The Turn of the Sue

A post about Soren

2012-01-23T22:27:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure why, in popular culture, the terrible twos so overshadow the turbulent threes. Maybe if people started telling parents whose sweet baby turned into a howling monster, "Oh, by the way, it's going to get worse next year," we might be able to get overpopulation under control.

(I kid. Mostly.)

But Two and Three are rough for different reasons entirely. All the baby books say an infant's needs and wants are equivalent; babies cry about being hungry, or wet, or lonely, or uncomfortable - and yes, sometimes they just keep on crying, absent any obvious cause - but they generally do not have much in the way of separation between things that they want and things that they physically or emotionally need. They want things because they need them. Then they get a little older, a little more independent, start communicating their desires more, start exploring the world and all the wondrous things in it. They learn by touching, tasting, testing. And when their pursuit of knowledge and happiness is at all thwarted in any way, they rapidly become acquainted with the brand new emotion of crushing, unbearable disappointment. Welcome to Two(ish...your exact mileage may vary). You won't let me chase that super interesting leaf that's being blown out into the street? HOW COULD YOU? WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A THING? YOU HAVE DESTROYED EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IN THE WORLD.

(Come to think of it, two year-olds are kind of like angsty teenagers, except smaller and slightly more prone to unintelligible howling.)

Then along comes Three, when their curiosity manifests in endless chains of "Why?" They progress from just being vociferously disappointed about the denial of their wishes to being whiny and willful and determined to circumvent these perceived threats to their happiness. They push, and push, and push, and push. And then they push some more. One of Soren's frequent refrains, after he's been told no, and continued to whine and beg, and been reminded that the answer is no, is a sobbed, "But I need it to turn into yes!" Then there's the blatant ignoring of directions or instructions, the dawdling and (inappropriately timed) goofing around, the repeated doing of things they know full well are not allowed. It can be extremely trying, in a completely different way from how Two was difficult. At two, they're learning (much to their chagrin) that boundaries exist and where they are. At three they test and push, over and over, to determine if indeed those boundaries are immovable or if maybe there are weaknesses in the perimeter that can be exploited.

Which is to say, it's sometimes very frustrating to be parenting a 2 year-old and a 3.5 year-old simultaneously.

But, despite all appearances, I honestly didn't set out to write a post about Twos and Threes or to complain about the frustrations. The difficulties are caused by (mostly) developmentally-appropriate behaviors, vexing though they may be. I remarked to Tom the other day that I sometimes have to remind myself that the kids are, in fact, just little kids, and that they behave the way they do - ignoring me or doing the exact opposite of what I ask - because they're kids, and not because they're jerks.

However!

There are starting to be times when Soren and I are not constantly at odds. When, like last Thursday, he listens and does what's asked of him without an argument. When he plays so patiently and sweetly, yet enthusiastically, with Eleri that I can't stop grinning. I can't help but hope that maybe, possibly, these are signs of smoother sailing ahead. Because that would be really great.

I truly did intend this to be a post about Soren's most endearing qualities. (Kinda went the other way on that one. Whoops.) So here goes.

I've written before about how the lad gives his stuffed animals very unusual names (such as Zebra Ear and Pointy Tail), but now we've got another in the pack now - a stuffed lion my cousin Caryn gave him for Christmas. He named it Jaws of Life. This is perhaps the most amusing manifestation of his Fireman Sam obsession, with the possible exception of his tendency to sport a Welsh accent when he plays Fireman Sam games. Which he does. Often. He told me a few weeks ago that he was "playing house" with a friend at preschool. He went on to describe their game as, "sleeping in the house, and then the smoke alarm went off, and we had to run outside and wait for firefighters to rescue us!" He insists that he only plays with boys at school, but his teacher told me that he plays with the girls almost as much. A new boy joined their class this morning, and Soren introduced himself by spelling his name first, then saying it. He's actually been doing that a fair bit, lately. His preschool teacher apparently just discovered (about a week and a half ago) that Soren can read. She made a point of stopping me after school to tell me that he had read "a whole list of about ten words!" I wasn't quite sure what to tell her except, "Well. Yes. He's been reading for quite a while now."

He's been a lot more huggy again lately, too, which of course I can't possibly complain about. I am pretty sure that sometimes he uses it as a stalling tactic ("Soren, please put your shoes away like I asked you." "But I need to get a hug first!"), but it's not a very effective one, since the hugs only last a few moments. Best are the sibling hugs, because holy crap, it doesn't get much more adorable than that. As I mentioned, he's been playing really nicely with Eleri, more and more. Sure, there are still fights over toys and grabbing things back and forth, but those sorts of things are happening less often. It is really, really, super awesome to be able to take a little break while they entertain each other, and to not have to constantly be stepping in to break up arguments.

Not so much one of his endearing qualities, but something I should mention, is Soren's somewhat recent fear of "dark night clouds." He's very specific in his worries that they're going to break into the house with an axe and take him away. This fear extended, at least temporarily (he mentioned it a couple of times but hasn't since), to the moon. The moon was going to come in and get him. I have no idea where this fear came from, except to guess that it's just a fear of the dark to which his ample imagination has added some specificity. Poor kid. Some nights it's worse than others, and sometimes he goes to bed without seeming worried at all. Why clouds, though? They're about as insubstantial a thing as you could come up with. Go figure.

One last anecdote and then I'll sign off for the night. One day last month, I was driving us to the school, listening to non-kid music for once. Eleri was begging for me to play her beloved "Bah-bah Pass It On" yet another time, and I told her I'd switch to that CD once the song I was listening to was over. That song, which happened to be "Lazy Eye" by the Silversun Pickups, was actually just starting. Within the first 30 seconds or so of the song, Soren piped up from the back seat, "This is the song that me and Mommy like." And later that day he asked if I would, "play the song you and me like, again." Now he asks for "The Lazy Eye" frequently, and even Eleri has started to request it. Hehehe. I am terribly amused by this.

Anyway, he's quite the kid. And as much as he drives me up the everloving wall some days, I adore the heck out of him.

Remarkably Good

2012-01-19T22:19:00.000-05:00

We've all been a bit under the weather around here again lately. (I know. You're shocked. Shocked!) But I'm not going to write about that. Instead, I am going to write about the strangely excellent day that was January 19, 2012.

For starters, I got a pretty solid night's sleep. (That alone has the capacity to lay the groundwork for greatness.) Eleri slept the whole night in her own bed, and though we did have Soren in with us eventually, he wasn't hideously kicky or floppy. I woke up when Tom's alarm went off at 6:30. This happens pretty frequently, but I'm usually so exhausted that I pass right back out almost instantly. This morning, though, I couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to read for a while, figuring the kids would probably be up and at 'em soon anyway.

I am rarely so glad to be so wrong. I was able to read, undisturbed, until almost 8:00! Sure, more sleep would have been a welcome alternative, but there's something beautiful about a leisurely 90-minute ramp up to the day. Most mornings the kids wake me, and they of course bolt out of bed ready to take on the world (or my sanity...whichever is a more convenient target), so this morning's slow approach to the day was a lovely and unexpected gift. Around 8:00, Soren woke up, and soon after we could hear Eleri starting to stir in the other room. Soren hopped out of bed and trotted off to see her.

I found them like this, he in her bed, the two of them happily exchanging their good mornings.

But wait. It gets better still. Instead of leaping up and demanding breakfast, the two of them started playing together, cooperatively and adorably, in their room! I sat in the living room with a big, stupid grin on my face, listening to them talk back & forth, having actual conversations, playing without argument or upset. It was amazing. And it went on for a good 20 minutes! (I recorded a bit of it for posterity, in case it never happens again. Hehehe.) Then they came out, asked nicely for breakfast, and were rewarded with yogurt parfaits, which they ate without making a mess.

The morning continued in an almost bewilderingly perfect fashion. The kids were agreeable and helpful. Whining was at a minimum. Soren actually came to me at one point and said, "Mommy! I cleaned up the toys in my closet!" I know. It didn't take long for me to start wondering when the other shoe was going to drop.

But the goodness continued. I let Soren look up ASL signs on the computer while I cleaned the kitchen, and he would run to the kitchen gate after every one to demonstrate for me. Eleri (who knows almost all of her letters now, by the way!) played with the iPod for a while. Soren helped clean up his room without argument. (Okay, without much argument.) When the ladies from the cleaning service arrived, the lad showed off his ability to count to 10 in Spanish (which he learned in preschool).

We went to the playground, where I pushed them together on the big green swing to a chorus of giggles and repeated cries of, "Faster than that!" There were, of course, some complaints when it was time to go; it was really cold out, plus we had errands to run, so I set a 20-minute playground time limit, which is almost criminally short as far as they're concerned. But on we went.

Things devolved a bit at the store and on the way home, and unfortunately for Tom, the evening was more or less normal, with the exception of some pretty dedicated eating on Soren's part at the dinner table. But hey. The better part of the day was almost like something out of a dream. A good dream. Not the kind I have after I eat something too spicy late at night.

Guess Who's Two!

2012-01-12T21:30:00.004-05:00

I know. Not going to take many guesses. It's Eleri!

The lass celebrated her birthday on Sunday with presents, a special trip out with Daddy to run errands and pick up lunch, an outing to the park with Soren and me in the afternoon, and delicious birthday brownies after dinner. She had her 2-year doctor visit yesterday, which she did not enjoy; similarly, she was less than thrilled about her trip to the dentist last week. But she's growing well - 74%ile (28.5 lbs) for weight, 87%ile (35") for height - and has healthy teeth and aside from a bit of persistent fluid in one ear, she is in tip-top shape.

I took both kids to the library for story time this morning. They were extremely well behaved, sitting quietly on the rug, paying attention to the stories and songs. I was very impressed. Then we had a good two-hour chunk of fun time with friends at the park in the afternoon. The rest of the day was...trying. But tomorrow is, as always, a new chance to start fresh.

It has been a crazy week here, weather-wise. Monday was chilly in the morning, and then we got snow in the afternoon. Snow! Not a ton of it, but enough to play in and take neat pictures. Observe.

Tuesday was a bit warmer (enough to melt all the snow and for us to be quite comfortable walking around the zoo all morning). Wednesday was about the same temperature, maybe a skosh warmer, but very rainy. And then today it was sunny and nearly 60 degrees in the afternoon! Tomorrow we're supposed to have a high of 40 again. Crazy fluctuation, I tells ya.

Tomorrow is pajama day at Soren's school. He is very excited about this. I question the wisdom of scheduling pajama day in the middle of winter, but I'm sure it'll be fine. And yes, I'll get photos.

That's all she wrote for now. More again soon.

As the lass approaches her second birthday

2012-01-04T23:22:00.001-05:00

Frolicking at Hoyt Playground in Astoria, NY

Eleri turns two on Sunday. Two! And while I am frustrated daily by the breakdowns as she learns to navigate the tricky world of human emotions - even the most minor disappointments are met with OUTRAGE and DESPAIR - it's pretty great to watch her grow and evolve into her own person. She's strong and feisty and funny and incredibly sweet. She will dispense hugs at the slightest provocation. (Except sometimes when Soren tries to force them upon her, and then she really really objects.) If you try to take something from her, she will fight and cry, but nine times out of ten, if you just ask nicely she'll give it up with a smile.

I've written before about some of the funny sentence construction Eleri uses. ("I see it! Pony.") She's also developed some interesting words and phrases for things. "Blanket" is frequently used as a modifier - "blanket pants" are sweat pants or fleece pants, "blanket water" is water in her bedtime bottle, and the one that really mystifies me is "blanket cheese," by which she means string cheese. Sometimes when she's playing by herself, she grants time-outs to her stuffed animals for not being gentle with one another. And I have no idea where the phrase, "I see it! Zamboni house." came from, but we hear that one at least a few times a week.

She is a Signing Time fanatic and knows a ton of signs at this point. Most of the time her usage is more vocab-quiz-style than conversational ("Ellie, what's the sign for lizard?" "Hey Ellie! What's this sign?" etc.) but every once in a while she'll use the signs on her own. We're working on politeness when she asks for things, and when prompted for a "please" she almost always signs it when she says it. A couple of weeks ago she was signing (and shouting) "stop" to some birds on the balcony, though I'm not quite sure what their offense was.

(Soren's quite good with the ASL as well, but this is an Eleri post.)

Eleri is completely hooked on the song "Pass It On" by a band called Rabbit! (The exclamation point is part of the band's name. Rabbit! Not Rabbit.) You can listen to "Pass It On" here. Eleri calls the song "Bah-bah Pass-idawn" (listen to the first 15 seconds and you'll know why). Current obsession aside, she's got an interesting taste in music. Sometimes when she gets ahold of one of the iPods, she'll randomly land on something by Fugazi or Veruca Salt and start bopping her head & dancing around. Might be a mini-punk rocker in the making. ;)

Like her brother, Eleri is very social. She made friends with a couple of girls at the mall play area today (they were probably 5 and 7 years old) and hung out with them for a good half an hour. I'm pretty sure I could leave her with Soren at preschool and she wouldn't bat an eye. Very secure in herself and her surroundings, the majority of the time, which is such a great thing. She's also, I'm reluctant to admit, a bit girly with regard to her fashion choices, attracted to necklaces and skirts and such, but she plays as rough-and-tumble as Soren did at the same age. And, awesomely and somewhat hilariously, she delights in finding heavy things to pick up, so that she can then declare, "I'm so strooooooong!" So I guess I can live with the skirts and necklaces. ;) Hehe.

Anyway, that's our lass. We have got some pretty amazing kids.

Merry Christmas. Have a PR.

2012-01-03T20:51:00.000-05:00

Tom got me a super awesome fully waterproof mp3 player for Christmas. I got to try it out in the pool for the first time this evening. It's really amazing how much of a difference it made, having a (more or less) consistent beat to try and match. I shaved almost 90 seconds off my previous best time for 1000 yards, and I hadn't even been able to come within a minute of that record since I set it in mid-October! So that was pretty great. I look forward to many more music-accompanied swims in the future.

It was cold here today. Really cold. High of 32 cold. Just the sort of day to make hot soup for dinner. I found a recipe for coconut & chicken curry soup and made that. (The recipe calls for jalapeno, but I left it out so it wouldn't be too spicy for the kiddos.) Tom made some incredibly rich stock over the weekend, so I used that in the soup, and it was outstanding. Definitely a win.

I also tried hot quinoa cereal this morning. Jenny had left it behind when she visited, and I finally got around to making it. It was interesting. Oatmeal-type consistency, except with the flavor of broccoli. Quinoa is, of course, a broccoli relative, but I'd never really thought they tasted alike before. So that was interesting. Not bad, though! Would have been killer with some grated cheddar over the top. ;)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T22:45:00.002-05:00

Welcome to 2012, everybody. So far so good? Hope so!

I've got lots and lots to catch up on, here. I was finally organizing my digital photos this morning, and I had stuff as far back as October 23rd to go through. October 23rd! That just might be the furthest behind I've ever managed to get. But, no matter. The process has begun, and the first batch of photos from our recent trip to New York is up on Flickr. (Spoiler alert: the kids are just as cute as ever, if not more so.)

Some things to look forward to in the new year:

- The (third? fourth?) annual year-in-review post
- Photos! Duh!
- Videos (seriously, I have a bunch to post)
- Tales of hilarity and adorability

So...yeah, pretty much the same as ever. Just hopefully more of it, again. I did manage to finish Eleri's Christmas stocking - in time for Christmas, no less! - so my evenings have freed up dramatically. I'm hoping to get back on a more regular blogging schedule once again (I know, I know...how many times have we heard that one?). Fingers crossed, anyway.

For now, I'm going to try to get a bit of sleep before the wee ones invade our bed. They'd been doing pretty well sleeping most or all of the night in their own beds, but then we went on vacation, and vacation screws up everyone's sleeping routines. So it's been crowded again these past couple of nights. Not for too much longer, with any luck.

Good night, and good tidings in 2012. :)

Just keep stitching

2011-12-11T18:05:00.001-05:00

I've been working on Eleri's Christmas stocking, almost every day, for the past several weeks. Usually it's just an hour or two after the kids have gone to bed, but sometimes I can get them to play together long enough to let me get a little bit done during the day. It's coming along! I should actually be able to finish it before Christmas. Probably. Hopefully.

I've also been knocked flat a bit this weekend with some kind of nasty bug I picked up from the germ-riddled weasels. So huh-freaking-zzah to that. I suppose it's better to be sick on the weekend when Tom's around to help with the kids, though. And with any luck, I'll be on the mend again soon.

Otherwise, lots more of the same around here. Oh, I set up a Twitter account for Eleri (check it out in the sidebar), since she's getting more talkative and hilarious, and not just repeating things that she hears. Soren continues to be a happy, happy lad at school. We're all excited about our upcoming trip to New York for Christmas.

All right, dinner time. Have a good one, all.

Soren Guest Post (the third)

2011-12-05T16:39:00.001-05:00

Busy busy around here lately. But things are finally calming down again and I should be back to posting stuff here and on Flickr soon. For now, here's another guest post by the lad.

* * * * *

Can you type what I say?

Um. Leo is soft. Uhhhh. Uhh. Um. Huh. Ha. I should say...oh! I am going to say...Tom's at work, and we're at home. And, I'll say that again. Haaaah. Daddy's at work. And we're at home. And Ellie and Susan and Soren are at home. And, this car is so beautiful...that I wanted to have it! Because...it's my favorite toy. And Ellie's favorite toy. And...it's...a...Christmas thing! What I...borrowed, from the store. Because I just had a Thanksgiving. I got that for Thanksgiving. And Christmas. And December. And November and December. Uh, and September and October. And January. And February. I need you to do upper case letters.

OKAY NOW YOU TYPE...NOW THAT'S BIG! AND THOSE ONES ARE BIG! AND THOSE LETTERS ARE BIG! AND I NEED THAT SCREEN TO BE A LITTLE BIGGER. A LITTLE MORE BIGGER.

Should I play with your iPod? Try again in 4 minutes. (reading the screen of the iPod, which El had disabled) Someone wants me to blow the whistle. *blows train whistle* Are you...don't need a train!

I need...you...to...uh...get the screen a little longer. Now that button, and that button, uh, should get a little longer.

Mmmmmmm. Why do you have so many Ms on the screen? Mommy? What should you do? Hmm. Maybe...you get all those words a little off that screen. And read Soren Book.

What once was lost

2011-11-26T22:04:00.001-05:00

About a month ago, I lost my wedding ring. It was a completely stupid, mundane, if befuddling sort of thing. I had gone riding in the morning. Took my rings off to ride, as I always do. Put them back on before driving home. Got home. Did a huge overhaul cleaning of our bedroom closet, which involved tossing out a huge garbage bag of junk that had accumulated in there. Finished up, looked down at my hands, noticed my ring was missing. And it isn't all that loose on me right now, so the idea that it would just slip off my hand and I wouldn't notice is a little unbelievable. I was a little afraid it had gotten somehow yanked off my finger with the garbage bag when I was throwing that away, but I still held out hope that it would turn up eventually. Almost every time I went into that closet (it's a small walk-in) over the past month, I've looked around a bit for it. No luck. I'd of course switched my other ring to my left hand, but it still feels really off-balance to only have a ring on one hand when you're accustomed to wearing them on both hands. I also tend to fiddle with my right-hand ring as a nervous habit, so that naked finger was another constant reminder. It really bummed me out.

Last night, Tom was looking for his iPod (which had gone missing after the kids had been playing with it...this happens from time to time, but we were having a tougher than usual time locating it). Out of desperation, he lifted up the couch to look underneath it.

"Oh. There's your ring."

I thought he was kidding. I scoffed, even. But indeed, he had found it! How in the hell it got from our bedroom closet out to the living room and underneath the couch - or how it even fell off my finger in the first place - is beyond me. But what a relief to have it back!

And then Tom found his iPod in a bin on a shelf this morning. So all's well that ends well. :)

Happy Thanksgiving :)

2011-11-24T20:59:00.001-05:00

Today started early. Like, before sun-up early, for me. Jenny left well before 5AM, planning to catch a 6:30 bus from Union Station in DC. Her plan was to bike to the local metro station and take the train into the city. We checked WMATA last night, and figured out when she would have to be there. Absolutely nothing on the website indicated in any way that the metro stations would all be closed for the holiday early this morning. Which they were.

By some miracle, I actually heard my phone (just set to vibrate, and sitting on a shelf all the way across the house from our bedroom) when Jenny called at about 5:25 for rescuing. She'd biked to two different metro stations, both of which were closed. (Weirdly, the escalators were turned on. Nice waste of energy there, WMATA.) This is precisely the sort of thing that tends to happen to me when I'm traveling - or, you know, trying to get anywhere with a time limit - so it was actually kind of a pleasant change to be the one coming to the rescue rather than the one desperately trying to fight the fates and get wherever on time.

Happily, we made it in time, and all was well. And I got to say one last bon voyage, which was nice. I'm glad it all worked out. And it gave me a super early jump start on the day - maybe a bit earlier than I would have wanted, but I can't really complain. ;)

After lazing around for several hours, I headed down to the pool to get some pre-feasting exercise. I ended up swimming just over a mile! Somehow I found myself in a rhythm and just kind of kept going. Of course, I had super wobbly legs when I finally stopped and got out of the pool - no great surprise - but I still felt pretty good about the whole thing.

We were invited over to Heather's house for Thanksgiving, where we had deep-fried turkey for the second year in a row. So tasty. Tom made the side dishes we were asked to bring (mashed potatoes & brussels sprouts). He confited garlic in olive oil & spices and added that to the potatoes. There were yams, parsnips, carrots, stuffing with two kinds of bread, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, and FIVE DIFFERENT PIES (apple, banana cream, bourbon-chocolate-pecan, blueberry, and pumpkin). It was quite the feast. It's always lovely to visit with friends, especially over a big, delicious meal. The kids were not exactly well-behaved at dinner (grr), but they were pretty cute and good the rest of the time. Soren adores Heather and consistently makes comments that sound an awful lot like he's trying to make a pass at her. A memorable one from one of our previous dinners: "Heather! Want to go inside the house and...do stuff?" Hehe. Eleri was also a lot more talkative this time than the last time we were over there, so that's always fun. Less fun was her screaming meltdown at dinner over not being able to play peekaboo with the tablecloth, but that's another story. ;)

And now we're home, and they're asleep, and I'm going to roll myself into bed and hopefully enjoy a bit of a lie-in tomorrow. Poor Tom has to work, but he ought to get out early.

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!

Bye Jenny :(

2011-11-23T21:24:00.001-05:00

Hard to believe Jenny's spent nearly 3 weeks with us! It's gone by really quickly, and we've all enjoyed having her around. She's heading out early tomorrow morning and will be continuing (somewhat sporadically) to blog about her travels - you can follow along here.

Yesterday Eleri was sounding quite a bit better, so we braved a trek through the rain to the zoo in the morning to check out the Small Mammal and Ape Houses. It was pretty neat. Those were the two houses I still hadn't been inside, so it was cool to finally get to see them. There were lots of interesting critters in the Mammal House (tamarins, mole rats, elephant-nosed shrews, meerkats, an armadillo, and many more), though the kids were a little manic and more interested in running down the corridors than looking at everything. Ah well. The gorillas were also pretty amazing to see, in the Ape House. One of them was right up against the window the whole time we were there, face-to-face with us. It was really something.

This afternoon we went to the American History Museum. Jenny wanted to check out the First Ladies exhibit (which had been closed the last time she'd gone to the museum), so the kids & I hung out in the little interactive kid zone/play area while she did that. It was a blustery walk to the museum & back to the car, but fortunately not rainy. We managed to score a parking space right on Constitution Avenue, so we had a nice stroll along the edge of the Mall. (Well, there was more hustle than a stroll implies, but you get the picture.) I hate to say it, but even with all the holiday traffic, it was kind of nice to just drive into the city rather than deal with the whole production that is taking the metro with the kids. Not so very environmentally friendly of me, but oh well.

Tom got out of work early for the holiday weekend and made delicious orzo with salsa cruda for dinner. Yum. I managed to drag myself to the gym afterward (Hey ML! I'm up to a mile and a half on the erg, clocking just over 12 minutes! I'm sure that's actually pretty pathetic, but it's quite a step up from where I started, just a couple months ago).

Anyway. The kids were super sweet saying goodbye to Jenny tonight before bed. They're going to miss her (we all will), but I know we'll all look forward to reading about her travels. She's off to New Zealand next month; I'm so jealous! It's been great getting to know her better, and I know we'll stay in touch.

Another Soren guest post

2011-11-23T11:35:00.001-05:00

Handing over the keyboard to the lad this morning. Here goes.

* * * *

*YUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUYUM

* * * *

This has been another Soren guest post. Have a lovely day.

Round & round it goes

2011-11-21T20:27:00.001-05:00

So, Eleri gave her cold to Soren. She got better while he descended into Snotland. Now he's on the mend and Eleri is back to hacking and being a snot faucet. Oy. I forsee a long and disgusting winter ahead of us.

Anyway.

Let's see, weekend. The weekend went by really fast. Did a bunch of chores, watched some television, generally took it easy. Sunday evening Jenny watched the kids again so Tom & I could go have another dinner together. Two dinners out in two weeks! We are incredibly fortunate.

