boy vs. girl at the zoo

Boys do not mind posing for photos atop a 4-foot-tall stump overlooking the sea lions (sometimes they'll even go with the "look ma, no hands!" approach):


Girls, on the other hand, do mind posing for photos atop a 4-foot-tall stump overlooking the sea lions (apparently it's "scary" to be up so "high"):


Boys like to play with the trucks in the sandbox at the zoo, and on most days, would probably choose this activity over animal observation:


Girls like to play in the sandbox at the zoo as well, as long as they don't have to touch the sand or the trucks covered with the sand:


Boys and girls both like to run amok at the zoo, regardless of the fact that it's blastedly cold outside (but boys prefer hats and girls prefer gloves as a means to stay warm):

(All generalizations of course.
No outcries of gender-biased prejudice please.)

pretend pretend

Josie is all about all things pretend right now. She's spent the better part of the morning in her room, making us pretend food in her pretend kitchen, which she then exchanges for pretend money. She comes out and asks us for five dollars, and then returns with some food for us.

Just now, I was folding some towels and she came by to get her five dollars. Sure enough, she returned moments later with my dinner. She handed me a pink toy cup and explained that it was my "riziby" (recipe maybe?, although I'd be surprised if she learned that word in this house), Henry's favorite riziby to be exact. I started to pretend to sip, a move I deemed appropriate since it was a cup. Josie gasped at that and said, "No, Mama! You don't drink it! It's dinner; you eat with a pretend spoon!"

Of course. How could I be so silly?

so stuffed, yet so thankful

We had the pleasure of going to a family friend's for Thanksgiving dinner today. It was great company and utterly delicious food. Way too much food, but that's beside the point.

Thanksgiving 2009 Menu:

Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Rolls
Cranberry Sauce
Sweet Potatoes with Cream & Brown Sugar*
Roasted Asparagus*
Spinach Salad*
Apple Cider
Wine
Marionberry Pie*
Pumpkin Pie*
Coffee & Amaretto or Irish Cream
*made by us, tyvm


Post-Dinner Entertainment: The Tale of Despereaux on DVD

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

short sleeves* on november 25th!

*In the interest of full disclosure, Cayden was the only person I actually saw wearing short sleeves. We were all in long-sleeved sweatshirts or sweaters... but with no coats, so that totally counts as a phenomenal November day!

my favorite 2 year old girl who lives in this house

Some days when Josie is in a good mood (no screaming, no whining), she's just the best.

Some days she gets on her tutu and ballet pants and dances around the dining room to the music in her head.

Some days she's happy to just be.

Those days make all the rest of the (slightly less pleasant days) totally worth it.

new low

Yesterday, as we were trying to figure out what to eat for dinner, we sunk to a new low in our life as parents. Josie, who was apparently staaarving, piped up:

"I want dinner in a bag."

jamie's baby shower

I'm not sure I've ever known so many pregnant people at one time. And they're all having boys (except for one or two). Which means lots of baby showers and lots of cute baby clothes to buy. Yes, it's a rough life.

This afternoon I co-hosted a shower for Andrew's cousin, Jamie, with my mother-in-law and one of the sweet aunties on the Wagner side of the clan. It was a lovely chance to see all the family that lives so far away (like a whole hour!) and that we don't see nearly enough.

Jamie and her adorable baby bump couldn't be any cuter if either one of them tried. Neither could the two, very excited, grandmas-to-be:

Gift Time!

After today, I can assure you that Baby No Name (yet) will be one well-dressed little guy.

Congrats Jamie & Tim!

"tell me about your picture"

there's no pleasing a girl with a cold

Miss Josie has gone and gotten herself a cold. Nothing like what Avery had a couple weeks ago, but a cold nonetheless. Yesterday she had a bit of a runny nose and a hint of a cough but I could tell she was feeling really crummy this morning. She wasn't complaining or whining or anything (thank goodness) but there was just nothing that could be done to please her. Case in point, all things heard this morning while running errands:

"No! The sun in my eyes!"
"Oh no, is it raining now?!"
"I can't find the sun in the sky!"
"I NOT wear my coat outside!"
"I too cold out here!"
"I NOT wear shoes in Target!"
"I NOT sit in cart at Target!"
"I wear (Avery's) slippers in Target!"
"Oh no! These slippers too big... they fall off my feet!"

