I'll consider myself tagged...

OK, I have a couple of friends who've said "Tag to anyone who hasn't done this before" so I guess that's me. I'll do two sets - one for each kid.

First Brooke:

1) My name is: Brooke Elizabeth

2.) My first word was: Dit (this)

3.) My favorite food right now is: Chocolate milk. (Blech, I don't drink WHITE MILK.)

4.) My favorite song is: The Umbrella Song by Rihanna & Jay-Z (no kidding)

5.) My car seat color is: Yellow with flowers (I love my "flower seat"!)

6.) My room color is: Pink, green & white with dragonflies on my quilt.

7.) I love to use this kind of shampoo: Suave strawberry.

8.) The thing that can make me the maddest is: Diaper changes!

9.) My favorite person right now is: Mimi (grandma)

10.) I like to read this book over and over and over: Caps For Sale and the Baabaasheep Quartet

11.) My brand of diapers is: Huggies. "Number Six!" Potty Training is for sissies.

12.) The cutest thing I say is: I like to show you the states on the US Map. I know 23 of them!

13.) My favorite fruit is: Strawberries.

14.) When I get hurt I want: a Dora or Spongebob bandaid.

15.) I mostly ride around in a: White Toyota Sequoia.

16.) I go to bed at: 7:00PM, unless it's a special occasion.

17.) I wake up at: 8:00AM, sometimes 9:00... I'm not a morning person.

18.) My nap time during the day is: Nap? What nap? I don't do naps. It drives Mommy bananas.

19.) My most favorite thing to do is: Color and draw pictures! Oh, and play play-doh.

20.) My favorite show/movie is: Yo Gabba Gabba, Wonderpets and Dora.

Now Jack:

1) My name is: Jack William

2.) My first word was: Cars!

3.) My favorite food right now is: Anything I can get my hands on. But I do enjoy Cheerios quite a bit.

4.) My favorite song is: Mommy sings me "Beautiful Boy" by John Lennon.

5.) My car seat color is: Black & Silver

6.) My room color is: Light blue, sage and navy

7.) I love to use this kind of shampoo: Johnson's Allover Baby Wash

8.) The thing that can make me the maddest is: When my sister takes toys away from me.

9.) My favorite person right now is: Mommy!

10.) I like to read this book over and over and over: Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs by Sandra Boynton

11.) My brand of diapers is: Huggies #5 by the case from Costco.

12.) The cutest thing I say is: Vroom vroom while rolling my car back & forth

13.) My favorite fruit is: Bananas.

14.) When I get hurt I want: Only Mommy.

15.) I mostly ride around in a: White Toyota Sequioa.

16.) I go to bed at: 7:00PM.

17.) I wake up at: 7:30-8:00AM. I'm a very happy morning person.

18.) My nap time during the day is: Noonish - 2-2:30ish.

19.) My most favorite thing to do is: Play with my puppy and investigate my sister's toys.

20.) My favorite show/movie is: I don't really watch TV yet but I light up when Dora comes on!

Now I tage Sarah and Kimberly!

Patio Project - Check!

I finally finished my "patio rejuvenation" project. I got the lumber today and replaced the rotted strips of wood between the concrete sections. It looks really good, I'm pleased. It was quite humorous though, if only you could have seen me piloting a cart with a 12 foot-long 2x4 and five 10 foot-long 2x4's. Tough to corner the aisles with those babies. Thankfully, my mom-sized SUV handled it in stride! I was really proud of myself too, when I got home I got the circular saw out and trimmed them down all by myself.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. I am so happy that she is coming into town tomorrow so that we can celebrate together... I have something special planned for next week that I think she will really enjoy. So please join me in wishing my super mom a happy day! She is an excellent Mom and an awesome grandmother to our kids. I love you, Mom!

Coupon Clipping Fool

OK, I've known about this thing for a long time but the bug finally bit me. Food prices have gone way up lately and Justin and I are playing a bit of a budget game ourselves (ie, I get to keep whatever I don't spend so suddenly I have all this motivation to save!). So I joined the Grocery Game today and I am so hooked already! To summarize, they do the ad-scouring for you and tell you what's a bargain at which store and where to use coupons on which items to get the most stuff for the least dough. It's tremendous. This week, because of the Memorial Day holiday, my two main grocery stores don't have a list to shop by, but I did get lists for Walgreens and Rite Aid and let me tell you how fun it was! I only had a few coupons, because the game works on a 12- week rotation. In other words, once I've clipped coupons for 12 weeks I'll really be able to take advantage of some deals. However, I saved 60% at both stores even with my meager coupon selection. That's right - I saved MORE than I spent. How fun is that? I even got some free stuff -- when the store has it marked down so low that the manufacturer's coupon makes it free. I think what I like most about this, surprisingly, is not the savings but the challenge. It makes grocery shopping fun. And that's saying a lot. So this is why it's midnight and I'm still up -- I've been clipping and organizing a bazillion coupons in my new binder. I really can't wait for the new coupons & sales to come out on Sunday now!

