October 19, 2007

Roses are red,
sugar is sweet,
Becky with Starbucks
is such a nice treat.

7:15 Ah yes. I went 6 tired days without coffee. And then Becky brought me an innocent tall mocha and it was yummy. It really kicked in, so much so that I forgot to eat breakfast and I can't remember ever doing that before. Mmmmm.

7:30 Ariel had hot cereal for breakfast.

9:15 Alex and Ariel and I went to PALS. Mae-Mae was there, which was all Ariel needed. Ariel had a good time with the slide and a baby and even did some art with Mae. I wonder if Mae is going to be a south-paw:



11:15 Left PALS. Alex ate lunch in the car (not that he was very hungry after 1/4 loaf of challah) and we went straight to Adam's school to pick him up.

11:30 By the time we picked up Adam, Ariel was asleep.

11:50 Got home, Ariel went straight to bed.

1:00 Ariel woke up, had some mac & cheese for lunch. Then we walked to the park. Ariel swung for a while. She swung on all three swings. Then we went down the slide together.

Here's Ariel trying to get up a ladder:



And Adam running full force at me:



2:25 Left the park to walk to Alex's school.

2:45 Got home and rode bikes to the grocery store for a super fun trip to the "pumpkin patch." Alex's school was having a Fall Festival in the evening and Alex wanted to bring a jack-o-lantern. We didn't have time to go to a real pumpkin patch, so the store it was. Each kid picked out their own small pumpkin.

We also returned the Sponge Bob video that Adam picked out on Thursday. Adam liked Bob, but it was too traumatic for Alex. How that child watches Star Wars is beyond me. Alex picked out Blue's Clues and Adam picked out Mickey Mouse (which Ariel was excited about and Alex preemptively declared "too funny" - his way of saying he wouldn't like it).

3:45 Got home. I made challah and helped Alex carve his pumpkin.

4:00 Pick up. We had another relatively easy nuk- free day. Go Ariel!

And yes, the Fall Festival was lots of fun. Alex's pumpkin didn't win any contests, but our whole family (yes, WHOLE) family enjoyed square dancing and the chili cooking contest.

October 17, 2007

7:15 Drop off. A new low, Becky had to drop off Ariel in my bedroom since I still wasn't up yet.

7:30 Breakfast - yogurt and hot cereal.

So apparently today is the first day of Ariel's life - without the nuk. She's going cold turkey. I'm glad I have a 4 day break until I see Ariel again.

9:00 Left for our adventures of the day. First, we had to get gas. I haven't gassed my car up in forever, I bet it's been more than a month. But I stopped my gas log so I don't know for sure. I've started up the log so I can see how long I can go. Next, we went to Kohl's. They had some nice sales going on. Alex got a new pair of sneakers in size 11. There are his first pair of tie shoes and he's excited to learn. I also got two more pairs of Halloween socks for $1/each. Score! After Kohl's we dashed to the library for the second half of story time. Ariel had no interest in such going-ons.

11:00 After story time we went to Michael's for the shelves I needed for my Judaica shrine. They had just what I wanted, and on sale, too.

11:15 We had a quick lunch of champions at Safeway - granola bars and gateraid.

11:35 Picked up Adam.

11:45 Dropped off Alex.

11:50 Got home. Ariel was asleep in the car and stayed asleep. I set up my non-idolatry Judaica shrine:



As usual, the cordless drill wasn't charged but I was able to hammer those screws in. I'm sure it's all the same in the end, right?

And see, the shrine's not creepy, I also have a nice pagen non-idolatry Halloween candle display:



1:30 Sam and Mae came over for a playdate. Well, Mae came over for a nap. Adam and Sam tried their best to play quietly so the girls could sleep, but neither one is known for their quietness.

2:00 Ariel woke up. I fixed her some mac & cheese.

2:30 Picked up Alex from school.

2:45 Ellen took Adam to pick up Ted from school.

3:30 Ruckus playdate with Ted et. al ensued.

4:30 Pick up.

Ariel did fine today without her nuk. I think it helped that she didn't need it to take a nap since she fell asleep in the car. She did ask for it a few times today (some more dramatic than others) but I told her it was "all-gone bye-bye" and then distracted her with something else.

October 16, 2007

7:15 Drop off

Ariel was not too excited about breakfast. She had a couple pieces of waffle and some yogurt.

