Dec. 20, 2006

7:20 Drop off. Becky was a bit delayed by an incoming snowstorm. It hadn't really started yet, but people were driving slowly.

7:25 Breakfast - apples and cherries and waffles.

7:45 Nap.

8:45 We are expecting a lot of snow. Here's the before picture:



9:30 Ariel woke up. For snack she had a pancake that I had made while she was napping.

10:00 Ariel "helped" me fold laundry. I'm doing a lot of laundry today, not much else to do.

11:30 Becky called to tell me to expect her early, she was getting sent home due to the snow.

12:00 I made a quick trip to pick up some pictures. The roads weren't too slick, but our street isn't plowed and is on the C-list priority-wise and is likely to stay unplowed for a while. When I got back, I put Ariel down for a nap.

12:30 3 hours later, we have a few inches:



1:20 Becky finally got here, woke up Ariel to take her home.

2:15 Yup, still snowing:



3:42 More snow. Maybe a foot now?



3:50 I called Becky to see if she had made it home, but she had not. She was stuck in traffic, no where else to pull off too. Ariel was very sad, had already drank her milk and was sick of being in the car.

4:30 And it's still snowing:



5:00 Becky had not called me back yet to say she was home, so I called dad. The new update, Becky got as far as Lafayette in 4 hours (most of which Ariel was screaming) and then stopped at a hospital. She's planning on staying there, they gave her food and blankets.

Becky will not be going in to work tomorrow due to the Holiday Blizzard™ and we are all on vacation next week. Have a happy holiday, everyone, and see you next year!

Dec. 19, 2006

Rose are Red,
Coffe is brown,
Thanks for the Starbucks,
now I'll bounce around town.

7:00 Yes, Becky brought me a wonderful Starbucks for breakfast. And I think she was surprised to see me out of bed when she got here.

7:10 Breakfast - apples and blueberries and hot cereal. Ariel ate nearly the whole bowl, which is what I eat for breakfast.

7:30 Nap.

8:15 Wake up for stroller class.

8:45 Get to stroller class. For some reason I actually thought we were going to be on time today. Stroller class was good, but it's getting hard to work out with the mall opening early. AND we got yelled at by a security guard. We were parked by the Pet Store and he came over and told us that we needed to have a bigger aisle and make sure strollers (mine) weren't in front of the (huge) door. Really bugged us. The class pays the mall $500 in rent AND we were in a corner and only 4 people had walked by. Grrr.

10:00 After class, I stopped by the Gap for last minute Hanukah present buying. It's going to be a very Gap-y year ;)

10:45 Left the mall, headed to Crissy's house.

11:00 Crissy's house. Fun time watching Crissy pack up so she can move away forever. I'm not helping, eiher. I don't like packing, even when it's my own stuff. So mostly Ariel and I hung out and distracted Crissy while the boys watched TV.

12:00 Lunch - sweet potato baby food and string cheese.

2:00 Went home, Ariel fell asleep in the car and stayed that way.

4:30 Pick up.

Dec. 18, 2006

Happy Hanukah!

We have had lots of Hanukah since the first night last Friday. Here are the boys lighting the menorah on the first night. Alex made his menorah at preschool, Adam lit the family one. Alex knows the whole first blessing in Hebrew!



Saturday night we had family fun Hanukah night at Grandma's house. Ariel was sick and grumpy most of the night, but she did have fun dancing with Adam:



And my favorite part of the evening... My mom always makes her special ginger bread cookies for our Hanukah party. She has one cookie cutter that is supposed to be a coyote, but really looks like a big blob. Last year Dad asked if it was a whale. So this year, I pointed out the Hanukah Whale on the tray:



And dad said, "But where is the Hanukah Coyote?"



And here are the boys lighting the menorah on the second night:





Like I said said, Ariel was a bit sick and grumpy:



But after I starting woofing and Grandma meowed, we at least got her to stop crying:




7:00 Drop off. I was dead asleep when Ariel got here this morning. *yawn*

7:15 Breakfast. Ariel ate all of her apples/cherry baby food and 5 mini waffles.

7:45 Nap

8:15 Wake up for stroller class.

8:45 Stroller class. Not as hard as it's been, but still a workout. Ariel was pretty mellow today. Adam's friends weren't there and I think he was a bit disappointed. At the end of the workout I changed a poopy diaper.