Soren's liking his swim lessons and getting more comfortable with the water each time. Eleri would desperately like to take lessons too, but I'm having trouble finding any that are scheduled at a reasonable time. Might just have to wait until Spring, but try to take her to the pool here more often in the meantime.

Oh, I forgot about Friday. On Friday, Soren's class had a little music performance and cookie reception at the end of the school day. It was super cute, all the little dudes & dudettes sitting and singing Thanksgiving songs. Afterward, I let Eleri out of the stroller, and she enjoyed the heck out of herself, playing in the classroom. I took some video, which I will eventually get around to uploading.

Later in the afternoon, we went to the park. The days have been getting colder (and wet, more and more often), but the park is always popular, even if a few extra layers of clothes are required. ;)

Ugh, poor Eleri. She keeps waking herself up, crying a bit, going back to sleep, repeating the cycle. I suspect it's going to be a rough night. Perhaps I ought to get off the computer and try to rest while I can.

Greetings from the TB ward

2011-11-17T21:01:00.001-05:00

So much for my "post every day this month" plan. I've also fallen way behind (like, four or five days!) on my daily kid pictures. Oh well. I'm ready to just call this week a wash and try to get back on track next week.

It's been a bit plague-y around here. Eleri was sick last week, and then of course Soren caught it. Lots of snot, and lots of hacking. His cough was about at its worst on Monday, though fortunately it's improved since then. Tuesday we were home almost all day, with one brief library trip to keep the madness at bay. Yesterday and today were rainy days, so we're going on four days with no playground excursions or time spent running around outside for either of the kids. It's not a huge surprise that they're becoming maniacs.

Yesterday (Wednesday), I ran a 5k on the treadmill in the evening, the first one under 30:00 in a while (just 40 seconds under, but I'll take it). This morning Jenny and the kids and I drove through the drizzle up to Annapolis, where it was cold and very quiet, but neat. It's an interesting historical site, with quite a few original buildings from the 17th, 18th & 19th centuries. Soren desperately wanted to go on a boat, any boat, or a raft, or a dinghy, or pleasepleaseplease that boat over there? I had something of a death grip on his hand as we walked along by the waterfront, where there was of course not a guard rail in sight. We walked and walked, got some tasty crepes for lunch, and were back home by early afternoon.

I left Soren and Jenny to play at home and took Eleri back out with me to do some grocery shopping. She's gotten so much grabbier at the store, and I made the mistake of parking her too close to the pasta sauces while I was looking for noodles. Crash! I was lucky she only managed to knock down one jar, but ugh. Not our finest moment. She fell asleep on the drive home, stayed asleep through being transferred to the stroller in the blustery 42 degree afternoon, and then continued sleeping in the stroller for almost another hour, while I made dinner and Soren played not very quietly in the same room. Tired girl!

I went and rode Vanya this evening. It was another really chilly night at the barn, but we had a good ride. Vanya's an interesting horse in that he is not shy about letting me know when I'm pissing him off (usually by getting into a tug of war with his mouth), so he's helping me remember to ride with softer hands even when I don't have an instructor there to remind me. It's not ideal, because of course I should be good enough to not piss him off in the first place, but at least I'm not likely to continue making the same mistakes all the time.

Anyway, that's about all I've got for now. Yawn. Off to bed.

Double feature

2011-11-13T19:03:00.001-05:00

Since I yet again didn't get a post up yesterday, I'll do a double post today.

Date Night! Huzzah!

Yesterday, Jenny headed into DC to check out some museums & see the sights. Soren had swim class in the morning, and then after lunch Tom and the kids watched a soccer game while I had some glorious time to myself. I picked up this book (about drawing) from the library several weeks ago, since I have been interested in improving my drawing ability for a while now. So I took advantage of my available quiet time to work through the book a bit. I discovered a heretofore unrealized affinity for drawing with a charcoal pencil. (It's really fun!) After an hour or so, I worked on Eleri's stocking for a little while. It's coming along - slowly, but I think I'll just barely get it done in time for Christmas - and I'm enjoying it. Jenny returned from her outing, I went to exercise at the gym, and then Tom & I got to go out for dinner by ourselves while Jenny watched the kids! Yay! It was really nice. (I mean, duh, of course it was nice.) Tasty food, tasty beers, good times. (And no loud live music.) ;)

It's all happening at the zoo

We had a lazy morning. After lunch, Tom took the kids to do the grocery shopping, and then after they got back, we all went to the zoo! Tom hadn't been yet (we just never seem to get around to it on the weekends), so he enjoyed it. It was chilly, so a lot of the animals were hiding indoors. We got to see one of the elephants pretty close-up (she was breaking apart and eating a pumpkin), and one of the pandas was making laps around the indoor panda habitat. Eleri was super excited about the panda; every time the it came into view she would shout, "HI Panda!" and give a huge grin. It was adorable. Sadly, we didn't realize until too late that all the buildings close early this time of year, so we missed out on the Small Mammal, Ape, Invertebrate & Reptile Houses. Oh well. We will have to return again soon. They had set up most of the Zoo Lights displays, and I'd really like to check that out this year.

We were really hungry by the time we headed home, so we decided to pick up pizzas for dinner. Nom nom nom.

And with that, another weekend's in the books. Tomorrow it's back to work, school, and routine.

Frigid Horse-a-palooza

2011-11-11T22:29:00.001-05:00

It was a cold and windy day today! Brr! Happily, Tom was able to accompany us for preschool drop-off this morning. It was nice for him to get to see Soren in his element at school. Then he did some grocery shopping while I took Eleri to her class. She was even more clingy than usual during the running-around parts, but she really loves the singing and coloring. And bubbles. And when the teacher handed out stickers at the end of class, Eleri said a nice and clear "thank you," which may have been the first time the teacher's heard her say anything.

We came home, Tom started chili in the crock pot, and then I went back to pick up Soren. Lunch, a bit of downtime playing with the kiddos, and then in the afternoon I took Jenny along to the barn. Well, barnS. First we went to exercise N's horses. It hadn't gotten any warmer by afternoon, but at least it wasn't quite as windy out at the barn. Then we went to the other barn for my lesson. Where it was even colder. My teeth were actually chattering when I was waiting to mount. At least once I was on the horse I warmed up fairly quickly. There were eight people in my lesson tonight (eight!) which is really a lot for the little indoor arena. Everyone did a fairly impressive job maintaining spacing and not killing each other.

Anyway, it was the most horsing I've done in a long while (lunge one horse and ride two, back to back to back), and it was pretty fun despite the cold. Tom's chili and cornbread were a most welcome delight when we returned home for dinner. And then he made stuffed puff pastries for dessert. Hell yeah.

All right, off to bed.

Eleri and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

2011-11-10T23:26:00.001-05:00

Poor Eleri.

The "terrible twos" have been flirting with the idea of making an appearance for a little while now. She's been getting progressively more touchy about things, more insistent about the things she wants, less willing to share or take turns, and demonstratively disappointed when things don't go her way. It's the nature of toddlerhood, I realize. However, knowing it's coming - and knowing it's perfectly normal - doesn't really make it any more pleasant.

Yesterday morning we packed a lunch and metroed into the city to check out the Textile Museum. It was a brisk day, with rain clouds threatening to make things more interesting for us. We were somewhat prepared for the weather (sweaters plus rain coats, but no gloves or hats, which would have been nice), and it was at least toasty warm the whole way in on the train.

We located the Textile Museum, which is kind of on the edge of Embassy Row, so we got to see a few embassies and neat flags on our way. Once inside the (not especially stroller-friendly) building, we'd spent maybe five minutes looking at the first exhibit when I noticed that El had removed one shoe and sock. DC has a somewhat inane rule/law/ordinance/whatever about requiring shoes in all public buildings, even on little kids. And there was a guard right in the corner of the room, getting ready to come over and give me a talking-to about the lass's newly naked foot. So I tried calmly explaining to Eleri that she had to have her sock and shoe back on, which led to her kicking and flailing in the stroller, escalating to a 10 or 15 minute long meltdown. During which I wrestled her sock and shoe back on, wheeled her out into a corner by the staircase, started trying to remove her sweater (because at this point she'd worked herself up so much she was getting overwarm), which pissed her off anew, tried to abandon sweater removal, to which she also objected, hauled her upstairs to the kid-friendly "learning zone," and tried distracting her with all the things to touch and play with. All the while I also tried all the "magical tantrum-halting" tricks (validating her feelings, asking her to calm down and use her words, yada yada), none of which seemed to do much of anything. Eventually she managed to calm down, and actually seemed to enjoy herself for a short while, scribbling on graph paper, arranging magnets, feeling different textiles and generally tooling around the big open room.

There was actually not a lot to the museum. Two or three rooms of displays, plus the "learning zone" room. There were some interesting things to see (neat woven art of Central Africa, some very detailed embroidery) but I guess I just expected there to be a bit more to the place. Oh well. At least we were through it fairly quickly, and then we headed across the street to a park for lunch. It was not exactly picnic weather, but we hunkered down and chowed our food, and then the kids played at a playground for a little while. There was a group of kids there (they were old enough that they should have been in school, so I'm guessing it was some sort of homeschool group), and none of them wanted to play with Soren. Poor guy. He kept asking me where the other 3 year-olds were. ("I need 3 year-olds!") He eventually deigned to play with Eleri, and soon we were on our way again, endeavoring to get out of the cold for a bit.

We took refuge in a Starbucks just as it was starting to rain. We got the weasels a kids' hot chocolate (so, not too hot) to share, and they were not nearly as impressed by it as I expected. Eleri seemed to like it all right, but Soren kept making faces after each sip. (Yes, I tried it, and it was definitely not overly warm.) Oh well. The cold and rain scared us off from doing any further adventuring through the city, so we got back on the train and headed homeward. We did some grocery shopping, and it was really only mid-afternoon by the time we got back to the apartment.

Almost immediately upon arrival, Eleri had another sobbing meltdown (I think this one was provoked by having to take off her shoes and/or coat), and it again took a loooooong time to calm her. Soren, thankfully, was able to help Jenny in the kitchen with dinner prep, and by all reports was incredibly well-behaved and helpful. So huzzah, little lad. Eleri, meanwhile, continued to cry the cries of one with a broken heart, while I snuggled her on my lap. I'm not sure what else to do. I obviously don't want to encourage the tantrums, but it feels callous to just ignore her until she decides to calm down. I don't think quiet hugs are a bridge too far, in this case.

There was at least one more meltdown before bedtime, and another at bedtime. She ended up getting so worked up she needed to be rocked to sleep. (And again today for a nap, and rocked to calm tonight at for bed, though I was able to set her down awake this time at least.) I feel for her - it's tough to discover that life's unfair - but holy crap is the drama tiresome.

Anyway. Since I'm not willing or able to just give her whatever she wants at all times, there will undoubtedly be more meltdowns in the coming days and weeks. I hope not months. We'll get through it, of course. Not much choice.

Guest Post by Soren

2011-11-09T19:42:00.002-05:00

I'm just going to take dictation for Soren for a few minutes. Let's see where this goes.

* * * * *

What are you writing? Can I help you do your blog post? You should write about me falling in the parking lot and hurting my head. On January. (whispering) January, February, March, April, May, June, July.

Now my question is gonna be...um...that on December I'm going to fall and hurt my head on the um, uh, the TV! Break my head on the TV. Because it's very sharp! The TV. Is very sharp.

Now I'll say...that...I'm...a squirrel! Dressed up, as a...ocean! I mean, or a...plane?! Can I have a fire hat? So that I can put out the fires? A real one!

Can I have a camera? Please? To take a picture of you.

I would like to write the blog post with you. I'm going to type whatever you say. Whatever Ellie says.

(Taking over typing.)

Hi SOREN. LEEO IS SoFT.

(That took about 10 minutes. He's really amused by holding down the keys and then saying things like, "Oh no! That's too many Fs!" I'm resuming typing control.)

A control tower radio can tell that cars can stay off the runway. And only planes can go on the runway. Baggage trains can move the baggage around, so that they can put it in the plane. (Who drives the baggage train?) Uh, workers. I mean two workers of the airport. I'm gonna push the little dot (period).

Can you type what I say? Can you give me a push the caps lock...do you want to get upper case or lower case letters? Okay, caps lock...now it's off. Now lower case letters.

Um, oh gums! (He means vitamins, which Tom just brought over.) Can you let me push one button?

t

Let's talk about...a fire engine. That it has a big ladder. And also firefighters go in it. Nothing else. I want to only talk about it. Sometimes they go in the midnight...and June-July are nights...and also February, March, April, May, June, July are nights. Yes, it's night for all those months. On November and December are nights too!

(Misc. noises and sound effects.)

Can I, uh, what were you typing? What's that? Why were you typing that? I like to (make sound effects).

Yes, we're about done. Can I have some yogurt? Uh, I mean, can I have...can I push a button? One button. Called...would you like upper case letters or lower case letters?

g

We're about done? No, we're ABOUT done. I'd like four stuff to say. I mean, I want five minutes. My five stuff.

1) A fire engine has a ladder.

2) A mail truck has mail.

3) A truck with a fire hose can spray stuff out.

4) A truck with deliveries can deliver stuff to people. Like cans, to play with. And little stuffs to cook with. And nothing else.

5) A thing that crashes into another car...has...broken a car! Let's push the dot.

* * * * *

Well that was fun. ;) Good night, all.

This & That

2011-11-08T22:39:00.001-05:00

I'm not going to lie. Having English Jenny around is a little like having a Mary Poppins, without the singing.

(Actually, it's not that much like it. But the thought has crossed my mind on more than one occasion, when she's playing with the kids. What can I say? You all know I am easily amused.)

Eleri is getting more and more talkative every day. I need to video her more often. Or, you know, at all. (Bad mommy.)

We had A over for a little while today. I took all the kids to the playground, where Soren & A spent a good 20 minutes playing some sort of rescue game that involved running up and down the play structure stairs over, and over, and over, and over again. Any game that requires that much exertion is a fantastic game, as far as I'm concerned. Of course, it meant that the boys were a little extra whiny when it was time to head home for lunch, but they're whiny regardless of when we leave. I'll take a bit of extra whining in exchange for a reduced level of maniacal running around in the afternoon.

Then again, I was yet again barely able to handle Soren's constant stream of noise and inane questions this afternoon ("Why does that stop sign say stop on it?" et cetera). Grr. I realize that's more my problem than his, but I think the fact that he was worn out from the morning's running around made him a bit more verbally manic, if that makes any sense. Surely there's got to be a perfect balance to be found somewhere, but I certainly haven't found it yet. ;)

He is really thrilled to be getting back to school tomorrow though. So I'm glad about that.

Out & About

2011-11-07T20:36:00.001-05:00

Since there was no school today, we met A and his mom at Fort Ward Park late in the morning. We were joined by another family we know, and the kids ran themselves in circles for about two hours. Then we continued on our way to give Jenny a brief tour of Old Town. We parked down by the waterfront and checked out The Torpedo Factory, which is one of the local art galleries. It's actually made up of a bunch of individual stalls, each housing one or two artists' workspace and small shop. It's kind of a neat setup. And yes, the name comes from the fact that the building housing the gallery was indeed originally a manufacturing facility for torpedoes, mostly for WWII. (Neat summary of the building's history here.)

Both the kids were rather entertained by the big free-for-all chalk wall right at the Torpedo Factory's entrance. Eleri was at a bit of a disadvantage, sitting in the stroller, but she scribbled gamely for a bit and then decided she'd like to try tasting the chalk instead. (It was quickly deemed "asgusting.") Continuing on into the gallery itself, Soren of course wanted badly to touch everything and kind of flop around, which is not precisely the best practice in the stalls housing glass sculptures or $4500 original paintings. He was genuinely interested in a lot of it, though, which I'm glad about. He just needs a setting more agreeable to his tactile 3 y.o. nature.

We did make it through all 3 floors though. Soren was maybe the most excited about the elevator, which was huge and contained several big rolling carts. Hehe. After we finished our tour, we continued on our way and walked through several blocks of Old Town. It's about as historical as things get, architecturally, around here, so it's always neat to wander and look around. We fully tuckered out both kids, though. Even though Eleri didn't have to do any walking, I guess she'd worn herself out at the park, because she passed out in the stroller on the way to the car. Soren nodded off before we were halfway home. Hehe. It's always kind of nice when silence falls over the back seat of the car. ;)

I know I haven't been posting pictures here lately, but I have still been taking them (almost) every day. One of these days I'll get caught up with posting again. One thing at a time, for now.

Feastination

2011-11-06T21:40:00.000-05:00

As per usual, we had a ton of food at Max & Agnes's house. We ordered dinner from Nando's Peri Peri (a Portuguese chicken place), and everything was delicious. We got chicken in three different flavors, mashed potatoes, corn, butternut squash, peas, coleslaw, and pita slices with red pepper dip. Plus, Alice had brought over a pumpkin pie, so we all had a bit of that for dessert. I'm glad I did so much at the gym this morning in preparation. ;)

On the way to the city, we got on the freeway just as a secret service convoy was driving past. I think that's maybe the first time I've seen a full-on convoy (including multiple big black SUVs with the rear windows rolled down to reveal heavily armed dudes) since we've lived here. So that was amusing. I'll have to check the news and see if the president had an event in southern-Northern Virginia this afternoon. Hehe.

I'm feeling the time change this evening. Definitely ready for bed, despite the relatively early hour on the clock. Soren doesn't have school tomorrow (teacher in-service day...boo), so we'll have to come up with something entertaining to do.

Puddle of failsauce

2011-11-06T15:52:00.001-05:00

Heh. Well, I'd say a few days in a row of blogging is at least an improvement over my posting frequency of late.

We've got a house guest for a little while - Jenny - a friend of Marcy's from England. She's in the middle of a bike tour of the US and is spending some time in DC, checking out the sights. The kids are already very big fans of hers, and we've had a nice time visiting in the evenings (hence the couple-day posting failure).

Friday we did end up staying at the playground for about an hour after Soren's school day was over. So that was good. The kiddos had a nice time running and playing. Soren especially loves playing with the kids in the two 4 y.o. classes (they stay an hour later than the 3 y.o.s, so they're out at the playground after Soren's class gets released), so he was extra happy about the opportunity to do that. Our guest arrived later in the afternoon, and then I went to my riding lesson. It was a cold evening! Brr. Decent lesson though, so that was good.

Yesterday was quite a busy one. Soren had soccer in the morning, followed up by swimming, and then we all went to a birthday party for one of his preschool friends. Jenny made us a fabulous lasagna dinner, which Eleri polished off with her usual gusto. She'd been eating less well while she was a bit under the weather, but the past few days she's been back to her usual level of gustatory enthusiasm.

Today the kids woke us up at their normal hour. Minus one, of course, because we've reverted to standard time. So we were all up and at em at 7 rather than 8. I remember when the Fall time change meant sleeping an extra hour that first morning. Now it just means we get our morning chores done an hour early. ;) I dealt with the laundry, went to the gym (ran 20 minutes, rowed 10, ran 10 more, total of 5k running and 2k rowing), all before lunchtime! After lunch, we took the kids to the park, where they ran and ran. Now we're getting ready to have dinner with Max, Agnes & Alice, giving Jenny her first glimpse of DC proper. Should be a fun evening. :)

Blogger ate my homework

2011-11-05T08:31:00.000-04:00

I wrote a post late last night - and then another one - on my iPod. Blogger hiccuped both times I went to publish, and I was too tired for a third attempt. I'll get something more substantive posted a little later today.

Grumblegrumble

2011-11-03T21:37:00.000-04:00

Today was not particularly worth blogging about. I woke up with no patience and it just went downhill from there, with the whining and the not listening and the maniacal (albeit happy) screaming while I was on the phone. (The kids were screaming, not me. Just in case that wasn't clear.) The tiny bright spot of the day was that the kids were snot-free....well, sufficiently snot-lite....so we were able to meet some friends at the playground late in the afternoon. Eleri fell asleep in the car when we were about 5 minutes away, so I sat with her while Soren - literally - ran around in circles with A for a good 20 minutes. He was SO happy. I eventually woke Eleri up, and though it took her a bit of time to decide she could tolerate being awake, she eventually had a grand time playing too.

It's pretty unpleasant being so short of temper all day long. I'm hoping for better things tomorrow.

Two days into November

2011-11-02T22:03:00.002-04:00

Not a lot to write about Tuesday. Laundry, brief excursion to the park, dinner, swimming. I will say, of our trip to the park, that the kids were incredibly cute playing together so nicely. We hung out for about an hour and had the place to ourselves. I'm sure Soren would have preferred to have some more company, but sometimes it's awfully convenient to have a ready-made playmate. Eleri was enthusiastically following along with all of Soren's firefighter games. They were running together back & forth across the basketball court. At one point they were (giggling all the while) collecting sticks and putting them in a big pile.

This morning, we dropped Soren at school and then did our Wednesday walking. It was pretty brisk out when we started, but it warmed up reasonably fast. Soren had a good day at school, but Eleri was rockin' the green snot a bit, so we skipped the playground again. I'll be glad when we can hang out and play after school once more (and I have no doubt the kids will be glad too). Poor El, despite still being a bit under the weather, desperately wants to run and play and wipe her snotty nose on everything. She's on the mend though, so I'm really hopeful that by Friday they'll get to hang out at the rec center playground.

In the evening I got to go back out to the barn and ride Vanya. I sure do like being able to do that on a regular basis. There's a lot this horse can teach me, and it's a lot of fun in the process. :)

* * * * *

Just a bit more from the annals of Eleri cuteness. When she's playing peekaboo, she says, "Wheeeere's Mommy? There it is! Mommy." Similarly, when she's looking for something..."There it is! Book." or "There it is! Leo." And, in the same vein, she also says, "I see it! Doggie." or "I see it! Daddy." I'm not sure where she picked up this particular construction, but it's adorable.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T10:51:00.000-04:00

And happy November! As is my sporadic custom, I have once again fiddled with the blog template. Just color & font changes this time. When I was in the dorms at college, I rearranged my room at least once per term; it's less reasonable to rearrange a whole apartment without a really good reason, so now I just tweak my blog design when I'm feeling that itch to change everything around. ;)

Anyway.

Yesterday, as you know, was Halloween. Soren had a parade and party at school, so Eleri and I stuck around for the first half of the morning to watch and take pictures. The lass is still not feeling super great, but she was an incredibly good sport to just chill in the stroller the whole time, in costume no less (one minor meltdown, quite a bit of distraction-by-ipod). She was wearing the puppy dog suit Soren wore last year. Soren was delighted by all of the Halloween goings-on. This was the first year he really picked out his own costume. The decision process went something like this:

"Firefighter! Ooh, no, UPS man. No, a pilot! No! A mailman. Yeah, a mailman! No, maybe I want to be a pilot after all. Yes, definitely pilot. Pilot!"

(Paraphrased, of course, and condensed...we were looking at costumes online, and he more or less wanted to be everything the first time he saw it...hehe. But he started with firefighter, and in the end it came down to a decision between mailman and pilot.)

Anyway. It was very much a DIY costume situation, since we kind of waited til the last minute, and of course the pilot costumes in his size were only available online, and the shipping cost almost as much as the costume itself. So instead we found a pilot hat for $9 and free shipping (thanks, Amazon Prime!), and you already know about the making of the epaulets.

The preschool parade was just about as cute as you could imagine, and Soren was thrilled to show off his outfit. The parents were invited into the classroom afterward, for a couple of songs, and then about half of us stuck around to help with the games. Carnival-style stuff at a toddler level, pretty danged adorable. And then they all got to dance around on a tarp, stomping saltine crackers underfoot to the accompaniment of "The Monster Mash." They got goodie bags and got to go trick-or-treating through the front offices of the rec center. It was very exciting.

After school, we took it way easy so Eleri could get some rest. She ended up actually taking a nap and slept for a good 2 hours. Soren watched some Fireman Sam while I worked on putting together this plush alphabet for Eleri. It's a bit of a cross-country joint craft project between myself and FarmerMegan; I cut out all the squares and drew the letters, and now I'm going to mail them to Meg, who will do the sewing and then mail them back to me. Fun! Eleri was still asleep by the time I'd finished, so Soren & I put together the little $1 wooden sailboat kit we'd picked up at the craft store last week. It was messy (there was painting involved) but he seemed to enjoy himself.

Tom got home and finished cooking the dinner I'd started, while I went to the gym. Run, row, run, blagh. Very tiring, but a good workout. After dinner, Soren & I went trick-or-treating in our building while Tom & Eleri stayed home to hand out candy. We only went to 3 floors, but there was a surprising lack of participation among residents. (People here indicate willingness to have trick-or-treaters by hanging an orange flyer on their door, and ours was the only orange flyer on our entire floor.) But it was just enough trick-or-treating for a little dude, and then we came back home and handed out candy to other kids. Soren stepped up as primary candy distributor, still wearing his own costume, so that was very cute. At one point, a group of middle-school boys came by, and they were all oohing and aahing at Soren. One of them said, "Aw, you're so cute! You don't have to give me any candy. Here! I'll give you some candy!" and reached into his bag to put a pack of M&Ms in our bowl. Which was strange, but kind of adorable at the same time. Not your standard early-teen boy behavior.

