranting, but I'll let it go, because at least it's here now) but by the time the battery charged up - no one was in the mood to help me test out action shots. (This in fact is probably the most opposite of action you can get)

-at least it takes good shots with indoor lighting at night....

Morning wasn't much better - it seems I have a family of slow risers Rest up kids, no really, I'm sure your day is going to get tougher...

And it did by the way - today was Dr. appointments all around, and *BONUS* everybody needed at least one shot! (No, I didn't photograph the saddness) Turns out everyone is healthy - Pallas is up to 15 pounds and 25 inches long. ~ It won't be long until she can try solid food!

(I wonder if they make a waterproof case for my camera...)

7 is the new 30

2008-02-09T05:54:00.000-08:00

Today is Tayne’s birthday! He’s turning 7. There’s no cake today – because we had a party last weekend with his cousin and did all that stuff (the singing, the cake, the candles…) he didn’t want to do it again (a direct quote from when we tried to talk him into picking out a cake yesterday – “Didn’t we already do that?”) What?!? Who refuses a reason for cake, especially when you get to pick it out? I guess it’s a good thing I never got around to setting up a local party and inviting people over, and when did 7 become the new 30? We talked him into birthday doughnuts at least (he didn’t want the candles, but I couldn’t resist!) – Anyway, here's a few picts from the "other" party...

Dino cakes (the fearsomeness was somehow not translated in the decorating process, instead of fighting, the are just sort of waving hello to each other.
Here's what we did already.
Can you see the crazy fun?
here they are with Uncle Scott (YOu can see Pallas' hair is about the same color as Tayne's)
Posing with Aunt Tammy - hum, maybe I should stop saying I don't know where Tayne's red hair comes from...

The Singer and the Song, Oh -and the Symphony...

2008-02-05T03:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, that is a picture of Air Supply, the band who’s been making love out of nothing at all since the mid-70’s, that Pallas is holding and shamelessly drooling over. She was too young to go to the concert in Austin this past weekend, so she had to settle for a souvenir photo. I’m sure the die-hard fan her great aunt Tammy will be so pleased. The concert was very interesting to say the least – I suppose see how it was a symphony pops concert, I was expecting something a little more subdued and utilizing the orchestra than the show they put on (which consisted of the band crammed onstage in front of the orchestra with about a 3-4 foot wide path for the two leads Graham and Russell to pace back and forth while singing/connecting with the audience (ie -Who's my special lady? -why yes, it is you - smile/wink!) while performing a show that was pretty much I gather, like their normal set complete with mood lighting, wardrobe changes, forays into the audience, etc…) but all in all it was a fun show, although I don’t think they’ll be invited back to play with the Austin symphony again anytime soon (did I mention that near the end of the show they invited the audience to “move closer” –ie rush the stage (and people did by the way, much to the horror of the little old ladies ushering for the symphony, who to their credit did their best to at least keep the fans off the steps to the stage while apologizing to symphony season ticket holders about how somewhere they seem to have lost control of both the crowd and the artists –ha ha ha.)) The music was pretty good though, Russell has a wonderful voice and a presence that makes you either love him or grudgingly like him/loath yourself for it – I really don’t think you could dislike the man if you met him in person; and Graham is fun to watch because you can tell he’s very passionate about his music (he really tries to sell the notion that it is rock, not just fluffy soft rock, the way he jumps up and down and plays those guitars of his – if you need a mental picture think air guitar competition). They performed lots of their songs that people know, I like to joke that my favorite one was the one about love (funny, because it’s pretty much all they sing about and it’s somewhere in the title of most of them; “All out of love,” “Lost in Love,” “Making love out of nothing at all,” “The one that you love,” “Faith in Love” – well, you get the idea) and there were times they wanted the audience to sing along – I did not – my policy when it comes to audience participation at concerts has always been, “Hey band, stop being lazy and sing your own songs,” after all, that’s what we paid for, and since they are the professionals we are just going to sound horrid when you start singing with us again –but then again maybe that’s the point they are trying to get across – either way, the fans in the crowd seemed to love it. I don’t know, maybe I’m just jaded, being about three months out from a reminder of what all that “love” gets a woman while the men can just keep on rockin’/singin’ about it to be a super fan of this group, but the concert was fun & annoyingly now I may have to go see a regular show by these guys to see what they could possibly do if this was their idea of what to do at a symphony pops show. To their credit, live they did seem more edgy than their CD's portray them - hum, maybe I need better speakers or a bass boost or something …So when are they playing in Vegas???

Life in the slow lane

2008-01-25T20:38:00.000-08:00

Maybe it’s just the wet and wintery weather this week, maybe it’s the wind down from the whirlwind of the holidays, but today seemed incredibly slow and boring for a Friday. Don’t get me wrong, spending time with the kids is great & Pallas is getting really interesting with all the new things she’s trying out, but from an adult standpoint, I’m starting to think I should get out more -

Here are some highlights from my day this Friday:

*I spent 20 minutes in the grocery store deciding which type of bird food to put in the outdoor feeder (they burn through about 5lbs. Per week!) and finally decided to buy several bags and mix my own special blend. (In case you’re wondering I settled on pet grade parakeet feed, since we have 6 or 7 wild parakeets out there daily - and it was basically the same as the deluxe songbird food, but with more dried fruits and veggies -I figured they could use a winter treat - and to that I mixed in the black sunflower seeds that all birds seem to enjoy). - I don’t even like birds that much, and here I am mixing my own bird food blend??? How did this happen!?!

*I checked my email - the 2 most interesting things there?- someone sent me the following list (I have no idea why)
57 Things to Do with Socks -

1. roll and toss into drawers

2. Make a puppet

3. have a sock fight

4. put on hand and dust things

5. fill with beans, tie and play catch

6. pretend it is a baby, cat, dog, etc.

7. make dirty with a range of items (dirt, jelly, etc)

8. Wash it

9. make holes in it

10. draw on it

11. put bows on it

12. play catch

13. play football

14. stuff it with different materials and then walk on them

15. build with them

16. do an assembly line of passing them along

17. hang them on trees

18. hang them on drawings as part of the pictures

19. throw them into pools

20. throw them into different piles of dirt

21. go on a treasure hunt for them

22. put them on your hands and then eat

23. make hats out of them

24. Play catch with a sock ball.

25. paint them

26. make a sock rope by tying them together and then tug a war

27. cover them with peanut butter and seeds and hang them on treesas bird feeders

28. use them as shovels when they are on your hands

29. make a tail out of socks

30. Put socks on stuffed animals feet.

31. Buy socks with characters on them and create a sock story.

32. Make a sock book of colors

33. Make a sock dress for a doll

34. make sock ornaments for next years Christmas tree

35. try to put little socks on big feet

36. make a wind-sock

37. wear daddy's socks on little feet
38.cut off the toes and make "sleeves" and play "long sleeve/shortsleeve"
39.fill them up with stuff and play "how many ________'s fit intothis sock" compare things like ping pong balls, tennis balls, marbles,etc.
40.fill them with ice cubes and use for when the kids get hurt as aBOO Buddy.
41.tie a string to them to make a "nose warmer" for cold weather
42.tie them on your head with string--for bunny/dog ears
43.fill them up with different spices--for sachets or just for smelling
44.hide things in them---ala "mystery box"--feel them without looking, and guess what's inside
45.fill up a sock with another sock that is rubbed in menthol ruband give to a family member who has a cold--wear around neck withattached string
46.sock quilt
47.darn sock holes
48.fill them with different liquids to see how fast they drip thru
49.Take tiny baby socks, stuffed them with cat nip, and sew them shut. Give them to all the family pets.
50.Ball them up and have a snow ball fight.
51.Hide smelly things in them and guess what is inside withoutlooking.
52 Hide things with texture inside and guess by feel.

