Maybe I'll update everything but for right now the last day or two.
I can't believe it. Alex actually slept in until 7:15 this morning. And yes this is sleeping in he's usually up at 5:30. I think it's because we finally convinced him he doesn't need to sleep with a lamp on. Shortly after his 3rd birthday he was having nightmares (nightmirrors as he calls them) regularly. We couldn't figure out what was causing them, could have just been a cumulation of changes going on at the time. Anyway he wanted to sleep with the overhead light on. I vetoed that immediately. I found an old reading lamp and put it on the otherside of the room. It wasn't really an issue when he was still napping but last spring his naps got very irregular (they're now a thing of the past except when he's sick). I noticed dark circles under his eyes on a regular basis. By late spring as he went to bed he insisted we cover his head with the blanket. At the time I suggested we turn the lamp off. He wasn't having it. This fall I noticed when we visited my mom he had no trouble at all sleeping without a lamp on. Since we were all sharing a room I wasn't giving him an option other than a regular night light. After our last trip up just before Thanksgiving, I decided we'd start turning it off when we went to bed. I have him a warning that we'd start once Ken was on leave for the holidays. Yesterday we went out and Amanda (our sitter) told me when we got home that he didn't want it on at all when he went to bed. He was fine with just his nightlight. Then this morning my little alarm clock over slept.
Alex is a trip lately. He hugged our Christmas tree the day we brought it home. Then last weekend he noticed I had put some things in their stockings. He came into our room and asked if he could see what was in them. I said no, he couldn't look until Christmas eve. Well that set off a wail of ear shattering proportion. I told him it was fine to be upset and he could cry about it but he did not need to scream at the top of his lung about it. So he's standing there in our room quivering a he cried. He actually looked like he was in pain keeping the volume to a normal level. So I told him if he wanted to scream he could go in his room and close his door. I just don't want to hear right next to me. I got up walked him to his room, he sat on the floor then let loose. I got Quin out of bed, dressed him then took him downstairs. A good fifteen minutes later he came down still a little tearful but calm. I'm surprised his throat didn't hurt screaming for that long.
The final Alex thing I'll leave you with will be song lyrics translated by a four year old (or almost 5 year old as he says) Not sure what the song is it was on Disney channel and part of it goes
dig a little deeper, dig a little deeper
well Alex sang as he walked upstairs to bed
"I'm a little tea butt, I'm a little tea butt"
kids are just crazy
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Good lord you'd think was avoiding my own blog. I could have sworn I posted in here before now.
This has kind of been sitting in the back of my mind for a couple years. Going into some sort of photography business. Mostly because my husband suggested it after he saw the portraits I took of the boys for our Christmas card right after Quin was born. That combined with what the moms in our playgroup have said tie and again about the stuff I shoot for them, well it got me thinking. Just right now with running here and there for Quin it's not an option. Maybe once he's in the preschool program for the county next fall.
This is from my journal after our trip to Kennedy Krieger:
The good news is that the program co-ordinator who works with Quin feels he's making a lot of progess. She feels he's much more expressive emotionally, laughing, smiling, making eye contact as well as the usualt temper tantrums. But it's good either way. He was so funny at Halloween. Trick or Treating was fun. My train (Alex) petered out a lot earlier than my little bat (Quin). We went around our court then down the block as we rounded the corner Alex said he was tired. So we walked back down the otherside of the street to our court and back to our house. Alex ran up to hang with DH. Quin on the other hand wanted to keep going. So we headed out again and up the street. He was so cute. He had this little flashlight (the boys got them at a party on Tuesday) didn't let go of it the entire time. He'd go up to each house up the steps, as soon as the door opened he'd look in then turn around and head off, to the next set of lights. :lol: An hour later we got back to the house. He still wanted to keep going but the eye rubbing had started and he was having me pick him up more often. So it was bed time. I guess picking a creature of the night for his costume was a good choice. :lol:
So in the midst of some good stuff there is bad. My mom has been having a rough couple years financially. The company she works for merged with another over the summer and things had started to look up. Well the bane of her existance at the old company got her demoted which also means a cut in salary. She was barely making ends meet before. So now her only option is to declare bankruptcy. She's worked so hard to get to partner and that got put on hold when she became BC survivor 5 years ago. 4-5 months of not working in order to recover from surgery basically put her behind and made it easy for this one partner to make her life even more miserable than he already had been for the last few years. I can't wait for the day this snake gets what is coming to him. I just wish there was more I could do for my mom to help her get through all this. The next day when I talked to my mom, she sounded much more grounded. I was in tears the first afternoon listening to her on the phone, and trying very hard not to let her know that. Friday she was asking me what I knew about Feng Shui so that we could set up her new office (cubicle) as well as her office at home, to bring in the good luck/prosperity. Looks like I have to go find my books.
That was my side of the family Ken's side is all drama. I can't even begin to explain it all. What it boils down to is that Su is basically throwing in the towel. No matter what she tries to do to help her dad it's wrong. Ken feels they should both be in a nursing home but that just isn't done in Chinese families. And the older brothers being good sons would never agree to it. So basically it would be the older two siding with my FIL while the younger two, one who is primary caregiver get stepped all over.
And we voluteered to host Thanksgiving this year (decided last year) OY!
So next week we go visit my mom for our early Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I have to be up and at work at the butt crack of dawn for a store meeting. Yes it's holiday time again. This after spending half the day there today because I set up the book fair for Alex's school. At least I can come home and take a nap before I have to be back in for work tomorrow night.
This has kind of been sitting in the back of my mind for a couple years. Going into some sort of photography business. Mostly because my husband suggested it after he saw the portraits I took of the boys for our Christmas card right after Quin was born. That combined with what the moms in our playgroup have said tie and again about the stuff I shoot for them, well it got me thinking. Just right now with running here and there for Quin it's not an option. Maybe once he's in the preschool program for the county next fall.
This is from my journal after our trip to Kennedy Krieger:
Yesterday was a long day. Ken came with us to Quin's Tuesday class. He got to
see how things are run and how Quin does in class. Came home for a quick lunch
dropped Alex at his friend Riley's house. He was in heaven he got to play with
his best friend two days in a row. Then we drove to B-more for Quin's
assessment. It went well but you could tell by the end he was one tired camper.
The doctor basically said his cognitive skills were 18-21 months but his
language skills are still about a year behind. Based on some of the other skills
she tested he falls somewhere between a plain old language delay and PDD
NOS(pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified) though closer to
PDD than language delay. He is interactive and does model other behaviors, and
doesn't require some of the regimented routines autistic children can need. She
said not to be surprised if he still isn't talking six months down the road but
we should start using a few signs like more, all done, eat, drink, sleep just to
help him get his basic needs covered. She did think he probably would be using
signs spontaniously in the next six month though. Besides the music therapy
class we're taking she suggested we play music in the background at home most of
the time because that seems to wake up the part of the brain we need to get him
using language. He will probably have a hard time with reading at first. Doesn't
help that there is dyslexia on my side of the family and reading comprhension
problems on Ken's.All and all she felt with his current therapies he'll be able
to be streamlined out of special education programs at some point. We got home
had dinner then the kids went to be early (exhuasted) Ken and I vegged and got
to be early too. Tonight is a date night. But since Amanda is off ealy I may
have her come over and hit the gym before Ken gets off work.