Miraculously, we managed to keep our kids from ingesting a ton of sugar right before bed (they actually only had one piece of candy each) but there was still a bit of the whole spin-up-and-melt-down thing happening. Not too much, happily. And then they both slept really well all night. ;)

Jiggity Jig

2011-10-30T23:13:00.000-04:00

Home again! I am really glad Tom insisted we come back on a Saturday so we'd have a day to recover before jumping back into our routine. Last Sunday we did just that - sleep in, lounge around in pjs, catch up on Tivo, do our grocery shopping. I'm back on the meal-planning bandwagon, so I'm hoping I can stay organized and make things a little easier for myself. Also back on the exercise bandwagon, so I swam some laps in the afternoon.

Monday it was back to work for Tom and back to preschool for Soren. The lad was thrilled to get back to his class. So happy to see his teachers and friends, excited just to be back in his classroom. It's adorable. After school we went to A's house to visit and play. The boys were of course very happy to see each other, and even Eleri was jazzed to see A. (He, on the other hand, is not quite sure what to make of her, most of the time.) We visited for a few hours, then went home to make dinner. In the evening I ran & rowed (on the treadmill & rowing machine, respectively).

Tuesday I got my act together as far as getting all the vacation laundry (and some pre-vacation laundry) done & put away. Dishes, cleaning, general chores around the house. We ran a couple of errands & hit the library to replenish our supply of Signing Time DVDs for the kiddos. They sure do love their Signing Time...er...time...in the afternoons. After dinner I did some more lap swimming.

Wednesday! School and mall walk. Except that it was another gorgeous morning, so we walked at the park instead. Eleri was starting to come down with a little post-vacation cold (no doubt the result of trying to put the ENTIRE AIRPORT in her MOUTH), so we didn't play too long at the playground. After we picked up Soren, though, her nose seemed to have dried up quite a bit, so we stayed at the rec center playground where Soren played and played with A and another of their friends from the Zoom Around the Room class they took months and months ago. They had a good time. Eleri was wiped out afterward, so she took a nap while Soren & I made pizzas for dinner. When Tom got home, I went to the barn to go exercise Vanya for N. It was a weirdly foggy night, with big patches of mist hovering just above the ground. Made for kind of a neat and spooky drive out & home. N happened to also be out at the barn, tending to her other horse, and she was able to give me a neat exercise to work on with Vanya. I had a really nice ride. Yay!

Thursday I did more cleaning around the apartment while the kids chilled out with some Signing Time. Soren probably could have done with a bunch of gallivanting at the park, but Eleri was still not feeling so hot. Plus, she had been up for a while in the middle of the night, so she and I were both pretty tired. We finally made it out of the house late in the afternoon for a grocery run, but by evening, I was too whooped to exercise. Boo.

Friday I got some sad news. My great-aunt Julie had passed away overnight. Funny, brash, always ready with a wink and a story, she was in a class all by herself. Here she is at her 80th birthday party with her life-size Brett Favre cutout (she was ever the sports fan):

Hers was, at least, as peaceful a passing as you could hope for (in her sleep, happily ensconced in her favorite flannel doggie pajamas), after a long and very full life. I'll miss her, but I know she wouldn't want me to be too sad.

We ran some errands after picking Soren up from school on Friday. It started getting chilly this week, and I realized that most of Soren's long sleeved shirts are not exactly too small, but they don't really provide adequate coverage for the cooler temperatures. So we went shopping for some shirts in the next size up. We also picked up some things from the craft store to put the finishing touches on his Halloween costume. He wanted to be a pilot (of the airline variety), which was conveniently quite easy to put together. He already had the black slacks, white shirt, black tie from the suit we bought him last year (it still fits), and I picked up a pilot hat for him. All he needed were some epaulets for his shirt, so I got stuff to make them. They're the wrong color - traditionally the epaulets are black with yellow stripes, and his are going to be yellow with silver stripes - but I don't think anyone will notice or mind. ;) The best part is that all the talk of epaulets has implanted the word firmly into his vocabulary, and it's pretty hilarious to hear a 3 year old say, "Do you like my beautiful epaulets?" Hehehe.

In the evening I had my weekly riding lesson out at the other barn. Which made ride #2 for the week. And I got to go on a nice long trail ride with N again this morning (Sunday). Lots of horsing this week! Hurrah!

I don't have a ton to say about Saturday (I was a lazy bum for most of the day, though I did go out briefly in the afternoon to get my hair cut), but Tom did say that Soren was way more engaged in his soccer class this week. He played the whole time, whereas up til now he'd been getting bored about halfway through and just kind of dribbling the ball off by himself. I'm glad he seems to be enjoying the class. :)
One last thing and then I swear I'm done (because, holy crap, it is late and I need to go to bed!). November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Basically, if you decide to take on the challenge, you're supposed to write X number of words/pages every single day, and at the end of the month - bam! - you have a novel. I've been completely intrigued by this idea for several years now and would someday like to do it but, alas, I fear I have too many irons in the fire this month, what with trying to get Eleri's Christmas stocking finished, plus some other projects that I'll be writing about later. But! I'm going to embrace the spirit of NaNoWriMo and try (very hard) to make a point of blogging every day in November, even if it's just a sentence or two, in an attempt to get myself back into the routine of writing here way more regularly than I've managed these past few months. So you can (hopefully!) look forward to that. :)

All right! To bed. Have a good night, all.

Vacation Blogging (Part 3)

2011-10-30T21:48:00.003-04:00

Hi! We've been back home for over a week now. Have you checked out the pictures I've been posting to Flickr? Because if not, you should do that. There are lots of good ones. I am a bit more than halfway done with getting everything processed and uploaded.

So, when we left off, it was Monday evening in Grants Pass. Tuesday was our last day there. We made our way to Tom's parents' house after breakfast. Grandma had the day off work, so she got another full day with the kiddos. Tom's parents have a big German Shepard (Cheeba) and three little dogs (Brindle, Scooter & Franklin). The little dogs spend a lot of the day outside, but when they came in for dinner, Scooter made his way over to where the kids & I were sitting. Eleri was fascinated by Scooter, pointing excitedly at his "tails" (his ears, actually), and exclaiming, "Hi Gooster!" She wanted desperately to give him hugs, but he was not as enthusiastic about receiving them as Leo is. It was quite the silly little scene. In the early afternoon, Tom & I took turns going out to get some exercise (he went jogging through the neighborhood around the library, I went back to the hotel & ran on the treadmill), and in the later afternoon we all went back over to Riverside Park to play some more. We rounded out the day by picking up some pizzas and going over to Tom's sister's house for dinner so the cousins could visit and spend a little more time together.

Wednesday morning, we packed up and headed northward. Eleri, who can be a champion car sleeper under the right conditions, was passed out before we reached Canyonville. First stop was Eugene, to visit Tom's other sister. She has a very sweet dog, Pearl, whom Eleri also tried to call "Gooster" at first. We hung out a bit and then got some lunch (tasty burgers...it was kind of a burgerrific vacation). Then we were off again, onward to Corvallis to visit with the Cachews and get some quality running-around time in for the wee weasels. M & B's little one is adorable and had the best time at the park, riding on the swings with her daddy. Her delighted little giggles were super cute. Too soon, it was time to move on, north to my parents' house in Tualatin. Dinner, little bit of visiting & playing, bedtime. I'm always a little amazed how exhausting it is to travel. Just sitting in a car for much of the day wouldn't be that draining, you'd think, but it somehow is. Go figure.

Thursday I got some quality girl time with FarmerMegan (sushi lunch, home for a bit, then back out to go shopping), while Tom, Mom & Yaya played with the kids. My dad took - and passed! - his licensing exam to become a pharmacy tech, which was fantastic. In the evening, my parents fed & hung out with the kids while Tom, Megan & I went out for dinner. It's nice to have some grownup time with your friends. :)

Friday we would get a fair bit more grownup time. In the morning, Megan, Tom, Dad & I went over to Threat Dynamics shooting range, where we met up with Marcy. Threat Dynamics (for those who don't want to bother clicking the link) is a different sort of shooting range. They use modified Glock pistols that "shoot" compressed air instead of bullets. The guns have perhaps a bit less recoil than a standard 9mm, but they still have some. Anyway. The super cool thing about shooting without ammo is that you can safely do all kinds of things you couldn't do at a regular range. Like shooting while walking forward or backward, shooting faster than the standard one-shot-per-second, or shooting with a bunch of your buddies all together, without divided lanes. (Oh, and no sore thumb from reloading ammo!) The five of us had a great time. :) Everyone did really well, and it was just a ton of fun.

Next we picked up the kids, dropped off Dad, and made our way into the city for lunch with our other friend S and her two kiddos. We ate at a Persian buffet place, then walked down to Ben & Jerry's in search of some Schweddy Balls. WHICH THEY DIDN'T HAVE. (It had apparently not been released on the West Coast yet.) Curses. But, we had some ice cream anyway, so it wasn't a total loss. After ice cream and a bit more walking around, S took her kids home, Tom & I took our kids back to Grandma & Grandpa's, and we all reconvened back in Portland for some more walking and eating. Browsing at Powell's, hike down to Voodoo Doughnuts ("The magic is in the hole!"), pause down by the waterfront, then a bunch more walking back & forth trying to figure out where to eat dinner, finally ending up at Dragonfish. It was really great to visit with everyone and have some grownup time. Plus, any day that includes a maple-bacon bar from Voodoo is a damn good day. As an added bonus, my parents had already put the kids to bed by the time we got home. It was great!

Alas, our vacation had come to an end. Saturday we were up and out, making our way back home. Our flights were, thankfully, uneventful (no repeat of the double-meltdown from the Phoenix-to-Seattle flight), and though it was after 11pm by the time we finally dragged our weary selves through the door of our apartment, we were at least able to sleep in a bit the next morning. The cats were quite happy to see us, and Eleri was overjoyed to see Leo, flinging herself onto him for a hug. Hehe.

Vacation complete! Coming up next: a brief recap of the past week.

Vacation Blogging (Part 2)

2011-10-17T20:42:00.000-04:00

Here we are in Oregon! But I'll back up first.

At last update, we were headed over to Mary Laura's place. She treated us to pizza, salad & beer, and some good company. Soren was totally fascinated by her rowing machine; both the kids were, really, but Soren did some good rowing. The next morning, we went over to the university to see ML's lab and check out the campus. ASU is pretty (even if Phoenix is too damned hot) and we had a nice time wandering about. Soren and Eleri were both very excited to see the rattlesnakes in the Life Sciences building. Snakes in terrariums, not just slithering through the halls. ;)

After our campus tour, we made our way over to In-N-Out burger for some delicious, delicious burgers. Mmm. Hadn't eaten In-N-Out since we moved away from California. For a fast food joint, those are some damn tasty burgers.

That evening, the kids hung out with Grandma & Grandpa, so we could go out to dinner with Amy & Jeff. They took us to Delux Burger for even more tasty burgers, fries & beer. Nothing wrong with that! Sadly, we had to make it an early night, because it would be an eeeeeaaaaarly morning the next day.

3:20am, the alarm clock went off, and we were up and on our way to the airport for our 6am flight. We did a bit of driving around in circles, trying to get the rental car returned after stopping to fill the gas tank - the combination of one-way streets and no-turn lanes were enough to send us around the block a couple of times at least - and then insufficiently clear signage at the rental car place led us off on yet another detour. But! At last we made it and were on our way.

To the wrong terminal (because I'd forgotten that we were not on the same airline we'd taken to Phoenix). So we had to hop another shuttle bus, which took us on a nice tour through economy parking before depositing us in the correct terminal. Now we were about an hour before our flight, but we got checked in fairly quickly and made our way to security. That's when the real fun started.

The woman checking IDs and boarding passes was apparently oblivious to the long line developing at her station, because she was taking her sweet time gabbing with each and every person. We finally got past her and into the line for x-ray screening. They have one of those full-body scanners at the Phoenix airport, so it took a long time to get everyone through that, one at a time, especially when people are idiots who can't follow directions. We, however, were waved through the standard metal detector, since we were traveling with the wee scraelings.

However.

There was some commotion when our bags were in the x-ray machine. The TSA agents hustled us all over to a table and brought our carry-ons over for a manual check. Turns out we'd completely forgotten about half a bottle of juice and half a bottle of water we'd left in the bottom of Soren's backpack. Whoops. They were also apparently suspicious of items in Tom's backpack, which turned out to be...books. It's true that he had quite a few in there, but for crying out loud.

So after the emptying, repacking, and re-x-raying of our bags, we had to hustle to our gate, where our flight was already starting to board. We did not have time to get another drink for the kiddos, and not long after we got settled aboard the plane, Soren (who had watched the TSA agents confiscate his orange juice) started whining about being thirsty. Eleri, meanwhile, was mad about being made to sit still. The situation devolved into a double-meltdown, with both kids bawling. Super fun times. The flight attendants came by with an offer to reseat us (apparently with the futile hope that we'd bother fewer people with the yelling if we were in the back of the plane) but when we explained that Soren was just upset about losing his juice, they were more than happy to bring him something to drink. Fortunately, that calmed him down, and Eleri chilled out soon after. They were both asleep before takeoff. Super early mornings are rough!

They ended up sleeping almost the whole way to Seattle, which worked out great. Nice peaceful trip, for the most part. We flew right over the Grand Canyon, which was cool to see. Too hazy for decent pictures, unfortunately, even if I'd been able to get out my camera (I couldn't, with Eleri sleeping on me, but 'twas no matter). When we got to Seattle, we were able to meet up with none other than Soren's bestest buddy A and his parents! They were on their way back to VA after visiting grandparents. It was pretty cute, watching the boys run around together for a few minutes. A's look of shock to discover Soren there was pretty hilarious. Soren, on the other hand, was happy to see A, but not nearly as surprised as you might expect, to find his buddy suddenly there at an airport all the way across the country.

One more short flight, and we arrived in Oregon. Ah, beautiful southern Oregon. Tom's parents met us at the airport. Grandma hung out with the kids & me while Tom & his dad went to get the rental car. A short drive to Grants Pass followed, where we got checked into our hotel, got some lunch, and spent the rest of the day visiting with Grandma & Grandpa.

Yesterday we did some more visiting. The kids got to hang out with their cousins for most of the day, which was great. This morning we took the kids to Riverside Park so they could do some running around. Grandma had to work today, but Grandpa accompanied us to lunch, where we got to visit with Caitlin for a little while. Lots more playing with Grandpa for the rest of the afternoon, and now we're getting ready to have some dinner.

It's been a great trip so far. :) I'm taking lots of pictures; unfortunately I won't be able to upload them until we get home, but the wait will be worth it.

Vacation blogging!

2011-10-13T19:12:00.001-04:00

If you were to ask Soren, he would tell you that we woke up in the middle of the night to leave for our trip. He's not too far off; it certainly was still dark out when we got up to catch the 6:30 metro shuttle. It was to be a very long day.

Getting to the airport was happily uneventful. Everything was running on time, so we were soon aboard our plane. We were fortunate to be able to trade seats with people and all sit together on both flights, which was helpful. Eleri was able to switch laps at will and even sit with Soren on his seat for a little while, which worked out way better than having to be confined to one seat with one parent. She wasn't completely without complaints, but things went way, way better than I had feared. Yay!

We made great time to Denver and actually landed so early that they didn't have a gate available for us. So we sat on the tarmac for a while. It wasn't too hideously long, but it was long enough for Eleri to fall asleep. Whoops. It was probably for the best, but she ended up staying asleep all through deplaning and most of lunch. We eventually had to wake her up to eat. ;) Then we were delayed almost an extra hour while they made some repairs to our next plane. We made many, many trips up & down the moving walkways so the kids could burn some energy. Eleri was pretty darned cute, just trotting along down the middle of the walkway. Hehe.

At long last, we were able to board and be on our way to Phoenix. All the running around at the airport must have done something, because Soren nodded off while we were waiting for our turn to take off. Eleri kept petting him and trying to give him some of her water. It was quite adorable. :)

Upon landing, we got our rental car & made our way to my sister's house. Soren bounded out of the car, excited to see my parents. Eleri, despite having not seen my dad in a full year, apparently recognized well enough him from Skype, since she immediately gave him a big hug. So sweet. Before too long, it was time to head out again.

One of the reasons we chose this week to come here is that last night was the world premiere of the documentary Mitchell 20. The documentary features my sister and 20 of her colleagues from the school where she used to teach 4th grade. (Yes, I can do simple addition. Despite the title, there were actually 21 teachers featured in the film.) One teacher, who had achieved National Board Certification herself, encouraged 20 of her coworkers to attempt the same, which is no small challenge, as it turns out. So after a long day of traveling, I left a very tired Tom with the kids and went out with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law to watch the film. (In case you didn't know, I have a pretty great husband.)

The movie was really quite interesting. I won't do it justice with a description, so you should just click the link above and check out the trailer. These teachers did an amazing thing, and I'm super proud of my sister and her colleagues.

My parents offered, as we were returning home, to hang out with the kiddos in the morning when they woke up, so Tom & I could get a little extra sleep. So when Soren woke me up this morning, I took a glance at the time and took him downstairs to visit. I was a little surprised by how dark it was outside at 7am, but I didn't give it a ton of thought. I was pretty tired. ;) I came back upstairs but didn't end up falling back to sleep, so when Eleri woke up about an hour later, we both went back downstairs.

Thirty more minutes passed, with the kids and my parents happily playing together. At that point, my mom handed me her iPhone to show me something, and I noticed the clock at the top read...5:30. Augh! My iPod was still set to Eastern time, and I had taken Soren downstairs to my folks at FOUR IN THE FRIGGIN MORNING! Daughter of the year, right here, that's me. They assured me it was fine, they were happy to have some extra time with the wee weasels, but I still felt pretty bad about it.

So it's been another long day so far for all of us. ;) We did take the kids over to a fun indoor trampoline place and then had a tasty lunch at the Chinese Cultural Center. Since then we've just been lounging at home, and tonight, Tom & the kids & I will be going to Mary Laura's for dinner. I am hopeful that the little rascals will sleep rather a bit later tomorrow morning. ;)

Someday I'll learn to blog again

2011-10-06T22:18:00.004-04:00

Until then, though, here are some more snippets of cuteness.

Eleri frequently leaves the first 's' off words that start with a blended s-consonant sound. So she says Soren just fine (well, "Sowen") and 'sh' words well enough, but sneakers and spicy snacks are "neakers" and "picy nacks." She also softens the 't' in words starting with 'st,' which is how she ends up sometimes shouting excitedly about "My dick!" at the playground or "Dickers!" in the craft store. Hehehe.

* * * * *

The way Eleri asks questions cracks me up. She peaks in the middle, with the rest of her query almost added as an afterthought.

"What's THAT?! Sound."
"Read THIS?! Book."
"Where DADDY?! Go."

Hehe.

* * * * *

Soren is enjoying the heck out of preschool. He's been making all kinds of cute little art projects, and he's so proud of them. Tomorrow he's the class VIP (Very Important Preschooler), which means he gets to bring snack for everyone and something for show & tell. Also, he gets to be the line leader when they go to the gym or playground or wherever as a group. He is very excited. It's adorable.

* * * * *

It's become something of a routine for us to watch a Signing Time DVD (or two) in the afternoons. Eleri's still on the one-nap-per-week schedule (slightly modified this week, as she's been a little under the weather) so it seems to benefit everyone to have some chill-out time after lunch. Both kids are learning lots of signs, which is great. Soren's taken to asking me, "What's the sign for [insert object of interest]?" and when I say I don't know, he wants to look it up online.

* * * * *

We leave in a little less than a week for our vacation. Soren's super excited about the trip, keeps talking about it, keeps asking if we're leaving tomorrow, etc. I'm not looking especially forward to the long plane rides with Eleri (she's at kind of a tough age for the whole "sitting still for extended periods of time" thing) so hopefully it won't be too bad. Fingers crossed!

* * * * *

As always, even if I've been letting my blogging slip, I've kept up with the daily photos (mostly...I miss one day every now and again, but I just take pictures the next morning and call it good), so check out Flickr for all the latest. :) Eventually I will get my act back together with the blog. Probably. ;)

Holy crap. A video?!

2011-09-25T16:01:00.002-04:00

I have a video backlog developing again. Stuff from this summer that I haven't processed. And it's occurred to me that I haven't been nearly good enough about recording Eleri and all her cuteness at this age. But here's a little something.

Reading with Eleri:

(Usually she'll make it all the way through both books, but the camera was more than a little distracting. Still, better than nothing.)

More Snippets

2011-09-20T16:45:00.001-04:00

I thought of some more things I wanted to write about!

Remember when I said we'd gotten a bunch of rain a couple of weeks back? It was actually several days in a row of rain. Ever since we got caught out in a rainstorm at the park with A and his mom, Soren has been begging to go outside again and play in the rain. So I finally relented, put the kids in swimsuits, and took them over to the big patio area by the condo complex's community center. They splashed and giggled and had themselves a grand old time.

* * * * *

This past Thursday, we checked out a new (to us) park over in Annandale, since we had some errands to run over that way. Unbeknownst to me, they have a farmers' market at this park, on Thursday mornings as it turns out. I had no idea, so we ran our errands first and ended up arriving just as the market vendors were packing up to leave. Might try to check it out this week though. :)

When we got to the park, there were lots of signs indicating the way to the pavilions, athletic fields/courts, amphitheater, even the dog park, but not a one for the playground. I took a guess and headed in one direction, eventually spying a play structure through the trees. It was all I could do to convince the kids to eat some lunch before going to play, but they gave it a decent effort. When we made our way over to the playground, I was a little surprised. I'd just read, that morning, a fairly recent review of this park, touting in particular the nice, relatively new "tot lot." This playground, however, sported one kind of crummy play structure, on a bed of muddy mulch littered with garbage, surrounded by a broken fence. Not exactly the stuff of glowing reviews. But it was a beautiful day and the kids seemed to be having a fine enough time, so we hung out a bit.

Eventually I coaxed them away by suggesting we check out the big multi-use field. There were some kids kicking a soccer ball around, so we went to see if they'd want to play. Oh man, did my kids have fun tearing around the huge field! It was pretty cute. Soren, of course, made friends instantly, and Eleri just kind of followed the rest of the kids around for a while before finding a ball of her own to kick about.

While on the field, I just so happened to look over and notice...there was another playground! Much newer, by the look of it, so we trucked over to check it out. Eleri (as is her custom) immediately asked to play on the swings, while Soren explored. He came back and did some swinging, then took off again and declared he wanted to go up the big cylindrical climbing wall thing. I told him to go ahead and try; it was 7 or 8 feet tall and I didn't expect him to be able to make it to the top by himself.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

He scooted up the side like a little monkey. I ran over to spot him as he neared the top, and he was proud as could be once he got up there. It was a little tricky helping him figure out how to get down, but we both managed. By that point I got Eleri out of the swing and we all explored a bit more before Soren declared himself in need of a potty break. So we made our way to the bathroom and then headed home.

* * * * *

Last Tuesday, we were also at a park. (We do that a lot.) There was a little boy there who had brought some of his Transformer toys. Not being well versed in the Transformers universe, Soren kept trying to make Optimus Prime the bad guy. Hehe. The other little boy was all bewildered. "No! That Op'mus Prime. Not bad guy."

* * * * *

Eleri's been continuing along on the one-nap-per-week plan. Last week she skipped Thursday but melted down when we were on our way to pick up Soren from preschool on Friday. Passed out in the car, then stayed asleep on my back for another 20 minutes or so. It wasn't that much of a nap though - perhaps not enough to fill her weekly quota - and she took another one on Saturday. The new norm has taken some getting used to (two kids awake all afternoon), but it's been pretty great to have drama-free bedtimes for the most part. Drama-light, at least. ;)

During the day, she gets a little overcooked sometimes, which is not a huge surprise. A little chill-out/reset time in her bed has been pretty effective though, so that's good. She even asks for it sometimes, on the rare occasion that even she realizes she's getting overwhelmed. "Bed? Water? Johnson? Lie down?"

* * * * *

I shouldn't be too surprised, since she hears it from Soren several thousand times a day, but Eleri has already started with the "why"s. Not as much as Soren does, of course. And not about every little thing. Mostly so far, it's just if she's told "no." I don't remember Soren asking why he couldn't have or do something, just getting upset. It is, at once, a source of both amusement and chagrin, for me. Hehe.

Snippets

2011-09-19T15:08:00.001-04:00

Some miscellaneous, possibly non-chronological tidbits from life around here of late.

Soren was never really into stuffed animals as a wee babe. He would play with them sometimes, but it's only been in the past maybe 6 months or so that he's developed any sort of affinity for a particular one. But now he's got 2 pals that he snuggles to sleep just about every night. Meet Zebra Ear and Pointy Tail.

The Zeebs, chillin'

He was shocked, when I showed him this picture recently, to realize that he'd had Pointy Tail around since he was tiny.

Eleri, on the other hand, has already found herself a favorite stuffed friend. She's become attached to a bear that (I think) was sent to us by Tom's grandparents. Bedtime or quiet time, she's not likely to be without him.

