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.

November 3, 2008

I just heard a really good term for my life - chaotic monotony. Today was yet another prime example. Ariel was dropped at her regular time and had her regular yogurt for breakfast. After I dropped her off at school, I went to physical therapy. Next I stopped by the Wild Bird Store to get a baffle for my chickadee feeder. I'm sick of the squirrels eating my premium bird seed (I tried to distract them today with a pumpkin). Then I came home and had enough time to eat an early lunch (my stomach still hasn't changed time) before picking up Adam. Then we headed off to the dentist. One of my sealants fell off, and the cavity I had filled needed to be filed down. Thankfully that only took 20 minutes.

Next we went to Target and I spent under $50 on cleaning products, Archer boxed dinners (which aren't half bad and are pretty cheap), one bag of Halloween M&Ms and some other Target-like items.

At 1:00 we picked up Ariel. She had another good day. Her teacher said it's funny to watch her stand up to Levi, who is much bigger. Not a big deal to her, when she has cousins to boss around.

She came home, finished her lunch and took a nap. I worked on some photography. I had two sessions this weekend and quite a bit of work to do, which should go faster now that we are all done watching Weeds.

No pictures today, but here's my favorite from the weekend:



Oh. I guess I forgot my weekend report. On Sunday we saw Seussical, the play that Alex missed on Yom Kippur. I think the kids enjoyed it, but I fell asleep. I had gotten up at 5:00 to run before Sunday school and it was my normal crash time...

October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but it was a bit quiet this year. I never did get my decorations out, and we didn't have any parties to attend. Crissy used to threw the best pumpkin carving parties. But we still know how to have a good time. For some reason Boulder Valley was off today so after I got back from my run (that didn't suck for once) and cleaned up, we went to the ZOO! Well, first we stopped at Starbucks and got donuts, then we went to the ZOO!

Ariel was quite the help with the maps. Hmm, we went past the kangaroos and the elephants, now where are we?



This picture is for those who know why I took it:



We did the bird house next. Ariel was a bit apprehensive at first, and I don't blame her. I was irrationally terrified of the bird house when I was a kid. I remember there used to be a beaded curtain and I cried when I had to go through. But she got over it and of course Alex had a blast.

Then we rode the carousel:



Alex was the reason behind everyone's animal choices, he *had* to ride on the Double Waddled Cassowary. And yes, he knows what a waddle is.



Which left Adam to the dolphin, which was fine by him:



And then we had lunch. Hot dogs, PB & J, goldfish and grapes for Ariel:



Cut anything into a heart and she'll eat it:



After lunch, we visited the lorikeets. I loved feeding them (even if I got pooped on) but the kids wouldn't try it.



Next, we walked all the way across the zoo (I did not bring a stroller or wagon for today, and it turned out fine) to Tropical Discovery.

Then we walked all the way back for cotton candy. Ariel had some, but not nearly as much as Alex:



And lastly, at Ariel's request, we rode the train:



This was really one of the best days I've ever had at the zoo. It was unbelievably uncrowded and none of the kids had a meltdown.

I think Ariel had a good time too:



We dropped Ariel off at Laura's work with Becky for a Halloween Party. Hope you guys had fun.

And our Halloween festivities - here's Bobo Fett and Comander Fox:



Adam left his helmet home anyway, it just was hard to see through:



And when we got back from the zoo, Judy came up and we had a speed cutting pumpkin party. Judy grew all these pumpkins in her back yard.



My annual kitty:



Judy gets the Super Super Grammie award for carving this for Adam:



Heh.



The kids went trick-or-treating for about 45 minutes, or 1 1/2 streets. They asked to come home, their pumpkins were too heavy. That's a pretty good self-limiting factor, you can't get more candy than you can carry.

October 30, 2008

Oh yes, I voted. Actually, Jeremy and I both made time before our nightly Weeds marathon to finally do our mail in ballots. Speaking of, ZebraBelly, are you watching Weeds? If not, I think you should. Give you something to do until January.

So let's see, Ariel was dropped off this morning at 7:15, she and Adam performed their daily ritual of running around the house shrieking while Jeremy yelled at them to be quiet. Ariel and I had a relatively quiet morning until 10:30 when we left the house to drop off the ballots. Dad made such a fuss about the postage to mail them and I teased him that it was cheaper than the gas to drive them. But I did want to eliminate as many steps in the annual voting hijinks as possible so Ariel and I biked to the county records building. And being that it's Boulder, we did it mostly on bike paths. And being that it's Boulder, I was surprised that at the drive though ballet drop off, the volunteers were surprised to see a bike. Really? And Ariel was pretty excited about "boating." I asked her who she would boat for and she said, "Green!" Ah-ha, she's been in Boulder long enough to be one of those weird Nadar supporters. And then we biked back up to Adam's school to grab him. Between my PT exercises and 45 minutes on the bike, I think I'm exercised for the day.

