Corrie's Pencil

June stuff

2011-06-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

It's been a beautifully cool June this year, and we've gone on a lot of walks. (For those of you in a hot place, don't hate me. I figure each beautiful day is just storing up the wrath to come when I move somewhere hot.) Anyway.... fun times outside.

Where are we going Mom?

I don't know either! (What are we talking about?)

The light was so pretty and they started swinging hands while they walked... awww.

We've also been dong a lot of dress up this month. Here's the robot and the tutu fairy.

The robot doing a little bike repair...

The princess and the king at the library yesterday. I'm trying not to give them my own hang-ups about being conspicuous in public, and I think so far I've succeeded.

Have a happy Friday! And if you read this today (6/24) pray for my friend Lani who's having a difficult c-section today.

Things you will only say to a baby

2011-06-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

1. I just want to squeeze you, you little chub!
2. Spit it into my hand
3. Who has thunder thighs? Why you do!
(and all body-size related comments)
4. Look at the size of your head! (RELATED TO: Wow, vaginal delivery or what?)
5. You can crawl around on my floor all day.
6. I'll let you hold my iPhone as long as you don't chew on it.
7. I don't care if you chew on the keys.
8. Just swallow the dirt, it'll be less messy.
9. Don't you pee on me, buddy! (Though I suppose that could be for other people.)
and last,

10. Can I kiss your bald little head?

Do you have any more??

All inspired by my newest little nephew, Phillip.

Poser

2011-03-02T17:06:00.000-08:00

Rose is a little poser. Some she does for herself, some she does for me. It's fun.

Any new pair of shoes, new tights, new dress... demands a posing session. And sometimes for no reason at all, except that the sun is shining.

Of course, if you happen to get a beautiful new Valentine's dress from your Aunt Lissa, well, clearly that's the best.

And if you're going for a walk and there's some pink flowers that are JUST RIGHT... that's pretty cool too.

Someday soon I'll peel this dress off and wash it, but for this week, she's the pinky Roro.

Speaking of pink, Silas has a new bike.

We're trying the European method of learning to ride a bike - letting him get the hang of balancing without the bother of pedals. We'll see how it goes. It's supposed to be easier than the training wheel way. This was the first day.

Happy Wednesday everybody!

The Great Jessie Caper

2011-02-23T20:33:00.000-08:00

Many of you expressed your sympathy, upon the untimely demise of Jessie. (Rose's favorite character in the whole world.)

This is the story of new Jessie.
First Rose had to get ready to go to the mall. I let her pick out her own clothes for this grand occasion.

Then we got in the car.

The Glendale Galleria holds a fantastic Disney store, but upon looking and looking for a 'big' Jessie, or a Jessie of any size - we came up empty! A clerk told us they'd been out of Jessie since Christmas. Woah. Major problem. But then, woohoo! the hidden (and apparently forgotten) bargain rack! Where we found a perfect mid-size Jessie.

Such happiness. (Plus, much to my joy, this is the only version of Jessie with her hat SEWN onto her head. THANK YOU DISNEY for getting it right this once.)

After a long day, dinner with friends, late night...Rose and Woody and Jessie fell asleep in the car.

The End.

P.S. I just read a great book called Matched and reviewed it on Reformed Romance.

A little stool at McDonalds

2011-02-16T15:49:00.000-08:00

A stool to step on, I mean. This is not a potty training story. Sheesh, guys, give me some credit. :-)

Silas and Rosie love going to the "french fry park" to play, but Rose isn't big enough to climb to the top level. The top level being where all the tubes and slides and cool stuff are.

So, a while ago Nathan brilliantly suggested bringing a stool for her. (He's got a Ph.D. and thinks of all sorts of cool stuff like this.)

It's awesome. I no longer have to be the mother who climbs into the play place with her kids and makes all the other kids feel awkward. Think kids are too busy to feel awkward? Oh no. Plus there's the whole problem of keeping your pants and shirt at the appropriate level, 'cause it's really easy for your pants to slip a vital few inches as you pull yourself around on these things. Then you pause to sit and realize everyone in the eating area is getting a good gander at the color of your underwear. It's no good I tell you. No good.

A little stool goes a long way.

In other news, I've had a revelation on writing and dominoes, which I posted at my other blog. Go check it out. :-)

QualityTime with Kids, on the shoulder of the 605

2011-01-26T16:45:00.000-08:00

The kids and I got in a bit of a brouhaha on the 605, but we're okay. It was pretty crazy, and I praise God that none of us were hurt (or anybody else.) It was actually a pretty funny situation, by the end.

So, somebody tried to merge into me, and while I was still fishtailing from going on and off the shoulder to avoid them, he moved again and cut me off. I hit my breaks which made it all worse and ended up spinning around and into a smallish tree.

I got this nifty picture off Google maps. It was taken a few years ago, so the tree is a bit bigger now. Each trunk was about 6 to 12" thick.

Anyway, the tree was obliging enough to bend when we hit it, but also strong enough to bring us to a dead stop. Which was great, because I didn't want to spin onto the ramp behind, or into the guardrail, or back into traffic. In fact, it caught us at one of the only safe places for our car to stop.

Then it gets funny. The car was royally stuck on top of the tree, only one of the wheels touching the ground. Several good samaritans tried to help me get it off, but that was no good. A police officer stopped by, and he called a towing service. I tried to keep the kids occupied on the side of the road while the towing guy sweated and fumed and finally towed the car mostly off. Then he locked the keys in the car.

I repeat, he locked the keys in the car.

Normally this wouldn't be a big deal for him but he COULD NOT get the car unlocked and he had all the slimjims in the world.

Then Silas had to poop. He's only once pooped in the potty, which means he's at a very delicate stage of potty training. Needless to say, he didn't want to squat in the grass, so it all went in his pants. Rose's nose was streaming green snot everywhere, and I didn't have a single wipe for either of them. The car was still locked.

I borrowed the cop's phone to try and get a hold of my husband or mother-in-law (my phone was in the car), but since we only have one car, it wasn't going to be easy for Nathan to come get me.

Anyway, after about forty five minutes, the tow guy called his superior who was able to open the car. Then they finished yanking it off the tree, and we all got to go home. Sunburned, poopy, snotty, and sore, but very thankful that it hadn't been much, much worse.

Oh, and somewhere in there a nice guy pulled up and gave me the license plate number of the car that ran me off the road. However, the cop said that since I wasn't actually hit, there wasn't much to be done with it.

Oh, well.

On an up note, the kids have taken FANTASTIC naps the last few days.

How to Train Your Dragon

2011-01-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

I really loved this blog post from Femina, A Spirited Rider, comparing little girls and their emotions to a little girl riding a powerful and beautiful horse. She tells a story to her girls about the horse God gave them (their emotions), and how they will ride it their whole life.

"When our emotions act up, it is like the horse trying to jump the fence and run down into a yucky place full of spiders to get lost in the dark. A good rider knows what to do when the horse tries to bolt – you pull on the reigns! "

Later she says:
"The goal is not to cripple the horse, but equip the rider. A well controlled passionate personality is a powerful thing. That is what dangerous women are made of."

However, little boys aren't usually as besotted with the idea of horses as little girls are. I was trying to think of a good comparison and the recent movie came to mind - How To Train Your Dragon.

Dragons are testy things, and sometimes scary. Fighting them or running from them isn't a very winning prospect. But if you can train your dragon - wow! Suddenly a little boy with a strong dragon is a hero. In fact, if you have a really puny dragon, or one that you can't control in the air - you're doomed. The biggest hero is the one with the best trained dragon. I think that's the story I'll tell Silas.

Silas isn't terribly emotional as little boys go, but every toddler is faced with emotions stronger than they are. Sometimes his get the better of him. I hope I can teach him how to be a good dragon rider. :-)

P.S. I just finished reading Loving the Little Years, by Rachel Jankovic - who wrote the Spirited Rider article. It's hands down the best parenting book I've read in the last three years. Check it out!

Funny sayings this week

2010-11-10T10:25:00.000-08:00

Rosie: Make a strawberry mouth, Mom!
Upon questioning, this is just making a big pucker with my lips, which she likes to 'push' back into place with her finger. I guess it looks like a strawberry to her.
Silas was climbing around on the couch and knocked a bunch of stuff off the end table. There was a crash and a pregnant pause. Then Silas, very matter-of-factly, "Yeah, that was my fault."
Rosie: Who am I?
Me: You're Rose Marie Garrett.
Rosie: NO! I'm not Rose Marie Garrett! I'm the donkey!
That would be the donkey from Shrek. Mom is the princess, Dad is Shrek, and Silas is the dragon. Whereupon Silas says, "I'm not the dragon, I'm the robot!"
We have that conversation a lot.
Rose singing: O -kapi - o! O- kapi- o!
Nathan got Silas a stuffed animal on his last trip, an okapi. Rose really likes the sound of that word, particularly with an extra o on the end.

And of course.. .what every toddler girl says at some point...
"That's the daddy poop, that's the mommy poop, and that's the baby!"

Now listen up! I'm in charge here! (or negotiating with your throat)

2010-10-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

I had strep throat this week. It went something like this.

I walk into the kitchen in the middle of the night, to take more antibiotics.

