Conversation after Christmas Eve Mass

Natalie - "Jesus died on the cross"
Me - "That's right"
Natalie - "He died at Easter"
Me - "Yes. And this is Christmas, when we celebrate His birth"
Natalie - "He died, but then a couple days later He got all better........ That's pretty cool".

Indeed!

Natalie's birthday party

Better late than never! Pictures will be out later.

We had her party at a local farm this year - Marley Farms. Wonderful place! Huge facility, so much to do. There is a mini hay maze, playground, petting zoo with goats and sheep - and the animals are SO docile - Oliver can (and did!) go right up to them and hug them. They got to feed animals in the barn - llamas (didn't get spit on this time), pigs, donkeys. Two bounce houses. A covered area for lunch. And they got pony rides! Natalie was thrilled too - we were expecting it to be a pony ring - nope - they got to get on a pony and actually ride along a trail - she's been dying to do that but is still too young for most trail rides. It is really a neat place, and a great place for a party! Her friend Walker had his there in September - it was so much fun - I booked it when we got home. That's also when a llama spat on me. Grossest thing ever. And I couldn't even drop an F-bomb because there were too many kids around. Had about 16 kids total - some friends from school, family friends, and friends from Natalie's old pre-school. And of course Mitz, Aunt Jamie, and Uncle Mike (who made her day with his gift. God love him, he tracked down the Zhu Zhu pet she wanted most - the grey one - Numnums. He went through Craigslist to get it!).

The farm also operates as a rescue - they even have camels and zebras there! And a zonkey. They took in a pregnant donkey, and when it gave birth, apparently whoever had it originally mated it with a zebra. No shit. Donkey face, zebra-striped legs. Wild.

On Natalie's actual birthday we had dinner at home. Tacos (her request) and a giant cupcake cake. Nicholas, Rex, Ray and Mitz came for dinner. Lots of fun!

Teddy Bear Tea

Yesterday, Mitz and I took Natalie to her first tea! The Ritz-Carlton in Scottsdale holds a Teddy Bear tea each year during the holidays - Mitz and I love to have regular afternoon tea at the Ritz. They hold the Teddy Bear tea in the grand ballroom - the kids have a special menu (PB&J, ham and cheese sandwiches, hot cocoa), adults have a normal afternoon tea (savory sandwiches and lovely little desserts and scones). The ballroom was beautiful - lots of Christmas trees, the entire ceiling was lit up. The man who is in charge of tea there made an appearance and sang some Christmas carols. Once we ate, the kids went to an adjoining area to hear a story read by Mrs. Claus, then they had a puppet show, and a visit from Santa. Natalie was just wide-eyed through all of it. And even had her own cup of tea in addition to cocoa - "Tea is really good... With LOTS of sugar". And Mr. Teddy Bear made the rounds of the room - he got lots of hugs from Natalie! She also used some of her birthday present money to buy herself a special bear to remember the event.

And I have to give mad props to the Ritz with regards to accommodating Natalie's allergies. I called ahead to let them know - they thanked me, told me we'd have our own table (all parties do - I just wasn't sure since it was in the ballroom) and they'd do what they could to mitigate any risk. When we checked in, I could see our reservation - they put a huge note on it about the allergy. Then we were barely in our seats when the maitre-d' came over to let us know he was aware of her allergies, explained what the items to be served contained (you'd be surprised at how many restaurant staff do NOT know what the dishes contain). I expected them to just serve the ham and cheese to her. Nope. They made special jelly-only sandwiches in addition to the h&c. And since most of the desserts contained nuts, they brought her a dish of ice cream - and would have made her a sundae if she'd wanted one. They also brought her another dish because her first one melted - it was served just before story time, so she didn't get to finish. And they brought her a plate full of huge, fresh strawberries. They were so kind, and so accommodating, and managed it without making a big production about it either. Oh and they also sat us at a table near the door - didn't have a lot of tables close to us either, but we weren't in BFE either - just the best place for us in case of any airborne nut dust.

And now for a little bit of WTF... When I was gone from the table at one point, the maitre-d' mentioned to my mom that there was another nut allergy in the room, but they didn't know until they were seated - they had to strip the table completely and start over. I was flabbergasted. I'm well aware of how serious nut allergies can be, and cannot believe that those parents did not call ahead. The menu for the event was posted on the Ritz's site, so it wasn't as if it were a surprise. Besides the fact that they were playing with fire, that was just so rude to the staff - the event is busy enough without having to scramble to accommodate an allergy at the last minute.

And the icing on the cake? Near the end, a table near us was leaving. The mother made a point of stopping by to tell me how "lovely" Natalie's manners are - and that she was a former teacher so she notices and appreciates well-mannered children. I guess she was near Natalie during the story time/puppet show - some kids were standing up and blocking views, and Natalie was very polite about the whole thing. I was so proud of her! And it made an impression on her as well. I told Jon about it this morning (he got back in the wee hours last night/this morning), and he told me Natalie had already told him all about it!

Yes there are pictures. No they won't be up tonight. Soon.

Happy Birthday, Pops

See you tomorrow - hope you had a wonderful day today!

Love you!

5 year stats!

Natalie had her 5 year check-up today! And because she started kindergarten early, and needed shots prior to school starting, this was a no-shot visit. We were all relieved. :-)

She is:

47.5" tall - off the charts
48 pounds - 97th percentile

Oliver has a new nickname...

I volunteered in Natalie's classroom today - wound up staying the whole day (they got out at 11:45) - her poor teacher was swamped. Holiday party and all that. On a side note, I can't believe I ever thought I wanted to be a teacher. Anyone who works in a school deserves a medal. I needed a drink and a loooooooooooooong nap afterwards. The kids were good and I had a blast, but God, holiday excitement and 29 kids?

Anyway, had Oliver with me because Jon is OOT - N's teacher was fine with that. Most of the day went well - the kids loved him - so much that Mrs. A. would rotate kids assigned to keep an eye on him/keep him happy so I could work a station. Even on the playground, if he was on the equipment, 4 or 5 kids would form a barricade around him so the other K classes didn't trample him. So sweet! Natalie was such a good big sister to him today too - very protective. When we first got there, the kids were watching The Grinch, the desk next to Natalie was empty, so Oliver sat there like a big kid - it was so cute! And he had N's classmates vying to sit next to him at lunch.

Then they got the blocks out. And O got overly excited, tossed a block, and somehow managed to clock two of Natalie's classmates in the head. I wanted to die - he wasn't being mean, just excited, but still... One of them was one of N's friends/neighbors of ours - I know Brooklyn gets picked up, so I just waited with her after school so I could apologize to Lisa (her mom) and let her know if there are any residual issues (hopefully not, she didn't even bruise, TG!) to let me know. I apologized to the other boy and had Oliver hug him and say "sorry".

So several of the other kids started calling Oliver "Evil Baby". And it stuck. I've been calling him that too (affectionately). One of the kids noticed Oliver needed a diaper change "Hey Mrs. Z.... Evil baby has an evil diaper". And if you ask Oliver "Are you Evil Baby?" He nods and says "mmm hmmm". LOL

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

A day late. Ugh. Meant to post yesterday, and got distracted every time!

We love you!

Happy Birthday, Natalie!!

Our baby is 5 today. 5!!! She's so excited too!

Jon woke her up - "How does it feel to be 4?"

She mumbled, groaned a bit. Then he said her eyes popped open - "I'm 5 now, right? Look how BIG I am". :-)

Then she came running down the stairs - "Mommy, I'm 5! I'm 5! I'm 5!!".

Gave her ice cream for breakfast (hey, it's dairy! And she had fruit and a granola bar too, so call off the CPS dogs. I'll wait here for my Mother of the Year award - damn thing never shows).

I'm taking cupcakes to her school later on. Then Mitz (maybe Pops, he's working), Nicholas, Rex and Ray are coming for dinner and cake!

She had a party at a local farm on Sunday - so much fun - more on that later. Too much crap to do today.

But in the meantime - Happy Happy Happy Birthday, sweet girl - we love you more than you could ever know! You bring us so much love and joy - everyone should have a Natalie!

And Happy Birthday to Aunt Annie too!

Ho Ho Ho!

I just realized I didn't post this year's Santa pics here. They are on Facebook, and on our Christmas cards, but I love overkill, AND I still laugh every time I see this. I really need to get on Mitz to scan the one from the late 70's - I'm sitting sweetly like Natalie, and my younger brother Rich is in full-on panic and rage - just like Oliver. :-)

Santa's face kills me here -


And the other one -

Pass the Excedrin

Took the kids to Target yesterday. Because apparently I'm a glutton for punishment, I took them on the usual trip down the toy aisles (OK, I was looking for Zhus Zhus too. I'm the master at sneaking items into or below the cart and paying for them right in front of Natalie, yet she doesn't know what's going on). Oliver spied a baby doll and started yelling "Baybeeeeeeeee" - he over-enunciates "baby" and it's the cutest thing. Natalie handed him the doll. Big mistake. Motion activated. So every time the package got jostled, or Oliver moved, the damn doll would start cooing, or giggling, or crying, or whining. Pretty awful, but it kept him happy. After about ten minutes, Natalie turned to me and said "That toy is ANNOYING. It's giving me a headache" (man, she channels me well). We then conspired to get it away from Oliver with minimal fuss -"I think he really likes it Mommy, you might have to buy it", to which I replied "Do you want to have to listen to that all day, every day?". She looked horrified and said "Let's get it away from him". Took a couple of tries, but we were finally successful. Whew.

