Saturday, January 31, 2009

Doll House Debacle

Claire got a new doll house for Christmas. A very nice gift, she really enjoys it a lot. So far her favorite thing is to throw all the people out the window and wave bye bye to them as they bounce on the floor below. But we are building a really nice dollhouse with Katie so won't it be nice for Claire to have a dollhouse to play with instead of breaking Katie's?
Well, our dog is usually sooooo good about leaving the kids' toys alone. We have lost a few things over the years, I remember the beautiful princess crown that after all the jewels were eaten and the frame was mangled and chewed Katie didn't want to throw it away. She continued wearing it and called herself the "Chewed Up Princess." And of course who can forget poor Woody? So I wasn't completely surprised when one day the mommy's feet were missing, nibbled away....

Claire was so distraught. She brought the mommy over to me looking very concerned. She gave her kisses on her feet. She had a glaring eye for Roxy as we talked about how the accident must have happened. For weeks she kept bringing me the mommy doll and giving her kisses. I told her to put the mommy in the bathtub for a nice soothing soak to take her troubles away.

Well, over the weeks I was sure that the foot injuries were getting worse and worse. The nibbled area seemed to be creeping up past the feet but I just couldn't be sure. Was Roxy hunting down this mommy when we weren't looking? Now I'm sure. Roxy definitely has it in for the mommy doll. Soon I'm afraid the dad is going to be a single parent!







Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Snow Day!!

We had been wanting a snow day for a while, and we finally got it! Only a couple of inches, but the kids were off school and Tim stayed home with us and we got to play and go sledding. Yippeee!! Now winter can end!










Friday, January 23, 2009

Quick Question...

When your onion looks like this:

Is it time to throw it out?

Hmmmm, I'm thinking maybe "Clean Out the Pantry Day" should happen more often!








Monday, January 19, 2009

My "Where Were You?" Moment

I never cared for current events. Tim talks about Reagan and the Cuban Missle Crisis, or the Iran Contra affair... not a clue. My dad was in the Navy for 30 years, and the depth of my knowledge about the military is taken directly from Top Gun. I do have a vague recollection of Reagan saying "Tear down this wall..." or something like that, but only because my aunt lived in Germany and sent me a chunk of the Berlin wall. It was only recently that I became interested in how our government works, I guess when I started working, paying taxes, and realizing how laws affected me, and my children. And I guess I can thank Ryan for getting me involved in the presidents. He is so interested in history, wars, and anything involving the presidents that I couldn't help be curious about it too. So now, years after missing out on historical references, quotes taken from famous speeches and having no idea what people were talking about, I'm trying to make up for lost time. I want to go to the museums downtown and absorb history, looking at it through the eyes of my children.


My parents had "Where were you when JFK was assassinated?" and "Where were you when the Neil Armstrong landed on the moon?" Up until now, I've been wondering what big event would lead to people asking "Where were you..." and this is it, the inauguration of Barack Obama. Unfortunately, I will have to answer, "Sitting on my couch." If I thought for a second we wouldn't lose one of the kids, or have one of them trampled in a stampede, or lose a toe to frostbite, I'd reconsider going downtown.... but we will all witness this historical moment from the warm comfort of our home, which many think is smarter but I can't believe I live 45 minutes from DC and am not going to be on the mall watching it in person.




A lot of people are making a huge deal that Obama is the first African American president. I don't pay attention to the race factor. I think he's a family man. I saw an interview with his wife and was really impressed that he called his girls and read to them over the phone, and talked to them at bedtime each night from the campaign trail. That really got me. And I thought well, if he cares that much about his own family and his children, he will definitely have me and my family's best interest at the heart of his policies. A lot of people might laugh that off and think how contrived that interview was, but I can't be that cynical. Listening to him speak (which a lot of people think is just fluff) I felt all those innocent ideals from childhood where you think you can be anything when you grow up, and one person really can make a difference, and people working together makes our nation great.


With a potential crowd of 2 million for the Inauguration, we ultimately decided to stay away. The media has done a great job of scaring the locals away. Roads are closed, bridges are closed, the metro stations don't have unlimited parking... ok, we get it, you don't want us down there! But, on Sunday for the Inauguration Opening Ceremony if you will, the crowd was projected to be only 500,000 roughly the size of the average 4th of July. My parents offered to come up and babysit Claire for the day so we decided to take Ryan and Katie down for the concert. What a day it was! We actually woke up at 6am and were the only ones on the metro when it opened at 7:30. I thought maybe we had the wrong day! It was like a ghost town! We were ready for the day: hats, gloves with hand-warmers, 3 pairs of pants, 3 or 4 shirts, scarves, and plenty of patience!


The capital building looked beautiful all dressed up for the big ceremony! We were standing as close as the best case scenario for a person who has a ticket for the swearing in... the average Joe Schmoe would be standing 2 blocks farther away probably cranning to see a glimpse on a jumbotron somewhere.