53. wear on wrong body parts

54. Bowling with sock balls

55. Hackey Sack sock ball
56.see how many socks you can put on one foot
57.put them on and slide across the floor

AND This:

Auntie Anne's® celebrates its 20th Birthday with Free Pretzel Day -- February 2nd!
Auntie Anne's is turning 20! To kick-off its 20th birthday celebration, Auntie Anne's is hosting a Free Pretzel Day on February 2nd at stores nationwide! Stop by your local Auntie Anne's on February 2nd between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to try one complimentary Original or Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel -- no strings attached. That's right; enjoy a free delicious, mouth-watering, freshly baked Auntie Anne's Pretzel.

-Granted, this one is actually exciting (I love giant soft pretzels, and I love free!), but the part that concerns me is that I had no idea there was and Auntie Anne’s in our mall - it’s been that long since I’ve been to the mall and looked anywhere but the Build-A-Bear or any store with escalators.

Maybe I need to check out what movies are playing and go have an adult moment, if only I could trust myself not to fall asleep sitting someplace dark for over an hour! -I wonder, is this why old people don't like to go to the movies?

Psst! Hey Tammy...

She's on a roll!

2008-01-23T10:03:00.000-08:00

Big exciting day for Pallas - she discovered how to roll from her back to her tummy around 4:30am this morning, and she's been trying out her new trick ever since. Unfortunately, she can't go back the other way yet,so she requires frequent rescues. Its kind of good that she can't roll the other way yet or I'm sure she'd be across the room in a flash, and I'm not sure I'm ready for that - Guess I'd better finish baby proofing the house...

Why Nintendo DS and Babies are awesome...

2008-01-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

Granted, when my Christmas present from Tayne and Troy was my very own Nintendo DS, a companion to Tayne's DS, I was skeptical about how much fun I would actually have spending seemingly endless amounts of time pictochatting with Tayne, but it has turned out to be an interesting view into what a 6 year old is thinking versus what he's saying/adults are hearing. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but seeing those words in print can sometimes change everything. For example, today we found out that Pallas doesn't have a pacifier - its a "pass of fire". How much cooler is that? No wonder he thinks babies can't be defeated!

Even when she's asleep - Beware! She's sucking on a pass of fire! - Very brave and indestructable indeed...

A Material Girl

2008-01-17T15:54:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to see that raising girls (and understanding their priorities) is a bit different from boys...
Like for instance, how does a 3 month old become bored with all her toys? Bored! I mean, she hasn't even been able to grasp the stuff or even hit it when she swings for more than a month -tops, and what does the future hold if she's that fickle already? For lack of a better fall guy I'm going to blame my infant toy troubles on the new YMCA - darn you and your new high quality facilities!!! Since my first tour I thought I would love our new YMCA, so clean and modern - such fabulous child care facilities, but now that I actually take my 3 month old there - I’m not so sure… Ok, I realize that being around all those other snotty little under 3’s, Pallas is bound to pick up a cold or two (and she’s sick right now as a matter of fact), but what I did not realize is that she would love their fabulous decor -and consequently start to become disillusioned with ours.

Alseep and dreaming of better stuff, sadly this one doesn't quite capture her recently aquired contempt and loathing for the current collection of toys. I knew she was becoming a bit bored with our current setup here recently, but it wasn’t until we were shopping today and we stopped to look at a Fisher Price Rainforest themed booster seat (a little pre-mature granted, but I have to plan ahead for these things) and she was nothing but grins and giggles. Huh! That’s when it struck me, they have the whole baby area over at the YMCA done in Fisher Price Rainforest themed stuff, and apparently that is now what Pallas prefers. Granted, our stuff is a lot more "swamp" than rainforest; we have bugs instead of parrots, and harmless green frogs with big goofy eyes instead of poisonous tree frogs pretending to be harmless and cute (seriously Fisher Price, who decided that would be a good animal for babies to love -one lick on a real tree frog and, well… Ack! Thump! Dead! -then where’s your customer base?!?). When we got home I decided we would try to appease her with the still- to-big-for- her tropical bouncer with its many rainforest like animals. Since it seemed similar enough to what we saw in the store I thought it might be passable enough to fool a 3 month old.

Fisher Price toy we looked at today -
Our "tropics version" -

-WAIT! Is that a gator!?!

I think she's skeptical, but hopefully she'll be willing to humor us by playing with this "off brand" alternative.
If nothing else at least Tayne thinks its cool. Ah, here he's thinking, "So much in love with shiny new toys, why? -This stuff still looks pretty good to me..."
Oh well, I guess I'm just going to have to get used to the idea that they are going to be very different from each other, and the fact that mothers learn something new every day...

Moon Sand...

2008-01-10T21:50:00.000-08:00

Moon Sand -The Sand that Tayne loves to shill for!
Normally, Tayne's gushing commentaries about the many merits of Moon Sand
fall on deaf ears, but today Target slashed the price of Christmas castoffs
(down to 75% off normal prices). - Needless to say, we took the afternoon to test their
claims.
Product purchased : Glitter! Moon Sand
colors in kit :
· glitter green (which is more of a teal)
· sparkling silver (ummm, I really don't know why they would choose to call something ‘silver’ when it’s glaringly obvious that it is not silver -the glitter used in all three colors of Moon Sand included in this set is silver colored - if they’d had thought this through they might have been able to call it pewter, but I’m gonna have to say it’s just gray)
· purple twinkle (no comment on this one - purple twinkle is pretty much on the mark)

What is Moon Sand, is it safe?
From the Company website -"Moon Sand is produced in Sweden out of carefully selected raw materials. Moon Sand is absolutely NON-TOXIC. All of the ingredients are inert and cannot be absorbed by the body. It is Gluten Free and Allergy Free." [The first thing to comment on is how glad I am that this stuff does NOT have a weird smell - it doesn’t smell like tempera paint, or play-do, or weird semi-toxic plastic stuff, it’s just "IKEA fresh"; basically what you’d expect something from Sweden designed for kids to play with to smell like. From a science standpoint, this stuff is pretty interesting - it's a super fine particulate material (made of sand or other sand-like materials) which is coated with a binder of synthetic rubber and a polymer so that it can feel dry but stick together with pressure, if you really are interested in the science here's a link to the description of Moon Sand from the European Patent Database http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=2006101440&IA=WO2006101440&DISPLAY=DESC