One morning last week, the kids & I were slowly getting the day started. We were all sitting on my bed, and Soren was saying how excited he was that Zebra Ear would get to come to preschool with him for show & tell. Out of curiosity (and not really expecting an answer), I turned to Eleri, who was snuggling her bear.

Me: Ellie, what's your bear's name?
El: (without missing a beat) Johnson.
Me: (chuckling a little) Your bear's name is Johnson?
El: Yeah.

And so now we have a pony named Zebra Ear, a puppy named Pointy Tail, and a bear named Johnson.

* * * * *

Soren started preschool last week! Monday was just a 45 minute "open house" session. He got to meet his teachers & classmates, get accustomed to the layout of the classroom, and sampled the wide variety of awesome toys therein. The parents hung around (mostly to ask questions, get last-minute paperwork turned in, snap photos), but Soren hardly noticed my presence. He was completely in his element and happy as a clam. It was pretty great.

Wednesday was the first "real" day of class. Starting at the regular time. Which was half an hour earlier than the open house day started. Which I knew. And yet somehow, I got the open house start time stuck in my head. (Dun dun duuuuuun...)

Soren was up early and super jazzed. He came to wake me up and said, "Mommy! It's time for [name of his preschool class]! I am so....so....happy." If that ain't enough to put a s mile on your face first thing in the morning, I don't know what is. He picked out an outfit, ate some breakfast, and tolerated having his picture taken with his backpack on. We eventually left the apartment with (I thought) tons of time to spare, made our way slowly outside to the car, lingered on the grass to take some more pictures, then headed to school. I let him take his time in the bathroom before class, not bothering to hustle him because I still thought we were early. There was a brief moment of "hmm, I would have expected a lot more people around, especially on the first day" but it's not like there was no one else milling about. Just not as many as I would have thought. It was not until we were sauntering over to his classroom that it occurred to me.

Holy shit. We are not 10 minutes early, we're 20 minutes late! AUGH!

*headslap*

I was actually completely mortified and really upset about it at the time, even though his teachers were totally sweet and understanding, and all the kids were still having their morning free play time when we got there, so it's not like we walked in during the middle of circle time or anything. I don't think Soren really noticed our tardiness. But oh man, I felt just awful. Total and complete MomFail moment. And it's not as though I didn't know perfectly well what time school started. The information was just overwritten in my brain that day. So very lame.

Fortunately, the lad had an awesome first day...and then another great day on Friday. This morning was school again, and he seems to be totally into it. I'm so glad! :)

* * * * *

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a friend on the phone, bemoaning the fact that our jalapeno plants - which we planted in the spring - had not yet produced any flowers or fruit, despite seeming to be healthy and green and growing well. The very next day, this happened.

So we may yet have some peppers after all!

* * * * *

Eleri's getting to be very fond of books and is starting to recite parts of her favorites. She'll finish all the sentences in The Carrot Seed and can identify most of what's going on in Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs. She's also way into songs. Itsy Bitsy Spider, Old MacDonald and the ABCs are current favorites, along with the 3 Little Monkeys rhyme.

Three little monkeys swingin' in the tree
Teasin' Mr. Alligator, "Can't catch me!"
Along comes Mr. Alligator, quiet as can be
And SNAPS that monkey right out of the tree!

Morbid, but she loves it, and does all the little hand motions that go along with it. ;)

* * * * *

El's started using full sentences every once in a while. Some recent adorable ones: "Mommy/Daddy/Soren/Leo...eh AH you?" (where are you), "I love you!" and "Don't...go...'fout...me!"

* * * * *

I got Soren a first grade level easy reader book from the library (this one). He read the whole thing, by himself, with only a tiny bit of assistance. And this was before we'd read it to him, so it wasn't that he just had it memorized. Pretty cool.

This is the sort of thing I would feel like an asshole talking about in public (out loud), but somehow I feel like less of a jerkface braggy parent writing it on my blog. Which, I concede, may be a misconception on my part. But everyone who reads here knows me well enough, I hope, to know I'm just proud of him and a little blown away and mostly just recording stuff like this for posterity. :)

* * * * *

Ever since we moved here, there's been construction work happening on the Beltway. (I suspect Beltway construction is really just an unending phenomenon.) Much of this work has been the building of a sound wall. There's one house along the side of the freeway that I figure must have quite the story behind it.

I call it the "Hell no, we won't go" house. It must take a very special brand of persistence to refuse (I'm assuming they were offered) a buyout from the city/state, when the result is not only putting up with months of loud construction - literally just outside your window - but then years of loud, unbuffered freeway traffic noise.

* * * * *

The reason I was able to take the above photo is that, while I was on my way to my riding lesson this past Friday, there was horrendous traffic on the Beltway. Horrendous. It usually takes me 25-30 minutes to get to the barn, door to door. This Friday? It took me an hour and ten. Which resulted in me arriving 23 minutes into my half hour lesson. Grrrrrrr! I was extremely frustrated. The instructor kindly took pity on me (I wasn't the only one who was late that day, but I was the only one who basically missed the lesson due to tardiness), and let me come back on Saturday to ride in a different class.

The previous week, we'd had a ton of rain...I mean a LOT...the day before my lesson day. I didn't know if the barn would be open, but there was nothing about a closure on the website, and no one returned my call asking if we were still having classes. So I went ahead and showed up. And arrived to find a "CLOSED" sign hanging on the gate. So that was awesome. This Saturday, then, was my first ride in a couple of weeks. It went pretty well. I was in a class with 4 teenagers and felt like kind of an old fogey. Hehe. It was okay though.

* * * * *

All right! That's enough for now, I think. More again soon, I promise.

Catching up again

2011-09-17T18:30:00.003-04:00

I think I'm going to break this into two posts, one just photos and one just text (since I can't remember precisely which of my little stories goes with which day).

Day 151

Day 240

Day 152 / Day 241

Day 153

Day 242

Day 154

Day 243

Day 155

Day 244

Day 156

Day 245

Day 157

Day 246

Day 158

Day 247

Day 159

Day 248

Day 160

Day 249

Day 161

Day 250

And then, on the seventh day, she napped once more

2011-09-08T23:07:00.000-04:00

After a week of napless days, Eleri finally had herself a 2.5 hour snooze this afternoon. I'd taken the kiddos out to play in the rain in the late morning, and they frolicked and stomped and splashed and giggled. We picked up some lunch and brought it back home, and as we ate, Eleri's head got heavier and heavier, and she started rubbing her eyes more and more. I decided to put her in bed just to have a bit of rest, and she ended up falling all the way asleep. Huzzah!

Of course, then she was wide awake at bedtime tonight and didn't finally conk out until after 9:30. Criminy. We can't win.

We have had a whole lot of rain here this week. After the lass woke up from her nap in the afternoon, the 3 of us suited up in rain gear and braved a trip to the grocery store. We were nearly soaked clean through just getting to the car. The thunder boomed and crashed outside the whole time we were shopping, and there were a couple of scarily close crackly flashes of lightning as we were getting back to the car afterward. Yikes! We made it home safely though and hunkered down for the evening.

Well, almost. I did skip out for a quick run before dinner. I was really hungry, so I wanted to just get 2 miles done as quickly as I could feasibly manage, and I ended up beating my personal best time for that distance, finishing up in 18:23! As much as I dislike running (I'll admit, it's growing more tolerable) it's always gratifying to beat a speed or distance record.

All right. Off to bed. Photos from the last few days will hopefully go up tomorrow.

30DOB #16

2011-09-08T14:53:00.000-04:00

Day 16: Share your favorite recipe.

It's not possible to pick just one, but here's a recent favorite. It's for roast chicken and is basically the only way I'll make roast chicken again. ;) I found it here, on AllRecipes, but I'll copy it below as well.

Ingredients

one chicken (obviously)
1/2 c. white wine or chicken broth (I actually used double this, about 1/2 cup of each)
1 lime wedge (or some lime juice)
2 garlic cloves (I used some crushed garlic)
1 bay leaf
thyme (one or two sprigs fresh, or a pinch dried)
1/4 tsp paprika

The recipe also calls for apple juice/sherry and cornstarch, in order to make a gravy from the drippings, but I didn't do that. I did, however add:

butter
crumbled bacon
salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Rinse chicken, pat dry. Put some bits of butter & crumbled bacon under the skin of the chicken in several places. Place chicken breast up on a rack in a roasting pan.
3. In a bowl, combine half the white wine/chicken broth, lime wedge/juice, garlic, thyme & bay leaf. Pour mixture into the cavity of the chicken.
4. Pour the remainder of the white wine/broth into the bottom of the roasting pan.
5. Sprinkle paprika (and salt) on the chicken & tent loosely with foil.
6. Bake chicken for 45 minutes, basting occasionally. Add more liquid to the roasting pan as it evaporates.
7. After 45 minutes, remove the foil & bake until the juices run clear (about another 35-45 min).
8. If desired, make a gravy out of the pan drippings & some apple juice or sherry, thickened with cornstarch. But this chicken was so succulent & delicious that I don't think a gravy would even be necessary.

And there you have it! Scrumptious roast chicken in just a couple of hours.

Way behind again

2011-09-05T20:44:00.000-04:00

Ugh, sorry. I've accrued a huge posting backlog yet again. I wouldn't even bother detailing each and every day, except that we've been quite busy this past week and a half, and there have been some fun (and some less fun) moments I'd like to record. So here goes.

Day 138

Day 227

Wednesday! Mall walk in the morning, and then we went to a house cleaning "party" with the playgroup. One of the moms is on hospital bedrest, pregnant with twins, so the group rallied to get the nursery set up and help tend to laundry and such. It was a nice thought, but the execution was somewhat lacking. A houseful of wild children, ripping apart a room after you've just finished organizing it, provided a rather frustrating impediment to progress. Next time, we'll have to corral them all at someone else's house.

Day 139

Day 228

Thursday we invited A and his mom over to play at the park behind our complex. The weather forecast predicted we'd get some rain in the afternoon, but it showed up several hours early, drenching us while we were still at the park. At first, A's mom and I herded the kids under one of the picnic shelters, but they kept venturing out until we decided to just let them run free. They had the best time, giddily scamping through the rain. They were soon soaked clean through, but happy little campers. Eleri slept extra well that afternoon.

Day 140 / Day 229

Friday we ran a bunch of errands in the morning. I decided to do one of my exercise DVDs while Eleri napped in the afternoon. Soren tried to cardio kick along with me, which was pretty cute and funny. In the evening, I went back to Shadybrook Stables for my evaluation ride. (That link goes to the "Meet the Horses" page. I was assigned Gypsy to ride.) I went ahead and signed up for a 10-week session, so I'll be riding there for a while. I think it'll be good enough. The drive's definitely not bad, and while the class is not especially challenging, it should be all right. Plus, if I can do my riding on Friday evenings, we'll have the whole weekend free for other stuff. Whee!

Day 141

Day 230

Hurricane! First a rare earthquake hit the region earlier in the week, and then on Saturday we were due to get a visit from Hurricane Irene. Fortunately, we're far enough inland here that, while we got a fair bit of wind and rain, there wasn't any major flooding or damage. Some areas of Maryland and DC had widespread (and long-lasting) power outages, but we were quite lucky. The kids were a little stir crazy from being inside all day, but overall we fared just fine.

I started work on Eleri's Christmas stocking in the afternoon. It's a needlepoint pattern, and I discovered pretty quickly that it would be easier if I had some sort of frame on which to mount the fabric while I was working. I asked Tom if he thought he could build me a scroll frame; handy man that he is (and always glad to have a project), he made a run to the hardware store and set to work. It took a couple of days to finish, but I'm really pleased with it. :)

Day 142

Day 231

Sunday? I don't really remember if we did much of note during the day. Tom ran some errands and came home with a cute little collapsible soccer goal for the kids. After dinner, Tom set up an obstacle course in the living room for Soren, who ran through it something like 15 times in a row. He had a grand old time.

Day 143

Day 232

Monday again! We went to the park in the morning with A and his mom and brought along our new soccer goal. Soren wanted to wear his football jersey because it has a number on it - and he insisted that he needed to have a number on his shirt if he was going to be a goalkeeper - but the jersey was in the laundry. He was bummed out, but I told him I'd tape a number on whatever other shirt he wanted to wear. He even got to pick his number that way! He thought that was awesome, and we soon headed to the park with his new #4 shirt.

The last time we'd been to this particular park was on A's second birthday, back in March of last year, so it had been quite a while. The play structure that seemed so huge and scary then was no big deal this time around. (Weirdly, it didn't even seem that scary for Eleri to play on it, though she mostly stuck to the smaller one and the swings anyhow.) The kids played and played, and then we came on home.

Day 144 / Day 233

Tuesday morning I dropped the kids at A's house and took Leo in for another vet appointment. It took a couple of hours, but they were actually able to examine him this time. They also sedated him and took a cell sample from the mass on his chest. (Benign fatty tumor! No need for surgery. Huzzah!) Home again, Eleri took a late-ish nap and was then up for something like 2 hours in the middle of the night. Grrrr. After an hour and a half, I gave up and let Tom take over, fleeing to the couch in an attempt to get some sleep. At which point Soren woke up and wouldn't resettle. Eventually everyone got back to sleep, but it was a crummy night for all.

Day 145

Day 234

Wednesday morning was the special breed of awful that arises when you haven't had enough sleep. Ugh. I was determined to get Eleri napping WAY earlier that day, so we rushed through our post-mall-walk lunch and raced home. She was passed out by 12:30. Progress! After many days of having to wake her up after 2 hours - since she was sleeping so late in the afternoon - it was nice to just let her sleep til she woke up (a whole half hour longer than she'd been getting to nap). She was up by 3:00, and we headed out the door again. I wanted to run the little weasels around outside some more in the afternoon, since it wasn't as hideously hot as it had been. Plus, I hoped we'd avoid a repeat of Tuesday night's happy fun times if they were nicely exhausted. We actually had a great time at the playground. The kids were both in rather infectiously good moods, and I'd had the foresight to bring along the camera, so I got some fun pictures.

Also, as Wednesday was the last day of the month, I added the morning's 2 mile mall walk with the rest of my logged runs & walks for August and came up with a grand total of...39.99 miles for the month! Up from 27.5 miles in July. Sweet! I'm feeling pretty proud about that. Just gotta keep at it. :)

Everyone slept a lot better on Wednesday night. Thank goodness.

Day 146

Day 235

Thursday morning we returned to River Farm. It was a humid day, so everyone was quite sweaty and thirsty after running amok. Naptime wasn't quite as early as Wednesday (got her down by 1:30 instead of 12:30), but it was still better than it'd been. I was feeling pretty good about the new schedule. Even if it meant we had to book it home from our morning activities a little earlier than before, it would be worth it if Eleri slept better at night. I was foolishly optimistic that we'd figured things out for the time being.

(Foreshadowing.)

That evening I decided to swim laps rather than run on the treadmill. I did 600 yds (alternating breast stroke and crawl every length), and then relaxed in the hot tub a while. Ahh. I was good & tired afterward.

Day 147

Day 236

Friday was the last weekday of the season for the train & carousel at Burke Lake Park to be running. So we took advantage of the opportunity to go one last time. Eleri had been up early, and by mid-morning she was exceedingly fragile. There was quite the crowd there (not a huge surprise, everyone else had the same idea we did about the train & carousel), so we had to wait for both rides. El was not amused. We waited long enough at the carousel that she refused to stay on the horse, insisting on sitting on one of the little stationary critters instead. (Which was a shame, as she'd gotten SUCH a kick out of the horse last time. Oh well.) But once the carousel & train started moving, she was pretty happy with the rides. I was sure it would be another early nap day for her, but 12:30 came and went. Then 1:30, then 2:30, then 4:30. How she was staying awake at this point was utterly beyond me, but stay awake she did. All the way to bedtime.

And thus began the Era of No Naps.

As I'm writing this post, it is now 7:40pm on Monday. Eleri has just gone to bed, after being awake all day. She hasn't had a nap since Thursday. What the what?

I will admit, bedtime has been much easier. AND, in a stroke of cleverness, Tom & I decided to try switching her back to the little crib, which we'd moved just out of our room and into the little dressing area by our closets. And for the past 3 nights, she has stayed abed all night long. We've heard her rolling and repositioning from time to time, but she has thus far been able to resettle herself every time.

Now, I know better than to think this will last. Probably just by writing this down now, I've cursed us to another difficult night tonight. But man. It's been kind of nice not to get kicked in the head all night long. Now, there have been some difficult moments in the middle of the day of course. Fairly melty times, when I've been sure she needed a nap. But I've put her in her bed with some water, left her alone, and 20 minutes later, I hear her babbling away happily in there. I give her another 10 minutes, then heave a sigh and go retrieve her, and she's been smiley and pleasant once more. So there will still be quiet times, and I'm sure there will be days when she'll nap again. I remember Soren went on about a 2 week nap strike when he was a bit older than this, a couple of months before he gave up naps for good.

So the writing's on the wall. We are very possibly approaching the end of naps. I'm not ready for it, but I guess it does make things easier in a way, if we never have to rush home from things. Still. *whimper* It will take some adjustment - for all of us, but mostly for me. ;)

On to happier topics, and returning to Friday. Well, let's back up a tiny bit further, to Wednesday afternoon. After we left the playground, we went a-grocering, and I decided on a whim to pick up some oxtails. I'd been wanting to try making them for a while, but I hadn't gotten around to it. So this was to be the week. And on Friday morning, before we left for Burke Lake Park, I seared up those oxtails and stuck them in the crock pot with some red wine, garlic, thyme, a splash of chicken broth and a couple of bay leaves. I let that stew all day. Later in the afternoon, I sauteed some pearl onions & mushrooms with butter & a bit more wine, and I added those to the crock pot. (I was following a recipe for beef burgundy.) That cooked all together for another couple of hours, and then Tom & the kids got to eat after I left for my riding lesson.

I rode Gypsy again, and it went pretty well. He has kind of a rough canter, but he's otherwise pretty good. This instructor focuses a lot more on the specifics of rider position than N, probably because this is a lower level class, and position is more important when you're trying to get the basics down. But it means that I get told a lot about my right shoulder being lower than my left (it's like that way when I'm standing on the ground, too), or my balance being just a bit more in one seat bone than the other. It's all well and good, but it can feel a little nitpicky. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I'm just trying to articulate the differences in teaching style that I'm noticing so far. One's not necessarily better or worse than the other, just different.

I was starving when I got home, so it was with great gusto that I tucked into the oxtail burgundy stew. It was quite delicious. Definitely a win. Glad I've got another 2 pounds of oxtail in the freezer. ;)

Day 148

Day 237

Saturday we had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon. It was a water-themed event (kiddie pools and sprinklers in the backyard), and all the kids had a soggy good time. As you already know, Eleri declined to take a nap that day, but she was in reasonably good spirits and recovered from her overtired melty moments with 15 or 20 minutes of quiet time in her bed.

There was a UO football game on in the evening, but we won't talk about that.

Day 149

Day 238

Sunday there was some erranding, as per usual. Tom went to the hardware store to get supplies for yet another project (that'll get its own post, when it's done). I got back to the gym for the first time since Tuesday and busted out a 5k on the treadmill in 29:19. Go me! The kids & I went for a walk to pick up Subway for lunch. Well, Soren & I walked, and I pushed Eleri in the stroller. The sandwichery is just 3/4 of a mile from home, so it wasn't a bad walk, and Eleri aaaaaaaalmost fell asleep on the way there. I mean, she was basically out, but when I reclined the stroller back, she woke up & rallied, staying awake the rest of the way there & all the way home. Ah well. Soren was a trooper; it's not a long walk, but there's a substantial hill on the way, and it was another muggy day. He was tired, but he trucked on without (too much) complaint.

After the kids went to bed, Tom & I watched Sucker Punch. It was very strange. There were some neat CGI effects, but the storytelling was sloppy (things in the main fantasy story didn't line up with things from the frame story); just a very weird flick overall.

Day 150 / Day 239

Caught up! Can you believe it? Monday once more. Huzzah for 3-day weekends. I ran another 5k in the morning (28:48 this time) and did a bunch of laundry & some cleaning while Tom took the kids to run errands. As we headed into afternoon #4 with no nap from Eleri, I sat them both in front of one of the Signing Time DVDs we got from the library earlier in the week. That's what they're watching in the photo above. Soren's signing "train." Signing Time is probably going to be a lifesaver for the afternoons if the nap strike continues. I don't mind Eleri watching it, and they both seem to love it, so if it means I'll still get half an hour of quiet(ish) time, I'll take it. Soren's picking up the signs pretty quickly, and Eleri's learned a few as well. It's neat.

Bedtime came a bit early for the lass tonight, but I'm hoping it doesn't translate to a super early wakeup time tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.

Eastern Market and...Earthquake?

2011-08-28T10:20:00.001-04:00

Day 137

Day 226

Tuesday the kids & I went into DC to check out Eastern Market for the first time. The outdoor tables & stalls are only open on the weekend, but there was still lots to see inside the building. We were meeting some friends for lunch; I had a really good crab cake sandwich and probably a third of the grilled chicken sandwich I'd ordered for the kids. (They were not especially enthusiastic about eating, that day.)

Since we'd arrived a bit before our friends, we walked around a little and then found a big open area at one end of the building with a decent sized dance floor. There were already several other little kids playing there, and Soren & Eleri joined right in. They were having a grand time until Soren tripped and bit his lip, but with a little bit of ice he felt better quickly.

After lunch, we all took a stroll around the block. It was just about Eleri's usual naptime, and she passed out in the pouch on my back while we were walking. So we said our goodbyes and headed back to the metro in the hopes that maaaaaaybe she'd stay asleep on the ride home.

We were stopped at the McPherson Square station (underground), still well into the city, when the train started jerking forward & backward like the engine was jumping. It wasn't the sort of thing to be immediately concerned about; rather more one of those eye-rolling "ugh, these old trains" moments. But I did notice, or thought I noticed, the lighted billboards in the station flicker briefly, one after another, and I momentarily considered and immediately rejected the idea that the shaking might have been from something like an earthquake. After all, we don't generally have those out here.

Heh. Obviously, if you've been keeping up with the news at all this week, you know that it was indeed an earthquake. A 5.8, no less, shallow and centered about 90 miles southwest of us. Which, while not nothing, isn't exactly enormous either. So it was first with amusement that I regarded all of the "ZOMG EARTHQUAKE!" freaking out that went on around here immediately after. And then I took a minute and remembered that...oh yeah...everything here is made out of bricks. And almost nothing is built the way things in California are built, specifically with this sort of seismic activity in mind.

After the quake, the metro trains were all running at 15mph until all the track could be checked, so it made for a long remainder of the ride home. Eleri did sleep through the shaking itself, but she woke up not long thereafter. Ah well.

Anyway. We got home to discover our building was still standing (phew) and generally took it easy for the rest of the afternoon. I took a nice long walk (about 3 miles) after dinner. And that was that.

30DOB #15

2011-08-27T10:52:00.001-04:00

Been a while since I did one of these. I didn't forget though, honest. Let's see what we're up to, now.

Day 15: Write about a habit that you wish you didn’t have.

Ah, halfway! Hmm, a habit that I wish I didn't have. You mean besides starting things and then taking months and months to finish them, if indeed I don't abandon them entirely? ;) I guess that's not technically a habit.

This one's actually a complete no-brainer for me. I am, and have always been, a nail biter. As I've gotten older I seem to be doing more picking at my nails than actually chewing on them, but that's really no better. Oh, there have been periods of time, months even, when I have managed to curb the impulse to gnaw & pick, but I always fall off the wagon. Every time. It's nasty and embarrassing to have scraggly-ass fingernails and cuticles, not to mention painful when they (almost inevitably) get ripped too short. Ugh.

The worst thing about nervous habits like this is that, more often than not, I don't even realize I'm doing it until the damage is done. Or I've, you know, BROKEN A DAMNED TOOTH. Sigh. Tom's pretty good about catching me and shaming me sufficiently that I quit for a while, but that's not so helpful if he's at work or something. Guess I need to train the kids to do the job when he's not here. Heh.

Anyway! There you go. I'll try to get through the second half of these 30DOB things faster than I did the first half. ;)

A discovery

2011-08-27T10:18:00.002-04:00

Day 136

Day 225

Monday was mostly a "hang around at home, do some laundry" sort of day. I did make it over to the library after dinner (had to pick up the first two Underland Chronicles books) and I swam laps for the first time in I don't know how long. Funny side story: I hadn't worn my lap-swimming suit in quite a while. I bought it a decade ago. So it wasn't until I got into the water and started on my first lap that I noticed there was basically no elasticity left in the darned thing. Had to tie the shoulder straps together behind my neck just to keep from flashing the whole pool. Good times.

Anyway.

Earlier in the day, I was going to make the kids some mac & cheese for lunch. I noticed, right after our "new" stove was installed, that two of the knobs had been replaced with oven knobs. So instead of { Lo - Med - MedHi - Hi } or whatever, they have meaningless numbers and a Broil setting. Which I found mildly amusing. Tee hee.

