Vegas- the city that never sleeps.

Me...I'm the person who does sleep, but I still enjoyed plenty of Vegas time with Jorge. The kids were happy and loved on and entertained completely by doting grandparents while I met up with him for a few days. It was weird flying alone. Liberating being able to spend so many hours alone. And terrifying because it's flying so I felt this need to make contact with each person on the plane on my way to the back rows, assuring myself that if they made eye contact, they were not terrorists. I mean, what would I have done if someone gave me a horrible vibe? Whip out baby pictures and start begging? Call security? De-plane? Alas, the angels were flying with me on the way there because there was hardly a bump in the ride. Phew!

Then I got to find my bag, find a cab and find the hotel room at the Venetian. Bliss. Really, could I just move our family there into one hotel room?

And the bathroom....divine. I draw bathrooms like this, but it has been awhile since I've bathed in one. I even knew the name of the line of faucets. Put them in my drawings last week at work. Obsessive me spent the hours I was waiting for Jorge looking at each little connection and trim piece, checking out how they laid out the tile, scratching my head over why the shower head didn't line up with the shower handle, looking at the complicated conditions like stairs. Yup. If I ever get a client that says "Make me a house like the hotel rooms at the Venetian" I'll be happy to oblige.

So, let's see. There were two major highlights there that make me smile to remember them.

1- The show at Treasure Island. So hilarious. And so not kid-friendly, despite the massive numbers of pirate toys in their gift shops and the cool pirate ship. I don't think I'll be bringing Logan and Sylvie to this show. I'm not sure which song was more suggestive, the "Sticky and sweet like honey" song or one about going "all the way." But the costumes sure left nothing to the imagination. The premise being a pirate who boards a ship of all scantily clad women and gets handcuffed, while his buddies rip their shirts off and dive into the water from another ship beconing him to come back. Well, you can imagine it being the kind of show that belongs in Vegas. BUT...it was corny and hilarious and seriously a show! There was fire and song and dance and fireworks and jumping into the water and a sinking ship. Well, I enjoyed it.

2-This morning we walked through the lobby at 5 am half-eyes open and saw such a mix of people it was hilarious! There were tons of people at the casino, having never gone to bed! There was a set of 3 hilarious drunken people all leaning on one another and everyone was stepping aside for them to make their way hopefully all the way to their room before collapsing or spewing. There were people in running clothes in their tiptop physical shape getting ready for a marathon that day. And, when we were waiting for a taxi, there was a fight between two guys waiting. I saw the taxi director raise his arms into his "Fight me, go ahead, I've only had 75 years of Navy Seal Training....I dare you" pose. And 30 seconds later, guys came running in black coats with badges. I halfway expected them to parallel down from the roof. But I definitely didn't feel in any danger. After all, the Venetian has a reputation to uphold, and this guy was talking a lot of smack before the guy he was talking at flung a cigarette in his face. Which resulted in a few slaps, punches and thrown cups of beer. But yeah, those guys aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

All in all, it was a great weekend away, enough adult time to appreciate the little ones and family life all over again.

My Nativity

My mom's best friends made this ceramic set for me when I was born. I love it! I just told the kids the Nativity story and they listened and were very excited to unpack and set up the nativity. Christmas is on it's way! And as a side note, is anyone else shocked that this survived 32 years? Let's hope this will not be it's last year in one mostly complete set (there are a few glued-on pieces, but no devastating breaks thus far!)

My favorite time of the day....

has got to be when the kids come home from their grandparent's house. Grandparents don't have to discipline, so it's like culture shock when they first hear the word "no" again. Seems the "welcome home hug" most nights tends to be a time-out for Sylvie. Ugh.

What Daddy's are for...

Last night I got to use my sewing machine (woohoo!) and Jorge sat the kids down on the couch with him...with a snack and drinks.....and introduced them to "Home Alone." He fast-forwarded to the funny parts to their hearts content and lots of giggling was had by all. Logan has always thought it was hilarious when anyone gets hurt on tv (it's a bit scary actually!) , so Tom and Jerry is just fantastic and we knew he would love the scenes where the bad guys get trapped and bungled through the whole house.

I got to get the sewing machine up and running, and we got cloth for my projects at the store. As we were getting things measured, we saw some character cloths so Logan picked out Ninja Turtles and we got Tinkerbell for Sylvie. Jorge found some pillow forms and I made Logan's pillow and a doll bed pillow for Sylvie's itty bitty cradle. Unfortunately, I sewed up her Tinkerbell fabric and she had an all out fit. She was absolutely horrified that I had cut her Tink "blanket" into a pillow. Oh boy. It was quite the half hour around here let me tell you. In the middle of it, Logan decided he was tired and wanted to try out his Ninja pillow so we hauled upstairs and put him to bed, all with Miss Tantrums on my hip wailing and crying. Gotta love life. Sometimes I think siblings know how to tune each other out selectively.

Oh, and bonus, one of the bobbins was threaded unevenly and it messed up my machine, so Jorge helped me pull off a plate to disentangle all the extra thread. Then, while I helped out with the kids, he sat with the book and figured out how to get the machine to stop grabbing all the fabric. I love it! He did fix it too! After that, I got Logan's pillow sewn while everyone sat at the end of the dining table cheering me on. How's that for family?

Update: And it's 8:30 the next day and she's finally ready for the Tink blanket to be turned into a pillow. Peer pressure, she loves Logan's Ninja turtle pillow:) Off to sew!

A wish for you....

Christmas spirit. Not in the Walmart ad, or the red holiday cups from Starbucks. Everyone is asking for help this year. I've gotten 4 charity calls this week and many mailings. How do you choose if you have nothing to spare? A need to give is something that tugs at my heart each year.

