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July 03, 2008

Best words I've heard all day, all week, really all year :)

"Look, Mom, I changed my attitude!"--from a smiling Grace, who wasn't smiling at all 5 minutes prior, rather, was throwing a ginormous fit (which unfortunately has been all too common for my little 2 yr old lately). When I told her I was proud of her, she said, "Harrison is proud of me, too. I can tell!" :)

June 30, 2008

A veggie man **updated & updated again**

The baby books tell you to start your baby w/ vegetables when you are attempting baby food, and then introduce fruits...simply b/c you don't want them to turn their nose up to veggies, so start w/ the yuckies first, convince them carrots are good, and then WHAM, hit them w/ sweet, divine bananas and they will think they are in heaven! Well, *horror of horrors* I got it all backwards and started Harrison w/ fruit first, and ironically, he does not like fruit and LOVES veggies. He hates bananas (still shakes, rattles, and rolls whenever he tastes them, and not in a good way), spits out peaches, and tolerates pears as though they are second-class citizens. But give this boy some sweet potatoes, carrots, or squash, and he will be gawking with his mouth open like a little bird begging for more and throwing his arms up in joy when the spoon comes near. We're moving to stage 2 foods this week and branching out into the green veggie family (before he turns orange from all the orange veggies). Oh boy! Who knew veggies could be this exciting? Trust me, I did not. I'm more of a chocolate-is-a-food-group kind of girl. :)

*Update: At his introduction to green beans on Monday, Harrison threw a party and downed 1 1/2 jars like it was turtle sundae ice cream!!! What is up with my son? Are we really related? My older kids couldn't stand green beans until they were old enough to munch on whole beans instead of puree. Of course now they love veggies, but I don't know what to do w/ a green-bean-loving baby. Feed him more beans, I guess... :) 

**Another Update: I found a fruit Harrison does like...applesauce! This is the only fruit that he's done his dance for and that he doesn't spit out as though it's poisonous. Whew! My son is at least a little normal. :)

June 27, 2008

Oh yah, it's been one of those weeks.

Hubby and I have been spinning in opposite circles all week. He's had late-night meetings in various places, and I'm doing a full-time week while my coworker is on vacation (and I'll sum up my week by saying our company-wide online database system crashed earlier this week, which meant scrambling for OLD FASHIONED PAPERWORK and a million phone calls and faxes and insanity...all while my coworker was on vacation--no more vacation for her! HA!) Hubby and I have barely had time to speak, except for a few chats online. It has been NUTS around here.

SO the other morning between doing my reports and fixing Jacob's oatmeal and making a bottle, I asked Hubby if he had time to run to Walgreens to pick up my photos I had printed. He kinda nodded and left. I wasn't sure if that was a nod 'yes' or 'no', but 5 minutes later he returned with 2 padded envelopes and a Walgreens receipt, handed them to me, and in all seriousness said, "Here you go." to which I replied, "What are these for? I said photos, not envelopes!" :) I have no clue how he heard envelopes. Last week I sent him to the store for envelopes, so I guess he was just operating on auto repeat! I totally cracked up! Even when we're listening to each other, we're not really listening. Oh yah, it's been one of those weeks. :)

P.S. I love you, Hubby. Thank you for the envelopes. I have no doubt they will come in handy...someday. :)

More cuteness

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My little organizer

Organized letters This is Grace's handiwork of organizing the magnetic letters on the fridge. She loves to organize and separate things into groups by colors or shapes. I found her separating her tea sets (she has 3 sets total) into groups of cups, spoons, plates, etc. all over her room, and she was MORTIFIED when Jacob came in and 'messed up my stuff!' Like mother like daughter. My space can look totally disorganized to an outsider, but I am very particular in organizing certain things. Btw, Grace took this picture. She asks for the camera at least once a day and gets some pretty good shots.

June 26, 2008

Greetings from Harrison


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Look what I can do!

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Harrison started officially rolling over a month ago, but he's perfected it now and doesn't stay in one spot for long. We also finally got the crib out of storage and moved him into the kids' room for good. No more basinet and no more baby sleeping in our office! Fortunately, the move has been great, and the three of them have slept well in the same room every night this week. And we've learned that Harrison is like his brother, and thank goodness, can sleep thru Grace's drama. (She STILL has trouble getting to sleep some nights and is talking/fussing way after the boys are asleep.) We don't have the luxury of individual rooms for our kids, but I honestly think they like being crammed into one room at nighttime. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it! :)

In crib









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June 25, 2008

"I'm not a cowgirl. I'm a cow-BOY-girl!"

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June 24, 2008

Take your dog to work day

Today is 'Take your dog to work' Day, so this is how Thorn and I celebrated:

Thorn under desk

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Yup, I took him to 'work' with me--HA, to my home office--and he sat under my desk on my pink rug. Isn't he so cute? Thorn is a great dog. He's still attached to Daddy the most, but he's becoming my pooch too. We've bonded and he has truly become one of the family. He has some funny habits, like jumping up and howling when he's excited to see you and bringing you his rope and smacking your backside with it as a hint to play. His favorite visitor is Grandma--he really howls for her. :)

June 16, 2008

Look at all my tattoos, Mom!

