April 30, 2007

7:15 Drop off. I was busy making waffles. Waffles don't last very long in our house.

7:45 Took the boys to swimming. Uncle JJ fed Ariel something orange and some waffles for breakfast.

8:00 Swimming - there was a lot of protest this morning, especially from Alex. But once they got into the water they both did well. Alex is excited that he gets to wear a wetsuit tomorrow, but I didn't tell him it's because he has to swimming in the 12' instead of the 4' section. He'll do fine.

8:35 Jeremy dropped Ariel off at the pool, and then took Alex to school.

8:50 We got home. I had breakfast and at some point changed a poopy.

10:30 We went for a bike ride. I've been neglecting Cammie for too long, she was very lonely. We did a little loop around on the bike paths. Adam and Ariel liked shrieking whenever we went under bridges.



11:15 Got home. Had lunch - mac & cheese (which I could have sworn Ariel said. She definitely said "cheese").

11:30 Quick photo session of Ariel's first summer outfit of the season:







11:40 Left to pick up Alex from school.

12:00 Pick up.

12:25 Got home. Ariel fell asleep in the crib and transfered.

2:30 Becky picked up Ariel early (last day of the month, I presume).

April 29, 2007

7:00 Drop off.

7:15 Breakfast - sweet potato and hot cereal. She ate an entire packet of the oatmeal, she must have been hungry from sleeping through dinner last night.

8:15 Left for preschool early so we could stop by the grocery store and get snack for Alex's class. Alex requested pretzels and strawberries, which was easy enough.

9:00 Get to preschool.

9:30 PALS. Ariel did better today. She went down the slide a bunch and seemed happier.

11:00 Left for lunch. Ariel was awake and happy. She ate some of my pancake. She also poured water all over herself and the table.

Ariel really likes looking at pictures of "baby" on my camera. But first I have to take the picture, but Ariel was really impatient:



And Miss Mae-Mae:



12:30 Back to school for Shabbat sing. Ariel fell asleep in the car and I carried her in. She slept all the way through the sing, which is pretty darn amazing. It was very noisy and kids kept almost stepping on her.

1:00 Stayed after school and played on the playground.

1:30 Left school. I drove home the long way hoping for Adam to fall asleep because Alex requested going to services tonight and I wanted Adam to be fresh for them. But of course, Adam didn't fall asleep.

2:00 Got home, gave Ariel her medicine. Then she had more lunch - mushed peas and yogurt.

3:00 Down for a nap.

4:00 Pick up.

And we did go to Shabbat services. It wasn't a kid service but it was early. While the boys did sit the whole way through the service without needing to go to daycare, I think I am going to have to only do Tot Shabbat with them. I don't want them to burn out and the adult services are pretty boring. I'm excited for summer when we can do the Flagstaff services outside, those are really nice.

April 26, 2007

7:00 Drop off. I was busy making waffles in my new old waffle maker (thank mom and dad!). I have come to realize I could save significant money by making waffles instead of buying the organic mini waffles that the kids are addicted to.

7:30 Breakfast - Ariel had some sweet potatoes and some waffle.

7:40 Took boys to swimming. More progress today. Adam is working on floating and is getting it. Alex is working on swimming and then floating to rest and he is getting there too. But they both still have about 3 weeks of private lessons left before we can switch to a weekly class.

8:30 Jeremy dropped Ariel off at the pool. He reported that she did NOT poop for him.

8:45 Got home. I had breakfast, then Ariel went down for a nap.

9:30 Ariel napped and the boys watched the Empire Strikes Back and I worked on my Turkey Toe book. (It's getting there Greg, I'm in the final tweaking stages).

11:30 Ariel woke up. We all had lunch. Ariel had mac & cheese and the rest of the sweet potatoes and yogurt.

12:00 I even remembered to give Ariel the antibiotics for her sinus infection.

1:00 We left for a play date with Rachel and baby Lilliana.


1:20 Changed a poopy in the parking lot. We met our friends in a park in Lafayette that I've never been to. It looks like a great area to go to, I think the boys could ride their bikes all around the lake because there are no hills.

I parked at the wrong lot so we had to walk 1/4 of a mile, but we found Rachel and Lilliana and the playground.

Ariel, as always, preferred the slides, even after I pushed her in the baby swings.