Where is the best area to play with Moon Sand?
From the Company website -"Playing with Moon Sand on a carpeted area is ideal as it makes for an easier clean up by use of a vacuum as opposed to sweeping. Sand that is on hard wood flooring can make the surface slippery." [Does this not give you a huge clue that if your kids are the slightest bit messy that this should not be an indoor activity? - They actually want you to play with it over carpet so that when sand does drop 1.You won’t realize how much sand is getting away from just brushing off your hands between molding things (yeah, glitter probably wasn’t the best thing to add to your product if you didn’t want that secret out…) and 2. Hopefully you’ve purchased a color of Moon Sand that is complimentary to your carpet, because it’s probably got just as much of a chance of working itself down into the fibers as it has being completely vacuumed up. ]

Can Moon Sand get wet?
From the Company website -"Moon Sand repels water, and can actually float! This enables the artist to incorporate water into their sculpture without any damage. Use water in any creative way you want like creating a moat around your castle creations." [When we tested our Moon Sand in water - if it was clumped together at all it seemed to favor sinking rather than floating - maybe they mean in salt water? Or perhaps ‘Moon’ water? Either way - sink or float - it did repel water and return to it’s original state when taken out of the water and squished around a bit. -Pretty cool...]

Check out my Moon Sand castle! -You can see the glitter, and how the separate colors are doomed to slowly mix and mingle until they become a single unattractive shade...

Here Tayne is planning his own castle, he’s thinking -"Which should I do- Squish it? Shape it? Mold it? -that’s pretty much all the options from the ad-copy on the box right???"

What is the life span of Moon Sand?
From the Company website -"The life span of Moon Sand is endless under proper care." [What they really mean is individual grains of Moon Sand will be part of your home forever, as for playable quantities of Moon Sand - those will need to be added to on a regular basis because much Moon Sand will escape with each play session]

I know (because Tayne is fond of telling me) their motto is "Moon Sand never dries out!" but I think they should have gone with something more accurate like, "Moon Sand, the fun never goes away!" Alas, Moon Sand is messy, but so is real sand - and actually, with the fine texture Moon Sand, playing with it indoors is a lot less of a mess than Tayne walking though the house after playing in the outside sandbox . Plus, Tayne loves it , and as the castle test shows - a play-do castle just doesn’t cut it when you are missing the beach and want to perfect your mad sand sculpting skills before summer. So I have to give Moon Sand a thumbs up for indoor beach simulation, but next time I think we’ll skip the glitter…

Sea World Texas

2008-01-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

Ugh! Stupid computer just won't work for me today, so these probably aren't in the best order, but here are some pictures from last year (December) when the days were sunny and the water was salty (and cold - what do you expect, it was December...)

Happy faces testing the camera batteries (always important) before we head out for some fun.

Here Tayne is showing us how to use the park maps to maximize our days of fun. (And plot a route that doubled back past his favorite attractions multipule times)

We rode the rides,

Tayne and Troy climbed around and got a view of the park (Tayne's in that net somewhere, just squint and you might see him)

came down long enough to consult the mapand left Pallas to her snoozing in the sun.
We checked out the animals
animals
see ya later, alligator (that joke never gets old when you have a photo!)and more animals!
Sea World really takes the energy right out of a person!

But it was an excellent end to 2007!

Christmas Continues -Anglesey Style!

2007-12-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

The holiday cheer continues this week - and as always we seem to be having more than our share of fun.

Tayne was excited
and Pallas too,
about seeing their cousins Lindsey and Megan (and of course Uncle Scott)!
There was lots to catch up on and chat about - so naturally the Nintendo DS set was called into play...
Lindsey and Megan had fun pictochatting (sending each other little drawings and scribbles) with the help of their Mom (Aunt Jen) and Dad (Uncle Scott).
Tayne even managed to join in the chat from time to time,
Meanwhile, Pallas was content to get some girl time with Aunt Jen and counsins Lindsey and Megan - there was lots of girl power over on that side of the couch!
After the day of fun, we were all pretty much feeling as tuckered out as Pallas, but we were glad to get the chance to see everyone for the holidays and have a chance to play.
Play-do, Nintendo, and Dinosaurs - hooray! It couldn't have been a more wonderful day!

A Merry Christmas Day!

2007-12-25T15:59:00.000-08:00

A Merry Christmas to All!
Well Christmas at Grandma Sharon & Grandpa Dan's is winding down - time goes too fast on visits, and this one was no exception. The kids had an especially fun time - Tayne got to help with some baking & decorating and Pallas got a lot of lap time with Grandma.
This year Tayne got to hand out the presents - it's funny how many with his name ended up getting handed out first (wink,wink)
but Pallas managed to get a few things
and I think Grandma and Grandpa win "best gift" according to Tayne and his new Baby Alive - she's toted as "the baby so real" so here's a side by side comparison - Which one is Pallas? Which one is Baby Alive? And can you tell Tayne loves them both?

Everyone had a wonderful time (ok, Pallas looks a little annoyed in this one, but 4/5 are smiling and majority rules)And after a while, even Pallas found something fun to do (crinkle, crinkle!)
SO it's been a very Merry Christmas with all the hospitality at Grandma Sharon's and Grandpa Dan's, we love and thank them for sharing the Holiday
-both putting us up and putting up with us!

2 month check-up

2007-12-18T23:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Pallas' 2 month check-up.
Her current stats :
Weight: 13 lbs, 6 oz (95%)
Length: 24 inches (95% -and no, length does not include mohawk height)
Head: 38cm (25% - I know, the 25% seemed troubling to me too, until I found out that 38cm is 25%, but 39cm is 50% and 40cm is 75% so I guess if it's not bothering the Dr. and she's doing fine we'll just accept it and buy small hats ;) )

She seems to be doing well developmentally (not that 2 month old babies do that much anyway) and she's pretty healthy (of course now I say that she'll probably get some kind of cold or sickness over night) and happy.

I can't wait for her first Christmas!

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...

2007-12-17T04:27:00.000-08:00

Well,still no camera - it turns out Christmas is a difficult time to actually buy a camera - it seems the ones I like are pretty popular because every store I tried to buy one in was sold out of what I wanted. I'm sad to say I did fall for a poor recommendation from a sales guy and bought and tested a Samsung L730 - that was a horrible camera, so it went back the next morning. I guess that will teach me to wait and buy what I really want next time, hopefully I can find it before Christmas.
The exciting news this weekend - Tayne finally decide it was time to buy a bicycle! It's probably a bit small for him, but we wanted something that he could easily get on and off and manage at least while he's learning to ride (hopefully that will minimize the falls) & he really seems to like it so far - sometimes it's a bit of scramble to grab Pallas and my stuff before he gets the bike out of the house for a ride, but I love all the exercise I'm getting walking around with him while he rides. Oh, and by the way -he looks so adorable riding it!! And, it's small enough that we can bring it to the Grandma's houses for Christmas so he can ride there as well, so we'll have some confirmation of that opinion soon. It would have been a Christmas gift, but he decided rather spur of the moment that he would like a bike, and since it's taken us forever to get him to even consider it we decided we had to induldge him a little so he wouldn't lose enthusiasm for trying it between now and Christmas. It made for a few surreal moments this weekend though - The four of us making our way through around the block, Tayne riding his little red bike, Troy and I walking along either carrying the baby or pushing the stroller - I see families doing this all the time & think they are so cute, but I never really pictured us doing that, so to actually be that family was a little strange. I guess now there's 4 of us I'm going to have get used to the idea of us as a little family doing family things instead of us just doing things and bringing Tayne along or us going along with what Tayne wanted to to do. -Norman Rockwell, eat your heart out!

