The joys of molded plastic

My mom gave the kids an extremely exciting joint birthday gift today (their birthdays are coming up next week for Jack and July 2nd for Brooke). Their very own play house for the back yard! To say they love it would be an understatement. See for yourself.

The play house has a fountain, as you can see, that is uber-fun for them. What is it about water? I'm sure the pump will wear out or be broken very soon, since it will have its on/off button pushed 1,482 times a day. I especially snicker at the "conversation" that Brooke is having on the play cordless phone that came with the house. She is "talking" to Mimi (my mom) and I think I hear myself in her dialog. Too funny.



Thanks, Mimi!

Happy Easter

The kids were up early to enjoy the Easter Bunny's gifts... the Bunny tried to make the baskets more about "fun" than about candy this year (though there were the obligatory chocolate bunnies and peeps in their baskets!)







We had a short Easter egg hunt in the house which was fun and then the coloring and movie-watching began. They received Cars (Jack) and Madagascar (Brooke).


Brooke also received a really cute real chine mini-tea set. She's really into hosting tea parties for her "buddies" so she got right to work.


Happy Easter to all!

Spring has sprung!

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of going to Portland to help celebrate Sierra's 2nd birthday with my brother Clark and his awesome girlfriend, Heather. The weather was fantastic and we had such a good time at the party (and hanging out with them the night before!) Except for the part where Jack barfed right as dinner was being served. But we won't discuss that part...

The Birthday Girl enjoys her cupcake!

Jack sure was happy to help her celebrate.

Mmm, cupcakes!

When Clark and I were kids, our Grandma Spoon (whose real last name was Witherspoon, but to us, she was always Spoon) had this awesome bamboo swing on her deck. Her deck was really special because it had a spectacular view of downtown Portland. Clark and I enjoyed many hours spinning in the swing, and I'd show you the pics if I had a scanner. Anyway, the old swing is now hanging in Clark's gorgeous backyard and the kids were enraptured by it this weekend! I can't believe the old swing is still going strong, I guess that's a testament to the strength of bamboo. It must be 40 years old because it was NOT brand new when I was Jack's age and I'm 39. It did my heart good to see the next generation of kids giggling in that swing.

This guy has me convinced we need some kind of play structure in our backyard!

Hilarious

My friend Jan sent this to me today (I have no idea who it is). It brightened my day so I thought I'd share... I challenge anyone to view this and not smile at this cute little guy!

Misc. pics

It's been a while! Thought I'd share a few recent pics.

Late winter walk in the neighborhood. Let's find some sticks!


My little man ready to walk.


Brooke set up this tea party for her 3 besties all by herself. FYI, from L-R that's Ellie, Horton, and Hello Kitty. She served them a nice variety of plastic food.


We made green shamrock pancakes for St. Patrick's Day!


Mr. Jack's new obsession - "Cuties" (aka mandarin oranges.) We buy them by the 5 lb. box and it lasts about a week. I don't know what I'll do when they go out of season!

Happy first day of spring to you all!

Update on Gimpy (Leo)

Justin just called on his way home from the vet with Leo. Today they had a consultation with the orthopedic specialist, which included a sedated examination of Leo's knees to determine whether or not he has a ligament tear. The doctor's opinion is that yes, he does have a partial tear in his left ACL, which can be successfully repaired with surgery. The bad news is that his X-rays show that he still has a growth plate in his legs which means he can't have the surgery yet. Apparently they remove some of the bone and attach a titanium device to the bone when they do the ligament repair surgery, and that can't be done until the bone is done growing. So... poor Leo has to rest as much as possible for a few months and also try to lose some weight. The combination of needing to lose weight and also having his activity restricted means the poor guy is going to get a lot less food in his dish every day (worst case scenario for a lab!) We're thinking the surgery should be scheduled sometime in early summer. Oh, and it costs about $3000. Yikes! Too bad we never got around to signing up for pet insurance...

