Aug 16, 2006

6:55 Drop off. Despite Becky's protests, she WAS early. She got to see me in my jammies. At least I was wearing pants.

7:00 No need to dress now and pretend I'm responsible. Instead I made egg and cheese bagels for everyone. We bought orange cheese just for Alex and judging on how well he ate, I guess I came close to recreating The Bagel Store Experience.

And it was a noisy breakfast. The boys were being themselves, and even Ariel is getting loud. I asked Jeremy if he was surprised at that, and he said that even if he didn't think she was genetically prone to being noisy, then she would surely be nurtured into it. I think that was a commentary on us sisters...

7:15 Ariel had her cereal.

7:25 I asked Adam if he needed to go poopy and he went into the bathroom all by himself and went without any fuss. NOW he's officially potty trained!!!

8:00 Ariel went down for a nap.

9:10 Ariel woke up. With another hard poopy. Just saying....

9:15 Ariel finished her cereal bottle.

9:35 We left for our Fabulous Adventure™ - first stop, driving to Starbucks. I did make it a week without, but then yesterday I had a mocha along the way of my five hour walk/hike. I decided to make an annual tradition of hiking all five mountains from my house, and in the last four days I've knocked off the two smaller ones. I was also training for a big mountain this weekend, but alas the trip was cancelled. So where was I... oh yes, I had gone to Starbucks yesterday and was going for a mocha but saw they have a new raspberry chocolate chip frappachino. Well, I thought about that frappachino all night and decided for the sake of RESEARCH I would have to get one today. Oh, and I was pretty dang tired this morning too. This photography business is hard work. I spent from 6:30 to 10:30 last night editing and ordering pictures and it did not make for a good night's sleep.

So yes, I had a raspberry chocolate chip frappachino (or at least the part my children left me) and it was pretty good. It tasted like what I would imagine a liquid chocolate chip covered cherry would taste like, if it were a raspberry.

10:05 We headed over to the library for story time. Ariel listened to a few books:



Storytime was LOUD today. Lots of wiggly, noisy two year olds (mine wasn't too noise, but he was kicking the library lady.)

11:00 After storytime, we headed over to Crissy's. She didn't join us at the library because one of Marcus' friends was there and they are both too old for storytime.

11:30 Ariel had her apples and prunes at Crissy's. Maybe this will help with her, uh, problem.

12:00 Crissy, I repeat, CRISSY gave Ariel an icecream cone. See how guilty Crissy looks?



Ariel did eat it up. It's the only solid food I've found that she doesn't gag on:



And it was noisy at Crissy's house. There were 4 boys there, and of course Ariel has to have her say too.

12:30 Adam pooped in the big potty ALL BY HIMSELF. Crissy and I didn't even know he was in the bathroom. Isn't that SPECIAL?

1:00 Ariel fell asleep while I was feeding her a bottle, so we put her down in Crissy's room.



1:15 Crissy and I finally got some peace and quiet in her office. Crissy was trying to find Marcus' baby pictures, and I got sucked into Zillow. We were trying to guess how much Crissy's neighbor's giant house costs ($1.64 million, if you are interesed, and no Crissy does not live in a ritzy neighborhood). Crissy went in it today, she said the auxillary downstairs kitchen was bigger than my (only) kitchen.

2:30 Ariel woke up and I figured we had worn out our welcome. I gathered up Alex and Ariel, but Adam didn't want to come. I gave him a choice, do you want to come or stay with Crissy? He said stay, so Crissy and I thought we could do a Love and Logic lesson so I left him. I was pretty amazed when I drove away Adam was watching from the window and wasn't the least concerned.

2:45 Our first errand - paying for my sales tax license as a photographer. I'm the real deal now, baby! Ariel finished the bottle she didn't finished due to falling asleep.

3:00 Next adventure - Home Depot. Crissy talked me into buying a Swiffer vaccuum and some industrial door mats. Dang that Crissy! I also bought some plexiglass to put over my photography backdrop so (ahem) little feet don't mess it up.

