Saturday, June 30, 2007

Quote of the day

"Don't ever sit on a fountain--it feels weird." N (5)

Friday, June 29, 2007

Instinct

I got an email from a student at [local state] University today. She wants to be in my Fall Class. She's a minor in the department, but she's a sophomore so technically she has to ask permission to be in my upper division course.

My feeling is that any student who emails in June to get permission to be in a class for the Fall is probably pretty on top of things and that she'll be GREAT.

I told her she could be in my class.

I'll let you know how if I'm right with this instinct or not.

I must find time next week to plan for this class.

So much to do!

I'm organizing two seminars for a project, and substantively contributing to both. I took myself down from "lead facilitator" because organizing, facilitating, working on two other projects, being Mom, and planning my class for the fall is too much!

I can't believe I was just on vacation last week. I came back on Monday and was all a-glow. Today, I'm back in the swing of things and I'm not glowing. I can't decide if this is good or bad. I'm not too stressed, so I think I'm probably in a okay place.

Here's what I need to do:

1. N needs new shoes. She told me this morning that her shoes all feel a little tight. She's growing! Mitosis!

2. K will start ballet tomorrow if I get my act together and get over to the studio, get her signed up and buy her some shoes. I need to see if N's old ballet or tap shoes will fit her. Hopefully they will, but K's got a really wide foot so I don't know. We'll see soon.

3. Work on the other two projects (I and MG).

4. Write a paper about a class discussion we had last semester.

5. Write a paper about S and T intersection for C... What T goes with what Activities? (Don't you hate it when I launch into initials?)

6. Plan class for fall. (Get reader, book and think about technology in the class. What do I want to do?)

7. Keep from getting too stressed! It doesn't all have to be done tomorrow. Try to work hard in July because in August, I will need to panic if most of this isn't done!

8. Go with MWH to look at shelf/stand/whatever you want to call it for TV.

Decision

Miss K (3) and Miss N (5) are very different. Yea, they look a lot like each other, but they are VERY different!

Miss K has ALWAYS liked to "get and go" more than Miss N. She gets so excited when we go ANYWHERE! Miss N prefers to stay home and play with her toys.

When we started N in preschool, we started her 3 days a week. This was great. I figured that I'd do the same with K. I've now realized that Miss K should probably go 5 days a week. She loves going places.

I try to remind myself that I don't have to do the same thing with each kid. I should listen to my kids and do what makes the most sense for them.

Here's hoping S______ has a spot in afternoon preschool 5 days a week.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

The princess and the peas

Miss K loves this story.

(I just found this and it's kind of fun. She went through a couple of the stories there while I got her breakfast.)

Anyway, you may recall, I've been adding peas to her smoothies. She drank the first batch great. The second time, she seemed a little suspicious. The third time, she noticed a "green thing" in her smoothie. I told her I thought it was most likely a strawberry seed, or something.

Like a true princess, she is detecting the peas. Guess I need to add a few less. I have to remind myself, if I add any, even one pea, it's more than she'd normally eat... I need to make sure I don't go to gung-ho on her and add too many peas at once and blow my trick!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Day 2 of preschool for K

Okay... two blogs is already messing things up....

I didn't tell you all about Day 1 of preschool for K (3) because I put it on the family blog. Day 1 went really well. She didn't cry. I was a little worried that today might be more traumatic and that she might cry, but she was a trooper and didn't.

There was even a little boy SCREAMING his head off in line in front of us. I really worried that this might set her off, but it didn't. She looked a little unsure, but then she saw that there was dot art! and she was set. She walked in and started painting and said, "Bye Mommy. Have a good day."

(awwww!)

N (5) almost started crying when I dropped her off. She also was making it harder for K. In her drama queen way, she was telling K, "It'll be OKAY. I'll be right next door. It will all be okay." STOP IT N. YOU'RE UPSETTING K!

When we got into N's room she hid behind me and got whiny. I looked at her and said, "Don't even start. Get in there and play." She's been a student at this school for 2 years. She's got the same teacher as she had this last year. She didn't cry at all her first year. No one else in her class was crying. THERE WAS NO REASON FOR HER TO BE SCARED. I am pretty sure it was just a thing to get some attention.

As soon as she walked in, she was fine.

Oh, the drama.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The least stressed person

Yesterday, my first day back from vacation, I was the least stressed person at work. Seriously. I had that post vacation glow. Today, a co-worker told me I was less glow-y and back to my usual radiant state. Heh. (At least he put it nicely.)

I don't think I'm quite as stressed as I was before vacation, but I have a big meeting on Thursday. At this meeting, I have to be an expert on something that I'm not.... (The R and K project.)

What else.... I have this problem...

I can't remember people's names.

I grew up in an area of the country where everyone was named John (sometimes exotically spelled without the h), Steve, Jason, Mike, Dave, Jenny, Jill, Kay, Cindy, or etc. Easy names. Names I knew. Now I live in an area of the country where there is much more variety in cultures and languages. I don't seem to be able to remember the names of people who are from different countries... I try really hard, but since I haven't heard the names before, I can't remember them!

I have a hard time pronouncing the names even after people have just said them. If I'm lucky enough to be in a situation where names are written, that's great, but if I have to try to sound them out... it's not pretty. I am so embarrassed by this. There was no diversity where I grew up and now it's really really really hard. Any suggestions?

On the little girl front, they are good. We went out and took a walk after dinner. It was supposed to be a short walk, but we ran into a neighbor and she invited us in and it was 10:30 before they were all in bed. Did you all hear T (22 months) scream as I tried to get her ready for bed? She was SOOOO tired she didn't want to do anything! It's hard to be almost 2 and have your schedule disrupted!

What else.... I should go work on my slides for the presentation on Thursday. I'm supposed to have my slides done by noon tomorrow....

Monday, June 25, 2007

As if....

As if I had time for this....

I started a different blog for the family... I've been trying to figure out how to have this blog and another one, or how to password protect one... I finally decided to just have a completely separate blog.