"Alright now, little throat, it's time to swallow."
"Yeah, um, no way."
"This is penicillin, it'll make you feel better."
"Ha! (ow) You said that last time."
"Well, it's true this time."
"You said that about the tylenol, the advil, even the azithromycin! You're a liar!"
"You have to swallow." I'm stern now. "This hurts me just as much as it hurts you."
"That's stupid. I won't."Throat is sullen.
"Just do it!"
"You can't make me!"

solccoheelchsekk. Wipe watering eyes.

"Alright, I can't make you. Yet."

Take another gulp of water, holding my nose.

"Huh. I got two big tonsils and a couple lymph nodes that say that water ain't coming in here."
Throat is right. Water explodes into the sink.

"Darn you, stupid throat! What am I supposed to.... Oh, wait! Look over there! Is that an ear infection?!"

"What? Really? Where?"

Pills. Gulp. Stabbing pain.

"AHAHHAHA! (ow) I fooled you! Take that!"

"Oh, shut up already."

We go back to bed. Round 42 to me.

Introverted Toddlers

2010-09-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

I can't help wondering what syndromes/diseases/learning disabilities my kids have. I blame it on my mom. She would come home from every teacher's conference, and say, "Clark, I know what's wrong with you!" (That's my dad.) She was a special ed teacher, so we learned at various times that my dad a) should have crawled as a child, b) had adult ADD, c) auditory dyslexia, d) OCD (or something, I might have misunderstood when I was little)... you get the picture.

I love you, Mom and Dad!

So Silas occasionally sends me groping for Google to find out what his bizarre behavior MEANS. Well, I finally stumbled on a site about how toddlers display introversion. Oh, DUH! Nathan and I are both totally introverts. I knew Silas was too, but I didn't know how toddlers display it.

I learned that introverted toddlers tend to be very territorial about their body when they're uncomfortable. So, trying to take Silas' jacket off at church is a major violation of his personal space when he's already uneasy. Even pushing his hood off can cause a major battle, because he wants to exert dominance over his space. Plus, the hood is protecting him.

Also, very introverted toddlers are leery of showing too much emotion in scary situations. So at Christmastime when everyone's bustling about and being loud - Silas doesn't oooh and aahh over presents. It's not that he isn't excited or happy to receive things, but he's not going to give wonderful displays of joy if he's also uneasy. (Rosie, on the other hand, will gasp and exclaim and say, "Booootiful!" and generally make you feel like a million bucks for giving her a shiny ribbon.) Rosie is a whole other ball of wax. :-)

If Silas is really overwhelmed, he gets entirely passive. Doesn't move much, speak, or appear to hear anything people say to him. Which is good in a lot of ways - better than throwing a fit, or hitting another kid, etc. Of course, it comes off as stubbornness, which isn't so good. Anyway, I just thought this personality stuff was interesting. If you have a toddler you should go read an article or two about helping your extroverted/introverted child. It's a lot of fun!

Read My Novel!?! (If, you know, you feel like it.)

2010-08-02T12:43:00.001-07:00

Yay!! I finally finished my first story to a point where I would LOVE to have my friends read it! And tell me what you think, too. :-) This is a young adult story - so particularly if you're a teenage girl, remember being a teenage girl, or have one at home - I hope you'll read it. And obviously, I hope you enjoy it.
Go to www.reformedromance.com. You can read it online, or download the pdf to your computer.

The Aspen Experiments is about Dara, a junior in high school, whose parents have just gone to the mission field. She chooses to go to a boarding school instead, where strange things start happening. She suddenly has a mysterious (and totally embarrassing) illness, and when she goes to the school doctor, things just get worse. He thinks Dara might be perfect for a dangerous experiment he's running.

That's the short version.

I also want to say - it's a teen romance and scifi story. If that's not your cup of tea, don't feel like you've got to drag yourself through it for me. I know you love me anyway. :-)

Thanks!
Corrie

www.reformedromance.com

Top 5 for In & Out

2010-05-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

Most. Wonderful. Things. About In N Out.

5. They sweep up junk, like all the time! A guy came and swept under Silas tonight while we were still eating! Wow. And he didn't have a martyred or carefully neutral expression on his face either. He took our extra trash too.

4. Protein Style! This is awesome for celiac people, or if you're just trying to count points for Weight Watchers. I can get a really good burger for 8 points! How workable is that! Carl's Junior: 14 to 22 points. Plus their fries and shakes are awesome too.

3. Our mother's day dinner: $11.96. Enough said, right?

2. Verses! Okay, I know a single verse reference isn't going to slap anyone into heaven, but hey, if I'm gonna buy some French Fries I'd just as soon have John 3:16 on it. I've heard this practice belittled, but I see it like this: If In&Out printed book and page numbers of great quotes from Harry Potter or Twilight, can you imagine how those fans would love it? In&Out probably wouldn't gain any new readers, it'd just be an inside joke for people who were already fans. So as a fan of the Bible, I'm happy to be in on it.

And, the number one reason I love In & Out..... drumrolll.......

1. The small lids fit on the water cups! WOW! For those of you who don't get water at fast food places - usually it's a little clear plastic cup that holds about a tablespoon and a half of water and is way too small for any of the lids. That's all well and good (if you don't mind hogging the fountain for 5 minutes to quench your thirst) unless you have little kids who need a lid and a straw. At In&Out, they fixed it! Lid and straw, no problem! I could cry.

Happy Mother's Day.

Drama in Kmart

2010-04-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

Not the kind of drama you're thinking about. No tantrums, no fits.

No, we acted out a very detailed story Silas created this morning. First he 'read' me our library book about an alligator under the bed. Then he told me his plan while I fed Rosie. He was ready to go find some alligators. To be specific, he wanted to go find two or maybe three alligators who were friends, and were nice, and not mean, and who were in the water somewhere and wanted to come home with us. They could be green or brown, or maybe white. There was a dumptruck in there somewhere too, something to do with delivering the alligators, maybe?

So as soon as Mom had her shower we went outside and he looked in the pool, under the cars, under the dumpsters, in the bicycle racks, but no alligators. Then we had to take Daddy to work. After that we headed to Kmart. We saw a trash truck and he was pretty sure there might be an alligator in there, but it was probably a mean one.

So inside Kmart I steered us toward the stuffed animals. I felt, after 2 hours of this story, that a dramatic exorcism was needed. And (blessings on the Kmart toy section) stuffed in the back of the Cuddles box were two green, friendly, nice, and not mean, alligators. So we took them on a walk while we got all our stuff. We introduced them to some plastic frogs in the yard section. (This was to cement the fact that the store was their home, as their friends were here). Then Silas said it was time to find a dump truck. So we wandered back to the toy section and found a big yellow dump truck. The alligators were safely stowed on top of the dump truck (which would take them home), and we said goodbye.

The end.

And mom breathed a big sigh of relief as we laid the alligator story to rest.

Fashion, really?

2010-04-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

Well, Nathan had a great moment. At least, it would have been a great moment for me, he doesn't really care, so I'm appreciating it vicariously. On Easter Sunday he was working in the nursery for me, and his fellow volunteer was recently from Italy. Her husband is going to the seminary here, I think. Anyway, she (this woman from Italy!) actually asked Nathan where he got his shoes. She said she doesn't like a lot of the men's shoes here, but Nathan's were good looking. HA!

And of course they were just from Marshall's ($30 or $40, I think), so maybe she'll go find some for her husband. :-)

Disclaimer: Living in L.A., where average people are a lot more fashionable than average people in a lot of other places, might have given me a bit of an inferiority complex! :-) But this helps...

Don't mess with Rosie.

2010-04-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

Does this look scary to anyone else? I pulled the camera out and she gave me this look. A very scary look. So I moved out of the way.

I'm loving having a camera at my disposal again. Nathan needs ours pretty regularly to film student presentations, but now we have a nifty little one for me to use. And now that we finally bought a battery charger to go with it, I can use it! Woohoo! Bring on the pictures!

April

My Rose?

2010-03-31T15:57:00.001-07:00

Yesterday morning I came around the corner and was surprised to see Silas standing in his doorway, I'd thought he was still sleeping.

"Hey bud, are you awake now?"

He was very serious. "I don't see my Rose." Not even 'my Ro-ro', he really wanted me to know what he was talking about.

"She's in the kitchen having breakfast. She just woke up before you."

He thought about that. "Daddy came and TAKE my Rose?" he asked.

Ha, I just love these kids. Rose is very affectionate, but she's starting to be a little manipulator too. About two weeks ago I'd gotten mad at her for pulling my hair, and put her down on the couch next to me.

So she stood up, put her arm around me and said, "I wove you, Mama."

It was the first time she said it without prompting. "I love you too, RoRo!" I said, pulling her into my lap.

"I play your hair?" she asked immediately. Wow.

Oddly she doesn't like it so much when I play with her hair. Or even brush it. So I usually wait until she's watching TV, like now, and take a brush to her.

And this is her saying, "Why WOULDN'T you want a Wii Remote down your shirt, Mama? What a strange question."

Part 2, a daughter

2010-02-11T18:48:00.000-08:00

My pics didn't all post the first time. So here's the end of that last blog.

