Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Cold day in Pioneer Square with Papa Joe
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Serious questions to ponder . . .
Am I going to give Josie a snake phobia by chasing her with a Playdough snake?
Does anyone else have to bribe their children with green veggies and fruit to get them to eat their mashed potatoes, meat or pasta?
Does anyone else worry their child is going to be smothered by all the stuffed animals they insist on having in their crib/bed?
Why does she keep sleeping in on weekdays making me late for work and then wake up at 5:30 on weekends?
Is it wrong that I let Josie run around the house in a t-shirt and training pants because she's so adorable in them?
For anyone that has seen Tinkerbell more than 5 times-is it weird that I'll ponder what my, Josie's or other family/friend's talent would be?
BTW-Josie (the child that will leave no buckle unbuckled) would totally be a tinker . . .
Does anyone else have to bribe their children with green veggies and fruit to get them to eat their mashed potatoes, meat or pasta?
Does anyone else worry their child is going to be smothered by all the stuffed animals they insist on having in their crib/bed?
Why does she keep sleeping in on weekdays making me late for work and then wake up at 5:30 on weekends?
Is it wrong that I let Josie run around the house in a t-shirt and training pants because she's so adorable in them?
For anyone that has seen Tinkerbell more than 5 times-is it weird that I'll ponder what my, Josie's or other family/friend's talent would be?
BTW-Josie (the child that will leave no buckle unbuckled) would totally be a tinker . . .
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Yeah-I totally suck as a mom . . .
I didn't get a single picture at xmas. However-other family members had cameras so hopefully I get get a pic or video up soon. I really want the video of Josie opening up her first couple gifts-she was so excited and adorable.
Really-it's all Mother Nature's fault. By the time xmas rolled around my brain was complete and utter mush. Why you ask? Well, I'll tell you.
Four and a half days of being snowbound with a 2 year old.
Now I know it could have been so much worse. Some people lost power, ran out of grocery essentials like milk, bread, juice or alcohol; got stuck at the airport, train station, bus station, etc or completely missed out on traveling to see family. I get that. We were very lucky. On the Friday between snowstorms-I left work a little early to hit Freddie's with the rest of Beaverton to finish my xmas shopping and make sure we had enough groceries. And diet coke. And rum. ;)
However-since we had 14 inches of snow and we really couldn't go outside because neither of us had snowpants-we stayed inside save for one trip to the mailbox on the sled. It was really cold too-pretty uncomfortable just to go get the paper. And in the middle of the 14 inches of snow was a layer of ice from the freezing rain we got at some point. Salem had the reverse issue-mostly ice, some snow and massive power outages. My parents lost power for 4 days (luckily they have a generator).
So-4 days of endless videos/Dragon Tales/coloring/long naps (yeah okay-that was nice!)/more videos/wrapping/whining on the phone to whomever would listen (me) . . . . . You would think i would've gotten lots of projects done, but no. Miss Josie put the kabosh on any of that. She did let me wrap presents though. While I did the xmas presents-she wrapped whatever was lying around-some shoes, books, a cell phone, cat toys.
On Tues nite before xmas my brother rescued us and my grandpa to take us down to Salem since neither of our cars was going to make it very easily-even with chains. It took 4 hours to drive the 50 miles to Salem. I only brought one movie for the portable DVD player-so we kept watching Happy Feet. And since my SIL was making dinner and Josie had just gotten up from her nap-I hadn't fed her. Well-it was after 10 when we finally got there-the poor girl was starving and frustrated since I had her blanket in the back of the truck. She did pretty well though-didn't start melting down til we hit the outskirts of Salem.
Since my parents didn't have much power and therefore-not a lot of heat, no hot water-we stayed over at my brother's house. We had to cook xmas eve dinner at their house and then take it to my mom and dad's for xmas eve with us kids, the grandkids and my grandpa. It was still chilly so I didn't put Josie in her xmas dress-we all dressed warmly. It was nice-we had lights downstairs, the toilets flushed, etc. Just the bare minimum of power used-well-my dad did splurge and put on the outside xmas lights and of course-the tree lights were on.