This other blog is mostly for family.... I have a web site that is just photos, but a blog lets you write more around photos.... It's a different format and I've decided to experiment with having it and see if I can do two. (Errr, actually 4 because I have two for work too.)

If you're a regular reader and want to see the other blog, send me an email. I'm not going to link to it. It's not going to be password protected but hopefully it will just get family and close friend traffic. If you link to this blog, please don't link to the new blog. I'm going to send the link to friends/family. We'll see how it goes.

If I haven't already sent you a link, leave me a comment (with your email if I don't know it) (or email me virtual_jk at yahoo dot com) if you want to see it. (I'll delete comments with email addresses in them.)

Cross your fingers (Edited)

There is a chance that N (5) will get to go to S_____ school this summer in Pre-K again. Please send positive thoughts our way!
Sent via my BlackBerry


Edited to add: She's in! Yippeeeeeee!

I don't think she wants to go now, but by tomorrow, I think she'll be excited. When I found out, I asked her if she wanted to go to S_____ this summer and she said no. I then asked if she wanted to be in Miss A____'s class again and wouldn't that be fun? The little N-girl said no again. I just said, "Okay, we'll talk later." I have to let her think about it a bit and then I have to talk about how fun it will be and soon she'll want to go. It's how it works best with N. Pretty much all kids have to make up their minds to do something.... All people too.... Some people/kids are more flexible than others. N is NOT flexible. Heh.

Ahhhhh

We're home.

It was a good trip. The last two trips have really surprised me by how not bad they've been. Three little girls are finally becoming not impossible*. MWH is amazing with all that he does.

I almost feel like I could travel with them by myself to visit my parents.... But not quite. I know how good of a team MWH and I are and how not fun it is by myself. The security check point would be impossible by myself.

Maybe if I checked my computer.... But the fact that everyone has to take off their shoes is hard. And that you have to get little girls OUT of the stroller....and then back IN the stroller. Once they taste freedom, it's hard to take it away. K's (3) really good now and just sits down calmly. T will be there soon. Maybe I can do it by myself in 6 months.... Hmmmmm. I did traveled alone with two little girls when K was 2 months old, and N was 2.5....

The other thing that sucks is that I can't get a direct flight to where my parents are.... but maybe I could fly to Big City 3 hours north of my parents, see some other friends and drive down with the little girls by myself... hmmmmmmm.


We had a ton of stuff.
I'd definitely have to figure out what to do with getting their carseats there.... I suppose I could rent them.... Hmmmmmm....

I'll have to think about it.
Obviously I already am.

It's so good to be home! I love our bed. I have a mountain of dirty clothes now.

K (3) starts preschool in 4 hours.

I'll be back soon to tell you all about the trip. I got to hang with my best friend from high school and her 3 little ones too.... I need to ask her if I can link to her. I also need to figure out if that's revealing too much.





*Except at the grocery store last night, on the way home, after being cooped up on a plane for ~8 hours... OH MY. They ran screaming (pleasant happy screams) through the aisles. I couldn't get them to calm down. At least they didn't break anything or knock anything over. Whew!

Sunday, June 24, 2007

I try, but I fail miserably....

I really try to record the developments I see, when I see them, but I forget to write them down. I forgot to document when T started calling herself T-T. Her name is kind of hard for her to say, and I call her T-T a fair amount, and now that's what she calls herself. It's been at least 2 or 3 weeks since she's been doing it. I can't remember if it was before or after our trip over Memorial Day weekend....... I *think* she started right around Memorial Day. She does it all the time now and it is so cute!

Sigh.

I think I err on the side of not wanting to repeat myself on the blog.... I was pretty sure I'd recorded that. I probably sent it in an email to someone, so I probably have the "date" but I didn't write it here.

Here's another one we don't want to forget.

Right before this trip, T started trying to say N's whole name instead of just the first syllable twice (N__-N__). When she says it, it sounds kind of like Nan-ny. At first it made N kind of mad to be called "nanny"... but now she likes it and encourages T to say it.




Another thing T learned, the difference between bite and scratch. No, it wasn't her sisters who taught her this, it was my parents' cat. The cat, is mean. She's about 12 or 13 and when you pet her, she will periodically, out of the blue, decide to bite. She's lots of fun. She should have a sign, PET AT YOUR OWN RISK.

T loves kitties. I tried to keep her away from my parents' cat... It was like trying to keep a fish away from water. The first afternoon we were there, I heard T scream from the kitchen. I was in the next room and went running in to see what was the matter. The evil cat was there. T was crying and pointing to the cat saying, "Meow scratch. Don't want Meow. Meow scratch." (T calls cats meow.) I looked at her and found the teeniest scratch on her arm. The skin wasn't broken. However, T was traumatized.

I comforted T and put the evil cat in her room. T told us over and over about how the "meow" scratched and how she didn't like the "meow." If she saw the cat, she'd shriek until we got the cat out of the room. After a couple days, T wanted to pet the cat again. I kept telling her not to. I explained to her that the cat didn't scratch, she actually bit. T would nod solemnly.

On Friday, T cornered evil cat again, and once again, the cat snapped at her. However, this time, there wasn't even a slight mark. I think T pulled her hand/arm away more quickly. T screamed and cried nonetheless. From then on, until we left, we got, "Meow bite. Don't want Meow. Meow Bite. Don't like Meow." Over and over and over and over. She would say this when we saw the cat, and at other random times, like when we were driving around and the cat was not there. Evil cat made quite an impression.

I'm sorry the cat got her, and scared her, but I knew that evil cat wouldn't really hurt her. Obviously, if I thought evil cat would have really hurt her, I wouldn't have let T anywhere near her. Pretty much the same thing happened to K last summer with evil cat. And the same thing happened to N a couple of summers before.

Background
I have a soft spot in my heart for evil cat. I was the one who brought evil cat in the house/family Christmas of '96.