Today I opened up my favorite message boards and came across a family in need. The littlest girl has the same birthday as my daughter. I recognize her from the past 3 years of raising our girls and talking about it online. That is my charity this year. I cannot afford a ton, but I gave her 10% of what my generous mother-in-law gave me to spend on myself in Las Vegas. It goes in the mail tomorrow.

I hope with all the charities and families in need this holiday, that you find something that tugs at your heart when your wallet is full.

Conferences

I had Logan's conferences this week. His regular preschool conference was fantastic. Good kid, learning to socialize, not a problem in sight. I mentioned how in the past we had sensory and balance issues and she was shocked. Some of the kids are still dealing with oral sensory issues and he does not seem to have any. Yeah:)

I had his speech conference today and if left me depressed. He works so hard and he is learning how to say his sounds better, but he's just not using them on a regular basis. I saw this in real life. He was spiderman for halloween. Every adult likes to ask a child what they will be for halloween, so he got better at pronouncing it correctly. Then this week someone asked again and it was right back to biderman. And everyone assuming he said fireman. The teacher said basically we need to drill him over and over and she was realistic knowing my little guy wasn't going to want to do that, so she suggested an incentive chart. And she said he will probably go to a regular kindergarten (not special ed) and get speech therapy where they will focus on practicing sounds. Also, throw some mom guilt in there that I probably don't make him do enough practicing at home, and trying to figure out what time of the day I will push for that!

On the one hand, I am eternally grateful that my son's only "issue" is speech. There are kids at the center who are profoundly disabled or need severe routine and all these interventions to function. Seeing that, I'll take a speech issue any day. On the other hand, I feel horrible that my little guy is working so hard in two different preschools and still needs more "practice." He wants to be a kid! I guess it put in my head the whole issue of how far do you push your child in school to do "their best." How much do I push for the science award if they don't care. What if they won't sit and do their paper until Sunday night and are tired and cranky. I was a good student, as was my husband, with that drive to succeed. Obviously far from perfect, but also a natural ability to do well in school. I think it made excited to see what life for Logan in school will be like, learning his way of seeing the world of education, and doing my darndest to help him be his best and enjoy school as much as I did.

Just some musings after a difficult parent-teacher conference.

Surviving Winter: Part 2

Today's suggestion for surviving winter:

Pack your bags and meet your husband in Vegas for 3 days. Without your kids. And smile for 3 days straight. Remember to pack the short-sleeves!

I get to meet my husband in Vegas while he's on a convention. I am so unbelievably excited. We used FF miles for the tickets, and my in-laws and brother in law are dog-sitting and kid-sitting, so I am just over the moon.

Vegas baby, here I come!!!!!

Logan's first funnies

Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you?
I've got some work to do tomorrow (not "now" like the song says. Not even sure that's right, but that's how he sings it!)

He was cracking himself up saying that over and over. Sylvie is singing it like crazy and laughing as well. What a big boy. He also tells knock-knock jokes.

Knock Knock
Who's there
Banana
Banana who
Banana on your head!

I'm thinking a good book of knock-knock jokes might be on the list for Christmas.

Doggie Midnight Shuffle

Lights out.

Twist, Turn, Burrow. Harrumph. (settling on her bed in the hallway)

Creak...Groan.....Jingle....Jingle.....Jingle..... (tiptoing into my son's room to sleep on his bed)

"Abby....NO!!!!!"

Scamper, Scamper, Twist, Turn, Burrow. Harrumph. Snoring.

Yeah, she's a sneaky one. Good thing I know all about her bright ideas.

Mr. Imagination and Miss Jaybird

Sylvie is my jaybird for two reasons. She loves to be as naked as I'll let her, thus "naked as a jaybird" Right now she's wearing a see-through "skirt" and "top" from her dress-up trunk. And also, she barely eats. She will tuck away a few things but somehow she can manage to live on air for the other 23 hours of the day. Today I said "Logan, we're going to the grocery story tomorrow, what will you be eating for dinner tomorrow?" And he said "pizza." Sylvie said "Nothing." That about sums it up. My "eats like a bird" girl.

Logan is Mr. Imagination. They just spent a few hours at a local children's museum this morning. It was a 1-room setup, nothing too fancy but the coolest part was a giant lincoln-log set he and a 6 year old used to build a house. Very cute! Then he and that boy and his little brother put on a puppet show! Big deal here. Logan is always so concrete, he would never do something like that, he followed right along and had a blast. I loved it!

Then, after lunch and some down-time at home, he and Sylvie went off to play and play and play for the next 2 hours. He was leading, with all kinds of ideas on what bad-guys they needed to battle, some games with coins, setting up a circle of chairs, lots and lots of games with very little but his imagination and a few toys. It was so cute to watch. They've been fighting a lot this week, so it was 2 blissful hours of them playing well together.

Surviving Winter- Part 1

Since I have survived a few winters now with kids corralled indoors, I figured I'd post a few things as they come to me about what we did to bide the time and still have fun! Boy do I miss going outside though!

Indoor Games:
* Beach Ball: With a beach ball you can play volleyball over the couch, baseball with any kind of non-destructive stick (we have a few plastic tubes and a wrapping paper tube would work well!), you could hold a blanket like a parachute and "pop" the ball and catch it. We have a parachute that works well for this game

* Bowling- is such a fun game! We have a plastic set from Toys R Us, but I think I would look for a pin that is stable enough for a young one to set it up themself and not fall over.

*Forts: Can be so much fun!

Places to Go:
*I joined a mom's group on meetup.com and it has provided tons of new friends and entertainment!