Take another look, though. Look at the relative positions of "Broil" and "Hi." Reading the knob like a clock face, they're at 1:00 and 11:00, respectively. Which means that not only are the numbers on the oven-harvested knobs meaningless, but the scale is backward.

Which would explain why, when I mindlessly set it on Broil in order to boil water for mac & cheese, the water was still tepid after 20 minutes. *headslap* I relayed this discovery to Tom via email; he wryly pointed out, "So now the scale is a unitless, "how long till hot" measurement." Indeed it is, good sir. So now you know, if you're ever cooking at our house, you have to turn the "special" knobs the opposite way you think you ought to. If you want to eat anytime this century, anyway. ;)

Tomato fest & Soren's last swim class

2011-08-26T15:36:00.002-04:00

Day 134

Day 223

Saturday Tom & I took turns running errands & getting some exercise. In the evening, we headed out to Alice's house for some visiting & feasting. Before dinner we all took a walk down to the Potomac, where stones were skipped and rocks were flung with satisfying splashes. Back at Alice's, we started making food. She had a bunch of tomatoes from her garden, plus a few from the farmers' market, so they were the theme for the evening. We started off with a tomato & watermelon salad (which also contained bleu cheese, toasted pine nuts, basil & bacon), at Max's suggestion. I'll admit, I was a little skeptical about the flavor profile, but it was really really good. Next up were roasted stuffed tomatoes. We scooped out the tomato guts, which we then combined with some fresh mozzarella, bread crumbs, more basil, and a bit of olive oil, salt & pepper, and stuffed back in the hollowed-out tomatoes. Roasted in the oven for half an hour, they turned out great. We had some extra stuffing left over, so I fashioned some little flat cakes out of it, which we deep fried in bacon fat. They were (no great surprise) also delicious. Rounding out the evening were BSLT sandwiches - bacon, steak, lettuce & tomato. Super tasty.

Sadly, while I remembered to bring along my camera and took some nice pictures during our walk, I didn't get a single shot of the delicious food. Fail! We'll just have to make it all again sometime, I guess. ;)

Day 135

Day 224

Sunday was Soren's last swimming class for the summer session. Eleri & I tagged along to watch, and I was able to take some pictures. Soren was super cute. I could tell some things still make him nervous (he's still not very comfortable on his back, for example) but he tries really hard. It seems he'll do just about anything for his adored Coach Marcus. I'd been hearing about Coach Marcus for weeks and was glad to finally get to meet him. He's something of a rock star in our house. ;)

It was a pretty warm morning, so we came on home after swim class. While Eleri had her afternoon nap, Soren got to talk to my dad on the phone and wish him a happy 60th birthday. Happy birthday, Dad! :)

The rest of the week

2011-08-20T10:35:00.001-04:00

Day 130

Day 219

Tuesday morning we had to wait around for the landlord to bring over the replacement stove. His main concern was that (I guess?) the old stove wasn't a standard size (or maybe shape), so any replacement would have to fit right in the existing cut-out space in the counter. Well, in order to avoid the additional expense of replacing the whole countertop. Fortunately, he had such a stove left over from renovations done to another apartment (I'm not sure how many he owns in this complex, but it's more than 2), so he was going to bring that one over for us. It wouldn't be a *new* stove, but it probably wouldn't be as old as the one we had.

So, around mid-morning, he came over and got started with that. The kids stood at the doorway gate and watched him work, Soren chattering away at him despite my repeated instructions to leave the dude alone (to the landlord's credit, he didn't seem to mind). He managed to remove the old stove, but apparently the wiring was older or not quite what he expected, so he didn't feel comfortable dealing with that part of it without the aid of an electrician. He said he'd get back to us when the electrician was available, so we took off for the park.

We only had a little bit of time to play before naptime, but even that was apparently too much. Poor Eleri had a complete meltdown when it was time to go home, screamed all the way back to the apartment, flopped and flailed and finally fell asleep. That's never fun.

Her happiness was restored in the evening, though, when she gleefully played with Tom before bedtime.

Day 131

Day 220

Wednesday I dropped the kids with A's mom so I could get my tooth fixed. They always have a good time playing at A's house. The tooth repair was quick and uncomplicated. Huzzah. We hung out with A and his mom for a couple hours, then returned home for naps and waiting for the landlord to call. (He didn't.)

Tom got home. I went running. We ate dinner. And that was that for the evening. Except for a wee bit of soccer and Top Shot watching before bed. ;)

Day 132

Day 221

Thursday the landlord and electrician showed up just after Eleri went down for her nap. Fortunately, she stayed asleep. They made reasonably quick work of the stove replacement, all while Soren supervised, of course. Hehe. The "new" stove has knobs instead of push buttons, though two of them are actually oven knobs, labeled with (inaccurate) temperatures instead of "Low - Med - High." Heh. Oh well, it'll work.

After Eleri woke up, we went to the spray park. Alas, a storm started rolling in after we'd only been there about half an hour, and the park shut down due to threat of lightning. It was still a fun trip, albeit short.

Day 133

Day 222

Yesterday morning we went to River Farm with A and his mom. It had been a year since the last time we went there, so this was the first time Eleri could actually play with the boys and climb on stuff. She had a great time. It wasn't too hideously warm a day, but it was quite humid, so all the kids did a lot of sweating from all their running around. Everyone was good and worn out by the time we headed home.

Lunch, naps, dinner prep. I made a tasty pot pie (sausage, bell pepper, spinach, edamame, parmesan...I'd leave out the spinach next time) and took off to check out another barn. It's farther away than the one I looked at last weekend, but still about half the distance to the old barn, and less expensive than the nearer one. They let me observe a lesson, the only "adults" one they teach, apparently. (Lots and lots of kids and teenagers at this barn. Not, I suppose, all that unusual a thing, though.) Anyway, it's rather a step down in skill level from the lesson I was in before, but the instructor seems to be decent. I'll ride with them next week and see how it goes.

On the way home I could see a massive storm ahead of me, almost completely obscuring the buildings along the Beltway. Lightning slashed repeatedly across the sky in miles-long streaks. Driving into the storm was like driving into a waterfall; no gradual approach of rain, just an immediate entry into the downpour. Traffic - sensibly! - slowed to a crawl as lightning flared and thunder boomed all around us. It was a formidable storm, to say the least. Impressive, awe-inspiring, and a little scary. ;) I was glad I didn't have the kids with me. And just as abruptly, the rain ended as I drove out the other side. Pretty crazy!

Monday's excitement

2011-08-19T16:12:00.000-04:00

Day 129

Day 218

Monday morning, things were going remarkably smoothly. The kids were behaving reasonably well, and the day was just trucking right along. I even posted this on Twitter:

I should have known better.

By afternoon, time had started to drag. Then, while I was sitting at the computer, gnawing kind of absently on my thumbnail (I know...), there was a sudden *crack.* Coming from my mouth. My front tooth, which I broke first in 1991, then again this past January, had reached the limits of its structural integrity and broken yet again. (Yes, the dentist who repaired it the last time warned me not to bite into anything. Ever. It's not like I wasn't warned.) So that was delightful and mortifying. (The "official" story I told the dentist this time around was that one of the kids had bumped my arm while I was about to take a drink of water from a heavy glass, and the glass broke my tooth.)

Anyway. Fortunately, I didn't swallow or lose the little chunk of tooth that broke off, so I was able to stick it back on there in the event that I needed to have face-to-face interactions with people other than my family, and not look like a total hillbilly. This would come in handy later.

I was able to make an appointment for tooth repair on Wednesday. Not so bad. Tom got home, offered hugs of consolation, then took off to go swim. I got started on dinner. I meticulously cut the rest of the meat off the chicken we'd roasted a few days previously. I cut brussels sprouts into shreds and sliced onions & bell peppers. Those went into a pan to sautee together. When that was nearly finished, smelling very tasty, I pulled leftover mashed potatoes out of the fridge and put them into another pot on the stove, to re-heat them. That's when the real fun started.

I was just stirring some sour cream into the potatoes when there was a *pop* and a spark shot out of the stove, somewhere behind the burner I was using. Okaaaay, that was weird. Moments later there were three more loud pops, and the control buttons burst into flame! I grabbed the fire extinguisher, managed through my shaking adrenaline rush to remove the plastic safety tabs, and put out the fire. But the stove was still on, and there was no way I was going anywhere near those buttons to turn it off. I found a stick and managed to use it to shut off one of the burners, but the button for the other burner was melted. At which point - duuuuuh - it occurred to me to just shut off the breaker to the stove. Which I did. Then I surveyed the damage. And then, as you might expect, I took pictures.

Dinner was aaaaaaalmost ready. Seriously, like 2 minutes from serving.

Scorched and melted stove buttons

A few minutes later, Tom returned from the pool, ready for dinner. I showed him the mess in the kitchen and relayed the whole tale. He lifted up the pot with the mashed potatoes and looked at the burner underneath. And this is what we saw.

A chunk of metal had exploded off the heating element. That must have been one of the pops I'd heard.

The bottom of the pot was scorched, and there was a deep pit where the exploded chunk of metal had shot into the bottom.

I don't want to think about what might have happened if I'd moved that pot and the burning metal from the heating element had ricocheted across the kitchen. Or, you know, lodged somewhere in me. I was also very very glad that the kids were not in the kitchen, though they were watching from the doorway (safely behind the nice new gate Tom built). Soren got to watch Mommy use a fire extinguisher in a real, live fire emergency, which was basically the highlight of his week.

Dinner was, of course, ruined. Tom prudently reminded me that my first call ought to be to the landlord, so after I called him, I ordered us some pizzas. The landlord decided he wanted to stop by and check out the damage - thank goodness I was able to put the broken piece back on my tooth and look somewhat presentable. (See, I told you that would be useful later.)

After ALL that, I still managed to get out and go for a walk after dinner. It was, all things considered, a very full day after all.

Weekend

2011-08-15T09:40:00.001-04:00

Day 127

Day 216

Saturday Tom ran some errands in the morning and then brought back our customary Chipotle lunch. We didn't do a whole lot through the middle of the day, and then in the afternoon I got to go riding! It took me all of 12 minutes to get to the new barn (on surface streets, with a couple of long traffic lights). The ride was pretty good. Of course it's always hard to start at a new place, comparing everything against the old place. Since I loved my old barn, just not the drive, the new one doesn't quite measure up yet. Plus it is more expensive. But it's not bad. So I'm going to look around a bit more, but I'll probably give this place a try for at least a month if I can't find anything else suitable.

Day 128

Day 217

Sunday morning Soren had his swimming lesson. Tom said he did some swimming without his water wings! Next week is the last class, so Ellie & I will come along to watch. I'll be sure to take some pictures.

Lazy afternoon. Late in the day I ran a couple of miles outside. It went all right, but it was humid and a tough slog. It actually seemed a little easier once it started sprinkling. I made the somewhat questionable decision to go to the grocery store right afterward; we only needed 2 things, but I came home with about 10. Including a slice of cake. ;) Such is the risk of going food shopping fresh off a tiring workout. Hehe.

We had a pretty cool storm late in the evening. I'm always amazed when the kids are able to sleep right through the booming thunder.

There's a big hill between our apartment and the grocery store, I'll have you know

2011-08-12T20:58:00.003-04:00

Day 126 / Day 215

This morning we returned to playgroup for the first time in months. We've seen playgroup people here and there of course, but this was the first actual playgroup "event" we've attended since the Spring. The kids had a nice time, and it was pleasantly not humid, so it was a good day to be outside.

We picked up lunch, made a run to the pet store for more cat food, then came home for Eleri's nap. While she slept, Soren chilled out with his shows and I worked on a website. Speaking of which, anyone want to buy a horse farm? My friend Caitlin is selling hers.

After dinner, I jogged to the grocery store, shopped, then walked home with 25 or 30 pounds of stuff. Blugh. Amazingly, I wasn't at all sore after my big run yesterday, though I anticipate very ouchy shoulders tomorrow. Exercise is important though.

Hopefully I'll have good news of horsing tomorrow!

Half a Nice Day

2011-08-11T22:06:00.001-04:00

Day 125

Day 214

"Do I feel better?"
"Yeah, buddy, you seem like you do feel better."
"Yeah...I'm glad. I'm glad I feel better!"

That was the conversation I had with Soren immediately after he woke up this morning. And indeed, his fever was gone, and he seemed to be well on the mend. Huzzah!

A and his mom came over later in the morning, and we all went down to the pool. Man, those kids love the pool. We played and played until Soren was shivery (he's always the first one to get cold), and then the kids played on the playground for another half hour or so. It was, all told, a really nice morning.

The afternoon was less nice. Lunch was delayed by the extra playground excursion, so by the time we got back into the apartment, both kids were rather on the melty side. Eleri finally made it through her lunch and then took an epic 3 hour nap. Soren was just kind of whiny and disagreeable for the rest of the day. Still no resurgence of fever or anything, but it was pretty clear that he was tired. Eleri woke up kind of grumpy from her nap and was not the happiest camper either for the rest of the afternoon. Some days you win, some days you don't, and some days you only win the morning.

After Tom got home, I went outside to run, and I ended up doing a full 5k! Outside! With no walk breaks! I did it in 33:25, which is a far cry from my best 5k time on the treadmill, but I'm still way pleased. Probably won't be able to move tomorrow, but I'm pleased right now.

And! I have a new barn to try on Saturday afternoon. It's super close to home (4.5 miles away...seriously), so that would be a vast improvement over the hour-plus commute each way I was doing before. Here's hoping it all works out. :)

Sick Day

2011-08-10T22:07:00.001-04:00

Day 124

Day 213

Last night, Soren woke up sad about half an hour after going to bed. He felt warm, but I got him resettled and back to sleep. Twenty minutes later, he was awake again, and definitely sporting a fever. After measuring it (102+), we gave him some ibuprofen and worked on cooling him down with a damp rag, which he emphatically did not appreciate. Poor little buddy. Eventually the Motrin kicked in, his temp came down, and he was able to go back to sleep. It was not, however, the most restful night of sleep for any of us.

So I bailed on mall walk and we took ourselves a sick day. Soren was fine as long as he had ibuprofen in his system, but as soon as it wore off, his temp kept creeping back up and he turned into a saaaaaad boy. :( The photo above was taken about 5 minutes after he'd fallen asleep on the couch, and only about 30 seconds before he started being harassed by both Eleri and Leo. Sadly, he did not stay asleep through the couch-to-bed transfer; I suspect a nap would have done him some good. Oh well.

A couple of notable things about the day -

In the morning, Soren was playing with his train set, and for very brief moments, Eleri was playing too. Usually she is simply a force of constant destruction, but there were little snippets of "push the cars along the track, choo-choo, whee isn't this fun" happening. It won't be so very long now until she can enjoy the train set too. (And I can enjoy a few minutes without hearing, "Moooom! She's ripping my track!" every thirty seconds.)

Similarly, there were a good fifteen or so minutes a little later in the morning when the two of them were quietly playing Legos together. (Well, Duplos. Same difference.) It. Was. Awesome.

Highlight of the morning: When Soren was done playing with his trains, he picked them up and put them away, without being asked. That's huge. When I ecstatically relayed the joyous news to Tom via email, he replied, "Man. Now you know he's sick."

The rest of the day was free of any further spontaneous toy-cleaning (drat). Ah well. Eleri, for her part, took a 3 hour nap in the early afternoon (she didn't sleep well last night either), and it was a pretty mellow day overall. For dinner I made a big chicken pot pie, with a pie crust bottom and puff pastry top. It was, if I do say so myself, pretty friggin' good. It's not such a difficult thing to make, either. I still have to get the baking of the bottom crust dialed in just a wee bit better. I baked it some before adding the filling this time, but it was still a little underdone at the end. Oh well. More than edible, even so.

Well, hopefully Soren kicks this bug soon. Also hoping desperately that Eleri doesn't catch it. She hasn't shown any signs yet, but it seems kind of futile to think she'll be able to squeak by unexposed. It's no fun having sick kiddos.

I have to remember how to write amusing titles

2011-08-09T22:44:00.001-04:00

Day 123

Day 212

Forgive me. I haven't blogged daily in quite some time. ;)

So, today was our last Zoom Around the Room class for this session. Kind of hard to believe, since it feels like we just started. Soren made a new friend this time, so hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch now that class is over. This morning was the day to sign up for the next session's classes. Since Soren will be in preschool 3 days a week, we only signed him up for stuff on the weekend (soccer on Saturday, swimming on Sunday). I did sign Eleri up for one class that she and I will be able to go to, together, after we drop Soren off for school on Friday morning. So that should be fun. :) Nothing starts til mid-September, so we've got quite a few weeks between now and then.

This afternoon we got a memo under our door, informing us that the gym and indoor pool will be closed for construction for the next 3 months. Gah! Just as I'm getting into the exercising groove again. *sigh* The claim is that management will try to find us someplace else to work out in the interim, and I suppose there's always the option to run outside. I'll figure something out.

This evening I made a killer roast chicken. Super juicy, crispy skin (to which I'm crediting a little butter and bacon under the skin, plus some well-timed basting), really flavorful. Recipe snagged from here. A+++, will make again!

One year later

2011-08-09T14:57:00.001-04:00

Day 122

Day 211

Yesterday we went back to the play area at the Tyson's Corner mall. We've been there once before, almost a year ago to the day. As before, we went with A and his mom. Eleri was too little to actually play there last time, but she's grown rather a lot since then. ;) Aside from the occasional mad dash over to where the train was parked, she had a good time running around after the boys, climbing and sliding, stopping here and there to make friends with babies and their moms. All 3 kids enjoyed the heck out of the little train ride as well.

After Tom got home that evening, he and I took turns running on the treadmill and playing with the kids in the pool. Soren's gotten really comfortable in the water, between the security of his fancy green floaty vest and the confidence he's been gaining in his swimming class. He was even paddling all around with his face in the water. We stay in the very shallow end when it's just one parent with both kids, so he can touch the bottom at any time. Eleri loves the water too; even she was ducking down to her nose, blowing bubbles. I'm really glad they both enjoy the pool so much. :)

Productive weekend

2011-08-07T23:02:00.001-04:00

Last weekend was my final one at the barn. N's not going to be teaching there anymore, so it seemed prudent to check out a couple of the riding barns closer to home. I've not had luck finding a place yet, but I've got another couple of places to check out next week. In the meantime, it meant I had the whole weekend free.

Saturday, while Tom took the kids to the park, I got some work done around the house, culling our vast abundance of toys and reorganizing the kids' room. I'd run outside (for the first time in a while) on Friday evening, just shy of two miles, and my quads were quite sore the next day. So instead of hitting the gym in the afternoon, I took Soren out with me to do the grocering. He insisted on wearing his chef outfit, which was pretty darned cute. He got a couple of compliments (no great surprise) and was a merry little dude.

We've been using the playpen to block the doorway between the kitchen and dining room. Soren's way too big for it now (can climb in and out with ease), so it mostly finds use these days as a repository for junk. It's time to get rid of it, but that doorway is too narrow for any of our baby gates, and it's convenient to be able to leave the doors open while cooking to keep an eye on the kids, who also cannot come barreling into the kitchen. So Tom decided to custom build a gate (call it another chapter in our babyproofing adventures). He got the supplies and started working on it Saturday evening.

Day 121

Day 210

Sunday morning Soren had his swimming lesson. Eleri and I checked out the little park that's just outside the back gate of our condo complex. I hadn't been up there in quite a while, and they've completely renovated it. Pretty slick new play structure, swings, hopscotch, even a foursquare court (haven't seen one of those in years). It was a steamy and sticky morning, so we didn't stay too long, but Eleri seemed to have a good time. I suspect we'll be returning again with Soren soon.

Tom worked on his gate for much of the afternoon and got it finished. I think it looks pretty good!

In the afternoon I went to the gym and got back on the ol' treadmill. The exercise actually seems to have done my sore quads some good. Go figure. I managed what I believe is a lifetime personal best for distance - 3.9 miles! I've come to the conclusion that increasing my speed much above 7 mph, which would allow me to improve my time on the 5k, is the primary culprit in the recurrence of my shin splints, so I've decided to abandon speed for distance. I'm not going for a marathon or anything insane like that, but I think it'd be neat to be up to 5 miles by the end of the year. I've been logging my runs and walks and have posted the link up there in the sidebar. You can check it out if you are so inclined. ;)

That's about it for the weekend. Here's to another (hopefully speedy) week.

And now suddenly it's August?

2011-08-07T14:22:00.000-04:00

I'm not kidding, the past three weeks have seemed to zoom by like some sort of...really speedy thing. I'm certainly not complaining, but I've found myself without the usual slot in my schedule for blogging. I have, at least, been able to continue keeping up on daily photographs of the kids, so here we are yet again with another heap of them to post. If I can think of anything amusing or relevant to say about any of the days from the past few weeks, I'll write a wee bit; otherwise, just enjoy the pictures. :)

Day 102

Day 191

Day 103

Day 192

Day 104

Day 193

Day 105

Day 194

We got some new Beaver gear in the mail from my parents. It's equal opportunity support of the undergrad almas mater around here. ;)

Day 106

Day 195

Day 107

Day 196

Day 108

Day 197

Soren has been enjoying his swimming lessons at the rec center. I still haven't gone to watch yet, but I'll have to do that soon.

Day 109

Day 198

I got my old longboard out of the closet, as the lad has been obsessed with trying to "skate" on books or pieces of cardboard or toys...pretty much anything. He was super jazzed about getting to play around with a real skateboard. (And super cute, doing it.)

Day 110 / Day 199

Day 111 / Day 200

Frequently, when Eleri's in the stroller and Soren's walking, he will suddenly run around to the front so he can give her a hug. It can be a bit jarring if I'm not paying sufficient attention, but mostly it's just adorable.

Day 112

Day 201

We went back to Huntley Meadows Park for the first time in a while. It's pretty neat there. Lots of nature, not far at all from the big city.

Day 113

Day 202

Day 114

Day 203

Tom finally got to join us at the spray park. (He's been jealous every time we've gone without him during the week.) Everyone had a great time, splashing and playing.

Day 115

Day 204

Day 116

Day 205

Day 117

Day 206

Day 118

Day 207

After yet another trip to Ben Brenman Park (one of the nearest fenced playgrounds to our apartment) I put together this photoset, containing all the photos I've taken there over the years. The first ones are from when Soren was just over a year old, so it's pretty neat to watch the kids kind of grow up over the course of 80-some pictures.

Day 119

Day 208

Day 120

Day 209

Our little chatterbox

2011-07-27T09:33:00.001-04:00

A couple of days ago, I started writing a list of all the words and phrases Eleri uses regularly. She does plenty of repetition of sounds, and sometimes when she and Soren are playing she will spend minutes at a time just repeating the last word of whatever sentence he's just finished. That in itself is pretty cute and funny. But in putting together this list, I restricted my entries to things she seems to (for the most part) actually use correctly and deliberately (i.e. not just mimicking).

Let me back up a second. A few weeks ago, Eleri had her 18 month doctor visit. During the little pre-assessment period (before the doctor got there) the nurse asked, among other things, if Eleri knows "between 5 and 20 words." I laughed and said she knew well more than that. I had never sat down and counted them all, but I knew it was definitely over 20. A few days later, Tom & I were talking about it, and he said he was actually a little concerned about Eleri's verbal development (compared with Soren's at the same age), but that he could come up with about 30 words that he thought she knew. So I started listing some - many MANY of which were met with "oh, I forgot that one" or "ah, wasn't counting that" - and soon we were up to about 80.

Okay, so that was a couple of weeks ago. Fast-forward to Monday of this week, when I started writing them all down. I've come up with (as of this morning)...168 words and 22 phrases. Pretty good! In the interest of preserving the list for my own - and Eleri's - future amusement (and, okay, just a wee bit of maternal crowing), here's the breakdown:

People/Pets/Friends
[A's name]
Daddy
Ellie
Grandma
Grandpa
Jo-Bean (Soren's imaginary friend JoJo Beans)
[Soren's friend L's name]
Leo
Loki
Mommy
Soren

Food-Related
apple
banana
cheese
chicken
cracker
dinner
drink
food
fruit
granola bar
grape
mac cheese
milk
noodle
orange
pizza
spicy snack
yogurt

Body Parts
arm
back
beebo (belly button)
cheek
ear
elbow
eye
face
feet
finger
hair
hand
head
knee
lap
leg
mouth
neck
nipple
nose
shoulder
teeth
thumb
toes
tummy

Clothing
diaper
glasses
hat
'jamas
pants
sandal
shirt
shoe
sock

Animals
cat/kitty
duck
goldfish
monkey
pony
puppy
spider

Places/Prepositions
down
home
off
on
outside
up
work (as in "Daddy's at...")

