31

I love my birthday. I'm not ashamed to admit that it's one of my favorite days of the year. Of course it doesn't hurt that it happens to coincide with the start of the new school year (something that I obviously used to hate as a kid) or that it often times falls on a long holiday weekend. To make it even better this year (as I've been instructed by my 8 year old), it happens to be my golden birthday... I am turning 31 on the 31st. Good thing my birthday falls so late in the month, because I only learned about this golden birthday thing a couple years ago (when Avery turned 6 on the 6th, to be exact!). I guess I get an extra wish (or piece of cake?) or something exciting like that.

I suppose after Sunday there will be no denying that I am officially in my thirties. Which is crazy. I remember when my mom used to watch the show "thirtysomething" and I never thought in a million years that would be me someday. For some reason, this seems more monumental than simply turning 30 was last year (probably because I had a newborn and was in a complete fog).

And just in case you're curious, I share my wonderful birthday of August 31st with the likes of Debbie (excuse me, Deborah) Gibson and Richard Gere, among others.

I just had to call my cell phone to see where it was...

...and I found it in the dishwasher, Josie's new favorite place to stash things. I wonder how in the world it could have ended up in there???

Rough Couple of Weeks

Sometimes I look at Avery and see how much it hurts her to see other people hurt, and while I am proud to see the empathy she possesses, I also recognize how much hurt she will feel because of it. Because let's face it, there's a lot of hurt out there. These last few weeks have been proof of that for me... it seems like no matter where I turned for a while, there was bad news around every corner. Some of it was made public in the blogosphere, some of it was kept quiet, but it just seemed to be everywhere. Some of it was happening to people that I know well, while some of it was happening to people that I had never met or spoke to in my life.

For whatever reason though (maybe because there just seemed to be so much happening all at once), no matter how close I was to (or far from) the bad news, it all just hit me so hard. I have moved from having feelings of complete helplessness because I wanted to do something, to having feelings of guilt that I am healthy, that my children are healthy, that my family is happy and intact.

I'm finally starting to come out of my mini-funk and realizing again that things usually have an amazing way of working out in the long run. I guess it just took a little longer to get to that point this time around because there just seemed to be so much that needed to work out. Needless to say, I am really looking forward to escaping away for our long weekend at the coast. Four days of laying low, no cell phone, no internet {gasp!}, and no cooking if I get my way. There's also a big day coming up for me this weekend, but you can rest assured there will be more about that later! Have a great end-of-summer weekend!

"I don't vote on the first date"

For some reason that I can't fully explain, Amber and I were watching Larry King last night after the Democratic National Convention coverage. As he has been all week, he was interviewing a full slate of Republicans, allowing us to hear the exact same talking points repeatedly expressed through different mouths. There was much sighing and gnashing of teeth in our living room, when suddenly an astounding interview came on.

Larry King talked to a Clinton supporter who is not supporting Obama. Now I don't begrudge Clinton supporters their right to feel like the primary process was not fair and that the Democratic Party didn't adequately protect their interests. I think that if I put my support for Obama aside and look objectively, they probably have some good points. However, in this interview, Elizabeth Joyce manages to obscure all of those good points by being absolutely batsh*t crazy.



Imagine my surprise when I tuned into the Daily Show minutes later and spotted this same person, in a group of "nobama" folks being made to look silly (starting around 13:30).

Another One???

Okay, this is getting a little bit ridiculous. I know that my kids are early tooth-getters and tooth-losers, but come on. Avery is now losing her second set of 8 teeth, which her dentist says most kids don't do until age 10. As of last check, Josie now has 16 teeth... which is even more than her siblings had at 15 months. And this morning, after just discovering that his tooth was loose, Cayden pulled out his sixth tooth... 2nd from the middle on the bottom left. Unlike Avery who sometimes has loose teeth for months before they fall out, Cayden attacks loose teeth the second he feels the slightest wiggle and doesn't relent until the tooth is safely tucked under his pillow. We've already noticed some changes in his speech with all these gaping holes in his mouth and he has a lot of trouble eating certain foods... let's just hope those adult teeth hurry on up!

