Wednesday, February 28, 2007

conference

oh, i realized i never followed up on the post about kieran's teacher conference.

everything went well, the teacher went through the sheet, we discussed kindergarten, all good. then at the very end his teacher said sincerely, "Kieran's a sweet boy, he has a sweet heart."

later, driving away i said to aaron, "You know, it was nice for her to say that at the end, something nice about Kieran and how he has a sweet heart."

right away aaron said, "She said the same thing last conference."

hmmmm, i didn't remember that.

new invention

aaron decided that andie needs a dress of some kind that includes a gutter system. maybe something rubber-y and A-line and the hem is like a gutter that all the food and drink she spills at mealtime can just slide on down and then it's contained. you could hose it down after each wearing and voila! clean kid! i know there are bibs that have a pouch and might serve a similar purpose but no mere bib will do for our mess maker.

i think aaron's on to something...

naked girl happy, naked girl sad & cars

so happy...


about two seconds later...


loving the cars


~andie is so dramatic and literally stripped her clothes off (what else is new) and then proceeded to laugh like crazy at me and then instantly became the embodiment of one who can only be described upon witnessing the display as someone who is mortally wounded. please note the food in her mouth-this particular acting exercise occurred mid-bite during breakfast.

~kieran loves the movie "Cars" and has every car from the movie that's been released. he plays with them, pretends with them, sleeps with them, travels with them, total obsession. and man, they sure know how to market these things, 4 versions of the main character alone! and you wouldn't believe what these puppies sell for on eBay!

Monday, February 26, 2007

some quick hotel pictures




i'll call this post babies, snowstorms, and toothaches

wow, what a weekend.

on saturday we visited our friends mike and becki and their daughters nora(4), gwyneth(2) and brand new maisie(3 weeks). it was so nice to see them and to be around a new baby, it seems like it's been awhile since a friend has had a baby and all of a sudden everyone is either just now giving birth or awaiting a new arrival.

we really enjoyed getting up to the suburbs, getting away, and having the kids play with friends. becki and i have been pregnant the first two times together, but this last time she was on her own. same situation with my friend kristin who also just had her third daughter, when our second kids were about a year and she told me she was ready for #3 i almost laughed. i actually, i think i did laugh. but her second was a piece of cake and mine was andie, and that's all i'll say for now. so, two friends whom i've shared pregnancies with have new babies that i haven't even considered with my own family. when people ask if we'll have another i tell them what i feel, which is that if we do we may wait a bit, maybe until the kids are both in school and then we'll either be glad to be out of the baby phase and moving on or we'll really miss it and feel like we want another family member. i do have a feeling though that we'll miss it and want another but i could be wrong.

and i *love* babies. i held maisie and it brought back such sweet, infant memories. but the funny thing was just how much aaron enjoyed being around a newborn again. before you know it, he got all mushy and was saying (multiple times even), "So, maybe we should have another." it's like all 7lbs of cuteness and sleepiness just brainwashed you. luckily, by the next day and some space from that hypnotizing munchkin aaron had come to his senses. after a mere shopping trip sunday with our own children aaron was back to reality saying "Yeah, I don't think a third would really be a good idea right now." amen.

so anyway, to get through our weekend story (i have some major tangents, i apologize, i do the same thing in conversations and i never actually finish a story) after saturday night dinner out with mike, becki, and our collective five kids, we had decided to drive 50 miles to another suburb to stay in a hotel and then shop at IKEA the next morning. well it had been raining freezing rain and sleet all evening and we weren't sure if it was safe to venture on or if we should take mike and becki up on their offer to house us for the night (i honestly just couldn't do that to a woman who had just given birth three weeks ago-becki, if you're reading, you're a saint to be so generous!) and when aaron tried the roads at 9pm after dinner he declared them "not too bad" and we were off. weeeeelllll, the interstate was pretty bad and traffic moved at 27 MPH and what should have taken not quite an hour took two and aaron and i were sure we would get into an accident. even at that pokey speed we cursed ourselves for not replacing our tread-less tires and at times aaron would have the steering wheel turned 45 degrees to the right and we would continue to veer into the left lane. it was white knuckled driving and of course at the very end with the hotel literally blocks away we got lost in a strange apartment frontage road. we arrived and threw our sleeping kids down in the hotel bed around 11:30pm just happy to have survived.

then,i awoke in the middle of the night with a horrible toothache. earlier in the week i had noticed the right side of my jaw felt tense and i figured maybe i had been clenching my teeth or something, i sometimes do that without knowing it when i'm concentrating. then during the day saturday i felt pretty achey all around my right, lower wisdom tooth (they should have been removed about 9 years ago but i never seem to get around to it). well, the pain literally kept me up at night. why do these things always happen over weekends too? at this moment in time right now i'm awaiting my emergency oral surgery consultation and have already decided that i would even give my fictitious third child to the individual who relieves the pain. ugh.