Evil cat can be really sweet. She was a stray and was beaten up in a fight and stumbled into our yard. We had a big dog then. She and the big dog became fast friends. She wouldn't let any person near her for the longest time. The big dog nursed her back to health after that awful fight, shared his food with her and let her sleep on his back. It was very sweet. They loved each other. The dog was very scared of thunderstorms, but the cat had a calming effect on him during them and he was much less scared.

My dad, a big ole animal lover, let her stay with the dog, got to know her and pet her, eventually took her to the vet, and started giving her real kitty food. The kitty lived outdoors with the dog until he passed away. Christmas of '96, the dog was gone and I felt sorry for the kitty, outside, cold and lonely on Christmas, so I befriended her and brought her in the house. I am surprised that my Mom let the cat stay inside all the time. Soon the cat found a nice warm spot to sleep.... In bed with my parents... Heh.

Wrap-up
To end the story, T was so scared by evil cat that she thought our cat, her bestest kitty friend, would bite. She was scared of him when we got home. After about 2 minutes of me reassuring her that C (our cat) would not bite she gave his tail a good yank. When he just sat there, she seemed happy and lunged and hugged C.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

'nastics v2

Remember this post? Now T is saying "Nastis" or "Nastics" for Gymnastics too. She also started saying this when she was 21 months old. T also says, "I jump!" She loves to walk on the beam, so she'll say, "I walk" too.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love watching language acquisition.

Going up?

K (3) and T (22 months) invented a game. It's called elevator.

They love riding in the elevator at the hotel. T even knows which button to push when we go up and understands we need a different one (and usually knows the right one) when we go down, too.

So, the game... K grabs T by the hand and asks, "Want to go in the elevator?" T says, "YES!!" very enthusiastically. They run to and go in the closet in the hotel room and shut the door. Then they get out. Then they do it all again. And again and again and again, giggling all the while. The cuteness is high.

Sent via my BlackBerry

Beauty tip #333

This one from K (3). "Mommy, when you're done with (wearing) the lipstick, you lick it off."


Sent via my BlackBerry

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Big hug

Tonight, as I was putting the girls to bed, I had all 3 of them on the bed, and T (21 months) was giving K and N a hug (all 3 girls hugging at the same time). It was cute. K (3) said, "It's a big hug!"

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Summer 2007

I don't think I ever wrote the post that I meant to write about N's school. We've really enjoyed being at S_______ School. Over the last two years, she has learned so much. It was a great experience. All of the families were great. The teachers were great. The office staff, well, I'll just say, um, [thinking...] they prepared me for the office staff at the Elementary school.

Okay, back to the story. We enrolled N in the summer kindergarten program HOW ON EARTH DID SHE GET SO OLD???? and we were excited. Then, we found that the kindergarten program was an all day program and started at 8:15. I was in so much shock. I wrote this post. We don't do mornings. Having to be somewhere at 8:15 am, 5 days a week would make all of us miserable. She's too young to be that miserable. MWH and I are too old.

Needless to say, we cancelled and N isn't going to school this summer. I've been scouting around and there are lots of afternoon summer camps so it's not too bad. It's a little overwhelming because I have to think about all the choices. N's nervous about going to new places, but she will be fine. She's weird the first day and then she loves whatever she's doing. We're doing an art camp for a week, a gymnastics camp for at least one week, science camp for a week, and after we try those out then I'll decide on more based on what she really likes.

Miss K (3) will start ballet this summer! I also have her enrolled in gymnastics and swim lessons.

Miss T (22 months) will keep doing gymnastics. Did I tell you how much she loves the class? She's really good too.

Okay... end of the documentation post.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Youthful, dewy glow

Yup, that's me.

We're in the land o' humidity. My skin looks so soft and supple. I feel very sticky, but I guess it's worth it to look so glowy and dewy.

Heh.


I'm really tired. Can you tell?

Quote of the day

N (5) said....Mine's so good if anyone took a bite they'd say, YUM! She was talking about eating ice cream.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Happy Father's Day

Last year I wrote this in honor of Father's Day. Over the past 2 years, I'm not sure what I haven't told you about his wonderfulness. He's MWH. The girls would probably call him MWD if they had blogs. (Sidebar: The other day, he told me something and I said, "Don't you wish you had a blog to tell that story on?" N said, "I wish I had a frog." Heh.)

Poor MWH, he's kind of getting gypped out on Father's Day this year because we will be flying on a plane. With 3 little girls. For many hours. And if that's not a vacation, I don't know what is. (HEH.) (I'll have to make it up to him!)

The little girls love their daddy.
Miss T (21 months) goes running to him saying "Daddy Daddy" in her cute little girl voice when he comes home. She loves it when he puts her to bed. She doesn't settle if I try. Miss N (5) loves to do all sorts of stuff with him. Including go to Home Depot. She's our original Daddy's girl! Miss K (3) calls him "Mommy's Prince Charming" and can't go to bed at night unless Daddy asks her about her day. He gives them horsey rides and Miss N and Miss K are both on his back. I'm sure Miss T will be joining them soon.

He is truly an amazing dad and husband. There is nothing I like better than hanging out with him and my little girls.

Thank you for being so wonderful MWH!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Beauty Tip #332

Okay, it's actually beauty tip #1, but I figure if web stats counters can be started at somewhere other than 1, so can my beauty tips.

332. Get your eyelashes tinted so you don't have to wear mascara.

I do it and I love it. I just did it again today. Aren't they lovely? (blink::blink::blink)

I first tried it after K was born. It's a little weird to sit with your eyes shut and get the dye put on your lashes, but it only takes 5-10 minutes. When they clean it off you get dark lovely lashes. Though your lashes don't get longer when they are tinted, as they do when you wear mascara, you may be pleasantly surprised by how long your lashes actually are when you get color all the way to the ends and can see ALL of them. The tinting lasts 3-5 weeks.

I do it because 1) I don't have time to put mascara on everyday, and 2) my eyes are too sensitive to wear mascara everyday*.




*More on my sensitive eyes later. I'm sure you're all excited!