My Cuties

We had portraits done of the kids today and I snapped this on the way out. I'm so happy with how their outfits came out! We took this antique rocking chair with us, it was my grandfather's and I believe it was hand made. The portraits came out amazing (this same pose only it looks a million times better by the professional photographer!) I can't wait to get the prints back.

Shocking

As I've mentioned before, I have been doing Weight Watchers since mid-January and am doing pretty well so far - I've lost about 17 lbs. and counting. One of the great things about Weight Watchers is that nothing is specifically "off limits" - you just have a budget of points to work within and over time, it becomes clear which things are worth using up points for and which things are not.

Today, I was thinking about taking the kids out to lunch at Red Robin so I looked up the nutritional info. Even as a pretty educated person when it comes to nutrition, I have to admit I was shocked at what I found! Get this: my regular favorite at Red Robin (which I have not eaten since December) is the Banzai Burger, of course with fries on the side. According to www.redrobin.com, this meal serves up a whopping 1,444 calories and 80 grams of fat! This makes my jaw drop! I simply cannot believe it. Oh, and don't forget the hidden killer, sodium, which comes in at 2696 mg (more than you should consume in an entire day -- without even picking up the salt shaker on those fries!). I think I will never be able to eat out again. Unbelievable.

Note: I did take the kids out to lunch, we went to Applebees, where they have a few Weight Watchers approved meal that have the points calculated already. I had a delicious steak and portobello meal that only cost me 7 points, about average for lunch.

Preschool Show-off

Bed Head

Pajama Dances

Who doesn't want to dance when they hear classic 80's Robert Palmer?


And this one, ok, not pajamas, but cute anyway. Jack's favorite song - Baby Beluga. Ignore me talking - I was on the phone and he started to dance so I quietly turned on the Flip so he wouldn't notice me recording him!

Catching up

Wow, seems like a lot of pictures have been taken, fun things have happened, etc. since I've posted! So in no particular order, here are a few shots I'd like to share.

On President's Day, we took a nice day trip over to Leavenworth, Washington. It's about a 2 hour drive from our house, so we went there and back in one day. The town of Leavenworth is modeled after a Bavarian village, it's so quaint and has cute shops and restaurants - easy to fill an afternoon walking around. The snow was lightly falling which made it even more special - the kids had a great time! I am such a bad photographer in that I never remember to take pictures by picturesque spots... so all of my photos are of us when we're sitting somewhere and the thought finally occurs to me. Oh well. Here we are at lunch and at our coffee stop at Starbucks.


We had a sunny week (rare for Seattle in February) so we hit the park a couple of times. Jack attempted and succeeded at his first trip down the "big slide"!



Today, I took some shots of Brooke because she was so cute. She kept repeating a line from the Horton Hears a Who movie (which we watch several times a week in our house) and it was making her crack up. I wanted to capture her natural smile while she was laughing so hard. Usually I get her fake smile when I get out the camera!


Jack will most certainly kill me for posting this picture someday, but he is so darn cute I can't resist. Note: No actual "work" was accomplished (or has ever been accomplished by Jack) on the potty, but he likes to be like his big sister and try now and then. How cute is he with his truck book on the pot?



Last but not least, our other boy, Leo, spent a few hours at the vet being sedated and X-rayed yesterday (cha-ching!) because he's been limping and we need to find out why. I had done some research and was afraid it was hip dysplasia. Since he's a purebred lab and this is somewhat common in labs, I got very nervous about it. The vet agreed that he shows some signs so that is why they did the X-rays. Fortunately, he does NOT have hip dysplasia, which is a huge relief - the surgery to correct it is rather gruesome involving cutting off the ball of the thigh bone and allowing scar tissue to form a new "joint" and the leg (or legs) being shorter and the dog limping forever. Ugh. And it costs $2-3,000 per leg so needless to say, we're all relieved he doesn't have bad hips. But we still don't know why he's limping. Our vet took X-rays of his knees and sent them to a radiologist for consultation and we'll hear back in a day or two. We now suspect it might be a foot problem. Poor Leo was one unhappy camper last night, he came home heavily sedated and he was groggy, didn't want his dinner, whimpered all evening... poor bud. Thank goodness he's back to his normal self today! I hope we find out that the limp is something not too serious. He's only one year old for heaven's sake! Too young to limp around.

