ARTIC CHILL 2008!!!!

What a crazy couple weeks. Actually, I realize now its only been 1 1/2 weeks, but it seriously feels like at least 3 have gone by. So we came home from San Francisco to some snow on the ground (see highlights of that trip below. ARGH! I just realized that post got deleted accidentally. We went to San Francisco and had a blast. Maybe I'll REWRITE the post later. Ugh.)

Snow snow snow. We've had 12+ inches on the ground for many days now and expect more tonite & tomorrow. At first we kept very busy doing cozy things like making sugar cookies. Saben loved it and Annika was relatively unhelpful the day we rolled & cut them. She kept grabbing handfuls of dough and carrying them around.

It seemed like every time I moved a cookie to the baking sheet she had either made a mess of the rolled dough, stolen something off the table or gotten flour all over the floor. Partially my fault, I tried to include her by doing it on their little table in the kitchen where she could reach. I seriously underestimated my daughter, she was all over everything. Here's some of the stolen goods that she put in her toy kitchen. There was cookie dough in the measuring cup in the microwave.

Finally they were all baked and I wisely decided to frost & decorate them while she was napping. Saben did such a good job, we had some fun one-on-one time & they turned out great.

Last week I was also working hard at getting this picture finished for my Grandparents. I saw a sample at Treasury of Memories and was so excited to try making one. First time ever doing a scrapbooky canvas & I think it turned out great. Although I did learn some important lessons about being too wild and carefree with Modge Podge.

You may notice the big black square - that's a story unto itself. My brother and sister-in-law are currently in California awaiting the birth of the son they will adopt. The birth mom, is being induced as we speak (because she was due December 10th) and I check online every hour for the last 5 days to see if any new news is up on their blog. It is very exciting (my first nephew!) and nerve wracking. (if you're nervous now too, you can check here for updates & the whole story)

The heart in the righthand corner is in honor of my cousin's mom, Deanna. Her story is here in case you missed it.

Saben's Christmas program at preschool got cancelled because of the snow and I was so sad. Hopefully they'll do it for us later....I was really really looking forward to it. It kills me that I haven't gotten to see my son sing with a group in front of an audience yet. Watching little kids sing like that is one of my favorite things on earth.

On Friday, I decided to brave the roads and drive down to Mount Vernon to meet my Dad so he could take the picture to my Grandparents in Wenatchee. We met my Dad, then met up with a good friend for a McD's playdate with her kids. It was nice to get out of the house & relax while the kids burned some energy. On the way home, Saben suggested that all four of her boys come over to sleep in his room (Maverick could sleep with Annika in her crib) and Rachael could sleep in bed with Kyle & I.

The roads ended up being nearly dry & ice free, but unfortunately I had no idea that you are not really supposed to drive in 4-wheel drive on the freeway and managed to blow out our 4 wheel drive on the suburban on the way home. (and scare myself to death in the process) So now both cars are two wheel and we have no good way of getting around in the snow. Which could be a huge problem if we get another 4-6" on Christmas eve.

Our weekend was uneventful, we got lots of Christmas activities finished & tried to play in the snow, but Annika hadn't been cooperating since that first day that she had lots of fun. Every time we got her all bundled up and headed outside, she'd start crying after 10 minutes. We finally managed a walk downtown with her in the backpack, saben in the sled. It was so beautiful & nice to finally get some exercise after being cooped up all week.

Monday, my parents made it up here to celebrate my Dad's birthday. It was such a huge relief to have some distraction & get out of the house with my Mom w/o the kids. I finished up all the last minute Christmas shopping. Phew!

We had a really fun time playing in the snow because I figured out that Annika basically needs full time undivided attention when she is out there. Her mittens fall off every 2 minutes (I seriously contemplated hot gluing them to her hands) and she needs help up when she falls down. (at least once every 2 minutes. Usually the mittens fall off as she gets back up) She prefers to just walk on the compacted snow holding your hand or sledding on someone's lap. Luckily Grandma was around to help.

And papa was around to keep big brother happy.

