Oliver's first taste of cereal

We've been suspecting Skeezix has been interested in some real food for a couple of weeks now. Normally at dinnertime he's quite content to sit in his swing by the table while we eat. Lately, even if he's just been fed a bottle, he's fine at dinner until we actually start eating. Then he gets angry. Today at lunch, Jon had him in his lap, and Oliver kept grabbing at his fork, and eyeballing the fork as it went from plate to Jon's mouth. So on the way home, I did some grocery shopping and picked up some rice cereal.

I gave Oliver his first taste after we had dinner. I think he's ready - he swallowed it without a problem, and wasn't pushing it out with his tongue. He wasn't thrilled with the spoon though. He made the funniest "WTF" faces after the first spoonful - but once the food was in his mouth and the spoon removed, he was fine. So I think he just needs to get used to the spoon. I seem to recall Natalie being the same way. I'll probably keep him on just the cereal for a month or so - with Natalie's food allergies, I'm not in a rush to start introducing other foods just in case.

Here are some pictures!



"Hmmmm. What's this?"


"Ok, seriously, what the hell is this?"


"Come on, what is wrong with you people?!"

Pops update

Jim is still in the hospital, on bed rest. He sounded and looked better today, but he still has a ways to go. They are running lots of tests still, no diagnosis, and they still haven't found out what is causing the clots. There is another one in his leg that they are treating. He's on a ton of medications, and is good hands, so hopefully he'll heal and be home soon.

Pops

Jim was admitted to the heart hospital in town today. He has blood clots in his lungs, and we're very lucky he's still here! He'll be in the hospital for 5-7 days, while they treat the clots and try to find out what caused them. I'll update when I can, as I'll be at the hospital as much as possible.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JON!

We love you!

Jenn, Natalie and Oliver
xoxoxoxox

(more later)

Second day of pre-school

Natalie's teacher told me she had a GREAT day! She listened well, participated in the songs and games, was laughing, playing in the "kitchen" with the other kids, and even told her teacher she loves her! She told us she was the Calender Helper today. I think all of the changes we've been through this year are just crashing down on her now - she's been asking about her old house and old pink room. Her teachers are aware of everything she's been through, and they are looking out for her. I'm so glad I found that school (she's at First United Methodist Pre-school)! All of the teachers, aides and the director are so loving towards the kids, and always have time to speak with the parents.

And rather than make a separate post... At about 4:30 this morning, a clap of thunder went off over our house - so loud - I've only ever heard thunder like that one other time - it seriously sounded like the house was falling down around us. Jolted us both out of bed. Jon went to check on Natalie, and she was hiding under her covers. We brought her into bed with us, and while it took her a little while to settle down, she finally did. One thing she said was pretty cute - "Teddy's going to roar at the angels to make them stop bowling".

All I have to say is, someone up there bowled one hell of a strike at 4:30!

Craft night

Natalie received an issue of a magazine geared towards pre-schoolers. I *think* it was just a free sample, trying to get us to subscribe, but if someone sent her a subscription - you need to 'fess up as we'll owe a thank you! Anyway, I was reading her some of the little stories in it, and she told me that she wanted to hear the Curious George one. The CG page was actually an activity, so we decided to make it. It was about CG in space, so we glued the picture of CG to some cardboard and cut it out, Jon followed the directions and made the rocket (and did a damned good job!), and Natalie and I worked on the space picture, using black construction paper, glitter glue, and all sorts of shapes and sparkly things that I keep around for her to use for crafts. It was a fun way to kill the time between dinner and bedtime! Here's the finished result:



Daddy's rocket - that's a toilet paper roll, wrapping paper, construction paper for the flames, and I wasn't paying attention to how he made the top of the rocket. I think it's a circle of cardboard, glued together, with construction paper attached.

First day of school!