2:45 Alex had to poop, so we left the playground for the port-o-potty, then went home.

3:15 Small ice cream snack at DQ. I have Ariel some of my blizzard in a small cup and she dipped her spoon in it and licked it. I don't think she ate much, but it fulfilled her need to be included in whatever the big boys do.

3:45 Get home.

4:30 Pick up.

And my public service announcement... I was going back and forth as to whether I would start up my old MS walk blog or just post my updates here. As you can see from Tuesday's post, I had decided to just post here too, when Ellen came up with the brilliant idea of doing a joint MS Walk blog. Because somehow I talked Ellen into doing the walk with me (obviously she has no clue what she's getting into).

So here are some links for your viewing pleasure:

Ellen and Wendy's MS Walk blog

Sponsor me online

April 24, 2007

I'm sure it will interest everyone to know that I got up at 6:30 today with no problems. But that was probably because I had a headache last night and went to bed with the boys at 7:00. Maybe I'm caught up on sleep now and this can happen every morning!

7:00 Drop off.

7:15 Breakfast - mixed veggies and hot cereal.

7:40 I took the boys swimming.

8:00 Swimming lessons.

Adam was very disappointed that I didn't get in the water with him today. He did fine, but he asked, "Am I done now?" several times. And I even took a video of him:



Alex did really good too. He didn't have the wet suit on today so he wasn't floating as well, but he was swimming really strong. I think I motivated him by telling him that as soon as he could do everything the instructor asked, then he could be done with lessons. I taped him too:



8:30 Met Jeremy and Ariel at the pool.

8:45 Got home, Ariel went down for a nap.

9:15 Started baking a cake for my class tonight while Alex watched Star Wars.

10:15 Pulled the cake out of the oven just in time to wake Ariel up and go to story time at the library.

10:25 Story time - we met Ellen et. al there. Her kids are a bit under the weather and Mae was done. I took Ariel and Mae around the library and they were entertained. Alex has Zevvy, the preschool wolf today:



11:00 After story time we all went to our Friday lunch spot. Having all 6 kids was very daunting. Try to imagine this as a panoramic of our table:





I gave Ariel some of Alex's french toast but she wouldn't touch it. She did have some apple juice though.

Ariel would be glad to take Zevvy home:



12:30 MS Training Walk #1


Ellen very generously took Alex home with her so I could go walk at the mall with Adam and Ariel. Because, guess what? I'm doing the MS 50 mile walk again and today was the first day of training. And luck would have it that it was pouring buckets ALL day long. And since I'm a bit OCD, I can't miss a training day, let alone the first one.


Anyway, I went to the mall and walked and it wasn't bad. Ariel wasn't impressed, but when is she ever?


I was going to take this picture on the outside of the mall but it was so cold and windy and wet that I chickened out. But I'm not complaining, we really need the rain:




The mall. For 7 1/2 laps (4 downstairs, 3 1/2 upstairs)




And I promised Adam a treat since he didn't get to go to Ted's house so they got cookies. Ariel took one bite before crumbling hers up all over the place. She didn't even eat the M&Ms:



2:00 We went to Ellen's to pick up Alex. Ellen put up the pack-n-play so Ariel could nap and we could stay longer. Ariel fussed for a bit but then went right to sleep when I gave her my sweatshirt:



The boys ran around and shot things with the lego guns that had just built. Then they watched Cars.

3:45 I had to wake Ariel up so we could meet Becky at the doctor's office.

4:15 Drop off Ariel with Becky at the doctor's office. Ariel is having an appointment to see why her nose has been running for a month and she's so grumpy.

And here is the cake from my cake class:





The next class is not offered next month so I'll be taking a break and have one less thing on my plate.

April 23, 2007

Happy Monday. I'm still recovering from my "business trip" down to Turkey Toe to finish up some picture taking. I wanted some nice spring pictures with snow on the high peaks, but I woke up to a light dusting of snow. But now worries, it soon melted so I got both winter and spring shots, posted here. There's soon to be a book, stay tooned.

7:00 Drop off.

7:30 Breakfast. Ariel had apricots, but didn't want any oat squares or puffins.

Jeremy informed me that Ariel poops every day at 8:10. Interesting...

7:45 Adam was awake at 6:15 pooping, but he went back to bed so I had to wake him up for swimming.