8:40 Left for stroller class.

9:00 Stroller class was super fun today. We've been walking outside this month, up until today. Today was too chilly, so we were inside running up and down escalators and stairs. Luckily the escalators turned on before we could complete our full circuit, but I bet we did 12 laps, including 5 on the super long stairway. We also did lots of lunges and bicep curls and my arms are tired just typing this. Around 9:30 We ran into Grandpa and Hannah. Grandpa did not work out with the Mommies, but he did hang out with the kids. Alex and Ariel did fine, except for Ariel tripping on the stone floor and getting an ouchie. I solved that with a Clifford bandaid on her forearm. I don't think her forearm was actually hurting, but that's where she wanted the bandaid and she did stop crying.

Alex was being shy with 4 year old Gwen who is usually at preschool. And then at the very end he was sad that he didn't get to play. I don't think Gwen and Lilly even noticed Alex hiding in the couch cushions for an hour.

10:40 After class we went upstairs and had some FREE pizza. It was FREE because the restaurant didn't have their cash registers on yet. I thought about paying on my way out, but figured we'll be having lunch enough as it is at the mall. And speaking of pizza, I was adventurous and had eggplant/tomato. And it was surprisingly good. Ariel shared some of Alex's pizza and then burned off all those calories running around and around and around the table.

11:15 Left a tad late to pick up Adam. Ariel fell asleep immediately.

11:35 Picked up the Adam.

11:45 Dropped off the Alex.

Adam and I went home and he had lunch. Ariel stayed asleep and transfered to bed. Then Adam and I laid down for a nap. I haven't had coffee in 4 days now. It makes me tired.

1:15 Ariel woke up so I had to get up too. Lucky Adam got to keep sleeping.

Ariel had a little lunch. Grapes (see, grapes!)



And then a graham cracker.

Then she was just being silly:



2:20 Had to wake Adam so we could go get Alex.

2:35 Picked up Alex. We stayed on the playground for about an hour later, with Riley. Ariel spent most of that time on the swing. She's a nut:



3:40 Got home. Another quick snack of go-gurt.

3:50 Put on some Blue's Clues.

4:10 Pick up. Ariel was not happy to have to leave Blue.

October 15, 2007

I actually had a pretty quiet weekend for once. Grammie came up Thursday afternoon to celebrate Jeremy's birthday, and then she took the kids home with her (they didn't have school on Friday). Jeremy took Friday off from work and was lazy. I had a photoshoot Friday morning:









The whole session is here.

7:45 Drop off. Apparently Becky is having alarm and/or hearing issues.

Breakfast - hot cereal

8:45 Ellen came over with Mae and I went to observe Adam's school to observe his class. The observation was supposed to be very Prime Directive-like and I wasn't supposed to interact with the kids. Of course Adam didn't understand that, but he did finally bring work to a table in front of me and show me how to do it. He put animal beads on a string, did two puzzles and then an open/shut basket with different jars and containers. But I was mostly impressed with how autonomous the kids all were. They got their own snacks, put their dishes away and put there finished drawings in their own cubbies. I watched one girl bring a peg board with a giant basket of pegs to a table and the basket slipped and all the pegs ended up on the floor. She didn't freak out or find a teacher, she just started cleaning them up. And she cleaned up ALL the pegs and then sat down and did the work. Now I just need to figure out how to get this going on at home.

9:45 Got home. Ellen and Mae hung out of a bit. I was also baking my weekly batch of bread this morning.

11:15 Rode our bikes to Adam's school, got Adam, went to Alex's school, yada yada.

12:00 Got home. Ariel had lunch - mac & cheese, then went down for a nap.

I started working on a photography project. A year ago I bought a set up for an off-camera flash and umbrella but I've never used it. I got it set up today and bribed Adam with chocolate to sit.

This is in a dark part of my house that I would need light to shoot in. I need to get a reflector now, there's too much shadow on the right. But I made progress today!



2:00 Ariel woke up and I decided right at that moment I had to make up a batch of Ellen's chocolate chunk spice cookies. They were very good, but I was almost out of cinnamon and completely out of nutmeg so I'm sure they were missing something. And I like cookie recipes that only make one dozen, helps on the over-indulgence issue.