Christmas Wishes

"Daddy, I want one of those Zoom-Zoom pets (Zhu Zhu). They run around. You turn on the switch, and they run out of batteries. They are like robots, but very soft".

I don't know why that cracked me up this morning, but it did. FWIW, she's getting her wish - I was able to find the starter kit online (got notice it shipped today. Better be for real!), and the price was normal retail. That will get her started, then after Christmas, when the brick and mortar's restock, she can build her little hamster robot family and environment. They really are cute little things. And guaranteed to make us crazy in ten minutes or less! That's what it's all about! :-)

Morning Rituals

Every morning when we come back to the house from getting Natalie on the bus, Oliver has his own little ritual that cracks me up. He picks up the paper for me, collects a high five. Then he goes up to our standing, light-up Santa, stoops down, gives Santa a kiss, a hug, then sticks his fingers up Santa's nose and says "neh neh neh neh". Never fails to crack me up.

Now that it's almost Christmas...Thanksgiving!

Can't believe I forgot that. Still have to get pictures up. Anyway... It was a very nice day! The kids were wound up from the get-go, but we all survived the day. Went to church in the morning, then to Mitz and Pops' for dinner. Aunt Jamie, Uncle Mike and Aunt Joan were there. The food was great, everyone behaved, couldn't ask for more! Oliver loved the whipped cream. :-) Aunt Jamie took the kids to the park to burn off some energy - God love her.

I'll try to get my pics up.

Party prep

Natalie's birthday invitations came today, and she's so excited to pass them out at school tomorrow. As I was snuggling her before bed tonight, we had the following conversation:

Me - "I'm going to go in a minute so I can address your invitations"
Natalie - "OK. Kevin Y has a lot of boogers in his nose. We're going to have to bring a lot of tissues"
Me - "OK, thanks for telling me"
Natalie - "It's really gross. You should see it. I'm just letting you know".

LOL

And as an extra bonus.... Just before I left her room, she asked what Mary's husband's name is. I told her Joseph. She said "Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure Joseph likes to play soccer".

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

My favorite time of year! We're going to start decorating the house today. I finally caved the other day, and bought an artificial tree. That was a really tough decision (and yes, when I called Jon from Walmart to tell him about a tree I found, I was crying), but we just can't keep a live tree alive in AZ. Even waiting until ten days before Christmas, turning off the heat vent near the tree, watering, preservatives, all that, the damn things die. So I sucked it up. Jon is quite happy, but God love him, he isn't gloating. :-) Anyway..... Here's our little piece of holiday magic from this morning.

Jon has the tree out of the box, and is starting to put it up. Natalie's looking for all the blue lights (we like multi lights on our tree), Oliver's in awe, pointing and saying "Tree! Tree!". And I'm hovering, bitching and still a little bitter about our fake tree. :-)

Me - "That looks really scrawny. The display didn't look like that in the store. It was more full. Are you sure it's going to look OK?"

Jon - "Yes, it's going to be fine. It isn't even halfway up"

Me - "I don't know. It's kind of scrawny"

Jon - *less patiently* "It's going to be FINE"

Me - "I don't know. It looks kind of Charlie Brown to me"

Natalie - "It's not BROWN. It's GREEN"

Me - "WHATEVER"
" Did you put her up to that?"

Natalie - *indignantly* "NO he DIDN'T. I put MYSELF up to that!".

For the record, it's looking better, and he's still not finished. Mitz says I'll adjust and be glad we did it, but I don't know. I am glad we can have a tree up for longer than usual, but this is just really hard for me. Silly, but it is.

Speaking of Natalie-isms... This made me laugh the other day. I bought a new carton of ice cream, and we were having it for dessert. I went to take some recycling out, and as I came back in, I heard some drama. I asked what was going on.

Natalie - "Daddy won't let me lick the lid!" I let her lick the lid if the ice cream is for family consumption only - wouldn't do it if we were serving to guests - but for us? Eh. She's only a kid once, let her lick the lid - it makes her so happy. Jon isn't thrilled with that.

Me - "Oh for God's sake. Let her lick the lid! She's only a kid once!"

Natalie - so earnestly - "Yeah, Daddy. I'm still learning!".

Irony

Natalie wanted to wear one of her new shirts. It's pretty much all white, with a big panda on the front of it. I just told her to be careful with it at school, because it would be hard to bleach; normally I don't sweat dirt on clothes.

So, she gets off the school bus, we're walking up our drive, and she says "Look Mommy, I didn't get my shirt dirty!"....

As she's dragging her sleeve across the back of Jon's filthy car.

LOL

Beginning reading

Natalie is starting to pick up a lot of sight words. She's also starting to read more and more, and it is so cool to see! She has one favorite book that she reads to us every night - Super Fly Guy. She can read more than 3/4 of it on her own - the rest she has memorized - but when we sense that she isn't actually reading, but relying on memory, we back up and have her actually read the words and sound out what she doesn't know. I love hearing her read - it's just the neatest thing in the world.

Also, finally got the pictures uploaded. September and October are combined, and I left Halloween in there as opposed to breaking it out. Lazy. And you'll notice in some of the last pictures, Oliver has an enormous pile of candy in front of him. Thank his big sis. Mitz, Jon and I were all talking about something, weren't paying attention, then I happened to notice how quiet the kids were (rarely a good sign). Yep. Natalie had emptied all that candy out in front of him, and Mr. Sweet Tooth was going to town. And she wonders why he idolizes her! :-)

Christmas Time

A Natalie original song -

"Christmas time
Christmas time
it's the greatest time
it's the greatest time.
You get ice cream
and Mommy makes a roast
which stinks up the house*
And Santa will poop in your stocking
if you have bad behavior.**

*she's referring to the poorly executed browning of the prime rib last year. AKA the Great Mesa Smoke-Out-the-House.

**Not one of my finer parenting moments.

Tardy

Natalie just informed us "if you are late to school, you need a tardy pass".

I said "Yes, but Mommy and Daddy work hard to make sure you are always on time for school".

Natalie said "Oh man. I want a tardy pass for the first time" - I believe she's referring to that as a "first", as in "first tooth, first day of school, etc..". Then goes on to tell us that "Kevin M gets lots of tardy passes, but not today". There's some logic in there somewhere, I'm sure of it, but damned if I can figure it out!

Halloween

Nothing like posting about Halloween well into November. :-)

We had a great time! Jon, Natalie and I were pirates, Oliver was a parrot. He loved his costume! And we found out that dude has quite the sweet tooth. He didn't meet a piece of candy he didn't like. Poor, deprived child hadn't had much candy prior to Halloween. Uncle Mike came over, and he and I took Natalie, Oliver and Natalie's friend Trinity out trick-or-treating. We met up with Natalie's other friend, Alicia, and her family, and had a great time walking around together. This year was a bit of a letdown, in that so many houses were dark in our neighborhood - last year there was a much more festive vibe. Our block was even deader than it was last year, but Trinity's street, which was the party street last year, was fairly quiet too. The kids got a lot of candy, but I was disappointed at how quiet it was overall. Jon went over to Trinity's house to hang out with her parents and pass out our candy, and it's a good thing. We were the only house on our half of our block that had candy - he would have been sitting out there in the dark with no one around.

Anyway, Oliver rode in the wagon for most of it, but towards the end, he got out and would trot up to people's doors with his bucket and hold it out for his candy - he got the hang of it pretty quickly. He tried to double-dip a couple of times, though. Good thing he's cute - no one got mad and he was indulged every time he tried, despite me trying to discourage it.

After that we went back to Trinity's house and hung out for a while. Everyone had a blast!

Pictures will be up at some point.

Student of the Week

And yeah, I'll get to Halloween tomorrow. Need to finish uploading pics... Anyway!

Natalie's teacher selects one student each week to be SOTW. The Friday prior to their week, they are sent home with a poster sized piece of paper that they can decorate however they want - pictures, etc. Then the student presents it to the class. There are a bunch of other activities that go along with it too - her teacher's intent is to get the students to really know each other - fosters friendships and a better classroom environment, and she found it discourages bullying when the students know more about each other. Anyway, one of the activities is each student draws a picture, and states something they like about the SOTW. Natalie's packet was sent home today - so cute. Most of the kids said things like "I like Natalie because she talks to me" or "she plays with me". My favorites were these -

"I like Natalie because she makes me feel better when I'm sad".

Then Lexi's - "I like Natalie because she likes to play at my house" - Natalie has never been to Lexi's house. They are good friends though - Lexi is very sweet.

And the best? Joey's. Natalie's "boyfriend".

"I like Natalie because she's cute".

I swear she swooned when I read that out loud.

First singalong

Oliver sang along to a song for the first time tonight - it was so cute! He does motions with me to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and The Itsy Bitsy Spider, but hasn't really sung anything yet. He's a big fan of Dora the Explorer, but he doesn't sit and watch very much of any show, so I didn't think he took that much in. Well today, when the Map song came on, he got all excited, dragged a little chair up to the TV and sat there and sang "map" along with the song. I got a video of it (love DVR - I was able to rewind the song). I'll try to post that here. They take forever to upload.

Oliver - 18 months

Oliver had his 18 month check-up Thursday. Turned into a sick visit, so no vacs until this week, but they did take his stats.