*Because of the moms group, I have realized that the park districts in our area each have so many things going on. I always knew about the classes and such you sign up for. But a lot of the districts have open gym time where they pull out toys like climbers and such and let the kids play for a few dollars. The great thing is, you can go outside your district, you just pay a different fee. Unfortunately, most of our districts don't even list these playtimes, you have to call and find out. So start asking around or calling to find all the local toddler hotspots.

*Mall play areas are always a hit. And fun if you can switch around. We have a lot of malls around here.

*Library times: Our library storytimes were not always great for us, but you can go to the library storytimes at all the local libraries. Ours even has a craft portion.

*Pump it up: Ours has local "open bounce" times you can drop in.

*Craft stores, Bookstores, Pet Stores- are all fun places to take kids and spend a little or none and take your time.

Happy Bundling up! It's a whopping 25 degrees out right now. In the sun.

Holidays are on their way

Logan: "I don't see my school yet. Oh, there it is!"
Me: "Do you like how nice it looks? It's very pretty."
Logan: "Yes, it's made of brick."
Me: "And Shingles."
Sylvie: "Shingle Bells, Shingle Bells, Shingle all the way....." (sung to Jingle bells)
Heheheh. Love it!

One to another

The other day I was trying to see the big picture of how I ended up employed in so many different places (in this economy I have been laid off twice.) I believe in the "big picture" so here's my take on how one has led to the other.

Intro Job: took 100 resumes to get this one. Pre-internet, I grabbed my phone book from home and sat on my dorm bed and sent them out one at a time. He was early in the alphabet. I made $5.00 an hour, which was an actual raise from the $4.10 I made the summer before working as a daycamp counselor!

Lucky Break: We took a trip to Seattle to check out the UW, find an apartment, and get jobs. I remember running out of the interview so excited to be hired for $10 an hour. It was just luck. My first job where I drew on the computer. Worked over the summer full-time and when my classes were not allowing enough hours, they dumped me. Ugh.

Crazy Busy Economy: When I got my next job, I had computer skills so that was huge. I got my next summer job. I sent out tons of resumes (I never send to job postings, just places I want to work) and didn't hear back. I started calling everyone and leaving voicemails. I started getting calls pouring back in so quickly they were going to my voicemail because I was still on the phone. I had a few interviews and got a great "real" job. I loved the people, it was mostly residential and I remember one good friend later told me she heard the interview and asked my boss why he didn't offer me a job on the spot. She said "go down the hall and get her!" I knew I liked her! I got a call soon after. $12 an hour! Three years later, the economy tanked from 9-11 and I spent months watching all my friends get let go, and sending out resumes everywhere knowing I was next.

Details: Because I had been so detail-crazy oriented at the last job, I got a chance with a big commercial firm. Bu-buy residential. I spent the next year working on a big light-rail station and baking Logan in my tummy. Tried to go back after Logan was born, but it was a big failure on no sleep and a crazy intense needy baby at home.

Freelance Work: If you're gonna find freelance work, it's probably in residential. So my mad-house drawing skills landed me about $7000 worth of work while I was home with Logan- woohoo! Got the work off Craig's List and from sending around resumes locally offering just that.

Downtown Crazypants: Well thank goodness for that jaunt over to the commercial sector, it landed me my big downtown job in January in Downtown Chicago when we moved and had to find jobs before we could move out of my mom's house and into our own home. The commute, long days, babysitters for Logan for the first time, finding out I was pregnant (woohoo!), and a boss who was a yeller (at everyone) and crazy, well. I couldn't wait to quit that one on my own! I got myself a nice local job. Doing transportation had been my lead-in into this job. I also did a big bakery for this project.

Local at home: The next job was probably purely out of convenience. I had offered to work from home and my boss was big on work and small on space, so I worked 5 blocks from the office part-time and baked baby #2. It was lonely but good, with tons of time to raise Logan. I got a chance to learn the ins and outs of residential in Chicago and did some other types of commercial projects. Also did my first house in Chicago proper, which is like learning a new language it's that different. When I felt like the boss was going crazy, I gave my notice. Turns out he retired a few weeks later. Aaah, so that's what was going on. I'm a bit psychic about things like that.

Good designer: After working on mediocre design for a bit, it was refreshing to work at a residential firm again with a good designer. I got the job based on that first detail-oriented firm. Thank goodness for that job! It's still getting me jobs! Economy tanked, some projects got pulled, and I got let go last Thanksgiving. It was really tough because I liked working there, and my boss was crying when he had to tell us. Not to mention I was out of luck in finding a new job in a bad economy at the holiday time again- ughs! That is the worst time to send resumes by the way!

Bakery: So, when I had interviewed for a previous job, I had actually received an offer too late from this firm. So I sent them a resume again. He had a bakery project and was excited for my experience in it. He wasn't sure how much work he'd have, but he was willing to give it a go. We did the bakery and it was a good job, until work ran out. I told him I had to send out resumes again and he promised that someday the door was open when more work came in.

All Business: So this firm I work at now is all business. I think a bit of experience in all my residential firms helped me. And doing the house in Chicago clinched it. The past few jobs have offered not too much of a raise, which I think it common, but also indicative of the economy. This company is all business, lots of work on the financial aspect of my field, so I'm hopeful to learn a lot from that. Let's just hope I don't get dumped between Thanksgiving and the New Year again okay?

There you go, my world of architecture experience. Not exactly a cute mommy story, but I guess it tells you more about the person behind the mom mask right?