Which left me to shovel the front walk & build a snow fort for Saben (which I probably enjoyed more than he did). Yet another much needed chance to work up a little sweat.

Later in the evening, Saben was watching some videos on the computer (cars in the snow) and papa put on a video of a baby elephant playing in the snow. Saben goes "Does the elephant know how to make a snow angel?" So cute.

We finished off the evening with dinner & lots of naked running through the house. Uhhh...the kids were running naked I mean, that is their favorite pre-bedtime thing to do. Saben told the adults where to sit so that they could try to tickle him as he ran by. Annika also jumped for the first time! She also seems to love being naked and screamed like crazy when we put her jammies on.

I also managed to catch my first cold in THREE years. I never got colds when I was pregnant or nursing either child.

I will leave you with a picture of the rainbows Saben made for our Christmas tree. I probably won't save them, but thought they were adorable. (I have already laminated a couple glittery rocket ornaments he made & will keep those ones forever)

Tidbits

Saben's new hobby is watching the news cover our snow storm so he can watch cars crashing into eachother. He talks about cars sliding on the ice all the time.

Saben, yesterday, completely out of nowhere: "Mommy, I want to have a party where no one wears clothes. Everyone can take their clothes off for my party"
Mommy: "why do you want them to take of their clothes Saben?"
Saben: "Because they are funny with no clothes"

If Annika was a boy, she'd be ready for her first haircut.

Merry Christmas

Snow Bliss

Saben's first snow angel. Last year we went sledding in the mountains a couple times and Saben started to warm up to the snow more. He was still sort of scared of it, especially sledding too fast. But this year he is an animal. He borrowed some snow pants from a buddy and has been rolling around "crashing" in the snow like mad. He is so cute, I can't believe how fun his enthusiasm is.

Saben LOVES throwing snowballs at us.

Annika's first time touching snow. This look is her classic "suprised" face. All these pictures are taken from the first 10 minutes of her coming out in the snow. She did technically see snow last year, but I don't count "first snow" until they can walk in it.



Annika loves the snow almost as much as her brother and way more than he did at this age. He used to be terrified of it.

What is that white stuff on my gloves?

I try to plan my garden to have nice shapes in the winter and it is so fun to see them highlighted in the snow.

Both kids loved the sled


Yesterday was pure bliss. There is nothing I love more than a lazy afternoon watching the snow fall. Except we weren't too lazy - we went out & played in the snow, made sugar cookies to decorate today, had yummy cuban black beans simmering in the oven all day and mommy got some Christmas crafting done while the kids napped.

Add in an evening snow walk/snowball fight with Daddy, Hot tubbing in the snow, Christmas lights/music and more steady snow this morning - I couldn't be happier. The only thing I miss is that our friends who live a couple blocks away drove to Oregon last night. Whenever it snows, we almost always hang out since we're "trapped" near home, but not this time I guess.

Today: Decorate cookies, more christmas music & cocoa, watch "The Grinch" with saben for the first time, wrap presents, more crafting. Bliss.

leaving on a jet plane or rocket ship?

Saben: Mommy, will there be fire and smoke coming out of the airplane?
Mommy: No, not the one we are going on. Some have fire, but not ours
S: Daddy said there was fire and smoke!
M: Really, he said that about the one we're going on?
S: Yes, he said the plane would have fire and smoke.
M: I don't know why he said that
S: Maybe he's not very smart mommy. Maybe he didn't know.

update: According to Kyle, this appears to be a case of the early morning "uh huhs" where you start agreeing with what saben says/asks without quite listening to every word once he hits question number 20 at 7:30am.

Christmas Cards 2008

Every year, I put quite a bit of thought into our Christmas card picture. I have a few criteria for our picture:
1) Just the kids in the picture, not us
2) It's a special picture taken just for the card
3) The kid/kids are doing something mildly related to Christmas
4) You can really see the kids & what they look like this year

The first year, saben was sitting by a tiny snowman, the next year by a tiny tree, and last year they were dressed in red/white and wrapped in garland.

