Breastfeeding

I just read this article about how You Tube has just taken down a video montage of women breastfeeding. I love the point the author has made about how many non-breastfeeding boobs you can see on the Internet, but when you see them in the work that god intended them to do, the Internet decides that its just too offensive for our delicate sensibilities.

I know that there are at least 300 people who travelled with us to Dallas that really appreciated that I choose to breastfeed Owen on the flights - in public.

Renovation Party

Anyone wanna come over and help us redo our bathrooms for beer and pizza?? Wow, I got the quote today for the bathrooms and kitchen. I am now seriously thinking of becoming a contractor.

Andrew 32 Months

Hmm, do you know why the sprinkles, box of straws, and Luna bars are now on the top shelf of our pantry? Andrew continues on the road to independence! Instead of wasting all that time asking us for a snack, he can now just go to the pantry and get it himself. I love that he is taking the initiative and starting to do things for himself, but I have to watch him closely or before I know it he will a eat whole container of cupcake sprinkles before I even notice he's out of the room!

He is talking a lot now, and is saying things like:

"Look at me!"
"Mama, you put Owen down now?"
"Mama, you come too?"
"I want to go on an adventure!"
"I'm scared of pirates."
"It's too spicy."

At school he is beginning to defend himself against things like sharing by hitting his friends. Today he had a time out for it at Kindercare. We're not sure what to do about this behavior other than talk to him about it and stop it from happening at home. I really hope this is something he will out grow soon when there are just a few more synaptic connections in his little noggin. At home we catch him pushing Owen because he has come too close to one of his trains, and Andrew immediately gets a time out for that behavior. I've bought a kitchen timer so now he waits for the bell before he can get out of time-out.

Andrew was awesome on our trip to Texas. He was so cooperative and good when we were in the airports and airplanes long after you would expect a toddler to hold it together. Around his big extended family he did great too. He did his usual "I need just 20 minutes to get the lay of the land and then watch out!". He played so well with his second cousin Addison. He loved the playroom at Jim and Maurine's house so much that we may just convert our guest room into the boy's play room sooner rather than later.

Andrew at 2 and 3/4 is such a joy when we see how much he knows and what a great little person he is, and just a trial when things don't go his way. He is still employing the "crumple to the ground and cry" when bad things happen like when his yogurt is touching his grapes.

"Look at me!"

My buddy Lightning McQueen

"Owen, this is how you do it"

"Don't tell mommy"

"I like my hat"

It's not even December yet

It's November 28th and we've already seen:

1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
2. Shrek the Halls
3. Merry Christmas Charlie Brown

What do we have to look forward too?

Reschedule

I don't know about you, but I'm a wee bit off since getting back to work after the lovely long weekend. I got THE COLD. My sinuses hate me right now and are showing their displeasure by causing my back teeth to ache, ugg.

It must have been the cold that had me fleeing my moronic co-workers at lunch. They are not really morons,its just that today I could not humor the retarded small talk amongst people who have nothing more in common but the free lunch they scored due to a last minute meeting snafu.

It was this mood, this empty tank feeling that lead me to reschedule my meeting with our design/contractors. Because if I went to that meeting today, I would have agreed to their suggestions just to get the meeting over with. This approach would have no undoubtedly doubled the estimate. So my proactive self moved the meeting to Thursday whenst I hope to be more excited about picking shower tiles.

Comfort food

I made Chicken and Dumplings tonight for the first time. So good. I'll definitely make this again. I think I'll be eating our way through the holidays.

Meeting with the contractor tomorrow for the estimate on the bathroom remodel - I am hoping its within our budget!

Thanksgiving post showed up a few posts below.

The last placeholder post

The pressure! I have uploaded my Thanksgiving picks and have a blog entry formulating in my head and... I'll post it tomorrow.

We had a wonderful time in Texas and we are so very thankful we have such a warm, inviting and fun place to be at Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

Here are what may be the worst pictures of all time of a vacation trip. You will actually not see any photos from Thanksgiving at all and will only see a few scattered shots from the travel days.

Look, here's Andrew on the flight to Dallas watching Veggie Tales

Here's Eric passing the time playing solitaire on his BlackBerry

Here is Eric during the 45 minutes it took for our luggage to disembark from the plane in Dallas

Texas Motor Speedway!!

