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Ben at 26 Months

I love this kid. He is so … fun! Crazy! Loud! Granted it’s not all sunshine and roses. He can throw hellacious fits. He is stubborn beyond all reason and those lungs … they are impressive. But just a couple months into his third year, he is still very happy to snuggle while he drinks some milk or gets around to waking up. He will make a little nest in the middle of the floor with his “wees” (blankets, in Benjeese – short, we’ve discovered, for “lovie”) and cuddle up in it.

But in between, he is on the go. He currently sports scabs from head to toe. He has several bug bites all around his face that have been scratched. He has a cut on his lip from a fall and twin scrapes on his arms from the same fall as well as one on his knee from this fall plus several more from other falls. There are a host of other scratches I have no idea from what. Most of the time he doesn’t cry about his little mishaps or indicate in any way that he is hurt and so I have no idea.

He is talking a blue streak and we are understanding more and more of it. He is not super articulate yet, but he definitely gets his point across. To get our attention at dinner the other night, he would scream, at the top of his lungs, “GUYS!” until everyone turned to look at him. When bouncing on the bed and doing his tricks, he would say, “Mommy, this! Nana, this! Gaga, this!” which meant he wanted us to “watch this!” He and Tabby have been playing a sing-along game in the car. She sings a bit from a song and then allows him to fill in a word here or there. He does remarkably well and seems to know just about every song his beloved “Sissy!” sings. The two of them doing this is just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. He has also figured out that all of his people have other names they respond to, so he will repeatedly say, “Mommy, Jess! Daddy, Matt!” and when prompted, “Sissy, Tabby” except that his “Tabby” doesn’t really sound much like Tabby but more like “Cappie!”

He loves to play with cars and anything he can pound together, including his Buzz and Woody action figures. “Buzz fly!!” is one of his favorite things to say. Buzz does indeed fly. And crashes a lot. He loves to get out blocks or legos, but doesn’t always build much with them. He seems to prefer spilling them out and sending them to the far reaching corners of the room. He will pick them up when asked, however. Story time is a huge thing for him and if he’s having trouble going to sleep, we can often get him to settle down by leaning into his crib and reading him a short book. He loves Daddy Hugs, Hippos Go Berzerk and anything Curious George.

He is still in his crib. Despite the fact that I’m sure he could climb out, he’s shown no interest in doing so. I am really glad since I’m sure he’ll be harder to contain when he’s not in the crib. He genuinely seems to like his crib, like it’s his little den. He’s got all manner of blankets and critters in there and when we remove some, he puts them back in. So peeking down on him sleeping is a bit like a nursery school version of Where’s Waldo … you have to find Ben amidst the blankies and animals. Whereas Tabby kicks off all of her covers, Ben cuddles up under his blankies, sometimes covering his head with just his little nose and mouth peeking out.

He is so much fun and I am really enjoying this stage of him. He’s an amazing joy and blessing.

 

Weight: 31 lbs
Height: would have to measure the mark on the kitchen wall, but he’s grown about 5 inches in the past 7 months and gained no weight … he’s currently about 4 inches shorter than big sis
Clothes: wears size 2T mostly and whereas last summer I thought he was about to outgrow them, I now have to cinch them in or they fall down! Diapers are a 4-5
Favorite book: Daddy Hugs wins out
Favorite movie: Buzz!! (Toy Story 1, 2 or 3)
Favorite food: cantelope
Favorite toy: Buzz and Woody

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Teeny Tiny FOOD

I was introduced yesterday to the concept of ReMent. Are you in the know? ReMent refers to tiny, quite detailed miniatures made by the Japanese company, Re-Ment Ltd. and now others. They started out with food and indeed, most of the offerings still are food or related to food but it’s expanded somewhat. I also see various furniture and some gardening equipment and children’s toys. I’ve also seen some of the pieces sold as necklaces which of course appeals to me and reminds me of some of the neat stuff I’ve seen on Etsy.

There’s just something fun about miniature stuff!

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Our (Pipe) Dream House

We’ve now lived in our little house for almost 7 years. I must say I really really love our house. But as much as I love it, it is not 100% perfect and Matt and I have always wanted to build our own house at some point in the semi-distant future. With the housing market the way it is now, we can’t/won’t sell, but we are thinking about buying some land and holding it until we can build up some equity and then eventually build a new home.

Anyhow, we’ve been looking casually at land and hatching this scheme and then today, I saw a great post at Ohdeedoh about what you’d ask for if you had a home makeover show at your disposal, which got me thinking about my “wish list” for our Dream House. Overall, I don’t want anything too big. I really like the size of our house and I do NOT want much more to clean. Still, there are some definite things on my wish list.