Last year was tough with both kids, but I pulled of decent expressions on both their faces and was quite pleased with the results. Maybe you can't even see the garland, but at least Annika was wearing her Christmas dress.

This year I finally threw in the towel. I am out of time and have orchestrated two carefully planned photo shoots, to no avail. At least they make for a funny blog post.

First idea: "I know! I'll have them eat candy canes! They'll be so happy, hold still and the candy canes are christmasy!"


hmm. This one is the best shot of the group, especially if you like seeing festive red candy cane drool . And I wasn't happy you couldn't really see Saben. And no smiles. boo. It only goes downhill from here.

Even with candy canes, the kids move around so much I was practically yelling the entire time for Saben to "Stay next to Annika! Get over there! Go stand next to her, I know she's moving, follow her!" Poor guy.

Then there were the chewing faces. I didn't realize Saben would chomp down his entire cane with the focus of a beaver gnawing logs to prevent his home from washing away in a flash flood.

Apparently candy canes don't make my children smile. Silly me. By now Annika had it all over her white sweater too and I'd forgotten to bring baby wipes.

A smile at last! Sweet.

Outing number two. Sunny day and I had been daydreaming about how cute it would be to get the kids dressed up a little and go take pictures out in the mossy woods I love. I carefully fed Annika, picked a time when she wasn't tired and headed out with a bag filled with crackers, more candy canes (for emergency only this time) and crackers.

Once again, I got one decent shot. See how cute of an idea it was? Especially if I zoomed in just a little more, Saben didn't look quite so goofy and they were actually in focus? This one was taken with my broken flash, (it's only 1/2 broken, it sort of flashes...a tiny bit) which I then turned off, thinking they would be better. Wrong-o

Right after I took the first picture, Annika burst into tears for no apparent reason and did not stop crying the entire time unless she was running down the muddy trail in her pretty dress with Saben. So I whipped out the candy canes, already knowing their dangers, but desperate....

Even with the candy cane, she cried and cried. And my camera decided it was much to dark to take any pictures that were not at excruciatingly slow shutter speeds.



Sigh. Ever heard a mom freaking out at her kids all alone in the middle of the woods? I hope not, it wasn't pretty. (mostly me just asking annika why she was crying in occaisionally angry tones)

I actually don't think Annika likes these woods. Every time I take her there, she is generally unhappy for no apparent reason. We've had several bad hikes/walks here where she cried and I had no idea why. As long as she was on the trail, she would run, fall in the mud, be happy. But if we stopped walking to try and pose by a stump or if I dared venture off trail, she started crying.

So this year, we will use a picture we took in November, one that is not festive, but shows both kids and is funny. Oh well.

Running

I love how kids run just for the sheer fun of it. Why don't we do that?

spicy

Today, Annika ate a spoonful of salsa from Taco Lobo. Actually several spoonfuls and it was a mix of the hottest & medium one. She loved it and had it running down her chin. Interestingly, they were obviously tomato based and she generally does not like tomato sauces.

Both of my kids enjoy spicy foods. I just let them sample spicy things at around 1year of age and waited to see there reaction. Neither one has ever reacted adversely and Annika especially seems to love spice. She also enjoys the spicy pickled carrots at Taco Lobo & Casa Que Pasa.

When Saben was younger, I would buy him cheese quesadillas at Taco Bell and request "no creamy jalapeno sauce". He heard me saying that and started going "Mommy! I want the sauce" insistently enough that I finally let him try it. He has insisted on it ever since and Annika now eats it with no problems. In fact, it is the ONLY quesadilla either of them will eat.

For the record, I love spice and especially ever since I had annika, I crave it all the time. I especially craved it when I was nursing her for some reason and its never gone away, even now that she is weaned. Speaking of never going away, I also still have that line you get on your belly the last month or so of pregnancy. I can't believe its still there. Sorry, that was random.

wrapping

Somehow, I ended up with a $5 roll of SEE THROUGH red wrapping paper from Target. Because the sign said $1.99 (it was in the wrong location) and there was no possible way to tell it was clear celophane stuff until you unrolled it.