Ariel had mac & cheese for lunch then she and Adam played some. I turned my back to do a load of laundry and Ariel took a new blue marker and colored both her palms. They are washable markers but she did use quite a bit of ink and is now stained. At least it's just her and not something non-washable. Heh, remember Adam and the sharpies on the bay window? I had quite the trip down memory lane looking for that post. I had forgotten about the Bare-Bottomed Bandit.

Ariel went down for a nap at 1:00.

Adam wanted to share that he now does journaling at school. He was very proud of this, though he asked, "Did I write anything?" Adam also insists on doing practice spelling tests with Alex, though he misses the point that he's supposed to write the word without copying it.



At 3:30 I woke up Ariel and we went to swim team. Ariel started out happy.





But then she asked for Ms and I told her I didn't have any and she flipped out. I took her outside where she would disturb fewer people. I had brought the video camera so I could take some video of the boys swimming, but I got this instead:




By the time she calmed down and we went back inside and then she sat on my lap, the boys were done with strokes. They did a special Halloween relay race with kickboards, which was cute but I wanted to record their freestyle. Here they are cold, waiting their turns:

October 29, 2008

You probably thought I was napping and eating bon bons on my day off yesterday. Not so. Alex finally got an appointment to Children's hospital with endocrinology at 8:00. I miss judged the traffic and we arrived 15 minutes late, but the free valet parking helped a lot. We only met with a nurse practioner. She agreed that he should be evaluated for his small size (he weighed 37 lbs still, with clothes) and ordered a blood work panel and a bone age scan. We did those tests and got a referral to the Failure to Thrive clinic, where endo wants him evaluated and then they'll see him again next summer. I guess it's not an emergency, we couldn't get into Failure to Thrive until end of January. The blood work was a bit of an adventure as they also wanted a urine sample. The first time around Alex had nothing so we went to the cafeteria and I had him slam a 21oz lemonade. We sat and read a chapter of Winne-the-Pooh and went back. And Alex had about an inch of pee, which was luckily enough. He was fine through the blood draw, and they needed 3 vials.

We got back to Boulder in time to pick up Adam. We ate lunch, then all headed over to Alex's school for Pumpkin Math. His class had divided into 4 tables, each with a pumpkin and a parent. The kids did lots of predictions, like how much the pumpkin weighed (19 lbs) and how many seeds it had (646 with some margin of error due to 5 1st graders counting by 10s). Adam sat at the table and did better than 4/5 of the 1st graders with behaving. And at the end I had the honor of carving a jack-o-lantern with a very cheap and dull carving knife.

I had a big Alex bragging moment- we walked into the class a little late and the teacher said, "Maybe Alex can answer this question that no one else could - why do pumpkins float?" And Alex thought for a second and answered, "Because they are hollow." I was amazed that he remember they were hollow, we haven't cut one in a year. And also amazed that the talk with daddy on why big ships can float was transferred to pumpkins.

After Pumpkin Math, we went home and I cooked dinner. I finished just in time to take the kids to swim team. While they were swimming, I dropped half of dinner off with Rachel, who had baby Aidan last week. And after swimming, we dashed up to Gunbarrel so I could do my run, but I miss read the meeting spot and gave up and came home without running.

And one more Alex story - this week's library book pick is Animial Scavengers - Vultures, and it leaves NOTHING up to the imagination. Here's a little excerpt for you:

Still not full, the king vulture flies off in search of more food. This time, he finds a dead horse. Because the horse's skin is tough, the vulture eats the eyes and other soft bits first. When other vultures arrive to help nip open the belly, he fights for his share of the soft parts inside.

Good gawd, that would have given my 6 year old self nightmares for YEARS. Did I mention there are also full color pictures too?

And onto today. Grandpa took Ariel to school this morning as I had a physical therapy session at 8:15. I felt pretty good going in, as I hadn't done anything since Sunday. Maybe there is something to not running. After the appointment, I did finally run and it didn't hurt much but I was slow. It was such a nice day that I talked myself into doing a full hour. I should reward myself with ice cream.

Then yada yada, came home, did PT exercises, made more phone calls and appointments to complicate my life (including, Ellen, making an appointment for Alex with Dr. Steinbock, he can see him in November instead of January). Picked up Adam, took a shower and picked up Ariel.