Today was Natalie's first day of pre-school! The program she was in earlier this year was a Young 3, for kids who have birthdays soon after the September cut-off. She was a little hesitant at drop-off - new teacher, new classroom, but overall, she did well. When I picked her up, her teacher told me she did really, really well today! She was talking a lot (she can be a little reserved at school), and didn't want to participate in a song/dance thing, but was willing to stand with the others and listen. Her teacher said they will work on pairing her with another one of the other girls, to help her start playing with kids at school. She's always done really well with one-on-one playdates, and enjoyed her friends in OH, but at school, she's always been a bit more cautious - this was true even before the move and the rest of her big changes. I tend to be the same way - better in one-on-one situations, and can feel a little out of place in a group, so I understand where she's coming from.

She told me she had a fun time playing and making crafts today! School is from 9-11:30, and I extend her day until 12:30, so she can have lunch with her friends. She seems to enjoy that! Thursday will be her day for Show and Share, so we'll see what she decides to bring in. She tends to be a packrat, so it could be interesting. :-)

Here's the big girl on her way to school!



And just for fun, she gave herself a make-over the other day, while I was putting on my face.

Conversations with Natalie

Driving home from pre-school today (first official day, more on that later tonight!), we had a couple of funny conversations.

Charlie is Natalie's favorite person at her school - he also happens to be her teacher's son. He isn't in her class this year, but she sees him on the playground.

Me: Did you see Charlie today?
Natalie: He's not in my class. I saw him on the playground.
Me: Did you guys play?
Natalie: I'm going to marry Charlie. But I'm not going to be Mrs. Charlie
Me: Then who are you going to be?
Natalie: Nat-a-wee!
Me: Nothing wrong with that!
Natalie: *big sigh* I wuuuuuuuuv Charlie.

Then she was talking about how Johnny has an allergy to pets.

Natalie: I'm not going to be 'lergic to pets. Can we get one?
Me: No
Natalie: Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease *bats eyelashes*
Me: Are you going to pick up poop?
Natalie: NO
Me: Neither am I, so we can't get a pet
Natalie: Well, Daddy can do it!

Funny kid!

Soccer Tots!

Natalie started Soccer Tots today - and she loved it! It actually started last week, but since we were in Pinetop, she had to miss her first class. We were told to bring her to both classes this morning, one was her age group, and the next one was for kids just a bit older - the main difference being heavy parent participation in the first class, and little to no parent particpation in the other. I missed the first class, but met up with them for the second class, and my good friend Sylvia came too because she hadn't seen the kids in a while and wanted to see them. Oh and yeah, we wanted to go shopping afterwards. .

Natalie did really well in her class! We were so proud of her! She listened well, participated in everything, and you could tell she was trying really hard to do the "drills". After class, her coach made a point of telling both of us that he is going to recommend that she be moved to the older class, as he was very impressed with her - his words. Not that we think he's saying she's the next Mia Hamm after one class, I think it was more that she held her own with the older kids, and listened and participated well, and she's pretty good with the ball. It was a fun class to watch, and we think it will be good for her. It's an hour, but it goes quickly - they have various activities which seems to help hold the children's interest. All of the kids were given tee shirts after class, and she insisted on putting hers on right away. Each session is 8 weeks, and we're hoping she'll like it enough to stick with it! She's already more of an athlete than her mother ever was, or will be! I took lots of pictures today, and will post them tomorrow night.

So then we all went to lunch at Applebee. Soccer must work up an appetite, because Natalie ate an enormous plate of mac and cheese, and then was trolling for some of my soup! Sylvia and I left the kids with Jon, and set off on our merry way. Had a nice rest of the day. Got a bunch of clothes for the kids at Kohls - so funny to see all the heavy winter stuff out here. Then we went to Arizona Mills, which is a huge outlet mall - I'm not sure all the stores are technically outlets, but that's fine. Got some stuff for Jon's birthday next week, some beautiful illustrated Children's Bibles (like Jon had as a child) for Oliver's baptism/Natalie's Godparent day, even a few things for Christmas. And a ton of blisters on my feet. Yay! Long day, but so much fun. One of the best things about moving back to AZ has been reconnecting with good friends like Sylvia! She has two handsome boys of her own, and until my kids were born, her youngest, Adam, was the youngest/newest baby I'd ever held.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Back to belly!