And there was definitely no indication on the label, I read it five times once I realized the roll was completely worthless. What on earth do you do with clear wrapping paper? I suppose you could wrap a cookie plate, or some other non suprise item, but seriously....heads should roll over this.

As of this morning, annika is completely obsessed with balls and Saben is mothering his stuffed penguin BoBo.

Christmas Season 2008

Sorry for that lapse into lunacy (see post below), I am back and ready to be more normal. (unless you count this weekends book club party where I will be dressing up like a vampire in honor our chosen book) I know its not terribly nice to laugh at people who are trying to be deep, passionate and philosophical... but I really couldn't help it.

This is the part of the post where I would insert lots of cute pictures of our family cutting down our Christmas tree. Unfortunately, I pulled the camera out of its case at the tree farm and the battery was completely dead. Which is probably a good thing because it was POURING rain and having a camera to snap thousands of pictures would have just delayed us and made the kids even wetter.

If only I had checked the camera the day before when we made our first attempt at getting a tree. That day we caved as rain thundered down on our car and made the difficult decision to turn back despite weeks (hours?) of preparation for the journey.

The silver lining of this very rainy cloud was that 1) we found an awesome tree farm finally -Alpine Meadows and 2) we saved lots of money on our tree this year.

Its so funny what makes you love a tree farm. I couldn't put my finger on what I disliked about ones we'd been to previously until we visited Alpine Meadows. It was a gorgeous setting, but most importantly (apparently) it had a cute weathered wood barn and a weathered wood shed to go into to purchase your tree.

And finally it struck me - I hate those big huge metal outbuildings that were at all the other places we have gone. Growing up, our tree farm of choice just had a small shack to buy your tree. Every place we've gone lately has had huge metal sheds everywhere and despite the lights dangled from them enticingly, I find them incredibly ugly and unquaint. So if you prefer weathered wood to corrugated metal, I suggest you try Alpine Meadows.

When we arrived, we also discovered that in addition to our camera being dead and the rain pouring down, the place also only accepted cash. I had a meager supply in my wallet, enough for a douglas, but not a grand fir. So we went with the douglas and also had our 8 foot tree measured at 5 feet because the guy thought we were broke and said he'd give us a deal when he saw us counting our pennies. He was also probably impressed that we dragged our kids out in the pouring rain. So our tree cost less than $20 and I love it just as much as those fancy grand firs.

Then the decorating. (this is where I'd have more cute pictures if I hadn't dropped our camera and broken the flash a couple months ago)

We had a full house for our tree decorating party, the four of us, plus THREE Comcast cable installers! It was so merry and joyous to have them there peppering kyle with technical questions as he helped Annika hang breakable ornaments. And so we officially ended nearly 4 years of being tv free. (except for 3 canadian channels we got on our antenna. but we never watched those.)

Annika loved decorating the tree and was especially smitten with her "baby's first christmas" ornament that is a small white stuffed teddy bear - just like the one in her crib she's attached to.

Saben liked to hang breakable things. I guess mom hovering and saying things like "don't you dare drop that glass ball, it will shatter and send shards right into your eyeball and you'll never see anything again!" really got his adrenaline pumping.

It has been such incredible fun this year, (despite the few setbacks and some sarcasm) to celebrate the holidays with Saben. He has apparently reached the perfect holiday age and is ecstatic about everything we do - tree cutting, hanging lights, decorating, elf hunting....And buys anything I tell him about Santa still.

I love it all.

Werner Herzog

This is the funniest thing in the world to me.

What is your favorite Christmas Album?

It's that time of year...the annual choosing of the new Christmas music that Kyle will most likely hate no matter how carefully I try to find something he might like.

So what I want to know is...what is your favorite Christmas album?

As a child, the above album was my favorite because I thought "Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas" was the funniest song ever. Then I grew up and realized its the saddest song ever. Whoops.

