You know what's not particularly fun? Doing an outdoor swim workout at 6:30am in a wind storm. The wind made it seem much colder than the times it was 20 degrees. But I do it because I'm hardcore. Officially Hardcore - as of today I am registered for the 5430 Long Course Triathlon (half-ironman distance). Mark your calendars, August 9th will be a day of reckoning.
Ariel had a good day today. She had a playdate with Peyton again, and this week Mae was there too.
Here is the Peyton:
What do girls do on a playdate?
I left a bit early to go home and finish proofing Ted's pictures, Ellen brought Ariel home. Ariel had lunch too, mac & cheese and a chicken hot dog (who knew such things existed?)
Ariel and Adam played reasonably well in the afternoon and then Ariel went down for a nap around 1:30.
Once again, this poor little blog got neglected. But I have another good excuse this time, I was kidnapped by vampires. Well, sort of. I read Twilight about a year ago, and found it so-so. A couple weeks ago, I started reading the second book, New Moon, and got hooked. And then, there were two more books and the last one was 20 hours (I listened to them all) and I had to put my life on hold until I finished them. And now I am all done and slightly bereft. But my kids should be slightly less neglected.
So Things of Note from last week.
Monday - no Ariel due to President's day.
Wednesday - Ariel had school. I did put her down for a nap but after an hour she was still awake so I got her up and we went to the bird store for more feed.
Thursday - I dropped Ariel off at Peyton's house for a playdate. Peyton is in Ariel's class and her nanny is one of her teachers so it was a good deal all around. I was not needed, so I popped over to the mall to spend my Old Navy gift certificate. I scored a pink sweater hoody for $5 and a Little Black Dress for $7.50. Now I just need an occasion for the LBD - I'm sure some other lesbian occasion will present itself.
Friday - Very low key. I was completely worn out from sleep deprivation due to 10 days of staying up too late reading. Damn vampires. We had a quiet day at home.
We did go skiing last weekend. It was Alex's last day of ski school, he'll miss Saturday due to Consecration (at 9:00, FYI). But Jeremy will take Adam up for his last lesson.
Adam rocked the house. His group finally got on the bunny hill chairlift and he was fine:
Riding the lift with his instructor:
Here's a video of Adam going down the big magic carpet, which is about 1/2 the bunny hill. He's in yellow, and yes, half way through the video he skis right out of the frame. It was sunny.
And after ski school, Alex wanted to do a few more runs so Jeremy took him up the mountain and I took Adam back to the bunny hill. I did 4 more runs with Adam and he only fell getting off the chair lift. Poor guy is just too short to do that without help, and I'm not very good help. Jeremy did two runs with Alex, here they are at the end of the second run. This video is kinda painful to watch with all the big people bombing by Alex. Jeremy said he was doing much better higher up but really slows down when it gets crowded. Plus, he must have been very tired:
And a dorky self portrait. We get bored about 1:00, come looking for Adam and any other excuse to take a break:
And I'll throw today's update in as well. My boys didn't have school today, but Ariel did. We got her up to school and then ran some super fun errands. I tried to make the boys wish they were in school, but it wasn't so bad. We went to the carwash, Petsmart to buy crickets for Adam's preschool reptiles, the bank (lollipops), and Starbucks (rice crispie treats for them, Ellen and coffee for me). We came home for a bit, then picked up Ariel again and we all went out to Taco Bell for lunch. Ariel shared my nachos and burrito.
Then we came home and Ariel took a nap. She hit her head at school again, and her teachers said she was tired before that.
Hey, I just noticed when I typed the date that it's Friday the 13th. So far, it's been an unremarkable day.
I did get a picture from Reflections that I'm less horrified with, so here I am with my date. No, not *that* kind of date, not that there's anything wrong with that.
This morning I went for my run and did my strength routine and then Ariel and I went to Babara's baby shower. These are all the kids (well not *all*) from Get Fit Mommy:
Ashley's crazy donuts:
Miss Ariel, after a piece of donut:
We were only able to stay at the shower for 50 minutes, then it was time to get Adam. We went to the grocery store to buy our salmon (and snack on gourmet cheese) then came home for lunch. Ariel ate a fair amount of spaghetti o's for being full of donut, cheese danish and cookies.