2:30 Left to pick up Alex. We stayed a while after school and Ariel played on the swings, of course.

3:00 Got home.

3:05 Each kid got a cookie for snack. Ariel wasn't that impressed, I think they were a tad clove-y.

3:15 Pick up. Whut?

October 10, 2007

6:50 Ah yes, Ariel was already here. At least she was cheerful. She woke up saying, "Dee-Dee...ALEX!" I woke up with Jeremy in my face telling me that the waffle batter I made tasted terrible. Last night before bed I had mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl and put the wet in a mason jar (thanks Ellen!) in the fridge. Jeremy mixed them and then made crappy waffles. I looked at the recipe and realized I had used baking soda in place of baking powder and hence the crappy-ness. The worst part was I had to mix the waffles all over again.

7:15 Ariel's breakfast - yogurt and half a waffle

9:00 Ariel got dressed





9:45 We biked to the library for storytime

10:00 Library. We got there a bit early and I read a book with Alex. He did a great job of reading the numbers and pattern recognition (it was a nursery rhyme book) and he read some of it himself.

10:15 Storytime. Ariel sat for a story or two but mostly wandered around.

10:50 Biked home

11:10 Quick lunch, Ariel had some cheese and pumpkin bread

11:20 Biked up to Adam's school.

11:50 Got home. Ariel had a bigger lunch of mac & cheese with Adam.

12:15 Put Ariel down for a nap. She spent a long time talking to herself, but not passionately like last night. She probably fell asleep around 1:00

While Ariel napped, Adam watched Blue's Clues and I pre-made dinner, stuffed shells with yesterday's marinara sauce. I realized that it was way too cheesy for our family so I put 1/3 in a pan for Becky to take home. Then I made an apple pie from scratch for Jeremy's birthday, pie crust and all. Jeremy's favorite dessert is apple pie, way more than cake.

2:30 Ariel woke up, time to get Alex.

2:45 After pick up we played at the school for a bit. Riley stayed too. Alex doesn't want to have a playdate with Riley because she's too bossy and I find that highly amusing. But they did fine after school. Ariel played by herself for a while and then I pushed her on the baby swing. I think she could swing forever, it's been awhile that I've taken her out without her going stiff and screaming, "More swing!"

3:45 Went home. Ariel did a good job of saying, "Bye-bye swing" once I got her in the trailer.

4:00 Baked my pie. Then I read books to Ariel and the boys joined us too.

4:30 Pick up. And so ends the 36 hours of Ariel.

Ariel - After Hours

I was debating the blog title on this one. I also liked Ariel Nights, like Baywatch Nights. Today is a very special day, Ariel had her first sleepover with us.

4:30 Ariel played outside with Jeremy and the boys while I tried to clean the kitchen and make dinner. Dinner was shrimp in the marinara sauce over spaghetti.

5:40 Finally dinner time. Ariel ate a little bit of plain noodles and some more pumpkin bread.

6:15 We threw all the kids in the bath tub.



I have been giving baths for over 5 years and never have I gotten as wet as I did tonight. Ariel was flinging water with the cups and making some pretty direct hits on me.

I did soap her up:



Then we got on jammies (I couldn't locate old jammies, but I found a small sweat suit for Ariel).

I read a couple short books:



And then we brushed teeth.



7:00 Bedtime. Ariel was not happy with bedtime. I'm not sure if it was because I moved the pack-n-play into my room so she wouldn't disturb Adam or what, but she was very passionate. For about 20 minutes.

7:20 Finally



Ariel was quiet as a mouse (well, except her strangely loud breathing) until 2:30am. I figured she was cold as the heat is not on yet so I gave her her juice and put her in bed with me (Jeremy elected to sleep on the futon). She wiggled a bit but was quiet and went back to sleep.

6:50 Ariel and I woke up. Perfect!

October 9, 2007

Wow. What a busy day. This is the third time I've been able to sit down today, the first being at the pool with Mae in my lap and the second at Alex's parent teacher conference. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

7:15 Drop off.

7:30 Breakfast - hot cereal.

8:40 We dropped Alex off for a playdate then Ariel and I went to the mall for stroller class.