I wish I could say this one is my favorite, because it is awesome, definitely in the top 3. And it is Kyle's favorite, who is a scrooge and normally hates all Christmas music, especially the nostalgic ones from my childhood. (Amy Grant, the Carpenters, John Denver)

This one seems to be a favorite of nearly everyone and I do love it a lot. But not quite my favorite.

I am a traditional girl at heart and nothing ignites my Christmas spirit like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, etc. There's something so fun, cheerful and classy about this album, it makes me dream of snow, holiday parties, fancy dresses and kissing under the mistletoe. mmmm.

busy busy

Oh wow, what a crazy busy few weeks it has been here!

1. Kyle was in Taiwan for 9 days and came home last Thursday

2. We had our bathroom dry walled, shower tiled, walls painted & flooring installed in the last 2 1/2 weeks. Almost done! (just have to figure out a mirror, pick a toilet, make our concrete countertop, find a cool pendant light, get a shower door installed....nevermind)

3. I spent a FABULOUS weekend in Seattle with some dear girlfriends. Two live far away now (Spokane & Portland) and it was our first time ever hanging out so long together without our children. Such a wonderful treat & we got lots of shopping done.

4. I am nearly finished Christmas shopping, except for Kyle. I am trying to get a lot done in advance so that we don't get so stressed out this year.

5. Something is wrong with Annika (sick? teething? earache?) and she hasn't gone more than 10 minutes without crying for a couple days now. Doctor appointment in 2.5 hours.

Magic

One sentence that changed my life forever:

"Try washing your paintbrushes in hot water, and be sure to use soap"

No longer will I be known as "Kari the Paintbrush Destroyer" because I despise 15 minute paintbrush rinsing sessions.

Tonite, I cleaned a 2 1/2" brush in 3 minutes. Not even a hint of tint in the water I squeezed out of it.

Thank you dear Sherwin Williams sales lady.

(did everyone already know about this except me? And I'm talking about big brushes for painting the walls, not artsy brushes)

A few more things I'm thankful for

1. Treasury of Memories paper store - I've found a whole new side of me, dabbling in paper crafts! The store itself is so incredibly exciting & inspiring, it makes me want to make stuff. (and spend too much money)

2. A house that gets toasty warm in the winter every time it is sunny. The awesome part is that when the sun is higher in the sky during the summer, an eave keeps the sun out so it doesn't get too hot. Brilliant early 1920's architects!

3. Artichoke hearts from Trader Joes - they never used to be very good, but the last can I got are the best ever. So good, I can eat them all by themselves.

4. Annika & her teddy bear - she recently "attached" to her big white teddy bear and its been warming my heart all week watching her hug it.

5. Annika running to hide in our bedroom closet when I call her. I know, its naughty, but its so funny and she is giggling as she does it because she wants to hide & then come out & say "boo!"

6. Saben's art projects - today he drew two beach balls, colored them in with crayon, then carefully cut them out and was trying to glue the flat pieces together to make them a 3 dimensional ball. There was glue everywhere, but he is so intense and working so hard to figure it out, I love it.

7. Friendly people in stores. I love clerks who are chatty and friendly and don't just fake interest in you.

8. Our nice dry wall guy who does not act like a crack addict. He's been working on our bathroom all week and is so nice & normal. A neighborhood creepy guy had been hounding us for weeks to do the job and I really didn't like him. I was so glad we found this other company.

9. Organized toys - I worked for an hour Friday organizing the kids toys and it has been so nice. They are actually finding things to play with again!

don't worry, we're still grateful

Saben: I am grateful for my friend, Kaiya who came over.

I can't even tell you how fun it is to see Saben playing with my friend's kids. Let me clarify - since we moved to Bellingham when he was only 3 months old, I've felt some sadness that neither of my kids has gotten to spend much time with the kids of my friends in Seattle. The friends I spent time with when I was still newly married and carefree. We LOVE our new Bellingham friends, but it really struck me today that it is SO FUN to watch him play with my "old friend's" kids. Saben & Kaiya had a blast coloring together, playing strange games in Casa Que Pasa and just chatting. Kari & I chatted (yes, we have the same name), but had to keep stopping because they were so darn cute.