Verbs
change
clap
draw
dribble
eat
go
have
help
hug
jump
kick
pee
pinch
poke
read
ride
share
sit
slide
swing
tickle
zoom

Adjectives
cold
delicious
happy
hot
mine
stinky
stuck
tasty
yours
yummy

Nouns
baby
backpack
bag
ball
bath
bike
book
bottle
bowl
bucket
bus
camera
CD
chair
claw
cup
door
elevator
fan
flower
garbage
ipod
keys
letter
nap
paper
phone
picture
poop
potty
radio
show
sticker
stroller
timer
train
tree
truck
tv (vee-vee)
vacuum
water

Exclamations/Greetings/Misc.
bonk
bye
can't
careful
gentle
here
hi/hello
hooray
no
okay
oops
ouch
that
whee
wow
yeah/yap
yuck

Phrases
all done
come back
don't want to
for you
go 'way
here/there you go
I/we did it
let go
love you
me too
my turn
no bites
not nice
oh my
pants off
ready, set, go
thank you
the end
uh 'appened
uh oh
whazzat?
whoa, dude

Girls' Weekend / Boys' Trip

2011-07-26T14:58:00.001-04:00

Day 100

Day 189

Saturday was the wedding. Tom got lots of pictures. Soren, by all accounts, had a great time playing with his cousins and visiting his grandparents. And of course, he looked pretty darned cute doing it. :)

Eleri and I, meanwhile, had a relaxed morning and then took our car in to get some new tires. Fortunately, we found a tire shop just down the road, so we were able to walk back home when they said they needed to keep the car for a few hours. We had lunch, Eleri had her nap, and after she woke up, we walked back for the car. Then we went to the playground & grocery store. Dinner, bedtime (for Eleri) and a bunch of photo-editing/posting (for me).

Day 101

Day 190

This picture of Soren is actually from Monday morning. The guys spent much of Sunday in the air, headed home.

Some time in the middle of the night, Eleri came in our room and (I think) tripped and fell against our bed frame. The very same bed frame that caused a 3am ER visit for poor Soren last year. The corner (we think) he fell against is pretty well padded now, but as far as I can tell, it looks like Eleri may have scraped her lip on the straight side of the frame. Nothing was bleeding in the middle of the night, but the little surface abrasion got more and more noticeable as the next morning wore on. Didn't seem to bother her too much, at least. But that's what is going on in the above picture.

So, on Sunday, Eleri & I ran some errands, stopping at Chipotle for lunch. El's been very anti-high chair lately, which isn't a huge issue, but it can be a bit irksome when we go to restaurants. Especially when I forget and order something - like tacos - that's tough to eat one-handed with a squirmy toddler on my lap. This time, it actually looked like she was going to be fine with it, but after a few minutes in the high chair, she started fussing. And soon she was having a full-on meltdown while I shoved my lunch down my gullet as fast as possible. Sigh. I mostly avoided contact with everyone around me, so I don't know how many nasty glares I got, but there were at least a couple of people who looked on me pityingly.

And then of course, as soon as I was finished eating and could hold her on my lap, she was instantly happy. Ah well.

After her nap, the lass and I went down to the pool for a bit and then took it easy for the rest of the afternoon/evening. I gave her a bath and (as I mentioned in the last post) tried to get her to fall asleep a bit earlier than usual so I could get some last-minute things done before we had to go pick up the guys at the airport, but 'twas not to be. I was pretty surprised by how long she stayed awake, even once we were in the car and on the road. She finally did pass out for a while, but the excitement of reuniting with Tom and Soren was a bit too stimulating. Hehe. I did have the very cliched heartwarming experience of seeing Soren come running down the airport hallway for a hug, and he was quite thrilled to tell me all about his trip. (Me, and anyone else who would listen, as we quickly discovered after he trotted away from us at the baggage carousel to chat with some guys.)

It was a quick trip for sure, and no doubt a tiring one for Tom & Soren, but it sounds like they had a fantastic time. I'm really glad they got to go, and it was nice to have a couple of days of one-on-one time with Eleri. :)

Last Week

2011-07-17T21:58:00.001-04:00

Last week was quite busy in the lead up to Tom & Soren's big trip out to Oregon. Somehow I wasn't able to squeeze in time for blogging. ;)

Day 94

Day 183

I actually don't have much to say about Sunday. I don't remember any remarkable happenings. Probably did some chores, definitely did a bunch of cleaning and tidying.

Day 95

Day 184

Monday! It was forecast to be a brutally hot one, so we got up & out of the house early and met A & his mom at Burke Lake Park. It had been almost 11 months since we were there last, so it was the first time Eleri actually got to play on the playground. She bravely tried 2 of the big slides all by herself and had a great time following the boys around but also playing on her own. After an hour and change on the playground, we headed down to ride the train and carousel. All the kids were super excited about the train, and after our ride, the engineer let the kids sit up in the driver's seat; Soren and A were, needless to say, over the moon thrilled. Eleri was also big enough this time to ride a horse on the carousel (instead of riding on my back), and while she was a bit squirmy before the carousel started moving, once it got going she was totally into it. After the ride was over, she quietly chanted, "Pony, pony, pony..." for a while. Hehe.

We left the park around noon, just as the heat was starting to get nasty. One quick errand on the way home, and then we just took it easy for the rest of the day. Tom wasn't feeling well and came home earlier than he's been doing, lately, which was unfortunate for him but meant I got to go to the gym after dinner.

Day 96

Day 185

Tuesday was another busy one. Zoom class in the morning, hanging out at A's house after (his mom was letting me use their treadmill). Then we picked up Tom so we could take him to the doctor. Poor guy had infections in both ears and a possible sinus infection. :( Not the sort of thing you want to develop a few days before you're going to be riding a plane across the country. It was another really hot day, but we soldiered on and did some shopping after dropping Tom back at work. Soren needed some stuff to wear to the wedding, and it took trips through 4 stores for us to find some suitable things. We eventually did though and made our way back home.

In the evening, Tom & I worked on compiling a list of all the words Eleri knows. We ended up with well over 80. She is quite the verbal lass. ;)

Day 97

Day 186

Wednesday we did our usual mall walking in the morning and then hung around the mall to do just a bit more shopping. Found ties for both Tom & Soren and some new sandals to replace the ones Soren has nearly run into the ground (he's worn them nearly every day this summer). While Eleri napped, Soren got to try on his "wedding clothes," to his great excitement. He's hilarious.

That afternoon there was a crazy intense thunderstorm. I could not believe that Eleri napped right through it. There were some incredibly loud claps of thunder, one of which startled me so badly I jumped 2 feet in the air and still had a racing pulse five minutes later. I thought surely that one would have awakened her, but when I went back to check on her, she still appeared to be asleep. At that point, I figured I should probably double check to make sure she was still breathing. Hehe. And wouldn't you know it, my standing there, staring silently at her for 5 seconds to watch for the rise and fall of her back? Yep, that's what woke her. Figures!

In the evening the kids & I met an out-of-town friend for dinner (old dive buddy we hadn't seen since before Soren was born, so she'd never met the kids). The restaurant we went to promotes itself as a purveyor of "Asian tapas," which sounded very intriguing, but it was really just your standard pan Asian fare. Tasty, but nothing too out of the ordinary. The kids were...not exactly on their best behavior at dinner. Nothing too bad, just wiggly, and Eleri continued her streak of freaking out over being put in a high chair, so she spent the meal sitting in my lap while I did my best to keep her from flinging food everywhere. Whee. It was still a nice visit though, and both kids were really excited about looking at the fish tank by the sushi counter after we finished eating.

Day 98

Day 187

Thursday was a cleaning day. I spent the morning tidying up the apartment, and then in the afternoon I took my stir crazy duo to the spray park. It was a lot less crowded in the afternoon, and we had a great time! The last time we were there, Soren was horribly jealous of some other kids who had buckets to play with. The whole time he'd been asking why he couldn't have a bucket, and could I please go get him one so he could play with it now? So this time, he started asking early if he could bring a bucket along, and I of course told him he could, but in the usual rush to get out the door, I completely forgot to look for one. So we were already on the way, and he asked where his bucket was, and I felt bad about forgetting, so we stopped at the grocery store to see if they had any. They did not, but I wandered the aisles looking for an acceptable substitute. Finally in the Tupperware section, I found something I thought might suit. I asked Soren if it would be a good bucket, and he said, "Yes! It's the perfect bucket for me!" So. Cute.

Once we got to the water park, he spent a full 45 minutes with that Tupperware container, filling it up and dumping it out, pouring water over his head, pouring water down the drains, humongous grin on his face all the while. Totally worthwhile purchase. And then when some other kids asked to play with it, he was very nice about sharing. Eleri also had some turns with the bucket and spent some time playing with a little plastic shovel someone else had brought. We were at the park for a good hour and a half at least, and then Soren was shivering so much it was time to go. But shivering while still wearing that humongous grin. ;)

And still the day was not over! In the evening we went into DC and ate really tasty Indian food with Max, Agnes & Alice. Tom wasn't stuck too late at work, so he was able to join us. A fine time was had by all.

Day 99

Day 188

And then it was Friday! Tom went to work for a half-day, and I took the kids to the zoo with A and his mom. I figured I should try to run Soren around as much as possible so he'd have a better chance of sleeping on the plane. We had a nice time. The weather could not have been more mild and perfect, and I recorded this very adorable "Eleri as a lion" moment.

A couple of hours after we got home from the zoo, it was time to leave for the airport. Usually we fly in and out of Reagan National Airport, which is very close by, but this time the guys were leaving from Baltimore. It's a good thing we left as early as we did. Friday afternoon traffic was awful once we got north of DC, and then I missed the exit for the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and had to backtrack a couple of miles. Yippee. We made it though, in plenty of time, and off the fellows went for their trip. Eleri and I stopped for an early dinner on our way home and then began our girls' weekend. The lass was especially hilarious at bathtime; with no Soren there to monopolize the bath toys, she was much more vocal and spent a bunch of time playing silly games with them. It was cute. :)

I'll hold off on my account of the rest of the weekend until tomorrow. Tom said the two of them had a great time, and he took lots and lots of pictures, so I'll be going through those and no doubt posting some.

Just another half hour or so until we leave to fetch the boys at the airport. I had really hoped to get Eleri sleeping earlier than usual this evening so I could have a bit of time to finish this blog post in peace and maybe eat some ice cream, heck maybe even watch a movie. Alas, she had other plans and is at this moment (at NINE FIFTY-THREE PM) climbing in my lap asking for more crayons. Wide awake as can be. I know she'll pass out in the car, but sheesh. Oh well. We really did have a nice weekend together.

All right, going to finish up a couple of chores and then hit the road. Have a good night.

Before I get too behind again

2011-07-09T23:57:00.001-04:00

Photos from the last 3 days.

Day 91

Day 180

We mostly stuck around the house on Thursday, trying and failing to make much of a dent in the chores that needed to be done. I did manage to run 2 loads of dishes, but that was about it. It was the first weekday in a while with no errands or out-of-the-house plans, and everyone was a little stir crazy by about midday. Things got a little crazy after the kids ate their afternoon snack of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.

Day 92

Day 181

Friday was, as previously mentioned, Eleri's half-birthday and 18 month doctor appointment. In the evening we went to a birthday BBQ at our friend H's house. The kids love H's backyard (Soren said, "H has a park at her house!") and were really quite well behaved, all things considered. Around 9pm, Soren started going around to all the party guests and saying goodbye. I assumed Tom had decided it was time to go and had told the lad to bid his adieus. So I followed Soren back to where Tom & Eleri were standing and said, "Time to go?" Tom said, "Is it?" There were chuckles all around, and I told him what Soren had been doing. We decided to go ahead and take Soren's hint and be on our way. ;)

Day 93 / Day 182

Another great pony day for me. I had a nice ride on Andy, who's been getting more regular and frequent work lately, so he's improved a ton in the 3 or so weeks since I was on him last. On the one hand, that makes him less of a challenge now, so the shining moments are maybe not quite as rewarding as they were before. On the other hand, it's easier to get him going nicely, and to sustain that for longer, so it's probably more fun overall.

In the afternoon, the kids were snuggled all sweetly on the couch for a little while, sharing the iPod. They are awfully cute, those two.

18 months

2011-07-08T13:56:00.001-04:00

Eleri had her 18 month checkup this morning. The first thing the doctor said when he came in was, "Well, she looks like she eats well." Indeed, she is large but proportional - 26 lbs, 32.75" long, head circumference 19.5" (75th, 81st and 98th %iles, respectively). That's a big noggin. Heh. Everything else checked out fine, and as per usual, Soren was silly and charming and elicited a couple of, "Wow, he's really smart, isn't he?" remarks from the doc.

Since I already gave a run-down of her recent vocabulary expansion, I don't have much else to add here. Oh! Except that yesterday she came up to me kind of out of the blue and said, "Potty. Potty." So just for the heck of it, I took off her diaper and sat her on the froggy potty, and she peed! And then she went again before bathtime. I was pretty shocked, since her potty productivity up to now has been spotty at best (spotty potty production). And I'm obviously not going to jump up and down and declare her ready to start potty training in earnest, but it still seemed like a noteworthy happening.

That's all for now.

Another 40+ photos

2011-07-07T18:50:00.001-04:00

I really, really, REALLY have to get back to posting photos daily instead of in huge clumps like this.

Day 65

Day 154

Day 66

Day 155

Day 67

Day 156

Day 68 / Day 157

Day 69

Day 158

Day 70

Day 159

Day 71

Day 160

Day 72

Day 161

Day 73

Day 162

Day 74

Day 163

Day 75

Day 164

Day 76

Day 165

Day 77

Day 166

Day 78

Day 167

Day 79

Day 168

Day 80

Day 169

Day 81

Day 170

Day 82

Day 171

Day 83

Day 172

Day 84

Day 173

Day 85

Day 174

Day 86

Day 175

Day 87

Day 176

Day 88 / Day 177

Day 89

Day 178

Day 90

Day 179

So what about those kids?

2011-07-07T13:37:00.000-04:00

Book blogging and pony blogging and meme-tasticness...it's all well and good but what, pray tell, what about the children? Won't somebody think of the children?!

The kids are good. They're great, even. We've still been doing fun stuff every week, and when we're home they play together and it's fantastic. Here are some recent snippets.

* * *

We got some paperwork in the mail this past weekend for Soren's preschool. It was kind of funny; it was one of those "I am such a MOM" moments, receiving something addressed to "The Parents of Soren J." (I speak for myself, but I suspect Tom felt a similar sense of parentality, as it were.) Anyway. We hadn't really said much to Soren about starting "real" preschool in the fall, so when the paperwork arrived and he asked what it was, I told him. At first he wanted nothing to do with the idea ("No, I want to do preschool like before, when my friends come over to my house.") but it didn't take long at all for him to come around. Amongst the paperwork we received was his class assignment. (I'll stop short of actually writing said assignment on the interwebs, but all the classes have cute little names like Little Champs and Puppy Pals and Splashing Seacows. I'll call Soren's class the Tiny Dancers.) So, that came in the mail on Saturday. Every day since, the lad's been asking it it's time to go to Tiny Dancers class yet. He is quite dismayed to be told, yet again, that he's still got a couple of months to wait. And I'm sure he'll go back and forth a bit about whether or not he's excited about it, but for now I'm just glad he seems to be in favor.

* * *

In the past month or so, Eleri's vocabulary has expanded rapidly. She has a sizable number of words in common use, and she will mimic just about anything after a few repetitions. I'm not saying she'll mimic it correctly, but she will certainly try. ;) I especially love that her version of "thank you" can vary pretty widely depending on her mood and enthusiasm, a polite "key cue," to a broad grin and shouted "ka-cow!" Her brother is "So-wen" and her favorite fruit is an "amana." And she is not afraid to shout, "Wee-oh! No! Go way!" if Leo tries to steal her lunch (when she's not feeding it to him directly, that is). She's starting to try to sing the ABCs and the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and she can identify a bunch of body parts (nose, eye, mouth, teeth, ears, hair/head, cheeks, chin, arm, armpit, hand, fingers, toes, knee, nipple, and of course, beebo/belly button). Often if you ask her to locate her belly button, she'll lift up her shirt, squeeze her eyes shut tight, point and squeal "Bee-BO!" in the highest pitched voice she can manage. Which sounds kind of weird but is one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen.

She delights in games, pretending to spray people with a water hose or threatening with "a-caw" ("the Claw" from the movie Liar Liar). She's also becoming quite possessive of things, toys and such, grabbing and declaring "Mine, mine, MINE!" It's hard not to laugh, because of course we want to teach her to share but oh my goodness it's funny.

Less funny are the breakdowns when she doesn't get her way, the flopping down and sobbing over the tiniest little perceived transgression. But I recall clearly this phase with Soren, and I know it will pass, as she gets used to things like boundaries and not getting her way every time.

* * *

Soren still loves playing firefighter. He's always got a fire to put out somewhere or a victim to rescue. He's such a fan, in fact, that 'fire' and 'emergency' are two of the words that he can recognize by sight.

* * *

I really need to teach Eleri that no means no. A lot of our exchanges these days go something like this.

E: Food!
S: Would you like some food?
E: No.
S: Are you hungry?
E: No.
S: Okay.
E: Food!
S: Would you like a string cheese?
E: No.
S: Would you like a banana?
E: No.
S: Are you thirsty?
E: No.
S: Okaaaay...
E: ...
E: FOOOOOOOD! *cries, flinging herself at the kitchen door*

And then when I finally do get her a snack and she's all grinny with grateful "kay-cue!"s, I make a point of saying, "Yes, you were hungry. Yes, you did want food. Yes, you're very happy to have that string cheese." It hasn't seemed to stick yet though. She's a goof.

* * *

We met some friends yesterday for lunch and a trip to the Air & Space Museum. Lunch was at a Japanese restaurant, and while Soren did a pretty decent job on his sushi and teriyaki chicken (he was almost too distracted by the chopsticks to get much eating done), Eleri was a rockstar. She ate the hell out of the bean sprout salad and was almost maniacal in her enthusiasm for the miso soup. She tried seaweed salad and fish and egg. Crab and shrimp were tried but emphatically rejected. It's pretty funny; most of the time she doesn't hesitate to just open up her mouth when food is offered, so when she encounters something she doesn't like, she is not shy about getting rid of it right quick. Hehe.

Book Review: Punching Out, by Paul Clemens

2011-07-04T10:07:00.000-04:00

Punching Out: One Year in a Closing Auto Plant felt like it took me about a year to read. In reality it only took a few months, in fits and starts, but it was kind of a slog. It's a shame because the book had potential to be really interesting. Tom bought it after we saw the author interviewed on The Daily Show (that link goes to the video of the interview), and it really seemed like a fascinating topic. In fact, it is, but I felt there were some major problems in the execution.

The book was, ultimately, just kind of meandering and not especially well written, I thought. Clemens kept things roughly in chronological order, but not always. It wasn't exactly that it was confusing to keep track of what was going on, but there didn't feel like a lot of narrative momentum. Possibly this is because (as he said in the interview) Clemens did not really have a thesis. He set out to describe what happens after a manufacturing plant closes down, but he wasn't really trying to make a point about anything. Which is fine; I'm not suggesting he needed to be writing with some sort of agenda in mind in order for the book to be any good, but it might have helped tie everything together a bit more cohesively.

The biggest problem - and I may well be alone in thinking this - was the kind of half-assed attitude Clemens conveyed in his writing. It felt, reading the book, like he was one of those kids in high school who thinks it's totally uncool to try hard. There was a lot of, "Yeah, I started taking notes through this meeting thing, but then it got pretty boring so I stopped and mostly just doodled in my notebook instead." He clearly spent a lot of time in the plant, talking to people and observing the goings on, but then it was like he just wanted the book to write itself without any additional effort on his part. I don't know. I'm curious to see if Tom picks up this vibe from the writing as well, or if I'm just crazy. I fully accept that I might just be crazy. But I found Clemens's slumpy sort of writing to be distracting and off-putting, so it was hard for me to stay super engaged in what he had to say.

In the end, it's an interesting subject for sure. It's definitely telling that there are more jobs to be had, in some parts of the U.S., taking things apart than there are putting things together. I think Punching Out could have been more engaging if it had been given, say, the Mark Kurlansky treatment, but for what it was, it wasn't a totally worthless read.

Happy times in pony land

2011-07-03T12:27:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday (the day after my birthday) N let me ride Vanya again in my lesson, as something of a birthday present. At the end of the lesson she let me hop him over a few jumps, which was awesome and fun.

Yesterday, I got to the barn an hour early in order to have a private lesson (another bday gift, this one from Tom) before my regular group lesson. I'd requested a gallop-and-jump-in-the-woods lesson, and N was happy to oblige. She was on Vanya, and I rode Leroy, who was really the perfect choice for such an excursion. Chaka would have also been fun, but he's still coming back from an injury and he's also kind of a spaz in the woods. Leroy, on the other hand, is pretty sane and steady, and he's a lot of fun to jump. We found 4 or 5 logs to hop over (most of them at least twice) and had a few super awesome gallops along the straight stretches. Vanya's an ex-racehorse, and Leroy is some kind of mixed breed gaited something-or-other, but that didn't stop him from trying as hard as he could to keep up with Mr. Speed Demon. There are few things more exhilarating than an all out, balls to the wall gallop. The horses seem to agree.

In the group lesson immediately thereafter, I was riding Sunny. To my surprise and delight, we were having a jumping lesson! Well, it was an exercise meant to demonstrate that jumps are really nothing more than elevated canter strides. So we started out cantering over 3 poles, and then the first pole became a small cross-rail, and then the last pole became another cross-rail. N almost never has our class do any jumping, so it was pretty exciting for all of us. Sunny's another fun one to jump; he seems to enjoy it way more than dressage. N put the fences up to verticals when it was my turn (not huge...maaaybe 2'3").

It was just an outstanding morning overall. It was nice to get the old jumping and galloping itch scratched a bit. ;)

30DOB #14

2011-06-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

Day 14: Write about 5 favorite quotes.

I am going to try really, really hard to limit this to quotes that are not from movies/TV shows/songs. But no promises, since the collection of such quotes is not really my thing.

“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.” -- A. A. Milne

My best friend, FarmerMegan, is (or used to be) a fan of writing down quotes that strike her fancy and posting them on a bulletin board or the fridge or some place like that. When we lived together for a year in college - the first real apartment for either of us - she quickly became familiar with my, oh how to put this, tendency toward untidiness. I was a slob. I remain, in some arenas of my life *cough*the car*cough* a slob. I'm a lot better than I was, though.

Anyway, Megan wrote this A. A. Milne quote on an index card one day, carefully cut it out, and handed it to me. I believe this was within the first couple of months we lived together. And I have cherished it ever since. It's the most positive spin on slovenliness I have ever seen, and it makes me smile every time I read it.

After ecstasy, the laundry. -- Zen saying

You know those page-a-day calendars with jokes or quotes or trivia questions on them? Well, one year in my (very) early 20s, I had one that was "The Little Zen Calendar." At the time, when I first came upon this quote, I thought it was oh so hilarious because - tee hee hee - ecstasy = SEX(!) and after ecstasy you have to do laundry because, you know, the sheets are all messy. From the SEX. I got a big kick out of imagining some quiet, reserved monk saying all matter-of-factly, "Yes, one must expect to attend to the task of laundry after there has been some sweet, sweet lovin' going on."

Of course, now (2 kids and almost 10 years later) I look at this quote and think, "Gah, so true. You could have the best freaking day of your life, attain incredible heights of happiness and personal satisfaction, and there will still always be more goddamned laundry to do." ;)

A skunk offends only his enemies. Among his own kind he does not reek! -- The ghost of Mack's mum, embodied in a skunk, in the movie "A Scottish Tale"

See? Movie quote. Couldn't even get through three without breaking my own (not especially rigid) rule.

Anyway, A Scottish Tale is a very hokey low-budget (more like no-budget) indie flick that Megan and I rented that year we lived together. It's incredibly silly and has some clever moments. But this particular line has always stuck with me. I've always taken it to mean, "Who cares if someone thinks you're weird? They don't matter. The people who matter will love you despite (or even because of) your weirdness." And that's a good thing to remember when one is a socially awkward individual with a tendency to frequently embarrass herself.

"There are 10 types of people in this world - those who understand binary and those who don't." -- Unknown

This is just nerdy and silly and only works as a written statement, as '10' is how you write '2' in binary. So...yeah, I'm a dork.

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." -- Also unknown, but on one of my t-shirts

More nerdery. This one is obviously a play on "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem," which is (I guess) one of those motivational type things you hear in business meetings. I like the chem nerd version better, even if it is more of a joke than a quote.

Man, that turned out to be tougher than I expected. And I didn't expect it to be all that simple, since (as I mentioned before) I am no fond collector of quotes. But it's done and I shall post it and move on to the next. ;)

Thirty

2011-06-25T16:13:00.001-04:00

Happy birthday to meeeeee...

I've been referring to myself as "almost 30" for months now, which was, you know, accurate. But now my twenties have officially drawn to a close. What a decade it has been.

20 - This was a big year! It was the Summer of LlamaJaw. (I was going to link to the old entries from my original blog, but DEAR GOD the emo barely-no-longer-a-teenager dramatic sappy-ass writing...I cannot bear it.) That Fall, I moved out of the dorms and into my first apartment. And then in the Spring, Tom and I re-met. In less than a year I went from moping over a boy I hadn't even kissed to beginning a relationship with the man I would eventually marry.