3:30 And the best for last - Target-ole. There I got Adam some more underwear and I bought Alex a cheapy 35mm camera.

4:30 Becky picked Ariel up from the Target-ole parking lot as I fed her a bottle.

4:45 I went back to Crissy's and picked Adam up. Apparently he didn't miss me at all, even when Crissy asked where he was going to eat dinner and sleep tonight. Guess that wasn't a very useful lesson afterall, but it did make my errands easier.

Aug 14, 2006

Well hello everybody. We had a good weekend. I think I can say that after two weeks, Adam is officially potty trained. He's still not effortless going number two, but all poop made it into the potty this weekend and he's not had any pee accidents in at least 5 days (not counting when he accidently pees on his shorts or shirt). And his pull-up is usually dry in the morning, but I'm not going to put him in underwear at night for a while. Such a joy to have (almost) everyone out of diapers, even if it does mean risking public urination tickets for a while.

Also, I have now gone a week without Starbucks. Last Wednesday, I decided to see how much Ariel weighed, and in doing so had to weigh myself. I was not pleased with the results. So I thought what if, what if, going to Starbucks 4 times a week and drinking 500 calorie coffees might have something to do with that? So I'm going to reserve Starbucks for special occassions, and get my caffeine from unsweetened green tea. And oh, by the way, it looks like Ariel is about 16 to 16 1/2 pounds.

7:05 Drop off. Becky changed a poopy.

7:25 Cereal

7:50 Some of cereal bottle

8:10 Nap

9:00 Wake up, another hard poopy. And then she finished her cereal bottle.

9:50 Go to park and meet Crissy and her boys.

10:50 Bottle

11:30 Home

11:45 Nap. Adam had a failed nap attempt.

1:15 Wake up, eat some pineapple/pears.

Then it was time to take Ariel's 9 Month pictures.

Apparently I angered some gods last month when I bragged how good Ariel's eight month pictures turned out. 'Cause today I had lots of trouble, starting with a cloudy, rainy day.

First, Ariel wouldn't stop fiddling with her dress:


Then she wouldn't stop wiggling her feet and bunching up my backdrop:


Well fine, says I, I will put you on a chair so you can't mess with my backdrop:


"Dee-dee, this is borning. Can we go do something fun now?" NO!


"Fine, in that case I will entertain myself with this ridiculous thing you call a hat."


Ok, how about a toy, will that make you happy?


"Dude, I'm serious. I'm sooooo bored."


Fine, how about you stand next to the chair. Will that work?


Ok, so the chair is too close to mouth level, how about a stool, or will that be too fun?


So I did get a few ok ones in there, here's the collage:

2:15 I handed Ariel over to Uncle J.J. so I could look at the pictures on the computer.

Becky, for ordering purposes, I put the pictures on flickr, you know what to do.

2:40 Gave Ariel a bottle. But then Jeremy had to take over because Adam was asking to take a nap. So I tried to put him down for a nap, again.

3:15 Failed Adam nap attempt. Sigh.

3:00 Does Ariel need a nap? Lay her down.

3:45 Random Grandpa visit.

4:00 Ariel didn't fall asleep, so I set her up with toys while I finished her pictures.

4:35 Pick up.

Aug 11, 2006

Hello again. We over here had a good Thursday. Super Grammie was here, and I took Alex, Gavin and Marcus to see Cars. Then SG took Alex home with her until Sunday, so I'm short a kid.

7:05 Drop off. Becky commented how clean my house was. Now, I'd like to think my house is always pretty clean but I suppose that's not the case. But it was extra clean today because I had a photoshoot. Two nights ago Jeremy and I had gone out to dinner for our anniversary. We sat next to a family with a 4 week old newborn. I haven't photographed a newborn in a LONG time and I'd like to think I've gotten a little better. So I asked the family if I could shoot them for my website/portfolio. They said yes, and agreed to 10:00 today.

7:10 Ariel ate cereal.