The good news is that the program co-ordinator who works with Quin feels he's making a lot of progess. She feels he's much more expressive emotionally, laughing, smiling, making eye contact as well as the usualt temper tantrums. But it's good either way. He was so funny at Halloween. Trick or Treating was fun. My train (Alex) petered out a lot earlier than my little bat (Quin). We went around our court then down the block as we rounded the corner Alex said he was tired. So we walked back down the otherside of the street to our court and back to our house. Alex ran up to hang with DH. Quin on the other hand wanted to keep going. So we headed out again and up the street. He was so cute. He had this little flashlight (the boys got them at a party on Tuesday) didn't let go of it the entire time. He'd go up to each house up the steps, as soon as the door opened he'd look in then turn around and head off, to the next set of lights. :lol: An hour later we got back to the house. He still wanted to keep going but the eye rubbing had started and he was having me pick him up more often. So it was bed time. I guess picking a creature of the night for his costume was a good choice. :lol:
So in the midst of some good stuff there is bad. My mom has been having a rough couple years financially. The company she works for merged with another over the summer and things had started to look up. Well the bane of her existance at the old company got her demoted which also means a cut in salary. She was barely making ends meet before. So now her only option is to declare bankruptcy. She's worked so hard to get to partner and that got put on hold when she became BC survivor 5 years ago. 4-5 months of not working in order to recover from surgery basically put her behind and made it easy for this one partner to make her life even more miserable than he already had been for the last few years. I can't wait for the day this snake gets what is coming to him. I just wish there was more I could do for my mom to help her get through all this. The next day when I talked to my mom, she sounded much more grounded. I was in tears the first afternoon listening to her on the phone, and trying very hard not to let her know that. Friday she was asking me what I knew about Feng Shui so that we could set up her new office (cubicle) as well as her office at home, to bring in the good luck/prosperity. Looks like I have to go find my books.
That was my side of the family Ken's side is all drama. I can't even begin to explain it all. What it boils down to is that Su is basically throwing in the towel. No matter what she tries to do to help her dad it's wrong. Ken feels they should both be in a nursing home but that just isn't done in Chinese families. And the older brothers being good sons would never agree to it. So basically it would be the older two siding with my FIL while the younger two, one who is primary caregiver get stepped all over.
And we voluteered to host Thanksgiving this year (decided last year) OY!
So next week we go visit my mom for our early Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I have to be up and at work at the butt crack of dawn for a store meeting. Yes it's holiday time again. This after spending half the day there today because I set up the book fair for Alex's school. At least I can come home and take a nap before I have to be back in for work tomorrow night.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
my usual catch up posting
9/22/2008
Funky surprises today music wise. On Yo GabbaGabba they had the Birthday song from 16 Candles, the one by Altered Images, just not something I was expecting to hear on a kids show.And in the car this morning all of us were bopping along to Say Hey (I love You) by Michael Franti and Spearhead. Very infectious song. http://www.downloads.nl/results/mp3/1/Say+Hey+I+Love+You
Yesterday was bit unusual, Ken is actually leaning democrat this election. Actually he doesn't know which way to go, he's really waiting for the debates but he made a chart on what he feels are key points and is filling in how each canidate stands. In Field and Stream this month they had interviews with both canidates. Ken thought for sure McCain would come out ahead because F&S is for sportsmen and definately has an NRA leaning. But after reading it (he made me read it too) He felt like McCain was talking around the issues, primarily on land use and preservation, and environment. The only thing according to Ken, that he had going for him was the gun issue. Any true sportsman wants preservation of public lands and National parks because if those lands are gone so are the animals. After reading the article my feelings were just reinforced. I think the only good point McCain made was to restore the wetlands along the gulf coast because they would help control flooding after hurricanes. Anyway I can't believe it but this maybe the second presidention election where we'll be voting the same. (He couldn't in good consience re-elect Bush) Normally he votes party line straight down. I haven't done that in a long time. I vote based on canidates and don't base it on party. Must be the moderate in me.
Oh I disagree with the reps on a whole slew of issues but I think the dems try to do too much sometimes. I have yet to vote rep in a presidental race. usually it's the smaller local ones. I usually call myself north of center in terms of political leaning. I'm sure if you talked to a real rep they'd tell you I leaned dem. I grew up in NW PA which is very rep, hence the reason I escaped as soon as I was able. I think the reason I tend to be centerist is spending 15 years in the DC area four while in college, when I was forming a lot of world views. I see wrong being done by both sides and wish for a bit more compromise. Heh, my husband and I disagree on the whole gun thing but I know I won't change his mind and he won't change mine so we just let it go.
I just hope I can introduce my kids to all views/cultures and let them judge based on the values I raise them with. I love letting them listeno all sorts of music, which is partly why I like Backyardigans. It's funny because I have two friends who can't stand the show. One because she says it's too hip hop. My reaction was HUH? yes there are a couple of eps that are hip hop but there are just as many that are polka. The other says it's too ghetto, I just shake my head at that one, I must be a bit ghetto myself if that's the case.
9/29/2008
It just amazes me the difference even three weeks can make in a child. We started Quin in a program called Infants and Toddlers. It's run by our school district for children with developmental delays. Quin gets speech and occupational therapy classes three mornings a week he's also part of a music therapy class on an additional morning. They're really working on his fine motor skills and getting him to at least find non-vocal ways of communicating. I'm sure later on sign language will be taught but as the hand co-ordination isn't there yet we're finding other ways. Anyway he can now put together those simple wooden puzzles. He can stack rings and use one of those shape sorters. We're starting to work on wrist rotation, so those things will get easier. He makes eye contact now when he wants to continue a game. He'll bring things over to me, like his shoes, when he wants to go out. Or he'll go to the pantry and get out what snack he wants and give the bag to me. He's starting to imitate actions used in various song. He at least listens to instructions, sometimes actually following them, heh like most toddlers actually follow instructions when they don't want to. He such a brighter happier child as well lately, though the willfulness of being two has started as well.
Then there is Alex. He's finally been motivated to poop in the potty daily. He earns a star every time he does once he gets twenty he gets a prize. He's so motivated he's been trying to poop twice a day. Sometimes he actually does.What cracks me up are his descriptions of his poop. "I pooped a corn cob today mama." or "I pooped two carrots and a radish." This isn't actually what he ate but what they look like to him.
I had more to say but must go get Monkey boy from school run a few more errands before I leave for work. Which will be very dead tonight as the Ravens are playing the Steelers on Monday Night Football.