Calorie Shocker of the Day- Buffalo Wild Wings

I was excited to try this place as I have only been a few times. I sent a request for the pdf of their nutritional information after the fact. Here are some of my favorite highlights. No wonder people who eat a salad for lunch sometimes gain weight. And no wonder they don't publish this information in a convenient internet location.

French fries- Regular- 280 calories and 9 g fat
Nachos- 442 calories and 52 grams of fat (Good thing you split this one right?)
Ballpark Sampler- 1347 calories and 77 grams of fat (Okay, you better be splitting this with about 50 people!)
Naked Tenders (3)- 130 calories and 6 grams of fat (Good thing this is what I ordered, I got 4)
Grilled Chicken Salad- 640 calories and 38 grams of fat (Geesh! This better include the dressing because they list ranch dressing separately as 320 calories and 30 grams of fat!)
Chicken Tender Salad- 990 calories and 68 grams of fat (Holy cow!)
Ribs- 2380 calories and 158 grams of fat!!!! (Weighs in worse than a burger!)

And what would a lunch out be without a nice big slice of
Chocolate Fudge Cake - 820 calories and 33 grams of fat.

God Bless America. Land of the Gingantic everything. Also, my favorite website to see nutritional info is www.DWLZ.com and it has weight watchers points listed at the end. If you click on "Restaurants" they list tons. Buffalo Wild Wings was not on the list. Apparently for good reason!

Zoo-venture

Alone with the munchkins today we went to the zoo. At 10:30 when I was planning to get going, I casually mentioned packing sandwiches and Logan had a total meltodown because he wanted Bakugan Macaroni and cheese. Since they don't sell Pokemon Macaroni (he thinks all things Japanese anime looking are that Bakugan show he saw for 5 minutes) at the zoo, might as well make it at home. So make lunch, eat, scrounge for gloves and hats and finally hit the road an hour later.

We did a lot of the indoor children's museum as it was only 37 degrees out. I was pretty incredulous to see Logan want to do the facepainting. He was such a different child last winter- no face paints, wouldn't touch the animals, freaked out by the elephant house smells, not interested in entering any reptile house except by bribe of the park. Anyway, Big Strides here! And Sylvie loves it all. Especially the dolphin show!

Keeping on top of it all....

So are almost all of you feeling like you're hanging on by a thread? Or is it just me? I love the line in "One Fine Day" where Michelle Pfeiffer says "I have all these balls in the air and I can't stop or they will start falling down...." Totally true. I'm blessed blessed blessed to have a part-time job, and have a few days a week to catch up so we can enjoy family time on the weekends, not laundry, groceries and visit the dentist time.

So it's not totally the idea that I can't stay on top of cleaning the house or getting groceries or doing Preschool homework for 2 different schools for Logan. It's the other stuff. The big projects that loom unwanted. Filling out 20 hours of paperwork for my architectural license. Ordering transcripts from 2 colleges. Finding new doctors and making appointments. Cleaning up the basement that is pulled apart after the floods when we threw everything up high. Starting on some cool homemade Christmas projects.

And the big stuff I need to figure out how to incorporate into my life. Exercising more regularly now that it's frigid cold and wet outside. Finding foods my kids will eat and meal planning and coupon clipping. I can do really well with this when I do it. I saved $45 on one trip recently by taking advantage of sales, coupons, etc. As the kids get older, I am feeling a tug towards "raising" them well. It's not just feeding, cleaning and wiping them anymore. Nor is it just stories and teaching patience at taking turns. I am finding it hard to teach them about this unknown "Jesus," explaining church and traditions, dealing with sibling rivalry.

Logan is not an easy pupil. I found a book I am trying to track down about boys and how to help them succeed in school. I think however tough this year is, next year will be a doozy. If he's interested, he's tuned in. If he's not interested, oy vey. He had some homework this weekend where we had to discuss Thanksgiving and put things in a bag that he thinks we would need on the Mayflower. I am the type of mom who will always try to get him to do his own homework. If they ask for a story and he tells me one, but it strays from topic, so be it. I'll write what he says. I found some images online and a quiet time during this birthday weekend and started talking to him about the Mayflower and Thanksgiving. The conversation went something like this....

Me: "I want to tell you about our country. Remember, you live in a city and a country. Well, a long time ago, there were Native American Indians here. They look like this. And this other group called the Pilgrims, they wanted to see if there was gold here, so they rode across the big ocean and found our country."

Logan: "Mom! I have 3 Star Wars Guys. I need Darth Vader. I yike that green guy. What's his name? "

Me:"Yoda. I'm so excited that you got great Star Wars toys for your birthday. Let's talk about the Pilgrims.....blah blah pilgrims" (It doesn't matter what I said, he wasn't listening at ALL).

Logan: "Blah, Blah Star Wars....."

Me: "Wow that's neat about Star Wars." (Insert some verbage that makes the pilgrims as interesting as possible).

Logan: "So mom, can we get more Star Wars guys?"

Me:"Logan, this is your homework. If you were stuck on a boat for 30 days, what would you want with you."

Logan: Blank Stare

Me: "Okay, maybe something for your tummy. "

Logan: Yeah, whatever mom.

Me: "And something soft and comfy"

Logan: (crying): "I don't need Blue Blankey. I give it to Sylvie"

Me: (in the interest of just getting the darn homework done): "Okay, what about teddy, food and a tool to fix the ship"

Logan: collects the stuff and spends the next 20 minutes deciding the tool he really needs on the Mayflower is a clamp. Yeah, maybe.

Okay, that was a novel, but I know you laughed right? I'm thinking a trip to the library is on my agenda soon to find that book about teaching boys. Because as a preschool teacher right now for boys, I am failing miserably!

"I'm Really 5 Now!"

