New Year's Eve: 9:45 PM

And instead of sleeping, Meghan is hosting a dance party in our living room. Who said we are not cool?

Of course she stopped as soon as I turned on the lights so I could get some video. But here are the still shots.

One more month.

Christmas 2007

Sean was up bright and early on Christmas. it was as if he knew what was about to happen. Meghan, on the other hand, we had to wake up. I think we did this about 7:30 AM. Which is pretty good considering we had been up since 5AM with Sean.

Here is the day in pictures.

We finally got our tree up on the Friday before Christmas.

The tree (duh).

The stockings were hung with care.

Even the cat got one.

Sean awake at 5AM.

Put down the camera and feed me.

Sean began investigating while we waited for Meghan.

Will someone please go and wake up my sister?

Meghan finally woke up and immediately dug in.

The Santa hat was a must.

The doll house was a hit with both of them.

Sean had a wardrobe change halfway through the morning.

I'm cute and I know it.

Meghan and I made a gingerbread house.

The End. See you next year.

Exhale: Pre-Christmas Recap

It's the time in between the holidays. Christmas has passed and we are waiting for the New Year. Not like we have anything spectacular planned for New Years Eve.

I'm exhausted. We (um, Meghan) have been opening gifts since Saturday. No, that is not an exaggeration. Meghan has been unwrapping presents (hers, mine, everyone else's) for about 6 days now.

Since I am too tired to do anything else, here is the the first part of the week in pictures.

We made cookies.

Decorated the tree.

Made snow angels.

And Frosty.

What? Winter Has Not Started Yet?

I'm ready for winter to be over. It is not even 12/21 yet. So it has not even offically started. We had 2 big size storms (second bigger then they thought) and it is still snowing here.

It is been an extremly busy week. Let's review my list:

• Shopping - Um, still not done. I was online shopping earlier this week and any store that would guarantee 12/24 delivery. Now we still need to stop at a few stores and hit the mall.
  
• Decorating - I started. Artifical tree is still in a box in the living room.. i am hoping to get that up today.
  
• Performance reviews - Almost done. I delivered 3. Have one to deliver today. And one more to tweak for delivery tomorrow.
  
• Cookies - Done. :-)
  
• Christmas cards - Done!

So I feel like I have not stopped doing stuff all week. But nothing really looks done. And I am running out of clean clothes. i don't think my outfit matches today. Oh well.

Now I need to run out in the snow for a appointment and some shopping. I hate driving in the snow.

Backyard view

Storms are a'comin'

Our weather forcasters are all in a tizzy about two significant winters storms headed our way (read: lotsa snow). Great. Of course, these hacks experts are not always right. All I know is that this is just another thing screwing with everything else that needs to get done before Christmas.

Just a sampling:

• Shopping - So I started off great this year. Then things came to a screaching halt after some credit fraud (one way to get me to slow down online). Now I am behind.
• Decorating - We have not even retrieved the boxes down from the attic. Our Halloween pumpkin is still on the front step (it has become a meal for some sort of wildlife). Now, the snow means no lights on the house this year. Perhaps we can throw out a few net lights if we can find the bushes.
• Performance reviews - Work related but still needs to get done. The snow means we will probably have to leave work early tomorrow. So I will have less time to finish and deliver them.
• Cookies - This hopefully will get done. I bought the ingredients today. I hope I remembered everything.
• Christmas cards - I have them. I also have the blank labels. I think I need stamps. I definitely need to update my address list.

Oh, and our oil heater stopped working today. Its getting cold in here. The service guy just finished up so hopefully it will start warming up soon.

Ahh.. Christmas Presents

I've been tagged by Sophie with my first meme. The theme is to list a favorite present from childhood, adulthood and what I would like in the future. I have trouble remembering what I ate for lunch yesterday but here it goes.

Christmas Past: This is tough because of my previously mentioned memory issues. I also think that because my birthday is not that far from Christmas I cannot remember what I when (sorry Mom and Dad). One gift I do remember is my Cabbage Patch Kid Doll. I ended up with a few of these over the years. But I do believe one (perhaps my first) was for Christmas. I think most people remember it was the gift sometime back in the mid-ish eighties. My mom will tell you tales of waiting in line hours before the stores opened to get one of the limited quantities available.