37 inches tall - off the charts
31 pounds - 97th percentile
22" head circumference - off the charts

He got the stomach bug that Natalie had early last week. Hers was 24 hours. He's still not back to normal. He hasn't vomited since Friday night, but he's very fussy, not eating or drinking much, and nap/bed times are a nightmare. We're hoping he's turned a corner and tomorrow be better. He perks up during the day, just fatigues easily.

First report card

Natalie did very well! She's where she should be, and in some areas (math is one of them!!) ahead. Her teacher says she is shy in class, so she's seated next to two of the outgoing boys in class - Austin and Joey. Apparently that is the coveted spot. That's my girl! :-)

We were told she makes friends easily, and can seamlessly join a group already in progress. She's trustworthy, kind and nice. Showing some Type A, strong need for perfection, and gets frustrated when things aren't "perfect". We see some of that at home, but not to the extent that it shows up in school, so we're continuing to stress that as long as she gives her best effort, that's what we want - we don't need or expect things to be "perfect".

Great start to the year!

Baltimore!

And oops. I didn't realize how long it had been since I updated. I was sick, Natalie was sick, got distracted and there you have it.

Last week was Natalie's Fall Break, so we went to Baltimore to see my family and friends. We stayed with our friends Lynette, Derek and their son Austin, as usual. Austin will be 12 in a few days (can't believe it!!) and is Natalie's new idol. He has a really neat school set-up in their basement, and he gave Natalie classes every night. He really went all out - researched kindergarten worksheets online for Natalie to complete, gave her homework, a grade, and honestly just in that week, I'm seeing an improvement in her handwriting and also math. He also made a website for his "school". Natalie had a blast!

We spent a lot of time with my grandfather, Dee-Da. This is the first time he (and actually everyone we saw in Baltimore) met Oliver. We ate steamed crabs (and crab dip and crab cakes, and I got a couple pizza subs) until they came out our ears! Oliver LOVED them! We couldn't get the meat out of the shells fast enough for either kid. We also got to attend the monthly Karaoke Night at Dee-Da's senior apartment complex. He started it, and it has pretty decent attendance each month. He sang 4 or 5 songs, and had a whole table full of fans - our AZ contingent, his nieces Ellen and Eleanor, and great-nephew Jeffrey - they usually go each month. The kids were a hit at his complex too - Natalie even scored a huge ice cream sundae just for hugging the lounge manager at karaoke. :-) Both of them were so friendly, and Natalie really went out of her way to talk to and hug Dee-Da's neighbors - you could tell so many of them are lonely and really enjoyed being around young kids.

We went to Annapolis to visit Great-Gramma Bev and her boyfriend, Tony. We had a lot of fun visiting them, and Beverly was just glowing around the kids. We had a nice lunch, and then took the kids down to the water - Bev and my late grandfather's house is literally right up the street from the Bay. The kids ran around, played on the playground and just had a blast. Tony's daughter came over to meet us as well - really, really nice woman, which is no surprise because Tony is an absolute sweetheart of a man. Bev says she's (and maybe Tony) going to visit next year, and we intend to hold her to it! Natalie loved going to her house and spending time with her. Oliver too, he just can't tell us in so many words. :-)

My godfather/Great-Uncle Bill had a stroke a few weeks ago, and was still in the hospital when we were in town. I wanted him to meet Oliver (he met Natalie a couple of times on past visits), but the hospitals decided to ban visitors under 17 starting that week. Go figure. So I took Dee-Da over there since he hadn't been able to get to see Uncle Bill yet. Uncle Bill was doing remarkably well! Sitting up, able to dress and feed himself, and was speaking really well. He'd kind of lose his train of thought at times, and that was clearly frustrating for him, but really, I was impressed at how well he was doing so soon after a stroke. He looked great, sounded the same, and was really happy to see us. He and Dee-Da traded stories for a while - some I'd heard before, others I hadn't, and it was a nice way to spend part of the afternoon. Bittersweet for sure, because many of the stories included my grandmother and godmother/Great-Aunt, but really fun to hear too. He was actually moved to a rehab facility the next day (the hospital was pushing to discharge, even though he still needs 24/7 care. Assholes), and hopefully he won't need to stay long).

We also saw my other Great-Uncle, Uncle George. He was my paternal grandmother's (Dee-Da's wife) youngest brother. He was always known as the Grouch, but I've always had a big soft spot for him. We went out to lunch, and had a great time. Unfortunately we missed Aunt Betty, but it was great seeing Uncle George. He got a kick out of the kids, and they got away with way more than my cousins and I would have at their age. I jokingly pointed that out, and he laughed. :-) Then he gave his trademark "How would you like a size 11.5 up your behind" and all was right with the world.

Went out to dinner at a good, local sports bar/restaurant, Padonia Station. My brother Rich and SIL Christie joined us. I just about got our server to spit in Rich's beer before she served it to him, but she opted against it. After dinner, I really wished she had, because Rich farted on my arm outside the restaurant. I'll get him back.

I also got to see one of my best friends, Colleen, her SO Tim, and their daughter MacKenzie. She's just about 3.5 and an absolute doll. I can't believe she's that old already - one of our past trips back there was to throw Colleen a baby shower!

I think those are the highlights. If I think of more, I'll edit. Oh and it was COLD!! Before we left, projected daytime highs were mid-upper 60s, which is tolerable. By Wednesday it was 50, by that afternoon raining. The rest of the week was 45 for the high and rain, rain, rain. I finally had to give in and go to Target to get flannel pj pants and a thermal top. When we got back to Phoenix, it was 104 - quite a change!

Have some kid updates... I'll get to those tomorrow. I also need to get September pictures up. Will try to this weekend. I'm going to go ahead and post Baltimore, since I know for sure those are all up and corrected.

Matchmaking, drama and good behavior!

All about Natalie today!

Matchmaking -

Last week, she came up to me with a picture of Will and Maggie, and told me "Mommy, I think Will should marry baby Maggie when he grows up. Isn't that a good idea? We could send them a card."

Drama -

She's been telling me that she loves Joey in her class, and is going to marry him, but Joey doesn't know any of this. Then this morning, she told me that Brooke has been chasing Joey at recess. I said "Oh, she must like him!". She said "Brooke's a witch".

Good Behavior!

Last week was the first week her new teacher started her good behavior rewards program. The kids get an index card each week, and every day that they have a good day, they get a stamp. If they get five stamps each week, they get to pick something from the treasure chest! Natalie got her five stamps last week, and got to pick something! She chose a Matchbox police car and loves it! We're so proud of her!

Oh, one more.... I had lunch with her last week. One of her classmates, Austin (nice kid), sat on her other side. He told me "Natalie likes me A LOT. REALLY A LOT". I laughed and said that's nice. Then he proceeded to poke her and needle her (nicely) throughout the rest of lunch. I was laughing to myself - I think he has who likes who backwards.

Writing letters

Natalie has been on a writing kick since starting school, so we spend a lot of time spelling out words she would like to write. K's are hard for her, so I usually do a dot outline for her.

Natalie: I'm not very good at some letters
Me: That's OK, no one expects you to be perfect, it takes practice!
Natalie: Daddy does
Me: He does not
Natalie: Yes he does, he won't do the dots for K.
Me: Well, next time.... (I was going to tell her to ask him to be patient and help her out)
Natalie: Just ignore him.

Bear hugs

Oliver gave me his first real hug today, and my heart melted. He's been snuggling in, or will come up to you and let you hug him if you ask, but today he started really hugging. A couple of times he threw both arms around me, squeezed tight and snuggled his sweet head in my neck. *sigh*

Dude strikes again

He's full of it lately! Just now he ran over to the counter, grabbed my purse off. Dug my keys out and took off. Before I could catch him, he started playing with the Brinks remote and set off the house alarm. LOL

Good lord

Natalie and Oliver were playing while I caught up with a few things. All of a sudden, Oliver came up to me with an empty beer bottle (that he fished out of the recycling), stuck it in my face and said "Cheers"! Ay yi yi. I'm glad I make Jon rinse them! "Cheers" is his favorite thing right now. He likes to do multiple "Cheers" at dinner, and he'll also have you do a "Cheers" with food. Silly kid! He also likes to lift up his shirt and poke his bellybutton saying "beep beep", then he goes after mine!

Yep. I'm bragging.

I met Natalie's new (permanent) teacher this afternoon - really like her. Anyway, I knew Natalie is well-behaved at school, but was so proud of what her teacher told me today. She told me that Natalie is wonderful, and very helpful in the classroom, including with the other kids at her table - if they need help with instructions or didn't hear part of them, Natalie will give them a hand. And her behavior chart had a whole bunch of smiley face stickers! I was also told that Natalie is one of the kids her teacher uses as an example of good behavior to the rest of the class!

"Mommy, I have my first boyfriend!"

"Oh yeah?"

N - "Yeah. Joey. He's my boyfriend."
Me - "How do you know? Did he say that?"
N - "Noooo. I'm his girlfriend and he's my boyfriend. I like his hair. I like his clothes. I like his voice. He has blue eyes like mine. And he's nice."

And here we go...... LOL

Overgaard - Labor Day

We took the kids to Overgaard for the long weekend to get away from the heat! We had a lot of fun! I was pretty sick, but kept up. Drove up Friday night, didn't do much since we got there at 5. Unpacked, kids to bed, then we ate (the kids ate in the car).