10:15 After the mall, we went to Crissy's house. Crissy is moving on Friday. It is very sad. See how sad?



11:15 Ariel had some green mush. At one point she coughed so we all had a little green mush today.

11:45 Crissy got back from picking up Gavin from preschool and she brought a CiCi's pizza with her. Ariel had almost a whole slice.

12:25 We left to go to Alex's preschool Hanukah party.

12:40 Wild and crazy Hanukah party.

Ariel was pretty excited too:



Alex was supposed to "dress like a dreital" and have his clothes wild and crazy. The best I could come up with is putting his shirt on backwards and wearing another shirt around his waist:



1:25 We left the Hanukah party. Alex is out of school until next year.

1:40 I learned an interesting factoid about my car. My car has a reading that tells me the Distance To Empty. It can ready 0 miles for quite a while without running out of gas.

1:50 I got gas. And after all that 0 mile crap, I put in 19 gallons, and I know I've put in 20.5 before. Worrying me for nothing.

2:00 We did a crazy thing and went to the post office. My last batch of holiday cards didn't come to me until Saturday, so I couldn't mail them until today. We went to the secret post office, but apparently the secret's out, there was a line there too. It wasn't too bad though, and there is a little play table that kept the boys amused the whole time.

2:15 Stopped by Michael's. Yes, I have a disease.

2:30 Got home, Ariel went down for a nap.

4:30 Pick up.

Dec. 15, 2006

Ah, once again I am blogging 3 days after the fact and my memories is hazy...

7:00 Drop off. Breakfast and stuff.

7:30 Nap.

8:15 Wake up to go to stroller class.

8:45 Stroller class. I don't remmeber much about that except that we did a ton of push ups and my chest was sore all weekend.

10:15 After class I stopped by Victoria Secret's to buy Jeremy's Hanukah present. Ariel and Adam were not impressed.

10:45 Home. Ariel took a nap.

12:30 Wake up, go get Alex from preschool.

1:30 Got to Crissy's house after picking up Alex.

4:00 Becky picked up Ariel at Crissy's house.

Like I said, I don't remember a whole lot more. I'm sure Ariel pooped and ate more and possibly even slept, but who knows. Sawry.

Dec. 13, 2006

7:00 Drop off. Breakfast - apricot babyfood and waffles.

7:30 Nap.

9:00 Wake up. I was really hoping to go to stroller class today but it was cancelled. Very sad for me, I haven't worked out in 5 days and I'm starting to feel like a slug again.

10:00 So instead, we went to libary store time. Ariel was more wiggly and noisey than usual.

11:00 A quick trip to Michael's, since we were right there, you know. And it only cost me $20 when all I came in for was a $1.20 mat.

11:45 Got home, Ariel was asleep in the car, transfered to crib.

12:35 Got Ariel up to pick up Alex from school.

1:40 Got home. Adam fell asleep in the car and didn't transfer to his bed. Again. So I fed Ariel lunch while he cried. She had pea baby food, string cheese and cheerios.

2:30 Super steller parenting move - put Ariel down for a nap, put the baby monitor on the counter and took a nap on the couch. The boys were watching a video and they picked the one that I really didn't want them too. Wallace and Gromit is their new favorite, and the problem is that you can't play all 3 short movies with one button. When one ends, you have to queue up the next. So twice I had to get up off the couch and start the next movie, but it didn't interrupt my nap too much.

3:45 Ariel and I woke up. Movie over, too.

4:30 Pick up.

Dec. 12, 2006

6:55 Drop off. Yes, I said 6:55. EARLY. I was still hiding in bed, unable to come out and face my children bickering over waffles.

7:00 Breakfast, Ariel had apricot mush and 4 mini-waffles.

7:30 Nap.

9:00 Wake up.

9:30 Go to Crissy's house.

11:00 Snack time. Ariel had some weird bread/cheese thing I found in the diaper bag. Crissy said it looked like it came from Target, and I did point out that Ariel was at Target just yesterday. Hmmmm.

And then, very exciting news at Crissy's house. While we were there, we were playing with Ariel and she started walking between us. We let the space get bigger and moved our hands back and Ariel took real steps! Only a few times looked like the first pass in the video below (which we got by setting up the tripod after the first few passes), more often she was moving her feet as she fell into a lap (like the other passes on the video).