We ate and opened gifts-Josie loved all her presents. She did really well-just got a little frustrated that we wouldn't let her open her toys right away so she could play with them.
This is the point that I was supposed to jump back in my car and drive to Portland to sing at the Cathedral for Midnite Mass-my favorite part of xmas. However-I had no car. And the roads were still scary. Still-I could have borrowed one of the many SUVs in my fam I'm sure and drove white-knuckled up the freeway. But I couldn't sing. I lost my voice AGAIN! So frustrating. It's better now-but I think I've got something weird going on in my throat and need to get it checked out. I was a bit crabby about all this, but what are you going to do?
The power came on at 8pm-yay! We stayed there that night-no way Grandma and the Papas were going to miss xmas morning with her! I was sleeping on the couch downstairs and since none of the clocks were right-I had no clue what time it was. Josie was sleeping with my mom and I didn't want to miss her seeing her huge Sully and stocking under the tree. So I went upstairs at some point (about 5ish) and watched TV/napped in the living room until I heard her wake up. Then I grabbed the video camera (hold the phone-just realized I DO have some footage from xmas!) and went in to get her up and follow her to the living room. It was kind of anticlimatic-she seemed confused as to what I was telling her (that Santa came . . .) but she did have fun waking up the Papas. Not sure my dad appreciated it too much. Hey-it was almost 7.
The battery on my regular camera was dead-so I didn't get any pics that day. And I hadn't bought a memory card for my new video camera yet-so space on the camera was limited. We finished the day at my grandma/aunt/uncle's house for xmas dinner and more presents . . . . and was ready for bed by 7. ;)
Oh-and it snowed both xmas eve and xmas day-kinda cool when you don't have to worry about going anywhere.
The rest of the vacation was very chill-cards, Wii, food and more food. And endless watching of Tinkerbell!
Really-it's all Mother Nature's fault. By the time xmas rolled around my brain was complete and utter mush. Why you ask? Well, I'll tell you.
Four and a half days of being snowbound with a 2 year old.
Now I know it could have been so much worse. Some people lost power, ran out of grocery essentials like milk, bread, juice or alcohol; got stuck at the airport, train station, bus station, etc or completely missed out on traveling to see family. I get that. We were very lucky. On the Friday between snowstorms-I left work a little early to hit Freddie's with the rest of Beaverton to finish my xmas shopping and make sure we had enough groceries. And diet coke. And rum. ;)
However-since we had 14 inches of snow and we really couldn't go outside because neither of us had snowpants-we stayed inside save for one trip to the mailbox on the sled. It was really cold too-pretty uncomfortable just to go get the paper. And in the middle of the 14 inches of snow was a layer of ice from the freezing rain we got at some point. Salem had the reverse issue-mostly ice, some snow and massive power outages. My parents lost power for 4 days (luckily they have a generator).
So-4 days of endless videos/Dragon Tales/coloring/long naps (yeah okay-that was nice!)/more videos/wrapping/whining on the phone to whomever would listen (me) . . . . . You would think i would've gotten lots of projects done, but no. Miss Josie put the kabosh on any of that. She did let me wrap presents though. While I did the xmas presents-she wrapped whatever was lying around-some shoes, books, a cell phone, cat toys.
On Tues nite before xmas my brother rescued us and my grandpa to take us down to Salem since neither of our cars was going to make it very easily-even with chains. It took 4 hours to drive the 50 miles to Salem. I only brought one movie for the portable DVD player-so we kept watching Happy Feet. And since my SIL was making dinner and Josie had just gotten up from her nap-I hadn't fed her. Well-it was after 10 when we finally got there-the poor girl was starving and frustrated since I had her blanket in the back of the truck. She did pretty well though-didn't start melting down til we hit the outskirts of Salem.
Since my parents didn't have much power and therefore-not a lot of heat, no hot water-we stayed over at my brother's house. We had to cook xmas eve dinner at their house and then take it to my mom and dad's for xmas eve with us kids, the grandkids and my grandpa. It was still chilly so I didn't put Josie in her xmas dress-we all dressed warmly. It was nice-we had lights downstairs, the toilets flushed, etc. Just the bare minimum of power used-well-my dad did splurge and put on the outside xmas lights and of course-the tree lights were on.