Saturday we walked around in the morning, collected pinecones, went to Natalie's favorite rock shop, then it started raining, so we went in for lunch and a nap for Oliver. Natalie and I went back out and walked around for a while. She made friends with the boy whose family was staying next to us, so she showed off for him while he hung out on their balcony. Once Oliver got up, we went to a nice park nearby and let the kids play. Had dinner, baths, bed.

Sunday Jon took Natalie fishing (not so much as a nibble), and Oliver and I just went outside. I let him lead me wherever he wanted to go. He was having so much fun running around and exploring - it's been too hot this summer to go to parks, so this weekend was the most time he's had outside since Spring. He was squealing and laughing, pointing things out, then he'd start running and letting out this funny little happy yell. We met up with Jon and Natalie, had lunch, then Natalie and I hit the pool while Oliver napped. Took the kids for an ice cream cone so we could spoil their dinner. :-) Natalie was also given some really pretty stones from a jeweler who is on the property - she calls him "The Cowboy" - and always in this hushed, awed tone. Afterwards, the kids played in the hallway between the two units with Natalie's new friend Alex and a couple of his brothers.

Came home Monday. Yikes. Hell of a drive. Should have taken an hour from Overgaard to Payson - took about 3. Had our 2nd worst lunch ever in Payson (the worst was there too), then walked and looked at some shops to kill some time/wait out traffic. It had been raining pretty heavily, and we came across a big, deep puddle. I let the kids go to town in it - they were SOAKED! Jon went to bring the car around, and while he was gone, I got in the puddle with the kids. Oh his face when he drove up. The three of us changed and we were on our way home.

Summer Pictures

I went through and manually edited tons of pictures this evening - from July/August. Once I posted them here, I noticed that all the red-eye correction I did (which took a couple of hours) is gone. This is the second time Shutterfly has done this. I'm pretty pissed. I'll go back over the next couple of days, fix them AGAIN and repost the link. For now, if you look at the pictures they'll suck because of all the red-eyes.

ETA: They are fixed now.

Instigator

We're in the mountains this weekend - Overgaard again.

Jon was attempting to change Oliver's diaper this morning, and O was having none of it. After he was cleaned, and before the new diaper went on, he started kicking and bucking, laughing his head off. I swear, his little rear got at least several inches off the ground. Natalie noticed the commotion, came over and started chanting "That's it, Oliver! Now that's the spirit!".

Other than that, we're having a nice weekend! You know you're an Arizonan when you go away on a trip and are actually glad to have cooler, cloudy/rainy weather!

"I had to get used to him"

Natalie just gave Oliver a picture she drew of them in school today. He kissed it, so she was in raptures - "Oh, you love it! Mommy, he loves his picture!". I said "Of course he does! He loves his big sister!".

She gave him a big hug and said "You are the best brother EVER!". I jokingly said "See, he's not so bad". She said "Yeah, he's not so bad. I just had to get used to him".

Update - I think I need to take her temperature. She asked him if he wanted her to share toys, he nodded yes. I thought she'd bring out some random toys. Oh no. She wheeled out her tea cart with her most special stuffed animals and told him to pick out one. Jon's going to have to come pick me up off the floor. We'll see how long this lasts!

Happy Birthday, Jon!

Today is Jon's birthday! Natalie and I made a cake - Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake with Perfectly Chocolate frosting - great recipe - it is on the back of the Hershey's powdered cocoa container. Natalie decorated it herself (I frosted it), and Oliver had a great time licking the frosting spoon and beater (N got one too!). His whole face was dark brown - and the wooden spoon was completely soaked from him sucking on it. :-)

Mitz and Pops came over and we had pizza, cake and ice cream. Tomorrow Mitz is going to babysit so we can go out. So it's shaping up to be a fun weekend!

I have pictures. Will try to get them up this weekend. Although I still haven't posted July's, so we'll see. Yeesh. I'm behind.

Out of the mouths of babes

One of Natalie's classmates lives one street over from us. Her parents and older brother sometimes have to scramble to meet her bus in the afternoon, so I've told them they can always call me, and I can bring Alicia home with us until they can get here.

Today, no one was there to meet Alicia (unusual, her mom would call if she anticipated a problem), so I brought her with us, and called her mom. Her older brother was running down the street as I called. Alicia and Natalie were playing in the playroom, and Natalie didn't want Alicia to go. After they left, Natalie was still disappointed, so I told her that Alicia's brother had to run all the way from the high school (a good 2 miles at least, and it's hot as hell today, and humid to boot), and needed to go home and rest - the poor kid was covered in sweat.

Natalie very matter-of-factly told me "He should have taken a taxi".

Photobombing

Oliver photobombed Natalie today! She asked me to take a picture of her and her teddy. I got out the camera, and once she started saying "Cheese", Oliver came running, saying "cheese" himself, and got in the shot just as the picture was taken. Jon and I think it's hilarious; Natalie, not so much.

Are you there God, it's me, Natalie

Had to take Natalie to get a booster she was missing today, per the school/AZ regulations. On the way there, she was pointing out clouds and assigning shapes to them. She noticed one big, fluffy cloud and asked me if that was where heaven is. I told her that it was very possible.

So then she cupped her hands around her mouth, and bellowed:

"HEY JESUS. HEY GOD. ARE YOU GUYS UP THERE ON THAT BIG, FLUFFY CLOUD?".

Waited a second, then she told me "Jesus said yes, their* are".

*She frequently uses "their" in place of "they". I really should correct that, but she has so few language mix-ups these days, that I find it endearing. She'll learn soon enough. I noticed today that she is using more grown-up phrases. She was telling me about the two doors in her classroom. I would have expected her to say "this door goes to this room", but she said "one door leads to the bathroom and the other door leads to the hall". Maybe it's not a big deal, but I thought using the phrase "leads to" was pretty grown-up!

First day of school!

Natalie's first day of kindergarten was yesterday. She loves it! Every night she can't wait until the next morning so she can go back. She loves her teacher, loves her classmates. She made friends with another girl in our neighborhood who is in her class, while waiting for the bus this morning. She loves riding the school bus, although she thinks the big kids are a little loud. And she really likes buying lunch in the cafeteria.

I was a bit of a wreck yesterday, but now that we have two full days under our belts, I'm way less anxious.

In just two days we can already see a difference. She seems a little more grown-up (most of the time. Had a mother of a tantrum tonight), and is speaking more clearly, using much longer sentences, and relating experiences with much more detail.

She also had a boy in her class give her a pretty rock today. And a new boy joined, and she told me she is going to marry him because "that's what you do with new boy students". Alrighty then! :-)

Here are a couple of pictures from her first day. She's very proud of her Ni Hao Kai Lan backpack and lunch sack, and her Twinkle Toes Sketchers. :-) I bought her a school shirt today, and she's so excited to wear it! I think part of the excitement is the school tee-shirts are black with bright blue logos - I don't allow her to wear black (unless it's pants), so I got thwarted!

I'll also get July pictures up at some point. Maybe over the weekend.

Meet the Teacher

Natalie had Meet the Teacher at her school last night! We had a great time! Her classroom is really nice - big, bright, cheery, lots of things to do. We spent some time in her classroom, then headed over to the cafeteria. Once there, I started talking to a couple that was nearby - I remembered seeing them in the classroom. Well, Natalie and Brooklyn hit it off immediately. I think they might be two peas in a pod. Similar haircut, both are tomboys and love sports.... And even better? They live in our neighborhood! And the mom is a SAHM as well - she's due with her second any day now. There is also another girl with a nut allergy in Natalie's class, and she's looking forward to meeting her - this way she'll know someone at the "nut free" table in the cafeteria.

Checked out the library with Brooklyn and her parents - the girls had a blast and got chastised twice. Oops. Stopped by the health office to drop off N's emergency kit and fill out the paperwork. The nurse and health assistant are wonderful. Natalie loves them, and had me write a note to them from her this morning, which we took over to the school. The assistant seemed really touched! I have such a sweet girl - the note said - and she dictated -"Dear Nurses, I love you. Thank you for taking care of me. I'm glad there's a doctor's office there. Love, Natalie".

Looking forward to Natalie starting her new adventure! She's raring to go - she's looking forward to buying lunch some days and riding the bus, as well as making new friends! I'm a little teary thinking about it, and will probably be more teary tomorrow, but she's going to have a blast, and she'll do well.

"Daddy, change Oliver's diaper"

"He pooped".

I love how Natalie knows how the division of labor goes in this house, when Jon isn't traveling!

Hit the road, Jack

When we sold my old Nissan to Carmax a couple of years ago, we couldn't find the spare keys. They turned up months later, too late to turn them in. Wound up giving them to Natalie to play with.

Oliver dug them out of a toy bin today and came running out of the playroom. He flashed me a grin, waved the keys in one hand, waved at me with the other, and ran for the front door saying "Bye! Bye! Bye!". It was so funny - he looked so pleased with himself!

Proud mama

Took the kids to get their hair cut yesterday. Oliver went first, Natalie was playing with the train tables. By the time she got called back, she was in a shitastic mood (probably hungry, it was close to lunchtime, and she had been trying to play nicely/share with a younger boy, but he was being a total brat and I think she'd finally had enough, but still). No major tantrum, but I had to put her in the chair, and she glared the whole time. Storm cloud face, wouldn't say a word except about how much she hated the glitter the woman put in her hair (for the record, it was really fine, like pixie dust, and looked so cute in the sun). Then was pissed because I wouldn't buy her a toy as we were leaving. As if.