7:30 Ariel hung out with Uncle "she's bored again" JJ while I vaccuumed.

8:00 Crib nap.

9:00 Ariel woke up. And she had another one of her small hard poopy diapers.

9:15 Finished rest of cereal bottle.

9:30 Adam, Ariel and I went outside to wait for one or more of the grandparents who said they could babysit while I did the photoshoot.

9:45 Grandpa rode up on his bike.

10:00 Ariel was rubbing her eyes, so I put her down for a nap again.

10:05 Grandma arrived too. This worked out well, because she could wait for Ariel to wake up and Grandpa could take Adam to the park.

10:15 My family arrived for the photoshoot. I had sun and I thought it went pretty well. This is my favorite picture from the day:



You can see the rest on my flickr site.

10:45 Ariel woke up and Grandma took her to the park.

12:00 My photoshoot ended, Grandma fed Ariel her babyfood.

12:30 Then Grandma fed Ariel a bottle. Should I be paid for today? Ariel was taking her time, and Grandpa and I overruled that she didn't have to finish it before we went out to lunch.

12:45 Lunch at CiCi's. No $5 pizza for my parents. They get the $3.50 senior's buffet discount. Ariel played with a spoon while we ate.

1:15 Ariel finished the rest of her bottle.

1:30 Grandma and Grandpa went to their home, and we went back to our.

1:45 Ariel had most of another bottle.

2:00 Ariel and Adam too a nap. I used that time to proof my photoshoot.

3:00 Ariel woke up. Rest of bottle.

3:30 Adam woke up, dry but crabby.

4:00 Pick up. I took lots of pictures today, but none of Ariel, so here's one of Ariel in her new dress with her mommy:

Aug 9, 2006

7:00 Jeremy woke me up. Somehow we had both slept in today. Dang those two-for-one happy hour margaritas!

7:05 Drop off. Jeremy handled it as I was still not ready. Do you see how I'm subtly giving more and more baby work to Jeremy? The other day I suggested we could just open a daycare in lieu of him getting a job, and he told me I could spend his life insurance money any way I wanted. By the way, he thinks his interview went well yesterday and he has another tomorrow and another Friday, at different companies.

7:20 Cereal

7:50 Rest of cereal bottle

8:15 I put Ariel down for a crib nap, but what's this... No lovey? Poor Ariel :(

9:15 Ariel woke up just as Adam was having his daily poopy crisis. And I don't buy that Chinease crisis=opportunity crap, this was just a crisis. Ariel went in to the exosaucer and I got Adam into the bathroom. Adam had some dramatics, but the bulk of the poop ended up into the potty, so more progress. Yay!

9:45 We drove to the library today. After the above crisis I didn't have it in me to walk.

10:00 Arrive at library.

10:15 Storytime. Crissy and I always get our kids settled then hide in the back of the library and gossip.

10:30 Ariel did not seem to be enjoying Crissy's company today. I decided that Ariel must just prefer me now, but then we gave Ariel a bottle and she was back to her happy self.

11:15 After the library, we stopped at the grocey store because we were somehow out of milk. Again.

12:15 Got home, unloaded the groceries, made my kids lunch and fed Ariel some pears and pinapples.

12:30 Back down for a nap (with no lovey :( )

12:40 Ariel was not asleep yet, but when I went in to check on her I discovered that she had a poopy. And it was small and hard agian, FYI. Then she went to sleep.

1:00 I tried to put Adam down but he would not sleep.

1:30 Jeremy got home from his morning of bike riding and his lunch that he spent commiserating his job loss with his fellow laid-off buddies.

2:15 Ariel woke up. I took some pictures before she ate:



Her little pout reminds me of Becky...


I was trying out my new photography trick, a $2 cat tickler toy I picked up from Target. But then Adam came in and grabbed it and started teasing Ariel:


And then Adam pulled down my backdrop sheet and rolled around in it and the session was over.


2:30 Uncle J. J. (he doesn't like that Becky, so I think we should push it) gave Ariel a bottle, so I could work on my Very Important Blogging.

