May 31, 2006

Welcome back to the next installment of Adventures with Ariel. Hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend. We had lots of fun at the ranch with Grammie and Pop-Pop and Crissy's family. Pictures are here.

7:15 Drop-off

Today is Adam's birthday!



7:50 Bottle

8:15 Crib nap

9:00 Wake up

9:25 Walk to Starbucks. Ariel napped in the bjorn.

10:00 Get to Starbucks. I was feeling a little frisky today, so I got a grande frappachino. And somehow I've used up all my Mother's Day gift card already.

10:15 Go to library for storytime. Ariel liked watching all the kids.

10:35 1/2 bottle

11:00 Crissy finally got to the library. She missed storytime, but we ran over to Starbucks again for her, and then over to Michael's so I could buy some black food coloring for Adam's cake. Crissy was so kind to come so I could use 2 Michael's coupons, I also got Alex a photo album to put in the pictures he took at the ranch.

11:20 Walk home. Ariel napped again.

12:05 Get home.

12:20 Lunch. Adam is not a big veggie eater, so I occassionally give him some sweet potato/apple sauce babyfood so he gets some orange. I called Becky to see if it was ok if Ariel had some too. Ariel thought it was pretty darn fun to sit at the cool kid's table and eat lunch with the big boys:



1:00 The boys heard the neighbors out in their front yard "mining" so we had to go over and see what they were doing. Ariel had 1/2 bottle. She had a big spit up so I waited to give her the rest.

1:30 Other half of bottle

1:40 Go home.

1:45 Crib nap

2:15 Brief wake up, I just had to put her paci back in and she went back to sleep.

3:10 Awake with poopy diaper. I put her in the exosaucer while I worked on Adam's cake.

3:35 Crissy and gang came over to help so I could finish getting ready for Adam's party.

4:00 Bottle

4:30 Adam's fabulous Two Years Old Birthday Party:

Aunt Becky came:



And David Someoneerother and Laura:



And of course Ariel was there:



And Daddy Carl:



Super Grammie's present to Adam was the hit of the party - an inflatable water pool:



Here's my masterpiece - homemade chocolate cake with homemade buttercream frosting. Rounded out with six - count them SIX - large pizzas and a strawberry spinach salad.



The birthday boy:







And our best family picture:



Happy Birthday Adam!

May 25, 2006

7:00 Drop off

7:30 2 oz of bottle. She had a big spit up so I held off on the rest

7:55 I put Ariel in the crib

8:10 She was officially asleep. And note, during 15 minutes it takes for her to go to sleep, she's not crying. She's just sucking on her pacifier and occassionally making small sad noises.

9:00 Woke up, took rest of bottle.

9:15 Changed a wet diaper

9:25 Crissy came over for our now standard Wednesday Fabulous Plan™ - walking to Starbucks and the library. Ariel fell back asleep in the bjorn.

10:00 We got to Starbucks. I was feeling a little wild and crazy, so I ordered a green tea lemonade. I must have been temporarily insane, I forgot I don't like ice tea (though in my defence, I did think it would be more lemonade than tea). So after we got the kids to the library for story time, I left Crissy with them and went back to Starbucks and traded in for my frappachino. Live and learn. Then I went over to the post office.

11:10 Ariel had a bottle at the library.

11:30 We walked home. Ariel dozed again.

12:15 Got home. Ariel was pretty warm in her pink overalls, so I changed her into the most adorable yellow number.

1:00 bottle

1:20 Lay down in crib

1:40 Asleep. I moved Alex's sound machine in her room hoping that would help. The boys were being kinda loud. After she was asleep, I brought Adam in to take a nap in his bed. The crib is in that room, and Adam won't nap anywhere but his bed, so I had to try them napping together in the same room.

2:00 Adam finally asleep. Yay!

2:13 I *almost* had time to finish my lunch before Ariel woke up. I didn't think that it was a long enough nap, so I popped her pacifer in. But since Adam was in there, I stayed there, laying on the floor, so I could either put the paci back in or grab her if she was really awake.

2:35 Ariel was back asleep, I was able to crawl out and finish my lunch.

2:40 Alex was talking to Zach through the fence and was invited over for a playdate. So off he went and I actually had a little bit of time to myself. I ate an ice cream bar (yes Crissy, the last Häagen-Dazs®), had a phone conversation with a real adult and then finished cleaning the bathroom. My life is so exciting.

3:35 Ariel woke up first, Adam was up soon after. I changed Ariel's diaper and then I took some pictures of Ariel's super cute outfit.



Then Ariel toppled over, but she didn't seem to mind.


3:50 We went out on the front porch and Ariel had another bottle.

4:10 Pick up.

We'll be out of town for Memorial Day weekend, so see you next week!

May 22, 2006

FYI - It has come to my attention that I have been spending too much time on the computer. So I'm not going to be able to update the blog during the day, but I will still write it up in the evening. Um, that's all.... carry on.

Hope y'all had a nice weekend. We spent it with Grammie. We went to the zoo, I love this picture:



Then on Sunday, we went to Grandma's house for Family Fun night to celebrate Becky, Mom (and Carl's) birthdays. Look how straight Becky's afro puff is, she got a hair straightener for a present:



The birthday girls. Becky turned 28 and Mom turned 39. How did that happen?