She went down for a nap around 1:30 but took awhile to go to sleep. Thankfully, there was much less resistance for the pull up and the nap in general.
This poor little blog has been neglected again. Somehow in the last few weeks I'm finding myself incredibly busy. Since this is supposed to be somewhat about Ariel, here's a brief update:
Friday - We went to Kangaroo Kingdom with friends Lilianna and Jake. Ariel completely ignored said friends, but did enjoy the Kingdom.
Monday - School day.
Wednesday - Another school day. She had a persistent dry cough but no fever so she was allowed to remain at school.
Today - we went to Pump it Up drop in play with Jake. Once again, Jake was ignored, but Ariel bounced her heart out. The cough is better, but there were a couple times today when she sneezed and her head exploded. She was a bit impertinent today and wouldn't put on her sleep panties, so she woke up wet and sad from her nap.
And things that have been keeping me busy... We did have ski school on Saturday. It was the beginning of the next session and so I think it was a bit of a review for the boys. Adam still didn't get to ride the chairlift, but Alex is getting close to moving onto level 5. Otherwise, the snow was crap and Jeremy and I gave up 2 hours early and got Mexican food. My new board was nice though. It really needs to snow up there, the parking lot was melting like an super early mud season.
On Saturday night, Ellen and I went to the JCC fundraiser gala dinner. We were seated at a table with not one but two lesbian couples but proper introductions were made to clear up any confusion on our status. We were also at the table with the rabbi and a past president of the temple. I have a picture, but I look weird so I'm not going to post it.
Sunday, we had my family birthday dinner. And let me just say, if you don't want jokes about enemas, don't leave the package out on the bathroom counter.
Moving on, I think I've been feeling extra busy because on Ariel's school days I leave the house at 8:30, take her to school, work out, run errands and don't get home again until noon. Actually, it just may be the working out in general, I'm doing something every morning now and I hope I can keep it up until August. I just don't want to fall behind, right now I'm hanging with the half-ironman group and they are hard core.
And a boys update for Grammie - we got the Indiana Jones lego computer game for Alex's birthday, hoping to add variety to his Star Wars life. He is obsessed with Indy now and we just started letting them watch the first movie. We are doing it bit by bit and with parental guidence and they are loving it. I hope they don't want to watch the other movies, they are a bit stupid.
And I'll finish with two random Adam stories.
1) Adam: Mommy, guess what? I made a valentine for your husband. Me: Uh, you mean Daddy? Adam: Yeah, Jeremy
2) I was doing my birthday foot soak with the lemon-grass peppermint crystals and Adam walked by, saw the white basin and asked, "Are there fish in there?"
Happy Birthday to me! I had one of the best birthdays ever. Though not quite as good as the year Jeremy surprised me with a trip to Wolf Creek to go skiing. But pretty close. I didn't even mind getting up early to swim, I was just grateful that I'm healthy and fit in my advanced age.
Ellen had an ingenious idea for the day. Since we are going to Reflections, we got a free drop in at the preschool, so Ellen took Mae and Ariel up there (Sam already goes on Thursdays) and we had the morning to ourselves. We got coffee, we shopped, I bought a cute shirt and two new pairs of bike gloves... After I picked up Adam from school, we reconvened at Tandoori Grill for a fabulous Indian food buffet. Ellen is experimenting with chicken to get more protein in Ted's diet and as a show of support, I had some chicken today too. It was chewier than I remember, not sure if this means anything, but it was interesting. I think Adam was pretty horrified.
I picked up Ariel from school, which outraged her. She saw Ellen and apparently Ellen is WAY more fun (she did buy Ariel a donut this morning) because she threw a fit about leaving with me. We had to run errands to pick up my snowboard (being waxed) and my bike (new handle bars) and now all my birthday presents are home again. Ariel and Adam got into a new row after the bike store because both wanted to push the automatic sliding door button. Ariel was ready for a nap.
And while Ariel napped, Adam learned how to ride a bike!
I really didn't think he'd get it so soon. He's still having trouble with turning and can't start by himself, but he's going! He's so proud of himself, and he thinks his first reward should be a kickstand. So funny that kids want one and Jeremy and I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pool. So now we are thinking about actively searching for a used 20" bike for Alex so Adam can move up to the 16". No timetable, but by this summer should be good.