  • Author of the inspirational post on Ohdeedoh, Janie Lee, cited an outdoor shower as her personal fantasy project. I must concur. We had one in the house we stayed at in HI when Tabby was a baby and it was heavenly. I would love it on an upstairs deck, perhaps just outside of the master bedroom.
  • A REAL pantry. If you’ve been hanging around for more than a minute, I’m sure you’ve heard me bitch and moan about our black-hole pantry that I despise. I wish for a large closet with shallow shelves. The pantry Pioneer Woman installed in her “lodge” a couple of years ago still makes me swoon. I would want baskets as well for storing things like potatoes and squash.
  • I am a huge fan of outdoor rooms, the type that are covered porches with a wall or two. I would want one with a fireplace or fire pit (probably a fire pit for roasting marshmallows), nice seating areas, a ceiling fan and of course a grill.
  • I would love to have a mudroom and/or landing area for the STUFF. Bags, backpacks, coats, mittens, hats, boots … all near laundry facilities. Our kitchen sort of functions in this way right now, but it would be nice to have it a bit more portioned off.
  • Nix the dining room and living room. I have no use for formal rooms. I am not into formal entertaining or wasted space. I would ideally like a dining area attached to the kitchen with a giant stone fireplace.
  • A nicer kitchen. We are super lucky to have the great kitchen we have, but ideally, I’d like a slightly larger kitchen. Just a few more cabinets would be nice and, of course this is a bit silly and specific, but I would love to have a faucet at the stove for filling pans. I think it would be fun too to have the stove on an island with some seating around so guests could hang out while dinner was prepared.
  • And since we’re talking DREAM here, I would love to have a really cool personal space. It might be attached to the house or it might not be. But I’d love a space to chill out with my computer and my crafts and maybe my treadmill. It would be primarily mine, but I’d love some spots to work with the kids on this or that or to curl up and read books. This treehaus workspace is particularly cool.

There are of course, a few other things. I would love slightly bigger rooms for the kids and a guest room. An exercise room would be cool. A girl can dream, eh?

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Summer at the Lake

Well you know from yesterday what went into getting away from the weekend, but I shared nothing about the weekend itself. It was fabulous to say the least.

My mom’s brother and his family recently built a new vacation home in the mountains about 1.5-2 hours away from Denver. They had all of us (my parents, sister, grandma, Matt and the kids and myself) up to see it and enjoy a great weekend away. The house is beautiful and the company could not have been better.

Tabby and Ben both had a wonderful time. Tabby’s favorite thing was riding in the Rhino ATV my uncle has up there. The both loved the boat, but Ben in particular had a great time DRIVING the boat. In general, they both loved being outside and taking in nature. We saw a fox from the house, a bald eagle while we were on the boat, and as we came back through Rocky Mountain National Park, a moose and her calf, a bunch of deer and lots of elk. Matt and I enjoyed the leisurely pace of the mountains and also all the extra adult hands around, eager to snuggle our kids.

We’re very lucky to have such a nice extended family nearby.

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A Day in the Life

Fridays are my “day off” … day off from office work that is. I had an extremely busy yet pretty typical day on Friday and I wanted to write it down for posterity’s sake something, perhaps, to show the kids when they are parents of young children.

6 AM – Wake up and hop right on the treadmill. Hopping “right on” actually involves about 15-20 minutes of eye-rubbing, yawning, stretching, dressing and setup (fans, TV). Make it a paltry 5 of the 12K I have on the schedule.

6:45 AM – Hop off the treadmill and drag Matt out of bed, dress the kids, hand them some toast and hit the road. While on the road, I make a doctor’s appt for Ben since he STILL has the darn cough. That pretty much eliminates all possibility of going to the gym with Matt as planned.

7:30 AM – Drop Matt’s car off at the dealership for floor-mat recall and oil change.

8:10 AM – Check in at the clinic for Ben’s appointment. Children persist in touching everything in site and I imagine germs crawling all over them.

8:20 AM – Appointment begins with weigh-in. He has finally gained a teeny bit of weight (1 lb). Kids drive us nuts in the exam room. They have chosen to store the IV poles in the corner (who thought THAT was a good idea?).

8:30 AM NP arrives. I’m pretty sure she thinks our kids are out of control. Tabby won’t stop talking and Ben won’t stop climbing. After all the cursory exams, we leave about 20 min later with a script for amoxycillin and a diagnosis of sinusitis.

8:50 AM I send Ben and Matt to the car to wait while Tabby and I wait on Ben’s script at the clinic pharmacy. We pass the time by playing word and math games. “What letter does Amoxycillin start with? Which is a better deal – 100 claratin for $15 or 50 Claratin for $10?”

9:00 AM We exit the clinic with Ben’s bottle o’ pink in hand.

9:10 AM Arrive at the nearby Target and QUICKLY execute my shopping list for our weekend away.

