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.