8:00 Swimming class. Adam was glad I was back in the water. His heart and spirit are into it, but his skill is lacking. But Alex did really well. One week ago, he was scared and had a death grip on the instructor. Today he swam 10 feet across the pool. Now that he's got some confidence, he'll get through these lessons really fast.

8:30 Jeremy dropped Ariel off at the pool and took Alex to school.

8:45 We got home. Ariel had some hot cereal with me.

9:45 Ariel went down for a nap.

10:10 Laura came over for Hannah's 1 month pictures. Hannah was very awake and happy, so it was an easy shoot:

Hannah

11:30 Ariel woke up. She was happy to see "Hana."

12:30 Laura went home.

Quick lunch of string cheese.

12:45 Left to pick up Alex.

1:00 Pick up. Then we played outside for a bit.

2:00 Got home.

4:15 Pick up.

April 20, 2007

It's springtime! My snow crab is blooming! (Alex - I see why it's called a snow crab, it looks like there's snow on it).



Ok, it's kinda hard to see the blooms in that picture, but you can see how I would have a good view of the mountains if there weren't trees in the way.

Here's blooms:



And Crissy requested a picture of a Colorado blue sky:



7:00 Drop off.

7:15 Breakfast - blueberries and oatmeal.

8:00 Changed a poopy. I think Jeremy had to change a poopy 4 times this week!

8:45 Left for preschool. Ariel fell asleep in the car.

9:00 Got to preschool, Ariel stayed asleep when I put her in the stroller.

9:30 PALS - Ariel slept through most of it. Like this:



And here's Mae either pondering or sampling the play-doh:



10:10 Ariel finally woke up. She spent the rest of PALS on my lap, but she seemed to enjoy watching the other kids.

11:10 Left for lunch. Very yummy eggs florentine for me. I'm turning into a hollandaise sauce addict, I need to put an end to that.

I gave Ariel some oatmeal and a spoon but she used the spoon as a device to spread oatmeal all over the table and I don't think she put any in her mouth.

12:30 Back to preschool for Shabbat sing. Ariel really liked it again. Mostly, she was just happy to see Alex (or so I gather from her very enthusiastic "Alec!")

1:30 After playing outside for a bit, Ellen and I came up with a plan. It was such a nice day, we thought everyone should play outside. So I was to go home and get the boys' bikes and then go to Ellen's house for a playdate. And since we can't go anywhere together anymore without our kids riding in each other's cars, she had Alex and Adam and I got Sam and Mae. And somehow, my normal 10 minute drive took 30 minutes. I hit about 4 lights that I had to wait several rotations. God bless Boulder. Sam and Mae both fell asleep. Ariel did not, she kept trying to tell Mae about her Elmo mirror.

2:30 Finally got to Ellen's house. Of course Sam and Mae woke up. I think they work up when I put the bikes in my car and Ariel starting throwing a fit because she wanted to play with them. It was a, uh, piercing, scream.

And then the bike thing didn't go as well as planned. We went up to the end of Ted's street. He rode up, then rode home and got his scooter, then rode home and never came back. Sam and Alex decided they were hungry. Adam did well as long as he stayed away from any hills.



Ariel thought she was da bomb with her own bike:



I did put sunscreen on her and I tried to get her to wear Alex's hat, but she, uh, refused. Many many times.

3:15 Ended back at Ellen's house. The boys ate corn dogs.

3:45 Left.

4:00 Becky picked up Ariel at Target-ole.

April 19, 2007

We have very sad news. Snowflake, the preschool guinea pig, passed away this week. This is Alex's first death and he's very upset. They talked about Snowflake and death at preschool yesterday, and then Alex was very sad in the evening.

I did get the preschool director to give Alex a picture of Snowflake to remember her by. RIP, Snowflake :(



7:10 Drop off.

7:30 Breakfast - Ariel ate mushed apricots but didn't do too well with the waffles.

7:40 Took the boys swimming. Everything went MUCH better this morning. Alex didn't fight getting dressed and going to the pool.

8:00 Swimming. Adam did alright. He thought I was getting in the water too, and when I didn't he was a bit sad. He's swimming well between people, but not so well to walls, so that's what he'll work on next week. Alex was a rock star. He floated on his back and on his belly and almost didn't grab the instructor at all. He even did some gliding where he wasn't touching ANYTHING but water.