10/2/2008
Speaking of older siblings taking the younger one's new toys, that's exactly what happened here the last couple days. At Quinton's birthday party he didn't even get to open his own presents, Alex did. Quin is looking at his own presents like "Hey can I play with that?" We bought an 8x8 bouncer for his present. All the kids got to enjoy that Tuesday. I'm so happy the rain stayed away until after everyone left. 15 kids and 8 adults inside my house would have been nuts. Then yesterday evening when we opened his present from Aunt Su, the first person to play with it was Alex, of course.
Yesterday was Quin's 2 year doctor appointment. He's 28 lbs (I could swear he's heavier) and 35 inches tall. No shots this time but he did get the flu mist. Wwasn't real happy with that, but then he really hates going to the doctor. Our doctor said that even though he's making a lot of progress that we should set up and interview/evaluation with Kennedy Krieger, just to make sure he's getting all the services he needs. So I spent the afternoon on the phone with them. It loks like one of the doctors there is starting a program and Quin may be good for what they're doing, if not we'll have to wait possibly 6 months to get an evaluation from the CARD Center there. If that's the case one of the other pediatricians at our office will do the evaluation because he has a specialty in developmental delays. I swear sometimes he says actually words the problem is it's never when I'm focused on him so, I'm not sure if I heard right or if it's just wishful thinking on my part. Like he'll be in another room and in the midst of his babbling I'll hear a word, or in the morning when I'm still groggy I'll hear something. Ahh well.
I am so totaly geeked, last week was the announcement for CS4. I'm guessing the actual release will be in November. $199 for the upgrade, with my NAPP membership 160ish. I wish I could afford the entire standard design suite but to upgrade to that would be about $800. Not in the budget right now. Doesn't matter I will be absolutely happy to just get my hands on the new photoshop. Maybe I can talk my dad in to giving me the money for christmas, for the upgrade,not the suite. He's generous but not that generous.
So Alex was playing with my old fuji camera, he got some interesting shots. Debating on keeping that camera because we can get about $60 for plus another $75 for old cell phones, which would make a nice amount for christmas presents for the kids. Heh not even going to say what's on my wish list, besides the photoshop upgrade, the new D90 from nikon, would be lovely that and some new lenses. Those will have to be wishes because my SB800 is no longer syncing with my camera, that's the priority. Why does all the good stuff come out at once?
Funky surprises today music wise. On Yo GabbaGabba they had the Birthday song from 16 Candles, the one by Altered Images, just not something I was expecting to hear on a kids show.And in the car this morning all of us were bopping along to Say Hey (I love You) by Michael Franti and Spearhead. Very infectious song. http://www.downloads.nl/results/mp3/1/Say+Hey+I+Love+You
Yesterday was bit unusual, Ken is actually leaning democrat this election. Actually he doesn't know which way to go, he's really waiting for the debates but he made a chart on what he feels are key points and is filling in how each canidate stands. In Field and Stream this month they had interviews with both canidates. Ken thought for sure McCain would come out ahead because F&S is for sportsmen and definately has an NRA leaning. But after reading it (he made me read it too) He felt like McCain was talking around the issues, primarily on land use and preservation, and environment. The only thing according to Ken, that he had going for him was the gun issue. Any true sportsman wants preservation of public lands and National parks because if those lands are gone so are the animals. After reading the article my feelings were just reinforced. I think the only good point McCain made was to restore the wetlands along the gulf coast because they would help control flooding after hurricanes. Anyway I can't believe it but this maybe the second presidention election where we'll be voting the same. (He couldn't in good consience re-elect Bush) Normally he votes party line straight down. I haven't done that in a long time. I vote based on canidates and don't base it on party. Must be the moderate in me.
Oh I disagree with the reps on a whole slew of issues but I think the dems try to do too much sometimes. I have yet to vote rep in a presidental race. usually it's the smaller local ones. I usually call myself north of center in terms of political leaning. I'm sure if you talked to a real rep they'd tell you I leaned dem. I grew up in NW PA which is very rep, hence the reason I escaped as soon as I was able. I think the reason I tend to be centerist is spending 15 years in the DC area four while in college, when I was forming a lot of world views. I see wrong being done by both sides and wish for a bit more compromise. Heh, my husband and I disagree on the whole gun thing but I know I won't change his mind and he won't change mine so we just let it go.
I just hope I can introduce my kids to all views/cultures and let them judge based on the values I raise them with. I love letting them listeno all sorts of music, which is partly why I like Backyardigans. It's funny because I have two friends who can't stand the show. One because she says it's too hip hop. My reaction was HUH? yes there are a couple of eps that are hip hop but there are just as many that are polka. The other says it's too ghetto, I just shake my head at that one, I must be a bit ghetto myself if that's the case.
9/29/2008
It just amazes me the difference even three weeks can make in a child. We started Quin in a program called Infants and Toddlers. It's run by our school district for children with developmental delays. Quin gets speech and occupational therapy classes three mornings a week he's also part of a music therapy class on an additional morning. They're really working on his fine motor skills and getting him to at least find non-vocal ways of communicating. I'm sure later on sign language will be taught but as the hand co-ordination isn't there yet we're finding other ways. Anyway he can now put together those simple wooden puzzles. He can stack rings and use one of those shape sorters. We're starting to work on wrist rotation, so those things will get easier. He makes eye contact now when he wants to continue a game. He'll bring things over to me, like his shoes, when he wants to go out. Or he'll go to the pantry and get out what snack he wants and give the bag to me. He's starting to imitate actions used in various song. He at least listens to instructions, sometimes actually following them, heh like most toddlers actually follow instructions when they don't want to. He such a brighter happier child as well lately, though the willfulness of being two has started as well.
Then there is Alex. He's finally been motivated to poop in the potty daily. He earns a star every time he does once he gets twenty he gets a prize. He's so motivated he's been trying to poop twice a day. Sometimes he actually does.What cracks me up are his descriptions of his poop. "I pooped a corn cob today mama." or "I pooped two carrots and a radish." This isn't actually what he ate but what they look like to him.
I had more to say but must go get Monkey boy from school run a few more errands before I leave for work. Which will be very dead tonight as the Ravens are playing the Steelers on Monday Night Football.
10/2/2008
Speaking of older siblings taking the younger one's new toys, that's exactly what happened here the last couple days. At Quinton's birthday party he didn't even get to open his own presents, Alex did. Quin is looking at his own presents like "Hey can I play with that?" We bought an 8x8 bouncer for his present. All the kids got to enjoy that Tuesday. I'm so happy the rain stayed away until after everyone left. 15 kids and 8 adults inside my house would have been nuts. Then yesterday evening when we opened his present from Aunt Su, the first person to play with it was Alex, of course.
