December 15, 2008

So today I'm going to make up for all the skimpy blogs of late. We actually did something new and picture-worthy this weekend - the boys had their first swim meet. We drove up to Greeley at 7:00 is sub-zero weather for 2 minutes of racing. But I digress...

Alex raced first in the 7 and under 25 meter breast stroke. They had the 25 meter races start at the wrong end of the pool, which was disappointing because the kids didn't dive off the blocks. My kids can actually do that. So here we go, Alex:



Closer up:



And his start:



Uh, he is breast stroking:



And after the race:



Alex did get disqualified - he was doing too many kicks for arm pulls and his hands went below his waist. But he has a great frog kick so I think he may get this stroke soon. It's easy to DQ on, so no biggy.

Adam waiting in the gym to get seated for his heat (see the red marks on his forehead? He wore his googles all day):



The boys' heat for the 7 and under 25 free. Alex is on the left and Adam on the right:



Adam getting ready to start:



And the start:



And Adam free styling (see the splashes? That means he moved his arms or kicked his legs!)



And see the smile? He loves swimming.



And my HUGE mistake of the day, I didn't hand off the video camera to Jeremy. When Adam was 3/4 of the way down the pool, the life guard jumped in, convinced Adam wasn't going to make it. At first I didn't know what was going on. Jeremy said he heard the coach yelling, "Don't touch him! Let him finish!" And when Adam got out of the pool he got the biggest applause of the day. I'm afraid I didn't properly thank the life guard, I was too busy being offended. Why would I put my child in a situation where he might drown? He's made it through countless practices this year with no problems. Did the guard think we were all going to stand there and watch him drown? Anyway, I figure it will make a funny story when Adam goes to the Olympics and breaks all of that Phelps guy's records.

And one of the other moms took this of us waiting (for like 2 hours) for our races:



And on to Monday. Today when Ariel arrived, hair was truly picture worthy:



And 13 minutes later, I got it down to this:



Oh yes, I EARN my paycheck.

So I got all the kids off to school. It took almost an hour round trip to get Ariel to preschool because it was -2 and the roads were pretty slick. When I got home, I found all these penguins on my bed:



They are a cute story because I was looking for possible Hanukah gifts for the Ariel and saw these:



But they are discontinued (I think *all* kid k'nex have been discontinued) and you can only get them off of eBay or amazon for quadruple the original price. Anyway, I mentioned the set at dinner but didn't show the boys any pictures and the next day our house was full of penguins. Who needs a specialty kit?

So the rest of the day was fine. Ariel had a good day at school. Her substitute teacher was Karen, one of Alex's pre-k teachers. She got a kick out of Ariel ("she's a pistol") and said the last time she saw her she wasn't even walking. We got home and Ariel had some mac & cheese and then went down for a nap and actually fell asleep. Hallelujah!

December 12, 2008

So today is going to be a catch-all for the last three days, you know, just so you are prepared. Ariel's Monday morning was great. She had another good day at school with no accidents. The afternoon, not so much. I put her down for a nap and she was quiet for a while, but not sleeping. Then she was not quiet, but acting in such a way that I thought it was prudent to keep trying at the nap. She cried for 45 minutes, which had me doubting myself.

Wednesday morning was also fine. Again, no accidents at school and there was a birthday boy with cupcakes. I decided that after Monday's napping debacle, we would skip the nap all together. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store and Ariel had a rage blackout. First, she was upset that I took her out of the cart after she wouldn't keep sitting (and yeah, she takes off the seat belt). Then it was because she took her boots off and I wouldn't put them on for her. And it was super loud and long. I'm surprised I haven't been banned from the store yet, but I'm sure they have noticed the thousands of dollars we spend there.

After we got home, she and Adam fought more than usual and she had several more meltdowns. I ignored some of those while immersed in a baking project. The Rocky Mountain News published some store bought cookie recipes and I made the nutter butters. And oh my gawd they were good. I purposely didn't make the oreos, thinking that if it wasn't chocolate, I could control myself. No such luck. They were a hit with Alex and Adam, but Ariel did not care for hers. And all in all, it appears that our choices are to have Ariel cry in bed about taking a nap, or have multiple tantrums due to being overtired. Right now, I'm leaning towards the bed option because the closed door does muffle it a bit.