Aaaaaaaaand, Oliver just rolled back to belly! He's been going belly to back for several weeks now, but the old back to belly was proving elusive. Until tonight. Then much like his sister, who swore she wanted a shot, then freaked out when she got one... For all he's been trying to roll back to belly, and all it has pissed him off that he couldn't, he was even more pissed when he finally got it today. He's not fond of being on his belly. :-)

She's all talk

Oliver had his four month check-up today (more on that later), and Natalie came along to have her nose checked (recent, frequent nosebleeds). She started telling me last night that she wanted to get a shot too, and carried on all day and into the doctor's visit. I kept asking her if she was sure, and she assured me she was, and she wasn't going to cry. She's been due for the second part of the Hep A series, which has been hard to get, so I figured what the hell. As luck would have it, the pediatrician had more in stock.

So of course, when it came time for the shot, she changed her mind. Huge freakout. Another nurse had to come in and hold Oliver, while I held Natalie down - I had to wrap my arms and legs around her like an octopus. I figured it was better to go ahead with the shot today, since she'd be due for more MMR in December, and one shot a visit is enough for her. And me. She's strong! She's going to have some bloodwork done next week (oh joy!) to check for some kind of bleeding disorder, anemia, and a couple of other things possibly related to nosebleeds. And of course, they could just be caused by the heat. Hopefully it's the latter.

And Oliver! He's 17 pounds, 11 oz - 97th percentile, 28 inches long - off the charts - and his head is 17 inches in circumference - 75th percentile. My brother and grandfather are/were very tall - 6'2" and 6'4" respectively, so I'm guessing Oliver's going to be really tall too. He got another Dtap today, but that was it until next month. Everything else is right on track, and his left testicle is finally down too. Still eating like a horse. We may start cereal soon. It's earlier than I planned, but we'll see. We're also supposed to work on putting him down drowsy, but awake, and letting him put himself to sleep. Yeah, that drowsy but awake stuff never worked with Natalie, but hopefully it will with him. I like rocking him now, but definitely want to teach him good sleep habits.

That's all for now! I tried to get a picture in this post, but Shutterfly is down right now. Grrrr..

Ugliest lamp ever

Tell me this isn't the ugliest effing lamp you've ever seen? The place where we stayed in Pinetop had a rustic decor theme, which was fine. Until you looked closely at the lamps in one of the bedrooms. Yes, those are pinecone bases, with Saguaro cactus arms, and a feathered lamp shade. Yikes.

Pink eye and Pinetop

The night before we left for Pinetop, I noticed that Oliver's left eye was red. Took him to the doctor before we left town, and sure enough, the poor guy had pink eye. It has cleared up well - we caught it early - and it never seemed to bother him. *knock wood* Apparently there is a non-contagious strain, and as none of us have caught it as yet, I'm hoping we all dodged a bullet! He's teething hard though, and just isn't his usual happy, mellow self. I think he still has a ways to go too - Natalie teethed at about three months, but didn't pop those first two teeth until sometime in her fifth month.

So, Pinetop! What a lovely town! I'd been there years ago, but can't remember exactly when or why - I think I just drove through it. It's hard to believe you are still in Arizona up there - it's pine country, in the White Mountains, no cactus or dirt to be seen anywhere! The high was 84, which was perfect, and the nights were cool. We had a fantastic storm on Friday night, and then Saturday night it rained most of the evening - just a nice, cool rain with a breeze. We had the windows open, and just enjoyed it. Well, all of us except Mitz enjoyed it. She came down with a triple whammy on Friday - thought it was a cold - but turned out to be bronchitis, pharyngitis and sinusitis. Ouch. So she was a little feverish, and just a little more chilly than the rest of us!

