Mar. 8, 2006

Good Morning Everyone! I hope you are having a good day. I am very optimistic that I will have a good day, because yesterday afternoon was so bad that it has to go up from there. It all started because I was trying to do something other than pay 100% attention to my kids. I had been knitting Adam a sweater, and I was almost done. So I thought I could finish it up in the afternoon while my kids happily and quietly played together. First, I sent them both outside. That worked for a bit, until Alex took a shovel and poured sand all over Adam. His hood was full, his pants were full, his ears were full, even his diaper was full. So then I had to send Alex to his room and give Adam a bath. And it's hard enough to wash Adam's hair even when I'm not trying to remove a million pieces of sand from his scalp.
After this drama, I got to work on my sweater for a bit, and the more I work on it (at this point, sewing the pieces together) the more I realize it's going to be a teeney bit small. And when I spend $40 on baby alpaca fancy-schmancy yarn and spend 35 hours knitting, I want the sweater to err on the large side. So this turn of events was not improving my mood.
Then it was time to make dinner. As soon as I started, Adam decided that he needed my full attention and spent the 20 minutes of prep attatched to my leg crying. And then the best part of my evening - for dinner I was making a smoked salmon frittata that cooked in the oven in a skillet. When I was removing the skillet from the oven, I grabbed the handle in such a way that it hit my forearm. And then I was commited to that position until I got the pan on the counter. The result - a good second degree burn. I seriously contemplated posted a picture, but it's way too gross. Anyway, that was how I spent my Ariel free day. Wheee!

7:05 Drop off. Ariel was asleep, put in crib (which is amazing since she slept through the snow flakes on her face and Adam's warm welcome.) I know you care, so I'll let you know that I changed my sheets and Adam's sheets at this time.

7:10 Ariel woke up. I left her in the crib to contemplate this decision, hoping she'd see it my way and go back to sleep.

7:50 Ariel did not see it my way, though she was quiet for 20 minutes. I finally took her out of the crib.

8:00 Ariel let me know she was sick of the carseat. Before I put her in the bjorn, I checked her diaper and changed a (normal, though somewhat greenish) poopie.

8:05 Bjorn.

8:30 Crissy and Gavin stopped by. Crissy wanted to hold Ariel immediately, of course.

8:40 Crissy fed Ariel a bottle. Then Crissy used 2 burp clothes to clean up all the spit up. It was A LOT of spit up.

Quick photo session to show off Ariel's sweet Valentine's outfit.


Crissy keeps bothering me about Ariel's hats getting too small, so I pulled this lemon hat out of my stash. Oh, and right before this picture, I was going to get a picture like this but even more cuter and smilier when my camera battery died. As Crissy said, I missed a photo opportunity of a life time:


I do believe Ariel is getting some chunky cheeks!:


Adam was helping with the photo session (and wearing the aforementioned sweater which is not *quite* as small as I thought):


9:15 Decided to go to Starbucks. Our Starbucks.


9:30 Got to Starbucks. Ariel was fussing a bit, so I put her in the bjorn instead of the stoller.

Today was a very big day for Crissy. She did not get a caramel macchiato. See, occasional we both get the desire to get a drink other than our regular, but then there's the chance that it might not be as good. And why risk it? But Crissy had been meaning to try out the cinnamon dolce latte even since it came out. And she did! And it was good! That's one small step for Crissy, one giant leap for Crissykind!


And her drink was even more risky, as there was a barista we didn't know. After Crissy mentioned it (and I had of course already noticed it) I asked him. I said, "Excuse me sir (and yes, he was probably 20), are you a new barista? Or baristo? Are you a barista or a baristo?" He said he had transfered from a different store (whew!) and he didn't speak Italian, but he though he was a still a barista.

I also tried a new drink. I tried the marbled mocha mocchiato (which Becky had teased me and said she would bring me one today, but showed up empty handed. No poetry for you today, Becky). It was good too, just a sweeter mocha.

Our boys played with stir sticks while we drank our coffees:


In the background, you will notice an old man. This is not, I repeat NOT, our Grumpy Old Man.

10:15 We decided to adjourn to Chez Crissy.