Annika: Eleanor

Oh my goodness, i am sorry Roxxy, but I am ready to get a new dog. From the get go, Roxxy has completely ignored the kids and I don't think she really likes them that much. After Saben was born, she got a little weird & nervous and things have never been the same, even though we did try to keep her included. I realize now that if she had actually liked Saben & paid attention to him, I think I would like her a lot more than I do right now.

Anyways, we're watching Eleanor this weekend and Annika is madly in love with her. I laughed my head off all day. Annika loves sitting on animals in general and spent quite a bit of time this evening sitting on eleanor, who put up with it for a good 15 minutes, including the times annika was bouncing on her back. When eleanor finally stood up, Annika progressed to patting & hugging. During dinner time, Annika ran to eleanors food bowl and hand fed her most of the food.

Finally, to cap off the night, Annika would stick her face up close to Eleanor's nose and Eleanor would lick annika. Annika would giggle and run away and then come back and do it over & over. If Eleanor didn't notice her, Annika would grab her face and pull it towards her. It was really really funny.

Kari: I am grateful for kids who make me laugh, visits from friends and for a great new recipe for crudites & vinagrette that has me gobbling down lots of veggies. (all I did was blanche them instead of eating them cold and raw. Wow, what a difference)

Grateful: Day 4

Day three: Saben was thankful for Grandma & his new bedroom
Day four: Saben was thankful that I made him lunch.
(I tried to get him to think of more things and that is the only one he would say.)

Mommy is thankful for our warm house & new furnace, her adventurous crazy daughter and her devilish son who says really funny things.

Mom: "Saben, did you poop?"
Saben: "no"
Mom: "Did Annika? Do you smell her? I smell something"
Saben: "No mom. Maybe it is you. You stink sometimes too."

I am trying to watch the election, but none of the TV channels (canadian) are covering it and all the streaming videos are stuttering awful. But I do hear cheering all over the neighborhood, so even if I miss historic speeches, at least I know what is going on.

Thanksgiving

Me: "Saben, what are you thankful for?"
S: "Nothing!"
Me: "Isn't there anything you are thankful for? What do you say thank you for?"
S: "Nothing!"
Me: "Nothing? Really?"
S: "No! Grrrrrrrrrr"
Me: "What about a warm house? Are you thankful for Mommy and Daddy?"
S: "I guess so."
Me: "What about all your fun toys and having cereal for breakfast?"
S: "yes. That's enough now mommy."

Point of reference for my halloween costume

And he always always wears transition bike shirts & skate shoes.

Happy Halloween

The way so many Christians see things in such polar opposite ways has always challenged me.

It struck me the hardest when I was in Israel studying in college. We met Christians who felt convicted by God to peacefully protest against the Israeli government buldozing Palestinian homes, putting their lives in danger to prevent further violence.

We also met Christians who pray for war in the middle east so that Christ will come sooner and felt convicted by God to support Israel no matter what, even when they harmed the innocent. (I got the impression that if Israel decided to slaughter their entire palestinian population, this group would rejoice and support them. I am not exagerating.)

Who is right? Who am I to say one group is a better or truer Christian compared to the other? (rhetorically, I am not looking for an Israel argument) How can someone who is truly passionate about Christ have completely different opinions than me, even ones that I find biblically offensive?

Is everyone who disagrees with me just misled by Satan? Am I just misled by Satan? Can two mature faithful Christians have completely conflicting viewpoints based on how they read the scripture? Where does this leave the truth of scripture?

There are so many questions in my heart around this issue, and some answers that I've slowly grappled with over the years. Sometimes it really depresses me, sometimes it gives me joy in the way God created us all so uniquely to express himself.

Grace, humility, love, Christ. Those are the answers that bob in my heart and inspire me, even when I am frustrated and calling someone who disagrees with me "stupid". *smile*

All I actually wanted to say is that I enjoyed stumbling across this post today, exploring this topic in light of our upcoming elections. Somehow trying to explain it turned into long post.