Yesterday was Quin's 2 year doctor appointment. He's 28 lbs (I could swear he's heavier) and 35 inches tall. No shots this time but he did get the flu mist. Wwasn't real happy with that, but then he really hates going to the doctor. Our doctor said that even though he's making a lot of progress that we should set up and interview/evaluation with Kennedy Krieger, just to make sure he's getting all the services he needs. So I spent the afternoon on the phone with them. It loks like one of the doctors there is starting a program and Quin may be good for what they're doing, if not we'll have to wait possibly 6 months to get an evaluation from the CARD Center there. If that's the case one of the other pediatricians at our office will do the evaluation because he has a specialty in developmental delays. I swear sometimes he says actually words the problem is it's never when I'm focused on him so, I'm not sure if I heard right or if it's just wishful thinking on my part. Like he'll be in another room and in the midst of his babbling I'll hear a word, or in the morning when I'm still groggy I'll hear something. Ahh well.
I am so totaly geeked, last week was the announcement for CS4. I'm guessing the actual release will be in November. $199 for the upgrade, with my NAPP membership 160ish. I wish I could afford the entire standard design suite but to upgrade to that would be about $800. Not in the budget right now. Doesn't matter I will be absolutely happy to just get my hands on the new photoshop. Maybe I can talk my dad in to giving me the money for christmas, for the upgrade,not the suite. He's generous but not that generous.
So Alex was playing with my old fuji camera, he got some interesting shots. Debating on keeping that camera because we can get about $60 for plus another $75 for old cell phones, which would make a nice amount for christmas presents for the kids. Heh not even going to say what's on my wish list, besides the photoshop upgrade, the new D90 from nikon, would be lovely that and some new lenses. Those will have to be wishes because my SB800 is no longer syncing with my camera, that's the priority. Why does all the good stuff come out at once?
Sunday, September 14, 2008
No interent arrggghhh
So last Tuesday evening our internet went out. We had this same problem about a month ago after a very heavy rainstorm so I thought maybe that was causing a problem. Last time the day before Comcast was to come out we had our connection back so I cancelled. Well this time we were able to get an appointment much sooner. Turns out it was our splitter. We had our internet on an analog splitter with everything going digital by Feb 2009 they've been switching some stuff over early. And when they did that the analog didn't understand the signal so we go none. Since it was nothing we would have know about we won't be charged for this visit, and are up and running once more.
It's been a weekend for lots of house stuff we had to get the damper for the fireplace replaced. Which was relatively quick and painless. I think the guy was in and out in 20 minutes, he finished up before the rain let loose once more. Then Saturday was comcast followed by a guy giving us a price estimate on new windows. We're really trying to cut down on energy leakage from this house. In a couple weeks we'll be putting a couple more layers of insulation up in the attic. I know in a couple years we'll need to replace the roof, I really wish going solar didn't cost 10-15 thousand dollars because I do that in a heart beat if it was only a few thousand dollars more than a new roof.
Anyway I got back from a crazy evening at work, though the last hour and a half was easy (usually is Sunday nights) before that it was help one customer come back to the Customer service desk to three more. So knowing that you'll understand why I loved this artical I found tonight.
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1692453
It's been a weekend for lots of house stuff we had to get the damper for the fireplace replaced. Which was relatively quick and painless. I think the guy was in and out in 20 minutes, he finished up before the rain let loose once more. Then Saturday was comcast followed by a guy giving us a price estimate on new windows. We're really trying to cut down on energy leakage from this house. In a couple weeks we'll be putting a couple more layers of insulation up in the attic. I know in a couple years we'll need to replace the roof, I really wish going solar didn't cost 10-15 thousand dollars because I do that in a heart beat if it was only a few thousand dollars more than a new roof.
Anyway I got back from a crazy evening at work, though the last hour and a half was easy (usually is Sunday nights) before that it was help one customer come back to the Customer service desk to three more. So knowing that you'll understand why I loved this artical I found tonight.
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1692453
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Bad Blogger
Heh so I've been everywhere but my own blog for the last month. I think my problem is I have stuff I want to say, or get down but the process of typing it out is such a PITA. Luckily I semi keep up with my journal, that way I can pack post stuff. So August pretty much blew by. We went to a wedding in NJ on the 23rd. The week before that I came down with something not sure what. I had super painful gas, hot flashes then chills, and lightheadedness. Silly me took the kids out on a picnic that day, they had fun I was miserable. I got home put Quin down for a nap, Alex settled in the family room, then promptly passed out on the couch in the front room. Woke when Ken got home with every single muscle in my body aching. By dinner time my insides liquified. Went to bed after a bowl of soup, then only thing I ate all day. Woke the next morning feeling fine.
The wedding was fun. Seeing Ken and his buddies from college joking and teasing each other was great. Ken went into wedding photographer mode and took my camera ( he brought a little point and shoot). The couple did have a hired pro but there seemed to be several pros who were guests as well. There was a two hour break between the ceremony and reception a couple of the guys needed to get cards for the bride and groom so we hung out at the B&N in Clinton and chatted in the cafe before going on to Il Tulipano. I didn't realize that when the resturant holds a reception they use the entire restuarnt not just one ballroom. The cocktail hour was in the bar/ garden area. Dancing in dinner was up stairs in the main ball room and the dessert bar was in the other. We got some decent photos even though the charge on my SB-800 started dying early in the reception. Ken said he should have brought his battery pack. Anyway before we knew it , it was almost 11pm. So we got on the road and were home by 2:30. I called our babysitter as we were leaving to let her know what happened. Luckily after 8pm she doesn't have much to do.
So last week I was at my mom's with the boys. Kids this age really are ready to go home after 3-4 days. Quin at least is starting to remember places so he wasn't up until all hours crying like he was the last couple times we visited.
I'm liking school starting back up Alex comes home plays for an hour then passes out on the couch. He was so excitd yesterday to see his friends again. Though he did have a small break down when he found out he wasn't in the monkey room any more. Luckily his teach from the monkey room moved to the tiger room so he has that consistancy. I picked him up and his buddy Cole asked if Alex could come over to his house and stay the night. Guess his friends missed him too.
Next week Quin starts with the infant and toddlers program. Speech and Occupational therapy,three days a week for 90 minutes. He is making progress on his own in terms of parallel play and communicating by either taking my hand to guide me or getting things (like snacks) and handing them to me to open. I know he understands what we say because a couple times I've asked him something and I get a very emphatic shake of the head no.
Aug 6 2008
Proud moment yesterday My monkey boy got his first pair of Coverse All Stars. We'd gone out for a birthday party at a resturant in the mall on the way out there was a shoe store and Alex wanted to go in. He desperately needed new sneakers but he won't wear the slip ons we bought at the beginning of the summer. He wore holes in he toes of his current pair. So I said okay and we went in he's at an in between size, top end of the toddler sizes bottom end of the boys, so we have to really try on shoe. Not a lot of selection in the smaller size in this particular store so I go looking in boys and find I'm not quiet ready to pay 30+ on shoes for Alex. But they had the All Stars on sale and I loved mine all through high school and college. So I showed them to him and he tried them on. Wanted to wear them home. He was bouncing all over the place showing them off to everyone walking by. Makes a mom proud.