Temperature down

K (3) woke up with about 100, but since she woke up 103+ yesterday, I'm thinking it's good.

T (21 months) doesn't seem to have a fever today. Her nose is a big ole mess though. You wipe her nose and she says, "wanna see." And then you show her the kleenex and she says, "Uck." Yup.

It's also much cooler outside than it was a couple of days ago. Again, I'm thinking it's good.

K is coughing and SGR girl showed up. Not good, but you can't have everything.

Friday, June 15, 2007

More crying all around

N (5) was very sad today after school ended. She cried and cried on the drive home. She was sad about the class ending. I told her I was too. She said, "But you're not me. You don't know." I realized at this point that this is just the start of her thinking there is NO WAY I could possibly understand what she's feeling. It will only get worse as she gets older.

Right now, it makes me sad that I can't make it all better. It also makes me sad that she thinks I can't understand.

By the time we got home, she was much better. I hope the summer goes okay. I'll have to document more about it soon.

There was lots more crying from K and T, but writing it all out makes me feel very whiny. Here's the short version:

K wanted me to hold her. T wanted me to hold her. T wanted to nurse non-stop. What did I expect? They were both sick. Because of the sibling rivalry for me to hold them both, and N wanting dinner, K knocked T off the chair and T hit her head on the wood floor. Microsoft Word (a product I loathe) ate a graphic in a document I was working on and I had to re-do a lot of work. We watched a lot of televsion to keep us sane.

Friday morning

Miss K (3) woke up with a high fever. I'm not sure exactly how high, but I got readings of 102.8, 103.7 and 104.3. About 30 minutes after motrin and 15 minutes after tylenol it was only 99.1 or 100.3. I am so thankful we have fever reducers that work so well. K looked so sad and pitiful when it was so high. Now she's due for another dose of motrin, and believe me, I'm going to try to make sure she doesn't spike high again!

Miss T (21 months) woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. She and I went to her gymnastics class and she did great. She jumped high, ran fast, walked on the beam, hung upside down and did flips. I even got lots of good pictures. I'll post some later. Then we came home and she started getting whiny. She hit K with a shoe. K cried. T cried because I took the shoe away. N (5) was crying because she wanted to wear a winter shirt and ripped pants to school today and I didn't want her to wear them.

Finally, after I got motrin in T (after 4 attempts and getting it all over her hair and my floor), after 35 minutes of her clinging to me, and nursifng for 10 minutes she fell asleep. Poor tired and a little sick T. Poor K who was so sick. Poor N who is so sad that today is her last day of S_______.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

T stuff

Did I tell you that T is getting her 2 year molars already? One broke through in end of April/beginning of May. She's still chewing on her fingers all the time. Not so much the last week, so maybe another one (or three) molars are through.

She's climbing on everything! She can climb N's bed (started doing that in the beginning of May). We have to shut to N and K's room so she doesn't climb because she can't quite climb the bed all the way. She looks like a little rock climber when she does do it.

Tonight, she was the most difficult I've ever seen her. She was defiant, pulling on K, and hitting. I think it's mostly because she doesn't feel well. She's usually such a sweetie.

This picture shows how she walks with her hands behind her back. It's cute and it makes her look so innocent.

puny

That's how I and the girls feel today...

I couldn't sleep last night. I'm not sure why. The girls all slept, but NOT ME. I am usually a great sleeper. About once a year, I have this kind of problem. It always throws me for a loop.

K (3) is coughing a lot today and has a fever. I'm doing both motrin and tylenol (alternated) to keep it down.

T (21 months) has a runny nose.

N (5) and I had a blast swimming, but she swallowed half the pool. As soon as we got in the locker room she threw up after swimming last night.

Germs and exhaustion. Good times.

I just get stupid when I'm tired. All day long, I've been walking into rooms wondering what on earth I'm doing. On a good day, I do this several times.... On a tired day, non-stop.

It's hot today. I believe it hit 98 today. It's supposed to be a 10 degrees cooler tomorrow. I sure hope so!

If I get a second-wind, I'll post a more fun post later.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Whiplash

Today I went to work....Going back to work after being home with the girls from 3 days (Friday, Monday and Tuesday) is kind of shocking (hence the title). I enjoyed my time with them all day for 3 days so much. I really love hanging with them when I'm not totally stressed out and thinking about the 30 million things I need to do at work. If I didn't work, I'd make a great stay-at-home-mom... But if I didn't work, I think I might be a little depressed, so I might not actually make a great one. I think, just working a little less is what I need.

At work: I was unstressed when I arrived, but since I only got 2.5 hours there, I left with a lot of work still to be done and lots of thoughts that needed me to think about them. I was very stressed.

I have so much work to do before our trip. I'll be checking in every day from our trip, but I do have to get some things done before I go (I have to do one writing thing tomorrow).

For the next year, my goal is to take one day a week off and just hang with the girls. I will still work ~20 hours a week. I'll plan to be in the office for long-ish days on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we'll see if it works or not. I really hope I can do it. It's going to be hard though. Sigh. Deep, deep sigh. (It's the class that is complicating things, but I want to do the class!!!! Argh!)

While I was at work, I was in a meeting about my favorite project almost the whole time... For 1.5 hours, we spent time discussing an idea, converging on the next steps, and starting to budget. In the last 15 minutes of the meeting, we changed directions completely and left with an entirely different plan than we had when we started the meeting.... The plan we ended with is one we had started with back in February.

Back in February, we didn't think we could find a funding agency for our idea.... We think we have now. We liked the plan then and we still like it now. We know a lot more about what this plan will mean for us. The plan that we had when we started the meeting involves a lot of things we don't know much about. It is a lot more ambitious. It was very interesting to a funding agency so we pursued it.

It feels good to be back thinking about the first plan, but we don't know if it's a slam-dunk or not. We need a slam-dunk. We need more funding. We'll know more in the next week or so.