Logan Anthony, welcome to your 5th year of life! We had one heck of a party complete with lots of fun games. Even the adults played musical chairs and helped you win! You are well loved by all and the excitement over each and every gift was great! Even some empty containers were met with "Yeah! Tontainers!" Who knew organization could be so wonderful!

I don't really want to include too many pictures because there are too many people in them to ask if they mind being posted in cyberspace. Let's just say for now, you are living, sleeping and dreaming of all the cool new toys you got and all the adventures to come!

I love you my sweet boy Logan!





























This one makes me laugh, so I had to include it, no matter how blurry. They were playing musical chairs. That's my husband with his dad on his back. Hi-larious. We also played musical chairs for my father-in-law's 50th birthday. My husband's family is definitely not boring.

Mr. Bossy

He may be cute, sweet and adorable, but he has his own idea of how the world should work. And now that he is confident enough to speak his mind, he does. All the time.

"Mommy, you can't make the Batman guy do that, he has to shoot his gun like this."

"Mommy, I don't want that. Anything else for dinner?"

"Sylvie! Stop that! You can't play with that playmobile toy guy, you play with this one wearing purple! That's the girl. Mommy! Sylvie is trying to play with the boy!"

"Mommy, I want to wear my spiderman shirt and sweatpants to my birthday party." This one really got to me for some reason. I had to walk away! I told him I get to pick his clothes for his party, he can wear spiderman to his friends' party. Evil mom, yes. Can't help it today!

"Abby! Stop playing with that toy. You need to play with this toy."

If you don't have a 5 year old yet, I have seen this behavior in the little girls in his classroom starting well before age 5. So with any luck, both of my cutie pies could be ordering me around at the same time. Can't wait!

I have a dream....

It's 10:30 on Election Night and the media has officially called Barack Obama the winner of the presidency. How very exciting. To me the dream of the possibilities ahead, mixed with the excitement of an African American president and hope for some change is what this election is about.

He's in Chicago. He's in Grant Park. There are about 50,000 people screaming their lungs out and waving signs and listening to patriotic music and he hasn't even arrived yet! I truly love the hope and excitement of this country. In a rough economy where scary things are happening like foreclosures and prices of things we need to live on are jumping left and right, we need a calming force, a guiding light and someone headstrong and yet open to great advice.

One newscaster made mention of the fact that when Dr. Martin Luther King made his "I have a Dream" speech, Obama was a 2 year old in Honolulu. Between that and hearing McCain's speech where he talked the about support and influences in his life, it struck me how much influence I have and the experiences I provide have on my children. Even from a young age. I think as a mom you get caught up in the day to day and sometimes it's good to step back and ask yourself "how am I raising my children and how am I exposing them to the world?" With Logan as a toddler, we lived in Seattle. I loved that he saw water, trees, green and environment everywhere. Mountains, hills, that was our view out our windows! With Sylvie we added a whole dimension of family time. We celebrate holidays together, but we also celebrate Sundays. And birthdays. And Christenings. It is so wonderful having family in our children's lives and they love it.

I would hope that our children can take in all that we are showing them, providing them with, bestowing on them and doing alongside them, and run with it. In their own way. They don't have to be president, but I would hope for success in their lives. However small. Happiness. And Joy. That is my dream.

Halloween in Pictures

And....we're off!

Should be a busy day! Happy Halloween everyone! As Sylvie said this morning....

"Mommy, we have a yot of 'at-tivities' planned for today."

That sums it up nicely don't you think?

I'm so excited! Must charge the camera....

Hobby Lobby

I have an hour lunch. I get paid hourly and things are slow so I might as well fill the hour right? Since it's downright frigid out, I decided to get some popcorn I needed to get (and forgot to get this weekend) for Logan's preschool program. Who puts on preschool programs at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday? Thank goodness I will have grandparent attendance. I have gone to plenty of these programs but this one, I'll send in the grandparents. He'll be thrilled. The "programs" are very low-key anyway.

I digress...back to the lunchtime errand of popcorn. I was going to meet with a co-worker for lunch, but that's tomorrow now, so I figured I'd get something at Jewel (a local grocery store) and get the popcorn. This Jewel happens to be the absolutely most ginormous Jewel I have ever seen- holy cow!!! But right next door is the Hobby Lobby. In the 'burb I live in, things tend to be a bit more scaled down in size and our Michael's would probably fit in this Hobby Lobby's lobby. Yes, they had a LOBBY. Like 50 feet long and 10 feet wide with displays and doors and windows. Wow! I was impressed. I almost stopped in my tracks at the enormity of the actual store when I walked in. It is totally overwhelming. I almost ran back out but realized it would take me a good 10 minutes to get back through that lobby and to the popcorn aisle at the Jewel-on-crack, so I decided to trek on through.

I looked to the right. A third of the store was fake plants. One of my friends enjoys flower arranging and I have bought a fake flower or two to adorn a fun modern vase in my time. But seriously, this was like putting the Morton Arburetum in fake form inside of the store!

Looked to the left. Halloween. Only three aisles. No big clearance tags yet. Then Christmas. I actually really only buy decorations for the Christmas holiday, so this was fun and whimsical and did tug at the heartstrings a bit. I love making a holiday home...but wait. Just because it snowed yesterday does NOT mean it's time for Christmas yet does it? There have to be at least like 100 days left of shopping right?

Okay, deep breath. There's scrapbooking. Oooh I could spend a lot of money there and I haven't scrapbooked a lick in ...well, ever. I just like the paper. So let's avoid those 10 aisles.