Moving up!

Our family must be growing, because today we played musical chairs at the kitchen table! Brooke has moved out of her Tripp-Trapp chair and into a booster in a "big girl chair" and Jack moved out of his baby booster into the Tripp-Trapp chair. Everyone seems thrilled with their new seats... thanks in part to a hard-hitting marketing campaign by Mommy and Daddy. Now we can officially donate that nasty old high chair and relegate the baby booster seat to the closet for visiting babies and for traveling.

Side note: Brooke's latest trick to get our attention is to call us by our first names. It's hysterical. I'm going about my business and I hear this little toddler voice yelling "Steph! I need you to open the gate so I can go upstairs!" or "Justin! Please get me some cheese & crackers!" It really throws us for a loop. It's disrespectful but it makes us laugh so we're not making a big deal out of it.

I got ripped off

Lately, I have been paying even more attention than usual to what I spend on groceries. I'm planning my list pretty carefully, trying to only shop once a week for a big load and then one small trip in between. I'm very conscious of prices, I shop the sales, I stock up when it makes sense, etc. Yesterday I was so happy to have kept my weekly total under $90 (not including meat, which we buy at Costco) and still patting myself on the back as I fell asleep last night for finding taco shells on sale for $1.

Well in the chaos of shopping with two rambunctious kids, I didn't review my receipt until just now. It turns out to my HORROR, I paid $12 for a small bag of grapes! How the heck can that be? My receipt says I paid $3.39/lb when I distinctly remember the sign saying $2.99 which I thought was high but to make it reasonable, I took some out of the bag to make it a smaller portion. I think the scale ripped me off because it says I bought 3.4 lbs. After feeding them to Brooke for dinner and lunch (maybe 12 grapes each time) I just weighed what's left and it's a shade over 1 lb. So there is NO WAY I walked out of there with over 3 lbs. And I'm so irritated. All that hard work on the rest of my bill got blown away by one ripoff that I wasn't paying attention to.

Uggghhh.

Where in the heck is Spring?

The trees in our backyard as of about 5 minutes ago. Gray skies and rain.

Living in the Seattle area, I do know what I signed up for with the weather. But at this point, it's Memorial Day Weekend and my thermometer says 49-point-something and the drizzle is pouring down and I'm sick of it. I want to plant flowers and vegetables and take walks to the park with our puppy, who's just had his final round of shots so he can finally GO for walks. At this point, our weekend is shaping up to be 3 days of same-old, same-old, here at home. BLAH. Can someone send up a message to the weather gods? We need help!

Thursday randomness

So excited for the Grey's Anatomy 2-hour season finale tonight! Woo hoo. I feel like after the writer's strike, I have way too much pent-up demand for this and other shows that shouldn't be ending so soon for the season.

This is a conversation I had with Brooke today:

Brooke: Are you a wife?
Me: Yes, I am, do you know who I'm married to?
Brooke: You're married to Daddy.
Me: That's right. If I'm Daddy's wife, then that makes Daddy my...
Brooke: Husband.
Me: Right. Who is Papa's wife? (Papa is my dad)
Brooke: Mimi (what Brooke calls my mom).
Me: Are YOU married?
Brooke: No, but I want to marry Clark... I loooove Clark. Clark can be my husband.

:-) My brother (Clark) will love this.

Brooke's exclamations

Brooke has taken to screaming the following if she wants to get my attention (and no, these things are not true, but she knows that they will make me drop whatever I am doing and rush to see what she's talking about):

"NO NO NO Jack, that's a CHOKING HAZARD!"
"Jack, you're going to crawl into the street and GET HIT BY A CAR!"
"Oops, Jack FELL DOWN THE STAIRS..."

And my personal favorite:
"Oh crap (!), I colored on the furniture!" <-- This one usually IS true, unfortunately.