Christmas is coming!

2007-12-14T04:33:00.000-08:00

No fancy picture today - sadly it seems our camera is suffering from some sort of lens error -personally I thought is was bad timing on the camera's part because it's the perfect time of year to be replaced, but Troy and Tayne love it, so I think we are going to see if it can be repaired. -I'll probably buy myself a less fancy camera just so I can take pictures, I've been wanting one anyway & I finally found one I'm happy with the shot-to-shot recovery time, and that is so simple looking on the outside that Tayne really doesn't want much to do with it ( When we were looking at the cameras in the store and I tried show it to him for testing and his opinion he took one look at it and actually seemed insulted I would try to get him to use such an unimpressive camera. So since I'm looking for one I don't have to share I think I found a winner -Merry almost Christmas to me!) Speaking of almost Christmas, I can't believe it's only 11 days until the day! I know it, would have been cooler to point out 12 days to CHristmas, and really I meant to write this yesterday when it was 12, but Pallas was a little fussy last night and by the time Tayne went to sleep & she settled down my momentum had all been used up. Last weekend I thought I was doing pretty good managing all the holiday stuff, but now I'm starting to see I may be a little behind...it't interesting how much extra time I have to alot for another kid - I didn't think having two would be much different, and I've been pretty good at organizing all the standard baby tasks (things like extra laundry, organizing diapers and bottles, etc.) into my routine without adding much to my regular work, but I guess I hadn't accounted for the tag team effect - where one kid desperately needs help with something, then when you think you have that one squared away for a while and you think can get back to what you were doing, the other one desperately needs something after which the first kid has finished whatever and now needs your attention for something else. It's not been overwhelming or anything, but it certainly gives me a fresh appreciation for how much everyone else with two or more kids actually accomplishes by any sort of deadline. (Translation, if I'm mailing you something this Christmas, feel free to be impressed if it makes it there on time!) Well, I guess that's enough of an update and rambling for now - I'd better go work on our Christmas cards while the house is still quiet. By the way, I love the ones we've recieved so far - especially the one with pictures! It seems like all the kids I know are growing up so fast & turning out so cute!

What should the weather be like for an accurate recreation?

2007-12-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

Last night we took the kids to the drive through Bethlehem City a local church puts on every year - it's a pretty fun to see they have a little village set up with merchant stalls, a tax collectors office, the inn with live animals outback (they have the most gorgeous donkeys every year) and the manger area all in about a 200ft stretch and they direct traffic around either side. It was around 8pm at night but it was still unbelievably hot and muggy, but the people of the city didn't seem to mind much - they were probably enjoying it because those costumes didn't look very warm (which is probably why most Christmas pagents are held inside). On the drive home I got to thinking about last year when we went to the same event and the weather was really cold and rainy; the actors looked pretty gloomy that year, and I'm pretty sure the manger area had a space heater...naturally, my thoughts turned to wondering what the weather is like in the real Bethlehem (West Bank) this time of year, and since my bringing up probably makes you wonder too - turns out for next week at least, it's highs in the 60's lows in the 40's - So there's your little tidbit for the week to keep that holiday spirit up! Mine is getting there...

On the commercial side of stoking holiday spirit this week, I bought one of those little holiday balls from Jack In the Box - he's been busy making the rounds in our photos...
He does seem to add a festive touch - with that little string of lights wrapped around his head and tinsel in wrapped around his neck, it reminds me of how I looked putting up the outdoor Christmas lights.

Lucky for me there's no photos of that...

Highlights from a visit to Santa

2007-12-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year, although you wouldn't know it from the 80 degree weather. Tonight we headed out for a visit with Santa. Here are some photos (of course) and some higlights...

1. Tayne comes home from and outing with Troy & sees Pallas' outfit - "Oooh, Pallas you're dressed like a Parade!"

2.Tayne has to eat dinner before we go - the rest of us get to see "fast eating," which as far as I could tell was the same speed as any other eating, but with the addition of Tayne telling us, "I'm not ready to go, but this is fast eating."

3. We go to see Santa - Tayne, "Which one is Santa?" Troy, "He's the one sitting in the chair by the tree." Tayne (looking at a tray with like 100 cookies left on it and a family of 3 each taking one cookie), "Hey, those people are eating all my cookies." Val, "The cookies are for after Santa, get back in line."

4. We make it to see Santa - Tayne hugs Santa. Santa & kids pose for a picture. Santa to Tayne, "What do you want for Christmas?" Tayne, "Presents."

Ho,ho,ho!

Rollin' with my Homies..

2007-12-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

As you can see, it’s been a bit of a lazy day around the house for some of us. I’m at the tail end (I hope) of my cold or whatever it was – Unfortunately, last night I lost my voice which is super annoying since I can’t give any directions or get after anybody who is misbehaving (Tayne or Troy)- You really never notice how much you say in a day until you can’t speak. – No drive thru food, or pre-pay gas for us today, which was ok because I couldn’t holler at Tayne if he got away from me so I didn’t want to go on any extra outings. Phone issues weren’t too bad either; we don’t get many calls & with caller id and voice mail I could at least hear what I was missing, also with the wonder of cell phones I could just text if I really had to get a message across. I thought I had it pretty much all figured out … then 3pm rolled around and that school bus dropped off Tayne’s new best friend –the kid next door . Not only does he actually live right next door, he’s also the archetype kid next door – the one who’s always standing technically out of the road, but with that look that makes you afraid he’ll leap behind your car as you are backing out of the driveway, the one who when you see him outside he’s standing around not really doing anything wrong, but in a way that makes you peek out your window to see what he’s really doing when he doesn’t know you are watching (yep, still nothing much…) - basically he’s the one that makes you mutter, “stupid kid” or “I’m glad that’s not my kid” – normally not a bad thing in a neighborhood –who doesn’t begrudgingly accept a Dennis the Menace even if it’s just so you won’t remind yourself of that grumpy Mr. Wilson, but now it’s my kid standing right next to him and his ill conceived ideas – I know, wonderful huh, but that’s boys growing up for you, I guess. I can take it in stride, but it does require a change from my regular policy of preconceived notion and apathy about what goes on outside from 3:30 to 5pm to a more proactive one consisting of direct attention, covert surveillance, and the occasional addition of a “new rule” to stop incredibly stupid or potentially pain inducing behavior ( -ex “New Rule –We don’t throw sticks directly up in the air and look straight up while trying to catch them.”). As you can imagine, having no voice made this afternoon particularly exciting – luckily Pallas was sweet enough to sleep and not need too much, and Tayne was kind enough to come back to the porch when I waved him over for “new rules” (Today’s new rules??? - “We don’t cross the street or run around the neighborhood without shoes on. “ and “If you want to look at plants in other people’s yard, look at the plants at the vacant house that has been for sale for over a year, not the identical plants at the house where the guy is a landscaper and actually cares what his yard looks like…” –([unspoken] stupid kids! ) – Ugh! I hope I get my voice back soon!