Rose looked somewhat like my baby pictures. Not exactly though.

But then as I was looking at some of my little girl photos and some of her recent ones...

it hit me. "Wow, I have a daughter."

A daughter. Yikes.

(And now I need a Dr. Pepper really badly before I freak out.)

A daughter

2010-02-11T15:52:00.000-08:00

Rose wasn't that girl-like when she was just born. She definitely has big eyes. They look a little more proportional now that she has hair.

But without hair made for some really funny pictures. Like this one.

And this one.

You can see a little resemblance to her daddy, I think.

Though her head was shaped more like a bowling ball than his. But she did start to look a little more like a girl.

Serious Silas

2010-02-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

Silas is my serious boy.
He really takes life very seriously. Tonight he was talking about taking turns.
"Look, Mom, just wait a minute, just wait a minute. Once orchestra is over, (I didn't know he knew the word 'once' before), it's my turn. My turn next. We watch my race car. After my race car it's your turn. Your turn after my race car. You watch on your turn. Okay?"

He's serious about his hat too.

And trains...wow. Nobody messes with him and his choo choo trains.

Silas has great faces.

Trivial Things I'm Thankful For

2010-02-01T20:20:00.001-08:00

I've been a little under the weather (i.e. one side of my throat has gone to war with the other side), so I'm trying to take more notice of the things I'm thankful for (to put to death the whiny mood that I get into when I'm sick). Obviously my salvation and God's grace should top any thankful list- but I'm going for the less obvious ones now.

I like my shower. Hot water in general is a big blessing, but I really like my particular shower. In most showers (particularly the one we had before): you get the water hot coming out of the tap, you push the button/turn the knob, and hop to the back of the tub to wait for the hot water to come out of the top, which may take a second or two, and may douse you with cold water if you don't hop to the back of the tub quickly enough. This hop has to be timed perfectly, and you have to avoid the random bath toys your toddlers left on the floor, or risk multiple contusions as you flail your way to the bottom of the tub. (Also, for those smart-aleck people who would just tell me to push the button before I get in the shower, you haven't seen the arrangement of my bathroom. Just running a bath for the kids is a contortionist's job, and it's not worth it for a shower. Essentially, you have to be in the tub to reach the controls.) But - and here's the thankful part- my shower doesn't do that! It doesn't hold any water in the pipe going to the shower head, so there's no cold water to get in the way of the hot water. The water comes out hot right away. I love it! It has solved a life-long problem.

Other things I'm thankful for: we live downstairs, Silas has a new helmet that he really likes, in a minute I'm going to have an orange juice and ice cream float, we live downstairs, I have a good book to read that I've never read before (Ivanhoe), and I have new shampoo. These things are all trivial (except for the living downstairs), but they make me thankful and happy.

I've been thinking about contentment lately. I've decided that you can't aim for 'just contentment' and reach it. In other words, you can't try to be merely satisfied with the circumstances of life, you have to be thankful for those circumstances. It's like aiming to get a 'C' in a class. Inevitably you'll slip and get a D, and fail, and then where will you be? When I aim for merely contentment I tend to slide into discouragement or frustration. But if you aim for thankfulness: a) you tend to be thankful and b) even if you slip a little, you're still content. I'm not sure if this is theologically sound or not, but it's my thought for today.

Curtains and Pictures

2010-01-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

It's been very rainy here the past few days, so we've been inside a lot. That's been inspiring us to make our apartment a little nicer. We got some curtains in the beginning of January, and now we printed up some photos to go with our big picture of a Middle Eastern marketplace. It was a lot of fun to go through my photos of Egypt and various places to choose some to go with our big picture. I can't believe it's been almost 6 years since I went there. Woah.

Here are the photos I chose, since they're hard to see in those little frames.

Now that we've hung them up it seems to add a lot of life to that wall. Nathan is much more into decorating/commemorating than me. I'm glad I have him around to encourage this type of thing. Left on my own I'd have plain white walls and vertical blinds until I moved out. Thanks to Nathan we won't be quite that bland. I've been using the colors in that big picture as inspiration for my whole living room - which brought around this quilt and these pillow covers.

These curtains were from our old apartment, and I really like them in our bedroom. Silas just likes to jump on the bed. He doesn't care about all this stuff.

This piece of fabric I got really cheaply in the fabric district of LA. It was going to be a skirt, but my clothing attempts haven't been so great, so I decided to make it a curtain instead. I love orange and blue together and it helps brighten up the kitchen. These are almost exactly the colors of my wedding, too. It's nice to know that wasn't just a fad I was going through. (Not that there's anything wrong with fads or fad weddings, by any means!) But apparently those really are my favorite colors.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Silas' style

2009-12-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

I thought today I'd post a little video of Silas' impromptu singing/guitar playing. He just loves his music the last few days, particularly when we read books. His guitar and his recorder are the favorites, with occasional excursions into trombone (two chopsticks held up to the mouth, one slides out), violin, bugle (the bell of my clarinet), piano, and horn (an extension tube from our vacuum).

Our abbreviated book goes like this: A very hungry caterpillar eats a strawberry and a leaf, he takes a nap in the sun, he eats a pear, an apple, an orange, a pickle, and some cheese. Then he spins a cocoon and becomes a butterfly. Silas' vocabulary is extending a little faster than his pronunciation, but you get the idea!

From December

Christmas Ornaments

2009-12-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

Last year when Brenden and Carissa got back from Georgia they gave us these wonderful hand-knit baby socks. Unfortunately the little ones were a little too little, and the bigger ones only fit for a little while. (I think our kids must have big fat American ankles, who knew?) However, that means that they're still in beautiful new condition. So I thought I'd make some little matching ornaments for the cousins to have.

It was a fun project that only took one afternoon, which is my kind of project! Plus it was fun to get into the holiday spirit of decoration. I'm sure looking forward to Christmas!

My Ro-Ro and Your Ro-Ro

2009-11-24T19:23:00.000-08:00

Silas likes to speak possessively about Rosie. Most of the time she is his Ro-ro. I challenged him on it the other day.

"I'm the Mama, so she's actually MY Ro-ro."

"No, no, MY Ro-ro.

"But I'm the Mama!"

"No......I'm the Mama!" he said. "My Ro-ro!"

"I thought you were Silas?" I asked.

"No...I'm the Mama, you're Silas. My Ro-ro!" Impeccable logic really.

But then the other day we were trying to walk to the park and Rose was being difficult. Silas finally stopped and spread his hands, "Mama! Your Ro-ro running away! Wrong way, your Ro-ro!" He was tired of taking responsibility for her I guess.

He sounds particularly dramatic these days when he says goodbye.

"Goodbye my Dadda, I see you later!" he'll yell across the parking lot.

"Goodbye my friends, my friends, goodbye!" He likes to say things symmetrically for some reason and he says this one a lot. At the park, and when our neighbors in the apartment building leave, or when he has to go inside and they're still playing. "Goodbye my friends! My friends, I see you later!"

Rose isn't saying much yet. Mama, Dada, ruff-ruff, ball - when Silas started saying those things I was completely ecstatic, poor Rose is suffering from being the second child. And a girl. Pictures of suffering below. :-)

Tuesday Thought for the Day

2009-11-03T07:34:00.001-08:00

Can you imagine if animals had all the hang-ups that we people do? I, personally (don't you hate it when people say 'I personally'?) verge on social anxiety disorder. Now for me, it's just a matter of pummeling myself into answering the phone (each and every time it rings), and occasionally throwing up in the bathroom when surrounded by large groups. But imagine if one of those emperor penguins from the south pole had social anxiety. "N-n-no, I'm f-f-f-fine guys, not c-c-c-cold at all!" I think that was the real explanation for the dead ones you saw on the outskirts of the huddle (for everyone who saw March of the Penguins), it wasn't old age or sickness, they just couldn't stand the closeness!
Then there's the ADD chimpanzee. He sits in front of his termite mound with a twig thinking, "Just a little closer and - Hey, check out that parrot! Oh, right, termite mound - oooh, a zebra!" I mean, they've got distractions galore. And from what the scientists say digging for termites is right up there with brain surgery. The obsessive compulsive meercat is in bad shape too. She has to emerge and retreat into the tunnel three times before coming out for the morning, when she then must jump over each tuft of grass surrounding the hole in concentric circles - shoot, an eagle. Return to the hole. Begin again.

Okay, glad to have that off my chest. In other news, Silas got some finger puppets that he really likes.

I MIGHT Fall Down

2009-10-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

My brilliant two year old (yes, I'm not going to beat about the bush any longer) has discovered the realm of what could be. Every time I turn around he's telling me what might happen. Ro-ro might hit her head, Mama might get stuck (thanks a lot kid, the slide isn't that small), and he might fall down. That's a big one. He stood in front of the balance beam for the longest time yesterday, and finally told me with great dignity, "I might fall down." He climbed down and went to do something where he might have fun. When he coughs he might need medicine, and in those sprinklers he might get wet, and he might go too fast on his bike down the hill, and Ro-ro might cry if he takes her bear.