Checking off the projects

I finally accomplished a few little things from my list. And Justin came home today! A good day indeed. I was expecting Justin at 9pm, so I was excited to get his early morning call saying he'd gotten on a 9am flight. I picked him up at the airport while the babysitter was at our house, and we had a delightful lunch of soup & salad at the Olive Garden, which my mom will cringe at. The funniest part was that there was a LIVE LADYBUG in our salad, which we brought to the attention of our server... and next thing we knew, the manager came over and apologized, telling us lunch was on him. They even comped our drinks! Wow, score. The ladybug really wasn't that big of a deal but it was nice that they treated us so well. After lunch, Justin accompanied me to the garden center where I picked up the remaining items I needed for my front porch pots (operation Front Porch Spruce Up continues!) and we headed home.

"Hi Mom! Whatcha doin'?"



I also managed to plant the 3 tomato plants I picked up yesterday in my garden. They are now its sole occupants... but not for long. I have a set of very ready cucumber and corn starts in the kitchen window, soon to be followed by pumpkin, rosemary and basil.


I also finished Jack's first birthday invitations - my first foray into rubber stamping in earnest. They turned out pretty good, not A work but they'll do. After I get some 1c stamps tomorrow I can send them out. I took some pictures but figure that would spoil the surprise....

Well that was a bust...

Who brings a baby to a movie?! Seriously! And then to not take the baby out when it starts fussing & crying - I mean, come on! I paid a babysitter so I could escape the sound of unhappy baby for two hours!

Tell me - would you have said something? I tried all the "pissed off body language" but nothing worked. I almost stood up and yelled across the theater but something stopped me. I wonder if I could have or should have said something.

Not a good day...

Justin is out of town. Slept 6 hours or less for the last two nights in a row. Brooke woke me up at 6:00am (2 hours earlier than she is usually up) and refused to let me stay in bed. Jack has done nothing but whine and put trash in his mouth all day. The dog is in my grill and under my feet nonstop. Brooke can't stop touching my stuff and doesn't listen to a word I say. The babysitter gets here in 10 minutes and after I take Leo to the vet for his shots, I am going to the 11:45 showing of Made of Honor. It's pouring outside so I can't garden and I'm hoping a good old fashioned chick flick makes me feel better.

Hot day in the sun

I just uploaded pics from my camera and realized I never blogged about our fun Saturday afternoon. Justin's mom organized a family birthday party for her husband, Jon, at a great park in Redmond called Ferrell-McWhirter Park. This place has farm animals so it was tons of fun for the kids. It was over 90 degrees and muggy... of course, we are major wimps when it comes to heat so we were all wilting but afraid to complain about it. It was the first time I've ever seen Brooke actually sweat. We ended up pouring water on the kids heads, which delighted them and seemed to help keep them cool. I really sympathized with one farm animal there - Dottie the pregnant sow, who was due in "early May" according to the sign on her pen - poor thing was big as a house, panting heavily and clearly miserable. I hope by now those piglets are out and wiggling around in the hay. Having been very pregnant last year at this time (Jack was born June 4th), I couldn't help telling her I knew how she felt!

A few pics...

My pretty girl:

My guys:

Isn't he a doll?

Climbing the big tree:

This and that

Monday morning - lots of things I'd like to accomplish today! Justin is in Las Vegas for a few days so I am stacking up evening projects that I am looking forward to.

I took a stamping class on Saturday at the rubber stamp shop at the mall - my friend Whitney taught the class and it was so much fun! I had a feeling I'd get bitten by the bug when I saw all the creative techniques and I was right. Whitney was nice enough to help me design a birthday invitation for Jack yesterday (and her employee discount was amazing, thanks Whitney!). I played around with the stamps and materials last night. Today I need to get a few more things and change my design just a bit. I'll post pics when I'm done (which better be soon because Jack's birthday is on 6/4!)

The other thing I'm working on this week is finishing my patio "rejuvenation" and getting my garden planted. I planted seeds in an indoor incubator with Brooke last week (cucubmers, pumpkins, corn, basil and rosemary). They are growing like crazy! The cucumber starts are already so tall that they are pushing the lid off, so I think it's time to get them in the raised bed outside. We have had a streak of very warm weather finally so I think the risk of frost has finally passed. My garden is still a mess from the winter, so I'll be tilling in some fresh compost before I can plant these starts. I'm also hoping to find some tomato plants to put in there too.

Finally, I bought some great new bronze colored zinc pots for our front porch and I'm anxious to fill them with flowers. A trip to Lowe's is definitely in order...

Hope you all have a great week!

Saturday night excitement

Last night, Justin and I went to a neighborhood dinner. We shared our babysitter, Angela, with our friends a few doors down, who brought their 4-year old daughter over to our house so the girls could play together while the grownups had a night out and Jack went to bed early.