oh, and i almost forgot to finish up the weekend story (see? i told you.) so sunday the kids woke up, andie all flipped out because she'd been sleeping when we brought her to the hotel and she wanted to go home. she seemed to think we were now going to live in the strange bedroom and did not like it one bit. we tried to swim in the pool but it was freezing, so we swam in the hot tub. we went to IKEA, and even though we had just had a buffet breakfast at the hotel, we ate another breakfast at the store. we shopped a bit, bought three things--not nearly what i would usually get in an excursion to my favorite Swedish superstore--and realized that shopping in a major place like with our two kids was crazy and enough to make us seriously consider why we would want to add a third into the mix.

and lastly, we arrived home, immediately intent on getting new tires. we called every place, all were booked, we finally found a store that could do it. in the twenty minutes it took to get there they had had 5 people come in and we would have to wait 2 hours. sooooooo, we went home.

what an interesting weekend. it's nice to be home

**Edited to add: I just got back from the oral surgeon, it's an infection and he prescribed antibiotics. i'll be better soon, yay! I will need to have my wisdom teeth removed in the near future, but they didn't have to pop one out today, so I'm happy!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

school

i'm bored. and i'm boring. and i have no idea why it is that these are the moments i always feel like blogging. it's not usually when something really fun or exciting has happened, it's when i have nothing particularly interesting to say and have nothing better to do. so, sit back and prepare to be absolutely underwhelmed.

today we have a parent/teacher conference with kieran's teacher. the last one was fairly uneventful and they simply checked off a sheet and read it to us, no real added information, no "We just love your son, he's a great kid, he shares well, he's really bright and a great example". kieran's teacher and her assistant are very capable but not what i would call sweet or very nurturing. i think a little personal comment about your kid goes a long way and she just isn't like that. at the last conference the quiet student teacher could tell aaron and i were hoping for something other than someone reading off the checks and plus signs on the sheet in front of us and at the end she leaned forward and said "You should be very proud of Kieran, he's a really smart." that went a long way for us, but sadly, there's no sweet student teacher this semester and who knows what will happen.

after the conference we can register kieran for kindergarten for next fall. with schools of choice we've been visiting schools, talking to friends and neighbors, making the rounds. kieran will be a young kindergartener but i think he's ready. as it is now he attends preschool every morning, taking the bus to and from school (it's a little bus with seatbelts, it's so cute!) and while i could hold him back i feel like there's not much i could do with him for this interim year that would prepare him as well for kindergarten as this special pre-k program is in.....so......i find myself looking for a sweet, nurturing kindergarten teacher who just loves kids. as they say, it takes a village and we rely so much on these educators to assist in the raising of our children. i want someone who doesn't just check things off the sheet, who really knows my son and tells me what her impressions of him are. i am so excited for him to go to school, to make new friends, to have a new teacher, to become more independent, to learn about life and his new little society, to have his own experiences, but man-it sure is hard to except that he'll be grown up enough to be a kindergartener next fall.

i guess for today i'll settle for a conference with his teacher that will at least provide me with a sheet of his abilities and maybe (fingers crossed) an insight into our child from someone in this village of ours.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

playing

kieran's friend aidan is over right now, they're having a lot of fun. kieran started the playdate in only underwear but i can happily say he is now attired in a Spiderman costume. they are currently pushing andie around in her doll stroller. they round the corner and i hear aidan say, "i'm the daddy!" and then kieran yells, "and i'm the.............uncle!" i thought for sure he'd say mommy or something. just half an hour ago they were talking about which Backyardigans they like, mentioning Tyrone, Pablo, and Austin. "and that's all we like!" kieran exclaimed. i asked, "what about Tasha?" "no, we only like boys, not girls." lovely, the icky girl phase begins.

Monday, February 19, 2007

go japan

it seems like lately the movies i've found that i really like are all foreign.

if you're wanting something really dynamic, i would definitely suggest The House of Flying Daggers or Hero. the choreography and cinematography are absolutely spellbinding, and the plots of each one aren't too shabby either. i haven't seen anything like it. if i could take pictures that were anything like the images in these movies i would be thrilled.

while we're on the subject of japanese films, if you'd like a fun, horror-type film, it's worth checking out Dark Water. okay, it's not really fun. but one morning when i was in the middle of that miserable cold and couldn't sleep, i woke up really early and started watching the independent film channel ands saw this about to start. initially i was confused because i remember seeing previews for this movie with jennifer connelly about a year ago. but in looking at the date it seems that the japanese version is the original and we americans ripped it off and tried our hand at it. i watched the US version recently too-definitely not as good as the original. the japanese version is more suspenseful and isn't afraid to add those great scary pauses without dialogue to really get your heart racing. our movies are a little more high-gloss or something. i guess we're redone several recent japanese horror movies and they still aren't as good as the first ones.