The holidays with Val...

2007-12-04T05:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, I realized that there wasn't one picture of me on this whole picture filled thing! So here I am - the baby is looking away because Tayne had been flashing us with the camera and I didn't want her to get upset. Things here are going well, but busy - I had a bit of a cold the end of last week and over the weekend, but I'm on the mend now & luckily Pallas didn't get very sick -she was a little fussy, and I suspect she and Tayne are the ones who gave the cold to me, but they weren't too affected by it so I won't complain too much. Since I haven't done much this week and the picture is me this time, I thought I'd blog some little know holiday facts about me.

Tammy sent me this stupid chain email where you fill in the blanks and send it around to other people that you want to hate you, well in my delirious sickness I actually filled it in over the weekend -so I thought what better place to share it than here :

Welcome to the Holiday Season edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to you... 'Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I love going old school- Wrapping paper,and lots of scotch tape - my wrapped gifts are probably 35-40% tape,not counting the sticky stuff on the back of the multipule bows I slap on for good measure and to cover the tape that makes it to the top of the package where tape shouldn't be -all of which is why I usually use gift bags the rest of the year...
2. Real tree or artificial? I love real trees, that's one thing east Texas has going for it -love those pine trees, although Tayne won't let me plant one in our yard because he's scared of falling pinecones.For decorating, fake -low matinance,bug/sap free, and I can turn the decorative lights on throughout the season without having to deal with the irrational though it may be, fear of a dry tree catching fire from a warm light and sending CHristmas up in flames; as a compromise though, the bulk of my filler ornaments are pinecones (no pine scent though, it seems Tayne is not a fan of that either).
3. when do you put up the decorations? Tree- As our new tradition, weekend before Thanksgiving. Since we travel for the holidays, if it's not up before we leave on the Thanksgiving trip we can't do it until the weekend after we get back; which would be ok if the kids hadn't seen me put up Grandpa Terry's tree on Thanksgiving weekend and want to know why I don't want to put our tree up the minute we walk in our door late Sunday evening after driving 5 plus hours home and even though we still have to get everything from the car into the house and everything in the house ready for Monday ... so, instead of having to explain why I'm not the enemy of Christmas while unpacking from our trip, we put the tree up early. Lights and outdoor decorations wait until the first weekend in December.
4. When do you take the tree down? New Years Day- down with the tree, up with new calendars.
5. Do you like eggnog? Taste, no (blech!) but I like the idea of it, it's very seasonal/limited time only so it's one of those things you associate with the holidays whether or not you like or use it.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I've been racking my brain on this one, and nothing really sticks out, though I'm sure at the time whatever I asked for was deathly important...I think I'll leave it at that, because the only other thing that comes to mind is from a gift exchange party we had in high school -there was a $5 limit (yes, I know I'm dating myself -$5 went alot further back then...) and I ended up getting a Vanilla Ice cassette single of "Ice, Ice, Baby", one of those bags of Brachs peppermints from the grocery store, and a recipt showing he had spent the required $5 (actually it rang up to $4 and something, but he included the change in the bottom of the store bag it came "wrapped" in (if you call tying the top of the bag in a knot wrapping) -I know it seems like a bad gift, but I found the apathy and grudging participation in the mandatory gift exchange funny, and the best revenge was playing that stupid tape everytime my friend rode in my car-"All right stop collaborate and listen, Ice is back with my brand new invention, Something grabs a hold of me tightly,Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly Will it ever stop yo I don't know ..." (probably not)
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Hummm, uh isn't that the the whole point of the holiday? I'm always confused by those people who want to turn Christmas into something secular, I figure the jokes on them though; they may take away the symbols of the holiday, but the meaning of the season is everywhere and they can't help be affected by that.
8. Hardest person to buy for? MY husband, actually he's easy to buy for, but really hard to keep a gift hidden from - he swears he doesn't go looking for them, but I don't remember a Christmas when he didn't know what I was giving him before Dec. 25th...
9. Easiest person to buy for? Someone with a list. -PS none of you have given me a list...
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? I wouldn't say it was bad, probably more funny/horrifying at the time - one year when I was around 6 or 7 I got this doll that had makeup that you put on her and was supposed to wash off so you could put it on her again later, well the bright reddish orange lipstick stained her lips the first time I put it on and wouldn't wash off with anything - I was so disappointed that her face was ruined pretty much after the first time I played with her that I was really annoyed that whole day - also, to this day I'm leery of red lipstick...I guess that qualifies as a pretty bad gift.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? hummm, I didn't know email was an option, do people really do that?
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Does Dr. Suess' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (the 1968 cartoon,not that awful Jim Carry version) qualify as a movie? Well, I'm going to count it anyway.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? November.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Hard question to answer; I don't re-gift, and I never return presents to the store - I always feel like if someone went to the trouble of selecting a gift for me they either thought I'd like it, use it, or that my life in general would be better in some small way for being the owner of such an object, and I respect that - on the other hand, I'm not much of a packrat - if there's something in my house that I'm not using or planning on using it's probably going to get passed on to someone who could get more use out of it - local shelters and charities are great at connecting things with people who really need them.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Fruitcake.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? As colored and blinky as they come - I like my trees exciting.
17. Favorite Christmas song? "Feliz Navidad", although "Ice Ice Baby" is a close second...
18. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? Travel, travel and more travel- For me the ultimate excitement of the holidays isn't the opening of gifts or seeing loved ones, it's that last 10-15 min. of the drive home after being out of town for a week or two and the wondering just what you'll be coming home to - Did the house burn down? Were we robbed and the neighbors either didn't notice, didn't care, or were in on it? Will field mice yet again have made their way into the house, thereby necessitating a midnight run to the store for glue traps?...(as you can imagine the list of questions goes on - to think, as a child I never knew the holidays could be such a time of wonderment for adutls too!)
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? That's a dumb question, of course I know, I have kids - kids always quiz you on that stuff...that and Pokemon; personally I'm happy when December rolls around and there focus turns to learning everything they can from me about reindeer, instead of Pokemon which I know verry little about and would prefer to keep it that way.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One each on Christmas eve, usually something from the person who lives farthest away or who can't be with us -it gives us a chance to think about them, and it's a good tie in to the real 'reason for the season' (after all, wasn't Jesus the the first and best gift from someone who couldn't be here...) so Christmas Eve can have some balance between anticipating those gifts and Santa & remebering what Christmas means.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? That it's 80 degrees outside -peppermint just doesn't taste right in mild weather, and no matter how many "holiday" shakes fast food places come up with, they'll never convince me otherwise.
23. What I love most about Christmas? Assuming you me other than Jesus,it has to be the whole gifts/giving process - the anticipation of what you want, he surprize of getting something unexpected, the fun of buying something special for other people, the excitement on a child's face when they get something they really want,and the way you feel when you give to those who have a greater need for not just frivolus gifts, but basics like clothes,blankets,food, etc. - It's just a great time to remind yourself and involve kids in thanking/appreciating those people who work for or with you, expressing your feelings toward family and friends with thoughtful gestures, and realizing there are people all around you who need so little to be happy -it makes your thankful that whatever you have, you really have so much more than you actually need, and it reminds you no matter how insignificant a gift might be, to the right person it's the whole world.
24. Favorite Television Christmas show? A Charlie Brown Christmas - What's not to love!?! It's got dancing, a sad tree, Linus telling the Christmas story- all rolled into a mere 30min. with commercial breaks...That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown!

