Odds and Ends

Sorry about leaving the pee-pee post up for so long!  

Owen's had a rough week with a cold and another ear infection. He is just starting now to sleep through the night again after waking up several nights in a row. He's on his second day of antibiotics and is now feeling much better. I knew it was serious and I needed to take Owen to see his pediatrician when he wasn't eating his dinner. That boy LOVES to eat.

Owen has an official first word: Mama. He does lots of babbling and vocalizing, but he's just now started to form proper words.

Eric turned 33 on Wednesday!  As usual, he was up in San Jose/San Francisco area this week, so we are celebrating properly tonight.  We're going out to dinner at The Water Grill in L.A. - its fancy and has a Michelin star and everything.  We even hired a babysitter! This will be only the second time that we've gone out and asked someone other than the grandparents to watch the boys. We won't worry at all while we're out because Andrew's teacher from his Two's classroom is coming over.

The high price of gas around here has finally affected us.  I drove around this week in the Prius and Eric left the minivan at the airport. I have to say this was the way to go. Last week I filled the van up for $83 and I filled the Prius up for $28.   That's a big difference, and I'm glad we're saving that because I just spent $5.85 on one gallon of milk.

I've jumped on the Quantum Wellness bandwagon and bought the book this week.  (Another Oprah recommendation).   I'm only about 10 pages in.  You may or may not see posts from me about doing a 21 day "cleanse". That's basically eating a vegan diet for 21 days.  We'll see, I get jumpy when contemplating giving up coffee for any length of time.  

We are really looking forward to our upcoming Hawaiian vacation.  We all need some down time hanging out on the beach.  

It's officially summer and we've got the temperatures to back it up.  It's going to be in the 90's today.  We're to try to stay cool today, I'm predicting lots of backyard hose time.

That's the latest from Irvine.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Fail

Ok, just acknowledging that I haven't posted every day in June so far, and the rest of June isn't shaping up to be any better. But I do have a house cleaning tip for you. If your three year old has the longest nap of his life and is not wearing pull-ups, you need to know this: Hydrogen Peroxide is a miracle-worker for getting pee-pee out the mattress. Buy two bottles.

My First Fort

My First Fort, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Today we hibernated. Owen had a fever last night and nobody got much sleep. But all was not lost today. Andrew and Owen played in their first fort! When I was little I loved to take all the blankets off our beds and throw them over our dining room chairs. This was the best place to watch cartoons on a Saturday morning.

Utensils, horray!

, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Owen's "using" a fork here. He's still working on his technique.

Homework

Homework, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Sometimes my work doesn't fit 7:30 - 2:00 pm hours. 95% of the time it does, but sometimes I go out to lunch with my work buddies and I schedule an hour but by the time everyone meets in the lobby and then decides where to go, and then discusses if we're going to walk or drive, then we wait for a table, then talk about what's good to eat here, then order, eat, chit chat, and figure out the bill, holy-heck is it really 1:30?!  I've got to go!

Anyhoo, yesterday was a little like that.  So last night I worked after the kids went to bed.

Home 7

Dishes, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

I have a love / hate relationship with dishes. When I see the pile on the counter, I run the other way. But at some point in the evening I decide that I'd rather not look at a pile of gross dishes in the morning, so I start to wash. And a funny thing happens. I start to get into it. I get into a grove and I just power right though. And then I see the countertops and start tackling them and if its been a tough day, I'll start cleaning out the fridge. Its like washing the dishes set off a cleaning binge in me. Weird.

(And yes, that's another dying plant on the right.)

(And if you're not into the dishes post, there's video of the boys in the post below)

What you come here for

Here's a typical weekend scene with the Capron boys. And typically Owen bonks his head a few times. (He's fine). It's a little long, but I'm betting the grandparents will be o.k. with that.


the boys at the park from Leslie Capron on Vimeo.

Home 6

Rare moment, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Home - relaxing on a Sunday afternoon. Both boys napped at roughly the same time today. They are on the same schedule on weekdays, but the weekends are a different story. Between errands, play-dates, and random dad-ventures we are really bad at sticking to nap time. Today though after our morning of church, play time, Frys and Target, they were so tired that they fell asleep in the car and we were able to carry them to bed without waking them up - THIS NEVER HAPPENS. We were reveling in the silence. Seeing my opportunity, I grabbed a blanket, my latest selection from the Oprah book club and a nice spot on the couch and relaxed. Good times.

Home 5

Orchid, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Home, where orchids come to die.

Eric knows that if he's in a pickle and needs to get me a present for a birthday, anniversary, or because forgot to put the garbage out, again, that he can't go wrong if he comes home with an orchid. (Aren't I the easiest wife ever!?). Now you may think that will all those occasions for orchids, that my house would be dripping with orchids everywhere. Not. So. I have a special talent for killing orchids. This poor guy here has been living in my kitchen window sill since April.   It came home with a glorious bloom and four unopened buds and the promise of months of beautiful flowers. It has sun, but not too much. It gets a nice burst of humidity every night when I do the dishes and since its right next to the faucet, I rarely forget to water it. Now it looks like it just gave up.  The main flower just shriveled and the buds never got close to opening. 