BTW, while we're on the topic of teeth, you should go check out Cayden's cameo photo on this author's blog (about half-way down the page). She asked to use the photo that he didn't know I had even put up on our own blog. He wasn't exactly thrilled to see this new development, but I think he secretly thinks it's pretty cool. :)

Prediction

After watching tonight's Convention coverage, I have a sneaking suspicion that we have another President Clinton in our future. Obama has a major thank-you call to be making this evening.

It was bound to happen, I guess

For the first time in my life, I saw a John McCain bumper sticker. Here. In Portland. Oregon.

Maybe the driver was just confused or something?

P.S. Michelle Obama is pretty cool.

Undecided?

While watching an interview with an "undecided"voter (one who voted for Clinton in the primary but now is wavering between Obama and McCain) this afternoon, I realized for the very first time that there might actually be some real people who make up that mysterious ~12% of voters who identify themselves as "Unsure." It boggles my mind that a person could be unsure in this campaign season. Regardless of one's political views, these candidates could not be any more different and the issues we are facing could not be much more important. How can you not know who you're going to vote for? It's not like the choice between having an apple or an orange with breakfast (I could come up with a much better analogy but I'm trying to keep my personal opinions out of this post). I'd be so curious to talk to one of these undecided voters because I sure don't know any personally.

Soaking It All In

Summer as we know it ends for us in 11 days when Avery & Cayden start their new school year. Until then, we are taking every opportunity we have to soak up all the last bits of summer and relish in them. With a (take-out) pizza picnic yesterday at Jamison Square and a (take-out) spaghetti picnic tonight back at one of our favorite parks, and 2 other non-picnic park trips in between today, we are officially getting our fill of Portland parks. For all you non-Portlanders, I offer my sincere condolences because we have the best parks around. There is a park for every mood, every type of weather, every activity you desire.

I'm sure it was no coincidence that we ended up where we did tonight. You see, we've recently heard some concerning news about Josie's little friend Henry and he lives just a few blocks from that park. I have a feeling that by thinking about him constantly all day, we were just drawn there. I can't even imagine what Henry's folks are going through right now as they watch their little guy get poked and prodded by docs and then wait for test results.

We hope the next time we make the trek to this favorite park Henry will be feeling better and maybe he can join us for a (take-out) picnic dinner. Until then, we're sending him all sorts of good thoughts. Sometimes words seem so inadequate...

Our Next Vice-President

Well, CNN blew the lid off the biggest secret of the week {?} before my text message had time to arrive, but now the guessing game has ended. Joe Biden has been chosen as our next VP (if all the stars align). Despite his minor issues with bending the truth, I'm excited by the idea of an Obama-Biden ticket. Shoot, the guy's been in the Senate longer than I've been alive so I figure he knows his way around Washington a bit. He's got his quirks here and there (the guy could stand to think before he speaks once in a while), but he's yards above the guy who currently holds the job:

Just 5 months left, Dick. Please be nice and don't do anything rash. If that's possible.

Why are you always pointing that thing in my face?

How much is too much?

I have been having major sleep issues lately, which is ironic because Josie has been sleeping superbly well. Last night I could not fall asleep for hours because my mind was just racing. I think it was the class placement letters that the kids got... it got me thinking about the upcoming school year and I just couldn't turn my brain off.

Now that we've got 2 full-time-school-aged kids, I'm beginning to realize that their schedules are going to have me hopping! Then, of course, I worry about them being overscheduled. I know this is nothing unique to me... I'm sure all parents struggle to find the balance between exploring new activities and having down time.

Individually, I guess each kid doesn't really have all that much on their plate. Cayden will have 2 soccer practices a week, 1 Saturday game and then 1 weekly tae-kwon-do class. Avery's a little busier with weekly piano lessons and ballet class, on top of a similar soccer regimen. The soccer season is done at the end of October (ish), so we're really only looking at 2 months of chaos, right?