And finally, under no particular heading, I've lost 17.6 lbs. since mid-January! I am so excited. Weight Watchers is magic. What's really great is that we're all eating better - tons of fresh fruits & veggies, less meat, more whole grains and dramatically less sugar and butter... it's so good. I've actually discovered that now when I eat something "off plan" (like the Thai takeout we had the other night) I really don't feel very well afterward. I'm thrilled to have recognized this fact because it makes me want to keep eating well (and feeling great). A few of my pants have been moved to the "donate" pile and I'm hoping to be solidly into the next size down pretty soon. Wish me luck, I have a lot more to lose!

Tock-it Milk and Bingo

When Brooke was first learning to drink regular milk, she never could get to love it like most kids do. Rather, she wouldn't drink it at all. So we started putting chocolate syrup in it, and VOILA, she loved it! And guess what? We've never been able to break her of the habit. She now distinguishes between chocolate milk and white milk, which is only for babies (in her book). So when Jack transitioned to regular milk last year, I was determined to keep him on and not allow him to get hooked on chocolate milk. Everything worked fine until a few weeks ago when Jack figured out that he could sip Brooke's milk whenever he found it unattended and - darn it! - it tastes better than his! Then he started offering her to "trade?" (naturally she declines) and now he's escalated to full-on demanding it. And it's not chocolate milk, it's TOCK-IT MILK! Heaven help us. Thank goodness they sell two-packs of giant Hershey's Syrup at Costco, right?



Brooke is having so much fun with a game that her Uncle Clark got her for Christmas, called United States Bingo. She doesn't totally get the concept of filling up a card to win the game, but she does love certain states because they have pictures of industries that she's decided she likes. So when we play, she always has to have the cards for Florida (because they have flamingos, palm trees), Hawaii (Pineapple), Maine (blueberries and lobsters) and inexplicable, New Jersey (shipping!) She is a real kick.


In other news, I'm up to 12 lbs. lost in 4 weeks and couldn't be happier about it! I'm going to keep on keepin' on... got quite a few more till I reach my goal, which I expect will happen sometime in late summer or early fall. As of today I have one pair of pants that is officially too big now. Bring it on!

At the risk of embarrassing my daughter...

I have to share this funny story. Tonight, after she got out of the bath and brushed her teeth, I noticed Brooke had some, ahem, audible signals that she might have to go potty. So I suggested it, and she agreed. There was, as usual, a lot of dilly-dallying around, she hopped off the potty to grab tub toys (pants around ankles) and I told her to get back on the potty and concentrate on going #2 so we could get on with the bedtime routine. I left the room for a second and when I came back, she was sitting on the toilet with her legs crossed. I said "Brooke, you might want to uncross your legs if you want to get the job done," to which she replied, "but Mommy, I'm pooping like a lady."

How can a mom argue with that?!

My muses

Just a few shots taken today and yesterday that came out cute.

This is what happens when I scold Brooke for putting her feet on the table. Monkey see, monkey do!

Ah, sibling love!

Counting!

This boy continues to amaze me.

Look whose birthday was today!

Our fearless puppy, Leo, turned ONE today!
He celebrated with some new toys, a large serving of german pancake this morning from the kids, a long walk through the woods from Justin, and a small dose of humiliation during a photo shoot with me. He took it like a real man.


The kids gave him some love - though not at the same moment, shucks says the photographer...

And Brooke had some fun trying on Leo's party hat (which we made at the kitchen table).

Potty? At 19 months?

Jack has been showing some interest in using the potty. What the heck? Brooke didn't get potty trained until a few days after her THIRD birthday. Don't get me wrong, I'd be thrilled beyond measure to be done with diapers sooner rather than later. I'm just shocked. The other day we were at the grocery store and he started saying "poop! potty!" repeatedly. I was completely taken aback. So twice now I've put him on the potty when he says he wants to... he's all talk and no action but it's awfully cute to see his little chubby legs dangling there.