10:30 Got to Crissy's. Put Ariel back in the bjorn.

11:00 We had gotten the Marcus collage printed out 8x20 and tried to put it in the frame. But somehow it was not printed the same as the Gavin collage I made last December and was not fitting in the frame right. It's like it was printed 5% bigger, even though I used the same file as I did for Gavin. Crissy said we now have an opportunity, so we are both contemplating our next move. Poop.

11:25 Crissy and I were contemplating making lemon poppy seed muffins or brownies for lunch when the school nurse called. Marcus was not feeling well so Crissy had to go pick him up from school. Right at that moment, Gavin started walloping Alex on the head, so we used that as an excuse to leave (and have a teachable moment about how we treat our friends. We do not wallop friends).

11:45 Got home, bottle. Ariel was very spitty AGAIN. She spit up on her new hat, so I had to rinse it out (Becky - it should be hand washed).

12:somthing Started updating my blog while feeding the boys lunch.

Oh, and remember Monday how I said how beautiful the weather was? Well, it's snowing today, or rather trying. It's still above freezing so it's not sticking. Gotta love Colorado.


1:10 Ok, now it's getting serious about snowing. That picture above was taken at 12:34:16. This picture was taken at 1:06:39. See how the grass is covered now? And you probably can't tell, but the snowflakes are a lot bigger too. Guess this means the parents will not be joining us for dinner tonight.


And yes, that is a a weight bench on my patio. Jeremy was supposed to deal with that a while back. Oh well, I guess it can be our lawn jockey.

1:15 Adam just showed up at the office door like this:

saying, "Potty." I have NO idea what that means. He would like to use the potty? He just went potty in the potty? He just peed in his diaper? (Notice I'm not entertaining the thought that he might have peed on the floor.) Never a dull moment around here.

1:20 Ariel is seriously stinky. Like I have to hold my breath when I'm holding her. So I gave her a spong bath (she didn't cry Becky, she didn't cry!), changed her diaper and her outfit. She smelled much better, and immediately spit up again on her new clothes. Pah. And all the while, Adam was standing at the big potty, saying potty and not doing much else. Finally he asked for his diaper and pant back on.

1:45 Popped a Bob the Builder video in.

1:50 Ariel was starteding to doze in the bjorn, so I swaddled her and put her down.

2:00 Made my lunch, tricuits and cheese. Crissy told me she's moved on to english muffin pizzas, but since I don't have a toaster oven, that's not going to work for me.

2:05 Ariel looks like she'll go to sleep, but she's not there yet. Here's outside now. Notice the accumulation on the weight bench and table:


2:15 The nap didn't stick. Must be too close to feeding time.

2:20 Bottle. She seemed to keep this one down better, but I'm on my last burp cloth. I think Ariel once again qualifies as a spewing volcano of spit up.

2:40 Hanging out, burping. Here's Adam and Rufus.


I don't believe I've introduced Rufus yet. I bought Rufus right before we went to Steamboat because I was worried that Adam might miss Ariel. Rufus is named for my FIL, who always had really good name suggestions when I was pregnant. He best was Rufus (somethingican'trememberbutisfunny) Dupre from Motor City. Anyway, Adam wanted Ariel to go in the swing, but since she had just eaten and generally hates it anyway, I suggested he push Rufus instead.

And here's the back yard as of 2:56:37. The kid's table has blown over, though it doesn't seem to be particuarlly windy:


3:03 Ariel fell asleep in the bjorn.

4:02 I seem to have lost an hour. Ariel just woke up, but I am unable to account for our activities in the last 59 minutes. Hmmmm, I briefly talked to Crissy about Marcus's strep (did she consider ME and MY plans before she started down this path?) checked my email, checked my message board, wiped Alex's butt, took Adam's diaper and pants off so he could sit on the potty and not do anything, then put them back on again. How did that take up an hour?

Here's my backyard at 3:59:37. Still snowing, but not as hard. Is is getting dark.


4:05 Ariel seems to had a false alarm and went back to sleep.

4:20

What now? Apparently I'm running a nudist colony out of my house. Yeh, never a dull moment. Tomorrow is overall day.

4:25 Pick up, Ariel woke up during the carseat transfer.