I never should have started this post... now I'm wondering how we're going to fit in homework time (which I understand is significantly increased in 3rd grade) and time to just hang out. This is so unlike me--I'm usually very go-with-the-flow. Thankfully the kids are too, so I think it will all work out in the long run. I think all I need is a couple good nights of sleep to calm my nerves a little! Maybe I should lay off the caffeine for a while. ;)

Big Kids

I don't normally get too sentimental about my kids growing up... honestly, I think it's so exciting to watch them get more independent and to inch closer to adulthood. But something about today has really hit me with all 3 of them just how fast they're growing up.

Today is the day Avery waits for all summer long... Teacher Notification Day! Most of you parents of school-age kids out there don't have to wait for this very exciting day because your kids find out who their next teacher will be on the last day of school. But for whatever reason, our school waits until almost the last second. Sure enough, the phone started ringing at about 9:30 and hasn't stopped since. Before 3:00, I expect to know the class placement of every 3rd grade girl in the school! Picking up the phone and being asked if Avery is home is definitely giving me a taste of what's to come. She looks so natural grabbing the phone and retreating to an empty room in the house to talk to her friends. I just know she's going to be 16 before I can blink. Sigh.

Unlike Avery, Cayden really couldn't care less who is teacher is or who's in his class. He's much more pragmatic about the whole thing: "Well it's not like I won't see a kid anymore if they're not in my same class." When asked if he wanted to join in on the fun and call any of his friends, he replied, "Won't I just be able to find out on the first day of school?" He's not one to get caught up in this drama, which seems completely unnecessary to him. In the long run, what possible difference will it have made if he finds out which class his friends are in today or in 2 weeks?

And then there's Josie. I was holding her after her bath last night, naked and soaked, and caught a glimpse of her in the mirror as we were leaving the bathroom. I swear she could have been about 4. This summer she has gone from a baby to a big kid, without question. I was uploading photos this morning, and sure enough... shots taken as recently as June look nothing like her. Perhaps it's the 3.5 pounds {!} that she's gained since May 30th or her new enhanced awareness of the world around her, but she's just changing every day. It's kind of scary. And exciting at the same time.

Things That Make You Go "Hmmm"

Avery, watching Josie get tickled by Cayden this evening: "She's happy as a clown!"

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Which got me to thinking. That actually makes a lot more sense to me than the "correct" version of the phrase. Anyone out there in blogland know the origin of "happy as a clam?" I'm sure a quick google search would do the trick but I want to see how smart my friends are. :)

Home Sweet Home

And a hot home at that. I figure it will take the a/c about 5 hours to make this place livable, but it's good to be home nonetheless. We got picked up at the airport by Andrew's mom and whisked away to a yummy BBQ dinner that his dad cooked. That was great because cooking dinner was the farthest thing from my mind this afternoon. I came to the realization today that getting 5 people (3 of them being under the age of 9) dressed and fed and checked out of a hotel and back to return a rental car and to the airport and through security and fed again and boarded onto a plane is a lot of work. By the time we took off, I was more than ready for a nap (which was not about to happen).* Josie had a difficult flight, although there was a really good 90 minutes in the middle where she sat relatively happily, playing with various trinkets. But the 20 minutes at either end of the flight were enough to pretty much spoil the whole thing. This was also the very first day she's ever gone without a nap in her life, so all things considered, it could have been a lot worse.

Watching her once we got back to our house this evening cemented in my mind the reason our trip was so great. As Andrew puts it, she's just happy to be alive. She's at such a great stage right now, where she's overjoyed to just be able to toddle around and explore her surroundings, look at people and things, and soak it all in. That's not to say that she doesn't also have those pre-terrible-two moments... she's more than happy to let you know when she doesn't like the way something is going. But, for the most part, if you just put her feet on the ground and give her some time and space, she's happy. She didn't really like being in the pool at the hotel, but she absolutely loved watching the kids splashing and playing while she wandered around the pool deck. She certainly didn't like waiting in lines at the airport (or anywhere else for that matter) but if one of us could take her off the side and walk around with her, she was all smiles. And once she got home, we assumed she'd head straight to bed, but she spent an hour just walking through the house playing with all her long-lost toys, getting reacquainted with the space. Which gave me just enough time to unpack... like I always have to do right when we get home.

