10 December 2008
some photos
04 December 2008
arkansas? check.
driving from the airport, in the middle of pasture land, we passed a restaurant (a generous word for what it looked like). there was a marquee (one of those lighted signs where you pop in the plastic letters -- like churches have that say things like 'soul food served here' -- you get the point) ... it was advertising catfish, frog legs and various fried sundries. they're open for a buffet three nights a week. i'm not sure if reservations are required.
bentonville is also the home of wal-mart corporate. i had the pleasure of visiting a "vendor friendly" wal-mart that was about the size of my sub division and was cleaner than any wal-mart i've ever encountered. they sell socks, milk, poultry, electronics and i'm pretty sure stock options.
we had a really great time visiting the johnson's ... aidan LOVED playing with the girls. he got to see his first movie in the theater (technically, so did jack). aidan was sick and didn't sleep, that sucked. fortunately he was so happy to be playing he was pretty good during the days. we invested some time in guitar hero (and subsequently purchased it when we got home). i have some ground to cover ... can't quite play past the three chord level ... but i rock at that!
i didn't get a good picture of all three kids, but here's one of aidan & ava in their doggie PJs (ava picked hers out specifically when she saw aidan's) and one of makenna on her own (poor jack didn't rate even one shot ... oops):
bentonville is also the home of wal-mart corporate. i had the pleasure of visiting a "vendor friendly" wal-mart that was about the size of my sub division and was cleaner than any wal-mart i've ever encountered. they sell socks, milk, poultry, electronics and i'm pretty sure stock options.
we had a really great time visiting the johnson's ... aidan LOVED playing with the girls. he got to see his first movie in the theater (technically, so did jack). aidan was sick and didn't sleep, that sucked. fortunately he was so happy to be playing he was pretty good during the days. we invested some time in guitar hero (and subsequently purchased it when we got home). i have some ground to cover ... can't quite play past the three chord level ... but i rock at that!
i didn't get a good picture of all three kids, but here's one of aidan & ava in their doggie PJs (ava picked hers out specifically when she saw aidan's) and one of makenna on her own (poor jack didn't rate even one shot ... oops):
18 November 2008
time
"the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another."
the only thing i really understand in that definition is indefinite and continuous. every day i get up and do pretty much the same sequence of events (varies given the day of the week). i anticipate this continuing indefinitely for a continuously indefinite period of time. given this, i feel like i should be better organized and have more time. it couldn't be easier to put a brief post or picture up here at least once a week--what's my problem?!
by all definitions of time i should have a spotless house & car, i should have my photos organized with recent ones framed in the house, i should not have to go to the DMV to get new stickers for the new car because i threw the first set away with the envelope the license plates came in because i was moving too fast and didn't see them, my children's nails should be clipped at regular intervals instead of them having to scratch me in an effort to let me know they need to be cut, i should not ever, ever, ever forget or not recognize a birthday, my legs should always be shaved and i should have a blog that is so up to date that all 4 of you that read this are pushing reload at light speed to see what i have to say next.
i am only left to assume there's some quirky time warp that occurs, thus breaking up the "continuous" into smaller sections throughout my day, thus reducing the number of hours i actually have to work with, thus leaving me in a quandary come 9:00 every night.
in brief:
aidan just learned how to climb out of his bed (not sure why it took him so long, but we were happy it did). this means we hear little feet scamper in every morning. since we're both hearing the feet you can only assume this means we're both still in bed and aidan is coming in too early. in a moment of genius i put one of jack's rattley toys on aidan's door so i can at least hear when he opens it--this alleviates the scare factor if we're really soundly asleep.
jack hears aidan get out of bed and wakes up too. enough said.
aidan is speaking in pretty full toddler sentences. he's stuttering a little. apparently very normal, still pretty nerve wracking though. he's been doing a lot of imaginary play. he knows most of his colors, can count to ten and surprised john & i the other night by doing the ABCs in their entirety when he thought we weren't paying attention (he won't do more than the first few letters if asked).
jack is pretty much smiling, laughing, rolling and eating. he does frog legs in place while on his stomach, but uses rolling to get around.
we're heading off to arkansas next week for thanksgiving. bethany thinks we're coming to visit, but really we just want to tick another state off of our "we've visited" list. we couldn't think of another opportunity to visit this particular state, so our cousins gave us a great excuse.
that warp i spoke of earlier? it's on downstairs and i need to go watch 'the mentalist' now. for the record, i will be folding clothes while watching.