Oh, and he's christened a little toy soldier that he took from Papa's house, as 'Daddy.' Obviously he needs a 'Daddy' around since the real Daddy is gone this week. For some reason he thought we might see Daddy at the park today. It nearly made me cry when he saw a man walking a dog with a broad brimmed grey hat (like Daddy's), and he was convinced it was Daddy. He ran up until he was about 10 feet away, and then saw that it was, in fact, not Daddy, but an old man. He seemed to take the disapointment pretty well, but I was a basket case. I'm glad Daddy's coming home in a few more days.

Blog blockage

2009-10-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

So I finished my last blog saying that I would post more about my trip. But it's so hard to blog about a whole trip, particularly when I feel like almost everyone who reads this blog (my family) has already heard about it. I could just post a few nice pictures, but I have SO MANY pictures from that week and a half that choosing a few is a huge task. But I don't feel like I can blog anything else until I do that one! But the longer I wait, the more out of the habit of blogging I get. It's a vicious cycle.

So anyway, just to get rid of my blogging constipation - here's a small tribute to my trip.

Papa has some beautiful acreage, and it was particularly green and lush during my visit. When I got off the plane I told my mom, "You know, this is the first heavy rain I've seen in months, since my last visit actually." She said, "Yes, we know, this is the first rain we've had since your last visit too!"

The kiddos really enjoyed the warm wet rain. It felt so weird to play in the rain and not get chilled. I miss Texas!

Grandfather had a great time too. He's a good cuddler, lots of experience with his three girls.

Granny's tractor was a big hit, our last full day. Silas talked about this tractor for days after we got home.

Overall, a good time was had by all. And I miss Texas, though not the humidity.

2009-09-21T20:31:00.000-07:00

Did you ever see such a happy boy? Wow, the tractor was a big hit at Papa's house. We've had a great visit with my family, but now I'm ready to fly home tomorrow. I'm looking forward to blogging my trip more fully later this week. Please pray that my flight with the two kiddos goes WELL! Thanks.

Tag-Along

2009-09-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

We had a great week in Long Beach with Nathan's sister Rachel and little Violet (who is just Silas' age), and Faith, who is a sturdy 4 months old. And Nana and Pops and Grandma, too, of course! Silas and Violet played together sooo well, it was fun to watch. Silas could be heard every now and then, "Violet wait! Violet look!" and they were quite good about sharing cars and books and blocks and things.

Rosie wanted to play too, but a lot of the time she wasn't quite fast enough. I would see Silas and Violet run past (like a herd of buffalo on their heavy two year old feet), then pause, then Rose was thump-thumping after them. And then: zoom zoom!! Pause. Thump, thump, thump, the other way. Occasionally Rose got into it though, as I saw her pushing both Violet and Silas on their bikes at different times. Funny to see the little one-year-old pushing her big brother on his trike.
On Monday Nana (Barbara) and Rachel and I all went to the fabric district in downtown LA. It was burning hot, but we had a great time! I got enough for 3 shirts, a dress, and a skirt, for about $12 - wow! And then I got to sew a shirt the next day while Nana watched the kids. Great fun. Eventually I'll download the pictures from Nana's camera, so I can show some of the fun times we had.

Speaking of fabric, on the fashion front Silas is still on his own page. We went to get some flip flops for Rose, and Silas brought me these stylish slip-ons. "My shoes, my shoes!"

No, I play bass!

2009-08-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been BUSY for a while! We enjoyed a nice long visit at Long Beach with Nana, Pops, Grandma, and Brenden and Carissa! We had a birthday party for all our summer birthdays, and in particular celebrated Rose's first birthday. Then we got to do some fun stuff with B & C up here in Burbank, including the Walk of Fame, and a train museum with big old steam engines and rail cars from the 1800's. We really enjoyed hanging out, and Rose and Silas had a great time with them too!

I don't have pictures of our visit yet, but Silas' words are really taking off, and so I thought I'd post some videos, since no one in my family has gotten to hear him yet. (And gosh if I'm not a little proud of my dude.) :-) I think you have to go to Picasa to view these videos.

Rose is becoming more and more of a handful. Today I was letting her push her little stroller on the sidewalk outside our apartment. I walked inside to find my keys and my purse and then I heard her angry cry. I went outside and couldn't figure out where she was. I could hear the crying like she was right next to me but she was nowhere around! Then Silas showed me where she was.

Do you see her? Yeah, she crawled over the seat and down into the basket beneath the stroller to retrieve the sand shovel.

Wall art

2009-08-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying decorating a new apartment! Frequently I'm not entirely satisfied with what I end up with, but this time I'm fairly happy. Plus, I'm just enjoying our new apartment a lot, so the euphoria is rubbing off on my other endeavors. I'm thinking of writing, "Ode to an Old Apartment with a Place to Put Screaming Children that is Not My Room ." I think it could be a hit.

These big pieces of wall art really brighten up the kids room, and give a feminine feel to Rose's side of the room.

I'm planning some other boy stuff to decorate Silas' wall. (In a side note, I'm not at all sure that I would have stuck with the name Silas if I'd realized what a horrible time I would have with apostrophes. It's more confusing than you'd think, and I have evidence, because even my mother-in-law, who is much better at grammar than me, has had to stop and think about it on occasion. Rose's name is simpler, though it still sounds wrong to me sometimes, in the possessive.)

This is some fun art for our dining area wall. The middle picture was a gift from a friend at church, and I had some fun fabric scraps that I thought went with it really well. (At least, if you don't think so, don't tell me! :-)

And I finally broke down and made bread today. I haven't since my last bout of stomach virus, when I had made a special onion cheese loaf to go with some burgers. Yeah, that completely finished me on bread for quite a while. But today I did it, and with my little helper right beside me. This is the first time she got to hang out on the counter and it went REALLY well. We were both much happier than usual. She also wanted to wear her hat. Who knows?

Here she is tasting some of the plum I cut up for her.

And right here she's stirring a big fork in the measuring cup I gave her. What fun!

Happy times and movies

2009-08-06T08:34:00.001-07:00

I wanted to quickly follow that last post with a video of Rose actually enjoying the slide. As she does! Also, walking! Yay! She started taking her first steps, a good month and a half before Silas did. We're very excited about the possibility of her walking. I'm hoping she'll be a little less clingy once she can walk around on her own a little bit. I know of course that it'll be a LOT more work when she can go off on her own, but I'm ready to trade the clingy factor for the perils of independence.

I've been in the mood to watch all our old movies lately. Most of which aren't actually 'old' movies, in any sense, but are ones I've seen a ton. I like watching movies. When I was nursing Silas I watched all our movies, and then watched all of them again, with whatever commentaries from the director or producer were on the disk. Then I watched all the special features. I felt rather trapped on the couch those first few months. Sometimes I have a hankering for a particular movie though. During the first month with Rose I watched A Beautiful Mind 2 or 3 times a week. When I was in labor with Silas (in labor!) I wanted to watch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I did watch it, but lost interest half way through. It is a very off the wall derivative of Hamlet. Then for a while I watched anything we had with Hugh Jackman, X-Men, X-men 2, Van Helsing, and something else, I can't remember, obviously didn't make a big impression on me!

Anyway, here's a little movie of Rose on the slide doing it the RIGHT way. And being careful.

Naked babies (in diapers)

2009-08-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

Silas thinks the word 'naked' is pretty funny. And he'll keep telling me, as long as his or Rose's shirt is off. "Ro-ro nake! My nake!" We also just put up a mirror by our front door. It helps me see into the living room area when I'm in the kitchen. They thought it was pretty funny the first night after baths.

In other household productions, Nathan made a really cool toddler slide. Rose absolutely adores it, but she's not entirely good at it. I made this next video after she'd done it 4 or 5 times successfully, but obviously hadn't mastered the turning about. Whooops!

Just so everyone knows, this is the ONLY time this happened, it just happened to be when I had the camera going. And she recovered pretty fast too. :-)

Moving

2009-07-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm glad moving is over. We even have almost everything unpacked already. Here's some of our fun pictures around moving time.

Silas slinking around the boxes and furniture.

Rose being cute and distracting.

Rose hiding under the desk, and playing with the printer.

And here's Silas and Rose saying 'Bye-Bye,' before we left our old apartment.

Things today

2009-07-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

Moving boxes are more fun when they've already been used. I feel like I'm part of an ongoing story. One in which 'Melissa' had a box full of bedroom stuff, somebody filled their 'TV ROoM' to overflowing, and someone with a Linux server either used a dented box or now has a dented Linux server. And now I've added my mite to the story of the boxes (mostly 'Books - Heavy') and they will go on their way. Some to my friend Jia, and some to whoever picks them up.

Silas is getting really talkative. Even making full sentences now. "I need more!" "I see the pool!" "My shoes! More shoes! Momma shoes!" And stuff like that. It really took me by surprise about a month ago when he was just saying a few words - ball, door, etc., and suddenly in Target he said, "Momma wait for me!" I stopped dead still of course, in shock. He's also dubbed Rose as 'Ro-Ro' and she figures largely in his conversation. Often he wants her to slide before he does. A way of testing the water, so to speak. He also loves buses, and as soon as we get in the car he's asking, "Bus? Where bus? My bus?"

But right now he really wants me to get dressed and take him outside.