9:50 AM Arrive home and see that Loki has dispatched the remainder of our almost new loaf of bread. Curse under my breath and then hop on the treadmill again while the kids destroy the playroom. I execute another 5K, bringing my total for the day to 10/12K. Good enough!

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Good Intentions

I meant to post yesterday, but somehow I blinked and the day was over. Well I will make up for it today. Or not … we’ll see. So what is going on?

  • We leave for Nashville in about a week (our insane neighbor and his pit bulls and AK-47s is watching our place, so don’t even think about it). I’m both excited and a bit overwhelmed getting ready to go. The trip is absolutely jam-packed with stuff to do and people to see.
  • I have been finding it incredibly hard to get up early for the past couple of weeks. I want to snap out of it, but there are so many things to do at night I’m finding it hard to get to bed on time.
  • We have an awesome hummingbird hanging out in the tree in our back yard. We’ve seen her a few times sitting on her eggs and flying around. I’m hoping we might be able to glimpse her babies in a few weeks.
  • Speaking of wildlife, we were driving around last night looking for some land and we turned a corner and saw a black rabbit sitting on the side of the road. It looked just like my sister’s bunny, Hoover and definitely not wild! I thought it had gotten loose or something and then I spied about two more black rabbits! And a grey one! And a white one!! The lot on the corner is a huge farm/ranch thing and they had tons of animals, including, it seems a bunch of rabbits that sort of run wild. They seemed much smarter than the rabbits in our ‘hood as they weren’t playing chicken with cars.
  • I am finally getting my hair cut today after WAY too long. My stylist was on maternity leave and it is down to my shoulders again. I will be glad to have it short enough that I don’t have to blow-dry it every day.
  • Ii am also getting my new pimp tooth installed today, gold y’all (though covered in tasteful porcelain). What a fun way to spend $250 (not including what insurance covered).
  • Tabby is now the proud owner of her very own Camelbak. We got it in blue and green and hopefully Ben will be able to use it when she outgrows it. She has been quite a good hiker and we thought it was time. She was overjoyed and tried it on right over her jim jams and tutu (I was thinking of Bonnie in Toy Story 3 in the last scene where she’s wearing overalls, galoshes, a tutu and a macaroni necklace).
  • We will be gone this weekend too (remember the neighbor!!!), heading to the mountains to check out my uncle’s new place. There will be hiking and boating and general merriment. I am very much looking forward to it.
  • Loki, who is staying with our friends while we’re in Nashville, is hanging at the vet’s this weekend. He’s getting his yearly checkup and shots and also getting groomed. It’s like a spa weekend for him, only really really crappy and even more expensive.
  • As part of the pre-Nashville planning I’ve been boxing up the remaining Tabby baby clothes for my sister in law. It has been a nice trip down memory lane, but sad too. It kind of makes me want another baby. There are so many great reasons for being done, but it’s all gone so fast and I sort of want it to last just a little longer.
  • I bought the kids a couple of special things for our trip. I got Ben a copy of Bee Movie. My coworker’s grandson loves it and hopefully Ben will too. I got Tabby a  new DS game as well. There are a few greatlists on Amazon of DS games that are easier for kids who can’t read to play. She’s been so in love with her Dora game, I thought it would be a nice treat for her. I also got her an early-reader Skippyjon Jones book that I’m sure will be a hit.
  • I have been watching Greek on Netflix while I run lately and it’s been great. It definitely holds my interest and the stories movie fast enough for running (does that make sense?). And now that I can stream Netflix on my phone, I can even watch at the gym. W00t!
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That’s My BOY!

I’ve said many times over that one of the best things about having more than one kid is comparing and contrasting them. I don’t mean this in a “your sister would never do that!” sort of way. I mean in an it’s fascinating to see how they’re different sort of way. Obviously they both share the same two people’s DNA and they’re raised by the same two people, but nonetheless, they’re amazingly dissimilar. In some ways it makes me want to have another just to see another interesting and amazing permutation.

I honestly used to think that all differences between boys and girls were the result of socialization. I still believe that certain things are but there is absolutely no denying the BOYNESS of my boy. At 9 months old, he was saying “vrooooom!” as he raced a car, a block, nearly anything across the floor. He has had incredible aim when throwing since about 10 months old. He walked at 10 months and ran shortly after. He conquered the water slide a full two years before his cautious sister. He climbs EVERYTHING and turns our living room into an obstacle course. He loves to be dirty. He learned to slide out the back end of his plasma car while going top speed in my dad’s garage. I expect him any day to run out back and fire up the grill.

After all, he has a penchant for cooking as well. Check this out:

Continue reading “That’s My BOY!”

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Val-deri, Val-dera!

It was a busy weekend (duh – aren’t they all?). One thing we did was spend our Saturday morning in the mountains (foothills). We went on one of our favorite local hikes, Corwina Park.