And this morning, once again we managed to get everyone off to work and school on time with my 6:30 swim class. And I have to brag a teeny bit on this, the last two weeks the coach has been teaching us the fly stroke. While I do think it may be impossible to learn strokes after the age of 30, I was able to get my arms out of the water this week. And I did my first IM, 4 lengths of each stroke (fly, back, breast and free). Let me tell you, I'm so glad the boys are doing swimming, learning this stuff as an adult is HARD.

When we got home, Ariel and I did our exercises, then showered and went to the mall. All morning Ariel had been saying her tummy hurt, but she was also saying her hand hurt so I was kinda ignoring her. While walking to the mall, Ariel projectile vomited. And in such a way she didn't get any on her, which I commend her for. We were meeting Ellen, whom I called to let her know we would not be making it, and also if she could please tell the mall about the mess. Then we went home. I put Ariel in front of a video with the barf bucket and she was ok until Becky came to pick her up.

December 5, 2008

Ariel (and I by association) had a very rough morning. She had her first tantrum because I told her we weren't walking Alex to school. It was 7 degs and I figured that Alex could do his character building walk by himself, I've been there, done that. Her next tantrum was because she wanted juice and I had only soy milk or water to offer her. She spent quite a bit of time screaming in her bed until she was calm enough to be around other humans (uh, me).

Then she played very nicely by herself with the matchbox cars and the kid k'nex while I talked to Crissy and did chores. We talked for an obscene amount of time, but with our headsets we really do get a lot done. I swear.

We picked up Adam and ran a bunch of chores - getting wine, returning a library book, stopping at the grocery store. When we got home, the kids had a very small lunch of mac & cheese. At 1:15 they went outside to play. They were still playing at 2:30, when it was time to get Alex. When we got home, Adam came inside for hot chocolate and Ariel played outside even longer with Alex. She came in around 3:00 with accident wet pants wanting some hot chocolate.

Afterward, she and Adam had a little art session.



So I'm crying because I took Ariel's hot chocolate away because she wouldn't stop making a mess with the straw and *she* started to cry, which made me sad. Ariel is being chased by bees, for reasons unknown. Mae is also crying, probably because during one of Ariel's many tantrums today, one of the boys said, "Ariel, you are freaking out more than Mae!" Anyway, I think it's a nice piece of artwork.



And pick up at 4:00.

December 4, 2008

We had another mystery drop off this morning, as I was at swim class. Which was an interesting class, our coach tried to teach us the fly stroke and I have a whole lot more respect for the kids. I think Alex's fly is better than mine.

Anyway, I got home to the usual pandemonium, compounded by the fact that it snowed a ton and Jeremy needed to shovel. We did manage to get the boys out the door and to school on time. Then I showered and ate breakfast and Ariel and I went to the doctor's.

I am vain enough that I had this sun spot frozen with liquid nitrogen to remove it. It was a fabulous appointment, Ariel and I waited half an hour to see the PA, then the procedure took approximately 3 minutes. Ariel did really well though, we looked at an ocean book together.



Getting out of the house to the doctors, I had a hell of a time getting Ariel to go potty. She finally did go, but then managed to pee in the car without even telling me until we got home. Nice. We had just enough time to get her cleaned up before we got Adam.

They had a small lunch of mac & cheese before they had playtime. Today, playtime consisted mostly of dressing up, which did not amuse me as I had to be fairly involved with the wardrobe changes:







1:30 Put Ariel down for a nap and it didn't take.

2:45 Got Ariel out of bed and tossed the whole crew outside in the 20 deg weather.



Uh, this won't end well:



And this didn't end well.



That snowball ended up in my face (and at least not my camera). I reacted very juvenilely by putting snow on Ariel's face. She cried for a bit until she realized she liked eating snow. She was out there munching like she has a major vitamin deficiency. What could she be missing? Bird poop? Pollution?



Monkey see, monkey do.



3:40 Took the boys to swim team. Ariel ate a snack and somehow managed to pee her pants again. At least, her pants were wet in a way more consistent with a pee accident, rather than a snow accident. And yet again she didn't say anything about it. Becky picked up Ariel at 4:15 at the pool.