But enough about all that. I need to find an air conditioning vent to lie next to before I die of heat exhaustion. Call me a wimp, but it is freaking hot!


*That sentence makes it sound like I did all of that by myself, which of course is not the case. It always irritates me to no end to hear friends talk about how their husbands read the entire way through plane rides while they're stuck dealing with the kids. We stick more to the 50/50 way of doing things, thank goodness.

Last Day.... So Sad

This has truly been the best vacation we could have imagined. The weather's been gorgeous, the kids have been stupendously well-behaved, and we've had a great balance between chilling out and staying busy. We will be sad to leave tomorrow (kind of a shock for me... I'm always more than ready to go home after vacation) but we've got a ton of great memories and about a billion pictures to look back on! Here's my last dose of photos (if you can stand to see any more), including Josie's very first beach trip... and of course the pool. You can't forget the pool.

Legoland

Today we made the 4-mile trek to Legoland. It was hot. Not quite as hot as I understand Portland is today, but still hot. Even standing in the ticket line at 9:30, it was uncomfortably hot. Made us all appreciate the clouds cooler temps from yesterday. Nonetheless, we made the most of the day. Avery & Cayden started right out with a few rides (the lines first thing in the morning were nice and short!).




In addition to rides galore, there are some really impressive Lego models, as one might expect at Legoland. The place is really very impressive... although a bit too expansive (not to be confused with too expensive, although it is that too) for my taste!



And just so Miss Josie isn't left out, she wants to show off her rock-hard abs... and to let everyone know that she doesn't so much like the theme parks. Not enough for toddlers to do there.

I think we're all feeling Josie's pain and getting theme-parked-out so we're planning to lay fairly low tomorrow. Maybe head to an actual beach (another first for Josie, sadly) or find somewhere indoor to wander.

Some Sea World Pics

Required shot of "Shamu" (there are 3 whales in the show at Sea World, all of whom have their own names... and all of whom are collectively referred to as "Shamu").

This is not even half the strollers outside of the Shamu show. I never even knew there were this many strollers in the world.

The last thing we did before we left... and Cayden's favorite part of the day by far.

There was a 30-minute wait to go on this ride, so this was as close as Avery & Cayden got today.

Josie loved watching this sea lion. And he loved watching her back:

Best Girl in the World

Keeping my promise from yesterday, I hereby take back every mean thing I have ever said about my daughter (which hasn't been much, for the record). Not only did she sleep through the night on her very first trip away from home (getting close to 12 hours here in a few minutes), but she did so in a bathroom. Granted, she was exhausted after a 15.2 second nap on the plane and a 30-minute nap in the car on the way to the hotel, but still.

Good job Josie! We all appreciate your efforts tremendously! Sea World, here we come (right after the free breakfast of course).

Vacation, Day One: Too Much Travel

Well, we all made it to San Diego in one piece. After 7 hours of total travel time, I'm thinking that 15 months has to be about the worst age to travel. Poor Josie, who just decided to start walking on her own a couple weeks ago was strapped down into cars, airplanes, car rental shuttles, and every other form of transportation imaginable for what must have felt like an eternity in her little mind. All in all, she did amazingly well. Not as well as she could have done, but it could have also been a lot worse. She really liked the plane at first and wasn't at all afraid of all the noise (and the closed-inedness) like I was afraid of. After fussing for a bit, she actually fell asleep in my lap... for about 15.2 seconds until the flight attendants came by to bring us drinks. I could have screamed. It was the worst timing in the world. But, there was no going back at that point so we resorted to pacing the aisles.

The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful but Josie was not pleased to learn that her traveling was not over for the day. It took way too long to get to our rental car and then to our hotel but it was worth the trip! Our hotel is awesome. We have a two-bedroom suite, so we have two full bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a living room and kitchenette. There is a complimentary breakfast as well as a complimentary dinner (with beer and wine). I was telling Andrew at dinner (which was actually decent) that I might just see where their other locations are and plans my travels around that. Seriously, I would highly recommend this place... especially to anyone with kids who need their own space.