12:00 Ariel found a Marcus toy, a ball filled with gel-stuff and bit into it. The neon yellow NON-TOXIC goop got all over her clothes, though we don't think much got in her mouth. Crissy rinsed the clothes and put some stain remover on them.

1:30 Time to go home. I drove a bit farther than we really needed to and both Adam and Ariel fell asleep.

1:50 Home - Ariel transfered to her bed, Adam did not. Argh!

3:00 Wake up. Ariel had a snack of baby food peas, string cheese and cheerios.

4:00 Ariel had an explosive poopy, which got her spare pants dirty.

4:30 Pick up. After Becky explained that Ariel needed pants to go out to dinner, I found her a pair of 12 month jeans in my closet.

Dec. 11, 2006

Happy Monday everyone.

7:00 Drop off. Breakfast time - apples and blueberry baby food and 2 mini waffles.

7:30 I put Ariel down for a nap but I'm not sure if she ever went to sleep. She occassionally made small noises and I went in a few times to make sure she was laying down, which she always was.

8:15 Ariel definately awake.

8:30 Took Alex to preschool, even though he assured me he was too sick. I disagreed.

9:00 Drop off Alex.

9:15 Drop off Adam and Ariel with Crissy.

9:30 Mini-spa day, er, I mean dentist appointment. Have I mentioned how much I love my dentist? I had the massage chair on and they have a new internet-music service and I could listen to any music so I listened to the Goo-Goo Dolls, which helped elimate conversation with the very nice but chatty hygenist. And the best news is, my gums look really good so I only have to go for cleanings 3 times a year instead of 4 (which Jeremy always claimed was some sort of money making scheme so the dentist could buy a new car).

10:45 Stopped by Starbucks to get Crissy a thank you latte. And not a venti one like she's been sneaking the last few days, just a grande. And I happened to get myself a tall mocha.

11:00 Got to Crissy's. Kids were alive. Apparently Ariel pooped and ate some Cheerios.

11:30 Went home. Ariel fell asleep in the car, transfered to the crib.

12:30 Ariel woke up just in time to go get Alex from preschool.

1:00 Picked up Alex. We drove a very long way home so Adam would fall asleep in the car. I thought my plan wasn't going to work, but just before we pulled into the driveway I looked back and he was asleep. So I drove around the block for good measure.

2:00 Home, put Adam in his bed and he woke up. All that driving for nothing! Ariel had lunch - mixed veggie orange, string cheese and a slice a bread.

2:30 After lunch, we just hung out.

4:30 Pick up.

And I didn't take any pictures today, so you'll just have to enjoy this other baby that I photographed yesterday:



The rest of the album is here:

http://wendysweetphotography.com/lilianna_12_06/

Dec. 8, 2006

7:10 Drop off. For breakfast, I gave Ariel some blueberry and apple baby food that I bought last night. I felt like she only ate bread this week and I wanted to get something besides starch inside her. Oh, she also ate 1 1/2 pancakes.

7:30 Nap.

8:15 I went in to wake her and found this:



Alex is sick, he has a cold and lost his voice. He was too sick to go to preschool so Jeremy worked from home this morning so I could do my workout.

8:40 Stroller workout. Not a butt-kicking one like Wednseday, but Alex would have hated it. It involved lots of walking.

10:30 Left the mall. Took longer to get home because the highway was closed (due to a fatal accident, I later found out).

10:45 Got home, Jeremy went to work. Ariel took her nap in the crib.

12:45 Ariel woke up, had lunch. Sweet potato baby food and a piece of bread. See what I mean about starch?

1:30 It was actually warm this afternoon, so I took all the kids over to the new outdoor mall. I saw in USA Weekend (a national insert!) that the mall had some kids/space exihibits. I was hoping that it was more than what Jeremy and I saw when we went the day the mall opened, but it really wasn't. There was nothing to touch or climb on or explore. There were just big things to look at, like big planets half in the ground (that you couldn't touch), a globe fountain (turned off, of course) and a sun-dial that might work when the sun's angle is high enough to be above the mall roof.

The place where Jeremy and I used to work (and met at) donated a rocket. But it's possible the construction behind it was more interesting:



Alex had a lot to say:



Ariel was more excited about bogarting Adam's OJ.



3:30 We met Becky at Target, where we contined on (I got matching sweaters for the boys). Then to Whole Foods to get our fishy dinner. Then home.