Looks like someone was slacking off in the security department.... there were rows and rows of these metal barricades stacked up along the streets. What are they waiting for? Aren't there a few hundred people to barricade?The first thing we had to do was stock up on our Obama gear! Ryan picked out a T-shirt and a few buttons for his collection, and Katie loved this hat! Everyone was high-fiving her all day. It was a very friendly crowd!

We had a nice little picnic while we waited for the concert to begin near the Lincoln Memorial. Not too crowded... we can handle this! But slowly the crowd began encroaching on our picnic space...


Ok, we're really packed in now! The crowd stretched past where we were (now standing... picnic time was officially over!) all the way to the Washington Monument. See me in the white hat??Right behind the pimp with the huge fur coat.
I was struggling to hold Katie up so she could see the jumbotron. She was just as eager to use the binoculars to watch this guy climb a tree near us (we were all waiting for him to fall out). Soon, she felt like she weighed a hundred pounds and I looked and she had fallen asleep! She lasted all day and then conked out right at the start of the concert!


Porta-potties as far as the eye could see!! A couple of funny potty stories that will make this day even more memorable for us... Just before the concert began, not during the 3 hours leading up to it, Katie had to go. She really had to go, and when Katie wants something, she's going to get it one way or another. So there she was in a huddle with Tim, blanket over their heads (very discrete) 3 layers of pants bunched up around her ankles squatting over a plastic bowl. No one was the wiser. And a little later on, just as Obama took the podium, Ryan was in the same position peeing into a Crystal Light bottle.



Barack Obama, Joe Biden and their families were being introduced. Finally, after 3 hours of being smooshed in the crowd, the concert was about to begin! Ellen was dancing and ramping up the crowd, Elmo was there leading us in a chant of "We Are One" until the number one came out in protest saying, "no, I am one!" It was very cute and the kids got a kick out of it. Jamie Foxx did an awesome and hilarious impression of Obama! We heard performances from so many people I'm wishing I'd have bought one of those souvenir t-shirts on the way out just because it had pictures of all the performers on it! And I had no idea that HBO held the rights to the show. I was fully expecting to get home and see clips of it on the news all night long.

It was amazing how quickly the crowd dispersed after the show. Where did they all go? The metro station. Yeah, didn't see that coming! So the concert ended at 4:15 and we got home at 7:30... a very long, exhausting day but worth all the trouble to have been part of history.



Saturday, January 17, 2009

When did I sign up for this job??

Laundry... I think the most difficult thing about adding a third child to our family has been the laundry! Claire's clothes aren't big, and she was never a spitter-upper so she didn't go through extra outfits each day, but ever since she was born I have noticed that I'm always behind on laundry. There's just NO time. I can manage getting the load into the machine, it's the folding and putting away that never happens. So I end up with "the laundry chair" as I like to call it...
So... do I want to deal with tackling that huge monster once a week, or do just one load of laundry every day to keep the monster at bay. Hmmm, tough choice! Since that hasn't worked out for me, I think I'll start doing a little bit each day. Maybe that will cut down on the number of lost socks too, if everyone's laundry stays separated. I can only hope!






Thursday, January 15, 2009

These are a Few of My Favorite Things...

Claire love to be naked!! The first thing she does upon waking in the morning is rip off her pants.


She loves to talk on the phone!! Or at least press a bunch of buttons and see what happens! She seems to call "Customer Service" quite a bit. And she tries to connect to the internet and open applications... stuff I don't know how to do. And when I try to take the phone away, she runs away laughing. She doesn't fall for the "Give it to Mommy" routine anymore.


Monday, January 12, 2009

Pat-a-Cake

Here are Ryan and Claire doing Pat-a-Cake. Every girl needs a big brother like this watching out for her!





Saturday, January 10, 2009

Out of the Mouths of Babes

In the past month Claire went from having 4 lonely little teeth to now having 10. I'm thinking of enrolling her in a 12 step program for her addiction to Hyland's Teething Tablets. Every time she sees the little bottle she wants to get some. They must really work wonders for her teething pain. I cannot imagine how weird and painful it must feel for her to have almost all her teeth coming in at once so I always give in and let her have 2 or 3 tablets every time she asks for them.
So much is going on with the teeth in this family lately, we need to install a revolving door for the Tooth Fairy. I could probably make a very gross tribal necklace with all the teeth that are falling out around here. Ryan had a huge gap on the bottom for a while and now his permanent teeth are in down there and he has a gap on top! And Katie just lost her 3rd tooth on the bottom! They love to stick their tongue into the gap, and use it as a place for their straw.
Maybe it was the grossness of looking at the wiggly teeth hanging on by a bloody thread, or trying to help them brush them without using any pressure, which is impossible! But I never really got sad about them losing their baby teeth. Until today I noticed some tiny white ridges coming up through Katie's gums and burst into tears realizing that her *adult* teeth are on their way in! She's only 5-- how can any part of her be "adult" yet?!


So that's what's coming out of the mouths of my babes...

