Aug 3, 2008
I’m still feeling a bit turned around and I’ve been home almost a week now. My flight to San Jose was at 6am Friday morning. Which means I left my house around 4 am. Everything was pretty uneventful going out. I got in around 11am CA time. So I was really early to the hotel check in wasn’t supposed to be until 3pm. I figured I would see if anything was ready anyway. Lucky me they did have something ready. As I was checking in a woman walked up to me and said “DSP?” So even before I went up to my room I was meeting new friends and was invited to lunch. I have to say I met some really great people on this trip. There was supposed to be a photowalk for a group of 40 of us or so at 4pm. But the ladies I went to lunch with suggested doing one of our own as we looked for a place to eat. We ended up at E&O Trading Company. The food was very good, a mix of asian styles. We even wandered over to the farmers market, wonderful fresh fruit. Got back to the hotel around 2:30 crashed for an hour before heading downstairs to meet up for the photo walk. That was a trip, it was cool though to meet many of the designers at DSP. There are a few I buy from on a regular basis I love their styles so much.
The photowalk was really fun. About 6pm everyone started breaking off into groups to go have dinner. We walked around a bit more after dinner then went back to the hotel. Sad to say I was still on EDT so fell asleep around 10pm, my normal time at home 1am.
I woke 4 hours later with a raging headache. I can’t say it was a migraine because my usual migraine solutions didn’t work. I think it was brought on by several things dehydration, and bright sunlight being contributing factors. The biggie was my neck being out of alignment probably from the flight and using carry-ons only. The only way that seemed to work once I drank about a gallon of water, was to lay on my back and hang my head over the edge of the bed. I got a little more rest then took a shower and headed down to meet my new friends for coffee and a bit of a walk before breakfast. We were told not to get to Adobe before 9am because they wouldn’t let us in until then.
You know it’s really hard to get a cup of coffee before 8am on a Saturday in San Jose. None of the Starbucks were open, and even the hotel didn’t have their complimentary coffee set up. We asked the night before what time they set up in the morning and were told 7am, not true. We gave up went for our walk then got breakfast in a little diner called Peggy Sues. We found it on the walk back to the hotel the evening before. Breakfast was fun we talked about how digital scrappers are either looked at funny by traditional scrappers or looked down on by techie types. You say you use photoshop and the techies perk up until you say you scrapbook. Which is why I say I’m a graphic artist when I’m talking to people I don’t really know.
Adobe was great I was one of two smaller groups that got to talk with the production managers for photoshop. There was a third group that spoke to the manager for elements.
At this point CS4 is in preliminary beta testing. This means they are starting to gather input for CS5, we got to be part of that. A lot of what we’re asking for is already part of other programs in the suite like Illustrator, In design and Lightroom. The thing is most scrapbookers, heh most people, don’t have the money for the entire suite. We were talking about how In Design would really make the better program for scrapbookers because it is a layout program, and you can do many vector things in it. The only problem is you can’t really do photo manipulation in it and would need to switch back and forth between programs. It was a good meeting and gave the adobe people some ideas to work with including going back and reworking some of the filters that haven’t been touched or updated in a long time. The other cool thing that happened, we got to meet one of the designers of that wonderful tool…… the healing brush. He was talking about how it was a cheaper version of plastic surgery. Most of the rest of the day was spent scrapping, chatting, watching tutorials including one on a video from Scott Kelby and the photoshop tv Guys, made specifically for us. Adobe really is a cool company. The building itself had won awards for being a green building and they have recycling bins everywhere. On top of that all the employees we met really seemed interested in what we do as well as our input into their product. That impressed me. We had to leave at about 9pm and walked back to the hotel. I set my wake up call for 4:15 and arranged for a cab to pick me up at 5am for my 6:40 flight.
My flight home was not as good as my flight out. The leg from San Jose to Atlanta wasn’t bad though we did have to circle the airport a couple times. Once because of head winds the second because another plane was too slow moving off the runway, that eliminated our early arrival of almost an hour. The trip from Atlanta to Baltimore, that was a hassle. My flight landed at gate B3, I had an hour and a half to get to A29 so from one end of the B concourse to the opposite end of the A concourse. Not a big deal, I’d have time to grab some lunch on the way. Well I get to A29 and sit down to start on my lunch and we’re notified that the plane we’re suppose to leave on will now be arriving at gate B1. I’m a bit annoyed at this point since I just came from there. I get back to the center of the air port and am just about ready to go down to the tram to get to the B Concourse when I hear part of an announcement for a gate change. All I heard was A29, so I decided to check the flight listing. We were moved back to gate A29. I’m swearing under my breath at this point, my backpack and laptop are getting heavy at this point. I got back to A29 now there is a ten minute delay for the flight. With in minutes it turns into a half hour delay because of thunderstorms in the B-more area, then the flight is put on hold completely for those same storms. The hold is lifted a few minutes later and boarding starts. We then sit on the tarmac for 45 minutes because we now have to be put back in the que to leave, our original flight window lost because of the delays. So I didn’t arrive in Baltimore until 7:40pm. Good thing I didn’t have to wait for luggage. Ken let the boys stay up until I got home so they could see me before bed.
Monday I had to work, Tuesday I spent getting caught up on laundry, Wednesday was grocery shopping. Ken got back in town Wednesday night. Yes, that’s right back in town. He left first thing Monday morning for a meeting in Arkansas. Thursday I took the kids to the County Farm Fair. They had lots of fun and crashed when we got home. YAY for me. Friday we went to see Ken’s mom. She had another stroke the weekend before we got so busy. Ken had gone up to see her that Saturday by himself because the kids wouldn’t be allowed in and I would have had to stay and watch them anyway. She’s now at the rehab and it’s much easier to have visitors. Quin does not like institutional type buildings, we think it’s the lighting. He just starts screaming and crying and trying to get away. Ken took the kids with him to work the Friday I was gone, because he’d forgotten a few things he’d need on his trip. Quin did the same thing then. Luckily the rehab has a very nice garden area, so we brought my MIL out there to spend time with the kids. Afterwards we took my FIL to lunch. It’s so funny, he gets such a big kick out of Quin, especially watching him eat.
Yesterday we had a graduation party to go to. I hadn’t read the actual invitation so I thought it was an afternoon BBQ and hadn’t arranged for a babysitter. This meant Thursday I made a panicked call to Amanda to see if she could “Please,Please,Please watch the boys” She said she had to work but she could be there a little after 7pm to watch them. Since the party started at seven, we figured that would be good, we’d only be a bit late. We got very lucky she called around 2pm, they’d over scheduled people and let her leave early since she’d been doing 12 hour days all week. That meant she could get to our house by 6pm and we could leave earlier. She’s so sweet, I’m so glad we found her, the boys love her.