Hi Meow

That's my new favorite T (21 months) saying... She says it whenever she sees our cat, C. She loves him. (He thinks she loves him too much. She is rather enthusiastic in her petting. He's a great cat. He puts up with her and her sisters.)

Green

I probably shouldn't, but to follow up on this post, tonight's output from K was VERY green. Remember, she ate more peas yesterday than she's eaten cummulatively in her life.

Please file under TMI. I had to blog it though 'cause I laughed and MWH said it was okay to provide this follow-up to the post. Heh.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Ohhhhhhhhh

That's my current favorite Miss T saying... She'll ask me a question and when I tell her the answer she'll say "Ohhhhhh!" ... Complete understanding no matter what I tell her. So dang cute. I should try to capture one of the "ohhhhs" on video.

Sunglasses....

I usually buy cheap sunglasses at Target... Because I lose them. A lot. The $5 black ones that only have 99% UVA and UVB protection are what I get (usually).

The first time I bought them I was so worried about the lack of that 1% protection. MWH pointed out that 1) not wearing sunglasses was a lot less protection, and I do that fairly often because of the whole lost sunglasses thing and 2) sun gets in around the lenses and that's got to be a fair amount of UV. Since I figured I'd lose them in a couple of weeks and buy 100% UVA and UVB protection ones, I gave up worrying about that 1%.

The funny thing was, I didn't lose that pair of 99% glasses. They met their demise months and months later when T (21) bent one of the arms to the point of breaking.

I thought about it and realized that sunglasses I don't like, I don't lose. Sunglasses that I like, or cost more than $15 are lost almost instantly. Sometimes they aren't lost forever, but for long stretches. For example, today, I went through our swim bag from last summer to find waterwings/other fun stuff and lo and behold, I found a pair of sunglasses from last summer. A pair that I actually kind of liked, but hadn't gotten to wear for very long. The lenses are a little small, but still fashionable, and otherwise they were good--no scratches either. These were a $14 pair of sunglasses. Want to bet on long until I lose them again?

Once I spent $20 on a pair of sunglasses.... I wore them one time and then lost them. Oops.

I recently bought another $5 pair of 99% sunglasses at Target.... They are VERY crooked. The left lens is about 1/2 inch lower than the right lens. Want to bet that I'll NEVER EVER lose those glasses? And they'll NEVER EVER break.

Place your bets in the comments to play. The winner will get, ummmm, some sunglasses... (Heh.) Hopefully it will take MONTHS before the contest ends.

Cough contest

Last week, N (5) got a cold/cough. N often runs fevers with things. She also ran a fever. This week, T (21 months) and K (3) have the cough. Because of it, there are a lot of fake cough contests going on around here. When they cough for real it sounds very sad and bad. Sigh.

A whole lotta peas!

To follow up from this post.

Yesterday, I made K's (3) smoothie with strawberries, soymilk, cherries, banana, yogurt and PEAS! And she drank it all and didn't notice. I think she ate more veggies yesterday than she has cummulatively in her whole life. Yay K! Yay me!

Stay tuned for more fun with the blender.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Joy in my heart

I've gotten to hang with the little girls (K and T) today. It is wonderful. We're just doing ordinary things, but I haven't gotten to do ordinary things in an unrushed manner for MONTHS. I am thrilled. I am boring, eh? I have been working too much lately.

In just a little while, we'll go get N at school and then... we plan to go swim at the Y tonight. Wish me luck! (I plan to take all 3 by myself.)

It's so amazing how much the three little girls have changed in a year. A year ago, I would hardly attempt doing anything by myself with all 3 of them. I sometimes felt kind of wimpy, but it's mostly because they are so independent.

NONE of them want to hold my hand. None of them will be carried. None will ride in a stroller without putting up a HUGE fuss. ALL of them are confident enough to run off. I read on another Mom's blog about how large parks give her an ulcer and how she freaks if she can't see one of her kids (I'd link, but I can't remember where I read it). I knew exactly what she meant. The three little girls all head in different directions as fast as they can. It causes my heart to stop. I've had many freak-out moments at parks or other places designed to be fun.

However, N (5) is now old enough to follow directions and she does pretty well....It's so crazy to see N so big....I remember when N was one-year. She was so fast. She was so crazy. She LOVED danger. Seriously. MWH and I joked that she could walk into a room and know where all the dangerous spots were in less than 2 seconds.

I remember watching her at a year and thinking she would never be able to be trusted in an unfenced park or walk on a sidewalk near cars. I remember when she was 3 thinking, wow, she can almost be trusted to walk in a parking log. Now, she's good. She is my helper. We haven't let her cross a street by herself yet, but that's coming. She's becoming a KID.

She's not a baby, toddler, or even a preschooler any more. She's in what developmental folks call "Middle Childhood." It's at this point that kids start taking on more responsibility and doing it well. That's where my N is. It's so cool. Watching the developmental process unfold completely is truly amazing.

Okay, I'm rambling now. I should go finish up some writing for work. Oops, T just woke up from her nap. That was short.

A funny thing happened online

The other day, I was searching for a white sweater for my friend's daughter (Hey DM! that's you!). I found several on A*ma*zon, but they were all out of stock. Amazon recommended that I might like this blue sweater. It was cute. It was a size Medium (8-10). At first, I thought it was a girl-sized sweater. Then, it had recommendation that linked to Women's sweaters, so I decided it was for me. I wasn't 100% sure though.

It was a good brand of sweater. All cotton. Navy. Just a simple cardigan, but, in my opinion, one can never have too many all cotton simple sweaters. They are kind of timeless. I decided to order it because it was on sale (major sale with free shipping.... The price of the sweater was less than shipping usually costs!)

I was excited about the new sweater. Then, it arrived, and it was a girl's sweater. Heh. N (5) has a new navy sweater in about 2 years. Or K has one in about 4 years.... Or T has one in about 5-6 years.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

MWH doesn't blog

so I have to record all the stuff he tells me.