It's way bigger than it looks in this picture

GeGe and Andrew playing "When Dolphins Attack"

Airport on Saturday

Luckily other folks in the family took some great shots:

Kelly & John

Tim and Rhonda

Jeanie

The boys were great on the flights. No crying, no wailing and lots of sleeping. The Dallas/Fort Worth airport is too big for its own good and they didn't have their A-game on this week. It took us two hours from the time our plane touched down to get out of the airport with our bags and rental car. Not good.

Eric had a conference call to do on Wednesday morning so me and the boys went shopping at the Grapevine Mills. By noon we were on our way to Wichita Falls. We arrived at about 3:30 in the afternoon and the girls went shopping, Maureen, Angela, Kelly and I picked up some last minute groceries then went to a cool home decorator store (and the name is escaping me right now). That night we were off to Garry's and Gracie's, for yummy food: enchiladas, tamales, yum.

Thanksgiving was filled with family and FOOD. Those rolls and the smoked turkey and the ham, then those mashed potatoes and the Stuffing. Then the desserts! The pumpkin shaped cookies, and the pecan cake, and the Chocolate cake with the chocolate dipped strawberries on top! YUM.

Andrew has found his most favorite place on earth (next to Rachel and Roberts back yard) and that's Jim and Maureen's playroom. There were Cars! and Trains! and really that's all Andrew needs in this world to be happy. Andrew and I slept for hours after the feast.

Breakfast on Friday was at Uncle Joe's house - two words: Biscuits, gravy. We went to the mall and didn't really buy anything but it was fun to check it out. That afternoon we watched about 6 episodes of Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel. (Drinking your own pee is not cool.)

Friday night - Pizza!

Saturday we hung out and then headed home.

Great visit. Great family.

Home

We're home. Sheila and David were on our flight back and hitched a ride with us to the OC.

Everyone is a bit shot from the travel. Good night.

Black Friday

Dispatch from the most average city in America (Witchita Falls, Tx is at the median of most statistics collected by the US census. I'll send a link when I'm back on the big puter).

Hot: Bath and Body Works, Cinnabon, Best Buy

Weak: Dillards, Hollister (looks just like Abercrombe & Fitch), JC Penny

Didn't see a ton of people spending money at the mall. Definitely a smaller crowd than two years ago.

We tried to get a picture of Owen with Santa today - he no like it so we'll try again another time.

Biscuits and gravy is my new favorite food.

[edited to remove email disclaimer]

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! We ate a lot of food and slept. Andrew took a three hour nap and I took a two hour nap. Eric and I were able to escape tonight - plenty of people to watch the kids. I wanted to get a cocktail. Note to self -places are not open in the evening on Thanksgiving - except Sonic Burger. We came home home after a nice tour of Witchita Falls.

I have not taken any pictures yet.

I just entered this post in MoBoPoAt- Most Boring Post Of All Time.

[edited to remove email disclaimer]

Wednesday night

So.Tired.
Its 10:30pm central time but it might as well be pacific time because it feels way past my bedtime. We spent the morning in Dallas, did a little shopping then drove to Witchita Falls. The drive to Witchita Falls is a straight shot on a 4 lane highway. Not too much to see along the way. Texas drivers are different from California drivers. Every one was driving the speed limit. No one was driving faster than 70 mph - if we were doing a similar drive in CA, no one would be driving below 80. Interesting.
(I'm posting from the blackberry and typing is painfully slow.).
We had a Mexican feast tonight with most of the extended family at Garry's house.
More tomorrow - good night.

[edited to remove email disclaimer]

Holiday Travel

I'm really not looking forward to our flight today. But I am really looking forward to seeing everyone in Witchita Falls tomorrow! And it looks like I will be getting my wish for cold winter weather.

The amount of stuff we need to travel with right now is a bit overwhelming. Double stroller, two car seats, two bags filled with clothes and such. Getting through security with stroller, a car seat, a carry on bag with a laptop and DVD player, a baby and a two year old is not fun: "Ok, you hold onto Andrew, I'll make sure the laptop makes it through", "Hey, keep an eye on the stroller." "Really Mr. TSA Man, I have to take my baby's shoes off?", "Andrew, no jumping in line!"