What am I doing wrong? Help me internet!

Its not easy being green

Ways the Socal Capron household embraces the Green lifestyle:

1. We drive a Prius! We can still fill 'er up for under $30
2. We have no lawn - the water saving is tremendous!
3. We grow our own veggies!
4. We buy organic and local by shopping at our local farmers market
5. We brew our coffee at home - no paper cups from Starbucks!
6. We forget to put our garbage out and are forced to reduce our waste because we have no way to get dispose of it!
7. We recycle!
8. Owen's wardrobe is mostly thanks to Andrew!
9. We use a green dry cleaners that uses no harsh chemicals
10. Only three people live here during the week saving tons on electrics and water usage!

Ways the SoCal Caprons aren't so green

1. Our Prius mostly lives in the airport parking lot while I'm driving our minivan all over town and Eric FLIES to his job.
2. All of Eric's resource consumption is Northern California's problem
3. Not really using canvas bags for our grocery shopping
4. We do about a thousand loads of laundry a week
5. I am hand washing our dishes because I haven't gotten around to fixing our dish washer so I'm using more water than our dishwasher would

So I guess we try. We're not always successful, but that's got to be better than nothing! How is your household green?

Goodnight Eric

Its been a long week without you!

HOME by Michael Buble

I don't feel as lonesome as this song, but I like it.

Home 4

Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other.  It is the place of confidence.  It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts.  It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule.  

~Frederick W. Robertson

My favorite part:  "where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts."  

Home 3

Yum tofu dogs..., originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Home - where you've got to learn your table manners!

Update:  The great thing about a blog is that you get to show what you want to show.  So I showed how I wish dinner was all the time with the boys.  In the interest of full disclosure, dinner around here doesn't always include proper place mats.  Sometimes (o.k a lot of the time), we're all in front of the tube eating our mac 'n cheese.  

Home 2

Owen loves the tub, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Thinking about home invariably takes me back to my childhood. A memory that's stuck with me all this time is of bath time when I was old enough, maybe six or seven, to do it myself. I could fill up the tub, sit in a few inches of water and be trusted not to make an emergency out of it. The memory that sticks with me is that every night, during every bath I would wash my hair and I would get soap in my eyes. And each time it happened I would yell out to my mom: I GOT SOAP IN MY EYES! And each time my mom would come in and take a towel and wipe away the suds. She never seemed annoyed at this, like not again, my girl, please close your eyes when you're rinsing your hair! Now, I think I could have washed my hair and avoided the soap running down into my face, but I wanted her to come in and check on me. I wanted to be a big girl and take a bath by myself, but I also wanted to make sure someone was close by just in case I needed anything. And I think that's a big part of what makes a home. Its a place where you test yourself and there's always someone close by just in case.

Home 1

About three month's ago, when I was just emerging from my year long extreme sleep deprivation post Owen birth, I emailed two good friends to organize a girls-night-out for the premiere of Sex and the City.   I needed to get out of the house!  With my muddled sleepy brain and because of the many, many leaks of movie stills to all of the gossip websites I read during the production of the movie, I thought it opened months ago in March, but no, this weekend was it.  So with my premature email I looked like super proactive super planner when actually I was just confused! Winner!

Anyhoo, we had tickets to the 3:15 matinee and then ate dinner afterward at the Cheesecake Factory.   We had hoped get a table at the excellent Javier's but no food is worth a two hour wait.  

Eric was on his own from 2:00 - 8:30 pm.   Now, too often I find that when moms go out, the men who watch the kids will get extra credit for doing it on their own.  That's just crazy.  Men do not get extra credit for watching their children!  Ok, dismounting soapbox now.

I had no problem taking off for the duration of the day.   We had planned an early play date for Andrew to get good and tired to guarantee long napping while I was gone.  

I had such a great time last night because 1) I really love Sex and the City and the movie met all of my expectations and more, 2) I was with two great girlfriends 3) Mojitos are really tasty, 4) I was able to leave my boys (all three of them) knowing that they were all going to be just fine without me.  

When I got home, the best part of the night was waiting for me.  Andrew ran to the garage and yelled "Hi, Mama!" and Owen was peacefully sleeping upstairs.  Eric was lounging on the couch.  I sat down at the computer and launched a file "Open Me Leslie".  It was a little movie that Eric put together while I was gone.  It was super cute and created from photos that I thought weren't too great (or blog worthy), where the boys weren't smiling.  But he turned these photos into something special and really funny.  He added a Kung-fu movie sound track so the boys looked like they were getting ready for an epic battle of good vs. evil.  Genius!

Home - a place that's thinking about you (and making cute little videos for you) when you're gone!


Untitled from Leslie Capron on Vimeo