T (21 months) loves for him to put her to bed. In fact, she won't actually let me put her to bed anymore. She will cry until he comes in and says good night, and snuggles her. She goes to sleep peacefully and quietly if he does that.

Since Memorial Day Weekend, she's been singing (or trying to sing) Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Today, I said something about it and wondered where she heard it and why she liked it so much. MWH said, "I sing it to her every night when I put her to bed."

Awww. I don't know their routine and the rituals they have. I am sure they are sweet.

He got T up this morning and they had quite the conversation... Even though we have watched language acquisition occur two other times, we are both amazed at all the words, the sentences she says now, and how much she knows. We love to listen to her talk. She has such a sweet little voice right not... It's going to change and she'll sound more grown up soon. Anyway, this morning he told her she needed to be quiet and she said "shhhh N__-N__ sleep." It was true, N was still asleep." They talked some more and MWH asked T were Mommy was. She said "Show." Yup, I was in the shower.

(This isn't from MWH, but it goes along with T and her talking... On the way home from the park today, she told me she had sand in her shoe. She did. She said, "San-in... take off" while gesturing at her shoe.)

The lamest post EVER

I should be working... I'm Mommy-in-charge this week, but still trying to get a lot of things done at work. I'd like to be able to work at least 12 hours this week. Since I worked three hours today, it should be do-able. Here's a list of what I need to do for work:

1. Coordination/Planning/Content Development for summer seminars (including an announcement that has to be written by tomorrow)
2. Coordination on a grant (my role is very small thankfully!)
3. Writing for another grant (agin, small role, but a bit bigger)
4. Part 3 of #1 could be fairly extensive or small. I'll let you know how it goes.

Okay, that's not so bad. I'm probably forgetting something. Probably forgetting because of my head injury...

Did I tell you I whacked my head really hard yesterday? I was unpacking a box in our loft, and there's a low ceiling on one-side with a support beam hanging down even lower. I stood up and hit my head on the beam really hard. I cried. It hurt for a long time after, and today, it still kind of hurts and I have a slight headache.

Today was fun. We had our neighbors over. They have 2 little kids too. They hung for a few hours. We had some food and chatted while the kids played. I've been meaning to have them over since January, but with all of the colds, the class, and then everything else that's been going on this was our first opportunity. They are really busy too. It's crazy sometimes.

What else... I should go write that announcement...

Here's another list of things I want to/need to accomplish this week on the home front

1. Get a new pair of sandals for K (3)
2. Get a throw rug to go in front of the refrigerator
3. Take in N and K's health forms to their respective schools and make sure we're good to go!
4. Go swim with the girls at the Y! Also work out and let them play in the childcare rooms!
5. Figure out the stuff I need to pack for our trip.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Quote of the day

They are very cute--when they aren't screaming.

Should I make it the new tagline?

Friday, June 08, 2007

A full day

I got to hang all day with K and T! Yippee.*

It was a little touch-n-go around nap time.... They were tired, but neither of them wanted to sleep... I needed them to sleep because we had a play date with one of N's friends after preschool.

When I was starting to get frustrated with them and their antics, I put them in the car and DROVE ... I drove for about 5 minutes and K (3) fell asleep. About 15 minutes later T finally fell asleep. They each ended up getting a 40 minute nap. That's about the minimum amount necessary to keep them on the happy side of things. Whew.

Nothing real exciting, but I am happy to be hanging with my girls! T is getting so big. Where did my baby go????





*I need to make it so my schedule allows me to be Mommy for one full-day a week this coming year. It was nice to have a whole day with the girls. Teaching that class last semester was fun, but it really took a lot of work. Teaching one class (new prep) and working 20 hours a week is pretty much equivalent to a full-time job. How can I do it all in 4 days a week? .... Sigh. I need to give up something, but I don't know what.

Scheduling fun...

Not! I'm trying to figure out classes for the girls. We could do gymnastics, ballet, or swim. K wanted to do ballet and gymnastics. N wanted to do swim and gymnastics. T will probably just do gymnastics. N (5) is supposed to move up a level in gymnastics, but the times for that more advanced class just aren't good. Sigh. I haven't enrolled and classes start in a week, but I just can't decide what times work best! Why is it so complicated?

Some cuteness for YOU

Miss K (3) and Miss T (21 months) were playing a game last night. It was "Open the Present." I'm sure other kids do this, but it's one of my girls' favorite.

Rules of the game:

For the "openeee"
Find a box
Put something in it
Put a blanket over it
Go tell your sister/Mom/Dad that you have a present for them and they need to open it
Bounce up and down while they open it
Rinse, Repeat


The "opener" has to "oooh and ahhhhh" as they open the present

Everyone is a winner!


K would wrap a present then T would open it and say "ooooooh... Oh!" Then T would say, "I wrap." She'd wrap the same thing for K and then K would open it and say "Oooooooh! I love it."

They rinsed/repeated for about 15 minutes.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Low energy

N is sick. Sigh. I feel exhausted and I imagine it's because I'm fighting it. N's quote of the day was when MWH asked her where she got her cold and she replied, "It's a mystery." He and I were just busting up.



K had a great quote yesterday. She was very very grumpy because she didn't nap. She kicked or hit her little sister. One of our wonderful college student babysitters (J2) told her she needed to go to time out to calm down. K said, "I'm NOT GOING TO TIME OUT!" She stood shaking and being very angry and added, "Even though I did it." (Yell it for the whole effect.)




Mary Poppins leaves for vacation tomorrow. Starting tomorrow, I'm in charge. Our previous nanny is going to come hang with the girls for 2 days next week. I'm excited to get more time with the girls!

As soon as N is well, we'll join the Y. I'm looking forward to swimming and playing with the girls there.




I'll work on a fun T / K update soon. K had her 3-year check-up today so I have size stats! MWH was able to take off from work and go with us. I really like it when he gets to go too. He usually does for the "big" birthday appointments.