On our last flight, the moment we walked onto the plane Andrew started screaming "I no like the plane, I no like the plane" over and over and continued for about twenty minutes. He did eventually stop - thankfully.

Ugg, I'm starting to get stressed about it right now. It will be fine, right?

Posts will probably be short for the next few days. I'll take lots of pictures, but probably won't post any until this weekend.

Parenting at its finest

As I mentioned in my last post, the boys are sick right now. Andrew has a bad cough and Owen has some serious nasal congestion. Andrew has a history of chest colds. A typical pattern for Andrew is to get the sniffles and a few days later develop a cough that can take weeks to fully resolve. He's been this way since he was a very young baby and hasn't really out grown it. Early on we would hook him up to a nebulizer so he could inhale a mist of either steriods or a bronchodialtor. These drugs would help for a brief period of time (a couple of hours) and then he'd start coughing again. Eventually he would get better. When Andrew gets sick now, we keep an eye on him to make sure he's not developing a fever and that there are no major changes in his behavior (lethargy, sleeping much more than usual, etc.) and don't worry too much about it. Often some OTC cough suppresant works well.

Andrew began to get a cold late last week. By Friday he was coughing quite a bit.

Have I told you that I love our Kindercare? Our Kindercare seems to go out of their way to do really fun activities for the kids and the parents. Friday night, Kindercare hosted a parent's night out. They stayed open from 6:30 to 9:30 pm to give parents an opportunity to go out without the kids.

Have I told you that before Friday, it had been months since Eric and I went out on a date?

Remember when I was telling you about how Andrew was sick on Friday?

At four pm on Friday when I picked up the boys, as I walked in the door the center director told me Andrew was having a bit of a rough day but he could still come to parents night out.

What should I do? How could I not stay home with Andrew? He's so little, and feels crappy and when you're little and feel crappy, you kinda just want to hang out on the couch all bundled up with your mom close by. On the flip side, how could I not take advantage of a long overdue night out with my hubby and good friends? Eric and I need to keep our marriage our priority and have fun and adult interaction too.

In the end, I decided that Andrew was going to be fine, and that night he was either going to watch a movie at Kindercare or at our house. I felt and feel conflicted about the whole thing. But no harm no foul right?

Sunday night

Big weekend. And I want to tell you all about it, but Owen is crying right now and is a bit inconsolable tonight. Both boys have been sick this weekend and not at their best.

Firsts

Owen is doing his first raspberries tonight. Dad does it then Owen does it right back - it's pretty hilarious! pthbpthbpthbt!

Under the wire

We're just back from dinner with friends and had a great time. I highly recommend pomegranate martinis. More tomorrow, its almost 10:00pm and way past everyone's bedtime.

5 Years

November 16, 2002

Honeymoon's Over

So I guess it's around the four-year mark when things in a new house start to break.

Our waterheater is making awful noises. I'll be calling our plumber today.

Toddlermania

It's been a few days since I posted pictures of the boys, here's a few from tonight.

Andrew attacking Rody

Owen Doing His Thing


Owen winning Wednesday Night Toddlermania

Home Improvement

Shortly after Eric and I got married we started to look for a house to buy and spent many weekends driving through neighborhoods. One of our favorite areas was in Long Beach. Eric lived in Belmont Shore for a couple of years before we met and I had been there quite a bit myself. It is a great Long Beach neighborhood with homes blocks from the beach and a charming downtown you could walk to. (Walk to? In Southern California? I know!) Belmont Shore is a very expensive neighborhood - so we were dreaming. But just a little north and a little inland is Belmont Heights! Almost like Belmont Shore; it has the word Belmont in it, and you could still walk to Belmont's cute downtown AND, umm, get into really great shape doing it. We had found our place. We contacted a real estate agent to show us some homes in our price range. Not a range so much as the absolute maximum amount the bank would give with a more or less traditional mortgage structure (no 100% financing or negative amortization b.s.). The homes we saw that day were 1,000 sq ft total teardowns. And you know what? That would have been ok, because it was in Belmont Heights! But there would be no money for a remodel; it would have taken everything just to get into the house.