And when we got home from our afternoon of fun, Adam put himself in a paper bag, as he is wont to do.

Dec. 7, 2006

Ok, so it's really December 12th and I'm trying to write this, but I need to put something down or Becky won't remember to pay me.

7:00ish Drop off. Breakfast, nap, yada yada.

10:30 We met Crissy and Gavin at Starbucks. We enjoyed some tasty beverages, then we went to Michaels to pick out frames for Crissy's new Wendy-made photos.

11:45 I said I would take Gavin home with me so Crissy could get some work done. We went home, I made a lunch of soy dogs and clemintines which no one really ate, while Ariel took a nap.

At some point, Ariel woke up and had some sort of lunch. We made chocolate chip cookies. That's all I remember. Gavin went home around 3:15.

4:30ish Pick up.

Dec. 5, 2006

7:00 Drop off. I was going to give Ariel some oatmeal, but since Alex hadn't touched his waffles, Ariel got those instead. This family sure likes waffles.

7:30 Nap.

8:45 Wake up, play.

10:00 Go to library for story time.

11:00 After the library, we picked up a CiCi's pizza and brought to Crissy's house for lunch. Ariel did not want to eat pizza today.

1:30 We left, and I drove the long way to get Adam to fall asleep in the car.

2:15 Got home, both Adam and Ariel were asleep and transfered to their beds.

3:00 Ariel woke up.

3:15 I had to wake Adam so we could meet Becky at Target at 3:30.

3:30 Drop off Ariel at Target. Then the boys and I continued on to a baby shower.

Dec. 4, 2006

7:15 Drop off. Good thing Becky was late, I had just gotten out of bed.

7:20 Breakfast. Becky, you were right, she did not touch the banana. She did, however, eat nearly 6 mini-waffles.

7:40 Down for nap. I only went in once to lay her back down.

8:15 Wake up call. Ariel had fallen asleep sitting and slumped over her blanket.

8:45 Super hard stroller class involving running up lots of escalators. Adam is really bonding with the instuctor,s 1 1/2 and 4 year old daughters. It's so cute to hear him say he wants to go to the mall to see his friends. Though he's really not that particular, he'll ask anyone old enough to walk, "Are you my friend?"

10:00 I had to go to the market research place to return my hideous air "freshner." They did not ask if I left it plugged in and I still got to walk away with my $25.

10:45 Home, Ariel asleep, transfered to crib. Before I showered, I cleaned both bathrooms. Yay me! Now my house is clean again after my busy weekend of doing Crissy and my holiday pictures and cards.

12:15 Ariel woke up and refused broccoli and soy hot-dog but ate Cheerios.

12:40 Left to pick up Alex.

1:40 After picking up Alex, we went to Crissy's house. She helped me take Ariel's holiday dress pictures.

The good.


The bad.


The ugly.


And the holiday card.


And right after we finished, Crissy changed a diaper. It's possible Ariel got grumpy because she was sitting in poop.

3:30 Becky picked Ariel up from Crissy's house.

Dec. 1, 2006

So I'm sure you are wondering how Adam's half birthday went.

First, the boys helped me make the cake and frosting:



And here's the one layer cake cut in half to make a half-double layer cake (notice the half candle):



And then we sang, "Happy half-birthday to you..."



7:00 Drop off. Breakfast - I cut up a slice of clemintine, Ariel threw it on the floor. She did eat about 1/4 cup of oatmeal.

7:30 Nap. Played more of that sitting up then crying game.

8:15 Go to stroller class.

8:45 Nice and tough stroller class. Have you ever tried to double legged jump up a flight of stairs with your knees as bent as possible? It is very hard.

10:45 Home, Ariel fell asleep in the car, transfered to crib. I showered.

12:30 Ariel woke up just in time to get her poopy diaper changed before going to pick up Alex from preschool.

1:00 Pick up.

1:20 Quick trip to Whole Foods.

2:00 Home. This time Adam fell asleep in the car and transfered to bed. Ariel ate lunch. Graham bunnies, some of the real mixed veggies (those which she didn't throw on the floor) and an entire cup of kid's yogurt.

3:00 I worked on Mom's project, scanning old pictures for Grannie's calendar.

Here's a pensive Becky:



And a fishing Wendy:



And a retro Laura (check out that guy's swim trunks):



4:00 Pick up.