Took them to IHOP for lunch, as it was next door. She perked up after eating, and was very chatty/polite with an old couple across from us - rare for her - she's cautious around strangers. As we were leaving, she told me "I'm really sorry for being mean in the hair place. I'm SO sorry. I'm very sorry". I told her I forgave her, then told her that she really made that old couple's day by speaking to them so nicely (they mentioned that they missed having little ones around).

Then she looked at me and said "Mommy, could you take me back to the hair place so I can tell that lady I'm sorry?". I told her sure, absolutely. Wasn't expecting much because I expected her to get shy - I was just impressed that she even thought to do that. Damned if she didn't walk in, go up to Crystal (the lady who cut their hair) and said "I'm sorry for being mean to you. I really like my haircut". This other woman's kids were just finishing up - she was there when Natalie got pissy - we were commiserating over girly attitudes. She asked how I got Natalie to do that, and I told her I had nothing to do with it - it was her idea. She commented "Many adults wouldn't come back and do that".

I was in tears. Seriously heart bursty - just so very, very proud of her. We all know how difficult it can be to apologize and admit when we are wrong - that she did it of her own volition, and to a stranger no less, just bowled me over. I gave her lots of positive praise of course - I wanted her to know that I know apologizing when we are wrong isn't an easy thing to do, but it is the right thing, and very very grown-up.

Later that evening, oh-so-earnestly, she told me "Mommy, I was really proud of you today for taking us to have brekkus (breakfast) for lunch".

God, I love that child.

Guardian angel

Natalie was given a small figurine as a baby. It has an infant (probably supposed to be Jesus, although the baby is wearing pink, no matter) on a bed of straw, with an angel at its feet. It plays "O Holy Night". She put it in Oliver's room, and told me this:

"Mommy, do you know why I put this in Oliver's room?"
"No, why?"
"Because Oliver is the baby in the manger, I mean crib and the other one is...."
"His guardian angel watching over him?"
"No. That's ME watching over him".

I'd say he's in pretty good hands!

"Daddy, you have to see my waffle popper"

Jon - "waffle popper?"
Natalie - "Yeah, my waffle popper"
Jon - *confused look*
Me - *lightbulb*
Me - "toaster?" - good thing I was there to translate. :-P
Natalie "Oh yeah, right. My toaster".

She reorganized her play kitchen yesterday. It looks great! Wonder how long that will last?

Natalie Post

Just now at breakfast -

Natalie - "Oliver, could you start eating like a big boy?"
Oliver - *evil grin, shakes his head no"
Natalie - "Aw, c'mooooon Oliver, please eat like a big boy. Please don't throw your food, or take mine, and please share yours."
Oliver - *grins, nods yes*
Natalie - "That's my good boy. Good baby".

On a side note, Oliver has been able to communicate "no" by shaking his head, in context, for months now. Just lately, he's been able to nod "yes", in context, and it is the cutest thing! He can't control just his head, so basically he nods his whole body, with the cutest grin! I had forgotten just how cool it is when the synapses start firing, and they start being able to communicate well. Love it!

He's also down to just one more tooth to cut, and you can see it, it just hasn't popped. Once he has his left cuspid, that's it until the 2nd year and 6th year molars! He has quite the set of choppers. As the marks on my arm from our trip to Costco yesterday prove. He doesn't bite aggressively, but yesterday, he was taking my arm and chomping down and laughing. I think he's seen the "Don't bite your friends" Yo Gabba Gabba episode once too often. Doesn't help that Natalie and I sing the little song over and over again, laughing our heads off. One of the characters will have a piece of food and sing "Chomp chomp chomp?", the others sing "Yes, yes yes". Then the character will grab one of his friend's arms and say "Bite, bite bite?", the rest sing "No, no no". Never fails to crack me up.

"Mommy, smell Oliver's breath"

For some reason, that phrase struck a little fear in my heart. Haha! This morning, Natalie came up to me and we had the following conversation:

"Mommy, smell Oliver's breath"
"Why?"
"Just do it, it's a special surprise"
"What did he eat?"
"*giggle* It's a surprise - it was brown and round"

*at this, I really started to get a little scared*

"Did he eat poop?"
"Just smell his breath"

So I did, no poop breath, couldn't smell much at all, thanks to my allergies.

"I can't smell anything, what did he eat?"
"I gave him a Whopper"
"You gave him what?" - she has a secret stash of candy in her playroom. She doesn't eat it often, and never without asking, so I don't stress about it. She keeps it packed for Girl Scouts. LOL
"I gave him a Whopper. Just one. He LOVED it!"

Then they had a Whopper picnic on the floor.

My little partner in crime

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my daughter? :-P

I've been jonesing for Fiesta Ware for a while. Our every day dishes haven't held up all that well, and as they break, they are fairly expensive to replace, and on top of that, need to be special-ordered. Mitz, Natalie, Oliver and I went shopping yesterday, and we walked past a Fiesta Ware display. One of the colors I want is turquoise, which is Natalie's favorite color. I mentioned to my mom that if I start buying new dishes, Jon is going to kill me.

So today, at lunch, when Natalie left the table, Oliver reached out, grabbed her placemat , dropped a bowl on the floor, and it shattered. I was pissed for about half a second (just in general, not at Oliver), then said "That's OK. I won't replace it. The sooner these all break, the sooner I can get Fiesta Ware", tongue-in-cheek (or was it? *evil grin*) Got the eyeroll and "don't tell them that" from Jon.

Then Natalie pipes up with "Awwwww c'mooooooon Daddy. Don't be mad when Mommy buys new dishes. They are going to be blue, and look really cool".

That's my girl!

And my other girl.... I sent a link to my mom last night to a site that has great prices on Fiesta Ware (she wants to help with my as of yet imaginary collection for holiday gifts). She replied "Does Jon want a place setting for his birthday?". LMAO. I told her of course he would! :-P

"The beautiful one has to go potty"

said Natalie just now.

LOL

(she was in the middle of playing with her dress-up clothes. Prior to needing a bathroom break, she told me that she is dressing up so she can be beautiful. And she gave me a mini-tap dance show.)

15 month check-up

34.5 inches - off the charts
29.5 pounds - 97th (he dropped a couple pounds - probably from his recent tummy bug and also increased activity.
Head is 20 inches - off the charts.

Oliver has a charming new trick. He sticks both index fingers in his nose, and walks around doing this nasal chant - I have no idea how to replicate it phonetically. And this morning I caught him swiping some of Natalie's breakfast - he's all nonchalant, doesn't look at her plate, slowly reaches out, then shovels her food in his mouth. When I caught his eye, he grinned.

He is also fond of launching his dinner plate from the table. That's particularly charming. Last night he launched almost a full plate of chicken, zucchini and mac and cheese. Natalie said she can't talk to him any more because he's a pig. LOL

Finagling already

Last night Natalie informed me that the reason she doesn't stay dry overnight is because she doesn't have a "bapproom" in her room. "And maybe when we buy a new house (buh?) I can have a room with my own bapproom. I could have the biggest room, and you could have the smaller without a bapproom, is that OK Mommy?".

4th of July/vacation!

We just got back from a week long vacation in Overgaard, AZ. AKA Heber Overgaard - the two towns run into each other, both are small, and are often referred to together. We had a nice, relaxing trip! I'm listing out what we did, more for Natalie and Oliver, as each year, I'm having our blog made into a book so they'll have it when they are older.

We arrived in town on Thursday, July 2. Didn't do much - unpacked, got a pizza. While waiting for the pizza (there is a restaurant/saloon on the property), I noticed someone eating wings that looked awesome. Made a mental note to go back for some over the weekend. Our unit had two bedrooms and a Murphy bed in the living room. Put the kids in a room together. Epic fail. At 2 a.m., we were jolted out of bed by banging and laughing. Went in their room - Oliver was standing in the crib, banging on the closet doors. He'd look to Natalie for approval, she'd laugh, then he'd crack up. Over and over. Jon finally hauled the crib into our room. O partied a bit longer, then finally settled down. The next morning, Natalie told us "I want to always share a room with Oliver. He's funny!". For the rest of the trip, Jon and I took the Murphy bed -we all slept better.

Friday - took the kids to the playground, went swimming, low-key day. Sent Jon out for wings once the kids went to bed. They ran out of food (the hell?) and closed the kitchen at 6.

Saturday - 4th of July! Got up, checked out the arts and crafts festival on the property, bought some killer fudge. Headed out to stake a spot for the parade. The parade was nice. Natalie was miffed that no one threw candy - it was mainly fire trucks spraying the crap out of people, and floats with people spraying the onlookers, but fun all the same! Went back to the festival on the property, took the kids to the petting zoo that was set up there. Both of them loved it! Even Oliver did well with the animals - overall he was pretty gentle with them. Had dinner, then I stayed back with Oliver, while Natalie and Jon went to the fireworks in town. Jon said it was one of the best shows he's seen. It was in a canyon on the Rim, and the sound echoed off the walls. Apparently Natalie fell asleep during the finale. LOL. I wound up having a fun evening too! I went grocery shopping before we left on Thursday, and mentioned to the front end manager (who I talk to all the time) that we were heading north for the week. She asked where, I told her, and she told me she was going to Overgaard for the weekend too! Her son is a firefighter there. So she came over to our place Saturday night - once Oliver went to bed, we sat on the balcony and had some drinks and snacks. Always fun to make new friends!