The weekend after we crossed Long Beach off of our list, we drove around Irvine and looked a new construction neighborhood right by UCI. I wanted to look because I love looking at the model homes that are built to sell the homes that haven’t actually been built yet. I thought that new construction would be much more expensive than older homes, because, you know, they're new. Well, not always so! We checked out the models, loved the location, made the quick calculation that we should go for the three bedroom vs. the two bedroom and made an offer the next day! We moved in five months later, almost one year to the day of our wedding - aawww.

With a new home, everything is well new, so there really are few of the hassles that come with home ownership. Nothing is broken, nor will break for a while. We really just had to decorate and put up bookshelves and such after we moved in.

One afternoon after a lovely trip to IKEA, Eric started to install a shelf that would double as a small desk in our guest bedroom. Since the shelf needed to be pretty sturdy, at least strong enough to hold a laptop, and stand up to some regular use, solid installation was important. Unexpectedly, there was trouble finding the studs, and some trouble getting the shelf straight and some stripped screws, and some holes in the wall and some cursing, then some more cursing... at first was kind of funny, then I offered to help, then I realized staying out of the way was the way to help, then I was starting to get annoyed, I heard more frustration from upstairs, and I couldn't believe that a little shelf was causing all this ANGST, and I was starting to get agitated and my blood pressure was going up and finally I just yelled to Eric "STOP OVERREACTING!!!". Silence.

What happened next could have gone a lot of different ways, but we both starting laughing because, you know, I was the one who had clearly overreacted.

We learned a lot that day. Mostly importantly we learned that Eric and I are not people who enjoy home improvement activities. That is why someone else will be designing and installing our new bathroom shower, tub and tile. And why I am SO FREAKIN' THANKFUL, we did not attempt a full home remodel in our first year of marriage.

Hot Stuff

I think that my Northern California roots can no longer be ignored. I admit that I like cold weather. I like days when the coastal fog comes in and the clouds never burn off and it's gray, and you really can't tell what time it is. Days that make you just want to get cozy. Days that don't make you feel guilty for staying inside and watching movies for hours. Days where you can get dressed in cute sweaters. Days that don't make you feel like an alien for not having a tan.

It was 88 degrees here today. When I left work at 2:00, my car was 100 degrees when I got in it. I was sweating on the way home from work - yuck. It's way too hot for November.



I think a trip to Santa Cruz is long over due.

Next project

Now that Owen is all of seven months old, Eric and I realized the thing we need right now is a new project. A remodeling project! Not quite a remodel, more of a facelift. Our bathrooms need some work so today I initiated project Let's Render Both Our Bathrooms Useless Just In Time For The Holidays. I called a company today to get a quote. I'll be letting you know how all of this goes in great detail with the corresponding photo sets on flickr.

The Weekend's Top Ten

1. Finished the laundry
2. Washed the Prius
3. Enjoyed the wintery weather
4. Andrew took a four hour nap
5. Leslie took a three hour nap
6. The bike ride through Irvine with the boys in the Chariot
7. The drive to San Clemente and the walk on the pier
8. Owen slept through the night
9. Owen's new tooth
10. Saw this license plate:
    

DOODBRO - Awesome

Only in Orange County

Is anybody else seeing a lot of these in their neighborhood?

I see this way too often around here. Don't dogs like to walk anymore?

Teeth

Owen has a third tooth coming in. It's in the front on the top.

In the red

If you were wondering how much running a red light in Orange County is going to cost you, I can tell you, it's $406. My storied driving record continues. However, I do not have a story about how I tried to get out of this ticket; that I cried, or claimed "mommentary" insanity. I was nabbed by photo-law enforcement. Cameras mounted at the intersection caught me. Getting the notification in the mail so long after the fact is completely disorienting. I have no recollection that I ran a red light or that I got away with a close one. When I opened the ticket I was shocked to see four color photographs of my mini van entering the intersection, my license plate number, my face, and the obviously red light. When I saw the evidence I was glad that A) the kids weren't in the car and B) my hands were on 10 and 2 and C) I wasn't on the cell phone.