9:00 Stroller class was good. I don't think I'll be as sore as last week, but it was still a tough workout. It's a funny crowd there. Except for a three year old girl, Ariel is the oldest child there. Most babies are around a year old or younger. It's neat to see Ariel being a big kid instead of tagging along with Adam and Alex. Of course, she spent the most time playing with the 3 year old but they were both happy. We also walked outside along the perimeter of the mall and at some point Ariel chucked the nuk and that one is gone for good.

10:35 Left the mall.

10:50 Got home. Ellen got to my house at the same time I did. I was expecting her an hour later. I retrieved Alex and then got lunch going for everyone. Ariel had mac & cheese and yogurt.

11:20 I left to go get Adam, Ellen put Ariel down for a nap while I was gone.

11:40 Got home, ran Alex over to school.

11:50 Got home again, ate a quick lunch.

12:10 Did a kid swap with Ellen. Ellen was feeling unwell in a non-contagious sort of way, so she stayed at home with a napping Ariel and a crazy Adam while I took Mae and Sam to swim class.

12:30 Mae's swim class. Since Adam started lessons when he was over 2 1/2 years old I never had to do the under 2 1/2 class which involves a parent in the water. Doing the hokey-pokey. Mae cried for the first 5 minutes of class (which is normal). She stopped when I put her on a float with me and we kicked around the pool. I had her swim a few times to the castle and the wall, then the teacher worked with her. Then more fun songs, the obligatory hokey-pokey and then we were done. Sam started class while Mae and I got dressed.

After Mae's class, I told her she could pick out a treasure but the head instructor saw her and told me that the babies aren't allowed a treasure until they are in a non-parent class. I thought that was a pretty silly rule (and I had already told Mae she could pick something) so I got myself a treasure and gave it to Mae. After that class, I definitely deserved something.

1:35 After Sam was done with class, I got him dressed and we went home.

1:50 Got home. Ariel had just woken up from her nap. I started some pumpkin bread (I told Alex I would make some). By the time I got the bread in the oven, I had 5 minutes to talk to Ellen before I had to run over to Alex's school to pick him up.

2:40 Ellen stayed a little longer so I could take a quick shower.

2:55 Ellen left. I got dressed and then started Wendy Project #2 - making a big batch of Marinara sauce from this month's Cooking Light. We don't have tomatoes from our garden like last time, but this was with real onions, garlic and canned crushed tomatoes. And it required simmering for nearly an hour. But the good news was that it makes 12 cups so I could freeze a bunch for future use.

While I was cooking, the kids enjoyed some fresh pumpkin bread. It had chocolate chips and therefore was a big hit, even with Ariel.

3:50 I unloaded the kids on my next door neighbor and then Jeremy and I went to Alex's parent teacher conferences. Conferences were good. Alex is apparently very smart and way ahead on all the assessments. She showed us some work and he had written a small book and had spelled a few words phonically all by himself - icecream, Lego (which he got right) and nits for knights. He's also doing well in math, problem solving and pattern recognition. And socially, he's about average with his lack of personal space issues.

4:30 Got out of conferences and and retrieved the children.

October 8, 2007

Happy Monday! As usual, we had a busy weekend. Friday night was Simcha Torah and the boys and I went to temple. Simcha Torah is the holiday when the last verse of the torah is read, then the torah is unrolled and the first verse is read and then torah is re-rolled again for another year. The evening was crazy fun. Alex loved the dancing with the torahs and was super excited that his public school kindergarten teacher was there and he could hold her hand. At the end of the evening, I apologized to her, and she said, "Don't worry, that's what my days are like, times 18." And I said, "That's why I'm sorry, exposing you to 5 year olds on your off hours."

On Saturday we rode our bikes to the pool and had a fun swimming day. The boys still remember their survival skills and we had lots of fun going down the slides. It's the first time that I've been there and the diving board and drop slide were open and I tried them both. I would have jumped off the diving board more if there weren't 18 year old boys judging the jumps from the hot tub.

On Sunday I had a photoshoot that went pretty well. I got some nice family shots:





And here's Zach (from Sunday school) on a rope swing.



But then a bitter cold wind came in and Gabi turned into an icicle so I didn't get some shots I wanted, like sibling and just Gabi. I'll have to come back but that's fine.

Sunday night was a family fun night celebration for Jeremy's birthday (on Wednesday, 10-10, it's easy to remember). Here's a few pictures:

Hannah:



My darling husband:



Ariela:



And my family:



There are more pictures here on flickr. And yes, I know there are a lot of Hannah, but she's the only one who can't run away from the camera.