Thursday night we went to dinner at a little Mexican place called La Casita that Mitz kept talking about the whole time leading up to the trip. Supposed to be really fantastic food. Supposed being the operative word. They've gone downhill since the last time Mitz and Pops ate there. We've now christened it "La CaSHITa". Mitz had some kind of mystery meat paste on her plate - you couldn't pay me to try it. :-)

On Friday, we split up. Jon, Pops and Natalie went fishing at Rainbow Lake - Herself's first time! Pops bought her her first fishing rod, which I think is really cool, because he gave me my first one as well. Coincidentally, both rods are Shakespeare's, except Natalie's is a Disney Princess one, and mine wasn't. I got robbed. :-P Just kidding, Pops! Apparently Natalie knocked all the bait in the water pretty early on, so she didn't get to catch anything, but she sure had fun trying! And who knew that ducks like Cheetos? Mitz, Oliver and I went antique shopping in town. Mitz and I enjoyed ourselves, and Oliver slept through it. We all met up again for lunch, then headed back for naps for the kids, Mitz, and who am I kidding? The adults napped too! After naps, Natalie and I checked out the woods on the property - "We going on a 'venture Mommy!" Dinner was at a great place called Charlie Clarks - really great food - great menu. Back to the condo to get the kids in bed, and break out the cards and poker chips. Poor Jon lost his shirt and had to keep getting loans from me and Mitz, hit up Pops once. Mom and I aren't loan sharks at all. Nah. Word to the wise - if you need a chip loan, go to Pops - he's not nearly as ruthless as the chicks. Must be the shared "S" gene.

Saturday was spent in the town of Greer - about 30ish miles from Pinetop. Mitz and Pops honeymooned there, and Pops' family would go there when he was a boy. Mitz told me that Pops used to take his fishing rod as a kid, and just disappear for the day - neat to find out more about his childhood! Anyway, it's a lovely, small town. We went to the stream there - beautiful clear, running water. Natalie attempted to "fish" with a stick. And of course had a blast throwing rocks in the water. Had lunch in town, shopped a bit, then headed back. Everyone crashed out, then we had a quiet dinner at the condo, kids went to bed, we watched Phelps take his 8th gold, then headed to the table for more poker. Jon and Pops held their own, Mitz cleaned up, and I lost my shirt.

Oh, Natalie got her first set of marbles. Jon and Pops tried to teach her the proper way to play, but she still plays by Natalie Rules. Which are basically, you shoot at point blank range, and if her marble so much as touches one of yours, she takes three. And God help you if you knock one of hers and get to take it.

Headed home Sunday morning, then just crashed the rest of the day.

Back to the routine now! Natalie had school/Mother's Day Out today, and pre-school officially starts next week. She'll be going three mornings a week. Oliver has his four month checkup on Thursday, and Natalie will be seen too. She's had four nosebleeds in the last nine days - one was over the weekend, which was probably due to the elevation, but the other three have been at random times at home. The nurse at her Ped's office thinks it could be the heat, but they want to check her out just in case.

Hope everyone is enjoying the last bits of their summer! I'm working on getting pictures up after I post this! I wish we were back in Pinetop - this intense heat and humidity is for the birds.

Heading out of town

Greetings!

We're heading up to Pinetop (cooler weather, yay!) tomorrow morning, until Sunday, so I won't be posting until we return.

I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures and stories to tell, so check back on Monday!

Music to our ears

Best behavior

Conversation at dinner time:

Me: We're going to church tomorrow. Are you going to be a good girl?
Natalie: No
Me: Why not?
Natalie: Let's go CRAZY at church, Mommy!

I'll never let her listen to Prince again.

No Buyees, no problem

We met Mitz and Pops for dinner last night, and on the way there, Natalie informed us that she was going to spend the night at Mitz and Pops. Fortunately for her, Mitz and Pops thought that was a good idea too! Since this was last minute, we didn't have anything for her (Mitz has a toothbrush and sleep training pants, and an old tee shirt serves well as a nightgown), as far as her security items go - she left her Buyees (that's her security blanket. Not sure how to spell "buyees", that's just the phonetic spelling) at home.

Mitz found an old Pooh blanket that she bought for Natalie several years ago. Initially that was acceptable, however Herself soon decided that it just wasn't suitable. So what's a grandma to do at bedtime with no Buyee? She gave Natalie one of her satiny (modest, not Victoria's Secret) nightgowns to sleep with, as one side of Buyees is satin. LOL. And it worked!