... and on and on and... you get the picture, right?

wordless wednesday #52{ONE YEAR!}

helping? with chores

Josie's been on a kick lately of "clearing her spot," taking her dishes from the dining room table to the kitchen when she's done eating. Earlier today she informed me that she had cleared her spot, which I thanked her for doing and told her I thought that was great. A bit later I went to put those dishes in the dishwasher but couldn't find them anywhere. When I asked her where she put them, she said they were in the sink, which I knew was not the case. Then she said maybe they were on the counter. Nope. We were looking all over... in her bedroom, in the living room, even down in the basement. Then I could see the proverbial light bulb go off in Josie's head and she proclaimed, "I put them in the trash can!"

Sure enough, there they were. Hmm. Wonder how long she's been doing that?

all mixed up

Josie is loving all the new songs she's learning during circle time at school. She might be getting them a little bit mixed up though:

"spitsy spitsy spider
eating buttercups
ashes, ashes

all jump up!"

or this extended ditty right here:

not a good sign

The past few weeks have been long days... between sick kids home from school, lots of evening meetings and putting together a 500-recipient mass mailing for school, I've been feeling completely fried. Last night I think Andrew could tell. I was stuffing envelopes (probably at about #237) when he said, "you know, I could watch the kids* this weekend if you want to get away somewhere."

(Hint, hint.)

(I added in the "hint, hint"--those were not his words.)



*Wording it like this makes it sound like he doesn't watch the kids on a normal weekend, which of course isn't at all true. Just FYI.

wordless wednesday #51

death penalty

How's that for an uplifting topic???

Earlier tonight the "DC Sniper" John Allen Muhammed was executed. I've avoided reading anything about his impending execution because I doubt I could find any other single thing in the world that I disagree with more than the death penalty. It disgusts me, plain and simple. And that's all I'll say about that because I know it's a hot-button topic and I don't have the wherewithal to string together a coherent thought tonight.

I did read a tiny bit about it just now though, and was struck by two things. First off, I could not fathom that those sniper attacks were 7 years ago. I remember waking up every day and feeling complete dread before turning on the morning news. What a scary, horrible time that was.

Second, I was struck by a comment that the then-Police Chief (and former Portland Police Chief) Charles Moose made in an interview. When asked if he was invited to witness the execution (could you even imagine?), he responded, "I was not, but if I was, I wouldn't be interested. I think I've seen enough death. I don't need to watch someone else die."

Wow.

it rained a lot on saturday

{click to enlarge}

It rained so much that Cayden's last soccer game of the season was canceled at halftime (and those games don't usually get canceled for anything--last season, there was a debate if they should cancel during a thunder & lightning storm!). Avery, Josie and I bailed early to go shopping because it was raining when the game started. But nothing like it was raining at halftime. By then, it was bucketing, pelting and pouring cats & dogs all at the same time.

I'm guessing it was right about then that Josie's preschool flooded. All the carpets, one of the couches and several of the gymnastics mats were ruined. Thankfully, one of the parents dropped by yesterday and discovered the mess. Otherwise it would have been until this morning before anyone knew about it and the mold situation would have been out of control. When I heard there was a chance it would have to be closed today, I got right down there to help out (the curse of a cooperative preschool... no paid maintenance workers!) because I was not about to keep Josie home again. Six hours later, my feet were killing me and we had pretty much cleared the whole place out. Wouldn't you know it, the kids had a blast today with all-concrete floors and less furniture than normal.

Kids will think anything is cool for a day or two.

mo' better butter

Cayden, this morning, after eating the bagel with butter that he requested for breakfast: "When I had a sleepover at Zeke's, I had a bagel with butter for breakfast. It was soooooooo good."

{long pause}

"Maybe they use different butter than us or something."

josie 2.5

• eats bananas (only one in the family who does)
• loves her new school
• eats better at school than at home
• has had a rough week
• has been yelling "NO!" a lot this week
• has not been able to go to school this week because her sister got swine flu
• has not adjusted to the end of daylight savings time yet
• loves to look at shoes, talk about shoes and swap shoes
• is suddenly afraid of slides
• claims that her best friends are Christie & Megan
  
• loves to sing the alphabet
• is scared of my cell phone ringer
• has watched about 32 hours of soccer since September
• no longer wears a tutu every day
• is still a ballerina though
• can pedal her trike
• spells her name J - E - S - I - E
• does not like to wear socks
• has very long hair
• does not like to stand on the dining room table for photo shoots