There, now you know more than you wanted to about me and the holidays, don't worry this weekend coming up has lots of holiday stuff going on, we'll be back to more cute stories and pictures of the kids, I promise... :)

Thanksgiving day

2007-11-25T23:58:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving travel was pretty enjoyable for all this year - here are some of the highlights of Pallas & Tayne's lessons learned from the road:

Waiting for a Thanksgiving dinner isn't nearly as hard as waiting for your sister to be old enough to warrant a kid's table.

It's easier to steal a snack if someone else distracts Grandma.

The Nintendo DS is not only a fun distraction; it can shield you from the paparazzi.

Shopping the post-thanksgiving sales early in the morning isn't so bad if you bring home something great like a cozy new blanket.

Listening to holiday music can give you all sorts of good ideas like "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree."

Baby sisters and their Dads need lots of sleep; travel is exhausting for some people.

It was a busy but wonderful holiday, I for one can't wait for what the rest of the holiday season has to bring!

Thanks a lot kids!

2007-11-19T05:19:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is almost here! With all the havoc of the impending holidays, I wanted to get together a blog about what I was thankful for; personally, I find it’s good to reflect on things like that before the stress and chaos of the holidays, travel, and general “family fun” make you question the sanity of your choices, long for solitude and sleep, become “this close” to using language you wouldn’t want little ears to hear, and generally just wondering why you thought having kids would be worth all this. Strangely though, before I even started to pull my thoughts together I found I was pretty much reading them in an article written by someone else – I liked it so much I thought I would share it here. Before the holiday stress gets to you, may it help you remember why little ones, imperfect though they are, are worth the trouble…Oh, and if we happen to be visiting you this holiday season, may this article help you remember what little ones are like (wink, wink) – We promise to remind them of their best behavior, but you know kids…
“A Parent’s Thanksgiving List” by Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard
Published in LDS Living Magazine, Nov/Dec2007 Issue

I’m grateful my children demand I talk to them when I don’t feel like talking, feed them when I’m not hungry, and change their diapers even when I’m all dressed up and ready to go somewhere special. I don’t think I’d discover the world outside my own needs without them.

I’m grateful my children haven’t learned how to hold back their tears when they’re sad, laughter when they’re happy, or screams when they’re frightened. They constantly remind me that emotions are for sharing.

I’m grateful my children have broken nearly everything in my home and used a crayon or ink marker on the rest. They’ve taught me that things aren’t important, but people are.

I’m grateful my children start out small and helpless so they don’t become aware of my incompetence until they’re teenagers. By then, we’ve both grown so accustomed to each other, we somehow manage to make it through the rest of life together.

I’m grateful my children get their pants dirty, pick their noses, burp without saying “excuse me,” and quarrel in public so I’ll never be able to get too arrogant, proper, or judgmental of other people’s children.

I’m grateful my children sometimes call me names like “weird” because sometimes I am “weird,” and it helps keep a person humble to be told they’re “weird” when they’re acting weird.

I’m grateful my children occasionally miss the bus at the precise moment I’ve stepped out of the shower, contemplating the well-planned, organized day ahead of me. Experiences like jumping into the car after throwing on whatever’s handy and racing to school have a tendency to loosen rigid plans into something better known as spontaneity.

I’m grateful my children always need new shoes, piano books, prescriptions, haircuts, fieldtrip money, tuition, food, toothpaste, and underwear. That way, I don’t have to waste my time thinking about a new sofa. It’s difficult to get wealthy and think about luxuries when you have to buy toilet paper and milk by the truckload each week.

I’m grateful my children know how to play. My five-year-old asked me to come downstairs so he could “teach me how to play” with his plastic animals. While Jacob demonstrated the subtle techniques for sinking a rhinoceros into couch cushions while pretending it was quicksand, I realized my young son was right. I really do need someone to “teach me how to play.”

I’m grateful my children question my every command and giggle when I get angry. It’s difficult to feel too powerful or self-righteous with kids around to remind you of how funny you look when you’re pointing your finger.

I’m grateful my children insist I hug, kiss, rock, or put my arms around them often. Otherwise, I think I’d forget how the sense of touch is so healing.

I’m grateful each of my children is unique when the same strange, inexperienced mother raised them. Somehow they don’t seem to let me ruin them much.

And lastly, I’m grateful for the gift of children in my life. God willing, I’d like to fill the rest of my days with those interesting people who call me Mom (yes, and sometimes “weird”) but eventually “weird grandma.”

A Cowboy needs a horse, Tayne - not so much...

2007-11-15T01:59:00.000-08:00

Well Tayne has been enjoying the nice weather, and so have I, so much I'm behind of blogging his stuff! Saturday he got to go to a Fall Festival at the YMCA & he even got to ride a pony!
Well, ok – he really didn’t care about riding the pony, in fact after the bounce house he was pretty much ready to call it quits and head over to the splash pool, but Troy insisted and our little cowboy endured long enough for a few photos, but that’s about it
– it's pretty clear that the allure of the wild west seems to be lost on this beach lovin’ kid. As a bonus for me though, it looks like somebody won’t be asking Santa for a pony this year!

I'm Done With Her.

2007-11-15T01:30:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd try something different - So here's a short video of Big Brother Tayne helping Pallas...

Since I'm not totally optimistic that everyone will see the video, I'll describe it - basically it's just a little video Troy took of Tayne feeding Pallas a bottle. I think it's cute because first Tayne asks, "Do you think she is done?" (the answer to which is obviously no, because he's only fed her for like 20 seconds) then after a little bit more, he looks around and says, "I'm done with her." That's pretty much how it goes, all the time, but hey - a little help is better than none!

It's been a rather silly day around here - blame it on the warm weather I guess - mid to upper 80's in November - that's a bit much even for Houston! It's good to get outside though, Tayne was showing Pallas the yard and taking her to check the mail (since she's been getting a lot of that lately he thought she might want to see the "inbox") - I got a few cute pictures of the two of them, I think they are fun because it looks like Tayne is trying to send her out with the mail - I guess that's what reminded me of the video -The pictures look like he's saying, "She's been fun and all, but I'm done with her..." Luckily, in reality he's still really into doing everything with her & helping her when she's upset. What a great kid, and an awesome big brother!
Uh, it should go without saying, but if Tayne does manage to send you that baby, I'm gonna want her back...