December 3, 2008

There's something very invigorating about being woken in the pre-dawn hours by your four year old shouting, "It's snowing!" I kid, it's actually not invigorating at all. I thought I was dreaming until Jeremy shouted back, "Get into bed!"

Anyway, apparently some of you were confused by my link to that Rick Astley video. Well, you were just Rickrolled, the internet phenomenon sweeping the nation. Actually, Jeremy says "swept," it's over, jumped the shark. Even the Macy Thanksgiving parade was Rickrolled. And so were you. Did I mention Rickrolling was brought to you by the inventors of LOLcat? I can't wait to see what happens next!

Anyway, that's pretty much all I had for today. Ariel was here. She went to school. She didn't have an accident, though it was close. She still hadn't peed by noon so the teachers asked the school director to take her. It almost sounds like an intervention. But her bladder is getting strong! While she was at school, I did physical therapy and did another 1 mile run and I still don't hurt. Then I came home and worked on finishing proofing this session. Ariel came home, ate some mac & cheese and then went easily down for a nap.

And it snowed.

December 1, 2008

Wow. December. How did that happen? Anyway, I hope you all had a better Thanksgiving break than I did. I spent most of the time sick and miserable. We even had 3 kid-free days, one of which I spent the whole day in my jammies. So much for a fabulous ski vacation. Or even a sorta nice bike ride. Alright, enough of the pity party.

Ariel had a nice day. She had her usual yogurt for breakfast, then I spent 15 minutes combing her hair. Methinks not much hair combing was going on during break. Ariel went to school and I went to physical therapy. My PT wanted to watch me run today and I felt great. Two weeks of NOT running and I'm cured! The good news is she didn't see anything weird going on, so I'm cleared to start up again, very slowly. When I got home, I did a mile run and I remember that I actually *like* running when it doesn't hurt. I had my iPOD on and it felt great. I came home and did my strength routine and listened to Pandora (which rocks, by the way. You create your own station by seeding it with a song or band. For example, Goo Goo Dolls and Coldplay both lead to a comercial free Alice 105.9-likeness. Huh). When I finished, I had exactly 5 minutes to check my email before it was time to pick up Adam.

Adam and I stopped at the grocery store for dinner (bake ziti, amazingly everyone likes it), the mailing store and the yarn store.

We picked Ariel up at 1:00 and she was wearing the same pants she started in. When we got home she bounced on the futon with Adam and banged her head on the coffee table (hence the bandaid on her cheek) then ate some mac & cheese before taking a nap. I put her down around 2:00 but she didn't fall asleep for a while because Adam let her sleep with one of his new squeaky birds and she kept pushing the button. Chick-a-dee-dee-dee...

Anyway, I don't have any pictures for today, but there are some cute ones here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ariel will not be joining this week so I'd like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving now. And, let's not forget the reason behind this special holiday:

November 21, 2008

It's really amazing what I'll put up with to have a quiet morning. Case in point - Ariel and a pair of safety scissors bought me 45 minutes of peace and quiet this morning to enjoy the paper and my coffee. Of course, nothing is free...



After my lovely breakfast, Ariel and I went to Ashleigh's house for a baby welcoming party for Rachel and Jill. I was going to take lots of pictures of Ariel with friends Lilianna and Kyleigh, but she was shy for most of the morning. It's funny, but Lilianna and Kyleigh are always talking about Ariel but I don't think Ariel care much one way or the other.



Of course when we were ready to go she was rough housing with Jake and Xavier but I was done with the camera.

And here's one of the welcomed babies, Lilianna's new brother, Aiden:




Stay tuned for more cute baby pictures, I'm doing a shoot for Rachel tomorrow. (And Becky, that's the apple hat you saw on my counter and said it was too small for a real baby. Ha ha!)

We left the party when it was time to pick up Adam from school. We stopped by the grocery store to get salmon for tonight's dinner, then came home for lunch. Ariel was not hungry, having had some yogurt, apple and cookie at the party.

She went down for a nap at 1:30 and went right to sleep. Woke up at 3:45, pick up at 4:00.

November 20, 2008

I missed drop off this morning, I was at swim class, and after Tuesday's swim I decided that swim class is pretty important. On Tuesday I was swimming next to the swim team and these little kids, somewhere between 10-14 years old were kicking my butt. But this morning there were 4 ladies and I'm as good as any of them so I decide those kids must be super freaks or something. Bovine growth hormones, I'm sure.