One of Annika's favorite games is a "trust fall" off of kitchen counters or the changing table. I stand her up, then hold out my arms and she grins, but doesn't do anything. She savors it for a good 10-20 seconds - she smiles, makes happy hums, looks down at the ground, then slowly tips forward into my arms, sometimes giggling as I catch her. It is marvelous.

Auntie

By March, I will have a niece and in December, I will have a nephew.

And both the kids will have real true cousins finally! (Saben will remind you that he already has cousins - but they are actually the children of MY cousins, whom he adores)

A day in the life

It's been one of those long days. The ones where your husband calls right after you climb out of bed to tell you a contractor is on his way RIGHT NOW to come work on your heating. While you are on the phone, your daughter is screaming in her crib, because she hears your voice and KNOWS you are awake and ignoring her.

Right after you get in the kitchen with your daughter, who woke you up in the middle of the night last night & drank a bottle to help get back to sleep, then peed 20x extra which soaked through into her pajamas and left a wet spot on your hip where you held her....I digress.

In the kitchen, holding pee soaked daughter, the phone rings & its the lady giving you a tiling estimate and she wants to chat about a couple things. And the other contractor is on his way still and you are still in your pajamas & have icky sleep mouth and your daughter now smells like poo too. And now your son (whom your husband already fed before he left) wants another bowl of cereal and says it over and over while you struggle to hear the lady on the phone.

Finally, change the baby's diaper, get her a bottle, get your son more cereal, put on some pants and see the contractor pull up. Quickly brush your teeth before he comes in and hope there's no mascara smeared under your eyes. Discuss project with him while your baby starts yelling for her bowl of cereal. Look at the clock and realize you need to leave for playgroup in 5 minutes if you want to be on time.

Arrive at playgroup 45 minutes late, but have fun for 45 minutes till its time to leave. Lunch, preschool drop off, baby naps & FREE TIME AT LAST! Which means its time to mow the lawn before it rains tomorrow. But first the contractor wants to chat for another 20 minutes. Pick up your dogs poop in the yard, then go pick up TEN PILES of everyone else's dog's poop scattered around the side & front yard. (decide to try writing a nice note with chalk on your wood fence, reminding people to pick up after their dogs)

Actually manage to mow the entire lawn, but no time to do your workout or anything else (except to grab 15 minutes to figure out what your brother is naming his child and then gloat because you broke the world speed record in deciphering his clues), its time to go pick up son from preschool.

Go get dog food on the way home, but first return call of yet ANOTHER CONTRACTOR to get their estimate for tiling. (begins to dawn why people hire general contractors for remodels) Actually really have fun looking at the animals with the kids, engage in brief tussle with daughter over her carrying "rodent berry treat" bags around the store. Give up when screaming ensues, feel guilty for giving in, especially when you find the bags in her mouth a while later.

Home again, son is in the mood where he asks 5-10 questions per minute and your daughter is in the mood where she wants to be held/played with constantly and cries everytime you try to make dinner. Son wants you to help him make a rocket by taping together toilet paper rolls, chopsticks & a piece of cardboard. Who are you to stifle his creativity?

Take a brief break where for the first time in your life, you hide in a locked bedroom and eat candy for two lovely minutes while kids bang and yell at the door.

Pull out the defrosted salmon and it nearly disinigrates in your hand into a pile of mush. Thanks Trader Joes, apparently meat is just not your strong suit. Husband home, eat dinner, try to catch him up on what all the contractors have been saying, but your son keeps telling him random fragments from the plotline of our BOZ the Bear movie and has to be reminded not to interrupt at least 17 times.

Baths while husband cleans up kitchen, stories while husband takes a shower and put both kids to bed by yourself so he can go have his night out "with the guys".

Feel guilty because you are already missing your goal of writing on the blog every day this week, decide you better write SOMETHING. Mind is a blank even though you had at least 20 good ideas on Monday. Decide to write about your day, which was quite crazy, yet seems to be this crazy at least 1-2 times per week if not more. (for example, the day you got your son ready for a Halloween party a week early)

Wonder if posts needs pictures. Decide you've done enough already.