I'm just grateful that she didn't latch on to that. I'd hate to have to explain her carrying that around in public!

Thanks for the quiet evening, Mitz and Pops!

We need a tighter straitjacket

And you know Jon is thinking "STFU already, Jenn". :-)

Angels bowling

It's been a pretty quiet monsoon season, until tonight. Just before it was time to start getting Natalie ready for bed, I noticed flashes coming through the slats of our blinds, which were closed. Opened the front door, and there was the most fantastic lightning show just over our house - huge strikes - coming every 1-2 seconds. Natalie was amazed - she's never really seen it before. We didn't have too many thunderstorms in Boise or Columbus - and the lightning strikes would have been too few and far between for her to catch. She kept telling us how beautiful it was. So we took her upstairs (because we really shouldn't have been standing on the porch) and let her look out the guestroom window - she stayed there for quite awhile. There was surprisingly little thunder. Until....

Natalie's bedtime. Then the thunder struck in earnest, which really freaked her out. I heard her crying through the monitor, went upstairs and she was in her room, standing by her door, just crying her heart out. She jumped up in my arms and clung like a little monkey. I laid down with her to soothe her to sleep, which eventually worked. I tried giving her the old "that's just the angels bowling, God must have gotten a strike" line. She seemed to accept it (hey! it worked for me when I was her age!), but she just wanted me to tell them to knock it off. All's well though. Both kids are fast asleep, and the house is nice and quiet.

Speaking of sleep.... Grandma Carol - we took your advice last night and put a radio in Oliver's room, tuned to a classical station. He's been waking a couple of times overnight - we've been spoiled since he's been sleeping from 10p-8 or 9a about 95% of the time since he was five weeks old. It didn't seem to help last night, but I think it might start helping. He's also been very pissy at bedtime these last couple of nights, and as I was carrying him up to the nursery, he started getting agitated. I sat down in the rocker, turned on the radio, and honest to God, he settled right down. He was asleep in five minutes. I wish we had thought to do that with Natalie (because God knows that child hated to sleep as an infant, and we spent hours rocking her!) - even if it doesn't help him soothe himself, it was really nice rocking, listening to the soft music. Thanks for the idea!

Yummy chocolate milk

My new favorite picture of Oliver

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

Here's a Natalie funny. She's been wanting to learn to read and write, so I bought her a learn to write workbook. I've been trying to show her the proper way to start her letters, but she keeps starting each tracing in really random spots on each letter. After a few attempts to try to show her where she should start, she told me "Well. I'll do it my way". I tried one more time (I wasn't nagging, I swear!) and was told "I'll do it my way, you do it your way". Huh. Ok! Then at dinner I was told "Don't give me that look". I forget why I was giving her a look now, but I'm sure it was well-deserved.

Gee, I wonder where she gets it?!

Who we are

In case someone who isn't related stumbles on this, I'll tell you a bit about us.

My name is Jennifer (born in 1973, what else would I be named?), I go by Jenn most of the time, Mommy to my kids. I have a foul mouth (I'll keep it pretty clean here) and can outbelch most men - on command mind you - none of this drinking soda and then belching crap. I love a good practical joke. I'm about as liberal as you can get, except I'm all for the death penalty. I have two brothers and a sister.

My long-suffering husband, Jon.

Born in Chicago, IL in August, 1970. He grew up in one of the suburbs. He has one brother and two sisters. He left IL in 1996 to take a job in the Bay Area, CA. Then he met me, married, moved a couple of times, had a couple of kids. He's a Cubs and Bears fan, and is really happy that the Cubs train in Mesa - he intends to go to a couple of games next year. He loves women who belch and curse. Jon's an amateur woodworker, and is pretty damn good at it. He's also a wonderful father to our kids. Jon has become incredibly proficient with a round brush and blowdryer - he's even better than me. I'm thinking he needs to do my hair every morning. See Natalie's blurb for a better explanation of his dryer/brush prowess.

This is Natalie Rose, AKA Herself or the Tiny Tyrant.