We ate and opened gifts-Josie loved all her presents. She did really well-just got a little frustrated that we wouldn't let her open her toys right away so she could play with them.
This is the point that I was supposed to jump back in my car and drive to Portland to sing at the Cathedral for Midnite Mass-my favorite part of xmas. However-I had no car. And the roads were still scary. Still-I could have borrowed one of the many SUVs in my fam I'm sure and drove white-knuckled up the freeway. But I couldn't sing. I lost my voice AGAIN! So frustrating. It's better now-but I think I've got something weird going on in my throat and need to get it checked out. I was a bit crabby about all this, but what are you going to do?
The power came on at 8pm-yay! We stayed there that night-no way Grandma and the Papas were going to miss xmas morning with her! I was sleeping on the couch downstairs and since none of the clocks were right-I had no clue what time it was. Josie was sleeping with my mom and I didn't want to miss her seeing her huge Sully and stocking under the tree. So I went upstairs at some point (about 5ish) and watched TV/napped in the living room until I heard her wake up. Then I grabbed the video camera (hold the phone-just realized I DO have some footage from xmas!) and went in to get her up and follow her to the living room. It was kind of anticlimatic-she seemed confused as to what I was telling her (that Santa came . . .) but she did have fun waking up the Papas. Not sure my dad appreciated it too much. Hey-it was almost 7.
The battery on my regular camera was dead-so I didn't get any pics that day. And I hadn't bought a memory card for my new video camera yet-so space on the camera was limited. We finished the day at my grandma/aunt/uncle's house for xmas dinner and more presents . . . . and was ready for bed by 7. ;)
Oh-and it snowed both xmas eve and xmas day-kinda cool when you don't have to worry about going anywhere.
The rest of the vacation was very chill-cards, Wii, food and more food. And endless watching of Tinkerbell!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Well, at least I won't have to have salad for dinner to compensate . . .
I can't believe I'm going to tell this story. It really makes me look bad in soooo many ways. But after reading Laura's post-I figured I could share too.
So-this week we've been potty-training and Josie's been wearing underwear to daycare. Well-the first day wasn't great-right off the bat she had a BM in her underwear. So-I've got two plastic baggies of clothes from daycare to deal with. I didn't get to them until today. Yeah-you see where this is going, right?
I had gone to the store earlier to buy a sled for the upcoming snow and passed by a Doritos display. Now I love me some Doritos-so I bought some. I went home to kill an hour before picking up Josie and indulged in said Doritos and People's Court.
Before heading out-I decided maybe I should start a load of laundry and was greeted with the plastic bags of grossness on the washing machine. Oh yeah . . .
Open the nasty bag and realized that the undies hadn't been, uh, "scraped" . . .(man i don't know how folks with cloth diapers do it). Anyway-I headed to the bathroom to deal with it and immediately started gagging. Now-I can deal with poopy diapers. Not a huge deal-not fun, but better than PUKE-but to clean off the underwear that's been sitting in a plastic bag is disgusting. Because you get to see it all real close and personal. (OMG-am I really writing about POOP?) I kept gagging until soon-back up came the Doritos. At least I was standing right over the toilet.
so yeah-this potty training thing is going to be dandy.
Today-not a single accident at daycare. But then-she hasn't done the deed yet either. . .
So-this week we've been potty-training and Josie's been wearing underwear to daycare. Well-the first day wasn't great-right off the bat she had a BM in her underwear. So-I've got two plastic baggies of clothes from daycare to deal with. I didn't get to them until today. Yeah-you see where this is going, right?
I had gone to the store earlier to buy a sled for the upcoming snow and passed by a Doritos display. Now I love me some Doritos-so I bought some. I went home to kill an hour before picking up Josie and indulged in said Doritos and People's Court.
Before heading out-I decided maybe I should start a load of laundry and was greeted with the plastic bags of grossness on the washing machine. Oh yeah . . .