Christmas Present: Hmm. I generally have a difficult time when, as an adult, I am asked what I want for Christmas. My go-to request is a gift card. However, one year we asked for and received a TiVo. Let me tell you, that thing gets the most use out of everything else I can think of. I love our TiVo. So much so that this year Ryan and I are giving each other a joint present. Our TiVo HD arrived in the mail yesterday. Woo Hoo! Now we can record even more shows we have no time to watch. In HD no less. We used to always watch Lost in HD but then they move it to past my bedtime (10:00PM. I know. Pathetic.). But now, we can record in HD and watch it at a more old people friendly reasonable hour (if the show ever comes back anyway).

Christmas Future: I am hoping that if, if not next year then the year after, we will be celebrating the holidays in a new house. We really have outgrown the current one. I am forever tripping over plastic things because the kids do not have a proper playroom. And now that we no longer have a guest room our family must sleep amongst the plastic stuff on couches and blowup beds. A (preferably brand spanking) new house is definitely tops on my list.

This is the point where I am supposed to tag three new people. But, since I am relatively new to the blogging world I'll leave this up to you. If you would like to join the fun and post your own answers go for it. You can use the image above that was created by Burgh Baby's Mom.

Sean: Nine Month Stats

Sean had his nine month check-up last week. I was really curious to see how much he weighs because he looks like he is chunking up (and that carrier was getting really heavy).


Weight: 17lbs 8oz
Height: 28 inches


I also asked about our milk formula issues and we are going to stick with soy for now. We will try a little bit a yogurt in a few weeks and see how that goes. But we need to take everything that may be milk based slowly. If he still reacts poorly we will go to an allergist.


Sean graduated out of the baby carrier into a convertible car seat this weekend. We also put his crib mattress down further as the little guy is starting to pull himself up. Plus he looks like he is getting teeth (finally). Four look like they are coming at once, poor little guy.

Hee Hee (or perhaps Ho Ho)

Okay, this just cracks me up.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1159548344

Enjoy!

(Time suckage inspiration discovered over at A Mommy Story.)

But Everything I Cook Has Cheese In It

I think we may have a milk allergy.

Both Meghan and Sean were on soy formula almost from day one. When Meghan was somewhere between 6-9 month we made the switch to regular milk-based formula. No problems at all. We have been trying to do the same thing with Sean. It has not been going very well.

After a failed attempt to move him off soy a few months ago we tried again yesterday. His bottle had 6 ounces of soy formula and 1 ounce of regular. He drank 1 ounce and immediately started puking. Everywhere. Projectile. Messy.

That is pretty much his reaction every time we tried. So, I have lotsa questions for his doctor on Friday. What does this mean? Does he need to move to soy milk at some point. Is everything with dairy off limits? Pudding? Yogurt? Mashed potatoes? Cheese? This may make the move to some solid foods more difficult. Meghan just about lived on mac & cheese when she was one. I'll need to learn to cook without cheese and milk. Is that even possible?

And He's Off!

Now the fun begins.

Sean just started crawling this past week. We've started getting the gates out again. This time it is much more difficult as our floor is a mine field of small choking hazards thanks to Meghan's toys. Poor little guy may be forced to spend much of his time in the pack and play.

At least now we can usually tell when he is on the move because he giggles.

Runner

We have a runner. Meghan will take any chance to bolt away. Drives me bonkers.

She ran from me last night when I picked her up. Before I got Sean in the car. And once she starts, she keeps on going. So there I was trying to chase her while holding the baby in his carrier.

Let me tell you, that girl can run fast. I could not catch up with her. So I stopped, told her I was leaving her and started walking back to the car. That's when I heard "I'm coming momma!"

Ugh, I think we need a leash. Or I need a third arm so I can hold her hand, Sean and open the car door at the same time. I'm guessing the leash is easier to come by.

Picture Post

Not much to say. Busy, busy, busy.

Here, I'll post some pictures.

Meghan's Gallery

I've decided to start a posting Meghan's art work.

Here is her first public showing. After she completed this one she said "It looks like Mommy".

"Mommy" by Meghan

Reacquainted

We always try to remember to bring the iPod along for long car rides. Traveling from state to state made it difficult to find a good station. You have to constantly scan the available stations to find a song. And by the time you get there, the song is just about over and a commercial starts. Not to mention looking at the radio just brings me closer to the inevitable car sickness.