Hey good lookin' -What's cookin'?

2007-11-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

What's for dinner?
A friend of mine sent me these 1970's era Weight Watchers recipe card pictures and descriptions and I thought they were too funny not to share. i've arranged them into a hypothetical party menu - just the kind of thing to make you glad I'm not in charge of cooking for Thanksgiving this year!

We'll start off with a drink :
Slender Quenchers -These are the saddest diet beverages ever.
The one on the right is skim milk and orange pulp. The one on the left is made with water, sherry extract, and two beef bouillon cubes.
No, really. Well, there's also celery in it. Oh, and SELF-LOATHING.

Then on to your choice of snack :Polynesian Snack - Would you like Polynesian Snack? With beautiful flower?
Where is fork? Is Snack for to eat with hand? You like canned bean sprout? And buttermilk? And pimiento? And fruit piece? Mix all together? No? Oh. Maybe Snack is not for you.

OR:

Hot Wrap Ups -it's not easy being green; There's lettuce. There's pickles. There's capers. There's lime. There's parsley. There's celery inside. Chives, too. It's green. All green. No other guiding culinary principle except... green. It's a meal! It's an obsessive disorder! It's both!

Moving on to the fish course:

Snappy Mackerel Casserole- Well, as adjectives for mackerel go, you could do worse than "snappy." Snappy! So snappy you need three glasses of cranberry juice to wash it down! So snappy they've placed it in a special roped-off area! Don't get too close to the casserole! 'Cause it'll SNAP at ya! Ha! Ha! SNAPPY!
Fluffy Mackerel Pudding- Once upon a time the world was young and the words "mackerel" and "pudding" existed far, far away from one another. One day, that all changed. And then, whoever was responsible somehow thought the word fluffy would help. Oh, and eggs, too.

Fish "Tacos"- "Tortillas?" What are those? Mexican food is easy to make! All you need is toast and quotation marks! I so do not understand the props here.

As for the entrees:

Chicken Liver Bake- Enjoy it with the ashes of a loved one. Or maybe what's left of the chickens are in that urn. Maybe the chickens were your loved ones. But chickens never love back enough. And that's why you have to KILL them. And eat their livers ritualistically. And then they're a part of you forever. Forever.

Frankfurter Spectacular- I had no idea frankfurters could be so spectacular. Wow!
I would almost be willing to upholster a whole pineapple with pork product just to be able to say I was serving Frankfurter Spectacular. Say it with me: Frankfurter! Spectacular! Why would you even want to eat this? Why, when you could keep your mouth busy for hours just by repeating the life-affirming phrase that is "Frankfurter Spectacular."

and for a vegetarian option:

Bean and Mushroom Salad- I hope that you can see that this is a jellied salad. Do you see it glisten? Do you require a close-up to understand that these beans and mushrooms and pimiento strips are one solid, glistening mass? And see how the Ceramic Mushroom Family has gathered to show their children what happens to bad little mushrooms!

If you still have room for dessert why not try :

Snacks on a Stick - My guess is they tried being consistent with the plural at first, and then decided that SNACKS ON STICKS sounded too disturbing. Like Apocalypse Now food or something. This is frozen coffee, people. Yeah, it almost sounds kind of good, until you freeze a whole bunch and take them out and look at them and hit a few of them together and hear them go thunk thunk, and say, "oh forget this," and drop the whole tray on the floor in disgust.

Ummmm....

And special thanks to Wendy McClure for the cards and descriptions -too funny!

Enough baby -What's with the Hair!?!

2007-11-09T10:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, Pallas - you're a cutie and all, but we are starting to wonder - What's with the hair?

The holidays are coming soon, just how soon Tayne is fond of telling me every time we go into Wal-Mart where they have started keeping a countdown of “shopping days till Christmas” and if that’s not your cup of tea, they also have a sign proclaiming the number of days “till flexible spending benefits expire” – hum, maybe I should get new glasses… But the real dilemma is those pesky holiday family photos we will have to pose for soon and what to do with Pallas’ hair?! It’s cute she has some, and it’s fun to play with, but it’s not really in a good spot to add bows or ribbons, and bows or ribbons to the side only draw attention to the fact there is a weird stripe of hair smack in the middle of her head. I’m sure we’ll resolve the dilemma with a cute hat (ah, sweet damage control – the hat covers all…) but that still leaves the question of just exactly what kind of a look is Pallas, or nature going for here if we left things alone? Sometimes she looks like she’s going for a 1980’s big hair thing –sort of Vanna White in her letter turning heyday; but other times we wonder if she’s going for a peacock thing –just the bit on top, and she really has the sound ( http://encarta.msn.com/media_461538253/Peacock.html ) down pretty well for never having heard one (at least to my knowledge). We’ve decided to put together a composite photo so you can decide for yourself – enjoy that hair fluff while you can, we’ll probably try to cover it up or minimize it in future photos -I’m sure she’ll thank us for that when she gets older!

Turning 21

2007-11-07T08:13:00.000-08:00

So what is the magic of turning 21? Monday Pallas turned 21 days old, but you would have thought it was 21 years old with her "Girls Gone Wild" attitude - my usually easygoing baby started off the day with that time tested philosophy-No good party starts 'till after 12(am) - at about 12:15 she decided he she wanted to be awake and suitably entertained all night/early morning. The day proceeded from there with all the typical "turning 21" behavior; drinking so much she had to be carried nearly unconscious to her bed, more than the occasional "reversal of fortune" (as they say in competitive eating) leading to outfit changes galore, grumpily "sleeping it off" only to wake up ready to go drinkin' again - learning nothing from the previous cycle and ready to repeat the process all over again. What a wild child! All kidding aside though, she does seem to have decide she wants to eat double what she was eating in the evening, which allows her to sleep at night for a longer stretch- Good? - I guess..i. While this seems like a positive step, unfortunately for me it seems to be some sort of deal she and Troy have worked out between them because the feeding/changing she is now sleeping though is the 11pm feeding that Troy was in charge of so I could nap a little before the night feedings kick in – I don’t know who’s sneakier here dad or daughter, either way I can see I'd better start keeping a closer eye on the two of them…

How Tayne likes to spend Saturday afternoons...

2007-11-04T05:39:00.000-08:00

Ok,so can you believe this is the pool at the new YMCA near our house?!

If the main play area and slides(off the other side, but I was too lazy to walk around and get a picture from over there) aren't enough -there's a giant water slide.

Over past the mushroom and the chairs there is an actual swimming pool, but this kid friendly monstrosity is the main pool area -and it's huge!
Pallas recommends the lounge chairs for napping poolside...
This is a picture from our back yard -we really are very close!
Sadly, it's Novemeber and that pool isn't heated, so things are winding down for the season this month, but come spring and summer when it gets hot again -come on over and we'll all get wet!