Ariel was eating snack when we got there and insisted on carrying out fist fulls of grapes and graham crackers. We got home and she had quite a conniption about taking a nap but fell right asleep once she got in there. Adam and I played Memory and he says that even though we tied, he won.

And, pick up on time.

October 27, 2008

You know, I think I had *more* spare time before I was became a stay at home mom. A stay at home mom with all children at school more or less at the same time, even. After dropping Ariel off at school at 9:00, I had a dentist appointment at 9:30 to get a cavity filled and to get sealants on the rest of my molars. I got out of there at 10:15 and the office is right by the Wild Bird Center, so it seemed silly not to stop in. I spent an obscene amount on bird seed (who know 25lbs of peanuts would be so expensive?) but did stop short of the heated bird bath. Hey, the Rocky Mountain News recommended it today, I thought I'd at least see how much they run (surprisingly, about as much as 25lbs of peanuts).

Next was a quick trip to Micheal's to pick up some pictures frames, and while I was there I got some more easel paper and new markers.

I picked up Adam at 11:30 and then we went straight to physical therapy. I'm starting to feel like that old joke, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." and the doctor says, "Well, don't do that." And That would be running, and I'm sick of it hurting when I do. Actually, I was really sick this weekend, I felt like I had a head cold Saturday and after my long (and very slow) run Sunday I threw up. But then I felt better. Adam behaved very nicely at the PTs. It might have had something to do with the Halloween candy they had out and the Milk Duds I found for him. Those take a looong time to chew. It's a lot like giving a dog peanut butter.

After PT, we ran into Pet Smart to buy crickets for Adam's class' pets that eat crickets. That would be a leopard gecko and some variety of frog.

We picked up Ariel at 1:00.

Got home at 1:20, Ariel had a few more goldfish from her lunch and admired the crickets. She said, "Dee Dee, what are those?" I told her crickets and she said, "Oh, I LOVE tickets." And then babbled all the way to her bed that they were in the box and couldn't get OUT of the box, right? Anyway, she took a nap.

Adam took to the new art supplies like white on rice. He started out drawing a very phallic "can" and then moved onto Blue's Clues paws and surprisingly good fish.



And speaking of rice, since when do crickets come prepackaged like Chinese food?



Except, unlike take-out, these guys are chirping. Loudly.

And Becky, here's a random tidbit for you - I get lots of people wanting to be friends with me on Facebook. Like people I "supposedly" went to high school with. I don't really do much with Facebook, but if I haven't talked to you in 5 years, I don't think I want to be friends with you. Well, guess what random person asked to be a friend? J.G. aka Lightbulb Head. What the buh? We don't even have any mutual friends. Part of me wants to accept so I can look at his profile and figure out why why why.

Anyway, pick up on time at 4:30 and Ariel left in a surprisingly chipper mood.

October 24, 2008

Ariel had a pretty uneventful day. She spent the morning trashing the house. She dumped out all the toys in the living room, pulled off the couch cushions and did a number on Adam's room. That's what I get for not taking her out in the morning. We did stop by the yarn store on the way to Adam's school and she didn't try to shop lift paper pads.

She took a nap in the afternoon. The end.

October 23, 2008

Have I ever mentioned that I HATE Bunny? It seems wrong to hate a small, soft stuffed animal, but that's the best emotion I can come up with to describe my feelings towards Bunny. Yes, Bunny came today. Ariel walked in the door, took the 5 room tour through our 1700 sq ft house and promptly put Bunny down somewhere. During this covert operation, I was making Alex's lunch, feeding kids breakfast and getting kids ready for school. Jeremy left around 7:40 because he had a meeting he needed to be at at 8:00. So when it was time to take both boys to school, Ariel looked around and said, "Where's Bunny? I need Bunny!" And I said, "I don't know Ariel, why don't you go get him." And she stood stock still and screamed, "I CAN'T FIND HIM." (Yes, Bunny is apparently a boy.) I gave her a couple of minutes to think while I finished getting the boys ready and she didn't come up with anything (it's probably hard to think while having a mind blowing tantrum) so I packed her into the car while she was still sobbing "Bunny, BUNNY!" She cried all the way to Adam's school, then just sniffled on the way home. Bunny was forgotten for a while until she spotted him on the brown chair in the family room. I heard her say, "There you are Bunny, don't ever ever run away again!" I am deeply hoping that Bunny learned his lesson. Stay 'tooned 'till next time.