i'm not really into bloody movies, but i can really appreciate a good suspense movie.

so, if you're at the video store and feel like something different....

birthday

today is aaron's birthday, yay!

we actually celebrated last night with our families, we had a really nice time. we're lucky to be surrounded by family, and it isn't hard to find a reason to get together to eat cake! the kids love being spoiled by both sets of grandparents, even when it's someone else's birthday.

tonight we ventured to campus with friends for dinner, a place we usually avoid while the students are around. but it really wasn't that bad, and with the exception of feeling old while remembering our college days and being surrounded by so many carefree kids, we had a really nice time.

unfortunately, we returned and while putting kieran to bed aaron realized that his ceiling was dripping. apparently, with the huge snowstorm and crazy wind gusts, houses like ours with attic vents let snow into the attic which is now melting through the ceiling (sound familiar, lori?). lovely.

at least we're happily watching season 1 of "Lost" right now, a nice way to end the night...i should probably stop typing and watch :)

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

snow day #2









Today we recovered from the snow and wind from yesterday, it was nice to have another day off. It took Aaron about two hours to shovel the snow off the driveway. Kieran loved being outside and was most excited to shovel and make snow angels, Andie kept taking her mittens off and was not thrilled with the cold.

The roads were a little better today but we still saw lots of cars stuck on the sides of roads or areas that hadn't been plowed. We were happy for Aaron's truck with 4 wheel drive. Aaron's friend was going to come plow our driveway yesterday and ended up stuck around the corner for our house for 45 minutes and finally had to leave.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

so you want to be a pixie...

i've seen this before but just stumbled upon it again.

there are no words.

peter pan guy.

just out for a drive...

6 and 6

well, i've been tagged by stephanie and challenged to share 6 weird things about myself and then 6 things that make me happy....hmmmm...i'm going to not repeat some of the crazy things i already mentioned about myself in this post. particularly #1,2,9,24,25,and 34. amongst others. this is hard....

okey dokey then, here goes my weirdness:

  1. Cinnamon gum burns my tongue. I don’t know why (my mom says she’s had the same problem). I thought it was as fluke the first time, my tongue was raw on the sides but the next time I had cinnamon gum the same thing happened. Crazy…
  2. Sometimes when I’m thinking about someone’s name or phone number I trace the numbers or letters with my index finger imperceptivity.
  3. Sometime I talk to myself. I think I do it to help myself remember things, that’s usually when I find I say something softly but out loud—I have a *really* bad short term memory, many friends can attest to this.
  4. I hate to put on lotion. I know I should especially this time of year, my skin has to almost crack for me to break down and slather some on.
  5. I’ve always wanted to wear a man’s tie. I don’t know why. It’s something visual I think (let’s not read too much into this). I just love the vertical line of a tie. And J.Crew has such cute preppy ones…
  6. I can't stand filing my nails. Just the feel of the file against my fingernails gives me goosebumps, must be the texture. Can't stand it. I'm a clipper girl and that's it.
and the 6 things that make me happy:

1. I love people. I'm a people person, I love meeting new people, talking to people, listening to people, photographing people, I love when people I know meet and get along with other people I know. I once saw a quote that went something like "I am a part of everyone I've ever met" and this is exactly how I feel.
2. My kids laughing or happy, really, there is nothing better.
3. When I get a magazine in the mail, yay! Got Real Simple today, color me happy.
4. Hashbrown casserole. Sooooo not healthy, lots of cheese, sour cream, the works but definite comfort food, potluck favorite, great for eating breakfast lunch and dinner if you have leftovers (yes I've done this),
5. My brand new Pampered Chef 12" skillet and saute pan--love them! You'd think I work for them the way I talk this cookware up, it's DuPont, totally non-stick inside and out and I tell ya, nothing sticks to this stuff! It's opened up a new world of cooking for me-meaning I actually cook now!
6. The drive-in. I so wish there were more of these, the Harvest Moon is just one of the best places ever to spend a summer night. Even the overpriced concessions make the evening golden.

aaaahhhhh, done! not too painful i guess!

time to tag, it's all you Dori,Donita, Amy,Tina,Darcie,and Camille.

it's a fun challenge!

Thursday, February 08, 2007


i call this Attack of the Three Foot Woman


and this is Boy in Pajamas

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

beer bread

andie and i are making beer bread while kieran's at school. my grandma used to make it and it always reminds me of her. that, and chanel #5. and the word culottes.