Sunday - Natalie woke up sick - vomited once. Low energy off and on all day, so we didn't do much. Went to the pool for a bit. She perked up in the afternoon, so I took her to the bigger park in town that also had an arts and crafts festival - they had a number of bounce houses set up, so she went on all of those. We also took the granddaughter of the woman who works at the general store on the property. We've been there 3 times, and she actually remembered us! I walked in the store Thursday afternoon with Oliver and she said "Wow, he got big and you shrank!". I was amazed she remembered us - we hadn't been there since October. Anyway, before we left for the park we saw her and her granddaughter, mentioned where we were headed, Destiny said she wanted to go. I pulled Susan aside, asked if she wanted me to take her, and off we went! Natalie enjoyed having company! Sent Jon out for wings. The kitchen closed at 2 that day. Jesus.

Monday, Natalie was better. Unfortunately, I wasn't. I woke up sick as hell. Like her, vomited once. I couldn't really get out of bed though, just had no energy at all - everytime I tried, I fell back asleep. Jon took the kids to get fishing supplies and then swimming. I got up around 11, showered, and took Natalie for a pony ride that I had promised her. That did me in. My body ached so badly - right down to the bone. I went back, went to bed, woke up at 5 in a cold sweat, no pain - must have had a fever, which broke while I was sleeping. After that I was fine.

Tuesday - Jon took Natalie fishing - there's a catch and release pond on the property. They had a lot of fun! Jon caught four fish. Natalie had one on the line - they saw it, but as she tried to reel it in, it got away. I took Oliver in town for a bit, then he and I went swimming. He's a little fish! Both kids are! They had a kiddie pool which was great for both of them - they could have at it much easier than they can at our pool at home. Natalie is learning depth, and how to read the signs, so she told us the kiddie pool was "1 deep down". Had lunch, got Oliver down for a nap. Took Natalie for another pony ride, but as soon as she got seated, her nose sprung a leak. Couldn't get the nosebleed to stop and since it was hot out, we decided to go ahead to the club/rec center on the property and play Bingo, then go back for her pony ride. We didn't win at Bingo - played against two older women who had stacks of cards in front of them (LOL), but Natalie got a consolation prize - a little baggie full of all kinds of neat things! And I was so proud of her - the first thing she did was pick out two things that she wanted to give to Oliver. Went swimming again once Oliver got up, had dinner, kids to bed. Jon got wings. Finally. And guess what? They looked great, but kind of sucked. Figures.

Wednesday - Oliver's turn to be sick, and the poor guy is still kind of sick. :-( He threw up once in the morning, then seemed OK - crabby, but OK. Crabby enough that Jon was trying to work, I was trying to shower and dress and neither of us could make him happy. I finally gave each kid a roll of toilet paper and let them have at it - hoping for 10 minutes of peace. I got 20! Yay! Went
to Natalie's favorite store at the site - they had all sorts of rocks - let her pick out some more. Took her for an Italian ice, then went back, had lunch, got Oliver down. Natalie and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool. Such a nice afternoon! Several other families were there, so Natalie had lots of kids to play with! 85, breezy, beautiful scenery. I could have stayed there another week (wish we had. My car registered 114 outside today). Went out to dinner at a nice local Mexican place, came back, got the kids to bed.

Came home on Thursday!

Nothing else really to report. Although we finally moved Oliver to a booster seat - he likes it much better - plus he gets a plate now (we always fed both kids trough style while they were in the highchair - to avoid plates being thrown)! And I love not having to clean out the highchair seat - God that was foul. Especially since the vinyl covering cracked and peeled in places, so food would get trapped in there. Blech.

Pics are going up. Vacation and June. I skipped May. Didn't have any real good ones besides Chicago - and those are up there.

ETA: June will go up tomorrow. Shutterfly is acting up, and won't load all my pictures, so I can't see what I'm trying to link here. I'll try again tomorrow evening.

Just posted June - I didn't realize until I gathered all the pictures, that it was the Oliver show last month! He hams it up for the camera, and Natalie usually ducks it.

Getting old

Natalie's been a little concerned about people around her getting old lately. So today she started another conversation about aging. I told her I wasn't old, and she agreed. She told me "when you get old, you get white hair. A lot of it. And your hair gets short. You get short white hair".

Kindergarten!

We had Natalie tested for early admission to kindergarten through Mesa Public Schools two weeks ago. This is the first year Mesa is allowing testing for kids who miss the cutoff of September 1st, but turn 5 before December 31st.

Got the call today - she was recommended for early admission! I'll be enrolling her on July 21st - the school secretary is the one who called, and she goes on vacation tomorrow until then. And then school starts August 12th! The nice thing is, they have a full day program - I thought it was only a half day (which is only 2.5 hours) - and Natalie had been doing a full day at preschool and loved it.

My baby is a kindergartener!

I took the kids to DQ for dinner and ice cream to celebrate (Jon was on his way home from Austin). One highlight of the meal was Oliver launching his ice cream cone at Natalie. He missed her by just a few inches. It was so funny!

Been lazy lately...

Haven't had much time to post, so I thought I'd post a quick update.

Natalie is out of school, and decided she didn't want to go to day camp this summer, so we've just been enjoying her time off! She tested for early admission into public kindergarten last week, and we should find out within the next week if she was accepted. Her current school wanted her in K this year, but we thought it would be good to have her closer to home (gas prices going up and all that. Her school is 16 miles away, which equals 64 miles of driving daily), and also to go to school where she'll be going through 5th grade. She's getting so tall too! We went to the zoo last week, and she really enjoyed the Giraffe Encounter - she got to feed a giraffe "salad" (AKA a lettuce leaf), and got licked too! She's been really into building things lately, and makes wonderful, enormous castles complete with pretty intricate roadways!

Oliver continues to be a little charmer - that child works the room wherever he goes. His smile and laugh are infectious, and his expressions are so cute! He has added "hi" and "bye" to his vocabulary, complete with waving, and he uses them in context. He has all four first year molars, and just got one on the lower right too - that makes a total of 13 teeth! When I rock him at night, he's been jabbing his fingers in my eye (OUCH! We're working on "gentle" for the eyes now), so I took the opportunity to see if I could teach him the word and where his eyes are. He will point (poke himself) to his eye and say "eye", and he will also point (poke me) to my eye and say "eye". I'm going to work on nose next! He's also started the funniest thing... When he wants something to eat, he opens his mouth really wide, and pants really hard once - like "aaaaaaaaaaahh" - it's the funniest thing!

I'm going to try to get May pictures up this week!

Chicago trip - Maggie's Christening

Last weekend we flew to Chicago to attend our niece's Christening. We all had a wonderful time, and the kids did so well on the flights and while we were away - despite later bedtimes than usual. What troopers!

We arrived late Friday night, and just let the kids get acclimated to Grandma's house, then off to bed for both. Both kids thoroughly enjoyed their time with Grandma! Natalie even got to sleep in Grandma's bed!

Saturday morning, Natalie and I made a Target and Dunkin' Donuts run, then came back and hung out with Grandma, Uncle Matt, Aunt Elizabeth and Will. Natalie, Oliver and Will had a lot of fun playing together! Natalie just adores Will. We paid Great-great Auntie Annie a visit so she could see the kids. Came back, Aunt Annie was there, had lunch, gave Oliver a nap. Great-Aunt Lois and Great-Uncle Don came over too! Took the kids to the park in the afternoon, then had pizza for dinner. Bed for Oliver, and then Natalie, Jon and I went to Aunt Sara and Uncle Kyle's so we could meet Maggie! She is just the sweetest little thing! Natalie got to hold her a couple of times, and was very gentle and sweet with her. Then she went out back with Uncle Kyle and hit some "golf" balls around. Their new place is beautiful, and they have an awesome backyard!

Sunday was the Christening, so we didn't do much in the morning, except send Jon out for more doughnuts. :-) The Christening was at 1, and was a very nice service. Maggie looked beautiful in her gown. Went back to Sara and Kyle's for a party. The food was excellent, and Maggie's cake was beautiful - it had an exact replica of her gown on it - and it was easily the most delicious cake I've ever had. Hung out for awhile, then took the kids back to Grandma's to settle in for the night.

Flew home early Monday morning, once again, both kids did well. We're hoping to be able to stay a little longer next time - this visit was just a little too short!

Pictures will be up tonight!

Bad influence

Conversation just now:

N - "Daddy, say a bad word"
J - "No"
N - "C'mon Daddy, say a bad word"
J - "No"
N - "Just one?"
J - "No"
N - "C'mon, it's all right"

Then she grabbed his lips, tried to force them to move and said "Shit", in a deep little voice.

Braveheart

Had to take the kids to the tailor with me today. That's not high on my list of fun things to do, but what can you do? I figured this time I'd be smart and stick Oliver in the umbrella stroller, so at least one of them would be contained. Last time, I had to get undressed/dressed frantically with one hand, while the other hand held the curtain closed - the dressing area is right in the front of the store, by the floor to ceiling windows.

So, I'm trying on my first pair of pants, and Natalie is kind of moving the stroller back and forth to make Oliver laugh, which was fine. Next thing I knew, she had the stroller tipped all the way back and let it go on the floor. She did it very gently, so no babies were hurt during this stunt, but still. I was about to reprimand her, when she started patting Oliver on the head saying "You were very brave, Oliver! I'm proud of you!".