I got home around 7:25, which gave Jeremy enough time to get to work for his 8:00 meeting.

Today was seasonably cold with freezing rain. The only good part about that is that some of the higher elevation birds come down when it's cold. This morning we saw a Spotted Towhee and a Dark-Eye Junco. And I finally got a picture of a crow (we have lots in the neighborhood, but they don't come to our yard). Doesn't take much to excite me.

At 8:00 I got Adam and Alex to school. Afterward, Ariel and I stopped at the grocery store to get some milk and Ariel had a pink cookie. Yes, at 8:15am. Then I came home and did my exercises (with some Ariel assistance), ate breakfast and showered.

Around 10:15 we went to the mall and met Ellen and Mae at Starbucks. I tried an Egg Nog latte and it was NOT good. But contrary to Jeremy's belief that I never try anything new, I do try to sample everything at Starbucks. And Noodles, for that matter. And then I had enough time to buy some Winn Detergent at Dick's, which I have heard is really good for getting sports clothes clean. We shall see.

I picked Adam up at 11:30, we came home and had lunch. Ariel had some barley vegetable soup and some grilled cheese with me. And during lunch, Adam spotted this new bird:



At first I thought it was a Red-Tailed Hawk, but then I noticed it doesn't have, uh, a red tail. I'm pretty sure this is a Cooper's Hawk, and it's our 25th bird species in our yard. Quite the milestone. I went outside to get a better picture and Adam came too and scared it away, so we didn't get to see it hunt a sparrow. That would have been cool.

After lunch Adam and Ariel played fairly nicely together until Ariel bit Adam and then it was nap time. She went to sleep today.

2:00 Becky picked up Ariel early. No, my husband did not relay that message. He's not good with stuff like that.

I originally took this picture series thinking I was doing Pre-Hair Comb, Post-Hair Comb, Post-School.

But here's what I got. Pre-Hair Comb. The picture does not do the tangles and mats justice. But the wide-eyed crazy look, that's real. This is At Home Ariel.



And here is Post-Hair Comb, aka School Ariel. Notice the demure smile, relaxed posture. Is it just the hairdo that transforms her?



And then I never did take the Post-School picture because she actually came home relatively clean with her bow still in.

So, Ariel went to school. I enjoyed the unseasonably warm morning by going on a bike ride. When I picked Ariel up, the teachers said that she had a slight fever and her nose was runnier than usual. When we got home Ariel finished her lunch and went down for a nap. But she didn't sleep.

At 2:30 I got her out and we went to Alex's school to make sure he connected with Gabriel for a play date. It was still warm so we all played on the playground for a while. Ariel quickly latched onto Riley when she saw the boys were not going to play with her. At 3:15 Ariel and I went back home (Adam went to the play date too, Gaberiel's mom is nice like that) and she went back down for a nap and slept this time.

4:30 Pick up.

November 17, 2008

So we had another busy weekend AND there are pictures this time. On Sunday, Ellen, Becky and I did the Panicking Poultry 5k run. I'll shorten this by not enumerating all the ways Dad added chaos to our day and just skipping to the race. Ellen and Becky did great, they both beat me. I ran 2 minutes slower than the Race for the Cure. And when I stopped, my hips immediately stiffened up like a 90 year old woman's (but NOT like the 72 year old woman who ran it in 25:00). They were stiff until my physical therapy today, when my PT told me that my pelvis was not aligned and she straightened it. WTH? She also strongly advised I take a break from running for a bit until my body stops rebelling against it so much. Good thing I started that swim program last week so I don't go to Plan B - sitting on the couch eating potato chips. Mmmmm, potato chips.

There was also a kid's fun run and Ariel met or exceeded her goals by not tripping, falling and wailing. She ran at least 90% of the 1/2 mile course (thanks for the picture Ellen, I really couldn't get off my butt to take any):



In the evening, we celebrated Ariel's birthday. The big legos were a hit with everyone:



Glad the birthday girl liked them. She still can't have real legos since she's so mouthy:



Even Hannah liked them:



Cheese!