7:15 Drop off. Ariel had 1/2 a waffle for breakfast.

8:30 Ellen and Mae-Mae came over to play. Ariel was excited, not sure about Mae.

9:45 Ellen came up with the super idea that she (or we - my idea) should go to Target.

10:00 Target-ole. I wanted to get some small shelves to display my new judaica items I swiped from Mom's house (a havdalah candle holder and a kiddish cup) along with my shabbat candle sticks and menorah. I think my family (the extended kind) thinks I joined a cult. But really, I'm just trying to maximize my investment.

Well, I didn't find the shelves, but I did find $20 of other fun things. Like... superman socks for the boys, napkins and a napkin holder, halloween kid's utensils and I'm not sure what else. Then we went to the Target-ole Pizza Hut for lunch.

11:35 Picked up Adam from school.

11:45 Got home, put Ariel right down for a nap. Then Adam and I had lunch.

1:30 Adam and I took a quick nap. Dad thinks I'm anemic. Well, I have been eating a lot less steak of late... But really today I was up until midnight proofing pictures last night and then I picked up the house some. So I only got about 6 hours of bad sleep.

2:00 I had a late lunch and took an iron pill with some vitamin C just in case. It made my stomach woozy.

2:35 Picked up Alex. Ariel walked all the way to the school and back in her tappy-tap shoes.

2:50 Got home and immediately went to the grocery store. It was a banner trip. Possible a world record in spending (or perhaps just a personal best). Over $200!!! But I think that's because I forgot to go last week. Groceries don't just buy themselves, you know.

4:00 Got home and put away my mountain of food in a race against Ariel re-bagging it.

4:30 Pick up.

October 4, 2007

I think I should just get my Me Ramblings out of the way. First off, I have a new ambition - to have an lol cat. If you haven't been to lolcats.com you have been missing out. Although, I'm not sure which is funnier, the site or the fact that Jeremy (a known cat hater) has been on it for months. When I was asking why everything is misspelled baby talk, Jeremy knew (because cats can't type well, of course). This is one of my favorite lol cats:



I have a plan for my own lol cat. Here's a rough draft:



I need Dexter to pose with his gut hanging off the weight bench more, and then I'll come up with some funny text about exercising. It will come. I'm watching my cats now for other possible lolcat material.

Let see, other ramblings... I think I have chronic fatigue disorder. Not to be confused with chronic wasting disease, which is that mad cow for elks one. Though I'm not sure what the symptoms of CWD are, I could possible have it, too. The past few weeks I have been so tired. I took a nap with Adam yesterday and even went to bed at 9:30. I dunno what's going on but *yawn*.

7:10 Drop off. I managed to drag myself out of bed to greet Ariel.

7:30 Breakfast - yogurt.

After breakfast Ariel and Alex colored. Alex drew confused robots and then wrote his first and last name complete with big and small letters. I was going to post that but then I realized I don't want Alex's last name on the internet, so I just put his first name on. But be assured, he CAN do it.



Here's Ariel's, she ate some of it.



8:45 We got ready to go to stroller exercise class and guess what? My car battery was dead. Again. Argh. And Jeremy, who rode his bike to work all this week, took his car today. So no mall for us, and instead I took a bike ride with the trailer.

First we stopped at varsity pond:



Here's Ariel, not falling into the pond. She's wearing her new tappy-tap shoes from Mae. I put them in the toy box and she found them right away today and put them on. Thanks Mae!





We continued along the bike path and then went to the rocket ship park. I took the long way home by 55th street and was hurting pretty bad on the uphill. That stroller class is brutal. I was so sore from Tuesday's class that I had to put my hand down when I sat on the toilet lest my quads give out. Ariel fell asleep in the trailer for about 30 minutes.

11:00 Got home. Alex had a quick lunch and Ariel had some of his leftover PB&J.

11:15 Left to get Adam, drop off Alex.

11:50 Home again. Ariel had more lunch, some apple blueberry baby food I found in the pantry and some scrambled eggs.

12:30 Put on some Blue's clues while I blogged. Right now in fact. This is a new one that we rented at the grocery store yesterday. I personally am finding it very sweet that my super-hero-star-wars guys are enjoying Blue's Clues again.