Speaking of space, Avery & Cayden are pleased as punch to be sharing a king-sized bed for the duration of our stay. We were thinking that we might use the full-sized pull out couch so Josie could have her own room, but it turns out (no laughing) that the bathroom is plenty big enough for a playpen so that's where Josie is at the moment. I don't want to jinx things here but she went down about 15 minutes ago and I haven't heard a peep from her. If she sleeps well during this trip I promise I will take back every mean thing I've ever said about her.

Tomorrow we're planning to hit up Sea World... should be a fun day!

And We're Off!

Thanks to the magic of Blogger's scheduled posts, we are leaving on a jet plane right this very minute (thinking positively). We are taking off on Josie's very first plane ride, her very first trip any reasonable distance out of the Portland metropolitan area, to enjoy her very first time sleeping away from home. Yes, she's been a little sheltered the past 15 months. But that's all about to change for this jet-setter!

With any luck, we'll have decent internet access at our hotel and will be able to update with photos and all sorts of stories of our grand adventures. And just so you all know, we will have someone staying here so please don't try to rob us. Or TP our house. You know who you are. :)

Have a great week!

Dear Tooth Fairy...

...your services have been requested yet again. Nothing like those teeth that come out close to bedtime to catch you off-guard.

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I must apologize in advance for posting the following picture (especially to Cayden! ) but I just couldn't help myself.

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I hope it doesn't cause anyone to have nightmares.

Splash of Color, part deux

Because I know you've all been waiting on pins and needles, here is Josie's black and white photo for my living room project. Hers is not necessarily the look I was going for... she's much more prominent in the photo than her brother and sister are in theirs but it'll have to do for now.

Thanks to all of you who commented before for all your feedback. Some of the suggestions went way over my head but I will hold onto them for future reference!

Complete Denial

Today was the kick-off to the fall soccer season. Avery & Cayden got their team assignments and we found out when their practices will be... both on Monday & Wednesdays, one from 4-6, the other from 6-8. With Daddy as an assistant coach and one car between us, that could get interesting. Throw in Monday piano lessons at 6:15 and we've got some juggling to do.

But, isn't it just the start of August? Don't we have 2 fun trips to take before summer's over? I don't want to even think about the start of the school year yet. I'm not ready for summer to be done and I'm not even almost ready for all the madness that accompanies the start of school. I got my first set of emails about next year's auction prep and I can't even bring myself to read them. I'm not ready to go there yet.

I still have 3 weeks, 4 days and I'm going to savor every minute (even if A & C are starting to drive me a little crazy).

Eight, Going On Sixteen

Avery: "Mom, I want to get a mirror for my room."

Me: "Okay. How come?"

Avery: "Because now, I have to go all the way to the bathroom to see how my hair looks."

Meet My Newest Baby

Look what the UPS man brought me this morning. We'll call her Nikki. Isn't she pretty?

I've been taking photographs on a state-of-the-art crappy point and shoot camera for years now and have managed to get a few decent shots here and there, if I do say so myself. Although it's been way better than the 35mm (remember those?) we had when Avery was born, I'm so excited to see what I can do with this thing. I don't have the foggiest idea how she works, but I trust that will all come with time. Should be a fun weekend packed with tons of photographs (Avery & Cayden will be thrilled).

Since I'm about the last person in the world to jump on this bandwagon, feel free to send over any DSLR tips you might have (like if you understand what DSLR stands for).

*Update: 100 pictures later and I'm starting to get the hang of my new toy. I'll definitely have to open the ginormous user's manual at some point though and learn about all the bells and whistles. Here's my favorite shot of the afternoon:

Have Juice, Will Travel

See if you can catch why Josie might seem a little more wobbly than usual at the tail end of the video. With it being so hot today, she was smart and kept her juice (well... 25% juice, 75% water) cup close at hand. These photos (one blurry, one not so much) further demonstrate her determined resourcefulness.

Paris 2008

Makes me wonder what the "wrinkly white-haired dude" thinks of his cameo in her ad?