I really like our pediatrician, however, she's always concerned about K's eating, or rather K's lack of eating. Our doctor thinks I should try to get K to eat more veggies. On my previous post about K's eating, motherlawyer posted a comment that made me feel better... She suggested I read Ellyn Satter's book "Child of Mine". It's funny, I've read it, and I've suggested it to other people as a good read, but I didn't apply it to K. I know my job is to offer her healthy food choices and it's K's part of the bargain to eat them. I need to keep this is in mind.

Sometimes, when you're so close to the problem, it's hard to step back. That's why I made that post. So that you could help me step back. I watch N and T eat so well and K eat so poorly, and I start to freak... I start to think K must be malnourished... and this must be hurting her brain development... I get stressed and then I am not happy.

I let N and T tell me what they want to eat and I trust them to eat enough and eat well, but I don't trust K to do the same. I'm working on it. Of course, not starting well yet, I bribed her to eat some peas tonight...K swallowed them whole. She probably swallowed 7. It was all very dramatic. She nearly gagged during the act too.

I do think I will start adding some veggies to her yogurt/fruit shakes. It could work. Of course, it won't work if she notices--I'll have to be careful!



What else... I think that's it for now.... I'm tired. Given that I'm going to be in charge and with the girls tomorrow, you could get NO posts or tons of posts. We'll see what happens.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Dinner and sleep

Tonight, MWH and I got home from our aerobics class and the girls were all very tired. K (3) missed her nap today and N (5) has a little cold (UGH!). We got them to bed before we ate dinner... We haven't eaten alone (in our own house) in a long time.

I'm very tired too. I went to a conference (local) today. I had to get up at 7 am (very early around these parts). It was a good conference for the most part.... I can't come up with a good summary because I'm too tired. I got to hear about a project that is doing good work and I'm so glad they are there. I also got inspired about something else, but more later. Must sleep now.

Stay tuned...

Stay tuned for more info, but until I write it up, you can read this piece about the discrimination of non-morning people. MWH and I are so not morning people.

Are you a morning person?

If you're not, do you just "give in" and accept that the world is run by morning people, and go along with the "early to bed, early to rise" thing? Or do you try to affect change and make things betters for you and other non-morning people?

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

5 peas...

I've been trying to get K (3) to eat more foods. She's been rather obstinate. Her favorite dinner of late? Tortilla and mayonaise. On the bright side, it's a whole grain tortilla. The other night, I lost it when she was dipping her fingers in the mayonaise and eating it straight. Ugh.

Sigh.

I waffle about the best approach to take to get her to eat better.

Option 1) Ignore the problem and she'll eat better eventually.

Option 2) Bribe/threaten her to get her to eat better.

Option 3) Try to figure out how to mix tasty shakes that include things like peas or spinach.



Tonight, I got her to eat to 5 peas through a series of threat and bribes. Now, she says, she'll eat 4 peas every day. If she did that, I'd be thrilled. That's 28 peas in a week. I'm guessing that's close to a serving!

Any one out there reading who has a terrible eater?

Here's the list of foods she will eat. Pretty much, this is it.


  1. tortilla (whole grain, so at least I can feel good about that) but we lose points because it's with mayonaise
  2. occasionally she'll eat peanut butter (less than once a week)
  3. occasionally she'll eat an apple (about once a month)
  4. mac-n-cheese or pasta with butter and cheese
  5. corn tortilla chips
  6. guacamole (sometimes--always from our favorite restaurant--rarely now from anywhere else)
  7. the tomato juice from salsa (with tortilla chips)
  8. bread/bagel (sometimes)
  9. whole grain waffles
  10. yogurt
  11. cheese (usually)
  12. cookies (always)
  13. chocolate (always)
  14. eggs (about once a month)
  15. Fruit e.g., strawberries, cherries and bananas (all 3 at least twice a week mixed in a smoothie with yogurt and soymilk)


On a daily basis she will drink carrot juice, soymilk and regular milk. (Usually all 3, but sometimes just 2 of the 3.)

No meat... I'm okay with that.

I'm sure it could be worse. Thoughts on how bad it is? Any tricks to get her to eat better? Miss N (5) and Miss T (21 months) are both GREAT eaters. Veggies, and everything.

Robots

Found on the web. 20 things you didn't know about robots. Number 19 and 20 are slightly disturbing... I want to go look up more on #16.

Bedtime

T (21 months) is starting to want to participate in the bedtime ritual with her sisters. For most of her life, we've read to her separately and put her to bed a little earlier. She's not quite up to listening to the long-ish stories that N and K listen to, but she's getting closer, and she wants to be in with them.

My baby is growing up!

Sand...


The first time T (21 months) walked in the sand (beginning of April), she did not like the feel of sand between her toes. She did not like it one little bit! I was kind of worried about what trips to the beach would be like given how much she didn't like it.

The second time (end of April), she was intrigued, and this picture shows her looking at the sand and her feet. Now, when we go to a park with sand, she wants to take her shoes off and run around in the sand.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Transitions

Documenting for me... Not a well written post... Just thinking aloud. Read or not. Your call. You have been warned about the lack of coherence that will follow.

I'm trying to transition back to "just working" and maintain only working 20 hours a week and not feel guilty about it. HAHAHAHAHA.

My supervisor and I were discussing how we feel that working where we work is sucking the life force from our bodies. It's nice to be able to have conversations like this with "my boss." It's not often you can. He and I are tired. He's got two young children. He wants to be able to enjoy his family and not just work all of the time. Me too.

My supervisor definitely feels more pressure than I do. He's more senior and has more responsibility. I look at some of the more junior folks and I'm envious of the lack of responsibility they have. I imagine that is how my supervisor feels when he looks at me. My supervisor shields me from some of the pressure. I appreciate that. The big problem for me, is that I also love teaching. Teaching is very time consuming. This fall, I will be teaching again...

It will take a lot of time.... I got the teaching "thing" I applied for.... I'm thrilled and excited, but now I have more work to do. I don't know how I will make it all work, but I'm trying to figure it out. I'm going to try to do as much preparation time as possible over this summer. I started doing some of the reading for the class on Saturday. I will be reading ~20/26 articles that i've not read before and teaching with them. Not a problem, but I do need to read them and figure out what I want to say about them. I should probably go get the reader, eh?