Ariel sharing her necklaces with everyone. Everyone but Alex and JJ:



The Holy Princesses Batman table:



Ariel taking a picture of Backa:



My mother's amazing castle cake:



Which was a hit with Ariel:





And the gift from grandma:



Today was a pretty typical Monday. Ariel went to school. I had physical therapy. I did lots of house work that doesn't seem like much but took all day. 3 loads of laundry and cleaning the bathrooms.

Only thing of note was Ariel woke up from her nap on her own 5 minutes before Becky came and was in a MUCH better mood than when she has to be woken up.

November 13, 2008

I do apologize for the lack of blogging. I have a lot of photography work right now and that's where most of my computer time is going. So I'm going to try to catch up on this week. I doubt I can make it very coherent day by day so here's a brief update.

Ariel:

- Went to school on Monday. Only comment from her teachers was that she and Ehmunah are the only ones not sick right now. And she had her first official injury report. She tripped over a bike and banged her head and knee. Becky and I were so not impressed, she does that all the time, especially since she started skipping and galloping everywhere.

- No Ariel and no school on Tuesday. Adam had a very convoluted idea of Veteran's Day. Something about celebrating a war (that's what fights are called) a long time and some people didn't die. I think he was expecting more on the "celebrating" front, at one time he asked if we were going to Har Hashem. Instead, we spent the morning at Pump it Up with former preschool buddies of Alex's then the afteroon picking up my orthotics. They felt very weird at first but I don't notice them now. But I haven't tried running it them yet.

- On Wednesday, Ariel had school again. She brought cupcakes for snack to celebrate her birthday on Friday and was very excited about the birthday crown her teachers made her. Dad came by at 3 with Hannah so I could take Alex to the doctor's (more on that later).

- Today I did a swim class at 6:15am and was home in time for Jeremy to leave to make his 8:00 meeting with Norway. Which meant I was in charge of getting all kids to school. On the way to school, Cinderella smacked Adam with her scepter and gave him a bloody nose. We came home and showered, then I took Ariel's 3 year pictures. She did amazingly well, I think we got some really good ones. Here's one I like so far because it's so Ariel.



- After we picked up Adam, they ate lunch (banana, mac & cheese and a baby cheese) and then played together. I baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies and prepared the baked ziti casserole we are having for dinner tonight. After eating 3 cookies, Ariel went down for her nap at 1:45.

And my updates

- My running is getting progressively worse, not helped by the cold I got Friday. It's hurting more than it's worth and I'm not putting in the milage to do a half marathon in 3 weeks, so I switched out of the running program and into the swimming one. I'm still going to try running a little, do the bare minimun to not loose too much of my run fitness. And hopefully the orthotics will make a difference with the hip and knee pain too. I'm going to try a run with Ellen tomorrow and if it feels ok, I'll finally sign up for Sunday's Panicking Poultry 5k (no Becky and Ellen, I have not put money on it yet).

- Alex had his second opinion with Dr. Roy, the hippy doctor. He is an MD who uses a wide variety of treatments and approaches. And I must say, as first appearances go, he looked like a hippy doctor in his jeans and untucked plaid shirt. And he was much younger than I expected. He looked at the Children's results (which didn't find anything) and even though Alex weigh 33 lbs on his scale, he thought he was a normal but skinny kid. He recommended some supplements to be on the safe side so both boys will now take a new multi-vitamin, zinc, vitamin D, probiotics and fish oil.

And speaking of probiotics, Dr. Roy's theory of why Alex may be a bit small and why he had a first year was because I had strep B during the pregnancy and was on antibiotics durning labor. He says that babies are sterile in the womb and are supposed to come out though the bacteria ridden birth canal (sorry for that imagery, family) so the right sort of bacteria can start inhabiting their guts. And I killed all that bacteria. Hmmmm.

Dr. Roy also didn't think the Children's Failure to Thrive Clinic would be very helpful. He thought they would recommend a lot of high calorie, but not healthy food like pedisure and butter on everything. Instead he thought we should see a nutritionist. So I guess we can start with the nutritionist, since our Children's appointment isn't for another 2 months. And for the record, I was Alex's size at age 6, and Jeremy was 37 lbs at age 3.

- Becky stayed an extra 30 minutes today so I could go to Adam's conferences. As I suspected, I have a very good Preschool Adam. He gets along with everyone, has been very good at beiging self-motivated. He's working on age appropriate work and doing well. Good to here as we are being driven nuts with Adam at home. For the last month he's been getting up waaaay to early (like the 5:15 today) which makes him pretty crabby come dinner time.