T Minus 9 Days

We leave for our Legoland/Sea World trip in 9 days. Everyone is very excited. Probably myself even more than the kids. We haven't been anywhere exciting in a very long time. As I've said before, I'm not a very good "with-kids" traveler. Just seems so much easier to stay home. But a lot more boring too.

So the trip is coming up soon and I've started trying to get things a little bit organized... double checking the confirmations to make sure I don't have the dates wrong in my head (hey, I've heard of that happening to people so I'm not taking any chances!), etc. Looking through my email account, I see that there are no confirmations. Did I just imagine the whole thing--reservations for air, hotel & car? Or did I just delete the confirmations by mistake? I assumed it was the latter excuse (I know I didn't imagine paying for said reservations!), as I am kind of obsessive about keeping my inbox free of messages that do not require any follow-up. I have all sorts of folders for saved messages and I'm guessing that I just marked them to be moved, but inadvertently hit delete instead.

Apparently, it is more difficult than I would have expected to confirm a reservation over the phone or online without any proof that the reservation was actually made. Confirmation number? E-ticket number? Those would all be things that were on the missing confirmation, things I no longer have. But, several phone calls later, all reservations were in fact confirmed, despite the initial hesitation of those on the other line. Why do they have to make it so difficult?

While I was on the phone with someone from the hotel, I inquired about reserving a crib for Miss Jojo. We have a pack-n-play we could bring but we are going to be bringing so much stuff, that relief from any big items would be a huge help. At this particular hotel (and I'm assuming everywhere else in the world too), you can request a crib but it is first come, first served so there are no guarantees. Don't ask me what you're supposed to do if you get there only to discover that there are no requested cribs available. I'm thinking I will call the morning that we leave to get an update on the crib situation.

At least a crib is not an absolute necessity (although pretty darned close for non-co-sleepers like us), like a car seat is. Even still, requesting a car seat is still the same sort of deal with about half of the car rental companies that we looked into. Requests can be made, but with no guarantees. How much sense does that make?

No wonder I always thought it'd be easier to stay home!

Not for those with weak stomachs

We were actually out at a real restaurant the other day (doesn't happen often these days with the "little monster") and this commercial was playing on TV. I've never liked the idea of TVs in restaurants but after seeing this, I'm convinced they should be banned. Please pay special attention at 0:23, 0:31 and 0:51 and imagine trying to eat a meal while this is being shown up above. Ewww.



Lesson of the day: Don't put sexy shoes on ugly feet!

Breaking News

I can finally announce that my youngest child can walk. She can walk! Well, she's been able to walk for 6 months now but as of tonight, she can walk on her own. Without a hand to hold. For more than 10 feet. Without a person to catch her.

I have some great video of the momentous occasion, but it shows one of my older children in his/her skivvies and he/she is not at all excited about such a thing be aired on the Internet. Whatever.

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In the meantime, enjoy of photo of almost-walking, still hand-holding Josie from last week... just because she's cute:

What's the world coming to???

As I've said before, I don't typically like to speak out too much about national issues (besides McCain, because it's my goal in life to tell everyone I come in contact with how much I dislike him) but since there's nothing too exciting going on in my own personal life, that's all I have to fall back on. I stumbled across a couple of news stories this morning that really irked me. Bush and Wal-Mart. Now there's a combination for you!

First off, I found this story from CNN about how the Bush administration is proposing a change in the definition of "abortion," to include birth control pills and IUDs, among other things. Supposedly, their goal is not to make these forms of birth control illegal, but to offer protection to health care workers who do not personally believe in abortion. As a country, we think we have problems now. Let's see how things look when we make it harder for people to get birth control. There's a smart idea.

Next up, and much more widely-reported, is this little tidbit about Wal-Mart warning their managers of the prospects of an Obama presidential win (but absolutely not "telling them how to vote"). Apparently, if he gets into office it will be easier for their employees to form unions, thus increasing labor costs. You know, because then their workers might end up with decent wages and some half-way decent benefits. Now that would a shame.

What a grumpy post.