I also used to bring the iPod along for my commute to work. Although it was never really used in the morning, I would listen on the ride home. Sometimes songs, sometimes podcasts (are podcasts still cool? were they ever?) but it kept me happy and eliminated to need to do the constant station scan for a song that did not drive me batty.

Yesterday, I remember to grab the iPod and bring it along to work. I should have done this weeks ago. It made the ride home much more tolerable. I have a playlist called "Favorites" with about 900 songs. Set the ipod to shuffle and headed home. Here is what I got to listen to:

• "Forever Young" - Alphaville (3:46)
• "Ordinary Day" - Vanessa Carlton (3:58)
• "Here 's Where the Story Ends" - The Sundays (3:55)
• "The Boys of Summer" - Don Henley (4:50)
• "Carnival" - Natalie Merchant (5:59)
• "Hip Hop Hooray" - Naughty By Nature (4:23)
• "If You Leave" - OMD (4:30)
• "Boogie Shoes" - KC & the Sunshine Band (2:17)
• "That's The Way I Like It" - KC & the Sunshine Band (5:08)

[Yes, two KC & the Sunshine Band songs in a row*. Gotta love the iPod shuffle feature. Random.]

• "Bring Me to Life" - Evanescence (3:57)
• "Where'd You Go" - Fort Minor (3:51)
• "I Alone" - Live (3:51)
• "So What'cha Want" - Beastie Boys (3:37)
• "A Day Without Rain" - Enya (2:38)
• "Standing Still" - Jewel (4:30)
• "Temperature" - Sean Paul (3:36)
• "St. Elmos Fire (Man In Motion)" - John Parr (4:08)

What does this say about me? Well, I can think of two things. One, I have an odd collection of songs that are classified as "Favorites" (and this is just a small sampling, it gets more bizarre). And, two, I have a long commute home (almost 1 hour and 10 minutes). But, I think I'll try and keep the iPod in the car and maybe add a few new songs to the rotation.

*I only have 2 KC & the Sunshine Band songs on my iPod. Trust me.

Meghan's Night-Night Time Procrastination Techniques

Here is just a sampling of every night in our house:

1. I not tired
2. I need water (or Water's empty, Momma)
3. I need kisses, Momma
4. I need Daddy kisses
5. I need all the kisses
6. I need big hugs
7. Bunny needs kisses
8. I need to give Sean kisses
9. I need an animal. (Which one? Hmm, which one? This one, or this one? Hmm...)
10. I need to go potty
11. I go pee pee in my diaper.
12. I need my blankie
13. Bunny needs blankie
14. I need to read a book
15. Momma read it
16. My pillow fell down
17. I need the light on
18. I need the light off
19. I can't close the door
20. I need to sleep in Momma's bed
21. I need to watch baseball (football) with Daddy
22. Madison is in my room
23. I can't find Bunny (or Bunny's hiding)
24. (Crying with her jammies unzipped which we take to mean she is uncomfortable and needs to be changed)

Snot Rag

I remember when I used to love this time of year. This time change made it acceptable to stay in bed that extra hour. I love my sleep. However, I have not really been able to enjoy that extra hour for oh, I don't know, a few years now.

This year I did not have high hopes for the extra hour of sleep. With both Meghan and Sean refusing to sleep late on weekends (I don't understand why they insist on waking earlier than the weekdays) I knew I would be getting up the usual time (meaning really an hour earlier by the clock). What I was not expecting was Sean to be sick. He woke up about 1 AM-ish screaming. And continued to do so all night. The only way he stopped was if you were holding him standing up or sitting straight up. I spent the night sitting up in a chair. So this year, instead of an extra hour sleep, we had an extra hour of misery.

I spend the weekend exhausted with dried snot on my sholder. I can never seem to get his nose wiped in time. I just gave up at one point and accepted that I was his snot rag.

It's only Monday and I already cannot wait until the weekend. I plan to take a nap. We'll see if that actually happens....

The Return of "Housewives"

Tuesday November 6th marks the return of "The Real Housewives of Orange County".

Real Housewives is one of my guilty pleasures. I love this show. If you have not had the pleasure of following the housewives before I recommend you start to tune in. This season the uber-annoying Jo is not a part of the cast and they have some fresh blood. (Honestly, I don't know why she was there to begin with. No matter how loosely you shake up the definition of housewife she did not fit.)

My TiVo season pass has been scheduled and I am looking forward to a season of drama and excess.

The Wiggles ARE Cool

Another Halloween Picture Post

Halloween is over. Whew!