Ariel's milestone from Tuesday is now firmly entrenched. All day long it's:

"Juice, Dee-Dee, juice!"

"Help, Dee-Dee, help!"

"Hold you, Dee-Dee, hold you!"

And my favorite:

"Nuk, Dee-Dee, nuk!!!"

I was telling Jeremy about it and he said its sounded like the same demands, but now with a personal touch. I guess it's nice to have a personal touch.

1:00 Put Ariel down for a nap, after changing her 3rd poopy diaper of the day. Then Adam and I took a nap too.

2:30 Woke up and got Alex.

3:00 Got home with an extra kid. Alex's friend Gabriel and his mom Tatiana came over for a playdate. Tatiana is from Brazil and it's very interesting talking with her.

We walked up to the park for a bit and then came home from a snack. Becky met us on the way back at 3:40.

October 2, 2007

I have a non-Ariel story that's too funny, I have to share. Last week at dinner we were talking about Daddy's upcoming birthday and what we should get him. Alex came over and whispered in my ear,

"We should get Daddy a Lego Star Wars AT-AT!"

And then Adam came over, just as seriously and whispered,

"We should get Daddy a monkey!"

Do those kids know their Daddy or what?

And another non-Ariel story... Last night around 10:00 pm Adam got out of bed and found his spiderman costume in the living room and got it on. Then he came in my room and asked for help getting his mask on. I convinced him that sleeping with a mask was a bad idea, even though Adam was insisting that of course spiderman could sleep with his mask, he's SPIDERMAN for pete's sake. I finally got spidey tucked back into his own bed sans mask.

7:00 Drop off.

7:20 Jeremy promised Adam a video before school so all the kids watched an episode of "Coos-Coos" (Ariel tranlation - Blue's Clues). Speaking of, today Alex asked, "How come I can understand Ariel, even when she's talking funny?" Good question...

7:45 Breakfast - Ariel insisted on yogurt and then didn't eat her hot cereal.

8:35 Left the house late to go to Stroller Class. Yes, I've taken 7 months off, but I'm down to two kids again and ready to give it another whirl. When we got to the mall we couldn't find anyone and I was worried that we were really late. Finally, at 8:55, we ran into Lara who told us class doesn't start until 9:00. So note to self, if I'm trying to get somewhere at 9:00, pretend I really need to be there at 8:45 and I just might be on time.

Stroller class was good, and the resistance part was HARD since I haven't done any weights in what, 7 months? And we did miss Rachel and Lilianna who didn't make the class. But it was good to see old friends and meet some new moms.

Ariel had fun too, and so did Batman. And I think we had a milestone today. Ariel kept coming over and telling me, "Ball, Dee-Dee, Ball!" I don't think she's ever called me Dee-Dee to my face before.

10:30 After class I bought Alex and Ariel a slice of pizza. Strangely, Ariel ended up eating most of it. I also looked for jibbitzes for Ariel's new Becky-bought crocs (pictures forthcoming) but I didn't see what I wanted. And then we spent 15 minutes wandering around the mall trying to find the Halloween store to see if they had a superman t-shirt for Daddy. And oddly, we couldn't find the store.

11:10 Left the mall. Ariel fell asleep almost immediately.

11:35 Picked up Adam in the car.

11:45 Dropped off Alex at school.

11:50 Stopped by Taco Bell drive through for lunch. I should have gotten myself a slice of pizza, I was starving.

12:05 Got home, transfered Ariel to bed.

Adam and I had a nice Taco Bell lunch together. Then I showered and decided to paint my toenails. Adam decided he needed his nails painted too. Somehow, when I used to fantasize about mother/child bonding moments like this, the child in question was a girl.



I won't show Jeremy these pictures. Maybe he won't notice the toenails tonight, either.



And then Adam wanted to take a picture of me. Not bad, though I'm not fond of him holding my nice camera.



2:00 Ariel woke up. Here's her new BECKY BOUGHT crocs:



With all the costuming going on, Ariel has demands of her own.



Adam showed Alex his toenails and then Alex wanted his painted too. And then Ariel saw what we were doing and plopped herself down too. And then Adam said, "Now we can all be pretty pretty princesses." What are the chances that Jeremy won't find out about this?