At about 8pm, while we were enjoying a glass of wine on our neighbors' patio, the cell phone rang. Apparently, our babysitter was on her way back into the house after emptying the recycling in our side yard and she saw a black bear! She says it was bigger than a large dog and as she walked back to the house, it started to chase her. Yes, you read that right. She said she ran and closed the sliding glass door just as the bear reached the edge of our patio. UNBELIEVABLE!! We live on a forested greenbelt that we know has a lot of wildlife - we've seen bobcats, raccoons, and deer in our yard and we hear coyotes at night... but this is something else entirely. Apparently the bear stayed in our yard for a while, eating weeds (thanks!) and being watched by Brooke and her friend through the window. (Brooke apparently pleaded to "go pet the bear.") The bear apparently had a yellow tag in its ear so I can only assume it is being tracked by the state wildlife department. Then, the bear left our backyard and walked into the front yard which really worried our babysitter - it had been near 90 degrees yesterday so last night there were lots of people taking walks in the neighborhood. Angela said she stuck her head out the front door to warn a couple that was walking by that there was a bear in the area. She called 911 and reported it as well.

WOW. Thank goodness no one was hurt, including Leo, who could easily have been out in the back yard when this bear came around. We are going to have to be very careful from now on.

Friday Fun

Well, in a shocking twist of events, it's supposed to be sunny and 85 today (!) so I'm packing the kids up to head out for an outing. I think we are going to Tacoma to the Pt. Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, where they have a Beluga whale exhibit and my kids are always happy to see "Baby Beluga." I find myself faced with the common dilemma - what about Jack's naptime (11:30-2ish)? It's right smack in the middle of the day so if I keep him home for it, that basically rules out any decent outing. I'm deluding myself into thinking he might sleep in the stroller. Yeah right.

This is Brooke this morning with her "Nighttime Friends":


And my little man yesterday in his outfit that friends brought him from France. Oh, la la!

Geography!

A few weeks ago I bought Brooke a US Map placemat. Last week, my parents were on vacation in Kentucky, Georgia and Florida so I thought I'd teach her those states. Well, to my shock, she learned them almost instantly so we started adding states. Since then, we've added 15 states so she now knows 18 of them! What's really shocking to me is that she can identify them on the black & white unmarked map on the back too. She really seems to enjoy geography, and always asks me who lives in each state she learns (often I have to say "no one we know!") This game could last a long time - next up, the world map!

New front door

Yesterday, our new front door was installed!

I adore how it looks from the outside. Major improvement. Here is how it used to look:


However, the inside is so dark, I am not sure how I feel about it. Part of it is the dark stain I chose (if I had it to do over again, I'd pick a lighter stain). But the other part is that the window is much smaller so there is less light coming in to the entry hall. The overall effect is a very dark almost monolithic blackish door on the inside. I think if I had chosen satin nickel hardware it might have looked better - the dark bronze just blends right in. So if I can Craigslist my existing bronze handleset, I might get a new one in satin nickel to break up the brown. Here is how the inside looks (and it's so dark, it was very hard to even get a picture that came out!) Bear in mind that the trim is not in place yet.


I also shopped for new pots for the front porch today - brought a pair home that I was sure would look great but I'm not in love with them. So they'll be going back.

I planted a big tray of seeds to germinate indoors and then transplant into my raised bed. I'm growing rosemary, sweet basil, cucumbers, corn, and pumpkins. And I also got a big bag of lilies to plant. Did I mention it's 50 degrees and raining? I hope the forecast is right, it's supposed to be 90 by the end of the week. I'm ready for some sun!

3-day preschool

Hip hip hooray!

Brooke just got in to the 3-day a week morning pre-school that we were waitlisted for. We felt strongly that she'd thrive in a 3-day a week program and I camped out online back in February to sign up the moment registration opened, only to be waitlisted (she did get into the 2-day a week program so all was not lost). The director called just now to offer her a spot in the 3-day program afterall. Yippee! I am so excited for her. Brooke is going to love preschool. We are really looking forward to this starting in September.

Mother's Day 2008

We've had a lovely Mother's Day - it started with a breakfast out, which is always a good way to start the day. Yum... Orange french toast and thick slices of bacon - Julia's of Issaquah delivered! My brother was visiting which made it extra special. Then we took a drive to Alki Beach in West Seattle which has a gorgeous view of Puget Sound. It was raining a bit as we enjoyed a coffee and watched the ferry go by. Justin and the kids surprised me with a spa gift card, some Lush bath bombs and a gift card for a do-it-yourself pottery place that I have been really wanting to try. I can't wait to enjoy all three gifts! Those bath bombs will come in handy very soon as I finish my power washing project...