Ariel isn't coming here tomorrow, so I'll wish her a happy birthday now!

November 7, 2008

Ariel had a day. I dropped her into preschool (each kid gets 2 drop in days because they missed so much in Oct due to holidays) so I would have time to do a run this week in daylight. By the time I dropped her off, drove to the trail head, ran 45 minutes with Ellen (hi Ellen *wave*) cooled down, drove home, and showered, it was time to get Adam. It just seemed that I should have had *slightly* more time than that. Anyway, it was really cool, we saw a bald eagle on the run. I'll have to take the boys out there to look for one again.

Since it was Friday, when I picked up Ariel we got to do the school wide Shabbat sing. I had forgotten just how excited I had been when Alex graduated that we were done with that. I must have repressed it because a room full of many many preschoolers stresses me out just a little. I also talked to Levi's mom, who shared that Levi thinks that Ariel is one of the teachers. I can see that, she is pretty bossy.

When Ariel got home she finished her lunch and 1/2 a banana and some goldfish too. Then she went down for a nap and SLEPT. Pick up at 4:00.

November 6, 2008

Thursday can be good or bad. I either get a lot done, or sit in my jammies until it's time to get Adam. Today Ellen called at 9:00 to ask if I wanted to meet at Starbucks. I had already had a big breakfast and was drinking my coffee, but it seemed like a good idea to avoid the jammies and get out of the house.

We went to the 29th street mall and even though it was a bit cold, the kids played outside. Speaking of, Becky, does Ariel have a hat that fits? I think she needs one for preschool too.



Since I already had had my coffee, I got a caramel apple cider and it was pretty good. Ariel had 3/4 of a donut (guess where the other 1/4 went). When the kids got too cold, we went across the street to the Apple store where Ellen finally gave in to temptation and got an iTouch. I must give her credit, she's been lusting after an iPhone since they launched over a year ago and made it this long. The kids (that would be Ariel, Sam and Mae) tried to play games on the kids' macs at the back of the store. I think Sam was the only one qualified but Ariel surprised me with her basic mouse skills. It's not like I let her touch *my* computer.

And next, so the morning was slightly usefully, I took my car to the carwash. They had a deal for a hand wax and since I have no idea the last time my car was waxed, we did that too. And even though it was 10:45 and they said the service would take 45 minutes (which would be right when Adam gets out of school) I still did it. Because, hey, we were there.

The car got done at 11:28 and we were only 10 minutes late to get Adam. Which is late enough that he was in the office, but not so late they had looked up my number to call me. I figure I get a few of those a year and it was worth the super clean car. Ariel fell asleep on the way to Adam's school and when I tried to transfer her, she woke up and didn't fall asleep. She spent the next 1 1/2 hours kicking the pack-n-play and talking to herself.

I got Ariel out of bed at 2:30 and we walked to school to get Alex. When we got back I had a picture order come in the mail so I organized that. We left for swim team at 3:40, Becky met us in the parking lot, which was stunningly good timing. I did a swim workout while the boys had practice, my first real swim since my triathlon.

November 5, 2008

What a good day to be an American :) Alex was right, Obama won. He predicted it weeks ago, based on the fact that everyone *he* knew was voting that way. And Adam was glad too because, "John McCain is too old." But the best part was, never did they question, notice or otherwise comment that Obama was black with a funny name. I, in no way, want to diminish the civil rights movement in America, but for my kids right now, there is absolutely nothing strange about a black president. And how cool for them when they learn about civil rights to just be baffled and wonder what the fuss was about. As for myself, I feel like we've already had a black president. I did, afterall, watch 4 seasons of 24.

Ariel did not want to pose with Obama. Her daddy would be proud.



Anyway, typical day here. Ariel was dropped off at 7:15, had yogurt for breakfast and went to school at 9:00. I did not have physical therapy and was able to come home and do work. When I picked Ariel up, her wet tights were in a bag, her teacher said that she had a little accident and finished on the potty. Otherwise, I don't hear much about her day at school other than it was good.

We got home, she finished her lunch and went down for a nap. Pick up at 4:10.