7:05 Drop off. Asleep, carseat, Adam's room. I was able to change all the bed sheets. And now I have to write whenever I do that in the blog so I can keep track of how long it's been.

8:00 Ariel woke up. Adam was glad to see her.

8:15 Bottle

8:30 Ariel hung out in the exosaucer outside while we planted pumpkin seeds. I really hope they grow, Alex has been talking about planting them since pumpkin season last fall. They'll have a better chance if Adam doesn't dig them up with his trucks...

9:00 Go to Crissy's house.

10:00 Bottle

10:15 Nap on the mattress on Crissy's floor. Um, it's a long story.

12:20 Ariel woke up. A nice 2 hour nap.

12:30 A little photo session (again, Crissy is holding Ariel up under the blanket, Ariel is not sitting yet):



We think Ariel might stand before she sits:



12:35 Bottle

1:15 Time to go home

2:20 I tried to keep Ariel up a bit longer for another bottle, but she was ready to sleep. I put her down in the crib and she lay their quietly until she fell asleep. Which was good, since Alex was freaking out in room time and Adam had just woken up from his car nap and was very grumpy.

2:35 Asleep in crib. See Becky?



The boys and I sat on the porch and watched the thunderstorm come through.

3:40 Bottle

4:30 Pick up.

May 19, 2006

7:05 Drop off - straight in the bjorn

7:30 Asleep in bjorn

8:00 4 oz bottle

Ok Joanne, here are some more letters. Can you tell what I spelled?







9:15 Nap in bed

10:15 Wake up - and change poopy diaper

10:30 Bottle outside while the boys played with the neighbors.

11:30 Crissy and full crew showed up. Marcus wanted to do a lemonade stand by our house. Crissy changed Ariel's clothes because she had just had a big spit up and now that she's eating solids it smelled really bad.

12:15 Nap

1:00 Wake up. We put Ariel back in her pukey outfit so we could get this picture for Becky:



1:20 bottle

1:45 Ariel was cranky after her bottle, so I put her in the bjorn and she went right to sleep. And then I had to change Adam's diaper, and when I was dumping his poop in the toliet, I got poop, um, everywhere, and I had to take the blanket off of Ariel's head. She woke up for a little bit.

2:15 The whole crew walked up to the grocery store for some ice cream. And then we we walked over to the photo store since both Crissy and I had pictures to pick up. We all ate icecream. Between the treat and the mud (Alex and Gavin had some very messy games today) our kids were quite the motley crew. Crissy took a picture (I was sans camera AGAIN).

3:30 The photo store had missed one of my orders, so we hung out for a few minutes and waited for them to print it. Ariel had another bottle.

4:00 Finally get home, where Becky was waiting for us.

May 18, 2006

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Becky,
Happy birthday to you!

7:05 Drop off

7:20 Discover Becky forgot the bjorn. Ahhhhhhh! I pulled out an old sling (Becky, do you have the blue one still?) but Ariel didn't like it as much.

8:00 Uncle Jeremy fed Ariel a bottle. She fell asleep on him. Awwwww.

8:40 Commence Fabulous Plan™ - Crissy came over with Gavin, and we walked him to preschool. We moved Ariel from Jeremy's lap to the stroller and she stayed asleep, at least for 2 minutes:



9:05 Drop Gavin off at preschool. And since Gavin's school is right by Starbucks, it was just a given that we would go there too. We didn't want Ariel to feel left out:



9:45 Crissy wanted to look at photography magazines at Safeway, but Ariel had other plans. She was really tired, I finally got her calmed down in the sling and we started walking home. While walking, I explained to Crissy a neat project I've done before - taking pictures of objects that look like letters, then making collages to spell things like names. Crissy thought that was pretty cool, and pretty soon we were looking for letters all over the place. We found a few, like this "k":



(Here's one I did last year:)




10:40 Looking for letters had really slowed down our walking, so we decided to look for more letters while we turned around and walked back to Gavin's preschool to pick him up.

11:20 Ariel had another bottle while we waited for Gavin.

11:40 Walk back home.

12:10 Get home - I made lunch while Crissy tried to get Ariel down for a nap (Adam had mac and cheese, Gavin had PB&J and we had triscuits with cheese.)

12:25 I finished putting Ariel down (Crissy tries, she really does).

12:40 I picked up Alex from school while Crissy held down the fort. Crissy made the mistake of playing with my camera when I was gone. When I came back, she made a comment about her "piece of crap" very cool point and shoot. Have I mentioned Crissy really wants a camera like mine now?

1:20 I got back with Alex, we let the boys play while we took more pictures, then made a collage spelling Crissy's brother's last name for his birthday. It's pretty cool, but I'm not going to put his last name on the blog.

2:20 Becky showed up. Ariel was still sleeping, so I amused Becky with my image processing and graphic design skills. Maybe amused is not the right word... bored?

2:50 Becky couldn't take it anymore, so she went and woke up Ariel. We had another photo shoot. Here's the collage I came up with (using a Shabby Princess kit, Splendid) :



Becky, I'll get your other picture choices up on flickr...