I'm sure I'll talk more about the "thing" soon... Basically, I applied to teach in the way cool technology lab at the university. I am thrilled as this helps tie teaching and my "real job" together a bit more. If I could figure out a way to tie them together better, instead of keeping them separate and having to "switch" between things, it would be easier for me. The amount of task switching I had to do last semester nearly did me in. So much cognitive overload associated with task switching. Looking back to just May, I don't know how I did it.

Okay, rambling post coming to an end now.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Cu-cu

That's how T says K's name. (We were trying to get her to say the first syllable of K's name and it came out as cu-cu... sounding a lot like cuckoo. When T says that, K says, I'm not "cuckoo," I'm K_-K_. Cute, eh?)

Just sad....

Today, a co-worker sent me an email at 3:39. She also cc'd another co-worker. All of us were online at the time, and between the 3 of us we sent 5 emails on the topic within 40 minutes. IS THAT SAD OR WHAT? We all need to get lives.

It's a freakin' Sunday for goodness sake.

I read that 1 in 4 people under 40 take their laptops with them on vacation. Sigh. I remember when I wanted to take my laptop on a vacation in 1999 and MWH wouldn't let me. Now we're both bringing a laptop when we go on our trip in a couple of weeks. I reminded him of how he wouldn't let me take my computer back then and how he takes one now, and asked him why he wouldn't let me then. He replied that it "was a different time."

It was probably a better time back then... I just didn't realize it.

Y?

We're thinking of joining the Y for the summer (or longer). I think it makes sense. It's got an

  1. indoor pool (positives and negatives for that)**
  2. slide at the pool (postive)
  3. we don't know if N is big enough to go on the slide (potential negative)
  4. childcare (free for 90 minutes while I work out -- total plus!)
  5. times that work when N and K could take swimming lessons together
  6. a gated park area we could go play on during the weekends (kind of nice, but there are plenty of parks)


Our nanny is leaving for vacation at the end of this week and I want the girls and I to have some things to do the full week she's gone. We could go to the Y and I could work out and swim and that would give us a lot to do.



Along the lines of why, both K (3) and T (21 months) want to know WHY on earth tables were designed with sharp corners right at head height.

Who was the genius that thought this was a good idea????? We went to lunch today and K ran into a table. She screamed for a long time. Poor girl. It really hurt. Before that, T bent down to get something and bonked her forhead... She has a little bruise. It's tough to be little!




*I want to find an outdoor pool we like, but maybe it makes more sense next summer when the girls are all a little older. I hate the sunscreen slathering that is necessary before going outside, so I'm not a big fan of being outside during the day in the bright sunlight. And then it gets too cold at night. Am I a wimp or what?

heh...

I left my computer alone with a "create post" window open... K (3) created the one below. Her first post. I'm so proud.

//';;

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Saturday Fun

It was a pretty lazy day. We did gymnastics classes, lunch, played, napped (T and K) and then to the park for about 2 hours. We went about 5:30 and didn't get home until after 7:30 and we had some hungry girls!

While we were at the park, N and I did cartwheels. These pictures show why I need a new camera. My little point and click digital can't keep up! Digital SLR, please!

























One thing I have to note, 'cause apparently I'm vain, my pants aren't actually tight at all... They look terrible in the pictures though. Next time I'll wear better (stretchier) pants (and a shirt that doesn't keep falling down).

I love the fact that even T was playing along and trying to do gymnastics too. Her foot... She fell on the stairs today and screamed, but was better within seconds... Then at the park she wanted to jump off things... I had to keep stopping her and telling her not to because of her "boo-boo foot." My girls are so energetic... I don't know where they get it. Heh.

Friday, June 01, 2007

The foot...

On Sunday, as we flew back from our trip, I noticed T (21 months) had a little bump on her foot where the bruise had been. I noted it and decided if it wasn't better in a couple of days I'd call the doctor. Tuesday morning the bump was significantly smaller--actually almost gone. The bruise was gone too. I was relieved. Since Tuesday, I hadn't really look at the foot that closely again.

This morning, we went to gymnastics. T jumped off a box that was at least a foot high, maybe 18 inches high, and landed on a mat. She sat there.... 1, 2, 3.... High shrill scream.... The kind that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I picked her up and her foot was red and a little swollen. She writhed in paind and screamed for a while... It seemed like forever, but it probably was only 3 -5 minutes.

The teacher got us some frozen peas to put on her foot. T didn't really want them. Well, she wanted to open the bag and eat them, but she didn't want them on her foot. After the peas (another 2 minutes), T wanted to do the rest of class. She ran. She stood on her tip-toes. She walked on the beam. She did flips on the bar. The teacher was freaked. I was pretty freaked myself.

I called the doctor. We went in. T is walking with a slight limp... It's a VERY VERY slight limp. She has a lovely bruise again. It had almost gone away completely, but it's back now. T can bear full weight and stand on her tip-toes. The doctor felt the foot and said, maybe we should get an x-ray.

I asked what the treatment was if T's foot were broken in the spot right below her little toe. The doctor said, "Nothing."

Knowing how much T would love getting an x-ray, I asked, "Then is it necessary to do the x-ray?" The doctor was encouraging the x-ray, but really, she just wanted the x-ray in case it doesn't heal in a week or so. The doctor also just wanted to know for sure. Since my daughter was running around and not being slowed down by her injury, I wasn't really hip on getting an x-ray just for the doctor's edification. The doctor offered to call a pediatric podiatrist and get a second opinion. I agreed that would be good.

The pediatric podiatrist thought it was fine to wait a week to see if T is okay or not getting better. If she's okay, we skip the x-ray. If she's limping or getting worse, we get it. Sounds good to me. I imagining it will be better in a week... As long as she stops jumping off tall buildings.

See the original bruise here.