8:30 Jeremy met us at the pool with Ariel.

8:45 I got home and realized I didn't know where my purse was. I called Jeremy to see if I left it in his car, but I didn't. I started looking around, then I remembered that when I pulled up to the house I saw a note taped to the door. I checked the note and it turns out I left my purse on the sidewalk and a neighbor found it and put in in my backyard. Yeesh.

Ariel went down for a nap.

10:10 Woke up Ariel, we left to meet Ellen for coffee.

10:20 Starbucks. I got coffee and all the kids but Ariel had a donut.

10:50 Left Starbucks with an extra kid, Ted. I figured I needed to pay Ellen back for Tuesday.

I love eavesdropping on the boys. Ted never calls Ariel by her name, he always says, "Your baby" as in "Look Alex, your baby is eating goldfish off the floor." Here's a conversation I overheard in the car:

Ted: How old is your baby?
Alex: She's one.
Ted: Did your baby come out of your mommy's belly?
Alex: No, she came out of someone else's belly.
Ted: Mae came from China.
Alex: Ariel came from Broomfield.

Ah, a somewhat less exotic birthplace, lol.

11:00 Got home, the kids played while I got ready for our Fabulous Adventure - The Aquarium! I packed us all a lunch and then we left.

11:30 Left for The Aquarium.

12:00 Aquarium.

The boys did really well staying together and staying with me:



Ted checks out the fish up high:



Ariel was exciting too. I swore I heard her say, "Fish!"



And here are 3 pirates:



And the shark tank:



At the end we even hand fed the manta rays. Alex went first and then Adam was just going to toss his fish into the water, so Ted did the last two fish.

1:00 Sack lunch on the patio. Ted had an apple and PB&J. Ariel had string cheese and yogurt. She wouldn't touch the bread or oat square cereal.

After lunch, the boys wanted to get giant suckers from the snack shop. That looked like a bad idea all around, so I told them we would get a treat somewhere else.

2:00 Left the Aquarium.

2:30 Stopped by the grocery store. The boys each picked out a $.12 Tootsie Pop and Ariel, who had fallen asleep in the car, stayed asleep all through the store. We also picked out Star Wars (episode 4, the original and the best) to watch for the first time. There are Star Wars legos next to the Bionicles and Alex has been asking lots of questions about them, so I figured he was ready so see the movie.

3:00 Got home. Boys played for a bit, then requested Star Wars.

3:50 Ted left.

4:20 Ariel pick up.

April 17, 2007

7:00 Drop off.

7:15 Breakfast - blueberries and hot cereal.

We had a delightful morning with Alex. He decided that he wouldn't have to go swimming if he didn't get ready. So he wouldn't get dressed or get his swimsuit on and Jeremy had to carry him out to the car (which would have worked better if Jeremy had put him in the correct car). And there was lots of screaming involved.

7:40 I took Alex and Adam to swimming. Adam did awesome. By the end of the lesson he was sitting on the wall and plopping in and swimming 5 feet to me, all on his own volition. It amazing how much he's improved in just 6 days.

Alex lesson was ok. He kept grabbing onto the instructor so she put him in the 12 food deep end of the pool to show him he could float and the water would hold him up. He seemed to have a different memory of the lesson and was quite proud of floating and rolling, so I didn't bring up his negative attitude.

8:30 Jeremy brought Ariel to the pool, we all went home. And Jeremy reported back that he had to change another poopy diaper. Poor Jeremy :(

8:45 Ariel took a nap, I baked cupcakes for tonight's cake decorating class.

10:15 Ted and Ellen joined us for storytime at the library. Ariel ate gold fish and drank juice and was mostly quiet.

11:00 Lunch at the Southside Walnut Cafe. All three boys ordered the funny face pancake. Ariel wouldn't eat anything (well, besides her menu and a crayon). Not pancakes, fruit, or biscuit. Sigh.

12:00 Quick trip to the CU museum.

1:00 Ellen very (very very) generously took Adam and Alex with her to Ted's soccer practice.

1:30 Ariel and I met Jeremy at the dentist office. I had my mini-spa day and Jeremy took Ariel to the bike store and the bank (where she fell asleep).