Beer Bread Recipe:

1 12 ounce beer in bottle or can (my mother recommends room-temperature)
3 cups self-rising flour
3 tablespoons white sugar

***
  1. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and flour. Add beer and continue to mix, first using a wooden spoon, then your hands. Batter will be sticky. Pour into a 9 x 5 inch greased loaf pan.
  2. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees ) for 50 for 60 minutes. The top will be crunchy, and the insides will be soft.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

well, not improving much on the health front. i don't want to wallow in it or anything but i have pink eye in both eyes though i barely even think about that. i'm also still seriously congested, coughing junk up, feeling tired.....nights are horrible, i'm taking nyquil and then awaking around 3am feeling disgusting, my nose completely clogged, a layer of slim covering my lips from breathing through my mouth all night, and my eyes crusted over unable to open. yep, i'm not fit for human companionship right now.

which is just as well, it's a veritable blizzard out there. it's been ungodly cold out for several days and then today it's been snowing like crazy all day. it's actually pretty beautiful. and my feeling is, if it's going to be -2 degrees outside, it might as well snow. makes you feel all cozy inside. i have the urge to bake something.

kieran's also a little under the weather. he woke up sunday in the middle of the night with an ear infection. he's doing much better and was back to school today.

andie just used the potty for the second time, yay! i don't think she really realized she had gone, which happened the first time as well, but we make a big deal of it and give her a treat. it's crazy that she's not quite two and interested in the potty, it took kieran so long to get potty trained and he had no interested until long after he was three. i'm not putting any pressure on andie though, just as with kieran i'm going to follow her lead and let her figure it out.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

ugh

i'm sick. i've been sick all week and instead of getting better i seem to be getting worse. i didn't get to sleep until after 1am and now it's 6 and i'm up again feeling awful, most nights i was taking nyquil before bed which was great until it wore off in the middle of the night and i felt bad again. but i don't want to take the cold and sinus stuff because it speeds things up and i can't sleep when i take it.

so last night i didn't take anything and now here i am. awake when everyone else is sleeping (and on a weekend no less!), feeling completely rotten, and still not sure what i should take. somehow reclining in bed though just isn't working. colds are the worst. i'm ready for winter to be over.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

kids

our girl is sleeping right now. yay. poor kid, somehow she came down with hives today. how??? no idea, she didn't seem to have eaten anything unusual and we were at friends' house, they have a dog but she's been there many many times with no consequence. aaron's allergic to dogs so he thinks that maybe she's developing a pet allergy, i don't know....hope she's better in the morning.

kieran's well, he's at this great four-year-old-boy stage where he plays and entertains himself, talking softly to himself most of the time. playing with cars, trains, airplanes, pretending to be a superhero or a Ghostbuster. we've been so fortunate too that the kids get along and play so well with one another. i feel like kids have such distinct personalities and it's hard to know or predict what will happen when you give them a sibling. i've known sweet, caring little ones who have such a hard time adapting to a new baby (or more often, a baby who grows into a toddler who takes older kids' toys, books, etc). we felt to some extent we were crossing our fingers that he would handle andie well, never resent her, never hurt her, never wish she wasn't there. and he's wonderful with her. he's sweet and gentle and there are brief frustrating moments where she takes a car he's playing with (the girl loves the cars and trains) and he'll cry out, but it's like it's not a thought in his head to be truly mad at her. recently at an evening meeting at his school i left both of them in the childcare room (even though it was a meeting it was heavenly to be without them for almost 2 hours!) at the end of the meeting one of the women asked if the girl in the pigtails was mine. she said that the other women wanted her to come and see the two kids, andie had had a moment where she was asking for her mommy and was crying, but that her brother was so sweet with her, leading her around by the hand, giving her toys to play with. this woman telling me how great kieran was with his sister just made me so proud, though i can't take credit for my boy's sweet nature.

i remember having a conversation with friends once about what we wanted to teach our children. i believe that empathy is one of the greatest lessons i can help my kids to learn. i want them to always be able to put themselves in someone else's place, to never be so self-focused that they can't see how different we all are and how varied our perspectives are. of course i want them to also be proud, secure, intelligent, well-rounded, and on and on and on. but sometimes in this world of rushing, convenience over quality, me me me, i want it now attitudes compassion is a commodity. maybe it's just dumb luck that our son is so nurturing and caring with his sister but it makes me hopeful just the same.

and with friends having new babies (congrats on #3 mike and becki) and others announcing pregnancies (yay lisa and amanda) it's made me think about it lately. aaron and i couldn't be happier about our kids and how they get along.

anyway, i should wrap this up, this is what happens when i get custody of the laptop for too long.


Health Care Management MBA
Health Care Management MBA
Online MBA
Online MBA