The Seven Dwarves of Old Clothes

2009-07-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

I'm thrilled to be moving. But packing is the worst. Actually, clothes are the worst. Usually when I think of shopping I happily pat myself on the back and congratulate myself for being an infrequent and frugal shopper. But then when I have to move, and the evidence of sundry unfortunate shopping trips and clothing gifts has to be taken out, catalogued, and dealt with, I realize how bad it's gotten. I've decided to dub the problem the Seven Dwarves of Old Clothes.

Well, we all know Dumpy and Frumpy. It's that cute sweater that somehow screams maternity, even though it's NOT. And then there's the summery floral dress, that somehow looks like it's got great big shoulder pads and wants to go back to the 80's when you put it on. They hang out together in the back of the closet. Or the middle of the closet, if you have one of those closets with two sliding doors that make it really hard to reach the stuff in the middle. Anyway, they hang out and sometimes grab a lonely piece of clothing that gets too close and do a make over. So then Frumpy has a buddy. Lumpy. So you throw away or give away or burn Frumpy and Dumpy, and maybe even Lumpy, but it's too late. They've already got to some of your other clothes. No matter what you do, they will never really be gone. Like head lice.

Messy and Dressy aren't too bad. They both have their time at least. Except of course, if the nicest event you go to is Mommy and Me graduation, semiformal doesn't really fit the bill. So then you have to deal with the guilt of having bought this lovely dress that you keep locked up at home like Cinderella.

Holey and Hokey are obvious tossers. I mean, yes, those shorts fit you better than any shorts you've ever owned or ever will own - but get holes in three key places and those soulmates have to go. Hokey was just a mistake. Birthday clown kind of mistake. And you can't try and analyze the chain of unexpected (or chemical) events that might have taken you there, you must just laugh and move on.

Stay tuned for: The Trick to Tossing Treasured Tomes

Kidspace Museum

2009-07-07T10:25:00.001-07:00

Thankfully our 4th of July holiday was not a total bust, as the stomach virus left me before the end of the weekend. Woohoo! So, one morning, we went to the Kidspace Museum in Pasadena. This is one cool place!

They had lots of hands on science stuff - like earthquake models, crawl tunnels with bug displays, and several huge climbing sets which could take you several stories in the air and model being in a tree or canopy. They also had a watercolor exhibit where you could paint on a huge leaf and every 2 minutes or so it would 'rain' and wash all the paint down. Nathan and I enjoyed the black light bug display room, but it freaked Silas out a little (he was wearing a white shirt).

Outside there was a pretty big garden area, with lots of water stuff. This exhibit was one of Silas' absolute favorites. It combined water, guns, and drums - what more could you ask for?

I think he found his musical nitch. Squirting drums.

And here's Rose watching Silas squirt the drums. She had a pretty good time too.

Another play area had sound and water toys, which Silas thoroughly investigated. This kind of sums up his approach to the whole place actually.

"Hey neat! Look at this!"

"What's this all about, you think?"

"Can I put my face in it?"

"Oh, I can! Great!"

There was a courtyard with these fun spitting fountains, which followed the same pattern. They were awfully neat, I admit.

Only putting his face in it this time proved a little more shocking.

Rose was happy to watch and bedazzle strangers with her cuteness in her white bonnet.

Silas was completely drenched by the time we got to the car. He had to be stripped naked and dried in his blankie before we would let him in the car. He wasn't too thrilled about that, but he likes this picture. He keeps pointing to it and lifting his shirt and saying, "Nake!"

He also thought it was hilarious to be put in the car without his clothes on. He took a GOOD nap. :-) And we all lived happily ever after.

Talking to yourself

2009-07-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

I guess I always thought talking to yourself was a fairly adult habit. Brought on by stress, or incipient dementia, or just silliness. It really cracks me up to hear Silas begin at the tender age of two to talk to himself. After I had denied him another viewing of Little Einsteins (it's a brilliant show, I'll give him that) he decided to take matters into his own hands. I didn't notice at first, but I guess he waited a couple minutes and then quietly went over and opened the cabinet the dvd player is in. He was pushing buttons here and there when he gave himself away. "Pleasepleasepleaseplease..." he started mumbling under his breath. "PLEASE!" he said, when he could tell it wasn't working. I laughed and laughed!

Oh and then there was Becca's wedding. At the reception Silas was running around with his cousin Peter and some other cousins, Anna-Kate and Audrey, I believe. One of these cute little girls came up to me very seriously when I was done cutting the wedding cake and said, "Silas is sitting all by himself."
"Oh, well, is he alright? Did he hurt himself?"
"No. He's just sitting." She said.
"Well, maybe he just wants to be alone, he's probably tired."
"I don't know, but he's all by himself. Sitting."

She seemed concerned so I went to find him. He was indeed sitting all by himself, in the room adjoining the reception room, on the edge of a display case, in the corner. His elbows were resting on his knees, and his head was bowed, and from behind he certainly looked dismal. As I got closer I realized he was holding one of his shoes and trying to put it back on. "Oh, no. Oh no. Oh, no. Uh oh." He said to himself. I was glad to put his poor shoe back on and let him go run around on the stairs some more.

Speaking of shoes, Rose has decided that her goal of goals is to get into our shoe basket. Whenever she has time she crawls over, removes enough shoes to make room for her, and then climbs in. :-) What sillies.

Five year anniversary!

2009-06-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

Yay! Nathan and I have been married five years today. Hopefully it is our first of many multiple-of-5 anniversaries. We went out to eat at Chipotle (let's hear it for the corn salsa!) with the kids. We like to sit in the outdoor area because it's quieter and the mess doesn't make me feel so bad. Nathan fed Silas out of his bowl and I fed Rose out of mine. Our little potentially-celiac kiddos know how to down the rice and beans. We only occasionally burned their mouths with unnoticed salsa, and managed to keep one of the water cups floatie-free, so that we had a drink when our mouths started burning. Silas enjoyed running around the courtyard shopping center and focused in on the music speaker outside of Fuddruckers, demanding, "More! More!"

Afterward we put the kids to bed and watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. Nathan is really sweet in watching the occasional chick-flick with me, and frequently ends up liking them better than I do. (Devil Wears Prada, anyone?) This one was full of cringe-worthy moments and I enjoyed it a lot. Nathan also got me some earrings, a movie, and a stand to hold all our electronic charging equipment in a tidy fashion. Very cool! See, I get lots of stuff because my birthday is in two days and so presents get nicely distributed throughout the weekend. :-)

Anyway, it's been a very pleasant day - going out, watching a movie, getting presents (and with the added glow of feeling like I earned a little pampering since I worked hard at the laundromat and at home today), it was just great. :-)

I also liked that it was low key and with the kids. I feel like it was a perfect snapshot of our lives right now, and we have lots of room to up the romance with future anniversaries. 'Cause seriously, if #5 is the cruise to end all cruises or the New York opera, where do you go from there? :-) I'm all about planning ahead these days, you see. Like tomorrow I'm going to put away all the socks in our easy chair, and remember to take a diaper bag when I go out. (You have to start somewhere!) Here's looking at another great five years!

Goodnight.

June Trip

2009-06-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

I had a great time in Texas. I was enjoying myself so much it was harder to leave than normal- and that's saying a lot! At least I've got a lot of great memories to play dress up with over the next few months. :-)

It started with a fun day at Lissa's with Bluebell icecream and this delicious gluten free apple pie! Nathan and Mark and James raced on the Wii, and Rose tried to push Peter around in a lego cart.

That night two rip-roaring storm fronts came through, complete with hail and tornado siren. We were really looking forward to the thunder and lightning, but would have been content with a less destructive storm!

The next few days in Longview were crazy with preparation. I was very pleased to be able to help out and be a part of the wedding work group. Nathan took care of the kids at the hotel so I could hang out with Lissa and Holly and do flowers and decorations. I also got to see Becca and Robert's wonderful house, and hang out with the Whitings a little.
The wedding went great. I took a lot of deep breaths to keep from weeping during the ceremony, and carefully avoided looking at my Mom or Lissa or Mrs.Whiting, so I wouldn't fall apart. It was fun to be in another wedding, and fun to see Becca finally get to be 'the one.' She's helped out in a lot of weddings, and definitely earned a wedding where she could finally be the one to leave and miss all the cleanup. :-)
Hopefully I'll have more to follow when I get the rest of our pictures off the camera.
Bye for now!

Guitar times

2009-05-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I wanted to take a photo shoot of Rose and Silas in their cute little matching clothes (thanks Mom!) so I got out the guitar to keep Silas on the bed. Rose liked it too, but mainly just because Silas did.

Nathan had the smart idea to let Silas play with his guitar several days ago. It was pretty inexpensive so we figured some little fingers wouldn't be that damaging. Or some little drool.

Well. Silas was enchanted. It was immediately dubbed "'tar," and is the first thing he asks for when he gets up, gets home, or finishes eating. At first we didn't show him where it was stored, in an effort to avoid his ceaseless pleas, but this morning as I stood him up on the changing table to pull .up his pants he saw it on the top shelf in the closet.

"Ah gaaaba dohl 'tar! This! Up! 'Tar!" And as an after thought, "Peas! Peas!"
It's all over now.

Lots of Happy!