November is Bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-S…

2007-11-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

It's fall again - and that means harvest time. For some people it's pumpkins or apples or potatoes, for us it's banana time!

Organic bananas anyone? For saying we didn’t do anything to our banana trees this entire year (you’ve gotta love Houston for outdoor plants –we don’t even water and the plants do fine, I can’t imagine how things would do if I took an interest in them - probably worse...) we have a pretty good crop of bananas out there. Our first bunch of the season was ready to pick today – actually it was overly ready, they were falling off the stalk as Troy and Tayne were carrying them into the house, but they were super tasty-Tayne had 3 of them before we made it into the house (since they are kind of tiny that’s really like a banana and a half from the store). Unfortunately, because we waited so long to pick them I had to mash this whole bunch up for storage – that's about 11 cups of mashed bananas! I see many smoothies and banana breads are in our future, and seeing that there’s at least 3 more bunches on the trees that will be ready soon and a tiny bunch just getting started, I see banana bread in the future of friends and family too - ahh banana bread - not only tastes great, it ships nicely...

Halloween

2007-11-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

So Happy Together!

Just hangin' out with the other fish...
When is that sun gonna set!?!

Here are some pictures from Halloween - the camera isn't working the best for me these days, I really have to get my own instead of trying to use the one Tayne uses -he's always got it set some weird way I can't figure out (annoying kids and their ability to use technology better than adults!) The fish turned out pretty good for Tayne - I had to make something he could sit in the car in and get in and out of easily in case he got tired of it, so we put velcro on both sides of the tail so it could come off completely, and the mouth had a little bag/pocket so he could put stuff in there - he really liked that feature as well. It also worked out well that we found some material with sequins on it ($1 bin at Wal-mart no less!) so that really made the tail and fins sparkle.

Tayne had a pretty fun Halloween - we went to a community carnival where he got to play a few games & then we went trick-or-treating, which he lost enthusiasm for pretty quickly when nobody really had any candy he was interested in (here are these houses with the "good" (name brand chocolate) candy and this kid being all put out/not wanting their selections - too funny!)

Pallas slept through most of it - except when we went to visit Gavin & baby Carina (sorry you had to work Jen!) and when I sat on the floor to give her a bottle the two large doggies gave her a good sniffing - she didn't cry, but she sure didn't know what to make of that, it was a fun stop though I think we depressed one of the dogs - I don't think Roxy knew there could be other babies and I think she was a little worried that a crying Pallas would be staying there & she would be stuck with two of "them" - hopefully she cheered up after we left - just in time to bark at other trick-or-treaters and make them think twice about wanting candy from that house!

Luckily we made it home in time for Tayne to give out some of our candy (not the "good" stuff) to trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood - I don't think he could decide which he liked best, giving out candy or going trick-or treating. Then after that Troy and Tayne went through all the candy he collected and traded out for the candy we had that he wanted - although Troy did manage to get a little tricking in, after a bunch of trades, Tayne was so excited about trading Troy actaully managed to trick him into trading some skittles back for more chocolate bars -you can imagine Tayne didn't care so much for the "tricks" and thought we should just focus on the "treats" -but it's good to get a little of both on Halloween!

Give Me Candy!

2007-10-31T05:57:00.000-07:00

Let's get this party started!

It's finally Halloween!

2007-10-31T03:41:00.000-07:00

Is this a fish?

-No, just Tayne!

Whew! October 31st is finally here – Happy Halloween to everyone! – It’s been a whirlwind with the new little one and the overzealous older one, but I managed to finish Tayne’s costume about 11pm last night (with a very excited Tayne demanding updates on my progress from his bedroom – he only went to sleep after he was sure I had finished it in time for Halloween & then only after we told him he could not wear it to bed and he would have to wait until after 6am to wear it today (otherwise he would have found a way to keep himself up until midnight so he could put it on)) – it turned out pretty cute & I even put a little pocket in the mouth so he could “feed” the fish & I can’t wait until later when we get pictures of the kiddos all dressed up. Even with all the chaos of adjusting to having two kids & recovering from the hospital, I’m pleased that we managed to get in all the Halloween activities that make the day/season fun - we even have a pumpkin to carve today sometime (Tayne remembered he likes the pumpkin with the candle in it so we picked one up yesterday and he agreed to draw the face for me to carve) – my favorite thing to do at Halloween, so I’m excited. Tayne is very excited about trick-or-treating this year, and he’s got it all figured out – when we were at the store last night and I was asked him to help pick out candy for the trick-or-treaters he told me that we didn’t need to buy candy because we would get some when we went trick-or-treating – why didn’t I think of that (wink, wink – grin, grin!)? The weather should be great here tonight, no rain and temps in the low 70’s to mid 60’s –a nice treat for me since that weather fits the warmth /weatherproofness of the costumes & it will be decent weather for taking the baby out – all in all it should be a really fun day. Hope your Halloween is safe and happy & check back tomorrow for your photo "treat" of our fun filled Halloween!

Painting Pumpkins

2007-10-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

Halloween is only a few days away - where has the month of October gone? Anyway, since Tayne hates carving pumpkins so much this year we thought we'd try our hand at painting pumpkins instead - as you can see a fun time was had by all (who would have guessed that a two week old baby who was asleep the whole time could manage to wiggle around enough to get paint on herself even before we helped her "pose" for some pictures).

2 week check-up

2007-10-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

As you can see, Tayne loves being a big brother. Pallas had her two week Dr. appointment today -she was such a sweet girl, she didn't cry at all when the Dr. checked her out, and she recovered pretty quick from the little heel stick blood draw they do; I think the whole thing was more tramatic for Tayne - perhaps we shouldn't bring him when they have to give her shots...
Anyway, for those who like stats :

weight : 8lbs 9.5 oz (75%) -Troy says I should note that she drank a 2oz. bottle right before they weighed her, so take that into account however you want.
length : 22in. (95%) -she grew 1.5in. since we brought her home, guess that explains why we have to keep closing her little diapers tighter to keep them on her -the other day one had wiggled half way down her butt by the time I checked her!
head : 34.5cm. (25%) -it doesn't look small to me, but that would explain why her little hats keep falling over her eyes...

Now her check-up is out of the way we are in hyper-countdown-to-Halloween mode here. I picked up the material to make Tayne's fish costume (note to self & others with kids: don't let Troy make costume suggestions any more -not only can you not find pre-made fish costumes, they don't even have patterns for fish costumes!) and he's very excited about me finishing it. Only 6 days to go (Maybe I can power though on a candy fueled sugar high, although I am breastfeeding, and I don't think this baby needs to be any sweeter!) luckily if it doesn't turn out so great it will be dark when he wears it- either way there's bound to be lots of fun and lots of pictures next week!

More Picts.

2007-10-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

Can you tell that Tayne's excited?

Baby stats!

2007-10-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

"Before" and "After"

Name : Pallas Nova P.

Date of Birth : October 15, 2007 ~ 12:53pm

Weight : 8lbs. 8oz.

Length : 20.5 inches