So yes, I did get two boys to school and Ariel had some yogurt for breakfast. We hung around in the morning doing boring stuff like laundry and cleaning up after breakfast and then ran some errands. The first stop was REI, where I hoped to get Alex new swim goggles and me a running headlamp (though a small part of me is still wondering if I need a headlamp to run in the dark, maybe this running thing isn't such a good idea after all. And yes Dad, I'll watch out for mountain lions. On the CU campus). REI was all decked out for winter. I walked in the door and immediately saw the snowboard I demoed last winter. $549.99, with binding another $199.99. Jeremy says we could swing it if only there wasn't those $.99s. Anyway, that was important because they didn't have kids swimming gear either. I looked at headlamps but they all seemed too big and heavy.

Next stop - Boulder Running Co. They had the same headlamps as REI, but were more expensive. But Pearl Vision is in the same parking lot so I got my glasses adjusted. Adam sat on them, oh, about 6 weeks ago.

And last stop - the High Point swim store to get Alex new goggles. They were $15 and if he looses another pair I may have to have him buy his next. Not matter that he doesn't get an allowance or have any income, we'll work something out.

We had time to run into the grocery store to get train batteries before picking up Adam. Ariel had one free cookie and was satisfied.

11:45 Got home, put batteries in the trains. Then Adam and Ariel played with them (not on the track, of course) for a bit before Ariel had mac & cheese for lunch.

1:00 Down for nap.

3:15 Early pick up after Becky's school conference. The verdict - Ariel is a wonderful, social, behaving, listening child at school. Huh.

October 22, 2008

My day started at 8:00, when I had an early physical therapy session so I could make my doctor's appointment at 9:30. I got done early with both and was home at 9:45, where Grandpa was waiting with Ariel and Hannah. He left with Hannah, Ariel and I played with the train set. I just had noticed that when Crissy gave us her set, she gave us the directions for it too. I made that set (the one with the round house and mountain) and then put together the one Alex got for his 3rd birthday, then connected the two. Ariel tripped over things and "helped." I'm pretty proud of my set today and Ariel didn't even mess up my work too much. (Uh, did you think I did all this work for the kids???)



See Dad? You did miss out. We just need to replace the batteries in James and Lady and we'll be back in business again. AND, I got a picture of the set for when I eventually sell it.

11:30 Picked up Adam from school. Then we went to Safeway so I could fill a prescription. It's funny, I always use Kings for prescriptions, but one month they were out and I used Safeway and they had a different generic drug and it worked SO much better. Even though the generics are supposed to be the same. So now I have to go to Safeway to fill this one. While we waited, we bought some groceries like the Tom's of Maine for kids toothpaste that Kings doesn't carry anymore. And the kids got donuts but Ariel just ate the icing and sprinkles.

12:30 Finally got home. Ariel and Adam had some mac & cheese and then were done with the eating. They played with the trains for a bit until it became clear Ariel needed a nap.

1:00 Down for nap. While Ariel napped, I worked on placing an order for Hannah and Ellen's pictures. Yes, I finally proofed all of Hannah's session from two weeks ago, here it is: http://wendysweetphotography.com/hannah_10_08/
Adam watched Blue's Clues. He's at that adorable age where he actually talks back to Joe. I always wondered why 2 year old Alex was so quiet.

4:18 Pick up

October 20, 2008

Happy Monday. We had a nice weekend. We didn't have anything scheduled on Saturday but a photo shoot and had a somewhat relaxing day. Sunday was busier. Jeremy did a 4 hour bike ride while I took Alex to Sunday school. Then I did my long run and we went to Ellen's house for wine and snacks in the Sukkah. Then we went to the parent's house for Laura's 29th birthday celebration.

See, doesn't she look old?



Miss Hannah Banana:



Alex took this picture of me. That's pretty much it:



Alex the Hutlet:



The cake my mom made:



Little Miss Trouble:



Apparently, it's genetic:



Mmmm, I have a picky appetite but cake is GOOD:



Yup, it IS good:



7:15 Drop off. Breakfast - just yogurt.

Monday turned out to be one of those really busy days that I felt like I never had time to sit down but had very little to show for it by the end of the day.

9:00 Dropped Ariel off at school, then I went to physical therapy.

10:30 Got home in time to change some laundry and make a grocery list.

11:30 Picked up Adam, went to the grocery store.

12:30 Got home, had 10 minutes to eat.

1:00 Picked up Ariel.

1:20 Got home. Ariel asked for some mac & cheese and ate maybe 1/3 of it until it mysteriously ended up on the floor.

1:45 Down for nap. I finished proofing my session from Saturday while Ariel slept. Here's my favorite from the day:



4:30 Pick up.