Thank goodness tomorrow is my night off.

Annika's First Finger Painting

She actually did have fun for about 20 seconds. Then she looked and saw.... GREEN HAND!
Why do I torture her like this?

Shoe trouble

When Saben was Annika's age, his favorite game was kicking me in the gut when I changed his diaper. Annika on the other hand prefers to kick vigorously the very moment you are about to finish tying her shoes.

She sits there pleasantly while you get the shoes on, watches you tighten the laces & start your bow...and then bam, her little feet go nuts, kicking all over the place while she giggles. How on earth does she know how funny and annoying this is? I suppose she's punishing me for buying lace up shoes, but who can resist pink converse? It did cheer me up when she did it to my mom, its pretty funny watching it happen to somebody else.

My goal this week is at least one post per day because I need to get back in the habit of short & sweet posts on a more regular basis.

Cousin in the paper

Amy's story was front page news in the Wenatchee World, if you are curious, you can read it here: http://wenatcheeworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081025/NEWS04/710259960/1002 (hopefully it is a permalink, not sure how long it will work though)

I just spent an hour making cute halloween snacks & getting Saben dressed up for his preschool halloween party. Except that it is next Friday, not today.

Amy is out of surgery for her masectomy and they did not find any cancer on her sentinel node. This is GREAT news because it means if there is any breast cancer, it hasn’t spread to her lymph nodes. We still wait to find out if there was any cancer in the breast tissue itself. Keep praying as Amy wakes up that things goes smoothly with her recovery.

The investigation

This morning, Annika was noticing the difference between girls & boys when Saben was getting dressed. First she tried to grab and he drew away. So then she just pointed and gave this big laugh. I almost died, it was so funny.

Saben - 3 1/2 (plus a month)

"I'm ready to go to Grandma's house mom" (that is exactly what he said)

It feels like forever since I did a real update on the kids, or maybe its just that they've changed so much in the last couple of months.

Lately, Saben is obsessed with drawing, painting, cutting, gluing etc. Everyday, markers, paint & scissors are his toys of choice. He will spend a full hour messing around with art supplies on his own. On top of what he does at home, it seems like he does at least 2 different art projects at preschool each day he's there. We have a huge stack of art in our kitchen and I'm at a loss as to what to do with it.



Saben made this house in preschool and when I saw it, my mouth dropped open because I can not figure out how he got the perspective correct. I have never seen him draw something with perpective so either a) he's a genius b) it was a fluke or c) the teacher had an example with perspective and he copied it. I asked the teacher if she helped him and she said no, but I wouldn't put it past him to copy a sample exactly. Who knows





Saben also loves rockets. He's spent quite a few hours drawing & then cutting out these pictures of rockets. He always asks to watch space shuttle launches on YouTube and counts down to launch all sorts of things. The other night he was pretending his carrott was a rocket and he was doing the countdown & dropped it on the floor. Roxxy ran over and ate it and he kept asking tearfully "Why did Roxxy eat my rocket?"

Like any obsessed 3 1/2 year old, he is full of every fact he can remember about space shuttles & rockets and will tell you all about the booster rockets and to watch out when it launches because the fire can hurt you.

Saben loves to joke around with nonsense words & saying the wrong word for things. He has also learned that it is funny to keep doing things even when someone tells you to stop. (thanks kyle) We are working on fixing that, but its hard to not feel like a spoilsport when he is laughing so hard.

Learning how to repair a chimney. He loves this book.

The only time Saben is really naughty is when Annika is getting too much attention. And she is a super huge attention hog - I'll write more about her later, but every day I have to really focus on making sure I'm not just attending to her needs because she is the loudest. Often Saben will join in screaming with her or will start mimicking the naughty things she does so that he gets attention too. Sigh.

I guess he also likes to refuse to do things I ask or do them super slowly. And he is super persnickety about his sister touching anything he is working on or has played with in the last 6 hours. They fight a lot, as is normal. But they are starting to have fun together every now & then, making funny faces, running around, etc.