This year Meghan really understood the concept. A weeks worth of Halloween specials on TV may have helped. (My personal favorite was Yo Gabba Gabba's Halloween episode. This included a song that teaches kids that "too much candy's gonna make you sick". Valuable lesson to learn.) She tried to run from house to house (dragging me along) and said "trick-or-treat" at most of them.

Sean just came along for the ride in his Peter Pan/Robin Hood costume. (Seriously, when I ordered it online the description was Peter Pan/Robin Hood. I never before realized that they are the exact same outfits.)

When returned home Meghan got to wait for the kids and hand out candy. I think she had just as much fun doing this.

Here are some more really awful pictures taken yesterday. It is not easy to take a picture while being dragged by a 3-year old on a mission.

Boo!

Happy Halloween from Peter Pan and Tinkerbell!

We dressed up before heading out to daycare today. Meghan is excited about trick-or-treats and getting CANDY!!

I had Meghan watch Peter Pan this past weekend to help her appreciate her Halloween costume. And, as we were in the car today, Meghan actually said "I can't want to grow up".

That's okay by me.

Still Alive

Yes, we are still here. It has just been too busy to blog. Here is an update on what we have been up to:

Learning how to sit.

Eating peas.

Playing soccer.

Doing puzzles.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

Please, Take My Money and Send Me My Clothes!

Frustration!!

I have been trying for over 30 minutes to give Banana Republic a very generous sale.

First I went through and pick out my wants and added them to the shopping bag. easy.

Then I went to checkout and was required to login. No problem.

Wait. Problem. After logging in my Shopping Bag was empty. GRRRRR.

Okay, fine. Go back and try to remember what I wanted. Add to cart again.

Check out.......
???common.errors.text.ohNo???
Banana Republic Online is currently experiencing technical difficulties.

First of all, nice error. ohNo???? Wonderful programming there.

Now I keep hitting the back button and trying again, and again. I would just give up but I need clothes. And who knows when I will actually make it to the mall.

Off to try again.

"Organized" Sports

Saturday was Meghan's first official day of soccer. I was not quite sure how she would react. Possibilities included:

1. Stand still and let kids play around her.
2. Cry whenever someone took a ball from her.
3. Refuse to participate and insist on playing in playground.
4. All of the above.

As you can see, I did not have very high expectations. Meghan used to go to Gymboree. She loved playing on all the jungle gym type stuff but would never participate in the song circle. She is not much of a joiner. But I figured soccer would at least get her out running around for an hour.

She actually did much better than I thought. She was tentative at first but then did follow the herd for about 15-20% of the time. The coaches were great at trying to get her to participate. She kicked the ball a few times and played "red light, green light". There was one incident where she ran. Ran like the wind. One poor coach was trying to catch her but kept looking back for help. Ryan had to intercept her on the baseball field. At one point, while the other kids were playing around with the soccer balls, Meghan was doing some sort of dance that involved patting her knees and clapping her hands. And towards the end of the hour she decided she would rather play with the leaves.

There were only two crying episode. The first was when she collided with a larger girl and lost her shoe. The second was when a kid kicked the ball into her back. But she recovered quickly from both. Not bad for a 3 year old who did not nap.

We have to keep reminding her that she was playing soccer and not "baseballs".

I asked her if she wants to go back next week.

She said "Yeah! And we pway whif da weaves, Momma?!?"

40 or so hours left to go.

I am hopelessly behind on my TV watching*. TiVo has been working like crazy to capture all of our must see shows but we have no time to watch anything. I've updated my "Currently Watching" over there to the left to list what I am actually watching. Notice that there are still some summer programs yet to be removed. TiVo has been holding them for me. Patiently waiting for me to get around to viewing them. There are also some shows completely missing from that list because I have not yet viewed the season premiere. Favorite returning shows like Heroes, new ones like Reaper that I am told I must see.

Why so behind? Probably because our oldest child has decided that sleep is no longer required. She is still awake past 9PM and is waking up at the butt-crack-of-dawn. Today....4:45. That is 4:45AM people. I don't do 4:45AM unless it is to make a plane that is taking me someplace tropical** or I happen to still be up from the night before (which really has not been the case for at least 10 years now).

So, if I do not leave the house all weekend you will know why. Because, you know, this TV stuff has to made a priority.