3:00 Grammie's here, three cheers for Grammie!

3:45 After wandering around inside and out with Ariel, I decided to put some water in the pool for her. She splashed happily for half an hour.

4:15 Dry off, clothes on. I think Ariel is a tired girl.

4:35 Pick up.

Another Jeremy update. Now he has TWO interviews tomorrow. Well, one is for a company that made headlines today for being aquired by a competitor so he's probably not going to get a job there (nor does he want one) but it's always nice to have practice.

Aug 7, 2006

Happy Monday, Everyone. We had a nice weekend. I had my first "real" photo shoot with a family I didn't know. They had contacted Crissy about me after seeing some pictures of Marcus and Gavin (and it's possible the pictures she liked were Kiddie Kandids, but whatever). Anyway, the session went ok. It was cloudy day and I didn't have as much light as I liked, but I think mom is happy with them.

I also did Alex's 4 1/2 year pictures. Here's one of the highlights to give you an idea of how that went:



You can see both sessions on my flickr site.

And since my parents didn't know, it may not be clear what I was talking about Friday when I mentioned my possible photography bussiness - here's the lowdown: I'd like to start doing maternity/baby/kid portraits (eventually) and I also have an opportunity to sell some Turkey Toe pictures at a shop in Westcliffe. That's all, nothing is going yet.

Other than that, our weekend highlights were me taking Alex to his first Friday night Shabbat service on Flagstaff (first service I've been to where there were dogs, who were not wearing yamakas) and Jeremy also took the boys up to Nederland to see the mining museum that is only open on weekends.

My Jeremy update - I was teasing him this morning that I was going to start the blog: Layoff Day 13. It was a dark and stormy day. The animosity in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Will the troubled couple make it till their 7th anniversary....? At which Jeremy interjected that our anniversary was tomorrow.

No, really, it's not THAT bad, but I think we are both getting sick of being in each other's way all day long. But good news, he has a 6 hour second interview tomorrow, and an interview on Thursday. And he's just so darn cute AND talented to boot, who wouldn't want to hire him?

7:15 Drop off

7:20 Enthusiastic cereal eating.

8:00 Playtime. Alex has been paying more attention to Ariel lately, especially when he makes her laugh:



8:30 Rest of cereal bottle

8:45 Down for crib nap.

8:50 Crissy called. We decided last night to meet at a park this morning.

9:00 Leave for park.

9:10 Arrive at park.

9:27 Call from Jeremy, "Ariel is awake." I gave him the option of bringing her to the park, or watching her. He opted for watching.

9:45 Call from Jeremy, "Ariel just pooped. I called so you could journal that for posterity. I think she's tired again, I'm going to put her back in the crib."

10:20 The kids had stopped playing and were hovering, so we decided it was time for our Starbucks emergency run.

10:30 Starbucks. My adventure today - I ordered a java chip, but a new girl made it and accidently made a mocha. She let me keep the mocha, and then she re-made my java chip but upped it to a grande as an apology. We split the mocha amongst the kids, and I drank all of my grande. I didn't really need a grande today, and now I'm very jittery.

(10:39 Missed call from Jeremy when I was waiting at the counter for my drink.)

10:45 Walked over to the post office to mail a package. Alex and Gavin got into a scramble, so Crissy et al. took off.

10:52 After I mailed my package, I checked my phone and saw I missed Jeremy, so I called him back. He said, "Ariel is awake and she's not happy." I instructed him on the art of bottle making.

11:09 Came home to this:



We've been watching Arrested Development and everytime I see Ariel lifting her shirt, I think of "Babies with low self-esteem" lol.

11:30 We went outside so I could take pictures of Ariel's super-cute outfit. I told Becky it was like something she would wear, only Becky would never wear shorts so you have to imagine her in plaid capris:



Please pose Ariel, pretty please?