2:15 Jeremy dropped sleeping Ariel off with me.

2:30 I took Ariel to Michael's to buy some more food coloring. Ariel didn't really wake up when I took her inside.

3:00 Home - I made frosting with my new mixer (which ROCKS) while Ariel slept.

3:30 Ariel woke up. I gave her some Mac & Cheese, which she ate half of before dropping on the floor. The ants are going to love that residue.

4:00 Ellen dropped the boys off. Alex had lots of fun at soccer and Adam was a bit sad that he was too little to play.

4:30 Pick up.

And here are the cupcakes that I decorated. My teacher ended up doing the ones that are blue and green, we ran out of time. See that person in front, that's Jeremy:

April 16, 2007

Happy Monday. We had a nice weekend. Our whole family went to Friday night shabbat services to celebrate joining the temple. Probably the last time Jeremy will go for a while, he was not impressed (something about part of the reason that he was a grown up was so he didn't have to do religion). I thought he might tolerate it because we got a free dinner out of it too, but it was an eggplant dish, and Jeremy does hate eggplant. On Sunday, we all went with Jeremy to the Air Force Academy to watch him race.

Alex's favorite building was the "Punchy Building" aka the Chapel:



He really wanted to see the inside with all the colors, but there was a service going on so we just peaked in:



And as far as watching Jeremy race, it was not that exciting. It was a 12 mile loop done 3 times, so we only saw him 3 times and there was a lot of waiting in between. Jeremy racing looks like this (guy in orange):



If you want to see more of Jeremy racing, look here.

7:15 Late drop off.

7:30 Breakfast - apricots and hot cereal.

7:45 I took the boys to their swimming lesson, Jeremy (aka JJ) watched Ariel.

8:00 Swimming - Adam did very well today. I was in the pool with him and he swam back and forth between the instructor and me very happily. But he's still not kicking well so we're working on that.

8:10 Alex's first lesson. I don't think he was impressed. He had a death grip on the instructor and wouldn't do half of what she asked. At least he didn't cry and he only said he wanted to get out once.

8:45 Jeremy met us at the pool with Ariel. He reported back that he had to change a poopy. Which I also don't think he was impressed with, something about thinking he was done with all of that.

Jeremy took Alex to school and I drove Adam and Ariel to our fun swim day.

9:15 Fun swimming with the stroller workout moms! Ariel was very quiet and cautious. She spent most of the time sitting in my lap in the water and chewing on her hand. A few times she reached out to play with a fountain or kick her legs, but for the most part she was curiously quiet and still. Which was for the best because Adam was a wild mad man and was all over the pool going down slides and playing with all the water features.

After swimming, we had a snack. One mom brought bagels. How sweet was that, I didn't bring anything:



11:00 After swimming, we played at the indoor play place which is a lot like the tunnels at Chuck E Cheese if they were nicer and cleaner. Ariel didn't go up but she played with the lower stuff for a bit, then wanted in my lap. I could see she would fall asleep in my lap, so next came the hard part of getting Adam out of the tunnels without going up there myself (which always makes me feel like a cockroach in a sewer). After some shouting and mild threatening, I got Adam to come down.

11:30 Left the pool

12:00 Got home. Ariel was already asleep and went into her crib. I told Adam I was going to shower and he told me that swimming makes him tired, so I suggested that he lay down. When I got out of the shower, I found Adam wrapped up in Alex's and Jeremy's blankets (poor guy probably was looking for his blankies, which were in the wash because he had an accident this morning):



12:30 Realized both kids were asleep and I still had to pick up Alex. I called Ellen to see if she could help, but she wasn't in Boulder. Then I called the preschool to see if Alex could stay for enrichment, but they didn't have any spots left. So I had to load up both sleepies and get Alex. They actually stayed asleep until we got to school.

1:10 Pick up Alex.

1:30 Trip to Target-ole. I needed to replace my hand held mixer that died last week on during my third batch of buttercream frosting. First, we had to look at the Bionicles. And to say something sweet about Alex, he said he wanted to give Adam $5 so Adam could get Fulox. Not that Alex even has $5, but it was a sweet sentiment. Alex was very interested in the Baraki outpost, only $29.99. That would take Alex about 4 months to earn.

