Thursday, July 31, 2008

Micro-Pool Fun.




We drug out the little purple pool the other day.  I put Grey in the water in his bumbo seat.  They say not to put those in water, so don't tell them I did it.  Whoever "they" and "them" are.  Anna thought it was a little too bright outside to take a picture with her eyes open.  She kept splashing Grey and sprinkling water on his head.  He just gasped and trembled when the cold drops landed on his skin.  

How YOU doin'?

Monday, July 28, 2008

YAY!


My new toy.  Can you hear the choir as they belt a harmonious note?

Pity Party

Everything with Anna lately has been associated with an injury.  But "injury" I mean, something that MAY have cause a little bit of pain.  A TINY bit of pain.  I keep telling her that if she keeps telling me that she has "another owie" (sp?), I won't know when she's really hurt.  She thought she was going to DIE when she fell of her bike the other day.  It went something like this:

Anna:  (crying) "Ow, Mommy I got another owie!"

Me and Daddy: (the usual response) "Jump up, you're alright."

Anna: "Oh! The blood coming OUT! I need to go to tha hospital!"

I had to tell her the other day that there must be lots more blood that that to have to go to the hospital.  But we are running out of band-aids fast.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

A concert hall in Milano, Italy.

I love music.  Lots of different kinds.  But I have this "thing" for classical piano.  This "thing" is something I can always remember having.  I loved to sit and watch my dad play jazz on our piano and organ at home.  I was mesmerized when I watched Doug Smith play.  I remember sitting at our piano glued to the movement of Doug's hands as they swept across the keys in almost a blur.  It makes me stop in my tracks, quit what I am doing...  I close my eyes, and slow my breathing as the notes seem to drift through my veins invoking all sorts of thoughts and emotions.  I love it.  I so wish I could play some of the things I hear.  Especially a recent piece I heard on my husband's iTunes list.  The artist's name is Ludovico Einaudi.  It takes me to a small concert hall in Milano, Italy.  I'm in the front row and am squinting my eyes to see and study every move his fingers make, as if I were going to take each stroke home and recite it note for note.  

Friday, July 25, 2008

Lots of new posts! Keep Scrolling down.


Playtime at the old park.


Grey and I took Anna and Daddy to our "home" park last night.  We dropped them off so they could play and we went to the grocery store.  I really miss living a block away from the coolest park in town.  It was fun to see all the new baseball fields and play on some super fun stuff.

Who is that woman with those familiar kids?  Oh, it's their mom.  I finally remembered to ask Daddy to take a few with me and the kids.  Its the only one we have.  You'd think the "photographer" would have some shots of herself in the mix.  Nope.  The ones where Daddy could get Anna to look up, Grey was looking away, and vice-versa.  Sorry Grey, we got you checking out my watch.

Some visual evidence.

I finally caught him.  I've tried to before, but as soon as he sees me he pulls his fingers out of his mouth.  He was playing on his tummy and kept rolling over.  I kept rolling him back to his tummy.  I went to get dressed when I noticed he was being very quiet.  He had fallen asleep in the floor...after he rolled over for the last time.


Does this look familiar to anyone?  I promise this isn't staged at ALL.  I started putting his clothes on him when he stirred and stuck these two fingers in his mouth.  I used to suck on these fingers when I was little.

He Sits!


Scratch that... he's propped...but by nothing but his fat.  (sorry about the poor picture quality.)

The big pool!



Yesterday we (Anna, I should say) went swimming at a very nice pool.  Anna really wanted to go slide down the big slide that had about a four foot drop between the end of the slide and the water....in the (10ft.) deep end.  But that's Anna.  I wouldn't let her mainly because I didn't want to freak out the lifeguards.  But I know she would've survived if she had gone.  She stayed in the 2-5 feet deep areas and played with cousins and new friends.  She had a blast.  And I just thought it was cool that us grown-ups had our very own waiter!  

22 Words.

My friend, Lindsey, posted an entry about this blog.  It's written by Abraham Piper, son of author John Piper.  It's really good.
-----
The couple of sentences above was my attempt at trying to do what he does on his blog, only using 22 words per post.  As you can see, I couldn't do it since I SO long winded.  Therefore I had to write more to explain myself.  :)  He does a really good job at conducting the experiment of "getting to the point".  Something I'm usually not so good at.  Here's the link, and I'll put it on my blog list.


and can someone tell me how to make things into links on the blog?

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The price of free mulch.

Somewhere in the fine print, there really is a price for the free mulch.  These friends rank up at the top of the nasty list.  The first one, a chigger.  The second one, an earwig.  Gross.

 image of magnified chigger Female (cerci not hooked).

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Working Conditions.

Yesterday as I vacuumed, Anna followed me around pretending to vacuum with her popper thing (you know that toy).  I turned off the vacuum when I was done and this is what Anna said:

Anna: "YEAH MOMMY! GOOD JOB!"  (she always says this when I finish vacuuming)

Me: "Thanks."

Anna: "Mommy, we have GREAT working conditions."