The ticket was pretty much the low point in my week; a week in which this happened.

I'm just going to pay the fine. I don't think I have the cajones or energy to do this.

I'm going to save the story about the time I got two tickets in one day for another post, I'm rationing.

Sleepy post

Tonight, I am at a loss for the blog post. I am not a night person and here it is a quarter to ten and my brain has already gone to bed. I'm only up now because of The Office. This is the best I've got tonight.

Here is a list of blogs that I really enjoy and get much inspiration from - except tonight, when I can't come up with a post.

Dooce
Fussy
Mighty Girl
Finslippy

Maybe I should have signed up for this instead:

NoBloShoeMo

Bath time

Andrew very excited that he turned on the faucet by himself

Cars get a wash too

Owen does shampoo

Good times

That last picture was taken a moment before Andrew went number two in the tub. Good times.

Best.cheese.sauce.ever

By popular demand, the recipe to The Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:
1 white onion, fine dice
1.5 cups white wine
1/2 stick unsalted butter
+ 1 tbsp 5 tbsp AP flour (that's All Purpose flour - just took me a couple hours to figure that out)
4 oz shredded sharp cheddar
2 oz shredded pizza cheese blend
1-1.5 cups 2% milk
dash tabasco
dash worcestershire
S&P to taste

Procedure:
1) sweat onion in 1 tbsp butter until translucent
2) add wine and reduce until almost dry
3) add butter;
4) melt and add flour to make roux
5) cook roux slowly for 15 min
6) add milk and stir until all roux is absorbed
7) add cheese and simmer slowly until melted
8) add worcestershire and tabasco,
9) salt and pepper until nummy
10) strain and enjoy!

This sauce is super good on most things edible. I topped off my baked potato three times with the sauce. May explain why my pants are a wee bit tight.

More tricks

Owen is sitting up!

Part time update

Things I’ve been doing now that I have all that extra free time:

• Working
  
• Laundry
  
• Dishes
  
• Cooking real food
  
• Dishes
  
• Cleaning the cat box
  
• Grocery shopping
  
• Picking up the boys before they get the early evening grump-grumps and hanging out with them before we’ve got to start the bed-time routine.
  
• Laundry
  
• Creating a less chaotic home-base for all my boys

Working my part time schedule is really working for the family and it seems to be working for the man, I mean job, too. I’ve had to stay late a few days (until 3:00 p.m. or so) and put in some time on the weekends (who schedules 7 a.m. Monday morning conference calls that require big fancy PowerPoint presentations? The head honchos in Minnesota that’s who. And us Californians get all defensive and don’t want to appear like slackers so we say, “7 a.m. Monday morning? Sure, no problem, we love to start work before the sun comes up.”)

Things are not quite as spic and span, organized and Martha-esqe as I’d like them to be but I think that’s to be expected for the next 18 years or so.

Great things about going to my brother's house

We went to Uncle Scott's house yesterday to hang out with the family. There was much eating and football watching. The camera was in the car (why I didn't grab it I do not know) so I don't have any great picks, but here are a few highlights:

• Andrew calls my brother Uncle Spot
• Sammie and Cassie love to play with Andrew and Owen, and the feeling is so very mutual
• The cheese sauce oh, the cheese sauce. He made the best.cheese.sause.ever.
• Watching the kids chase each other around and around in circles in the living room. The best entertainment really is free.
• Free cooking lessons. Let me tell you about how great a convection oven is because now I can. Did you know that if your roasting pan is a bit tight for two chickens, you can sit them up on their ends in the roasting rack and they will both fit nicely?
• Air conditioning. He lives in Palm Springs and it was 89 degrees yesterday. Isn't it like Fall or something already?

Link of the every few days

Here's another site that I just love to browse. It's a home design site.

Design*Sponge

Maybe one day my blog will be 1. this focused and 2. this pretty.

Andrew 31 months

Month 31, how fascinating you are.

He did something the other day that I didn't think I'd see for oh, 10 more years at least. I asked him a question and he said: "huh?", just so bershon I couldn't believe it. Like a teenager who is just so over it all and can't believe his mom just asked him to go clean his room. And I laughed and laughed.