21 - Shortly before my birthday, I started my first summer internship with the Naval Air Warfare Center in the Mojave Desert. This internship afforded me the opportunity for many weekend visits with Tom, which eventually resulted in us deciding to become a couple. Weeks later (literally) I began my study abroad year in friggin England. Studying at the University of Nottingham was a great experience, and as painful as it was at the time to be 21 and desperately newly in love and half a world away, it was all worth it. The school year ended, and I somehow managed to score a second summer internship back with the Navy.

22 - Again, my birthday came shortly after my arrival in the desert. I feel a little bad in retrospect, taking their money and making them think I had any interest in working for them long-term, when all I was really after was a paid excuse to be within driving distance of Tom again for the summer. But it was, like my year abroad, an ultimately enriching experience, and I'm grateful for it. Summer ended and it was back to Oregon State for one more year. I adopted Leo on Halloween day. Tom came to visit me at Christmas time and was stranded for an extra day due to a crazy ice storm. We managed weekend visits throughout the year every month or so. By summertime, I was more than ready to graduate and move to California to live with the lad full time.

23 - I believe I got to Pasadena (if I'm recalling correctly) the day before my 23rd birthday. I landed my first real job within a month, I started this blog, and Tom & I got our own apartment that winter (we'd been living with another couple up to that point). It was a tiny-ass, poorly insulated apartment, but it was ours.

24 - I started grad school a couple of months after my birthday. In September, we decided to get married the following Spring. And we did! Shortly after the wedding, I set up my Flickr account. Yep, I've now got 5+ years' worth of photos stored online.

25 - More grad school, including four straight months of commuting to San Diego once a week for lab classes. I fell on my face while jogging. Tom & I learned how to scuba dive and went on our honeymoon trip to Mexico. Then in the Spring, I quit my job and started working in the vitamin mines instead.

26 - This was another big year. A couple of months after my birthday, I found out I was pregnant with Soren! So I spent the year trying to finally wrap up my Master's thesis and incubating a baby. We moved out of the tiny apartment and into a slightly bigger, somewhat nicer one. We took a trip to San Francisco, where I lugged my 7.5 months pregnant butt up & down the hills. And then Soren arrived, and our lives changed forever. ;)

27 - Maternity leave ended and I returned to work, this time on the night shift. It was hellish, but I made it (and finally managed to finish my thesis and get my Master's degree in the process). Six months of sleep deprivation later, I was able to quit working for good and start preparing for our big cross-country move. Soren, Leo & I headed to Virginia while Tom finished up his PhD. Bought a car, found and moved into an apartment (aww, look how little Soren was), and immediately got pregnant with Eleri. Hehe.

28 - Another year mostly spent growing a person. Soren & I joined a playgroup, made some friends, and started getting to know the area around our new home. We also went back to Oregon for my 10 year high school reunion. Eleri was, of course, born at home in January. We had a BUNCH of snow that winter. Springtime brought our first mini-vacation as a 4-person family.

29 - This year brought Eleri's first trip to the west coast, and our first trip to New York. We got Soren potty trained and Eleri weaned. I'm trying to come up with something about myself for this year, but my life is quite a bit defined by the kids and their accomplishments these days. And that's okay. :)

And there you have it. In the past 10 years I've gone from a college junior wondering if she'd ever have a boyfriend to a married mother of two. I've traveled across the Atlantic and back (quite a few times), landed and quit two jobs, obtained both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree, and sprouted an ever increasing number of gray hairs.

I have to admit, I'm pretty excited to see what the next 10 years will bring.

I know

2011-06-23T22:33:00.000-04:00

I know! It's been, like, nearly two weeks since I posted last. And that was just a bunch of pictures. I'm long, looooong overdue for an update here.

Buckle up. This is probably going to be a long(ish) one.

So, Mom was here. She got in on a muggy Thursday afternoon, and the kids & I went to the airport to pick her up. Soren is ever a fan of taking a trip to the airport. He was excited to see Grandma, and the two of them were playing games before we even got to the car. (Eleri had been sleeping when we first arrived and was still a little out of it, so she was smiley but not too sure what was going on.)

I had scheduled myself a haircut appointment for the next afternoon, taking full advantage of the free babysitting available when grandparents are in town. I'd long since made up my mind that I would be chopping my hair quite short again for the summer, and when I voiced this intention to the hairdresser, she responded with a worried-sounding, "Okaaaay..." I said something like, "What, you don't think I can pull off a pixie cut?" Apparently she was afraid I was just being impulsive and that I'd hate the haircut afterward. Hehe. I assured her that I had given it a lot of thought, but it wasn't until I confirmed that I had indeed cut it that short in the past that she relaxed about it.

I think it came out pretty great!

But holy COW are my gray hairs a lot more visible now. I guess I expected as much, but man. Not quite 30 and I'm fully sporting the salt-and-pepper look. Ah well. I don't care enough to dye it, so salt-and-pepper it shall be!

(Kind of tempting though to see what would happen if I dyed it, like, electric blue without bleaching first. Would the dye kind of add just a slight blue tint to the dark hairs and then be all shockingly blue on the grays? Might be worth an experiment.)

Enough about my hair.

Saturday morning, Mom got to come out to the barn with me. My regular instructor was on vacation, but I got to ride her horse, Vanya, again. So that was neat. I had a good lesson (the substitute instructor did a good job) and Mom got to have a bit of a horse fix. That evening, Tom & I got to go out to dinner by ourselves! Huzzah again for Grandma babysitting. We went to the Dogfish Head Alehouse and split a super delicious burger and "steak bomb" sandwich. And then the Belmont Stakes came on TV, so we sat together on one side of the booth to watch it, probably looking like super sappy dorks, but whatever. ;) There were an almost surprising number of small children in the restaurant when we arrived. I say almost because it was pretty early, and weirdly, brewery-type restaurants are actually quite family friendly. Anyway, the kids had a great time without us, we had a great time without them.

Sunday...boy, I don't remember anything of note about Sunday. There was probably some soccer to watch. I'm sure we did some chores. Might have cooked something tasty. Definitely took further advantage of GrandmaTime to do some lounging on the couch.

Monday we went to Lake Accotink Park with some of our playschool peeps. Eleri was incredibly cute when a big flock of geese and goslings came our way; after they determined we had nothing to feed them and started to retreat, Eleri toddled after them, waving and saying, "Hi guys! Hi guys!" Sofreakingcute. Everyone enjoyed playing in the slightly scuzzy water of the lake, and Soren and my mom amassed quite the collection of lakeside treasures - sticks, leaves, rocks and such.

Tuesday was Soren's last "Top Chef" class. Eleri was NOT feeling like sitting still that day, so it was extra convenient that Mom was there to hang with Soren in his class while the girlo and I took some walks around the rec center.

Wednesday we went over to National Harbor for lunch and to check out the Peeps Store. It was a hot afternoon, so we didn't linger too long, but we did see the creepy giant bearded man sculpture and an absurdly fancy pet accessory store with little doggy dresses and patent leather-looking booties in the window display.

I mean, really. What?

Thursday we met up with A and his mom at one of the local nature centers. Aside from being eaten alive by mosquitoes, we had a good time. A told his mom later, "I really, really like Soren's grandma!" I guess Mom made a good impression. ;)

Friday was our playschool field trip to the National Capital Trolley Museum. It was a good little outing! Soren was bummed we only got to ride the trolley once - technically our admission ticket allowed us unlimited rides, but a very tired and grumpy Eleri screamed through the entire second half of the trip, so we pretty much had to head home after that - but he seemed to enjoy listening to storytime and playing with the model trolleyway and making a little paper trolley to take home. It's a bit of a trek, but I wouldn't mind taking him back there again sometime. Maybe when Eleri's just a tad older and more likely to enjoy herself. Heh.

Friday night there was a pretty decent rainstorm, and Tom & I got to go out for a second dinner sans kids. We went to Bonefish Grill, which was really good. It was quite crowded when we got there, and we were told we'd have a 30-40 minute wait for a table. I looked around at the packed waiting area and asked Tom if he wanted to wait outside. He gave me a well-deserved look of bewilderment and said, "Uh, no, let's sit at the bar." Oh yeah! I'd completely neglected to even register that as an option. Heh. As it turned out, it was a full-service bar, so we got to eat our (super tasty) dinner almost right away after all. (In case you were wondering: wagyu beef dumplings for a starter, grilled rainbow trout with mango salsa for Tom, stuffed tilapia for me.) Another fine evening out. We seriously have to find ourselves a babysitter and go do stuff like that more often.

Saturday was Mom's last day here. Kind of on a whim, we asked Soren if he would like to accompany us to the barn for my riding lesson. He was so adorably excited about coming along. As we were getting into the car, he kept saying, "I'm so happy! I really really wanted to come with you guys. I'm so exciting to go see the ponies with you!" (Yes, he is always "exciting" about stuff. It's too cute to correct.) I had a pretty good ride on Andy, the goofy Thoroughbred I've ridden once before, and after my lesson, N asked Soren if he would like to have a ride on her mare, Freedom. Soren was over the moon excited and spent the whole (bareback, very short) pony ride with a huge smile on his face.

You can tell he hates it.

In the afternoon, it was time to take Mom back to the airport. I'm glad she was able to visit, and extra glad that the hot weather mostly took a break while she was here.

Other fun happenings of the past week. Hmm, let's see. Well, the very next day, Sunday, was of course Father's Day. Tom had a ticket to go see the Gold Cup Quarterfinal soccer game between the U.S. and Jamaica, which was being played right here in D.C. So that was cool. We all went and rode the metro a few stops with him, in part because any excuse for a train ride is a good excuse in Soren's book, and also because I was really curious to see if it was possible to ride the metro for free. WMATA makes you swipe your fare card both upon entering and exiting stations, so the amount deducted is determined by how far you travel. I wondered what would happen if we, say, rode the metro 3 stops to the airport, stayed there on the platform, and rode back. This would mean that we'd be exiting from our station of origin, which could potentially result in a free ride. (Not that this information would be useful at all for someone actually trying to use metro for transit purposes, but I'm always on the lookout for free or cheap toddler entertainment.) In the end, though, $1.60 was taken off my card; while that's not exactly free, it is (I think) just about the cost of a one-way ride to the airport, so that's still some pretty cheap entertainment.

Monday I had the playschoolers over here for the last time. We're done after next week, and I've got to say, though this has been a neat and fun thing (low-key homeschooling with some really interesting field trips thrown in there), I'm glad it's drawing to a close. I know it's largely due to my tendency to procrastinate, but coming up with activities to fill 3 hours once a month was strangely stressful. Plus, Eleri is now at the age where I can't just stick her in a playpen or wear her on my back the whole time. She wants to be down on the ground and involved, which is fine, except when the 3 year-olds are, say, coloring with markers. Or doing a craft that involves painting with marbles. Or glue. So while we did have fun with our transportation-themed lesson (tying in to the trolley museum trip), and though we have ultimately had fun all year, I'm glad my playschooling responsibilities are over for now. (No telling yet whether I'll try to find another group with whom to do something similar in a year or so, when it's Eleri's turn. We'll see.)

Tuesday we started a new class at the rec center. It's Zoom Around the Room again! A's in it with us this time, so Soren's pretty happy about that. It's good to have some dedicated weekly indoor run-around-like-a-maniac time, with the hot weather coming.

Wednesday we had mall walk and then ran some errands. Whee! Today we invited A and his mom over to swim in our pool with us. It was our first time getting down there this year, and my fears about the water temperature were fortunately allayed. 'Twas a balmy 83 degrees, just right for 45 minutes of splashing about. Eleri toppled in the water a couple of times, and even though she was wearing her little floaty swimsuit, she was still nonplussed. So she clung to me, not entirely unhappily, and eventually almost fell asleep. Hehe. Soren and A had a grand time floating about and playing with the kickboards and pool noodles. I got Soren a floaty vest thing - there was basically no way for me to monitor two non-swimmers by myself, otherwise - and it worked for him like a charm. We will definitely have to take advantage of our pool many times this summer.

Holy crap, I'm caught up. I can't believe it. Of course, I still have a ton of stuff to say about how cute Eleri is getting with her ever-expanding vocabulary, and there are many more photos I need to post (naturally...when are there not?) but this will have to do for now. Kudos if you made it all the way to the end. I promise I won't let so many days go by without another update.

Lots to catch up, yet again

2011-06-11T20:38:00.000-04:00

Day 47

Day 136

Day 48

Day 137

Day 49

Day 138

Day 50

Day 139

Day 51

Day 140

Day 52

Day 141

Day 53

Day 142

Day 54

Day 143

Day 55

Day 144

Day 56

Day 145

Day 57

Day 146

Day 58

Day 147

Day 59

Day 148

Day 60

Day 149

Day 61

Day 150

Day 62

Day 151

Day 63

Day 152

Day 64

Day 153

No more babies 'round here

2011-06-08T00:27:00.001-04:00

Eleri hasn't really been a baby anymore for quite some time, but it's seemed especially obvious these past couple of weeks that she's growing up fast.

She is using more and more words - or distinctly word-like sounds - and very often just mimics whatever we happen to be saying. She's retaining at least some of it, too. This morning, she and I were in the kitchen, and I was getting ready to feed the cats. Leo was doing his usual whining for food, and completely unprompted (I hadn't said a word), Eleri looked at him and said, "Shush-a. Up." Haha. And the night before, when I'd been trying to get her to fall asleep, she could hear Tom in the other room and kept saying, "Daddy! Hi Daddy. Hi! Daddy, huuuuuuug." It's pretty darned cute.

We're on night #3 now of Eleri sleeping (or at least starting out the night) in Soren's room. The first night she woke up around 2 or 3, cried a bit, and Tom went and got her. Last night she showed up at my bedside, calm as could be, and requested, "Up, me." I still haven't decided whether to put the 4th side back on that crib or just leave it as a "big girl bed," but I figure we can see how the next few nights go.

Soren, for his part, has gone nearly a week now without coming into our room until it's light outside. Which, these days, is still pretty early, but then he climbs up on our bed and passes back out for another couple of hours, which is a-ok by me!

Ah, poor Els. Just woke up all sad (it's a little past midnight), and when I went in to check on her, it seems her stuffy nose is what's waking her up. Stupid summer colds. She's now asleep in my lap on the couch, snoring just a bit. I suspect it's not going to be the most restful night for us. But at least we're on the right track (foolish as that may be to claim, just 3 nights in) on the kids-sharing-a-room front.

Anyway, where was I? I was remarking to a friend today that I'm definitely past the "toddler and an infant" stage and well into the "mom of two little kids" stage. It won't be much longer at all before Eleri is almost as tall as Soren. She just needs to get a little more stable on her feet, so he can't pull her over quite so easily when he tries to drag her by he hand this way and that. She often brings to mind that Chumbawamba song (without all the boozing, of course). She does get knocked down, and frequently, but she almost always gets right back up again.

Seems like I had more Eleri updates to relate, but I can't remember them at the moment. I'll have to think about starting a Twitter feed for her little gems too, though, as she continues talking more and more. ;)

Getting up to things

2011-06-06T22:16:00.001-04:00

Last Thursday we went to the zoo. Not a field trip or anything, just a trip to the zoo with A and his mom. Eleri rode in the stroller while Soren walked the whole time, which was pretty nice. Wore him out but good, and I didn't have to haul around a toddler on my back. ;) I didn't get my act together in time to make lunch for us before we left the house, so we were stuck buying food at the zoo. Surprisingly, there was a little "Brats & BBQ" stand that sold some tasty sausages and BBQ sandwiches. Not bad.

The zoo is on a big hill. I've discovered that the best strategy is to park in the lot at the bottom of the hill, so you do all the hard work at the beginning and get to walk back downhill at the end of the day. (I know. I am very smart.) At the downhill end of the zoo, there's a little "farm" with cows, alpacas, goats, donkeys, rabbits & pigs. Not quite a petting zoo, since most of the animals don't hang out near enough to the fences for you to pet them, but not precisely your standard zoo animals either. Next to the farm is a "Pizza Garden." It's supposed to show kids how vegetables are grown and get them thinking about where their food comes from, I guess. Anyway, in the middle of the "Pizza Garden" is a very large rubber pizza play area, with giant onion and mushroom slices that you can drag around and rearrange.

Guess what Soren & A's favorite part of the zoo was.

It was an unexpectedly nice day. It'd been brutally hot and humid earlier in the week, but Thursday it started to cool down and dry out a bit. Very nice. Perfect zoo-going weather, really.

Friday, playschool, errands, nap for Eleri, little bit of time out for myself in the evening after Tom got home.

Saturday at the barn, my instructor took us on a trail ride through the woods. It was a hot morning, and the arena was already horribly dusty by 10am, so I didn't mind one bit. Plus we got to jump a little bit, which I am almost never going to complain about. ;)

In the late afternoon, Tom took the skraelings out with him to the grocery store, and I dragged myself up off the couch (where I was just about to fall asleep) and down to the gym (where I ran 3 miles on the treadmill and lifted weights). Good decision! I was surprised to feel just fine afterward. The sore, sore leg muscles didn't show up until the next day. Heh. Oh well, still worth it.

Sunday evening we had Alice over for dinner. She brought over a glazed strawberry pie (holy freaking yum), which we devoured after scarfing down the lamb that Tom made and the asparagus tart that Alice made. Good eats!

Today's playschool outing took us to one of the spray parks in Arlington. I actually got a little bit of video of the kids playing in the water, which I'll try to put up here sometime this month. It's already starting to get hot and humid again (Thursday's supposed to be just awful), so I suspect there will be more water-related outings in our near future.

That's it for now. Oh, and if you haven't already, you can check out the pictures from our New York trip here. I still have a few more to post, but the majority of them are up there (200 and counting). Enjoy. :)

The Johnsons Visit New York (Part Two)

2011-06-01T20:21:00.000-04:00

Saturday was our museum day. We went to the American Museum of Natural History, which is right next to Central Park. I'm not sure if it's actually bigger than the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, but it sure felt like it. We were there for about 4 hours and barely made it through half the exhibits. Lots of dinosaur bones and taxidermied animals and stuff to see.

We saw quite a few blocks of (upper? ish?) Manhattan on our way to and from the subway stations. There was an impressive array of restaurants along the way, each looking - and smelling - tastier than the last. We ended up at Patsy's Pizzeria for an early dinner, where we ordered a pizza with pepperoni, fresh basil & sun-dried tomatoes. It was quite delicious.

Those of us who had done a lot of walking fell asleep pretty easily that night. Eleri, on the other hand, took about an hour to finally settle and conk out. Much too much excitement (and too many piggy-back rides), I guess.

Sunday morning we got up & out and went to ride the Staten Island Ferry. It's kind of a perfect touristy activity - the short (25 minutes each way), FREE trip affords passengers a decent view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Lower Manhattan. We didn't linger on Staten Island (not that much to see anyway, from what I understand) because we had lunch reservations at Les Halles. Oh my goodness yum. Tom & Shannon both had mussels, I had duck confit (out-friggin-standing), and we ordered a French Dip sandwich for the kids. They didn't eat much of it; all the more deliciousness for us. Muahaha.

On our way to the restaurant, we walked up Wall Street, past the big bull statue. There was a horde of people waiting to take photos next to it, more than a few of whom were especially interested in posing beside the bull's balls. (We did not stop for photos.) After lunch we walked by the WTC site and through a bit more of Lower Manhattan. It's quite the city, New York. Lots of people going every which way, buildings crammed together and trying to make the most out of extremely limited space. I think I would probably feel claustrophobic if I had to spend a lot of time there.

Back out to Brooklyn in the afternoon, for a meetup with some blog acquaintances. On the face of it, meeting up with people you met online and bringing your small kids along, at a beer garden no less, probably doesn't sound like an example of stellar parenting. But we've had great experiences meeting folks from this blog before, and this time was no exception. And believe it or not, the beer garden was one of the more kid-friendly venues in the area.

So we tasted some German beers (and I also tried the apple wine, which was pretty good), and chatted. I built houses out of beer coasters, which Soren gleefully knocked down. A stop at another neighborhood diner on our way back to Shannon's rounded out the evening. Bags were packed and preparations made for our trip home in the morning.

Monday morning I woke up early (before 6:00) to the sound of rain pouring outside. Fortunately, it had abated by the time we needed to head to the train station, a few hours later. We stopped for the last of our quintessential NYC culinary experiences on the way - bagels. I do love me some bagels, and these were very tasty. I wasn't brave enough to sample any of the many fish-related options (lox, various smoked fishes, etc.) on my own bagel, but I did try a bite of Shannon's bagel with whitefish salad and actually enjoyed that quite a bit. We met up wtih another friend, Wylie, and visited with her until it was time to board our train.

On the ride home, we lucked out to find four seats next to each other, and we ended up right in front of another family with kids the same age as ours. Soren and the other boy were pretty adorable, chatting over the seat with each other.

"Do you see that tree?"
"Yes."
"Do you see that bridge?"
"Yes."
"Do you see that truck?"
"Yes."
"Do you see that gate?"
"Yes."

And so on.

And thus it was that our New York vacation came to a close. We had a really great time, and I'm so glad we got to go. My cousin was awesome for hosting us and tolerating our crazy little weasels. We'll definitely be making our way back up there sometime in the future. :)

The Johnsons Visit New York (Part One)

2011-05-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

We have returned from our New York adventure! I took many photos with my phone, which I uploaded to Flickr on the go, and the rest I'll download from my camera over the next few days. So for now, here's an unillustrated run-down of our journey.

Thursday morning we headed out semi-early and hoofed it to the metro station. Amusing sight on the way: there was a woman jogging down the sidewalk, with a tiny little bird running along just ahead of her. We metro-ed in to the city, quickly snagged some provisions for lunch, and caught our Amtrak train for the long trip northward. The kids were pretty good on the train, though Eleri was obviously tired but unwilling to just fall asleep, so she was a bit cranky and restless. The one really great thing about traveling by train (rather than plane or car or, heaven forbid, bus) is that you can get up and walk back and forth down the aisle from one car to the next. So we did that a few times, which made her happy (or at least kept her somewhat entertained), and we were soon pulling into the station in NY. Soren wanted to stretch his legs, so we put Eleri in the stroller, and she passed out before we even made it outside. ;) Tired much, lass?

We had a bit of time to kill before we were to meet my cousin Shannon, so we took a little walk uptown a few blocks. Well, about 10 blocks, but they were short ones. ;) We walked past the Empire State Building (from a little ways away, but we could see it clearly), then up and around the NY Public Library to Bryant Park. Soren grew tired of walking, then tired of being awake, so he ended up falling asleep on Tom's shoulders. We found a shady spot in Bryant Park and took a little rest, El in the stroller, Soren splayed out on the grass, Tom checking his Blackberry, me taking pictures. Both kids woke up before too long, and we were on our way again.

We discovered that the most direct subway route back to the park where we were meeting Shannon required us to walk back nearly to where we'd started. Heh. Oh well. It gave us a nice little tour of Midtown Manhattan, and we got a good view of the Chrysler Building. The subway system there truly is comprehensive. DC's Metro map looks positively remedial by comparison. But we managed to not get lost and caught up with Shannon only a little bit behind schedule.

From there we took the pedestrian walkway over the Brooklyn Bridge. That was pretty darn cool, and not nearly as scary as I'd expected. The walkway is centered well above the roadway, so it feels nice and secure, and the fact that you're on a bridge high above the East River is not so horrifyingly apparent. Once in Brooklyn, we got back on the subway and made our way to Shannon's house, dropped off our bags, and headed back out in search of dinner. A neighborhood diner fit the bill nicely, and Tom & I had some tasty burgers. (The kids ate mediocre pizza, but they seemed content enough with it.) Everyone crashed out and slept well afterward.

Friday morning we got up and walked through Prospect Park to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. I'll say this for NYC - for being such a dense urban area, the planners did a good job making sure to preserve some open green space. Prospect Park was waaaay bigger than I expected it to be, and really quite nice. We passed at least 3 awesome-looking playgrounds and had to promise Soren we would stop at one of them on our way back, after we'd finished at the Botanic Gardens. The gardens were nice, very pleasant and very photogenic, and we had ourselves a nice leisurely stroll and tasty lunch. I took a crap-ton of pictures, as you might expect. Eleri slept - again - for a goodly while, and Soren pranced and scamped about, smelling all the flowers and managing, despite his best efforts, not to fall into any of the fountains.

On our way back to Shannon's we stopped, as promised, at one of the aforementioned playgrounds. We selected the one that was also a spray park, thinking that might be especially refreshing on what was shaping up to be a very warm afternoon. Little did we know that the playground's designers were either not parents themselves or harbored some sadistic tendencies toward parents. Directly next to the sprayground water feature was a giant sand pit. Oh yes, great idea folks. Let's get the kiddos nice and soaked, and then let them roll around in a bunch of sand. Sigh. Soren, of course, was happier than a pig in poo, and he ended up spending about an hour in that sand pit. Eleri made her way over to the actual play structures and had a grand old time climbing up the steps and going down the slides, over and over and over.

Eventually, it was time to be on our way once more. We returned to Shannon's and ordered tasty Moroccan food for dinner. The kiddos passed out pretty early, so we grown-ups had a nice opportunity to visit and chat late into the evening.