Monday, January 5, 2009

The Great '08

With Ryan lamenting the passing of 2008, (seriously, no one wish this kid a Happy New Year- he is pissed that 2008 is over, the old calendar is down and life is moving on) I thought I'd put together our own TOP 10...since every news and entertainment channel has a top 10 and let's face it, this blog is chock full of news and entertainment! So here are our Top 10 memories of 2008... in no particular order, or are they?

10. Disney World!!! Katie and I were too afraid to go on the Pirate Slide last year, but this year we had lots of courage and went on it countless times! Because we spent a ton of money on park tickets, and had just as much fun at the hotel pool.

9. Off to Kindergarten... this memory will no doubt stick with me and Ryan for different reasons, but it was a major event of our year!

8. Webkinz... it feels like those cute little pets have always been a part of our lives, but it was just about 6 months ago that we were first introduced to them at the beach house when Pop Pop and Nana brought Jake and Curly into our lives. Now we have quite a collection and love taking care of the little critters!
7. Speaking of the beach house, we had lots of good times playing with the cousins and soaking up the sun in Emerald Isle AND Rodanthe this summer. Too many to name just one favorite, but Ryan and Katie learning to surf really stands out in my mind...
and so does the cactus incident - Imagine sweet, carefree little Katie in flipflops, flitting through the sandy path without a worry in the world and suddenly stepping on this
Oh yes, blood curdling screams were heard for miles. And I had to use tweezers to pull 6 or 7 of those loooooonnnnnnggggg needles out of her toes.


6. Spending the day at Cox Farms was another awesome memory for us. Wholesome family fun on a farm! Ahhh, good times!
5. Playing soccer with Coach Daddy. Katie had been waiting so long to finally get out on the field and play soccer. I'll never forget her running over to the sidelines for a water break, sweaty and out of breath from saying,"Mommy, I'm helping my team so much with all my running!!" She was so proud, so excited to be part of the team, although she rarely ever got a chance to get her foot into the heaping mass of people chasing the ball and actually kick it.

4. Katie loved performing in 2 ballet recitals this year, and going on stage as a "Guest Conductor" for the Fairfax symphony orchestra at a performance we went to this summer. Destined for stardom...

3. Who would have thought making tie-dye t-shirts would make our list of favorite things...the kids loved it!! Unwrapping the rubber bands and seeing the beautiful patterns and designs the dye made on our shirts was awesome! Ryan was flapping everywhere, jumping around like he'd just won the lottery! And the best part was that we had adorable matching shirts!
2. I think I'll note this as the year Ryan became obsessed with sports. He loved T-ball and Soccer and we went to several hockey games that he talked about all the time, especially the guys that fight and slam each other into the walls! And if there was a football in the room, he needed to be throwing it! At restaurants, he always managed to find a tv with a football game playing and would totally zone out watching it. He can't wait to play football, and he is not interested in flag football at all- he wants to tackle and body slam and will have penalties on every play!

1. Our little baby is a baby no more! Claire's birthday is a bittersweet memory for me... as sad as it makes me to realize that I don't have a little baby anymore, I'm happy to look back on the changes and growth she's made and know that I haven't missed a single thing. I'm so lucky to be able to spend my days with the kids. I wouldn't change a thing.


What a huge undertaking to narrow it down to only 10! I could have gone on forever, it was so fun taking a trip down memory lane! I can't believe Niagara Falls wasn't on this list! That is one of my favorite places to go! It would have definitely been on the list, but this was a compilation and the kids had some priorities that they could not let go! I also would have had to include Katie's tea party birthday... what a sweet day for my little girl! And the joy Ryan has found through his research and study of the presidents including all the campaign coverage and historical election is another big memory for me! So I guess we'll call this my top 13!!

THE END!!


Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy 2009!

Ahh, New Year, a time of reflection and resolution, change, turn over a new leaf, blah blah. It's always the same over here, let's get into shape, let's not eat out as much, let's eat healthier, let's save more money... whatever... by February we're right back where we started. Heck, probably within a week we've forgotten those lofty goals. But this year I am really going to try to stick with my resolution because this year I have a good one.

Inspired by my friend Annie, I am going to spend the year searching labels and NOT purchase anything MADE IN CHINA. Lots of luck, right? Hmmm, I think it can be done, it will just take a little work. A quick google search brought back lots of results of others who have done this little experiment and I am intrigued.

I don't claim to know anything about the trade industry or global economy or what federal regulations are in place regarding imports. And I don't mean to pick on China, I'm sure it's a beautiful country and I'd love to see the Great Wall someday, or see a panda living in the wild. I think far too many american jobs are outsourced for the cheap labor, and while our unemployment rate soars, other countries are thriving leaving us dependent on foreign imports. China in particular has been connected with using toxins in dog food, and lead paint on my son's Thomas the Train set, and rohypnol in my daughter's Aqua Dots. That's 3 members of my family they have tried to kill, so I now embark on my own private boycott of their imports. Maybe 1 person can make a difference.