The party was fun, the place it was held was not quite what we expected, very college bar like. Just knowing Ken’s coworker, who this was for, she got her Masters, she likes thinks to be very nice on the dressy side when she goes our or has a party. I guess someone else made all the arrangements. So we played some pool, laughed and talked. It was a nice way to chill.
The wedding was fun. Seeing Ken and his buddies from college joking and teasing each other was great. Ken went into wedding photographer mode and took my camera ( he brought a little point and shoot). The couple did have a hired pro but there seemed to be several pros who were guests as well. There was a two hour break between the ceremony and reception a couple of the guys needed to get cards for the bride and groom so we hung out at the B&N in Clinton and chatted in the cafe before going on to Il Tulipano. I didn't realize that when the resturant holds a reception they use the entire restuarnt not just one ballroom. The cocktail hour was in the bar/ garden area. Dancing in dinner was up stairs in the main ball room and the dessert bar was in the other. We got some decent photos even though the charge on my SB-800 started dying early in the reception. Ken said he should have brought his battery pack. Anyway before we knew it , it was almost 11pm. So we got on the road and were home by 2:30. I called our babysitter as we were leaving to let her know what happened. Luckily after 8pm she doesn't have much to do.
So last week I was at my mom's with the boys. Kids this age really are ready to go home after 3-4 days. Quin at least is starting to remember places so he wasn't up until all hours crying like he was the last couple times we visited.
I'm liking school starting back up Alex comes home plays for an hour then passes out on the couch. He was so excitd yesterday to see his friends again. Though he did have a small break down when he found out he wasn't in the monkey room any more. Luckily his teach from the monkey room moved to the tiger room so he has that consistancy. I picked him up and his buddy Cole asked if Alex could come over to his house and stay the night. Guess his friends missed him too.
Next week Quin starts with the infant and toddlers program. Speech and Occupational therapy,three days a week for 90 minutes. He is making progress on his own in terms of parallel play and communicating by either taking my hand to guide me or getting things (like snacks) and handing them to me to open. I know he understands what we say because a couple times I've asked him something and I get a very emphatic shake of the head no.
Aug 6 2008
Proud moment yesterday My monkey boy got his first pair of Coverse All Stars. We'd gone out for a birthday party at a resturant in the mall on the way out there was a shoe store and Alex wanted to go in. He desperately needed new sneakers but he won't wear the slip ons we bought at the beginning of the summer. He wore holes in he toes of his current pair. So I said okay and we went in he's at an in between size, top end of the toddler sizes bottom end of the boys, so we have to really try on shoe. Not a lot of selection in the smaller size in this particular store so I go looking in boys and find I'm not quiet ready to pay 30+ on shoes for Alex. But they had the All Stars on sale and I loved mine all through high school and college. So I showed them to him and he tried them on. Wanted to wear them home. He was bouncing all over the place showing them off to everyone walking by. Makes a mom proud.
Aug 3, 2008
I’m still feeling a bit turned around and I’ve been home almost a week now. My flight to San Jose was at 6am Friday morning. Which means I left my house around 4 am. Everything was pretty uneventful going out. I got in around 11am CA time. So I was really early to the hotel check in wasn’t supposed to be until 3pm. I figured I would see if anything was ready anyway. Lucky me they did have something ready. As I was checking in a woman walked up to me and said “DSP?” So even before I went up to my room I was meeting new friends and was invited to lunch. I have to say I met some really great people on this trip. There was supposed to be a photowalk for a group of 40 of us or so at 4pm. But the ladies I went to lunch with suggested doing one of our own as we looked for a place to eat. We ended up at E&O Trading Company. The food was very good, a mix of asian styles. We even wandered over to the farmers market, wonderful fresh fruit. Got back to the hotel around 2:30 crashed for an hour before heading downstairs to meet up for the photo walk. That was a trip, it was cool though to meet many of the designers at DSP. There are a few I buy from on a regular basis I love their styles so much.
The photowalk was really fun. About 6pm everyone started breaking off into groups to go have dinner. We walked around a bit more after dinner then went back to the hotel. Sad to say I was still on EDT so fell asleep around 10pm, my normal time at home 1am.
I woke 4 hours later with a raging headache. I can’t say it was a migraine because my usual migraine solutions didn’t work. I think it was brought on by several things dehydration, and bright sunlight being contributing factors. The biggie was my neck being out of alignment probably from the flight and using carry-ons only. The only way that seemed to work once I drank about a gallon of water, was to lay on my back and hang my head over the edge of the bed. I got a little more rest then took a shower and headed down to meet my new friends for coffee and a bit of a walk before breakfast. We were told not to get to Adobe before 9am because they wouldn’t let us in until then.
You know it’s really hard to get a cup of coffee before 8am on a Saturday in San Jose. None of the Starbucks were open, and even the hotel didn’t have their complimentary coffee set up. We asked the night before what time they set up in the morning and were told 7am, not true. We gave up went for our walk then got breakfast in a little diner called Peggy Sues. We found it on the walk back to the hotel the evening before. Breakfast was fun we talked about how digital scrappers are either looked at funny by traditional scrappers or looked down on by techie types. You say you use photoshop and the techies perk up until you say you scrapbook. Which is why I say I’m a graphic artist when I’m talking to people I don’t really know.
Adobe was great I was one of two smaller groups that got to talk with the production managers for photoshop. There was a third group that spoke to the manager for elements.
At this point CS4 is in preliminary beta testing. This means they are starting to gather input for CS5, we got to be part of that. A lot of what we’re asking for is already part of other programs in the suite like Illustrator, In design and Lightroom. The thing is most scrapbookers, heh most people, don’t have the money for the entire suite. We were talking about how In Design would really make the better program for scrapbookers because it is a layout program, and you can do many vector things in it. The only problem is you can’t really do photo manipulation in it and would need to switch back and forth between programs. It was a good meeting and gave the adobe people some ideas to work with including going back and reworking some of the filters that haven’t been touched or updated in a long time. The other cool thing that happened, we got to meet one of the designers of that wonderful tool…… the healing brush. He was talking about how it was a cheaper version of plastic surgery. Most of the rest of the day was spent scrapping, chatting, watching tutorials including one on a video from Scott Kelby and the photoshop tv Guys, made specifically for us. Adobe really is a cool company. The building itself had won awards for being a green building and they have recycling bins everywhere. On top of that all the employees we met really seemed interested in what we do as well as our input into their product. That impressed me. We had to leave at about 9pm and walked back to the hotel. I set my wake up call for 4:15 and arranged for a cab to pick me up at 5am for my 6:40 flight.