And my very exciting Target-ole find, when I was getting some more crisco (for the buttercream frosting) I wandered by the tea aisle and saw Jeremy's chai for only $2.10. Which brings me back to another story... Last night I walked to the grocery store to buy Jeremy some bread and chai so he wouldn't starve to death and when I did the self check I found $5 in the change slot. Very exciting!!! Anyway, the chai I bought last night was $5.99, so when I saw it at Target-ole for only $2.10 I was VERY excited and I bought 10 (Jeremy goes through about 3 a week). So it's like I saved $40!!! (Let's just forget about the new mixer I bought for $37 for a minute, shall we?)

Checking out of Target-ole, Adam decided he needed a pretzel, so I got each boy one. Ariel wouldn't eat any.

2:45 Got home. Ariel had some Mac & Cheese and NO mushed peas.

While playing outside, Ariel tripped on the garden hose and bumped her head on the glass door (so that's where the goose egg on her forehead came from, Becky).

Much screaming was done by all this afternoon (and Crissy, I made it until 4:30 before I had my beer). Alex's pinky nail finally fell off (very very GROSS). I don't even know what was wrong with Adam, but he was screaming too.

4:30 Pick up (and beer. Mmmmm, beer).

April 13, 2007

Every once in a while I like to shake things up a bit. Today I got out of bed without Jeremy having to wake me. I showered and everything.

7:00 Ariel drop off.

7:10 Breakfast - mushed blueberries and oatmeal. And she still getting the berry fish oil too.

8:45 Left for preschool.

9:00 Dropped Alex off at his class, hung out in the halls for a while.

9:30 PALS class. Ariel refused to enjoy herself today. I think she went down the slide once and spent the rest of the class sitting in my lap.

11:00 Sweet, glorious lunch. But instead of sleeping under the table, Ariel slept in the stroller.

12:30 Shabbat sing.

1:45 Got home. I tried to feed Ariel lunch. She had 1/2 jar of peas and a bite out of a muffin. Mr. Ellen may be right, Ariel's diet does seem to consist of Jamba Juice and cookies, but I do try. Really, I do.

Little photoshoot. I wanted to try out a hat I found at the Target-ole dollar spot. This was as close to wearing it as Ariel got:



Her close-up:







(Notice the 6-8 inches of snow that are not on the ground. You know, if you put 100% chance of snow in a weather report, you'd better hope it's already snowing.)

Next, I put a video on, hoping it was distract Ariel from her melancholy. She watch the Lion King Sing Along for a few songs, then did her own thing. It was very cute though, Alex kept telling her to watching something because it was funny or cute or she would like it (see, he's not always a monster):



4:15 Pick

Oh, and here's a funny story from yesterday. Little Miss Button pusher managed to change our scale from pounds to metric. It took Jeremy a bit to figure out how, a switch on the bottom. I tell you, it's a gift.

April 12, 2007

There's my cake. Isn't in bee-u-tea-ful? In all honesty, I could have hacked this cake before the class, but I've already learned some nice tips and short cuts and ways for making it look better, so I'm glad I'm doing this. And Jeremy was such a baby about taking the cake to work. This was the design we were supposed to do (it was my first transfer using piping gel, see that was a cool thing to learn) and Jeremy thought it was too dumb to take to work. Now, I did spent about 3 hours on the cake and I wanted someone to enjoy, but preferable not only me. I told Jeremy to tell his coworkers that his DUMB wife is taking a DUMB cake decorating class and to just eat the DUMB cake. How hard is that? But yeah, he eventually agreed to take it after I threatened to eat the whole thing.

7:00 Miss Ariel arrived.

7:40 Changed a poopy.

7:45 I took Adam to his swim lesson. Today was MUCH better. I got in the water with him and he swam between me and his instructor. He didn't cry or even ask if it was time to get out. Now we just have to work on his form. He's still using his arms too much and not kicking enough. But I was very excited at how well it went today, it's not fun watching him be miserable.

8:20 Jeremy drove my car with Alex and Ariel to the pool, we all went home.

9:15 Ellen once again came up with a great plan - Pump it Up.

9:45 But first, we met for coffee. Mmmmmm coffee. And then Ellen bought her kids cookies so I had to buy them a cookie and I bought them some Naked Juice and then Ellen had to buy her kids a smoothie.