Open the nasty bag and realized that the undies hadn't been, uh, "scraped" . . .(man i don't know how folks with cloth diapers do it). Anyway-I headed to the bathroom to deal with it and immediately started gagging. Now-I can deal with poopy diapers. Not a huge deal-not fun, but better than PUKE-but to clean off the underwear that's been sitting in a plastic bag is disgusting. Because you get to see it all real close and personal. (OMG-am I really writing about POOP?) I kept gagging until soon-back up came the Doritos. At least I was standing right over the toilet.
so yeah-this potty training thing is going to be dandy.
Today-not a single accident at daycare. But then-she hasn't done the deed yet either. . .
Snowy Day in the PNW
it was snowing pretty hard the other day-so I picked Josie up early from daycare and we went for a walk in the snow. She was pretty excited. But not about the new hat, gloves, boots and coat. Threats were involved. She really didn't know what to make of the gloves-she kept holding up her hands with her fingers splayed for the longest time.
I can't believe how big she looks in these pictures.
We decided to walk down to the little lakes on our property and see if the ducks were okay. It is so weird to see lakes freeze up in the Willamette Valley/Portland area. Beautiful but weird. The lakes had a coating of ice on them in the morning and then another layer of snow by late morning.
Where's the ducks?
There they are! The poor things came barreling out of the water when they saw us-no doubt hoping we had food. We're not supposed to feed the ducks-it's a natural area-but obviously some people do since the ducks followed us for about 5 minutes hoping . . . .
We were out for about an hour and Josie did great til we headed back up the hill for home. She whimpered and whined the whole way-not even wanting me to pick her up. She was so tired. I wanted to laugh at her-cuz it was really kind of funny-but thought she probably wouldn't appreciate it too much. Hot chicken noodle soup and a nap did the trick.
I can't believe how big she looks in these pictures.
We decided to walk down to the little lakes on our property and see if the ducks were okay. It is so weird to see lakes freeze up in the Willamette Valley/Portland area. Beautiful but weird. The lakes had a coating of ice on them in the morning and then another layer of snow by late morning.
Where's the ducks?
There they are! The poor things came barreling out of the water when they saw us-no doubt hoping we had food. We're not supposed to feed the ducks-it's a natural area-but obviously some people do since the ducks followed us for about 5 minutes hoping . . . .
We were out for about an hour and Josie did great til we headed back up the hill for home. She whimpered and whined the whole way-not even wanting me to pick her up. She was so tired. I wanted to laugh at her-cuz it was really kind of funny-but thought she probably wouldn't appreciate it too much. Hot chicken noodle soup and a nap did the trick.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Thanks sweetie!
We've had unusual weather for the Pacific NW this week-several days in a row of sub freezing temps and snow. I'm a complete wuss when it comes to driving in the snow. Normally, we get very wet snow that melts within hours. So-the conventional wisdom of us webfeet is to just stay put til it melts.
Well-that was difficult this week. Unless you completely put your life on hold-you gotta figure things out. On Tues I drove into work and had no problems so on Wed-I took Josie to daycare. It started snowing pretty hard so I left early and picked her up (I have an escort, no chains). Anyway-when I got her in her carseat I looked back and said-"So-do you think Mama can do it? Can I get us home safely?" She nodded with her thumb in her mouth.
When I got home I pulled in the garage and said "Yay-we made it!"
Josie piped up from the backseat, "Good job Mama!"
Well-that was difficult this week. Unless you completely put your life on hold-you gotta figure things out. On Tues I drove into work and had no problems so on Wed-I took Josie to daycare. It started snowing pretty hard so I left early and picked her up (I have an escort, no chains). Anyway-when I got her in her carseat I looked back and said-"So-do you think Mama can do it? Can I get us home safely?" She nodded with her thumb in her mouth.
When I got home I pulled in the garage and said "Yay-we made it!"
Josie piped up from the backseat, "Good job Mama!"
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Stalling . . .
Scene: Mom and I hanging out in the living room after I've put Josie to bed.
Time: 9:15pm
Voice over the baby monitor: "Hey guys? Whatcha doin?"
Time: 9:15pm
Voice over the baby monitor: "Hey guys? Whatcha doin?"
Monday, December 08, 2008
December wedding . . . .