the only thing i really understand in that definition is indefinite and continuous. every day i get up and do pretty much the same sequence of events (varies given the day of the week). i anticipate this continuing indefinitely for a continuously indefinite period of time. given this, i feel like i should be better organized and have more time. it couldn't be easier to put a brief post or picture up here at least once a week--what's my problem?!
by all definitions of time i should have a spotless house & car, i should have my photos organized with recent ones framed in the house, i should not have to go to the DMV to get new stickers for the new car because i threw the first set away with the envelope the license plates came in because i was moving too fast and didn't see them, my children's nails should be clipped at regular intervals instead of them having to scratch me in an effort to let me know they need to be cut, i should not ever, ever, ever forget or not recognize a birthday, my legs should always be shaved and i should have a blog that is so up to date that all 4 of you that read this are pushing reload at light speed to see what i have to say next.
i am only left to assume there's some quirky time warp that occurs, thus breaking up the "continuous" into smaller sections throughout my day, thus reducing the number of hours i actually have to work with, thus leaving me in a quandary come 9:00 every night.
in brief:
aidan just learned how to climb out of his bed (not sure why it took him so long, but we were happy it did). this means we hear little feet scamper in every morning. since we're both hearing the feet you can only assume this means we're both still in bed and aidan is coming in too early. in a moment of genius i put one of jack's rattley toys on aidan's door so i can at least hear when he opens it--this alleviates the scare factor if we're really soundly asleep.
jack hears aidan get out of bed and wakes up too. enough said.
aidan is speaking in pretty full toddler sentences. he's stuttering a little. apparently very normal, still pretty nerve wracking though. he's been doing a lot of imaginary play. he knows most of his colors, can count to ten and surprised john & i the other night by doing the ABCs in their entirety when he thought we weren't paying attention (he won't do more than the first few letters if asked).
jack is pretty much smiling, laughing, rolling and eating. he does frog legs in place while on his stomach, but uses rolling to get around.
we're heading off to arkansas next week for thanksgiving. bethany thinks we're coming to visit, but really we just want to tick another state off of our "we've visited" list. we couldn't think of another opportunity to visit this particular state, so our cousins gave us a great excuse.
that warp i spoke of earlier? it's on downstairs and i need to go watch 'the mentalist' now. for the record, i will be folding clothes while watching.
05 October 2008
one last story
i took aidan to a park a couple of weeks ago that has an enormously high play/slide structure. it's caged in all the way up to the top and when you get up there you have the choice of three different slides. they are all enclosed tube-like slides all the way to the bottom. the first one he went down was easy, no problem. the second time he picked the blue one. the blue one was the highest, steepest slide. from my vantage point on the ground it didn't seem like a problem. he seemed hesitant, i encouraged him. i stood at the bottom of the tunnel and called up to him "come on down aidan, i'll be right here waiting for you", "okay mommy, i come down" which was followed (seriously) by "thud, thudthud, thud, thudthudthud"--not another sound. the slide was so long that i had time to actually contemplate what was going to pop out of the bottom before aidan actually arrived there. what greeted me was a look of horror & contempt and then a whole lot of tears. fortunately no broken bones and hopefully no therapy in the future.
epilogue: i thought it was important to show aidan that he really could do the slide, he just needed to approach it slower, lay flatter, etc.--the whole "get back on the horse" thing. so i lumbered my way to the top with him (past the sign that read 'these slides not meant for children in the laps of parents') and we went down the blue slide. it was really, really steep and high. we went down it with the soles of my shoes flat on the slide to keep our speed down. when the sign indicates a play structure is for 5 year olds, make sure your child is at least 3.
epilogue: i thought it was important to show aidan that he really could do the slide, he just needed to approach it slower, lay flatter, etc.--the whole "get back on the horse" thing. so i lumbered my way to the top with him (past the sign that read 'these slides not meant for children in the laps of parents') and we went down the blue slide. it was really, really steep and high. we went down it with the soles of my shoes flat on the slide to keep our speed down. when the sign indicates a play structure is for 5 year olds, make sure your child is at least 3.
aidan's pee pee
so as not to be outdone by jack's head, aidan would like to share that he thinks he has a really big pee pee. as he puts it every time we change his diaper "that's a really big pee pee mommy" (this is said in a deeper voice than his normal one). i wonder which man in his life taught him to say that? the potential list is very, very long.
jack's head again
the doctor ordered an ultrasound for jack's head. she was worried that it's rate of growth was a bit too fast and she wanted to make sure he didn't have any extra fluid in there. good news, he just has a big head. in other jack news he finally figured out how to get that head around and roll over onto his stomach. phew.