And for good measure, a pic of my girl. All geared up with her best friend Ellie in her backpack. I took the kids to Applebees for lunch yesterday and they came home with balloons, always a treat in our house. We are getting ready to sign Brooke up for next year's pre-school. We're very happy with her current school, so we're going to stay with it - again, three days of class, but it's longer (3 hours instead of 2.5) and we're adding a fourth day which is an "enrichment class" that goes on a field trip every week. I have friends whose kids have done this class in past years and have raved about it - they take the kids to places like the back room at the grocery store where they see how food comes off the trucks and is unloaded and stocked on the shelves. I'm excited for her, it will be a lot of fun and new experiences.

Friday Misc.

I'm a little grumpy this morning because after having a very good week (or so I thought) on weight watchers, I weighed myself for Biggest Loser this morning and have only lost 1.8 lbs.! I mean, it's a loss, so I'm happy about that - and if I continued to lose 1.8 lbs. each week, I'd eventually get to my goal, but it's still not "wowing" me. I guess after watching The Biggest Loser on TV I have a distorted perspective of what a reasonable weekly loss should be. Those people manage to lose anywhere from 8-20 pounds per week, it's so awesome. Obviously I am not working out every day, all day, like they are so I have to remind myself of that. Hopefully next week will be better, I'm going to keep the faith and keep doing what I'm doing.

I'm also grumpy because at 10pm last night, while I was reading in bed, my phone beeped so I ran down to see who was texting me so late at night and it was my babysitter, who is sick and can't come today. BLAH! I had a whole morning of working out and reading and who-knows-what else planned while Brooke was at school. Now it will be me and Jack... which means no working out, reading, etc. The last time I took Jack to the daycare at my gym he wailed so hard they paged me back after 5 minutes, so I'm nervous to try it again. It's worse than not going at all to get there and get dressed and get started only to stop after 5 minutes. So today I will either try that again or just bag it and take Jack to the Children's Museum for a couple hours while Brooke is in school. I happen to have a half-off coupon right now, so it would be really cheap.

How's that for a morning cup 'o pessimism? I need to get back in a positive frame of mind. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Inauguration Day

Justin came home after midnight last night (delayed, late flight from Denver) so lights were not out for me until after 1am. Needless to say I was not thrilled to hear Jack awake at 6:50am. But the promise of watching inauguration festivities pulled me out of bed (oh, and a cup of coffee...)

Now it's 7:30 and both kids are up early (thanks, Mr. Garbage Man!) and we are watching the festivities in DC. I can't help but think about what a wonderful thing it is that when my kids become aware of the president of our country and all that the position stands for, Barack Obama will be their point of reference. They are too young to have any concept of race, and I love that their perspectives will be shaped from the foundation of a person of color in the White House.

Oh my goodness!

I've lost 4.6 lbs. in one week! My first weigh-in for Biggest Loser 6 was this morning. I'm off to a great start... wish me strength!

Late night ramblings

Yo Gabba Gabba Heaven at the Kennedy House

I'm not sure why I'm blogging instead of going to bed - it's almost midnight and everyone else in the house is asleep. I confess that this quiet time is golden to me. Even if it means staying up really late and sacrificing sleep, it's heaven to putter around and do whatever I want, without being whined at by anyone.

Brooke and I decided to host a Valentine Party for her pre-school classmates. I just finished the invitations and they are pretty adorable, if I do say so myself! Here is a photo of the front. The inside has a cute verse printed in red in a great font called Harrington. (I wanted Aged but I was too cheap to pony up the $29 and buy it.) We asked each child to bring a small (under $10) Valentine gift to exchange. Our friend Whitney, who works at the stamping store, helped us design it and also sold us this super fantastic elephant punch that makes a perfectly adorable elephant that even has an ear that sticks out. Too cute for words. Of course, my elephant-crazed girl has punched no less than 1000 elephants in all the colors of the rainbow and "sprinkled" (her word) them throughout the house.