On Saturday, the son of my parent's neighbors and also the kid I used to babysit got married to a lovely girl I hadn't met until then . . . Josie did great during the ceremony. My nephew Josh was the ringbearer and Josie seemed to be a little jealous that he was walking next to the flower girl-a little girl she didn't know. "She's too big! She's too big!" she kept saying. Not exactly sure what that meant or what was going on in that little mind of hers . . . but I think she was jealous.
I dressed Josie up all in red with a really cute dress and ribbons in her hair. She hated the ribbons-we had to retie them a million times, trying to keep them out of her face. The dress unfortunately was a little big on her-but still very cute. She looks wonderful in red.
I had the hardest time getting a good picture-the lighting in the place was dim and there were lots of twinkle lights. When I could get a decent picture-she wouldn't smile. Oh well . . . .
Josie and Josh-whenever these two are around each other there is lots of tussling and touching. Josh just can't keep his hands off of her . . .
My niece Marina with Josie.
Josie with Grandma.
My brother Jeff and my SIL Marie.
Jeff and Mina.
More Josie and Grandma (she's going to kill me for this!)
Josie on the dance floor.
Josie and Josh dancing . . . yes I know it looks like they are wrestling . . . .
I dressed Josie up all in red with a really cute dress and ribbons in her hair. She hated the ribbons-we had to retie them a million times, trying to keep them out of her face. The dress unfortunately was a little big on her-but still very cute. She looks wonderful in red.
I had the hardest time getting a good picture-the lighting in the place was dim and there were lots of twinkle lights. When I could get a decent picture-she wouldn't smile. Oh well . . . .
Josie and Josh-whenever these two are around each other there is lots of tussling and touching. Josh just can't keep his hands off of her . . .
My niece Marina with Josie.
Josie with Grandma.
My brother Jeff and my SIL Marie.
Jeff and Mina.
More Josie and Grandma (she's going to kill me for this!)
Josie on the dance floor.
Josie and Josh dancing . . . yes I know it looks like they are wrestling . . . .
Sesame Street Live!
couple of weekends ago-Josie and I went down to Eugene and attended Sesame Street Live with Shula and Anh and Shu's sister.
The kids did great-Anh was mesmerized during the whole thing and didn't appear to move a muscle. Josie fidgeted more-but did really well. She sat on my lap for most of it. The look on her face when the curtain went up and Bert and Ernie came out was priceless!
It was a pretty long show-2 hours with an intermission. The performance was at the Holt Center and we went to the 10:30am show. When we got there we were surprised and amused to see a bar serving beer and wine. But, by the time Bert came out in a white disco pantsuit-I was longing for a beer!
Waiting around before the show . . . .
Shula and Anh
Josie getting excited.
"leave me alone mom-I'm trying to watch Elmo!"
During intermission-they came out with this insane bundle of Elmo balloons. The lighting inside made it difficult to get a picture-but I'm showing it anyway. Josie and I spent intermission watching the Elmo balloons that got away float up to the top of the ceiling.
The aforementioned disco outfit (pic doesn't do it justice. Plus you can't see him dancing.)
The kids with their Elmo balloons (Thanks Tamara!) Luckily-these didn't sing!
The kids did great-Anh was mesmerized during the whole thing and didn't appear to move a muscle. Josie fidgeted more-but did really well. She sat on my lap for most of it. The look on her face when the curtain went up and Bert and Ernie came out was priceless!
It was a pretty long show-2 hours with an intermission. The performance was at the Holt Center and we went to the 10:30am show. When we got there we were surprised and amused to see a bar serving beer and wine. But, by the time Bert came out in a white disco pantsuit-I was longing for a beer!
Waiting around before the show . . . .
Shula and Anh
Josie getting excited.
"leave me alone mom-I'm trying to watch Elmo!"
During intermission-they came out with this insane bundle of Elmo balloons. The lighting inside made it difficult to get a picture-but I'm showing it anyway. Josie and I spent intermission watching the Elmo balloons that got away float up to the top of the ceiling.
The aforementioned disco outfit (pic doesn't do it justice. Plus you can't see him dancing.)
The kids with their Elmo balloons (Thanks Tamara!) Luckily-these didn't sing!
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