2009-05-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed Nathan's graduation, in case anyone was wondering. It was really great to see the end of this saga in his life. It actually seemed to sink in for me, when my own graduations and Nathan's past ones haven't. Probably it helped that we had a month between when he 'finished' and the graduation - time for it all to sink in. Anyway, it was really great. Silas and Rose were happy with the sitters, so it was also a mini vacation. Even the sudden trickery that left us stuck in a boring lecture for 2 hours didn't ruffle my serenity. (Normally a betrayal of trust of that magnitude would merit some serious grumbling, maybe even malicious talk - okay, so I did a little of that- but my temper was untouched.) It really helped that I could send my parents home to relieve the sitters and get lunch ready for our ravenous group. All in all, it was a lovely celebration. Plus, there's more to come! Hopefully next week I'll have a few pictures of our party in Long Beach with our Coast friends. Yay for celebrations!

Quilt and tooth

2009-05-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

I finished a quilt last week. Yay! It was fairly simple, but took a long time because I foolishly washed the quilt top before quilting it, and large parts of it disintegrated in the washer.So then I ripped most of the seams out, trimmed and replaced some blocks, and sewed it back together, with a much bigger seam allowance. Phew! Now it's going to be our blanket for curling up on the couch and watching a movie.

It was interesting to sew because it used all different kinds of fabric. Nathan got a book of sample upholstery fabric from the fashion department at his school, which I used for this quilt. There were brocades and silks and polyesters and rayons, etc.- all with different stretch quality. I had to learn to cut and quilt and press much more precisely and carefully than I ever have before, and I ended up learning a ton about quilting that I didn't know before. I also used continuous binding which I've never done successfully before. Anyway, I'm really pleased, and I feel like this officially moves me from 'beginner' to 'intermediate' in quilting. Woohoo!!

Oh, and Rose got her first tooth on Saturday. Yay Rose!

Yikes and yikes.

2009-04-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

I find myself using lots of exclamatory words recently. 'Wow' and 'Yay' all the time, 'Yikes,' when I'm scared, and even 'Shoot' on occasion. But the last time I said that Silas walked to the car going "shut, shut, shut," which made me really nervous. I'm thinking of trying to cultivate 'By Jove' or something like that. Just now I turned around to see Silas sidling up to Rose in an odd way, (she was on her back and he was standing with his toes touching her side shifting his weight), suddenly it hit me and I said, "NNNN-" and he jumped. "Yikes!" I shouted. But he managed to clear her torso by a couple of inches and land without falling on her. He was hugely tickled by his success and my obvious discomfiture.

Yesterday was another yikes day, however it was more like "Geez, are you kidding me?" than "SO HELP ME if you break your sister's arm..." Which is always a nice change. You can probably already see the picture below, so you know where this is going, but let me tell it anyway. I took Silas to get new shoes and sure enough his feet measured an eight and his current shoes (he cries when I put them on) are a six. So we go to the toddler aisle and I'm pulling out cute 'Cars' based sandals, and darling little miniature brown loafers. Silas very seriously says no to everything until he spots these.

.
Yes, darn it all. Pink sparkly flip flops that light up in the heel. Here's a closer picture, just in case.

Disney princess, of course. He played with those for 15 minutes while I tried other shoes on him and finally chose some. He was still strutting around in the flip flops while I checked out, but at least he was very obedient about putting them back and not crying at the end. Sadly, when I told him to show Daddy his new shoes the next day I think he somehow thought his pink sandals would show up. He was really excited to open up the bag and the boxes, and then completely lost interest when he saw the shoes. "No," he said simply, and went back to his cymbals.

April 2009

2009-04-27T17:16:00.000-07:00

I threw away my kitchen sponge today and started a new one. Technically this isn't the first sponge change since January, but it's the first one I've done. My sister changed it out while she was here, and I think my husband changed it out at some point as well. (Which is part of my philosophy of housework - Stay laid back, and often things will bother someone else before they bother you.) But regardless, today I got tired of my mangled pink and white sponge and threw it away in favor of a brighter and friskier pink and white sponge.
In January I started a couple new resolutions (really just habits), and decided to try and do them until I changed my sponge, to see if they took. Blogging is a winner, for sure. I don't do it that often, but I really appreciate it as an outlet, and as a connection to my family. Most of the other stuff I've dropped, but not everything, which I'm okay with.
So now I gotta go. This month has been difficult - hurt my back, realized our air conditioning was broken during a heat wave, colds, and a stomach virus of some sort that has just finished with me and Silas. I'm REALLY looking forward to May! Nathan will graduate, my parents will visit, we'll visit friends in SanFran, lots of good things!
Happy Spring.

Rose's First 'Big Girl' CostCo Trip

2009-03-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

I have a love/hate relationship with CostCo (it's a bulk warehouse for grocery/clothing/appliances/whatever). I love the huge parking lot (with huge parking spaces), I love cheese by the pound, I love apples in nifty plastic containers that aren't crushed, and I love samples that keep Silas happy for an hour. I hate the gallon and a half of canola oil on top of my fridge (even though it is cheap), I hate how heavy my cart is by the time I bump across the huge parking lot to my car, but most of all, I hate that they want to see your card when you walk in. I mean, that just makes me furious. All of California has a thing with memberships. Ralphs, Vons, CostCo, PetCo, it just seems like you have to have a card EVERYWHERE. As far as I understand it, any place with a pharmacy is legally required to let people in. Period. So I feel like CostCo has a really fraudulant thing going on making people think they have to have a card to get in. Making people stop and sift through their purse, sort through their wallet, pull it out of their athletic sock, or whatever - it just makes me seethe. I don't ever show my card at the door. Usually I just brazen it out and they don't ask me. Once I tried to explain the whole legal thing, which worked, but was time consuming. So now if they have the effrontery to stop me I just lie and say that I'm going to the pharmacy. Then I walk through the store with the feeling that even if I didn't exactly uphold my convictions I didn't give into their little game either. (FYI - you DO have to have a card to check out at CostCo, which I understand and am perfectly okay with.)So anyway, what was I going to talk about? Oh, yes. I also LOVE the great big carts at CostCo that have seats for two kids on top. Talk about thinking ahead. So today was Rose's first trip as a big girl in the top. She was pretty happy being up high and I gave her a bag of salad to chew on. Silas was pretty happy too, although a little tired. He did enjoy several snacks, one of which was a tuna bagel (picture above). When it was all too much he piled his blanky in front of him and laid his head down.
Maybe he was praying for it all to be over. :-) Rose wasn't daunted at all, and had a squeal for the doormen, and enough energy to chew the receipt to nothing. Don't even get me started on how they check your receipt at the exit! :-)

Crusts and funny things

2009-03-04T15:30:00.001-08:00

Silas likes to eat his sandwiches crust first. I don't know why. Who likes crusts? I don't. I might even have cut off his crusts to start with except that Nathan exercised his headship in our marriage and voted firmly in favor of crusts. :-) In this case it worked out well, though for me the word 'headship' usually goes along with words like 'dirty stinking,' 'don't you dare,' and when I'm really playing dirty, 'Biblical contextualization.' Also, crusts is an odd word when you write it over and over.

Rose's highest aspiration in life is to eat my hair. She cackles when I lean over her and my hair is hanging down. She grabs for it whenever she can and tries to drag it to her mouth. I'm thankful that she usually pauses to congratulate herself on capturing the hair before she takes it to her mouth, so I have a chance to extricate it before it gets all wet. She also likes Silas' hair but his is so short she just rakes her fingers through it and occasionally catches an ear. Same with Nathan, when he's kind enough to let her pull on him.

Silas' favorite thing to do is push the stroller. I push him to the park, and does he slide, swing, or climb around? Nope. He pushes the stroller in circles around a tree. We went to have lunch at Nathan's school. He pushed the stroller around the courtyard. We left Rose in it that time and it's pretty funny to see people pause and assess a small toddler pushing around a small baby. Generally the guys, particularly the guy students ignore it. But the girl students, and particularly the older women, completely stop and anxiously look around for parents. Sometimes it takes them a while to spot us (hmm, maybe we're too far away?) and they look a little worked up. It's great fun.

Flip Book

2009-02-19T14:33:00.001-08:00

I was just having fun taking pictures of Rose Marie, because she's such a smiley girl. This is sort of like a flip book. If you scroll really fast you'll get the feeling of movement. :-) Or you'll throw up. Whatever.

BabyGym

2009-02-19T13:54:00.001-08:00

Every Thursday Silas and Rose and I go to BabyGym at church. Silas loves all the cool equipment they have there, and I enjoy letting him play and getting to hang out with other moms in the same stage of life as me. So here's "A Day in the Life of Silas - At BabyGym".

There's seesaws, balance beams, lots of bouncy mats, some spring boards, slides, and even a collapsible tunnel.

During circle time we sing songs and play with scarves or a parachute. Silas runs away screaming when I try to get him to play with the parachute. It's a work in progress.

At the end we all sit down for a snack and some juice.

Rose hangs out in her carseat or else in a side sling on me. Sometimes she goes to the nursery, but usually her runny nose prevents that. She likes to watch all the activity too.