Then...lots of arts and crafts. That's where I would get sucked into buying a ton of stuff for the kids. Let's skip it and say we did. Then....drafting supplies. Love those! So glad I don't have to buy any more of those. I think those companies own me by now after 7 years of college! All I can say, first week of college "go get the architecture 101 kit at the bookstore" "that will be $350 please." And then refill over and over for the next 7 years.

Okay, onto the good stuff. I'm very into quotes lately and I had better not get invited to one of those parties where moms tell you how sweet your home will look covered in words because I will have to declare bankruptcy after...or at least answer to Jorge why the heck our home needs words all over the place. Sweet simple. Love it!

Cloth! Fabric! I have a few projects in my head to I'm not just wandering as aimlessly here, in these 12 aisles, I have some missions and I'm taking mental notes on the prices. I feel a tug at the old memory of making curtains and a cover for the futon in Logan's room when I was pregnant. I was so proud of these beauties. When we sold the house, the couple requested the curtains and I knew they were to be left, but it still was hard to let them go! But alas, they were getting married and loved the idea of Logans' room as their future baby's room so how could I squalsh that dream? Instead I made the realtor promise to tell them not to look too closely at the hems!

It made me miss some craftiness I have inside. But it also made me realize while I am busy with a life of being a mom and CEO of my castle, I still find time to be crafty. Be it presents for others, a cute craft project for the kids, or a little impromptu sketch of what we could to do remodel the house (or 50 of those), I keep my mind afire. I saw a show on TLC about women who needed help organizing or with some issue. This particular woman was too OCD about everything with her kids and had forgotten to enjoy them. I don't have that particular problem. I will gladly put those dishes off for some coloring. With markers. But she started a list of all the things she liked to do pre-kids. And I am happy to say my list is something that I still try to incorporate in my life. With my kids.

I didn't buy anything at Hobby Lobby but I will. After I figure out how much fabric I need to make 2 capes for 2 superheroes from their mommy at Christmas. Better get cracking but I can't wait to see them open them!

Downloading

After a day away from Sylvie she was pretty quiet from 6 til 9 pm. A bit of silliness, some hugging, only one temper tantrum when I dared to turn off her ballet movie for a moment, but all in all, not too much insight into her day away from me.

That is until "Mommy, I want you to sit with me in the chair. Me in your lap. With puppy. And Princess Milk. Isn't that cow so funny mommy? Daddy bought me that cow. Daddy so funny. Daddy coming home and Logan going to put on his mask and I show him my puppy and I love daddy and daddy and daddy and daddy and today my puppy was flying with Logan in his mask and and and and...." yes. One Looooong run-on neverending sentence. I think she was downloading her entire day. Perhaps it was an attempt to thwart bedtime. But tonight I think it was actually because she forgot she had so much to tell me and she wanted to empty her head of thoughts before bed.

Love the snuggles. Love the girl.

Cry Babies

Tonight we went to a Halloween Party at the park district. We brought along a friend who is in 1st grade. All the kids were excited but a bit nervous about this enormous blow-up dracula we had to walk underneath to get into the party. Our little friend got inside and burst into tears! He said "Kristin, this might be too scary for me." Sylvie even let go of my hand to let me give him a big squishy hug. I told him we'd take it slow and it wasn't a haunted house, it was just games and we could ignore the other scary decorations for now. We gave him some breathing space and we all were happily waiting in line for typical carnival games. After the first candy prizes, all eyes were dry in our group.

I had been to a family picnic and met up with some friends last summer. One little boy was also around 6 or 7 and of course looked so old next to my little 4 year old! Anyway, his snowcone paper broke and he burst into tears.

I think when you start with little babies and watch them go from crying as their main form of communication to being so incredibly brave and verbal you forget that they get scared, sad and mad enough to cry. When this happens, it throws you for a loop! I kind of like it though because it reminds me that all kids are just kids, not just miniature adults, and they still need plenty of love, hugs and reassurance along the way, even at fun family events.

Aww.....Awwwwww....AWWWWWWW!

I can hear the oohs and aahs now......

Abby's new "lookout"

Logan strutting his "galloping" moves

Sylvie the "Bella Dancerella"- she watches this "Dance along" movie and is getting really good. My mom bought her a dress just like the kids in the movie so I had to take pictures.

And her "curtsy."

Beverly Cleary

I just read a fantastic article about the author of the "Ramona" books. She graduated from the University of Washington (so did I!) so she was profiled in their "Columns" magazine. The article was about her life, her writing, her family. They spoke of her life during the Great Depression where she could get 2 Ritz Crackers and tea for 2 cents that she looked forward to. She was living on $35 a month. Even with inflation that can't be much! It terrifies me to think of life in a depression and I can only pray that our economy takes a turn for the best.

Reading about her life, she wrote about sitting and writing in a rainstorm and it brought back a flood of memories. Do you feel like your life has "compartments?" I do. Like I am cruising along happy in this little world that is mine and then WHAM I'm mentally back to my days as a child laying under our glass coffee tables imagining I am walking on the ceiling. Back to the pool and back to gymnastics- being afraid and brave all at once. Feeling the intensity of the physical exertion of treading water or the perfection of feeling and knowing you did the vault correctly. I remember my written first story about an elephant and my brother's insanely beautifully illustrated books.

I still have a binder of stories. I spent so many hours filling my mind with ideas and could barely contain myself getting them onto paper. I wrote about kids my own age. With hoards of siblings. And I don't think I was ever the oldest (though I am in real life). I would write their names, ages and interests in a list. Names were always fun for me. I remember writing lists from the Baby Name books when I babysat for my own writing! The kids in my stories walked around in houses that had floorplans that I had to draw alongside the story. Guess somewhere along the line I decided I'd rather do architecture than writing. Reading that passage about Beverly Cleary really brought back those feelings of writing again in such an enjoyable way I had to share. And I loved the Ramona books. Not so much the Henry books , the ones about the Mice or Dear Mr. Henshaw. But Ramona and Beezus, I even had the PBS series on tape that I used to watch over and over.

