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!

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.

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.

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.

Redeeming myself

OK, so we got Brooke to swimming lessons on time today. I aimed to leave at 3:15 for 4:00 class (20 minute drive - figured that was decent padding to get me there on time.) It worked! We pulled in to the driveway at 3:42 and had time to get her undressed and into the pool area and even sat for a bit before the teacher showed up. Much less stressful. And she did pay better attention this time. Not perfect by any means, but I impressed upon her that last time she played with the toys too much and since we had missed two classes, she REALLY needed to pay attention to the teacher so she could get caught up. I give her credit, she really made an effort. Yay Brooke! And yay me for not having a pseudo anuerysm at the pool.

Several of you have commented that you wanted to see pictures of our paint. The reason I haven't posted is that it just looks white in the pictures - not very interesting - but oh well, here goes nothing. It's a nice cream with the vaguest hint of yellow.


This is the transition from old (left) to new (right) paint. We had to stop somewhere -- our house has rooms that just blend one into another so it was hard to find a stopping point.

In other news, we had a nice sunny day yesterday (probably our last for 10 months) and I took my good camera to the park with me and got some nice pictures of Jack while Brooke was in school. Here are a couple of them. Is he not adorable? No wonder I can't stop kissing his face.

For the love of PB&J!

This is a typical lunch at our house. Thought you might like to play along.

Mmm... peanut butter and jelly...

What? I can't have an Oreo yet?! The injustice of it all!

Ah, much better.

I think this sludge would make a great hair tonic.

Satisfaction. Now that was a good lunch!

Do the Puyallup!

For those of you not from the Northwest (or even not from the Seattle area) you may not know what a phenomenon The Fair is around here. A small town called Puyallup (pronounced "pew-AL-up") hosts a truly awesome fair for three weeks every September, and it's the best one I've ever attended. I grew up loving the fair - my grandfather worked the refrigeration systems at the Oregon State Fair, which was only a few blocks from my grandparents' house growing up, so we made it a family tradition to go to the fair with them every summer and the memories are sweet. I really enjoy everything about the fair - the rides, the animals, the demonstrations in the exhibit hall, and best of all, the food. So it's no surprise that I want my kids to learn to love the fair as much as I do - and I think we're on our way. Yesterday, Justin and I took the kids to the Puyallup Fair and we all enjoyed ourselves tremendously! The weather was incredible - 78 or 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We get like 3 of these days per year here in the Seattle area so when it happens, people get crazy!

Last year, my friend Marie came up from Portland for the fair and we took Brooke, then 2, and Justin stayed home with Jack, then 3 months old. Brooke had fun, but there were a lot of rides she couldn't really go on by herself because she didn't really get it. This year, we have clearly turned a corner. She couldn't get enough!! She is a thrill-seeker just like me.

Clean, dressed, and excited, ready to go to the fair...

Moments before slamming her head into the mirrored wall in the fun-house. Oops.

The carousel. Finally, a ride that Jack can go on with us! (At least he could after I fibbed and told the operator he was 2...)

That's Brooke on the yellow airplane, white sunglasses and curly hair are about all that you can see. She grinned at us and gripped the steering wheel every time she flew around the corner!

One of the best rides of all is the Giant Slide. You can see in the top pic how big it is, you have to climb over 100 steps to get to the top. Justin and I each took a turn on this one with Brooke.

Self portrait. Jack will have a lot more fun next year when he can go on more rides.

I caught this little lady with my camera through a window while we were eating lunch. I thought she was awfully cute and patriotic and check her out, partaking in the Krusty Pups (aka corndogs) and curly fries. You go girl!

Of course, an elephant ear was eaten by THIS little girl... who worships elephants!

And so it ended... two tired kiddos who came home and took bubble baths, ate dinner, and fell asleep by 6:30pm. What a day!

Labor Day Weekend

We celebrated Labor Day weekend with a day trip to Mount Rainier. I can't believe that we've lived here for 5 years (and Justin grew up here!) and have not been yet. It's a truly phenomenal and gorgeous place. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

On the way there, we noticed the temperature dropping. Little did I know that this photo would not be the end of the low temps (at the lodge, it was 36 degrees and snowing! In August!) Can you tell by Justin's face that we were pumped up to get out of the house for the day?


Jack was decked out in his new Chuck Taylors (and a bag of cheese ritz bits, apparently) for the event. Must look snappy.


We stopped for lunch at one of the visitor lodges. The kids met a bear.

A short walk was taken, rocks were balanced on, nature was inspected.


The highlight of the trip was Christine Falls - absolutely gorgeous! Above the falls, the river comes crashing around a corner and has carved a graceful arc out of the rock. Really spectacular. I spent a fair bit of time freaking about how easy it would be for someone to fall off the cliff though, as Justin pointed out. Hands were held tightly.




It was a lovely day, we'd do it again in a heartbeat. Next time we'd like to camp out one night so we can spend more time there and see more! The wildflowers were still in bloom at the higher altitudes, so I'm sure in mid-summer the park is unbelievably beautiful when they are in bloom in the meadows.

So this is the end of summer already?

It's hard to believe that this is the ceremonial end of summer weekend. Afterall, it really only got warm here after 4th of July weekend, so it feels like we just got started! Our holiday weekend is shaping up to be quite low-key.

Brooke had her last soccer practice today. It was very cute, she has improved a lot and actually knows how to kick the ball when she deems it important enough to pay attention to it. The coach invited the parents on the field today for some fun and games, so I took the opportunity to take a little video with my awesome new little point & shoot (and you can see how well Brooke kicks the ball and how well Jack is walking now! Brooke is in the purplish/blue shirt running away from the camera at the beginning.

The little brothers found a way to entertain themselves stacking cones (Jack's on the right).

In other news, we are counting down the days until Brooke's first day of pre-school next Friday. She is SO excited, she can hardly stand it. We get to go in for a "get acquainted party" on Wednesday morning, then starting Friday, she'll be in school every M, W, F from 9:30-12. She is such a little firecracker, Justin and I are thrilled for her. And I am also very much looking forward to having Jack all to myself for some focused time. It seems like our activities are so often centered around Brooke, that it will be nice to do things just for Jack and be able to talk to him the way I was able to talk to Brooke before Jack was on the scene.

Who wouldn't be thrilled to spend some 1:1 time with this guy?

I am also working on some fun things on the calendar for the fall - a family trip to Oregon to visit my parents, a girls' weekend with my college BFF in Austin, TX, Justin's 20 year high school reunion, a visit from Uncle Clark (my brother) and his new gal pal, and of course, Hawaii in December. The rest of this year is sure to fly by with all the excitement that is on the books.

Jack's First Haircut

Hair was finally trimmed and no one cried - success! Look at my little boy, he's growing up so fast... sniff, sniff. And did I forget to mention, he's WALKING now??

Before (and happy about the firetruck seat!)

During - hey, this isn't so bad...

All done! How do I look?

The reward for good behavior - a blue balloon!