My flight home was not as good as my flight out. The leg from San Jose to Atlanta wasn’t bad though we did have to circle the airport a couple times. Once because of head winds the second because another plane was too slow moving off the runway, that eliminated our early arrival of almost an hour. The trip from Atlanta to Baltimore, that was a hassle. My flight landed at gate B3, I had an hour and a half to get to A29 so from one end of the B concourse to the opposite end of the A concourse. Not a big deal, I’d have time to grab some lunch on the way. Well I get to A29 and sit down to start on my lunch and we’re notified that the plane we’re suppose to leave on will now be arriving at gate B1. I’m a bit annoyed at this point since I just came from there. I get back to the center of the air port and am just about ready to go down to the tram to get to the B Concourse when I hear part of an announcement for a gate change. All I heard was A29, so I decided to check the flight listing. We were moved back to gate A29. I’m swearing under my breath at this point, my backpack and laptop are getting heavy at this point. I got back to A29 now there is a ten minute delay for the flight. With in minutes it turns into a half hour delay because of thunderstorms in the B-more area, then the flight is put on hold completely for those same storms. The hold is lifted a few minutes later and boarding starts. We then sit on the tarmac for 45 minutes because we now have to be put back in the que to leave, our original flight window lost because of the delays. So I didn’t arrive in Baltimore until 7:40pm. Good thing I didn’t have to wait for luggage. Ken let the boys stay up until I got home so they could see me before bed.
Monday I had to work, Tuesday I spent getting caught up on laundry, Wednesday was grocery shopping. Ken got back in town Wednesday night. Yes, that’s right back in town. He left first thing Monday morning for a meeting in Arkansas. Thursday I took the kids to the County Farm Fair. They had lots of fun and crashed when we got home. YAY for me. Friday we went to see Ken’s mom. She had another stroke the weekend before we got so busy. Ken had gone up to see her that Saturday by himself because the kids wouldn’t be allowed in and I would have had to stay and watch them anyway. She’s now at the rehab and it’s much easier to have visitors. Quin does not like institutional type buildings, we think it’s the lighting. He just starts screaming and crying and trying to get away. Ken took the kids with him to work the Friday I was gone, because he’d forgotten a few things he’d need on his trip. Quin did the same thing then. Luckily the rehab has a very nice garden area, so we brought my MIL out there to spend time with the kids. Afterwards we took my FIL to lunch. It’s so funny, he gets such a big kick out of Quin, especially watching him eat.
Yesterday we had a graduation party to go to. I hadn’t read the actual invitation so I thought it was an afternoon BBQ and hadn’t arranged for a babysitter. This meant Thursday I made a panicked call to Amanda to see if she could “Please,Please,Please watch the boys” She said she had to work but she could be there a little after 7pm to watch them. Since the party started at seven, we figured that would be good, we’d only be a bit late. We got very lucky she called around 2pm, they’d over scheduled people and let her leave early since she’d been doing 12 hour days all week. That meant she could get to our house by 6pm and we could leave earlier. She’s so sweet, I’m so glad we found her, the boys love her.
The party was fun, the place it was held was not quite what we expected, very college bar like. Just knowing Ken’s coworker, who this was for, she got her Masters, she likes thinks to be very nice on the dressy side when she goes our or has a party. I guess someone else made all the arrangements. So we played some pool, laughed and talked. It was a nice way to chill.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Will I ever Keep up?
june 19,2008
You know your child is head to geekdom when
1) He insists on wearing socks with sandals
2)Puts his underwear on his head (imitating his uncle David)
3) His favorite new videos are the Multiplication Rock from the school house rock series, you know the ones when we were kids. Though he does like Lolly Lolly Lolly get your Adverbs, and Electricity Electricity too. Goes around singing those all the time now.
june 20,2008
yesterday was pure luck on naps at the same time.
I can get Alex to nap once every three days at this point. Quin never got rid of his morning nap. I can push it back somedays from 11 to 12:30-1:00 but usually he's ready by 10:30-11:00. If Alex takes a nap it's after 1:00. So sometimes there is a half hour overlap most times it ends up being one on one time for me and the kids. Quin naps 2 hours max most of the time but then he sleeps 11-12 hours at night so I really can't expect more. Alex when he does nap is out 3 hours but he sleep 8 1/2-10 hours at night. Yeterday Quin woke late, after 8am so he wasn't ready for a nap until we started lunch at noon. After I got him settled I gave Alex some craft time then told him he had to turn off the TV and rest, he was out ten minutes later. His nap was short just over two hours while Quin's went long at almost three. So it was a little out of tthe ordinary for both.
Then of course both had nightmares last night. At least with Quin all I have to do is bring him downstairs for 5-10 minutes in the vibrating rocker then he's ready to go back to bed. Alex on the other hand I have to calm down. Last night he was screaming about wanting to watch Phineas and Ferb. Luckily in his half wake state I was able to calm down with a promise to check when/if it was on today. Somenights are not so easy. And it's even worse when he gets nose bleed.
I forgot to mention date night wednesday got postponed until next week. Ken has a pesentation today, in Utah. His boss was suppose to go over the slide show over the weekend. He didn't then he told Ken Tuesday as he was leaveing they needed some major revisions. So he had to stay late wednesday to fix that because the flight was a buttcrack Thursday morning. Since Amanda was coming anyway to take the boys for a little toy shopping and ice cream (treat for Alex consistantly using the potty) I love Amanda, we were so lucky to find her. It's so nice to have a sitter you can count on. So I took the opportunity to go over to the gym. I have been taking a dance aerobics class the last few weeks. Though I get there and find out it was cancelled, the instructor's daughters had a dress rehersal for their recital. I spent 45 minutes on the bike instead. And I figured out that treadmills are really hard for short people unless yu have the co-ordination to us it without hanging on (I don't) because the arms rests/ are at an akward height when standing upright if you're under 5'6".
june 29,2008
SO a short update before we leave for TN, where I'll most likely have no internet access. Heh I can't even use my cell phone until we get out to the main highway. I think the only way my dad can get high speed access would be satelite and there is no way he's shelling out for that. Dial up won't cut it.
Yesterday was a crazy day. We went down to the inner harbor to meet up with family for lunch. My cousin's Kerrie and Becky were up visiting (both their mom and dad have family in MD) with their kids. So my aunt Pat arranged for everyone meet and go to the Aquarium. We decided not to do that part because we had a birthday party/playgroup BBQ to go to at 4pm and needed to bring certain food items. We needed the morning to prep that. Combined with the aquarium would ahve cost us $60 and we'll be spending $300 minimum for gas to and from TN. Not in the budget.
We had lunch at the Hard Rock out on their deck because it would have been a 20 minute wait to be seated inside. Luckily with the storms rolling in there was a nice breeze. I think there were 15 of us; Kerrie and her son, Becky and her two, Justin, his wife and their two girls, Katie and Doug and their two girls, Patty, my mom and us. Quin slept through lunch, and all Alex would eat was chips. Once we got home I had to feed them. We loaded up the car and headed over to Jen's for the BBQ. The kids had a great time I don't think they ate a single thing that was good for them. Ken was grill master once more. One of the other dad's, Brian told me if I ever divorced Ken he'd marry him. I think by the end of the night there might have been two of Ken's almost famous wings left, and several burgers and dogs. Quin found the water slide before any of the kids, so he was playing with the water that pooled at the bottom. Once the other kids started going down it he stood at the bottom and laughed everytime he got splashed and/or knocked down.