Natalie is our Tater Tot - born in Boise, ID, in December 2004. She's 3.5, going on 13. She's a funny, sweet, vibrant, intense little firecracker. We think she's smart as can be. She's in preschool, and loves it! She is a wonderful big sister to her brother - very loving and protective of him. We'll see if that changes once he can get into her stuff! She loves the color blue, the letter B, and her ever expanding menagerie of stuffed animals, and those little tiny plastic animals - Steiff or something?. She sleeps with a stuffed horse (the bane of my existence) that is roughly the size of a Shetland Pony. Good thing we got her a full, instead of a twin. She starts soccer in two weeks, and can't wait! She just got her first haircut a couple of months ago. It had to be just like mine, and it has to be blown dry every night, with a round brush, otherwise "my hair is ruined. It doesn't look like yours". Oy vey.

This is Oliver Edward, AKA Skeezix, Mr. Man, or Buddy Boy.

Oliver is our AZ native. We know so many transplants, and Jon, Natalie and I are transplants as well - kind of cool to have one of us be a native. He was born in April 2008. He looked identical to Natalie at birth - their newborn pictures are so similar it is uncanny, but he's definitely developing into his own person, both in personality and looks. He looks a lot like my brother, Rich. Let's hope the similarity ends there. :-) He is a mellow, content little man, who loves to eat and sleep. He just learned to roll belly to back the other day. He's trying so hard to go back to belly, but isn't quite there yet, which frustrates him no end - Natalie was the same way. He loves to stand too, and can support his weight just by holding onto our fingers.


This is my Mom, Monica, AKA Mitz.

She's long-suffering too. I bet she'll kick my ass if I post her birth year (March baby), so I think I'll pass. We're very close, she's lots of fun, and we are loving living near each other again. She and my dad are just 8 miles away, off the same main street. I live to torment her, and in the past two weeks have managed to hide her wallet (at Costco, so it wasn't like it was sitting in her purse on my counter which would be too easy) and her car from her. She'll repay me, I'm sure! The kids call her Mitz - well Natalie does since Oliver can't speak yet - because it's a family nickname, and she's not into Grandma. She really wants the kids to call her Lola Mitz, but made the fatal mistake of telling me she thought it would be so cute if the kids couldn't say Lola and said Lolly and Pops instead. She loves the color blue too, as do Natalie and I, which will make for some interesting board game pawn negotiations in the future. She and I like to go to afternoon tea at chi-chi places, and are looking forward to taking Natalie when she's older, and less likely to use a sofa at the Ritz as a trampoline.

This is my dad, Jim, AKA Pops.

He and my mom married in June 2000, through him I got another brother and a sister. I'll post about them at some point! I'll skip his birth year too (December baby) - it's the same as Mitz's. Jim is an AZ native. He loves to camp (oh the crazy camping stories we could tell!) and fish - taught me to fish, and gave me my first fishing rod. I'm looking forward to him teaching Natalie and Oliver. He once farted on my head so hard, I felt my hair blow in the breeze. No lie. He likes to act gruff, but he's a big softie with the kids. Natalie loves to climb all over him.

I'm not going to post Jon's family right now - I don't have their permission. Assuming no one minds, you'll read more about them as this progresses. Oliver is getting baptized in September, and Natalie will have godparents named (she was baptized by a minister at home while we were still deciding which denomination we wanted to join) at the same time - and all of Jon's siblings and his mom are flying out. We're looking forward to it!

Greetings and Salutations!

August 6, 2008

This is our inaugural post. For years I've thought that blogging is kind of the ultimate in narcissism (except yours, Charlie!), but recently have been thinking it's a good way to keep our out-of-state friends and family in touch with what's going on in our lives. I still have the kid's site for now, although as I play with this more, I may just decide to link the recent photo albums here, and discontinue the Babies Online site altogether. We'll see. We'll see if I can even keep this up, no giving me grief if I don't. I'm thinking it might be easier to just post a quick blurb every day or so, than it was to do the huge update once a week/every other week that I did when Natalie was a baby on Babies Online.