• calls lunch, "munch"
• calls sandwiches, "snamitches"
• has been fighting a lot with her brother lately
• is confused about the difference between a jacket and a coat
• has been potty-trained since September
• still wears a pull-up at night even though it's never wet in the morning
• loves to play on the kids' furniture at IKEA
• dislocated her elbow at IKEA
• prefers to leave the house than to stay home
• still loves her Bear Bear more than just about anything
• sucks her thumb when she's tired
• loves to have her finger nails polished
• calls water fountains, "water mountains"
• thinks a kiss will make any boo-boo all better
• sometimes gives kisses and says "I love you too"
• took the bus to OMSI last weekend
• didn't like riding on the bus
• asks "why?" a lot
• says "nook" instead of "look"
• has a great imagination

• is two and a half today!!

*many thanks to mamashift for the inspiration

best quote ever

"If I didn't want to talk to you in fifth grade, what in the hell makes you think I want to talk to you now?"

--Wanda Sykes, on the mysterious wonder that is Facebook

1 sick girl + 1 sick girl = 2 sick girls

Wanna know the best part of this global pandemic we're experiencing? When you're sick with the flu and 1/3 of your school is also sick with the flu, there's a reasonable chance that one of your bestest friends will be sick with the flu. So, although you will be banned from having playdates with anyone all week, there is a slight chance that you could have a playdate with your sick friend since you are both infected with the same germs. If it all works out, it will be the highlight of your week.

This photo was not staged at all. Both these girls spent the afternoon coughing like I've never heard anyone cough before. But, it's easy to see that somoene's been teaching them the proper way to cover their coughs!

day 6

Today is day 6 of Avery's adventures with swine flu... and the pessimistic side of me swears it's going to go on forever! Just when it looks like she's feeling better, she gets another fever or the cough starts acting up again. As of yesterday afternoon, the cough is now the most worrying part for me. It doesn't seem quite as bad today, but I'm definitely keeping an eye on it. I talked to her doctor this morning and she said that she needs to be brought in first thing tomorrow if her fever spikes again tonight (it seems to creep back up almost every night).

I had to make the painful decision to keep Josie home from school today and tomorrow, despite the fact that she hasn't shown a single symptom of anything. But one of her classmates has a new baby brother, and I have a sneaking suspicion at least one of the other moms is pregnant, so I just didn't have the heart to send her in. So, we're having a girls' day in today... Avery's favorite part so far (granted it's only 10am) has been the photo editing:

(almost) wordless wednesday #51

cabin fever making me crazy

Avery yanked out lost her 16th tooth today. And of course, the first thing I thought when I saw it was that I could really use this opportunity to put my new found knowledge of aperture to the test to get a great picture!

(Yes, I need to get out of the house.)

(But that didn't stop me from getting out the camera.)



*On another note, I'm cautiously optimistic that Avery might be getting better. As you may (or may not) be able to tell from the above photo, she got dressed today (!) and took a shower (!) and even ate some lunch. All vast improvements from the past few days. The crazy thing about this H1N1 is that people will feel better for a day only to wake up the next day feeling even worse than before, so I'm not declaring victory just yet. But, Avery has the best immune system of anyone I know, so if anyone can recovery this quickly, it'll be her. I hope.

oink, oink?

"If your child has swine flu, you should keep him or her and yourself away from all other people."

And I should do that how?

photography class

Christie did a perfect job summing up our photography class from yesterday... it made my brain hurt. We covered about 5 or 6 basic topics in 5 hours, but each one could have easily been its own 5-hour class. So there was a lot that just went right over my head and a lot that I thought made sense at the time, but has since escaped my brain.

Shutter speeds and aperture and white balance and light metering and ISO and focus modes and...

All in all, I'm so glad I went... I was actually taking pictures in manual mode today and they didn't look like crap! It took me forever to set each picture up (is it sunny or cloudy? shady? what kind of lightbulbs are in these lights?) but the end result was good, in most cases. Okay, in about half the cases, but it's my first try. At this very moment, I think I like my old pictures better, but I think with more practice I will get a lot more comfortable with all the settings. I don't foresee that I'll ever become a camera snob who refuses to ever shoot anything ever ever ever in automatic, but that's probably for the best.

I took pictures (in manual mode!) of Josie's classmates today to display on their cubbies:

I don't think either of these little guys could take a bad picture if they tried:

my girl is sick

...along with about half the city, from what I hear.