24 September 2008
22 September 2008
jack-a-mo
john has been playing that "my grandma and your grandma sitting by the fire, my grandma says to your grandma 'I'm gonna set your flag on fire' ... talkin' 'bout hey now, hey now, iko iko an nay, jockomo feena ah na nay, jockomo feena nay" (lyrics sites rock). anyway, aidan has taken to calling jack jack-a-mo, which is what i think john was trying to do in the first place by playing the song over and over and over. i broke every rule i had in child naming when we chose jack. a name that does not easily morph into other forms (jack in the box, jack o lantern, crackerjack, hijack, the list goes on and on and on) was one of my big no no's. whoops. and thank you to john for encouraging our first son to use one of these variations.
setting:
aidan supposed to be napping, but awake.
jack supposed to be napping, but apparently hungry and fussing.
aidan loudly from behind his closed bedroom door, "MOMMY! MOMMY, WHERE ARE YOU? jack-a-mo is crying, jack-a-mo is hungry, jack-a-mo needs a bottle. JACK-A-MO! WHERE IS JACK-A-MO? JACK-A-MO! JACK-A-MO! JACK-A-MO!"
setting:
aidan supposed to be napping, but awake.
jack supposed to be napping, but apparently hungry and fussing.
aidan loudly from behind his closed bedroom door, "MOMMY! MOMMY, WHERE ARE YOU? jack-a-mo is crying, jack-a-mo is hungry, jack-a-mo needs a bottle. JACK-A-MO! WHERE IS JACK-A-MO? JACK-A-MO! JACK-A-MO! JACK-A-MO!"
17 September 2008
baby+toddler=less blog
aidan's new trick is this puzzle of united states. he has west of the mississipi and the southeast down perfectly. that whole northeast thing is a bit of a quandary. for those of you that live in arkansas, utah, pennsylvania and missouri i've made sure he knows those states belong to you. as we're approaching three (uh, nine months away) he seems to be able to focus on one task for a longer period of time. this is generally helpful to me and generally very helpful to the teachers at school, gymnastics, etc. it is not helpful when he decides to focus that attention on torturing cats (we had an incident with a rock yesterday), throwing tantrums or painting the wall.
here is an attempt to get both kids to pose for a picture. about two of the twenty i took came out. in most of the pictures aidan is trying to accost jack and jack just has that silly grin on his face. we have some version of leapfrog going on in some, excessive hugging in most and he still likes to squeeze jack's nose. odd.
and here's jack. still the easiest little thing ever created. certainly based on the stories i've heard of my childhood, i don't deserve to have this child. clearly, he should have been jeff's. i'm extremely grateful at my good fortune though. he's sitting up pretty well, not rolling over (the doctor says his head is probably too heavy for him. yes, she really said that), he babbles a ton and has started doing a very high pitched scream. oh, and he's none too pleased when everyone walks out of the room on him.
23 August 2008
day one: breathing room
some people call it preschool, daycare, babysitting...whatever. it's really time for mommy to take a breath and aidan to have different faces to see and voices to hear. so far so good.
conversation in the car after i picked him up (after first ignoring me on the playground, then throwing a tantrum that he had to leave day one of preschool):
-did you play? yes.
-what did you play? with the toys.
-did you play with the kids? yes.
-did you get to have a snack? yes!
-what did you have? orange juice mommy. i drank it really, really fast.
-oh, yeah? did you have anything else? ummmm. beer.
-really, you had beer for a snack? yes (then falls into hysterics when he realizes i think his answer is humorous)
this says way too much about our home life. i told john he needs to stop having aidan fetch his beers out of the mini-fridge.
obligitory "first day of school photo taken on the front stoop" ... i think this photo is really meant for the first day of kindergarten, but we did it anyway ...
conversation in the car after i picked him up (after first ignoring me on the playground, then throwing a tantrum that he had to leave day one of preschool):
-did you play? yes.
-what did you play? with the toys.
-did you play with the kids? yes.
-did you get to have a snack? yes!
-what did you have? orange juice mommy. i drank it really, really fast.
-oh, yeah? did you have anything else? ummmm. beer.