Sigh, life is sweet. So many things to experience. I like to picture all these little life events becoming a tiny piece of who I am and indirectly becoming a piece of what I am as a mother.

Random things

1- Grape Jello....is really yummy! I never had it before. Logan picked it out.

2-Logan has two sets of twins in his "Car School" this year. Both sets are fraternal. And I'm pretty sure he has a set of twins at "Bus School" as well. They were both sitting together and told me the electricity went out at each of their houses and I looked and they were identical!!! So either they are brothers and look a LOT alike or what appears to be identical twins. When I asked him about "twins" he said no, but today I asked again and he understood what I meant and said "yes!"

3-Logan cried about going to school for his grandparents today. I asked him why he cried and he said "I wanted to go to Toys R Us first." The kid has priorities right? Logan and his need for toys is like 400% out of control.

3-Is there anything more lovely than sashay-ing through the living room with your daughter laughing hysterically?

4-I saw a car accident today. I was driving thinking how I really didn't want to crash into the mess in front of me (a large truck turning) and hoping no one hit me from behind. And then about a block later, the car two ahead turned right and the minivan slammed its' breaks and hit it. So grateful it wasn't me today. So sad for the people affected.

Our Pumpkin Patch Fun

I know everyone has their own pics, but I'll show them anyway! We went to the Children's Farm in Palos.

First we saw the farm- Sylvie's favorite. Until we went INTO the barn, then she had a few moments of panic. Then she got over it.


With ducks....




And horses


And a sweet pony with a very soft nose! He kept trying to eat my camera though.


And an attempt to take a picture with daddy




A tractor drove us to the pumpkin patch


Sylvie was a bit nervous. Like her father, she nibbles her nails when she's nervous.


Logan liked it!


"Wait for me!"


We wanted to be able to carry a pumpkin home, so the kids kept "testing" the different pumpkins out to see if they were too heavy. We actually didn't find one they wanted. But that's okay, they didn't seem to mind




Beautiful day! We each picked one small pumpkin to bring home from the farm area.

Big boy stuff

Logan has been getting so big lately. He's very into
-the calendar. He obsesses over what is when. And he sings the days of the week song with this sweet little voice- I love it! He also sings 'Happy Birthday' and 'ABC's.' May seem like "what, your almost 5 year old is just starting to sing? But when you have speech issues, songs may not be top on your 'to do' list.
-Paying attention in church. He was trying to do the sign of the cross and in general listened to my comments about what was happening. Sylvie on the other hand was pretending to write letter and numbers and started talking very loudly about what she was writing!
-Sharing- he's very good about trying to share and understand sharing
-Night terrors- certain things still scare him. He revels in saying "boo!" to scare us and likes things to be scary but I think he's still a bit worried about that line of what is real and imaginary
-Games- he knows he's not supposed to cheat at Candy Land. He sometimes does it anyway, and still doesn't want to lose, but usually takes his anger out on Sylvie's incessant cheating instead.

L-O-G-A-N spells 'Logan'

and S-O-G-A-N spells 'Sylvie' - well, at least that's what she told me the other day.

A new place.....

My happy husband will be traveling like a fool for work in the coming months. On his list is....

First this......
















Then this......

























In case you haven't seen those particular buildings around, I'll let you in on the secret that they represent....

LA- he's gone before and will be working on a competition so he's really excited. The office is actually in beautiful Santa Monica! He'll be working on it for 3 weeks to a month.

Shanghai, China!!!!!! - Wow! He got asked to go and learn some software there. What do you think he's going to say- no? So it's for a few days in November. He's always wanted to go to Asia so there you go. I told him whatever he is doing to appease the gods to keep doing it because it's working. Lucky man!

Sixth Photo

I got tagged by Beth! I'm supposed to find the sixth photo in the sixth album in my online photo storage site, and share it along with the memories it evokes.

So I use photobucket and I have 48 pages of photos. This is the 6th from last photo....



It's Sylvie at few weeks old. I brought her to Kohl's on a mission to find some cute dresses and put them all on her and took photos while Jorge laughed in the next room.

And if I got to the 6th from last page, this is the 6th picture.....


This is Logan's adorable Christening outfit my sister got him. He was a bit too big for it, and the "backup outfit" was a bit too huge, so we put it on him anyway and he looked sooooo cute! It's almost impossible to believe that the almost 5 year old running amuck in my home is the same as this precious little one

In your subconscience....

What do you dream of? Do you dream of being a millionaire, dream of traveling, a few days guilt-free sans kids?

I dream of that illucid third child. Dont think it'll happen. Our car, life, careers, house, etc etc are set up for the perfect 2 child, boy/girl family that we have.

And yet, when I have a moment, like driving without children in the car ,that's what I dream of. Having enough, money, energy,and time to fit that third child in somewhere. Logan sometimes tells me he wants a brother. I would love love love another boy. I adore Sylvie but maybe 1 girl is plenty. She sure is plenty!

Anyway, don't usually talk about my incessant desire for another child but how would I be honest if I never 'confessed' it.

If you feel up to it, tell me what happens in your subconscience!

Behind this mask....

Is a REALLY big smile. He's excited about dressing up for Halloween this year!!!! First time ever!!!!!!!