I think the party is going to be a blast. We're making all kinds of pink and red foods, cupcakes, home made candies, and have even started collecting some fun things for goody bags. I even found a couple of fun projects at Oriental Trading Co. that are Valentine-themed (including one for girls and one for boys). Ah, I love planning a kids' party... and I figure since Brooke's birthday is during the summer and over a holiday weekend, it's unlikely that she will be able to do something with all of her class, so we'll have this party now and then do something special with one or two friends on her birthday.

In other news... I joined Weight Watchers last night and I'm happy to say that my first day is over and went OK! They have really improved their program since I tried it (briefly) in 2006. I have to admit I'm impressed. The online tools are fantastic - online tracking, food value lookups, recipes, etc. Tonight I made a Weight Watchers coconut shrimp recipe for dinner and it was quite good! Of course, it would have been fantastic with some corn-syrup laden dipping sauce, but I survived without it. I have a long list of "weight-watchers approved" foods that I'm anxious to pick up tomorrow to make things a little bit easier for me.

OK, it's officially after midnight and I must go to sleep. If I can drag myself out of bed early enough, I'm going to try and hit the gym before the munchkins wake up and the craziness starts.

A fresh start

2009 = the year that I get serious about losing some weight and keeping it off!

Today is the first day of an online weight-loss competition a friend of mine has organized and I'm off to a good start. Had salad for lunch, went to the gym and walked on the treadmill for 47 minutes, ate an apple for a snack this morning. Wish me luck - there is a lot at stake for me, both personally in terms of my health, and also the competition prize money! Of course I already have a few ideas how I could spend that money...

Jack cracks me up. His vocabulary is exploding which is so fun. He is starting to have real preferences - for his food (he points to what he wants in the fridge, usually mozzarella sticks) and his clothing too. His favorite shirt is his football sweatshirt and he asks for it by name - "football!" while pointing to his chest. It's quite adorable. When you confirm what he's asking for he nods vigorously and says "Mmm!" He is working on a whole bunch of two syllable words, like airplane, football, Brookie, and, inexplicably, pinecone. He imitates everything Brooke does, including asking "why?" incessantly which is a bit much for one mom considering both of my kids now ask why whenever I tell them to do anything. He adores his dog, Leo, and calls "Yee-Oh!" loudly, including yelling "Yee-oh, pee pee!" loudly out the back door as Leo tries to do his business with a shred of dignity. It's quite hilarious.


Brooke had a concert in pre-school today, which was postponed from before Christmas due to the snowstorm we had. It was darling. They all had percussion instruments (jingle bells, shakers, triangles, sanblocks...) and sang about 6 songs. I got some video on my Blackberry but am not sure how to get it off the phone and post it. Brooke was really proud of herself and had to restrain herself from running over to hug me several times during the concert.

Yum

Brooke refused to sit on Santa's lap. Absolutely put her foot down. And you can see how happy Jack was...

Last night, I finally made up the gifts for Brooke's pre-school teachers. School was canceled due to snow the last two days before Christmas so I got a short reprieve. They got a cute white Starbucks mug filled with home made Vanilla Chai Tea Mix and a Barnes & Noble gift card. I have to admit, I was skeptical about the Chai mix - thought it might be un-drinkable, so I tried it before I gave it away and it was so good I went out and got more ingredients this morning so I could make some to keep and some to send to work with Justin! So yummy - to me, this tastes as good as a chai tea latte from Starbucks.

It's great to be back in the routine this morning - Brooke is at school, Jack and I came home and finished packing up the Christmas decorations, and the house is somewhat quiet. Heaven! Now if I can just get my body back on the routine. After weeks of staying up wayyyy too late and drinking more than my usual one cup of coffee every day, I have not been able to fall asleep the last two nights at my regular bedtime. It's such a bummer to lie in bed at night and stare at the ceiling until 2 or 3 am, thinking of all the projects I could be doing if it wouldn't wake everyone else up. Grr. So today I'm holding fast to one cup of coffee and hoping it helps me get to sleep on time.

Another pic from our holiday season... Have a great day!