7:00 Becky - your other pictures are here (remember, you don't have to order ALL of them):

May 17, 2006

Rose are red,
Becky doesn't stink,
In fact she's really cool
for bringing me a coffee drink!

7:05 Drop off one baby and one frappachino. Gracias! (and the baby wasn't really asleep.)

I have finally taken it upon myself to do something about Ariel's perpetual baldness. Poor baby may never get hair. And I bet if she does, she's going to have an afro puff like her Mama. But until that day... Ta-da, hair substitute!



8:15 4 oz bottle. Becky, did you switch nipples? We used the bottle with the pink one and Ariel chugged it in under 5 minutes.

8:25 Asleep in bjorn

9:00 Leave for fabulous trip to Walmart. Yay!

9:50 Arrive at Butterfly Pavillion. Alex's preschool had a field trip there and we decided to join them. You've never experience pure joy until you've done it with 25 4 year olds. Ay-yi-yi.

My next photo contest is to shoot invertabrates. I don't think trying to take pictures with 3 kids on a field trip is the best opportunity, but I'll take what I can get.







Yes, I know this isn't an invertabrate:



Some vertabrates:



11:00 We headed outside to have a picnic lunch. Ariel had a bottle.

11:30 Daringly, we went back inside, hoping to see more without the chaos if his class.

1:00 Too much fun had been had, time to go home.

1:30 Ariel picture shoot, take 3.





And I hope you like this one, cause this is Ariel's favorite pose:



1:40 Bottle

1:50 Asleep in bjorn

3:00 Ariel woke up for a bit, but she's back to sleep. Becky, I forgot to tell you this story - Monday night, I was taking out my contacts, and I couldn't get my left one out. I trimmed my nails. I kept trying. I almost gouged my eye out. Finally I decided it just wasn't in there. So it's either in my brain, or fell out. But I have no idea when this could have happened, and at NO time did my eyesight change. And of course, I had just put in new contacts that day. Weird, huh?

3:30 As fantastic as my Wal-Mart trip was, I didn't buy any actual food. And we can't live on toliet paper and q-tips alone. So I drove Ariel up to Becky's work so we could go to Whole Foods.

4:00 Drop off

May 15, 2006

Happy Day After Mother's Day!

I hope you had a good weekend. Ours was busy but fun. On Saturday, Alex, Adam and I met Grandma and Grandpa, and Becky, Carl and Ariel at the hospital. We looked at my picture again, then we went to the hospital's block party. It was pretty cool, lots of free food and free games with prizes (we saw Crissy's family there too).

Alex tried cotton candy for the first time:



Ariel and Mommy



There was face painting, but Adam wanted a dinosaur on his hand:



Can you guess who this masked bandit is?



More Ariel and Mommy:



Sunday morning, we met Grammie and Pop-Pop and Sarah back at the hospital.



Here's a better picture of me with my picture:



After everyone looked at all the pictures, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant.

Family photo:



And the best Mother's Day present ever, two napping boys who stayed asleep even after we got home:





In the evening, we all went over to Aunt Laura's for my side of the family's Mother's Day celebration.



Ariel wasn't impressed, she fell asleep.



Here's just a pretty picture of a rose:



We had our normal Mexican Fiesta dinner, and Laura made one of her fabulous cakes:



Hmm, somehow I did not get a picture of my mom. Oop. Though Dad, I know you were taking pictures so you'll have to share.

7:05 Drop off. The boys built a fort around Ariel, which she tolerated for a bit.

7:20 In the bjorn

8:00 Asleep in the bjorn

I had the boys making some cards for their cousins. I turned my back for one second, and Adam decided that his face would make a better palette:



Good thing these are washable markers.

And Alex's latest project... It's becoming apparent that the avacado seed he planted in the garden is probably not going to sprout. So we are going to try and sprout one inside, then plant it in a pot. Alex is glued to it, waiting patiently for it to start getting roots. I'm trying to figure out how many minutes of quiet time this is going to buy me:



9:15 Wake up, 4 oz bottle

9:35 6 Month picture taking commences. I sent the boys in the backyard, where Alex immediately turned on the hose. That went fine until he dumped a bucket of water on Adam's head. Then as soon as I set Ariel up to take pictures, she toppled over and hit her head (not very heard, mind you) and cried for a bit. I finally managed to control the circus enough to get some shots. I took 66 pictures, these are the only ones I even kinda like.







Becky, you might want to plan on coming over after work and helping with shoot #2...

10:30 Ariel was pretty worn out from the excitment, fell right asleep in the bjorn.

11:15 Wake up, bottle

11:30 I tried some pictures again, but nothing turned out great. I'm just having an off day.

12:00 We took a little walk to pick up some pictures for Becky (and Grannie Shirley). Also mailed a letter.

1:00 Home. Ariel hung out in the swing for a bit.

1:30 Bottle

1:45 Nap in bed

2:30 Becky showed up. We were going to try pictures again, but I got some dust on my camera mirror and I can't get it off. I need to get it looked at professionally before I break something.

And Laura...