-really, you had beer for a snack? yes (then falls into hysterics when he realizes i think his answer is humorous)
this says way too much about our home life. i told john he needs to stop having aidan fetch his beers out of the mini-fridge.
obligitory "first day of school photo taken on the front stoop" ... i think this photo is really meant for the first day of kindergarten, but we did it anyway ...
20 August 2008
when did summer start ending in august?
we went back to work this week. i say "we" because it really is we. john may start leaving the house again on a daily basis, but here i stay learning to juggle two children again. no more 1:1 ratio or dividing & conquering. aidan has been, uh, busy (difficult), of late, hopefully he makes the transition back to just us again without any major meltdowns or broken furniture. jack is seriously the easiest thing ever created, so unless aidan unleashes his fury in jack's direction i expect him to just smile & nod through the changes.
aidanisms:
~'i really, really, really stuck mommy'--applies whenever he's even remotely caught somewhere
~post nighttime & post nap time 'MOMMY! MOM! MOMMY! WHERE ARE YOU? MOMMY! MOMMY!'--it continues loudly until i go to get him (more than 5 minutes on some occasions)
~'my sock broken mommy'--when his socks get twisted around
~'where the clouds mommy? there the clouds mommy. i want to touch the clouds mommy.' -- 'the clouds are too high aidan, we can't touch them. not even mommy can reach them' -- 'I WANT TO TOUCH THEM! WA WA WA WA WA WA' (the tantrum continued until a bird flew by and we repeated the whole conversation with a bird substituted for the clouds.
~'my do it'--means he wants to do it, but sounds very similar to 'mommy do it' (which is sometimes what he wants) ... it's led to a few tantrums when i don't know which one he is saying.
~"where's daddy aidan?" "at work mommy" "what's he doing at work" "making money, money, money" (in a high pitched voice while rubbing his thumb and forefinger together)
(it's not trick photography, jack's head really is almost as big as aidan's)
aidanisms:
~'i really, really, really stuck mommy'--applies whenever he's even remotely caught somewhere
~post nighttime & post nap time 'MOMMY! MOM! MOMMY! WHERE ARE YOU? MOMMY! MOMMY!'--it continues loudly until i go to get him (more than 5 minutes on some occasions)
~'my sock broken mommy'--when his socks get twisted around
~'where the clouds mommy? there the clouds mommy. i want to touch the clouds mommy.' -- 'the clouds are too high aidan, we can't touch them. not even mommy can reach them' -- 'I WANT TO TOUCH THEM! WA WA WA WA WA WA' (the tantrum continued until a bird flew by and we repeated the whole conversation with a bird substituted for the clouds.
~'my do it'--means he wants to do it, but sounds very similar to 'mommy do it' (which is sometimes what he wants) ... it's led to a few tantrums when i don't know which one he is saying.
~"where's daddy aidan?" "at work mommy" "what's he doing at work" "making money, money, money" (in a high pitched voice while rubbing his thumb and forefinger together)
(it's not trick photography, jack's head really is almost as big as aidan's)03 August 2008
28 June 2008
2
i accidentally got the candles that relight.so cool when they first came out.
pretty confusing for a 2 year old.
his new thing "AIDAN!" to let us knowhe wants to do something by himself.
he normally speaks in short sentences.
this, however, is a statement.
he was on the trampoline for a good
45 minutes of the hour we were there.
fun stuff on a 100 degree day
in a gym with no air conditioning.
25 June 2008
tahoe
the grandma, the great-grandpa & us
a rock, the woods & me
the grandpa, the gondola & me
the jumpy-whatchacallit
the ride home
gymnastics class
aidan saw me looking at this picture on the computer and threw a tantrum because he wanted the balls. i had to explain that they were at gymnastics, we weren't and that he was looking at a photograph. it was an interesting exchange.
half way through a somersault.
backward roll...he was very excited that everything was upside down.
please dear lord, don't let this girl let go of me.
07 June 2008
more photos
aidan got goggles for his birthday. i think he must be trying to look at them, keep them on and talk at the same time here. we always assume he got the smart genes...this picture indicates we could be wrong.
jack hanging out in the car seat at the beach. for those of you looking closely, he has flecks of sand on his face. i learned that when it's windy at the ocean, you should put babies well above ground level. it seems i missed out on the smart genes too.
jack hanging out in the car seat at the beach. for those of you looking closely, he has flecks of sand on his face. i learned that when it's windy at the ocean, you should put babies well above ground level. it seems i missed out on the smart genes too.
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