Upside Down

2009-02-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

Silas has an opposites book of crazy monsters. It's really cute, and I've discovered, a good way to get him to sit still for a while. One of the pages is 'Right side up' and 'Upside down'. He gets stuck on this page looking at the upside down monster. So he turns the book over, but then looks at the other monster (now upside down) and turns it over again. This morning he turned it over a good 12 or 13 times before I turned the page and broke the cycle.
Yesterday he danced for the first time ever. He has a lot of dignity and it took at least half an hour of DDR (DanceDance Revolution) before he broke down and jigged with us. He found it really fascinating to watch though. At the end of every song he would say "MOE!" and try to touch the TV screen to get it going. I made the possibly unfortunate decision to let him play a couple games on my iPhone, so now he thinks every screen is a touch screen. And since he usually has a mixture of drool, peanut butter, yogurt, or jelly residue on his fingers...eck.

Ball Boy

2009-02-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

So it was cold out and we went to the play place in the mall. Silas loves it, particularly when I take his socks off and he can get maximum traction on the plastic toys (all the better for jumping, you see). He had on his new nana-jacket which really captured the fancy of two twin boys about his age. I heard their father first, very patiently, "Yes, ball. Big ball. Baseball. Football. Soccer ball. Ball." When Silas went over to their slide later, one of the boys says, "Hi Ball!" and his dad and brother picked up on it. Later it was, "No, wait, it's Ball's turn, let him slide." "Ball? He's over there." And finally, "Bye-bye, Ball!" It totally cracked me up, Silas was oblivious of course.

In other news, I'm really excited about the quilt I'm making. I'm using scraps from a sample upholestry book that Nathan got from school. They're mostly red toned, and I got some nice gold-toned paisley fabric to be the background. I think it'll have a cool Near Eastern look to it when I'm done. I was going to make it just as a throw for our couch, but now I'm thinking of adding a couple borders so it will be big enough for our bed. Very fun.

And Rose just totally charms the socks off everybody who comes near her. :-)

But I want to HELP...

2009-01-28T12:31:00.000-08:00

Silas loves to help. It's so wonderful, and yet...

A couple of days ago Rose was fast asleep in her swing when Silas came over and yanked her fuzzy crocheted blanket right off. Before I could say, "No! Baby sleeping!" or something equally eloquent and instructive, I saw that he had a purpose. I tailed him into the hallway and saw that his milk had spilled on the carpet. He carefully rubbed it up with Rose's blanket and then took the blanket back and draped it over Rose and the swing - a little damp, but who could fault his motives?

Then there's groceries. He REALLY wants to help me carry the groceries these days. And I can't say I don't appreciate it, because hauling a baby in a carrier, an almost 2 yr. old, and 5 or 6 bags of groceries up a flight and a half of stairs is tiring. But poor Silas just isn't very tall - so with the best will in the world, it's hard to hold a plastic grocery bag off the ground. So yesterday he gamely tagged along behind me dragging a bag of canned beans and corn. As I should have expected, as soon as I grabbed it the bottom ripped through and cans bounced everywhere. I had to make several trips that time, of course.

I think God must feel this way about me sometimes. He values (and in fact, commands!) my efforts and obedience, but I wonder how often I set back on my heels and go, "Ha! I helped!" while God smiles and handles the cascading cans. Of course God knows exactly what I'll do, and the results, so it's not a surprise to him. But it's so enlightening having children and seeing it from that perspective. I know so many people have already said these things, but it's totally different doing it yourself. Silas feels so confident of his understanding, his solution, and his reward when helping me, and yet there is so much that he doesn't see and doesn't understand. It humbles me to think that this is a tiny gulf compared to the one between me and God.

In the meantime, it's pretty hilarious to see him vacuum all over with the extension brush, spill cat food all over the floor feeding the cat, load the dishwasher with small toys, and give Rose big books to look at that she can't hold at all. He's just my helping dude.

Basil, Not Just for the Spice Rack!

2009-01-19T16:41:00.000-08:00

There's this cool thing that happens when you add small amounts of spice to your food - it tastes different! Better! More sophisticated! It's amazing! For a long time I had this cool little merry-go-round like thing on my counter for them to ride in - it was fun, you know, and very aesthetic. But eventually Nathan threw it away (with my concurrence) because, while an interesting objet d'art, it was not worth it's rent in counter space. I kept a few that I'd had good times with, but mostly said goodbye.
But now, after an unexpected turn of events and some very surprised chicken strips, I've discovered spices! Basil is my new favorite. Thyme and oregano are close seconds and I'm thinking of even branching out and buying fennel. Hah! You see, I've always had a dichotomy in my mind - spices that make a difference, and spices that don't. It could also be broken into what I thought of as Mexican spices and everything else. Mexican- chili powder, paprika, red pepper, cumin, etc. and then the useless 'green' spices - mostly those found in a spice rack. But now I've been made aware of my unfair prejudice, a 'separate, but equal' of the kitchen, if you will - and have resolved to change my ways.
In a burst of exuberance I purchased a couple of spices at CostCo, which may have been overkill. (Please note the relative size of the spice container to my children.) But I feel like a brief affirmative action program will not go amiss, as long as I don't allow it to go to extremes. Overall, I feel like I've reached a new level in my cooking, and it makes me feel very open and happy.
Merry spices to all, and to all a good night.

Moe Peas...and other gratuitously cute baby talk

2009-01-12T12:52:00.001-08:00

Silas has finally decided to talk! He's just over 21 months (which is a perfectly respectable time for a boy to start speaking), but I've definitely been feeling a little impatient. He seems to have suddenly gotten the idea however, and is enjoying his words and trying new ones daily. His favorite is, "moe peas," or 'more please.' He also really likes light (loyt), ball, baby, food (foo), and sometimes he'll branch out and say TV, nose, toy, or kitty (tatty). It's just so much FUN!

He also is really enjoying our new stroller. While I push him and Rosie he can stand up, sit down, kneel in the seat, and (unfortunately) brake the back wheels with his feet. That last one is *not* a feature and we're working on teaching why he can't do that. However, after our first solo outing (solo meaning all three of us and not Nathan!), I think the stroller is a hit. It's a lot easier than our other stroller, and it means that I don't have to carry Rosie in a pouch anymore! She's almost 20 lbs. and my back was getting sore from these all-morning outings. Now I can put them both in the stroller and hit the road (or vice versa) and I feel newly motivated to get out of the apartment - woohoo!

Two birds with one stone or The cat lives on

2009-01-07T13:19:00.001-08:00

Our cat is a yowler. She makes an incredible racket whenever she wants to be petted or fed. She's on a diet too, so she's hungry a lot. We've been keeping her locked on the other side of our apartment at night, because of this yowling problem - but she stands at the dividing door when she wakes at 2 or 3 am and meows like a maniac. She also does this whenever I wake up to nurse Rosie, which is at least once or twice a night. It's amazing how angry you get after several nights of waking up to this, when you're already waking up several times to a sniffly baby. Several nights ago I had every intention of coming into the living room and stomping the cat to death with my bare feet. I didn't want the cat to suffer, so I planned to crush her spine in one blow. Maybe I should add that this blood thirst is not normal for me. :-)

But as she sensed my fell intent and escaped that night, in the morning I had calmed down and decided to let her stay in the bedroom overnight. I put her squirt bottle next to my side of the bed so that I could squirt her without getting out of bed when she started her nightly musical. Amazingly I didn't hear anything from her, not even when I got up at 5 to nurse Rose. I didn't even know where she was until I went to pull Silas' blanket up. There was the cat, luxuriously sprawled out at the foot of the crib. Also Silas, who usually gets cold at night, had nice warm feet snuggled up to the cat. I decided to squash the few motherly qualms I had about allowing a clawed, furry, dander-producing animal to sleep with my son, and let it go. So for the last three days our cat has napped with Silas, slept in his bed at night, and even kept him company when he woke up in the morning. He hasn't woken up crying the last few nights and he thought it was pretty hysterical that she was in his bed in the morning.

This solution isn't perfect, as the cat still meows sometimes when I'm awake with Rose. But gosh it's a lot better! She was really on the edge (did you know, for instance, that you can have your pet euthanized at home for a very reasonable fee?), but now she has a new lease on life. :-)

New Year, New Sponge

2009-01-05T13:35:00.000-08:00

It's been over a year since I last wrote on this blog, but now that we've begun a new year I feel like I can start off fresh. I also started a new sponge in the kitchen. The last has disappeared - either Nathan threw it away today, or it went down the disposal, or maybe it just slunk away in shame and self-disgust, a shadow of its former bright abrasive self. Regardless, I pulled a pink and white sponge out from under the sink. And I thought, "This sponge will take me to new and greater dish-washing heights. I will clean Silas' sippy cups every day. I will unearth the horror that is my right countertop. I will wipe UNDER the toaster." And then I pondered and thought, "And since this particular sponge has a limited lifespan (usually a few months at the most), I don't have to feel bad not making it all year. "
So 2009 is my sponge resolution year. There's a few things I think I'd like to start doing. This blog, among a few others. I'm going to try and do them as long as my sponge lasts. When the sponge dies, I will stop and reevaluate. If I've made even one of my goals a habit I'm able and willing to keep up, I'll be ahead.