*Not to mention the 3 Netflix movies that have been sitting by the TV for, oh, I don't know, 3 months?

** Which, by the way, we booked our winter vacation to Turks & Caicos. Is it February yet?

Celebration: The Recap

Meghan's birthday is such an important even that one day of celebration is not adequate. So we celebrated twice. Party 1 was Saturday. Party 2 on Monday.

Party 1:

This was the bigger event of the two. The party was great. Everyone asks how many kids were there. I honestly am not quite sure. They would not sit still long enough to count them. I am going to guess around 7..or maybe 8? I don't know, it was somewhere between a bunch and a herd.

Meghan started off the party with some tea.

Then it was time to eat.

She was ready to sing Happy Birthday.

Sean was having a blast.

The it was time for presents.

And then she passed out watching Yo Gabba Gabba.

Party 2:

This was a more intimate affair. But still with all the required Birthday elements.

Cake:

(Meghan got tired of waiting for Daddy to come back inside)

Presents:


Party Dresses:



Whew. Now we have like 5 months before our next big birthday bash. Good. Because I need a nap.

Happy Birthday Meghan

Meghan turns 3 today. I cannot believe she is 3 years old.

We had a big birthday bash for her on Saturday. Lotsa balloon, lotsa, cake, lotsa kids. Big Mess. Very exhausting. That is why I have not posted. That is also why I have not even uploaded the party pictures.

Party recap post coming soon.

Until then, Happy Birthday Princess!

Jump! Jump!

Jump! Jump! from Dorene on Vimeo.

Two Little Angels

Yes, yes, they are both adorable. But you cannot completely comprehend the destruction that my little ones can cause unless you experience it first-hand.

As I mentioned yesterday, today was my day to work from home. The morning was pretty successful. Although we did wake up to this:



That's right, it's the shade in Meghan's room.

Anyway, everyone was dressed, fed, dishes done, laundry started, and I even got some work done before 9AM. I'd say that's pretty darn good. And I am so grateful that I stayed home today. Ryan did not get to work until 9Am. And he left just before 7AM. For those of you who are too lazy to do the math, that is a 2-hour commute. If I had that commute (which I would have had I gone into work) I am pretty sure my first action of the day would be to quit my job.


How did the meeting go? Wonderfully, thanks for asking. The first 15 minutes had me worried. Meghan could not find Bunny, then, once found, I was told repeatedly that bunny was cute. Sean was practicing his paci removal and re-insertion technique and kept dropping the thing out of the swing. But, after 15 minutes...total silence.

Nice.

(For those of you wondering about the Leapster, LeapFrog support did respond this afternoon saying I should clean the battery connectors with an eraser and some other obviously useless nonsense. But, just to say I told them so, I will follow their instructions and respond back with a "still broken" email.)

Electronic Babysitter

Tomorrow, I am working from home...with the kids. And yes, I am going to try to work.

Interestingly enough, although I will be home the entire day I have done more preparation tonight than I do on a day when we must all drag ourselves out of here before 7:20 AM. I showered, Ryan's lunch is made, Sean's breakfast is picked out, coffee is ground and in the coffee maker. I would have even set the timer to start the coffee if the pot were not in the running dishwasher. Perhaps if it completes before I fall asleep I'll get that done as well.

I have one meeting that I must run tomorrow and there is one standby that will usually keep Meghan occupied for minutes at a time (no, it is not TV, but that is a close second), her Leapster. She loves that thing. Will bend over that thing for so long that sweat starts to drip off her nose. But, sadly, the Leapster has seen better days.

The touch screen will no longer recognize the pen, right smack in the middle of the screen. This, understandably, frustrates her completely. Meltdown follows. Of course, if she asks for it and I tell her to play with something else, there is also a meltdown. I have sent an email to LeapFrog's support center. However, their 48-72 hour promised response time will not help my 10AM meeting. Therefore, I am dreading this meeting and will no doubt be making use of the phone's mute button. And now I am off, fingers crossed, to try and put new batteries in the Leapster. If all else fails, it will be back to back episodes of Super Why!.

We Are Still Here

I've had the most hellish week of work. That on top of children who refuse to sleep much has pushed me this close to the funny farm.

Now that I have gotten some sleep (although today, Meghan woke at around 5AM, which means we all woke up at 5AM) I am starting to feel a bit human again.

Perhaps I'll post something meaningful and interesting soon. Until then, here are some pictures.