So I burst into laughter instead, couldn't help myself.

Pups on the loose

Conversation with Natalie this morning:

N - "Mommy, I heard the garage door open and the car leave last night"
M - "You were hearing things, because I didn't go anywhere last night"
N - "But I did"
M - "You must have heard one of the neighbors"
N - "No, it was yours" *at this point she cracks an impish little grin, and I began to catch on - see bottom of this post for a full explanation.
M - "Oh no, don't tell me. It isn't what I think it is, is it?"
N - "Uh huh" still with that grin
M - "Please tell me you are joking. Who took my car?"
N - "The pups. They wanted to go to Las Vegas".

Natalie has a stuffed Meerkat that is one of her favorites. A couple of months ago, she informed me that the Meerkat had four pups. While she was at school, I would "watch" the pups, and then make up all these wild stories about what the pups did to drive me crazy while she was in school. A few of her favorites were the pups trying on my wedding gown and having a wedding in my closet, putting themselves in the dryer for a ride (she knows not to get in or play with it), and the pups dressing up like Jon and ringing the doorbell "Honey, I'm home", taking my car for a joyride, with one of the pups on her scooter trying to arrest the joyriding pups. About a month ago, the Meerkat had 96 more pups, so we currently have 100 invisible, up-to-no-good pups. Although apparently they'll be in Las Vegas for a while, as they don't want to go to Chicago. Grandma should count her blessings. Those pups are wild!

I love her imagination!

Congratulations, Rich and Christy!

My not-so-little brother got married in Vegas last week - May 21! Mitz, Pops and I flew out there on Wednesday, returned Friday. Had lots of fun! It was nice to see Rich and Christy again - it's been 2 years since I've seen Rich and a little longer since seeing Christy. They had a lovely wedding at the Wedding Bells chapel - outdoor gazebo, lots of lights and candles - really pretty! Christy was a beautiful bride, and Rich cleans up pretty nicely! And their wedding cake was delicious! Rich is supposed to send me a link to the professional ones - they own the rights to them. I know you are reading this, (B)Ri(t)ch, so step to it!

Rich and I also stayed true to form and drove our mother crazy. :-) As per usual, we found something appalling on which to fixate and drove it into the ground. This time around was an obscene, really obscene hand gesture, and I'm not talking about the finger. It was incorporated into many photos. LOL. Rich started it!

Best wishes to both of you - we love you!

Here are a few pictures - the rest are linked to the right - mine and Mom's are mixed, so they are out of order. Too lazy to arrange one-by-one. Probably dup shots too. Sue me. :-P

And Christy's brother Timmy discovered the #1 reason why you don't fall asleep after my brother and I have been drinking, and have access to a bottle of nailpolish! To his credit - he was a great sport about it - kept the pedicure for the rest of the trip, and even answered to Twinkle Toes Timmy (Mitz's contribution!). :-) Nice guy!

Secrets

A couple of days ago, Natalie was whispering in Oliver's ear and cracking him up. So the last couple of days at naptime and bedtime, I've been whispering in his ear. Today at naptime he reached up, brought my ear down to his mouth and whispered back! Whatever he told me must have been pretty funny, since he cracked himself up!

Also, yesterday he had a shot visit at the doctor. He weighs 29.5 pounds!

End of the school year!

Already! This school year, Natalie's first full year, really flew by! Her last day was Thursday, and that night, the school had a potluck luau to celebrate the end of the year, as well as graduate the kindergarteners! Earlier in the week, they had Zoo to You - the Phoenix zoo visited and brought four animals for the kids to see. I stayed and volunteered in Natalie's class that day, per her request. It was a lot of fun! The zoo brought a tarantula (creepy!), a Desert Box turtle named Wonka, a hedgehog named Tank (cutest thing ever!), and a really cool bird - looked like an owl, but was a Tawny Frogmouth, native to Australia. The zookeeper was very informative, great with the kids, brought the animals around to each kid so they got a close look, and everyone got to touch the turtle! When we got back to class, Mrs. Blackledge asked the kids what their favorite animal was - and all but one or two kids chose the turtle. She didn't know ahead of time which animals would be brought, but had a happy accident with the art project for the day - she had the kids paint turtles. :-)

Natalie had a nice last day of school. The afternoon class got to watch a movie with popcorn, were allowed to bring a stuffed animal, and pillow and blanket from home.

The luau was a lot of fun too. Natalie had a great time chasing her friends around, and she brought her little Fisher Price digital camera and took lots of pictures. Each class got to go up to the stage, and everyone got a certificate. Natalie got two as she was in AM and PM preschool. Her teachers gave them the most thoughtful gifts too. The morning class received a bound book of special art projects they made that year, plus a picture of the class with their teachers - the kids made frames out of popsicle sticks and glued buttons on them. The afternoon class received a CD with the 30 Bible based songs they learned this year. One of the other moms in class also made each kid an autograph book - so cute!

We're looking forward to next year at First United. We couldn't ask for a better school for Natalie. We're 90% certain we'll put her in Early Kindergarten, per her teacher's recommendations. If not, she will be in pre-K with the extended day still - she really thrives with the full day.

I'll get pictures up tomorrow, hopefully!

Oliver news

Oliver cut two more teeth! All four first year molars are coming in - the bottom right one is through, and the bottom left can be felt over the gum - I think that one is in. He gets peeved when you try to check, so I all I could do was poke around with my finger. Hopefully the other two will come in quickly - from what I understand (and have observed!), those teeth are tough ones to cut.

He also sings along to a song now! The last time we had dinner with Mitz and Pops - Oliver went to the sliding door and every time Beau and Diva came by, he'd "woof" at them. I thought that was pretty cute! Then last week, Natalie had me play "Who let the dogs out" in the car (we have a kid version). As soon as Oliver heard "Who let the dogs out", he started "woofing" at all the appropriate parts. It was so cute and funny! I played it several times in a row, even though that song makes me crazy, just so I could hear him do it. He also sings "his" song with me. A while back, I was being silly, and made up a song that incorporates all of the little noises he makes. It goes "Oliver says", then you cluck your tongue, "Oliver says" cluck again, "Fluffy headed Oliver says" cluck three times. Repeat with a raspberry sound, kiss sound, blowing sound. When he hears me sing "Oliver says", he immediately starts clucking - he knows how it goes!

April pictures are going up after I post this. A few things - they are way out of order - I have some pictures from my mom's camera, our old camera, and our new (finally. God I hated our old camera) camera - so the file names are all varied and couldn't be sorted in the appropriate order. You'll also notice he has a lollipop in one of them. No, I haven't gotten totally lax in my second go-round of motherhood. :-) He had a stomach flu again, and was getting lethargic, wouldn't drink Pedialyte (and the strips I found pissed him off, and he'd gag), or juice, so the doctor's office recommended a small lollipop. Yeah, that worked! He loved it! I have to admit though, if I had to choose between Pedialyte and a lollipop, I'd take the lollipop too. Pedialyte is foul, even the flavored versions. Also, those of you with keen eyes will notice a picture of the kids in a kennel - there's a pill bottle at Oliver's feet. It was filled with screws, not pills (!), and he had a lot of fun shaking it - thank goodness for childproof caps!

Mother's Day Tea

Today was Mother's Day Tea at Natalie's school, and we had such a wonderful time! Natalie and I have been waiting for this day for weeks! The kids had lots of secret plans for the tea, and Natalie didn't spill a single bean! For weeks, I'd ask how school was, and she'd start to say something, then *finger to her lip* "No, no, no, it's a surprise! I can't tell you!".

Jon drove Natalie to school, as the tea wasn't until 10:30, and I didn't feel like making three trips to and from school today (30 miles RT each way, so cut me some slack!). For some reason, Natalie was afraid I wasn't going to come, so when I arrived, she started jumping up and down - it was so cute!

They had the tea in one of the room's at the church facility - lots of tables set up, pretty place settings, decorations, all that good stuff. Natalie's class performed first - they sang two songs and did such a nice job! Natalie sang nice and loud - I could actually hear her! She made me some lovely presents too - a pretty paper hat, a placemat that had her name, Mother's Day Tea 2009, and her hand prints - it's laminated so I can use it all the time. My favorite gift was a planter on which she glued buttons, and stuck in the planter were her handprints, painted, laminated and cut out (they made the handprints at Father's Night a couple of weeks ago), representing flowers - her hands represent her, and the stems represent me "to show we are friends - the best there can be". I'm a sucker for the kids's handprints, so I couldn't have asked for a better gift.

We had tea and lemonade, cake (Natalie couldn't wait to dig into hers!), strawberries, cantaloupe (Natalie gave me hers), and watermelon (Natalie took mine). Then the kids played for a while, the moms chatted. It was just a lovely morning. I walked Natalie back to her class, and received a perfect ending to the perfect day. I was talking to one of her teachers before I left, and mentioned how glad we are that we decided to put Natalie in school for the full day (I received a wonderful email from her teachers over the weekend talking about how well she's doing). Her teacher told me that Natalie has been good for the afternoon session too! She told me that Natalie has been so helpful, and participates really well which helps the other kids participate, and that she has a calming effect on the class. We couldn't be more proud of her, seriously. What a lovely compliment. She is thriving at school, and while of course some of it is just who she is, a big part of it too is the school and her teachers. I'm reminded daily that we are so blessed to have found her school - and are so grateful that her first school experience is in such a loving environment. We were asked again to consider placing her in Early Kindergarten this upcoming school year, and if we can budget it, we intend to. At the very least, she'll be in pre-K, with the extended day option as she loves it, and the routine and structure seem to be something she needs and does very well with.