Backyard Visitors

Yesterday our neighborhood was abuzz with activity. The neighbors to either side of us were working on home improvement projects and the kids were all home from school. I was talking over the fence and noticed a bunch of movement. Turns out there was a patch of grass swarming with 100's of some flying creature I will call baby flies. Being the good terrified person I am, I grabbed a can of fly spray and nuked them. Sometimes Mother Nature and I do not have a whole lot in common.

Then, a bit less disgusting and more fun, Logan and I got into some tennis matches. He's so good! I'm really wanting to get him to one of the many nearby courts and let him wack the ball back and forth. In the yard we had trees and such in the way. But he's really getting the hang of it. With a few new cans of tennis balls bouncing around we saw a 4 year old neighbor girl looking longingly at us and we invited her over. She doesn't live next door, but visits. She was brave enough to come over and she and Sylvie got along so well! I'm really seeing Sylvie enjoy being social now. She loves older kids and last weekend got along swimmingly with a few little 3 year old girls at a playgroup. I feel like Sylvie has really turned into an almost 3 year old and is so completely different than she was just turning 2. How fun!

I just...

Wasted over an hour doing nothing. Watching tv, chewing gum, and checking out the internet. Can I consider it a vacation and not get into the guilt of all that I SHOULD have been doing?

Today I discovered a sweet little outdoor area and waterfall a minute's walk away from my office. I'm thinking of bringing my gym shoes to I don't worry about getting my work shoes all wet and muddy. My co-worker is hoping to get in some good walks with me before the snow flies. Should be fun! Have I mentioned that I like my job yet?

Pink coat

My mom bought this adorable coat for Sylvie. I love it!

Pump it Up party!

I figured I'd give our first experience for a Pump it Up bday party a review...
+ Clean! Clean bathrooms with two stepstools including one for Sylvie's height. They made the kids use hand sanitizer before eating
- Good rhythm to the party, but hard to predict. It was a bit confusing. They started in one room and moved to another. The shoes were moved to the next room, but my kids had their shoes on because they stopped at the bathrooms so we came back to an empty shoe rack.
-Should have been one small single bathroom in the main room. Only room was in the lobby. Not a great idea to leave the kids alone if you are the only parent with them
+ Sylvie normally wouldn't have enjoyed an experience like this but if I wanted Logan to go, she had to come too. She has done bouncy things, but she's just scared by the mass chaos. The first room had a big flat jumpy area outside of one of the bounce houses for her to jump on with me holding onto her. The second room had a few little cars you can drive around- so cute! She loved that. I hate that most indoor playlands are made for older kids with no provisions for the younger ones or assume all kids are going to go jumping feet first into a ball pit or tunnels. Until you have shy quiet kids or ones with balance issues (Logan) to overcome, then you don't quite get it.
+Time of day of the party. To save $ getting the weekday rate I'm sure, the party was on a Friday from 4-6. Worked for us.
-Having a party at that time of the day and then only serving cupcakes and candy treatbags. My kids didnt' have any desire to eat anything healthy after the party for dinner. It was much later that I got Logan to eat some veggies. Sylvie went to bed with only cupcake frosting in her tummy.
+Serving cupcakes- easier than cake for serving 22 kids.
-Serving drinks and giving a choice in open cups. If I do a party like this, I'll go for juicebox type drinks. It was chaotic as the parents all listened to the kids screaming for their drink of choice. Plus, the ENTIRE cup of Logan's applejuice landed on Logan's lap.
-Opening presents. At Chuck E Cheese last year for same child's bday, they didn't open gifts. This year bday child sat in the chair and all the kids got to see the gifts. I thought it was cute and well-done. Dad and mom got to take pics and write down who gifted what. The employee/helper did all the helping. Help unwrapping, put all gifts into a big bag to bring home, trash went into a trash bin on the other side. Kids really enjoyed sitting in front of bday boy watching unwrapping.
-Noisemakers. For the love of god....in an enclosed area, do NOT provide 22 children with noisemakers!!!! Ugh almighty!
-Climbing wall- pretty cool experience that they had this. IT was the type with a harness and ropes and such. But three kids caught their pant-legs on the climb up and were hanging upside down. That could be remedied simply by putting these little straps around pant legs that they sell for bikers. Three kids!

All in all, Logan played well in the play areas. Sylvie did decently as well. Logan was totally and completely overwhelmed by all the craziness of the cake and presents. Thus him not paying attention and spilling applejuice all over himself. I really really see the difference between a 7 year old and an almost 5 year old. I'm thinking if Logan has a party with friends, it won't be 22 kids and it won't be at a place like this for a few more years!!!!

There's my review!

Busy Day!

Get the kids up and dressed and teeth brushed and breakfast in the tummies + Get Logan on the bus + Pack up and head out to a playdate at the park + Get home and change Sylvie into jammies + Do dishes + Change Sylvie back into real clothes + Make lunch + Meal plan and coupon based on weekly ads and figure what to get at the grocery store while the kids are cutting up newspaper ads, playing some very messy water game on the kitchen table while begging/threatening them to get them to please eat their lunch + Go to the park + Get a bazillion groceries (saving $45 with all my planning!!!!) + Lugging all that stuff inside while kids obsess over which bag contains mell-marshellos (according to Logan) + Put said groceries away + Empty old stuff from fridge + Wash and cut up strawberries to fill kids tummies + Start baking sweet potatoes for dinner casserole = ONE TIRED MOMMA!!!!!

And to think, I had this wild idea that today I would clean. Try Survive!

Okay, time to break up some sibling rivalry and perhaps attempt to clean up, do a load of laundry, keep making dinner, get Logan to do his homework, plan for a presentation at his school tomorrow, etc etc etc etc etc. I really miss Sylvie's naps on days like today!!!!