Clearly not something I say on a regular basis unless we are reading the book called "Muldoon" written by Pamela Duncan Edwards.  Which I guess does happen on a regular basis.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Erin and the Art Project.

Focus Anna...
 
They are working hard!
    
Grey wants some action with the scissors.
 
The look I always get when I point the camera at Grey...and the finished chain!
 
The other night when we were at our friend Russ's house, Anna spotted a picture of the fastest roller coaster in the world on the fridge.  She, of course, shouted, "I wanna ride THAT!"  We had a lengthy conversation about the roller coaster and that we'd be going to our local amusement park sometime in mid-August.  Anna kept saying, "I go ride that roller coaster tomorrow!"  Everyone kept telling her that it would be a few days until she'd get to ride the roller coaster.  And it definitely wouldn't be the fastest one in the world.  Erin told her to make a calendar to let her know how long she had to wait until she got to ride the roller coaster.  I was thinking, "Right, Erin...MAKE a calendar that Anna could understand?"  You'd think that Anna and I would be masters at art projects since I have a degree in Art.  Well, my degree isn't in Art Education...it's in Studio.  Therefore, I must me meticulous, efficient, and perfect at my "art projects."  Which means I don't have much patience when it comes to working with a two year old and kid sized scissors.  So when we do "art projects" they are not together.  What kind of a mom AM I?!  I think I need to leave Anna with Cousin Kelly or Erica for a couple of days to get all those "projects" out of her system.  

Back to the calendar...  Erin told me yesterday that she'd be stopping by to help Anna make something.  The calendar.  "Good luck," I thought.  But then I remembered that Erin is the genius when it comes to the two year old mind.  That sounds weird, but it's true.  She came over armed with a stack of scrapbook paper and photos of a roller coaster and told Anna to start cutting out strips.  Anna had never really had a "job" to do with scissors.  They made a cool paper chain calendar.  The kind where you cute strips, make circles, then make a chain.  She told Anna to pull off one circle every day until the chain is gone and that's the day she gets to ride the roller coaster.  They made the entire thing together (amazing, since I would have just told Anna to go find something else to do while I finished it).  They hung it up in the bathroom along with the pictures of the roller coaster to remind the scatter-brain what the chain was for each day.  What a fun idea.  Erin is hired.

Hangin' out at the tub.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

This thing called a blog...

Funny thing about this blog.  I always assume people don't really read it.  Like it's just a personal diary in which I write things that happen or feelings that I have.  I do know that people do read it, maybe only a select few, but there are readers out there.  But funny things like this happen.  A friend of mine, who frequents the blog, came over to watch my kids for a couple of hours and said, "Now let me see this backyard and all the hard work you've put into it!"  I thought to myself, "I haven't see you in a while and the last time I saw you I KNOW I didn't brag about my backyard or complain about how hard I worked."  I played it off and acted like she knew about it...  But I still started telling her details about my free mulch and making an 'area' for Anna, etc.  She acted like she'd heard these things...  Then it hit me... She reads the blog.  Oh yeah, I'm an idiot.  The conversation with my friend and the thought process that occurred was very short.  I mean, it only probably was about 15 seconds when I finally realized that she always reads my blog and new every detail.  Doh.  I just forget that I have elected to put my life "out there" for everyone to read.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Fingers.

Several months ago, at an ultrasound while I was pregnant with Grey, I heard the technician say something like, "Oh, he has his fingers in his mouth."  I remember thinking to myself, "Just a coincidence.  Or maybe not?  Hopefully not!"  We caught Anna with her fingers in her mouth once during an ultrasound.  So I hoped she wouldn't be a finger sucker.  She turned out to be a plug-lover and all was well when I decided that I needed to take the plug away after she turned one.  Sort of.

A few weeks after Grey was born, I was amazed by how much and how well he slept...even all the way through the night!  Now, my definition of "through the night" is probably different than the norm.  I'm talking "sleeping though the night just as long as I want to sleep or want him to sleep."  When Grey was able to sleep for almost 12 hours straight at night at a month old, I was thinking, "Where did this child come from?! And how did I get so lucky?!"  I remember that it took Anna until she was almost 4 months old to sleep that long...if that.  People, I hardly ever get up during the night. But a while ago, I figured out the reason for his sleeping skills.  He sucks on his two first fingers.  At first I thought it was just him finding his hands or whatever, so I'd plug him and go on.  He'd end up spitting the plug out and getting those fingers back into his mouth.  I've tried and tried to pull his fingers out and stick the plug in, but it always had the same result.  Should I keep trying?  Should I give in and face the fact of many future meltdowns when I try to get him to stop sucking on his fingers?  I suppose taking Anna's plug away had it's time of frustration.  But at least I could take the plug away and out of her sight!  I can't cut off Grey's fingers!  I know there are other options to get him to stop.  We'll see how it all works out...  I haven't gotten a good picture of him sucking on his fingers yet since he looks at me like I'm an alien when I point the camera at him.  I'll try to get one soon. 