10:15 Realized it was a bit late and left the coffee place.

10:30 Pump it up. MUCH better than the bouncy place last week. Not nearly as crowded and no big kids (other than Ted and Alex the monsters - more on that later.)

And not just bouncy tents, also cars:



Ariel liked getting in, shutting the door, opening the door, getting out. Repeat repeat.



But what Ariel REALLY liked was the bouncy slide. As you can see from the video, she was doing this all by herself (well, not the getting up, but the getting down). We must have done it 20 times. We went in a bouncy tent too, but she decided that the exit ramp was another, smaller slide so she wouldn't stay in the tent.



11:25 And then the monster story - a woman came up to Ellen to tell her that Alex and Ted were kicking her daughter in the face. Alex didn't even deny it. They were going up the big slide and so was the girl and they just kicked her out of the way, and later pushed her down the slide. Very distressing to hear this. Earlier we had seen Alex climb over a boy going up the slide, but that didn't seem malicious, he just wasn't thinking.

Oy, I didn't come up with great consequences. Immediately we pulled the boys off the equipment and put them on a bench. And when they tried to sneak off, I used my scary voice across the room and they got right back on (I think I scared Ellen too). And Alex asked for a few privileges like having Ted over, which were also denied.

12:00 We still met for lunch, though Ted opted to go home and stay with his Dad. We went to Noodles (well, we were going to go to Noodles and Wahoo's but Wahoo's was too busy so I didn't eat) and kids shared a pesto cavatappi and then Ariel fell asleep in my lap.

1:00 Got home, Ariel went to sleep in the crib.

2:45 Ariel woke up.

2:50 Changed a poopy.

3:00 Ran errands, mailed some packages, went to the store. I actually bought food for tonight, we'll have a Red Lentil Dal soup and things to dip in hummus. And of course the kids had cookies and Ariel only ate half. Then she dug through my purse and found my cell phone and played with that for a while.

4:00 Got home.

4:30 Pick up.

April 10, 2007

6:55 EARLY drop-off. Good thing I was prepared.

7:45 Adam was not looking forward to swimming today so to make it easier I asked him if he wanted me or Jeremy to take him. He picked me, so Jeremy stayed home and fed Alex and Ariel waffles.

8:00 Adam's swim lesson was very sad. He kept saying, "I'm all done now" and the instructor would say, "No you aren't" and shove his head underwater. He needs to start kicking his legs and then he'll be through phase I.

8:20 Jeremy drove my car with Alex and Ariel to the pool, and then went on to work.

8:45 We got home. I put Ariel down for a nap but it didn't take.

9:30 We rode our bikes to the library.

10:15 Storytime.

11:15 Rode our bikes back home. Alex was driving me CRAZY. Apparently if his bike moves under it's own weight, that means he's going to fast. The way to the library is slightly uphill, which means the way home is slightly downhill. Alex cried the whole way home even though he was riding his brakes. And I was shouting, "Just let go of the brakes and steer!" And he was not going fast, I was walking way faster with Adam. So I think Jeremy needs to get him going fast before we try this again, it just really pushed my buttons more than it should have.

11:30 Lunch - Ariel had sweet potatoes and string cheese.

11:45 Ariel went down for a nap. I worked on my Cake College homework (aka Michael's beginning cake decorating class). My cakes turned out fine, but I had some trouble with the frosting. I think I made the buttercream too thick and I couldn't spread it well and then it got crumbs. :( Tonight at class I'll decorate it with a rainbow, then figure out what the heck to do with a double-layer devil's food cake with pudding filling cake besides eat it myself. I'm trying to convince Jeremy to take it to work...



2:00 Ariel woke up crabbier than usual. I think she's got a tooth coming in.

Got out my 50mm lens that has been driving me crazy. This time I put the shutter speed at 1/200 sec and the pictures are in focus. So maybe I've just had the shutter speed to low before (I usually have it at 100).

Here's grouchy Ariel:



And I really like this one of Adam:



And about as good as to be expected from Alex:



3:30 I don't usually do this, but I put in Baby Einsteins for the kiddos and it took Ariel's mind off her grouchiness.

4:30 Pick up.

April 9, 2007

Happy Easter!