And after Ariel left (ok, I timed that a bit close) I went up to the grocery store parking lot and completed my Craig's list binding transaction. What a pleasant surprise, this guy wasn't crazy. Though the weird part was, he was about 6" taller but wore only 1 size shoe bigger. So now my new board is all ready for this weekend, I can't wait!
Let's start out with the picture of the day. Now, my "squirrel proof" birder feeder is far from it, but today was this first time I saw this:
I didn't have the heart to chase him off, if you work this hard you deserve a reward.
And in other news, Jeremy got back from San Jose safely last night. He had a 24 hour trip to Google for a meeting (not an interview). I didn't post it on Monday because I always feel weird about letting the interworld know I'm home alone. But he didn't get home until 11:30 so I was still on my own this morning.
I dropped Ariel off at preschool and I so wanted to take a picture of her and her friend Sarah, who were both wearing the same purple Hello Kitty shirt but Ariel wouldn't let me. It was pretty flipping cute though.
Next, I did my run and banged out a slow 5 miles, my longest since November. And I didn't die. We had a beautiful day here and I was actually wearing just a tank top at 9:30. While I was running, I was thinking on an ultra-runner that spoke at the TriBabes meeting last month. He says that every year, he runs his age on his birthday, and I'm sure he's in his 40's. With my birthday tomorrow, I'm so glad I wasn't running 34 miles. People are nutty in Boulder. I'll just get up at 5:30am to swim.
Next I took J's skis and my new board in for a tune up, and then I returned the bindings I bought last week that won't work. I have a feeler out for new bindings on Craig's list, but if the first attempt falls through I'll just order online. I *think* I've learned my lesson.
After that it was time to pick up Adam. We had lunch, then Adam wanted to learn to ride his bike without training wheels. So, we gave it a whirl. I did the sweatshirt-around-the-waist technique and kept him upright. He has always leaned very hard on his right training wheel and it's going to be a hard habit to break. He didn't do any solo riding today, but there were a few times that he seemed to get it. I think his motivation is we told him he would move up to Alex's 16" bike when he was riding without training wheels. That's all fine, but now we need to find a 20" bike for Alex.
Sweet Ellen brought Ariel home today, after letting them play after school, then getting them a treat at Jamba Juice. And Ariel gave me a much less hard time about taking a nap.
Alex frequently brings home work that he didn't finish in school, but he never does it at home. Today he was inspired and got it out on his own. He looked so grown up doing homework at the table, I can see that's in my future for the next 14 years.
So, the boys finished their first session of ski school this weekend. Alex was in level 4 this session and is almost ready for 5. I think he'll start out in 4 next weekend and if there's a good 5 class fit he'll move up. Adam moved up from level 2 (magic carpet) to level 3 (bunny hill lift). Otherwise, Saturday was not very noteworthy. The snow was not great and even though we left at 6:00pm we still hit I-70 traffic. And I have a very long and drawn out story of finally acquiring the Craig's list snowboard but it hurts my head just thinking about it.
Today was a normal busy Monday. Ariel showed up with her normal enthusiasm. The "hocky-talkies" came out today and I discovered they *can* be a solo game. Ariel amused herself until school by being 5' from the receiver and listening to herself talk. Mostly saying, "Hello, hello, hello."
I took Ariel to school, then went swimming, then checked out snowboard bindings. And then to the grocery store and then picked up Adam.
When we got home for lunch, we saw a hawk right in our backyard. At first it was sitting on the fence, then it jumped in the leaves and came up with a sparrow. I think we must have missed the kill dive and the hawk had dropped the sparrow:
Ellen did a huge favor again today and took Ariel to Renee's concert after school, and then brought her home. Ellen reported back that Ariel was the most well behaved kid there and had a great time dancing with Ava.
Ariel got home around 2:20 and I put her down for a nap (which she was not in favor of). But she fell asleep within 10 minutes.
I'm a stay at home mom to Alex (8 1/2 years old) and Adam (6 years old) and a middle of the pack triathlete. I completed my first Ironman in Wisconsin in 2010.