Friday, July 11, 2008

The best things in life...

...REALLY ARE FREE!  I've been trying to slowly transform our sad little back yard into something out of a magazine (ha! ..yeah right) for a few months.  It looks like there's only about 2 days work done back there, but when you have a VERY limited budget, things just don't happen as fast.  So we had some pretty dry and dead looking grass to start out with, and with a little water, it's green and has perked up.  There was not a shrub or tree anywhere, just grass growing right up to the foundation of the house.  Well, I take that back.  There WAS a tree back there and when we bought the house in December, there were no leaves on it, we thought because it was, well, December.  So when spring came around, still no leaves.  So we had NO shrubs, lots of poor quality grass, and one very dead tree.  Not really a space Anna was too thrilled about playing in.   Daddy cut the dead tree down and I bought a new one.  Once that is about 1/8th the size of the old one...but a tree no less.  I bought some edging, dug the trench and put that in, got some shrubs last week and planted those.  Then I needed some mulch.  I'm not such a big fan of mulch because it tends to float or blow away...even the expensive stuff doesn't stay where you put it normally.  But I needed some to make things look a little better and to cut down on the water usage.  Since I watch too much TV I saw a commercial once on one of those gardening shows about how they got FREE mulch from their local recycling center.  I called and sure enough, FREE mulch.  I went to see what it looked like and asked the best way to load it up.  I went today and took 7 huge storage bins and one big cardboard box and shoveled until they almost overflowed.  Heck, I'm gonna get lots if it's free!  Why not?  So after shoveling mulch into about the 5th bin, my spine felt like it was about to explode out of my back into several thousand pieces and spew spinal fluid all over my cute green shirt.  But, I kept going, filling up every container I had.  I brought it home (took 3 Advil) and spread it all in my new flowerbeds and then had enough left over for the front.  Do you know how much that would've costed me if I went to buy that stuff?  Man.  Free is nice.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Grab it!


Grey has been working on grabbing things.  He finally got a little control this last week and is able to really do it when he wants to.  

Bribery taken too far.





















Me: "Anna will you quit peeling your green beans apart and just eat them?"

Anna: "But I wanna get the widdle green beans out da middle."

Me: (thinking to myself) "It wouldn't take you an HOUR to eat if you'd just EAT!"

Me: "Just finish eating your green beans please."

Anna:  "But what do I get for the green beans?"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Anna: "What do I get for eating da green beans?  Um, I get aaaahhhh... (her eyes looking to the ceiling for an answer) ...a popsicle?"

Me:  "No popsicle.  You just get a nice full tummy for eating your green beans."

Anna:  "Awwh man."

Anna: "But I can get a popsicle after I take a good nap!"

Me: "Maybe...(sigh)."

Seven Inches.

Seven inches isn't that much, but when you're talking about a haircut, you'd think it was a mile!  I was SO sick of my hair feeling and looking like straw that I needed a change.  So I asked my mom, renaissance woman as she is, to cut off my hair yesterday.  SOOO much better.  There was a nice pile of hair on the floor after that cut.  I feel like I've lost some weight!  And since my hair falls out like I'm on chemotherapy after I have a kid, there will be almost half as much to pick up, unwind from Grey's fingers, or pull out while I'm brushing it.  Yay!  It's still fairly long since it was almost to the small of my back.  I don't really know why I let it get so nasty before taking some action.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Why?

Why is it that every time you talk about how good things are, it comes back to bite you?  I was talking about how great my morning was so far, then BAM! ...the day hit.  And what a day it was; Full of needy, non-sleeping kids.  Grey slept for maybe an hour total the entire day...about 10-15 minutes at a time.  He normally sleeps 4-6 hours during the day.  Anna asked a ga-billions questions all day and I finally had to tell her to "turn her voice off".  She knows what that means.  So now everyone's in bed.  We have to get up extra early tomorrow for Grey's 4 month appointment and Anna's school.  We'll all go to the doctor together bright and early.  Wish me luck!

Hail to the Queen.

It's almost 9:00am and my kids are STILL not up.  Yep, both of them.  Grey sleeps like a rock at night.  I've been out of bed for a while now and have been expecting Anna to bounce into the living room, collapse on the couch, ask for some milk, then ask for some "shows".  But nothing so far.  Who died and made me queen this morning?  I should wake up early more often.  

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

For Deborah.


My generous friend, Deborah, gave me some stuff from her garden when she and her family moved off to Mississippi.  This was one thing she gave me.  A great pot with some really pretty ivy and other surprises growing in it.  I planted a purple fountain grass in it and put it on my front walkway.  It's very happy.  It has taken the ivy a little time to get used to the direct sun though, but still looks great.  Oh, and Happy Birthday Deb! 

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Sage

 

 
 

Here are some finished photos from Sage's shoot.  And yes, those are HER eyes.  These aren't my favorites, but they aren't NOT my favorites.  Ha!  A little Homer Simpson for ya.  I touched up a total of 31 photos and I love them all!  Have fun choosing Sage!