Ok, this is slightly better:



Ariel, drool and all:



This is what I was trying to get:



And just for kicks, I tried to get all three kids. Here's the outtake:



And the best of the not-so-great:



And it's The Return of The Bare Bottom Bandit:



The potty training is going pretty well. Adam is really good at peeing, especially if he's outside because we told him it's ok to pee in the grass. He's been having a little trouble with the poop, but I think it's coming along. So far he's been dry all day.

12:30 Went inside for lunch. Ariel had blueberries and apples. I've also been spoon feeding her water because she doesn't seem to like getting it out of her bottle.

1:15 Down for crib nap.

1:30 Got Adam down for a nap in our bed.

1:45 Ariel woke up crying but I put her paci back in and she went back to sleep.

I read the rest of Winnie the Pooh and another chapter book to Alex. Then I downloaded and proofed the above pictures.

3:00 Adam woke up crabby and wet. I guess we are going to have to put a pull-up on for naps because he's so irrational and grumpy when he wakes up.

3:15 Ariel woke up. I changed a small hard poopy. I asked Jeremy how her poopy was this morning and he said normal.

3:20 S-L-O-W bottle

3:45 Sit and play.

4:35 Pick up.

And in case you are wondering what days to check the blog - the new schedule is that I have her Mon/Wed/Fri. Grandma has her Tues and Laura has her Thurs. Capiche?

Aug 4, 2006

7:05 Drop off. Not asleep. Ariel sat in the high chair while I finished up making waffles.

7:30 Enthusiastic cereal eating.

8:00 Crib nap

9:00 We all (that being Me, Jeremy, Alex, Adam and Ariel) left for our Fabulous Adventure™ of the day. But first, we had to run some errands.

9:10 My first errand was going to the post office. I ended up in line behind a very old, grouchy woman. She wanted to mail 30 packages (which she didn't have on her) media mail. So they had to weigh her one package, then figure out how to give her the easiest amount of stamps for the rest (which turned out to be 2 $.80 stamps each) while the old, grouchy lady yelled at just about everyone but me, as I was trying to blend in with the wall. It took forever.

9:25 Second quick errand - Starbucks. And FYI Crissy, Ted says his last day is next Friday. Soon we won't know anyone there anymore.

9:30 Finally we were on the way to our adventure. We (the we that is me) drove up to Idaho Springs. It was at this point I started to realize that Crissy is much better suited to Fabulous Adventures™ than Jeremy. I tried to talk to him about my future business plans for my almost photography business and he looked like he wanted to simultaniously fall asleep AND jump out of the car. Maybe because my business plans require spending money before making it?

10:30 Arrive at our adventure (where Ariel finished the rest of her breakfast bottle). The Argo Gold Mine and Mill:



I finally found a solution to child care!



First, we were told about the mining operation and watched a slide show. They also passed around some rocks and I made sure that Ariel touched the fossilized dino poop. Just so I could put that in the blog. We also handled a gold nugget, which we estimated to be worth several thousands of dollars.

Next, we went outside for some machine demonstrations. Both Ariel and Alex hated the drill. Alex told me it made his body hurt, and Ariel burst into tears:



Then they drove us up the hill in an old school bus and we had a self-guided tour.

We went into this old gold mine:


It didn't go back very far and it was very well lit:


Alex insisted he was wearing his hard hat properly:


Ariel didn't have much to say about the mine:


We got to see the tunnel entrance. It ran 4 miles to Central City and drained the mines of water.


And then onto the mill, where they ground up rocks and ore to extract the precious metals:


We were self-touring near another family, who had a 6 year old boy named R-e-e-c-e, Amy :)

If Adam could have turned this drill on, he would have. He settled for using it like a jungle gym. Alex kept his distance:



And I took this display case of UV-light rocks for Marcus:


12:30 We ended up back at the mine office and had a picnic lunch. Ariel slowly drank a bottle.

1:00 After lunch, we went back to pan for gold. We didn't really know what we were doing, but we did end up with a couple little flakes. The real process bored Adam, so he dumped rocks into the trough and then scooped them out again. He also mananged to soak himself, which is too bad since he had be accident free all day.