Tattoos

Daddy and baby

Daddy and harrison

A great Father's Day

We had a great weekend of intense housecleaning Friday night, a Sat morning soccer game complete w/ a sunburned right shoulder (Why do parents put sunscreen on kids but not on themselves?), organizing the kids' toys, Daddy opening his Father's Day gifts Sunday morning, a great church service, another soccer game (another win and a sunburned left shoulder this time--hey, I'm evenly toasted!), a pizza dinner and game night w/ Hubby's parents, and last but not least, fireworks in the rain! Yup, Jacob had planned to have sparklers and fireworks on Father's Day as a surprise for Daddy, and it started to POUR about 7:00 and he was devastated that his plan was ruined, so we went outside and did them in the rain anyhow! It was fun for the first second...til Harrison and Grace both screamed! So I took the screamers indoors, and father and son had fireworks bonding time alone. :) A fabulous weekend indeed. My children have an excellent father!

Jacob's soccer games are really FUN, and the boy is enjoying himself. The coach told us he's doing great for a first-time player and is keeping up w/ 2nd year kids w/o any problem. He seems to be the coordinated/athletic type, which he really does not get from either of his parents. My idea of outdoor fun is  reading a book in the shade!  HA! :) My dream was that Jacob would be a MLB pitcher, but pro soccer player wouldn't be half bad.

June 13, 2008

Proud Parenting Quote #73

"Screaming is like alcohol. You really can have fun without it."--to Grace, who just cannot contain her everyday excitement and gets in trouble for screaming ALL THE TIME. I dare say the point was lost on my 2-yr old, though. And I got the strangest look from Hubby...I think it's an excellent analogy; don't you?

Our latest and greatest moments

Here's a run-down of this week's fun that you've missed out on:

  • On Monday, we had a major popcorn spill, followed by a greedy dog gulping up every kernel he could get his slimy paws on, followed momentarily by puking dogs sounds, followed by Mommy running for towels and trying to keep the kids out of the mess, followed by Mommy repeating over and over, "I love my life! I love my life! I love my life!"
  • On Tuesday, I had my WW weigh-in and lost another pound. That's 23 lbs total!!! No one has accused me of being anorexic yet--HAHA--but I'm on my way! Well, not to anorexia, but to being fit. Good news is that my clothes are getting really baggy, I have to wear a belt w/ most of my shorts/capris, and I've lost several inches. Cool! Having excellent weight-loss success in the last 2 months makes me feel like I really can maintain this and declare this a lifestyle, not a diet. I feel thinner, and it feels good.
  • On Monday, I also introduced Harrison to his first real baby food. It went something like this: "Harrison, meet bananas. Bananas, meet Harrison....Hey, now, they're not that gross!" He's not a big fan of bananas, but I persisted, and by day 4, he was not grimacing as though it were toxic waste I just dumped into his mouth. He was only mildly shivering and shaking. Woohoo, first baby food down!
  • On Wednesday, Hubby finally got to feed Harrison some baby food. There was some bitterness about my starting him on food for the first time WITHOUT Hubby there manning the video camera, and Hubby was refusing to acknowledge that the feeding was going on, but we are working thru it. Ok, ok, so I screwed up. We didn't get a video of child #3 eating his first bite of food, b/c I totally spaced it and fed him without the fanfare and parade. I'm sorry!! It will forever go down in hisory that his Mom did not digitally document his first food. I can hear it now...."Hey kids, let's watch videos of when you were babies...oh I'm sorry, Harrison, we don't have THAT video of you, only of your older brother and sister, b/c Mom apparently loves them more..." How I can live w/ myself, I just don't know. :)
  • On Thursday, I introduced Harrison to his 2nd baby food, and sweet potatoes are a huge hit! The boy shakes for joy (as opposed to shaking in agony w/ the bananas) and eats them as though I don't ever feed him. Now I think you can tell by his photos that the boy gets plenty to eat--I'm not holding out on you, son! :)
  • On Thursday, we also officially declared summertime at our house--by filling the kiddie pool and immersing our children in freezing cold water from the hose! Pics to follow soon. Thorn is all lab and won't stay away from the water. Big change from Babe who kept a huge distance between herself and any water! Yes, I know, Lisa...we need to get Thorn his own lounging pool. :)
  • And today, I actually got some work done. Some real live paying-employees-to-do-reports kind of work. This also felt good.
  • I also got notice that a company committee has decided to use my certificate design for our corporate awards this year. The AA's were all asked to submit certificate designs for consideration, and I submitted three of them, and they are using one of my designs. Cool! Maybe I just have more time than others to design documents, or maybe I just care more about things looking pleasing to the eye. When I started working w/ this company, they had some pretty shabby documents, and I couldn't help myself but to take the time and clean them up and make them look nice. Things have to look a certain way when they leave my desk!!! Now they think I'm some kind of certificate-flyer-and newsletter design guru.

Here we go again!

This morning Grace's brand new imaginary friend made her first 'appearance.' Her name is Jenny, and they are best friends already. Grace spent a good 5 minutes talking to her on my calculator (that looks identical to Daddy's iPhone) and I got snippets of the conversation...

  • "Jenny loves me."
  • "Jenny said bye."
  • "Jenny said she'll be here in 2 minutes."

I heard Grace telling Jacob about talking to Jenny on her 'phone' and his reply was, "It's not a phone, Grace. It's a crocolator."