We had a nice visit with Clark. The kids adore him! Brooke goes a little crazy and starts running around the house, screaming, trying to get his attention. She invites herself up into his lap, she even combed his hair for him. Too funny!

TGIF!

The kids and I are looking forward to the weekend. Not only is it Mother's Day, which traditionally means a fun family outing for us, but my brother Clark is visiting too and Brooke is VERY excited to see Uncle Clark. She has asked me a bunch of questions about him this morning. I have planned a nice dinner for tomorrow night - pork roast, maple glazed yams with orange and cranberries and steamed asparagus. Yumm. I really enjoy cooking when I can take the time to plan something and do it right. To that end, we'll be grocery shopping this morning.

I am also talking to a fence contractor at noon, which I am really anxious about. Our yard is only partially fenced (one side has a real fence, the back has an open split-rail fence that really doesn't keep anyone in or out but delineates the green space behind us). It would be so nice to have a true fenced yard so that we could let Leo out to run around and also so the kids could play while I work in the yard and I don't have to wonder if they've wandered off. I'm afraid of the dollar figure he's going to quote us so I'm hoping he can come up with some creative options.

Ah, that felt good

I have been trying to get up early and go to the gym before Justin goes to work so that when my babysitter comes, I don't have to use up half of my 4 hours going to the gym and showering there. This week I managed to do it both Tuesday and Thursday and I'm feeling good about it. The added bonus is that I get to take Justin's car, which is oh-so-much-easier to park in the gym parking garage (which is very tight) compared to my massive mom-mobile. I really appreciate my husband for staying home a bit late two days this week so I can work out!

While Angela is here with the kids today, I'm going to have lunch with my friend Noelle (yay, intelligent adult conversation!) and hit the sale at Gymboree. Yahoo!

Lovable Stinker

I just came down the stairs from putting Jack to bed and found this in my path. He is snuggled up on the clean towels waiting to be carried up.

Household toys

What do you do when you're 2, and you want to play with the laundry basket that is sitting in the family room filled with neatly folded towels? Answer: Just dump it out on the kitchen floor! It's OK, Mommy won't mind, and hey, while you're at it, invite the dog to walk all over it and lay down and take a nap on the clean dish towels.

Am I the only one?

I can't be the only one whose heart sinks sometimes when that cry on the baby monitor signals the end of naptime. It means the chaos starts up again and doesn't end until bedtime. Sigh.

Miss Crabbypants

This is how Brooke looks right now (screaming of course) and it sort of sums up how most days start around here! Don't you love her morning hair?

My little trouble maker

I knew in my heart it was a crazy insane thing to do getting a puppy, but he's cute isn't he? Introducing Leo - age 14 weeks. He chewed up my faux crocs last night and I'm ripped furious about it!

My current project

I have been working on our patio. It really needs to be ripped out and replaced, along with the rest of our back yard, but since that's not in the budget this year or probably even next, I am looking for inexpensive fixes I can do myself. The aggregate concrete had these awful rotten wood dividers that would grow weeds all year long. I got the bug in my bonnet to pry them out and replace them so yesterday, while Angela (our babysitter) was here, I got to work. Man, it was hard work but I got them all out!



I chopped up the weedy old wood and put it in the yard waste bin. Phew. Then, I started the process of power washing the filthy concrete. You can see on the left the panel that is done and on the right the two that are NOT done yet. I need some caustic chemicals to break up the moss that is growing on there before I attempt to finish. Then, when it's all done, I will replace the wood with new pressure-treated wood and sand. But right now the channels are filled with water that has nowhere to drain. So hopefully one of these days the sun will come out and dry it up (not today, apparently - mother nature thinks it's still winter in Seattle!)

Here goes nothing

I have been delaying getting started with this blog because I've been waiting for some free time (yeah right!) to do it nicely and make it pretty. Some of you out there (you know who you are, Tiburon ;-) give me a complex! I've concluded that's never going to happen, and frankly I was so tickled and surprised to find 3 comments on my test post (I never told anyone about my blog!) so here goes nothing!

Yay, at 11 months I was starting to wonder, but Jack started crawling last night - here is some video:




He is so proud of himself. He's also pulling up and standing a lot, I think he is not totally sure there's much point in crawling - he is considering just walking one of these days!

More recent pics for those of you who haven't seen him in a while...




I promise to blog more. They may be brief, but there will be posts!