This concludes Part One! Tune in again (hopefully) tomorrow for Part Two. :)

The good, the bad and the snuggly

2011-05-24T23:50:00.000-04:00

(in reverse order)

The Snuggly

Loki has decided, in the past few weeks, that Eleri's changing table is the most marvelous place to nap. This is fine, except when I need to use it, at which point there's a little bit of a Mexican standoff with me holding a squirming (often poopy) Eleri and trying to encourage Loki to depart without incurring his wrath. Usually he hisses and hops down, but he did reach out and swat my hand a few days ago. Left two little scratches, one of them in the shape of an L. Once I had been "marked" in this fashion, he has since (thus far) kept his claws to himself.

But when he's not fending off humans who dare to use his comfy perch for their nefarious diaper-related purposes, Loki seems to have been enjoying his new napping spot. He's even deigned to share it with Leo a few times, and they've been awfully cute, all snuggled up together.

The Bad

I was going to gripe about my discovery, this morning, of some kind of bug infestation (aphids maybe?) on our Brussels sprout plants. I was going to grumble about some particularly difficult days I've had with Soren in the past week, butting heads at basically every single opportunity. About how I've yelled more, recently, than I'd like, and how that makes me feel like a crummy mother.

And then I read something on Facebook just a few minutes ago about a 4 y.o. with stage 4 brain cancer, and my eyes welled up and I...I don't know, everything else seems petty in comparison. It makes me feel worse about getting so upset with Soren, which I know is a little silly because, sheesh, I'm not a saint and 3 year-olds are TOUGH sometimes.

So I'll acknowledge that there have been some not-so-fun days, lately, but I will table my complaints for now and just keep trying to keep things in perspective. Though if anyone has any magical tips for dealing with defiant, rule-flouting, generally infuriating three year-olds, you can feel free to pass those along.

The one thing I will write about here is that, as predicted, I made it through all of two weeks of the 100 Pushups / 200 Situps challenge before needing to take a break. I strained a muscle in my back and took a week off, but I will probably try to start again today, even though my back is still pretty sore. Might switch to knee pushups, I don't know. Stupid ouchy back.

The Good

Two of Eleri's recalcitrant cuspids have finally emerged, ending the teething-symptoms-with-no-payoff thing we've been battling for a couple of months now. Unlike her poor brother, El is not cutting all 4 of those teeth at the same time; on the one hand, that means we get to drag out the fun even longer, but on the other hand, maybe it'll be easier for her to deal with. Of course, she's generally handled teething waaaay better than Soren ever did, anyway.

In other Eleri news, on Thursday she successfully used the froggy potty for the first time! We've been sitting her on it in the evening, but she hadn't quite figured out what she was supposed to do. And yes, I always feel a little weird, celebrating my kids' excretory accomplishments on the blog (yes, dangling modifier, whatever, you know what I mean), but we're mostly family here anyway. There was more successful potty use again on Saturday, and last night before bathtime. We're nowhere near trying to actually go through full-on potty training (though that would probably be a great thing, given the nasty diaper rash that has been plaguing the poor lass), but we started really really slowly with Soren on the potty thing as well.

It is so great when the kids play together, happily. This afternoon they have entertained each other for over 2 hours now with very minimal intervention on my part. They are ridiculously cute, giggling and hugging and chasing.

*Blogging pause for dinner prep and consumption. Twas a rare (for us) taco Tuesday.*

Tom's been pulling some long hours at work, but this evening the kids and I picked him up at the metro station. Soren says we have to "go rescue Daddy," which is not only cute but almost accurate. Anyway, the kids got to stay up a little later than usual to visit with Tom, and the three of them were playing games with the soccer balls that had everyone laughing and laughing. It was great. Also great, because they'd stayed up later and were quite worn out from the day's adventures anyway, they both fell asleep super easily at bedtime. And that is always a wonderful thing.

One more thing and then I will sign off for now. We are headed, this long holiday weekend, to the Big Apple! We're taking the train. It's all very exciting. I am looking forward to eating some good food, taking a crap-ton of pictures, and enjoying the company of my fabulous cousin, with whom we are staying. (As a side note, I kind of can't believe it was a whole year ago that we took our last mini-vacation, to Chincoteague and Assateague.) Anyway. Should be lots of fun!

Someday I'll have actual content again

2011-05-24T10:03:00.000-04:00

If you've visited my Flickr stream lately, you've seen that we have been going on quite a few farm-related field trips these past several weeks. In the past week we've made our third visits to both Old Mine Ranch and Oxon Hill Farm. It's always good to get the kids out and running around outside, and the farms are great places to take pictures. :)

Day 40

Day 129

Day 41

Day 130

Day 42

Day 131

Day 43

Day 132

Day 44

Day 133

Day 45

Day 134

Day 46

Day 135

Catching up on photos. Again.

2011-05-16T16:47:00.000-04:00

Day 29

Day 118

Day 30

Day 119

Day 31

Day 120

Day 32

Day 121

Day 33

Day 122

Day 34 / Day 123

Day 35

Day 124

Day 36

Day 125

Day 37

Day 126

Day 38

Day 127

Day 39

Day 128

30DOB #13

2011-05-16T09:01:00.000-04:00

Day 13: Write about the top search engine keywords that bring people to your blog.

I use Statcounter, though up until about a month ago, it had been a really long time since I'd looked at it. Blogger also started offering site stats a couple of years ago, but interestingly, Blogger and Statcounter are not always in agreement about things like traffic and search keywords. Also, Blogger's data goes back to May 2009, while Statcounter only has stuff from my blog's last 500 hits. So I'm using both sources to come up with stuff to write about for this post.

Unfortunately, the search engine traffic to my blog is all pretty boring. (Problem Girl, on the other hand, has some great ones. Go ahead and click through. You'll laugh.)

In the last 2 years, 105 people (or one person 105 times, or some combination thereof) have found me by googling "turn of the sue." The second most popular search term is "bonsaisue."

(I told you this would be boring.)

I have gotten a few hits for "scarpetta factor spoiler," which has lead people to this post. Sorry, folks, for the lamest spoilers ever.

I've also had a few people searching for "hey it's pomplamoose" and some for "salvador plascencia."

One person has come looking for "ishiguro realism" and one for "toddlers poop shyness." One person searched for "soren charlottesville," one for "soren on the potty" (erm) and one for "ira glass green screen suit" (heh). And finally, someone was looking for "dr sue hacking."

So there you have it.

Balcony Farmers

2011-05-15T22:44:00.000-04:00

This year is attempt #3 for the balcony garden. The first year, my tiny assortment of herbs barely made it past the sprouting stage. We didn't manage to harvest anything. The second year we planted basil, chives, cilantro, and Brussels sprouts. The basil grew nicely and was a frequent featured guest on our homemade pizzas. Everything else failed.

This year, we upped the ante. No more starting seeds outdoors. We bought some vegetable and herb plants from the nursery, as well as some seeds, and we bought a grow light to start the seeds inside. Here's our inventory:

Sweet 100 tomatoes (two plants)

They're starting to flower already.

Six Brussels sproutplants

Nothing's sprouting yet, but they are green and lush and seemingly healthy.

Strawberries. We bought 5 plants, 3 of which seem to have died. The remaining 2 are doing well and flowering though.

Rosemary and garlic chives

Finally, this planter has sweet basil, lime basil, sage, cilantro, spinach and jalapeno peppers in it.

Not edible, but this is Soren's Lobelia (the flower he picked out when we went on our nursery field trip).

We've already been able to use some of the basil, rosemary & chives in our cooking. I'm feeling pretty good about our potential yield this year, provided I don't find a way to kill everything off when the nasty heat of summer makes an appearance. ;)

Have I really written nothing this week?

2011-05-13T23:18:00.000-04:00

Man, here it is, Friday, and I have only just realize that I've posted nothing here since Sunday. I don't even feel like the week was all that crazy busy, yet Monday feels like it was a long time ago.

Anyway.

It's bedtime now, naturally, so I'll just give you the brief run-down and try to fill in the gaps later. Monday we went on a field trip to Frying Pan Farm Park, which was a lot of fun. The kids got to see cows, calves, horses, sheep, lambs, pigs, piglets, chickens, chicks, geese, turkeys, peacocks, goats and kids. They played on the (2) playgrounds and sat on the miniature tractors. We'll definitely have to make another trip there sometime. Tuesday...sheesh, I don't even remember. Laundry day, I think. Wednesday was mall walk, but we ended up being the only ones there, so I walked about a lap and a half, at which point we gave up and headed downstairs to the play area. (Turns out that walking around a mall by yourself isn't as enjoyable as walking and chatting with friends. Who'da guessed?) Thursday the kids had their first dental appointments. They both did really well, though Soren tried to volunteer Eleri to go first. He was all excited about the idea of the dentist, but when he actually walked into the exam room and saw the chair and light and everything, he kind of backed into a corner and kept saying, "First Ellie. Ellie's going first." Hehe. We managed to coax him into the chair without too much effort, and he quickly settled in. The dentist was really good with him, with both of them, and put them right at ease. Today Soren had playschool, and then in the afternoon we picked up his new loft bed. One of the moms in our playschool group was giving away her daughter's loft bed...which has a SLIDE on it...after picking up new bunk beds for her and her sister. We've been thinking about going the loft bed route in Soren's room, figuring Eleri can sleep on a mattress underneath when she's ready to move out of the crib, so the opportunity to pick one up for free was too good to pass up. We got it assembled this evening, and Soren was super excited to sleep in it. Sweet!

That's the short version! I'll have four or so days' worth of photos to post this weekend, so keep an eye out for those. Til then, to all a good night. :)

Week One Done

2011-05-08T23:06:00.000-04:00

Total pushups for the week: 61
Total situps for the week: 93

30DOB #12

2011-05-08T13:09:00.000-04:00

Day 12: Write about your mother’s advice.

Fitting for Mother's Day, nu? I didn't even plan it that way, but sometimes things just work out. ;)

"Start at one end, and work your way across."

Simple, but incredibly effective advice. Whenever I'm overwhelmed by a task, I remember these words of wisdom. Originally applied to cleaning a room (and this remains the most appropriate application), this advice can also be adapted to meet challenges of other natures - schoolwork, assignments at an actual job, anything really that would benefit from being broken into manageable chunks. Essentially every single time I cast my gaze across our living room, utterly destroyed and strewn from wall to wall with Legos, train tracks and other toys, immediately after registering my chagrin and dismay, I hear these words. "Start at one end, and work your way across." Or when the house cleaners are due to arrive for their monthly visit, and I have to tidy the apartment before their arrival - start in one room, clear it, declare it done, move on to the next room, rinse, repeat. It's been a task management strategy that has stuck with me and served me well countless times.

"It never hurts to ask. The worst they can say is 'no.'"

More often than not, my general tendency is to try not to inconvenience anyone else. Sometimes though, it's important to remember that perceived inconvenience isn't necessarily the same as actual inconvenience. More broadly applied, this advice is about allowing yourself to take chances you might not normally take. Best case scenario: you get something you didn't expect, at little-to-no extra cost to you. And more often than not, if a request is denied, you're no worse off than you were before.

"Just smile and nod."

This was more of a directive than anything, but it's one of my favorites. If you love someone, sometimes the best thing you can do when they're being completely incomprehensible and weird, is just smile and nod. As with the previous advice, this one can be more broadly applied. Go with the flow. If it doesn't really matter (and so many things, ultimately, don't), just let it go. Smile and nod. It's not worth getting into a semantic argument or making someone else feel bad just to prove a point. This is especially hard for me sometimes, because I have a really tough time letting something go if I know I'm right. You also have to be careful when deploying this particular tactic, however, because poorly timed (or poorly executed) smiling and nodding can come off as patronizing or condescending. It's a fine line. But one that is worthwhile to learn to tread.

And there you have it. Happy Mother's Day, Mom! :) Love ya.

While we're at it

2011-05-07T23:16:00.000-04:00

Tom's been giving me a hard time for years now over the fact that I'd never seen Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Today, when he returned home from erranding, he said, "Guess what I found in the bargain bin..." (holding up a DVD copy of the movie, of course).

So, we watched it. And oh my god is that movie BAD. At one point I turned to Tom and said, "Somehow I expected this movie to be...I don't know...better? Morgan (Freeman), you're too good for this!" (Tom's reply: "Pretty much everyone in this is too good for it.")

And then, in about the middle of the film, it abruptly went to black and returned to the main menu. Half-joking, I said, "Maybe we need to turn the disc over." Tom guffawed, but indeed, that was what we had to do. Turn the DVD over. Like a friggin' LaserDisc. (Guess we know why it was in the bargain bin. The DVD was so old, they hadn't yet perfected the technology when it was produced!)

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves might be in the "so bad it's good" collection. I mean, it was amusing, I suppose. Though I'm not sure if I was more amused because I have seen Robin Hood: Men in Tights so many times and could recognize all the parts that that movie made fun of. It's just that it was so very earnest. And Kevin Costner is apparently physically incapable of affecting any kind of accent whatsoever. I realize he was cast for his pretty face, but it's really not that pretty.

Anyway. Check another movie-I've-inexplicably-never-seen off the list. Not sure what's next. Godfather trilogy? Star Wars trilogy? (I've actually seen the latter, but only once, and have absolutely no memory of Return of the Jedi or Empire Strikes Back. So I might as well have never seen it.) Footloose? Sixteen Candles? I could go on, but I'm probably just embarrassing myself at this point. ;)

Playground day

2011-05-05T20:47:00.000-04:00

Day 26

Day 115

Day 27

Day 116

Day 28

Day 117

We had no plans for today, so we took advantage of the nice weather and played outside for a while before lunchtime. Then we ate, and Eleri took an epic nap. Soren also fell asleep for a little while, which never bodes well for bedtime, but he was in such a mood that I couldn't bring myself to force him to stay awake. We went back to the playground again after dinner (hoping to burn off enough energy for him to fall asleep sometime before midnight) to kick the soccer ball around as a family. Soren wasn't super into it, but for the short while that he did play with us, it was a pretty neat feeling - outside on a spring evening, playing ball with our children. Doesn't get much better than that.

It's important to make note of the good days

2011-05-05T08:12:00.000-04:00

It would be easy, these days, to fall into a pattern of griping about Mister Independent 3 Year Old and all of his daily boundary testing. Or Miss Toddler Tantrumface with her recent discovery that boundaries exist and that she is - much to her displeasure - prevented from doing things she wants to do, from time to time. Because man, that's my life right now. Not a day goes by without somebody bursting into tears over something or other, screaming out against the injustice of it all.

(That somebody is, by the way, almost never me. Almost.)

I do try, however, to keep from dwelling on the negative. Yes, these are simple facts of life when wrangling toddlers, and there's no use pretending things are perfect and rosy all the time, either. But making note of the little things they do that make me smile...it's important to remember that there are occasional gaps in the clouds, as it were.

Enough prefacing. Yesterday morning was a great day. We went walking at the mall, and Soren (who had had some trouble playing nicely there a couple of weeks ago) was a model citizen at the play area. He was friendly, he shared toys with other kids, he stopped every once in a while to give Eleri a hug or take her hand to lead her around. (Beyond adorable, by the way.) Eleri, who has been doing more fleeing than playing there, lately, didn't pull her escape routine once. She played with the other kids, played by herself, came over to me every so often with a giant grin and arms outstretched for hugs. It was great. We even stuck around for lunch there with our friends (something we haven't done in a while) and both kids behaved really well through lunch. It was an incredibly pleasant morning, and I was grateful for it.

The afternoon was a different story, but hey, the morning was a nice treat. ;)

Because I've got to do something

2011-05-03T14:43:00.001-04:00

It's been several weeks now since I've been to the gym. More than a month. Possibly more than two months. I'm still dropping weight (more slowly than before, but progress is progress), but I'm losing muscle. I've decided, therefore, to re-embark on the One Hundred Pushups Challenge. What's more, I'm coupling it with the Two Hundred Situps (Crunches, actually) Challenge.

I expect to flame out spectacularly around the end of Week 2.

The thing is, even if I - once again - fail to complete the goal, I'll still be working toward something, and I'll try very hard to at least keep doing something each week, even if I don't actually make it through the prescribed number of sets and reps. I mean, I did eventually manage to get halfway through the program last time I tried. But that was two and a half years ago, so it's definitely time to give it another go.

I did the first sets today, with two giggling toddlers climbing all over me at every rest period. (Helpful little beasts, they are.)

Total pushups: 16
Total situps: 23

Monday Fun

2011-05-03T09:59:00.000-04:00

Day 25

Day 114

Yesterday we went to Green Spring Gardens for a field trip and "Garden Sprouts" class. The kids got to start out by singing some bean-related songs and hearing the "Jack and the Beanstalk" story. Then they did a craft (gluing beans on a paper, in the shape of the first letter of their names).

Next, they went outside for a stroll around the gardens and got to plant some beans and peas.

After the class was over, our playschool kids burned off additional energy by scampering around a pretty gazebo in the courtyard and racing back & forth across a big lawn.

It was a really neat place! I'm glad we went.

Some errands were next on the agenda for us. We needed some bigger pots for our tomato plants, so we picked some up and replanted those when we got home. After dinner we took advantage of the warm evening and took a walk outside. We're waiting for the fireflies to start showing up; should be pretty soon!

Only about 15 years late

2011-05-01T21:58:00.000-04:00

Get ready for a super topical movie-themed post!

By the time I got home from my evening out last night, Tom had already gotten both kids to bed. Sweet! So I scarfed some dinner and we channel surfed a bit. Eventually, the following dialog took place, as we scrolled through the channel guide:

T: Ah, The Cable Guy, a classic.
S: Heh, yeah, I've never actually seen that one.
T: *click* Now you have.

It had started only ten or so minutes before, so we watched pretty much the whole thing. While it wasn't quite as dark as I'd expected, it was still plenty dark, and Tom & I ultimately disagree on whether or not this particular cinematic endeavor deserves to be labeled "a classic" of the era. It was definitely very much a mid-90s movie, with a soundtrack guaranteed to plunk you right back in high school (or wherever you were in the mid-90s). And it had its moments; there were some laughs, sure, amid the cringe-worthy bulk of the film. I'm sure I would feel differently about it if my initial exposure to the movie had been in my teenage years - it's clear there's no small amount of nostalgia in play with regard to Tom's opinion of it - but though I will admit I didn't hate The Cable Guy like I expected to, it's not likely to go down as a "classic" in my book, either.

First of May

2011-05-01T21:00:00.000-04:00

The past week's fun activities included an outing to Lake Accontink Park, the return of Top Chef class (after a two-week haitus), a messy - but fun - trip to the playground after a bunch of rain, and a meat-tastic brunch with friends at a Brazillian steak house. We've been fortunate to get some rain and neat thunderstorms, but none of the super severe weather that's been bludgeoning this part of the country. I had a nice ride yesterday, outdoors, and was then invited to my instructor's house in the evening. She was hosting a "jewelery party" as a favor for a friend, but it was really an excuse for several ladies from the barn to get together, eat tasty treats and talk about horses. ;) It was a lot of fun.

Today, Eleri and I accompanied the boys to soccer class, since we were all heading to the aforementioned brunch directly after. Eleri was content to sit and stare at the goings on for about three minutes, at which point she decided she was done sitting on the sidelines and was ready to jump in and participate. She was quite put out when I restrained her, so we left and took a little walk. We came back from time to time, and at one point she did get to kick some balls around at one end of the room while the class was doing something at the other end.

After class, we met Max, Agnes, and a couple of their friends for brunch. We all gorged ourselves on a bevy of grilled meats (and some non meat items from the salad bar), and Soren got to eat a giant piece of chocolate mousse cake for dessert. Good times!

And now, more pictures!

Day 17

Day 106

Day 18

Day 107

Day 19

Day 108

Day 20

Day 109

Day 21

Day 110

Day 22

Day 111

Day 23 / Day 112

Day 24

Day 113

30DOB #11

2011-04-24T22:19:00.000-04:00

Day 11: List ten things you are thankful for.

(in no particular order)

1. Sinus infection-killing antibiotics
2. Spontaneous snuggles
3. Good friends
4. Good health
5. Finding someone extraordinarily well suited to me, relatively early in life
6. Weekly pony time
7. Naptime
8. Two amazingly awesome children (yes, I do mean my own), and the option/opportunity to stay home with them
9. TiVo
10. Parents who nurtured, protected (but not too much), and supported me, allowing me to grow into the confident and capable person I am today

More photos

2011-04-24T10:54:00.000-04:00

Day 12

Day 101

Day 13 / Day 102

Day 14

Day 103

Day 15

Day 104

Day 16

Day 105

All About Eleri

2011-04-19T22:31:00.001-04:00

It's not at all surprising, yet somehow still amazing, how siblings can be so alike and yet so different. I think this is probably more striking when it's your own kids. You've known them their whole lives, you spend hours and hours with them (every day if you're a stay-at-home parent), you watch them interact with and relate to each other, and you know their quirks and peculiarities better than anyone else could.

Eleri is often a serious kid. She's just as likely to sport a furrowed brow as she is to let out a giggle. She's not quite as gregarious as Soren yet, though it won't surprise me if that changes over time. Neither, though, is she clingy. Set her free in a big room with toys (at one of the open gym times, for example) and she's off exploring, or finding somewhere to sit quietly by herself, without so much as a backward glance. She's starting to want to play with Soren and his peers, following around the "big kids" and observing.

Eleri is not quite as verbal as Soren was at this age, but it's clear she understands far more than she says. Her spoken vocabulary may be small still, but she's making progress. Cup, shoe, cat, Leo, Mama, Daddy, hi, bah-bye, uh-oh, bee bo, nose (which sounds like "new"), whazzat?, no, yeah, go, book (which she says with a 'p' at the end instead). Her little voice chirping a sing-songy "Hieee, Daddeeee!" when Tom gets home from work is just about the cutest thing ever. Possibly outdone by "Hieee Weeeeeoh!", but only slightly.

The only ASL sign she does is the one for food, and she does that one often, since she is far and away a better eater than her brother. Her palate is fairly adventurous; Soren was still largely eating jarred foods at this age, but Eleri eats basically whatever we do (Soren does now too, of course, but it took us a long time to get there). She is a voracious meat eater. Girlfriend can put away a whole chicken thigh and then ask for more. It cracks me up. She also loves black beans, cheese, raisins, grapes, tomatoes, yogurt, pbj sandwiches, hummus, pasta, and bananas. She'll eat vegetables, but they're not her favorite.

I'm incredibly thankful that both kids love books. I have to admit, I was terrified that we might end up with a kid who, inexplicably, just wasn't into story time. I know such kids exist (no patience for it, just not interested) but I didn't know how I'd deal with that challenge if it arose. I am glad that it has not. Her current bedtime book rotation includes a couple by Sandra Boynton ("Opposites" and "The Belly Button Book"), one by Dr. Seuss ("The Foot Book") and "Goodnight Moon." She would probably sit through those and five more before becoming restless. She also does a lot of looking at, flipping through, and carrying around books during the day. And of course, the perennial favorite, pulling all the books off the shelves in Soren's room. Hehe.

The assertion of independence has begun, delighting one and all. She has figured out the passive resistance technique of turning into a noodle if I'm trying to, say, get her out of the kitchen and she doesn't want to go. Being told to stop doing something is often a horrible affront. Thankfully, and I say this with extreme caution because I know such things can change at any time, she seems to be following Soren's example and reserving any tantrums mostly for home and keeping them largely out of the public eye. The majority of the time, she is a model of perfect behavior when we're out and about, and she is incredibly patient about being toted this place and that, riding on my back much of the time. If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me, "Oh! I didn't even realize you had another kid back there!" I might not be a millionaire (or even a thousandaire) but I would at least be able to go out to a nice dinner. ;)

Generous with her hugs, easy-going and sweet, Eleri is one terrific little girlo. Yes, she's got a healthy set of lungs and is not afraid to use em when vexed, but she is not a simpering, shrinking violet. I hear other mothers gasp whenever Eleri toddles into the path of a bigger kid and gets bowled over, but almost without fail she just picks herself up and continues on her way. I hope she retains that resilience as she grows up.

Another glut o photos

2011-04-19T11:22:00.001-04:00

I discovered, when I added Soren's 3 y.o. birthday shot to his photo-a-day set on Flickr, that I'd missed a day somewhere. I knew that I'd missed one day completely, but I was still only coming up with 363 photos. So the hunt was on. I ended up finding photos for both Soren and Eleri that had been uploaded, way back in August, but never added to their photo-a-day sets. So, mystery solved. And that's why, if you're paying attention, the Day numbers for the pictures I've posted here are off, compared to what's on Flickr. ;)

(Not that I think anyone will care about any of this at all, but years from now I might wonder. So there you go, Future Susan. That's what was going on with that.)

All right, on to the photos.

Day 360 (Year 3)

Day 84

Day 361

Day 85

Day 362

Day 86

Day 363

Day 87

Day 364

Day 88

Day 365 - Happy Birthday Soren!

Day 89

Day 1 (Year 4)

Day 90

Day 2

Day 91

Day 3

Day 92

Day 4

Day 93

Day 5

Day 94

Day 6

Day 95

Day 7

Day 96

Day 8

Day 97

Day 9

Day 98

Day 10

Day 99

Day 11

Day 100