But Ariel really is a pretty pretty princess.



4:00 Everyone had a snack of fresh baked bread with honey.

4:32 Pick up.

October 1, 2007

Maybe Ellen is right. Maybe I need a non Ariel-centric blog. But that feels too self centered and needy, even for me. Or maybe I'm just too darn lazy to blog more than 3-4 days a week. So here's your update of what I've been up to for the last four days.

On Thursday, Hannah-Banana came over for her six months pictures:



Rest are here.

On Friday, Alex went to school all day because of the zoo field trip. I got my hair cut and it's short with bangs.



Crazy, I know. And Alex's field trip went really well. There were enough parents that they each took 2-3 kids and went around the zoo that way. So no mass of screaming kids that would have pissed me off had I been there. And I suppose I could have gone, but I think I enjoyed the me time haircut more than I would have liked spending the day with 60 kindergarteners.

In the evening, we went to Temple for Sukkot, and Grammie came too. Afterwards, since Jeremy and I had a sitter, we caught a movie. We saw The Bourne Ultimatum and we both got sick (and not just from paying $20 for tickets). We saw the first 2 movies on our 19" TV and had no idea that the avant-garde camera action could give us motion sickness. I guess we should be thankful we didn't have seizures, too. Lesson learned.

On Saturday, Jeremy and I took a bike ride, then went to get our ski passes for Breck/Keystone/A-Basin (no Vail days). $1200 of splaving (spending to save, thanks Maxed Out) later, our family is set for ski season. We got Alex and Adam each a 3 pack of learn to ski lessons on days that they aren't otherwise occupied. Yay!

We went to another Sukkot party Saturday night at Ellen's house. Even Jeremy came, and wasn't miserable. Sukkah pictures are here. I am making sure we are getting our money out of our Jew (temple) investment this year. Yee-haw!

And then Sunday morning, Alex had Sunday school (see, more Jew!). I like Sunday school because Ellen and I go get coffee and breakfast sans kids. Afterwards, we went to 3 Targets before we found the correct costumes in the correct sizes. Alex is batman:



And Adam will be spiderman. And I'm going to eBay a Wonder Woman costume, and get Jeremy a superman t-shirt to wear under work clothes. We are going to be SOOOO cool. I'm even thinking of finding Ariel a super girl costume in case she's around for any of our family coolness. Though given that Alex and Adam have been wearing their costumes non-stop already, every day is super family cool (though I think I'll save Wonder Woman for costume appropriate events)!

Speaking of continuous costume wear, Sunday afternoon was spent at the park at an Adam school picnic with Batman and Spiderman. I didn't know it was a potluck so I didn't bring anything, but we ate anyway. We are big moochers. And that brings us to today.

7:10 Drop off. Ariel came in and had some of Ellen's spelt recipe waffles. I think if I do a batch on Monday the waffles should last us until Saturday when it's challah French toast time.

7:45 Ariel had some hot cereal.

8:30 Put Ariel down for a nap and she went right to sleep. I took a shower.

9:00 Rachel and Lilianna came over to knit.





This one is Lilianna. She's not knitting yet.



10:15 Ariel woke up and joined the party.



I'd better not show Adam this pictures, he'll be MAD.



One more of sweet Lilianna:



11:00 Rachel and Lilianna went home, with a nearly completed fuzzy double pom-pom hat ala Ariel winter 2006. It's a rad hat ;)

Ariel had a bit of lunch with Alex. Namely her leftover hot cereal and some of Alex's mac & cheese.

11:15 Left on bikes to get Adam. Ariel pointed out the mountains on the way there. "Mountannnn!"

11:50 Got home.

Ariel had some more lunch, mac & cheese.

1:45 Adam, Ariel and I rode my bike up to the store so I could get some garlic to make tomato sauce with tonight. Adam and Ariel got some cookies and Adam told everyone he saw about his spiderman costume, which he was actually not wearing.

2:35 Picked Alex up from school.

2:45 Got home, the costumes went on:





4:00 Yogurt snack

4:15 Ariel played with the boys in there super hero office hangout while I started dinner. Tonight we are having spaghetti with homemade sauce from our homegrown tomatoes. Just call me Martha.

4:35 Becky came to pick up a half nekkid Ariel claiming to need to go potty. I let Becky take care of that.