Happy sponges everyone!

Yay for Christmas!

2007-12-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

I've been having a great time sewing for Christmas, but I think I'm done for the moment. I finally finished this one baby quilt I've had for months and now that it's quilted I'm really proud of it. I made my own design and measurements and everything, and it's really quite alright as quilts go. Woohoo! It's so nice to finish this sort of thing.

Big Ucky (ugly/icky) Mess

2007-11-30T12:45:00.000-08:00

Oh, I wish somebody had been here to see the catastrophic mess I made today. It must have been hilarious if you weren't the one involved. Silas certainly laughed when I started yelling. And I did actually spontaneously start yelling at one point. There was nothing else to be done.

So it started out nicely. I wanted to make brownies for when Nathan came home for lunch today. So I'm trying to clear off the stove. We have a lot of dirty dishes because our sink is broken and I can't use the disposal side of the sink or the dishwasher, so we're having to wash everything by hand (making sure not to let any food particles go down the drain), with only a small stream of water (because if I use a heavy stream of water (like for rinsing) then the pipe leaks anyway. The salt shaker was on the stove and I accidentally knocked it off. The bottom popped off and sent salt spilling all over the kitchen floor. Well, that's a bummer, but I want to go ahead and get the cocoa and butter in the microwave to melt, so I keep going, planning to vacuum while the butter melts. However, I'm trying to get the cocoa down from the top shelf, I slip on the salt a little, knock it off, and it goes thunk (on the counter) thunk (on the floor) and now there's cocoa and salt everywhere. Not to mention cocoa all over my clothes too. So now (still stubbornly trying to get my brownies cooked) I finally get the butter and the cocoa in the microwave. Then I go grab the vacuum, plug it in, and get the extension tube out. As I'm backing into the kitchen to try and get the tube close to the counter, I step in the large mixing bowl filled with water that's on the kitchen floor. (Why, you may ask, is there a large bowl with water? It was for the cats while we were gone for several days, but I hadn't picked it up yet, since I didn't want to wash it yet with my dumb sink.) So then- splash! Water cascades all over the kitchen floor, and now we have a salt-cocoa mud mixture on the floor. And my pants got wet, mixing with the cocoa there too. That was when I started yelling.

The morals of this story are:

a) wash dishes in a timely manner
b) clean up rather than keep going and
c) appreciate the conveniences of modern life like swiffer mops

Editing pain

2007-10-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

So I wrote a children's story that I'm going to try and get published in a magazine. The only problem is getting it down to the right length. It's just so stinking hard to shorten your own writing! :-) I mean it's really quite amazing. I know my story is not a masterpiece or anything (and I'm not just saying that, I really do know, mentally and emotionally) yet it's still so hard to do! I keep thinking, "Well, gosh, I really need that," until I cut it, read it again, and go, "Umm, now what did I cut out again?"
Even more indicative - I cut the story from about 1400 words to 950 - and my sister, who'd read the first version, couldn't tell that I cut anything! Wow! That'll show me. So now I go to cut another 150 words. Maybe I should get a drink.

Fires

2007-10-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

There's been a bunch of out-of-control wildfires in southern California. I live in a very urban area, so I don't think we're in too much danger. Or at least, a whole lot of city would have to burn before it got to us. However, we were driving home from San Francisco last weekend and it was incredible. We started seeing smoke while we were still in the middle of the valley (headed toward L.A.). As we went up into the mountains it was occasionally lost from view, but as we got closer it became a wall of smoke. We eventually drove into it and could even see orange flickering light on some of the hills around us. The sun actually turned red (they way they always say), and visibility was very low. Thankfully it thinned out some by the time we got to where we live. Definitely I'll be praying for all the people affected by the fires.

Scary stuff!

2007-10-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I read The Rescuers and Miss Bianca. They were both very enjoyable and downright alarming in places! I mean, this was some pretty scary stuff. At one point Miss Bianca is sitting trying to talk sweet to these two guard dogs and she realizes she's sitting on a "very small shin bone, gnawed." It's evidence of the death and dismemberment of the little girl who was captive in this place before. That's part of the reason Miss Bianca is trying to rescue the present little girl. I mean, yikes! That's disturbing and scary and awful. But gosh it made you feel their desperation. This was what was totally lacking from The Phantom Menace. I mean, there was nothing wrong on the planet, as far as we knew. (I was talking about this with my husband the other day, hence the digression.) It's pretty sad if a little children's book has more grit and terror than Star Wars.
Anyway, I think that's what I'm going to take away from these books. Don't be afraid to be disturbing and scary. Vicious jailers, cruel Duchesses, dead children, bloodthirsty dogs....if done well, darn if they don't make one heck of a story.

Mountain and Dungeon

2007-10-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend I read The Farthest-Away Mountain and The Dungeon. These are both by the same author, who also wrote The Indian in the Cupboard series, and I, Houdini. She's just a fantastic children's story teller. I've been trying to analyze why I like her so much. Even The Dungeon which is my least favorite so far (it's a pretty shocking tragedy), was so well-written and gripping that I couldn't put it down. I was sad at the end, and wanted it to have a happier ending, but definitely she achieved what she meant to, probably. I don't know exactly what she was trying for, of course, so I can only surmise. Definitely it was interesting, suspenseful, surprising, and with great breadth of human character, emotion, and motivation. That's not something you can say about a ton of children's literature, in my opinion.
So now the question is, how does one write like her? I think The Indian in the Cupboard is one of the most creative children's series in years, before or after. For sure, I love the Harry Potter stuff, and I love everything by Gail Carson Levine and several other great authors - but (with excessively creative elements!) those are pretty much stock hero/heroine arcs. Indian was just such a fresh idea altogether. So part of it is just sheer creativity. It's not easy to make yourself be creative, takes time and focus and concentration, and lots of false starts (so I've heard).
Now what else? People might disagree, but I think brevity is one of her key strengths. It is something that I admire, anyway. In Mountain, she tells a whole big epic adventure that lasts about three days and maybe 150 pages. Possibly less. It's amazing!! I get so bogged down in the journey! I tend to write like the first (or was it the second) half of The Two Towers. Pretty much Sam and Frodo slogging through muck and up and down mountains. Now Tolkien can pull that off, he was a genius, but I certainly can't. My Sam and Frodo would turn around and go back from sheer boredom. Sorry about the ring folks, but we just couldn't take the grey landscape anymore.
So that's my goal this week. Write short! Write pithy! Leave out sleeping and getting dressed and choosing the most appropriate footwear - Go! Fight! Win! (to paraphrase from The Incredibles, another great story.)

A nookgase in my bookcase

2007-10-11T11:35:00.001-07:00

I've been reading several Dr. Seuss books to my son. We really like them, and by golly they're rather addictive. I've been going around this morning saying things like, "Is there a rathcub in the bathtub? Or a sniper in your diaper?" "Watch out! There's a nilt in the quilt and a kreet in the sheet!" Of course, he doesn't have any idea what I'm saying, so it's more for my own amusement than anything. Sometimes you find yourself making sense, "Hey, a grouch on the couch! Oh, well, as a matter of fact..." And I like to switch the first letters of the words, in honor of my dad. He would tell whole stories with all the first letters mixed up. Pee Little Thrigs, Indercella and her Mugly Other, like that. So then you get converstions like, "Are you such a bonderful woy? You are my sweet bonderful woy!" And every now and then you squirt out a bad word before your mind has processed it. Whoops! Then it's a good thing that he's too little to know what I'm saying.

Yay for growing up!

2007-10-10T09:29:00.001-07:00

I talk to my son a lot. He is six months old. He likes it when I talk. I talk like this. In short sentences.
Occasionally I feel the need to express something a little more complex, so this is where it will be. I was reading a book yesterday that I didn't like very much, it almost made me feel ill. So I stopped reading it. That in itself is a good thing, because sometimes we do things even though our gut or our spirit tells us to stop. I stopped, but I need to get rid of the book soon, or I'll read it anyway. I have a compulsive need to read anything available.
The problem with this book was complex. It was well written, interesting theme, complex (likeable!) characters, and had fun references to other books that I like. However, the story was told with a lot of flashbacks to creepy or frustrating or shameful childhood/adolescent events. It was done with great realism, and you could really feel the horror that only an adolescent embarrassment can create. It also showed the pettiness and guilt associated with the inexplicable meanness and cruelty children can dish out to one another, or to their parents.
The problem for me was that these events were portrayed as being more real and life-altering than the more controlled, refined decisions of adulthood. I think this is fundamentally incorrect. We are cruel and confused and embarrassed and frustrated as children, but that can (and usually does) change. The calm, possibly distracted love in a busy marriage is stronger than the fleeting passions of high school, and more real. The discipline of working, fixing the shower, and getting the oil changed can be more valuable than the dizzying spin of activity in childhood.
I love my life, and it has only improved since I was a child. (And I had a good childhood). High school was better than middle school, college was better than high school, marriage was better than college, and having a child is even better yet. Reading part of that book reminded me that I need to consciously appreciate where I am.
Woohoo for adulthood! :-)
Now I am going to go talk to my son. He likes prunes. He likes his spoon. I will give him prunes on a spoon.