Friday's blog was a little skimpy, but I think I'm going to make up for it today. First, I hope you had a nice holiday weekend. We spent Easter with Greg and Judy and had a wonderful time. Much chocolate was consumed by all.

I took enough pictures that I think I'm just going to put a link to them.

Easter Pictures

7:00 Drop off. We waited to have breakfast because Adam had his first swimming lesson today and he can't eat before.

7:30 Adam and Jeremy left for swimming, we had breakfast. Ariel had mixed veggies and waffles.

8:10 On the way out the door to pick up Adam, Alex pointed out a giant conga line of ants marching through our dinning room and into the kitchen. We get ants every year at this time but they seem worse this year. My usually MO is to swiffer them up until they get sick of scouting in the house, but that's not helping. Neither did washing my floors with vinegar (but that needed to happen anyway). And then Ariel pooped so we were late getting Adam.

8:30 Pick up Adam. We were instructed to bring two towels and a mat, which we were unclear of its purpose. Jeremy reported that the mat seems to be for Adam to huddle and cry on after his lesson. Poor boy. The first week or so is hard but then he'll get it and have fun. Alex will start in a few weeks too.

9:45 Ellen is a good friend to have around. She's a planner. Because of Passover, there was no school today but Ellen came up with a full itinerary. We were to meet Ellen and her crew for a bike ride. Since she was running late, I stopped by Starbucks (Crissy, Dorothy says she misses you and says hi.) And after I got the coffee, Alex told me that he had to poop, so we had to go back in and take care of that. So all in all, we ended up being the late ones.

10:20 Met Ellen at the trail head. Alex rode his bike. Adam rode his tricycle with the pusher handle (so it's like a hard-to-maneuver stroller without the niceties of a cup holder and basket) and Ariel rode in the backpack, which she seemed to like. Alex couldn't keep up with Ted the Biking Machine, but he did ride all the way to the park without complaining, which is a record for both distance and whining.

11:00 Dinosaur park:

Ariel did the slide by herself:



Mae did too (though she thought she needed help):



Ted following Sam down the roller slide:



And Alex after Ted:



Adam showing Ariel the ins and outs of digging:



Poor Ole who couldn't go to the dog park by himself:



A great time was had by all at the park. Ariel did eat some sand, but I think she's going to be fine.

12:00 Left the park, had to ride back to the cars.

12:30 Phase II of plan, lunch at Jamba Juice and the bagel store.

So, the parking lot at Jamab Juice may very well be the worst parking lot in Boulder. But Boulder has so many to choose from, I won't make that declaration. But it's bad. The section by Jamba Juice is always full at lunch, and if a spot does open up, it's right at the exit to a large shopping center with a ton of traffic. Ellen got there first and after I orbiting around the lot once, a spot opened by Ellen's car and she tried to save it for me. But the car in front of me got there first and Ellen had to bribe the driver with a Jamba Juice to let me have it. Luckily another spot opened up, otherwise I don't think he was going to give it too me. But there was one problem with the spot, it was a tad small. But Ellen gave me the go ahead and so I parked there. I would never park like this unless it was Ellen's car (which she gave me permission to scrape and bump) but I can't imagine what people thought when they saw our cars.



Aren't our cars cute? They are like brothers. Same model but I think Ellen's is an '05 and mine is an '04.

Ariel was asleep (she had fallen asleep in the backpack on the way back) so I put her in the stroller and she stayed asleep. We got Jamba Juice, then headed over to the bagel store. At some point Ariel woke up and drank her juice, but only sucked on a bagel.

2:00 After lunch we stopped by Performance to get Alex and Adam some bike gloves just like Ted the Biking Machine.

2:30 Home. I managed to return two phone calls, which felt like a huge accomplishment (even though I had to leave a message for one).

3:00 Quick snack, yogurt and half a jar of sweet potatoes.

3:15 After changing a poopy, Ariel went down for a nap.

4:30 Pick up.

And a little Found Money update (or as I like to call it now, Treasure Hunting). My grand total of found money since 7-6-2007 is $89.06. That includes $.65 of interest, but not the $5 peso coin, an Australian penny or two RTD coins of undetermined value. Not bad for 9 months. Think I can earn a plane ticket in a year?

And one more thing. A while back, Crissy asked me what I've been knitting. I updated my knitting page with recent projects (click on the link under my picture on the right).