She also had a follow-up at the Melmed Center today with her developmental Pediatrician. I was happy to report that her sleep issues are (and please sleep Gods, don't let me be jinxing us) almost non-existent, and good sleep = all around improved behavior, how well she's doing in school and Sunday School, and just in general, she's opening up a lot more with people. We don't feel that any of the issues are outside the range of normal, the screaming tantrums are rare these past few months. Dr. J said that Natalie was the one bright spot of her day today, was so pleased with the progress we've made - gave Natalie a super star award, and suggested one last follow-up in four months, and then if things continue as they have, "you don't need me any more". :-) If you just look at today, she had all the excitement of the tea, the rest of her school day, then we went from school to Scottsdale (where Melmed is), long drive home in traffic, and she was a trooper through all of it, no hassles at bedtime.

She has her moments for sure (who wants a Stepford drone/child anyway. Not me!), but she's just a typical 4 year old kid. Overall she's a funny, happy, outgoing, thoughtful, helpful, sensitive girl, and we are so very glad she's ours!

On the drive to Melmed, she was being so silly! She took off her shoe, and stuck her foot out at me and made it speak - "Hi, I'm Mr. Dirty Foot. How are you doing? Shake my foot!". Then the other foot came out, and she affected a really high-pitched tone "Hi, I'm Mrs. Stinky Foot. How are you? I'm married to Mr. Dirty Foot". I'm sad to report, her feet do stink after playing all day in her shoes. She gets that from Jon, of course! :-P

Oh and she informed me today that Jack at school wants to marry her, and the other day Paul told her he loved her. She was already torn between wanting to marry Charlie or Walker! :-)

Faith healing

Thursday morning, as I was finishing getting ready, Natalie walked up to me adorned with a bunch of necklaces and announced that she was a healer. I asked her what she meant, and she told me she can heal people "Like Jesus". She told me she was going to heal Oliver's head. I asked if she could heal his stomach flu, but apparently that was beyond her powers. She then threw out her arms, and intoned "Jesus and the spirit of God. Now touch a cross", went over and touched a cross that I have in the living room. It was all I could do to keep a straight face! She told me she was going to heal her friends at school too. I told her to remember to be respectful, and if her friends didn't want to be healed, to not force the issue.

I gave her teachers a head's up so they'd know that they had a little healer in their midst, and to also see if they had been talking about Jesus healing the sick or something - I couldn't figure out where this was coming from. They had been talking about Paul all week, but not healing, so who knows! But it was funny!

Talk about a God complex!

Sick again

Poor Oliver. He came down with the stomach flu again on Tuesday. The last couple of days he's been miserable - he was OK enough until Thursday, and he continues to be really sick through today. Throwing up less this time around, but it's coming out the other end - his diaper area is enough to make you cry. And he's so gassy. Added to that, he has all four first year molars coming in. Hopefully this passes soon. The poor little guy isn't himself at all. No energy, very fussy and clingy. He's drinking a lot of water, and so far doesn't appear to be dehydrating. Took him to his ped on Thursday just to be sure, and for now we just need to ride this out.

And the icing on the shit cake? In the last week, both cars have cost us a lot of money. Four new tires for Jon's car. I was driving his car to the Minute Clinic last Friday because I missed my doctor's office hours (sinus infection, yay!), and there was something in my lane, to the left. I veered to the right to miss it, and thanks to the truck ahead of me, I didn't see until too late that there was something just ahead to the right of my lane. I almost missed it, but the back tire clipped it (almost looked like rebar). By the time I got to CVS, the tire was flatter than flat. Two other tires were bad = four new ones. Ugh.

Then mine died at Safeway Monday morning. Fortunately, Jon was scheduled to take a later flight that day. But, guess where my cellphone was? Yeah, home charging. Safeway let me call the home phone, but Jon didn't hear it. They wouldn't let me call his cell because his # is long-distance. I didn't go off, but that kind of chapped my ass because I worked for them twice, the last time for 6 years, Jon worked for them (hell, we met there!), and my mom has worked for them for almost 36 years. Not to mention the small fortune I drop there weekly. I wanted to scream "just let me make a freaking 2 minute call and I'll pay you". The CSR took pity on me and let me use her cellphone. Jon got Oliver up from his nap, came over and tried to jump the car. It didn't do anything - just clicked and all the gauges went haywire. Had it towed, Jon took a later flight. As it turns out, my iPod charger/auto kit was draining the battery - I never unplug it (so word to the wise - unplug your iPod chargers every time you turn off your car!) and totally fried it. Since it was a non-standard component, the car repair shop was kind enough not to charge us for the diagnostics, but of course we had to pay for the battery and labor. And the front end was out of alignment, the brakes were at 20%, and the front tires needed to be replaced. We had all the work done - we were told we might get 6 months out of the brakes, but that's not a chance we were willing to take with the kids.

I've been trying to look on the bright side and actually be grateful. At least I was the only one in Jon's car when the tire went. With three bad tires, one of us could very well have had a blow-out on the freeway - you see tire pieces all the time on the road out here. And of course the kids could have been in the car. And with my car, we were told that it could have shut off when I was driving. Again, I do mainly freeway driving, usually with both kids in the car at 70ish MPH - the car shutting down on the freeway could have been a disaster. So I'm grateful that no one was hurt, but it still sucks.

On a brighter note, when Oliver got sick Tuesday (he woke up covered in vomit, but I was hoping it was a one-off thing because of his molars), it was as we were walking into Natalie's school. I was just floored, I couldn't speak, I was afraid I'd start crying, which I did anyway, I kept thinking "Oh God, not again". I was so worried that he'd have to get IV fluids again, Jon's gone, it's hard enough solo parenting when both kids are healthy, etc. etc. I just kind of lost it at school and on the way home (it's been a rough six weeks, it really has). One of the moms at Natalie's school helped me out with cleaning Oliver, myself, and getting hold of myself. The director offered to keep Natalie for the afternoon session so I could have more time at home with Oliver, and of course she lent a lot of moral support as well. I was a wreck driving home, just worn out, and our priest came over and sat with me for an hour and half so I could just get things out, and also get Oliver settled and comfortable, remake his crib. Then my mom came by for a couple of hours. She also picked Natalie up for me that afternoon - and the mom that helped me that morning sent a beautiful, encouraging letter home in N's backpack. I was given a lot of love and support when I needed it most.

Of course now Natalie wants to go to all day school all the time! I sent her all day for the rest of the week - the drive is 30 miles RT each way, and like Kristie said, it would be good to have more time in between the drives for Oliver. Many of her classmates are there, the bigger kids are there, she had lunch with the big kids and her friends. She did SO well - her teachers and Kristie (the director) kept telling me how great she did. She really thrived last week. Tuesday night she had all these stories to tell me about class and the kids - and you could see how happy she was. She really latched on to one of her teacher's son - Neil. He's 2. She kept telling me all about this little boy named Moo Moo that she played with, took down the slide, watched out for him crossing the parking lot (to the big playground). I asked who Moo Moo was, and she said Mrs. S's baby. I said "Neil?". She said "No, Moo Moo". I've attended a parenting class with both Natalie's teachers, and never heard Neil referred to as Moo Moo, but I went with it. The next day, I asked Jen if they call Neil "Moo Moo". She look puzzled, said no, but then told me how sweet Natalie had been with him the day before. I told her that Natalie calls him Moo Moo and we had a good laugh!

I like the afternoon session too - it's pretty much all Biblical - so they have their regular class (which is also Bible based, just not as heavily so) in the morning, then PM preschool (which is how they handle daycare) is different, so it's not a repeat of what Natalie already did that morning. We need to sit down and see if we can afford the extra fee through the end of the school year, it's beyond reasonable, but budget constraints, you all know the drill. I know Natalie won't be happy going back to her shorter day, she's already told me so, and she's doing so well all day, I think it's good. Also, another plus.... Natalie sometimes has a hard time with transitions. And she's already been a little apprehensive about having a new teacher for pre-K next year. Well, the afternoon kids eat lunch in the pre-K room, so Natalie got to spend time with Ms. Agnes (her teacher for next year). The first day, I asked her if she met Ms. Agnes. She said "yes". Before I even got to say "isn't she nice" (she is, the entire staff there is incredible), Natalie yelled "I LOVE HER". I told her Ms. Agnes would be her teacher next year, and she did a happy dance, yelling "Woohoo! That means I'm a big kid!". Part of me feels weird having Natalie in school from 9-2:45, but she loves it, so I need to get over myself I think. :-P

Then Wednesday, after dropping Natalie off, I was hoping to get Oliver down for a morning nap, then nap myself. Got him down, and a half hour later he was up. I was a little disappointed at first, as I was so tired.... Once he got up and got past his grumpies though, we had the nicest morning. First he'd run up to me, kiss my arm, laugh, run away, come back, gnaw on my arm, shake his head no, laugh, run away, repeat. Then he just started running up, throwing himself into my arms for a big hug and a kiss, would go back to playing, come back for hugs and kisses. It was the sweetest morning, and better than any nap. Just what my heart needed.

So highs and lows.