For the past couple of months Andrew and I have a little bedtime routine that I just have to write about so I don't forget. I usually take Andrew to bed and lie down with him for a few minutes. During that time we say our "nigh-nights". Andrew goes through his list of family and friends and says good-night to everyone. He starts with the names of his friends at school, then moves on to his teachers and finishes off with family, saying good night to each one. It's pretty darn cute.

Andrew has an imaginary alligator. He tells us so. And he's scared of it. There's no actual alligator, stuffed or otherwise (like his big tiger). It doesn't affected him too much, but sometimes in the morning he'll walk into our room and tell us about the alligator downstairs and want to come into bed with us.

Andrew has decided that he doesn't like swimming lessons anymore. The move to teacher-only classes did not go well. We tried three times to get him used to the idea that dad was going to stay out of the pool and he was going to stay in during the lesson, but he "no like that". He basically was hysterical during every lesson. That's no fun for anyone. After the lessons he would say "I don't want to cry at swimming lessons." We've decided to pull him out of formal swimming lessons for now and just play in our own pool until he's a bit older or until we can arrange for Regan and Andrew to be in the same class. He may go for that.

Potty training too is on hiatus. (No eye-rolling Grandparents.) We've talked with his teachers at school and since zero progress has been made in the past 5 months, we are going to give it a rest until the New Year. He's just not ready and has regressed to the point that he won't tell us anymore if he has to go, and he's not able to hold it for any length of time. So, we'll get through the holidays and travel, then start fresh in January.

Andrew is speaking very well now and is very understandable. He can count which is a leap from saying his numbers in the correct order. The his favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar and he counts the 1 apple, 2 pears, 3 plums, you know the rest. He loves his toy cars. Dad went to Phoenix and brought him back a small cast iron airplane which he thinks is the coolest.

Andrew at Lego Land. He loved the cities built out of legos. This is Washington D.C.

I made cupcakes for fun a couple of weeks ago. Andrew just likes the frosting. See, he IS like me on the inside.

Just a few of his favorite things

I could have saved $400

Andrew just watched this video 5 times. He was singing along and thoroughly enjoying this video. I could have just skipped the annual pass altogether.

Et Tu Jeno's Pizza Rolls?

It may say something about my parenting style that with all of the children's product safety recalls going on, you know, those headlines confirming that every toy your child owns comes from China and oh, they're covered in brain damaging lead paint, and I think "did that toy have paint? I can't tell because my mouthy child has already licked it off.", and all the headlines about recent food recalls, the item that has moved me to post is the E. coli scare with Jeno's Pizza Rolls. That just hit too close to home.

Oh, Jeno's Pizza Roll. You hot pepperoni filled bite-sized bit of pizza heaven. That first bite always burned the roof of my mouth, but I loved you anyway.

I lived on Jeno's Pizza Rolls in jr. high and high school. Didn't everyone? I would consistenly ruin my appetite for dinner by eating an entire box at about 4pm - because really who can wait until 7pm for dinner? Had this E. coli recall happened in 1987 I would have been screwed because the rolls would have been long gone. And I probably wouldn't have heard about it since we didn't have the interweb back then to tell me important things like this.

I'm not really too worried about the recall because I don't think I've had a roll in 10 years, but if Stouffer's Lasagne issues a recall I'm in trouble.

NaBloPoMo

What's NaBloPoMo you say? Why, its National Blog Posting Month! Everyday in the month of November I'll be posting to the blog. Posting every day will require me to DOUBLE the number of posts I have done when at my most prolific. This will be a stretch for me. But since you've stuck with me with the random hair cut postings, I promise that they can't get much worse or boring.

I signed up to do this about a month ago and have a couple ideas for regular features, but I won't share them yet in case I can't quite get my act together. So the only public proclamation I am making is that you will see at least 1 post per day for the next 30 days. Ok, I'll share one.

Here's my link of the day:

http://www.casasugar.com/

If you're like me, looking for things to decorate your house with is way less stressful that actually having to make a decision and shell out cash for something. I like CasaSugar because several times a day it updates with decorating ideas and often will give me links to even cooler home decorating sites. Fun Stuff!