I am particularly fond of this hike because it’s beautiful and very shady. There’s a lovely little stream running by the side of the trail for the first half of the trek and then when you get to the top, you get a beautiful view. As an added bonus, the parking lot has access to a river, so we can toss Loki in and get him clean(er).

Tabby and Ben both love to hike. Ben got so excited when Matt pulled out the backpack I thought he’d explode before we could get him in the car. Tabby hikes all on her own now and is an incredibly good hiker for the most part. The rest can be coaxed along with a snack here and there. I packed the applesauce in the tube I got from Costco this go-around and that was a major hit.

A couple of Tabby’s comments from hiking today:

“I wish Ben was big enough to walk and I could ride in the backpack.”

“I think Loki might go feral!” (We had just had a lengthy discussion on the difference between “wild” and “feral.”)

As as an added incentive/reward for good hiking, Matt purchased her her very own CamelBak.

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Myself, My Android

Earlier this week, I got a new phone. I’ve had my HTC Hero for almost two years and it has worked very well for me, but I got the chance to upgrade at a great price and with how fast things change, I decided to snap it up. I got a HTC Evo which will be completely out-dated when Sprint Releases the Evo 3D later this summer but oh well. It’s shiny and new and it works beautifully for what I need.

So I thought I’d share some of my favorite Android Apps with you while I was thinking about it:

  • MyFitnessPal – this syncs up with the My Fitness Pal website and allows you to sync all of your nutritional and exercise data. All free.
  • Open Sudoku – This comes with 3 levels of puzzels, 30 puzzles in each level, I believe and then you can download (for free) 100+ puzzles for each level. Excellent interface.
  • Solitaire Free Pack by Tesseract – they have a premium pack that isn’t too expensive, but I still haven’t exhausted the tons of free solitaire games on this version.
  • Just Pictures – This does a wonderful job of syncing with Flickr to show off your photos via your Android phone. It’s pretty fast and it caches well. You can also use it to set wallpaper.
  • Kid Doodle – this is a neat little doodling app for kids; they draw in glowing neon lines and then can play back what they’ve drawn in movie style.
  • Amazon Appstore – This was one BIG reason I switched to the new phone! My old one wouldn’t load Amazon Appstore. Now you can get Android apps through Amazon and they feature a paid app for free every day.
  • Stitcher – This app lets you listen to podcasts without downloading them. You stream instead and don’t run out of space on your memory card.
  • Pandora – Just like Pandora for anything else, you can make a station based on a song or artist. I find this especially useful for finding new running music and at Christmas when I’m sick of the junk they play on the radio.
  • Shazam – It listens to the ambient music and tells you what it is and who sings it.
  • Google Goggles – I’m not sure how this would be useful, but it’s fun to play with. It takes a photo and then scans it and googles what it thinks it is. Definitely does better with some things as opposed to others. It found my phone, the can of wasabi peas I keep on my desk, an image of Starry Night on my computer screen, and my cyber clean. It couldn’t find my Keen bag, my favorite pen, or our company logo.
  • ES File Explorer – Lets you browse the files on your phone just like in Windows Explorer or whatever.
  • Google Skymap – Allows you to use your phone to tell you which stars are where.
  • Keyring – Allows you to scan in the barcodes from your reward membership cards and will display them for scanning instead of bulking up your keyring. Genius!
  • Yelp! – Senses your location and then uses it to find you places to eat nearby.
  • Groupon/Living Social – Both have good apps for holding your deals.

and for my brilliant finale:

  • NETFLIX! They released the app, many articles said Evo was on the list of supported devices, yet I couldn’t download from the Android Marketplace. Found this thread and downloaded it anyhow and now I’ve got my Netflix on my phone. Nerdvana. Note: I had to use ES File Explorer to locate and install the package.

Any other faves?

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Strawberry Lemonade Cake

My mom had a birthday this past week and one of my small joys is to make a birthday cake for those I love. I always do it with good intent, but my cakes are never particularly… pretty. They always taste good, I will give them that, but they’re not big on the looks.

I tried to give my mom a choice of cake recipes I’d been storing up to try out, but after a bunch of back and forth, we really didn’t have a good answer, so in the interest of what went well with my dad’s fabulous dinner (salmon, rice, asparagus, salad), I picked out this Strawberry Lemonade Cake from Baking Bites and decided to give it a whirl. At the last minute, though, I ditched the standard cream cheese frosting for some of the lovely whipped cream cheese frosting I used on the kids’ birthday cakes. I was running out of time and nervous about properly frosting a layer cake with thicker frosting. Sometime I would like to make this as written, but I was extremely happy with the results. The birthday girl enjoyed it as well and my lemon-loving husband just raved.

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