1:30 We still had some time, so we drove up to Echo Lake. Adam slept, and I think Ariel was sleeping but was awake when we got there. So Alex, Ariel and I went down to the lake:

Ariel is not wearing pants because I forgot to change her diaper and realized her pants were wet when we got in the car.




Alex liked looking at the ducks, who were suprisingly friendly and seemed to be expecting something of us:


Echo Lake:


We opted out of driving up Mt. Evans since Adam was still asleep and we didn't want to pay the fee. We (the we that is me) drove back over Squaw Pass. Here's one of the views from the road:



2:30 We stopped at the Bergan Park McDonald's because Ariel had been talking for a while and I thought she might be hungry. She took a long time to drink 3 oz, long enough that Alex had time to eat an entire ice cream cone. Adam was still asleep.

3:00 Drive back home.

3:05 Stop so Alex could pee in the grass.

3:06 Continue driving home. Ariel amused Alex by sucking on her toes. Adam slept. Jeremy slept some too. Before he dozed off, he commented that he didn't know how I do this everday. I'm not sure how many more Fabulous Adventures™ he'll go on, but I'm sure he's even more inspired to finding a new job.

3:40 Home. Ariel finished her bottle. Adam finally woke up and broke his accident-free streak.

4:00 Pick up.

Aug 2, 2006

Well hello, y'all. Here's a brief update on the potty training. Yesterday, Adam had 4 accidents, one poopy. But he went in the potty more times than that. And we were at the mall for over 4 hours and he only had one accident there. We are making progress, and the first thing that Adam said when we woke this morning was, "Want to put my lion underwear on." Alas, we did not buy that package, but he was happy to put on Thomas.

7:05 Drop off. Asleep, Adam's room.

8:00 After we ate breakfast, we went outside and worked in the garden. We removed a lot of weeds (well, I did, the boys were making a millipede house) so that The Pumpkin Vine That Wants To Take Over The World would have more room.

8:45 Ariel woke up and had her cereal.

9:10 We walked to Starbucks. Alex walked (except for the short part where Adam walked and Alex rode). I got sucked into telling Squirrel Nutkin stories to keep Alex walking. He heard-

Chapter One in which Squirrel Nutkin gets a baby brother, Max
Chapter Two in which the the squirrel family goes camping
Chapter Three in which Squirrel Nutkin starts kindergarden
Chapter Four in which Squirrel Nutkin has a birthday party

10:10 Got to Starbucks. I had my grande frappachino. And I found a quarter! Which brings my found money total to $3.32, enough to buy a drink. And I did it in under a month!

10:20 Library story time. Our regular library lady was on vacation, we had a different one. Crissy fed Ariel the rest of her breakfast bottle.

11:00 Adam had an accident at the library. But we got dry clothes on him, then he peed in the the grass outside. Poor guy is way too small for public toliets, and I'm not dragging his little potty everywhere.

11:20 Walk home. Ariel was asleep in the bjorn. We had some drama with Adam. First, he was crying because he wanted to walk. Then he was crying because he had pulled out the book bag and it had fallen and I didn't know because he wasn't making sense. But I eventually figured it out and then we had to backtrack to find our bag.

12:00 Home. I had to take pictures of Ariel's new hairbow, courtesy of Grandpa:

Cute:


Pensive:


Weird:


12:15 Ariel had apples and plums while the boys had mac & cheese and bananas.

12:45 Everyone went outside to go swimming. See?



At one point, Adam got in Ariel's pool:


1:00 Dry off, bottle. Ariel took fovever to finish it.

1:25 Crib nap.

3:20 Wake up. This is the first time I've gone in and found Ariel on her belly!

3:25 Changed a (rather hard) poopie

3:30 Bottle

4:10 We left to meet Becky at the park-n-ride

4:30 Found Becky at park-n-ride. We successfully ransomed Ariel for a briefcase of money.