I just had to go up recover Quin's tooth brush for him. Since he started getting in his second year molars he needs a tooth brush to chew on to go to sleep. Could be worse things, I suppose. Occasionally as he drifts off it drops out of the crib, this wakes him and he starts crying. So mom must run upstairs recover toothbrush, rinse it off and hand it back to him. As soon as he has it in his hands he curls back up to go to sleep.
July 8,2008
Learn something about your kids all the time. It's amazing how different they can be. This trip to TN taught me that it doesn't matter what time Quin goes to bed he'll wake up about twelve hours later. So if I put him to bed at 8 he'll wake at 8. I now realize this is why he was up at 6:30 every morning, he was going to be at 6:30 every night. Why? because that's what we did with Alex when he was that age. No matter what time he went to bed he was up at 6:00 am. So if I wanted more free time it was better to get him in bed earlier.
The result of this is Alex is going to bed before Quin now, of course he's not taking a nap very often either.
I think it's going to be easier to get Alex night trained than it will be to get him to actually poop in a potty. 3 days out of 4 he wakes up dry and is still dry an hour later when I help him get dressed. I don't even bother with a pull up on the days he does take a nap. But man, I would just love if once just once he'd actually poop in a potty. Not sure how to motivate him on this.
Quin had a bunch of achievements this week. He learned to crawl up the stairs. Getting down is still a problem but up certainly isn't. He also started the "he's touching me/I'm not touching you" teasing. I was hoping they'd be a couple years older before this started. It was cracking Ken and me up. What he does is swing his leg over the arm of his seat and wave his foot at Alex. This of course sets him off and he's yelling an whining for Quin to stop. The he starts pushing the foot away. Quin brings it right back giggling the whole time because to him it's a game to relieve his boredom. I told Alex to ignore him and it would stop, because it's not fun if there isn't a reaction. Ken just shook his head no way that was gonna happen. Alex can't ignore anything unless it's something he doesn't want to do.
We have skin sensitivites in this family. I have to be very careful what I use or I get a rash/hives. Heh, I just found a shower gel I can use everyday a couple months ago. In most cases if I can use it my kids are okay with it. So I found a new sunblock and it works really well on me and Alex. Quin was not so lucky. The problem was I first tried it on him Saturday when we were at the party. He spent most of the afternoon playing in the water at the bottom of the slide and there were mosquitoes everywhere. So when I noticed Sunday there were only three-four bumps on his calves and thought they were bug bites. We weren't outside for any length of time until Tuesday. Well Tuesday night they were all up and down his legs and arms. Making for one miserable boy. Benedryl cream to the rescue. So now I have to find something new for him. I'll see if I can find california baby around here.
You know your child is head to geekdom when
1) He insists on wearing socks with sandals
2)Puts his underwear on his head (imitating his uncle David)
3) His favorite new videos are the Multiplication Rock from the school house rock series, you know the ones when we were kids. Though he does like Lolly Lolly Lolly get your Adverbs, and Electricity Electricity too. Goes around singing those all the time now.
june 20,2008
yesterday was pure luck on naps at the same time.
I can get Alex to nap once every three days at this point. Quin never got rid of his morning nap. I can push it back somedays from 11 to 12:30-1:00 but usually he's ready by 10:30-11:00. If Alex takes a nap it's after 1:00. So sometimes there is a half hour overlap most times it ends up being one on one time for me and the kids. Quin naps 2 hours max most of the time but then he sleeps 11-12 hours at night so I really can't expect more. Alex when he does nap is out 3 hours but he sleep 8 1/2-10 hours at night. Yeterday Quin woke late, after 8am so he wasn't ready for a nap until we started lunch at noon. After I got him settled I gave Alex some craft time then told him he had to turn off the TV and rest, he was out ten minutes later. His nap was short just over two hours while Quin's went long at almost three. So it was a little out of tthe ordinary for both.
Then of course both had nightmares last night. At least with Quin all I have to do is bring him downstairs for 5-10 minutes in the vibrating rocker then he's ready to go back to bed. Alex on the other hand I have to calm down. Last night he was screaming about wanting to watch Phineas and Ferb. Luckily in his half wake state I was able to calm down with a promise to check when/if it was on today. Somenights are not so easy. And it's even worse when he gets nose bleed.
I forgot to mention date night wednesday got postponed until next week. Ken has a pesentation today, in Utah. His boss was suppose to go over the slide show over the weekend. He didn't then he told Ken Tuesday as he was leaveing they needed some major revisions. So he had to stay late wednesday to fix that because the flight was a buttcrack Thursday morning. Since Amanda was coming anyway to take the boys for a little toy shopping and ice cream (treat for Alex consistantly using the potty) I love Amanda, we were so lucky to find her. It's so nice to have a sitter you can count on. So I took the opportunity to go over to the gym. I have been taking a dance aerobics class the last few weeks. Though I get there and find out it was cancelled, the instructor's daughters had a dress rehersal for their recital. I spent 45 minutes on the bike instead. And I figured out that treadmills are really hard for short people unless yu have the co-ordination to us it without hanging on (I don't) because the arms rests/ are at an akward height when standing upright if you're under 5'6".
june 29,2008
SO a short update before we leave for TN, where I'll most likely have no internet access. Heh I can't even use my cell phone until we get out to the main highway. I think the only way my dad can get high speed access would be satelite and there is no way he's shelling out for that. Dial up won't cut it.
Yesterday was a crazy day. We went down to the inner harbor to meet up with family for lunch. My cousin's Kerrie and Becky were up visiting (both their mom and dad have family in MD) with their kids. So my aunt Pat arranged for everyone meet and go to the Aquarium. We decided not to do that part because we had a birthday party/playgroup BBQ to go to at 4pm and needed to bring certain food items. We needed the morning to prep that. Combined with the aquarium would ahve cost us $60 and we'll be spending $300 minimum for gas to and from TN. Not in the budget.
We had lunch at the Hard Rock out on their deck because it would have been a 20 minute wait to be seated inside. Luckily with the storms rolling in there was a nice breeze. I think there were 15 of us; Kerrie and her son, Becky and her two, Justin, his wife and their two girls, Katie and Doug and their two girls, Patty, my mom and us. Quin slept through lunch, and all Alex would eat was chips. Once we got home I had to feed them. We loaded up the car and headed over to Jen's for the BBQ. The kids had a great time I don't think they ate a single thing that was good for them. Ken was grill master once more. One of the other dad's, Brian told me if I ever divorced Ken he'd marry him. I think by the end of the night there might have been two of Ken's almost famous wings left, and several burgers and dogs. Quin found the water slide before any of the kids, so he was playing with the water that pooled at the bottom. Once the other kids started going down it he stood at the bottom and laughed everytime he got splashed and/or knocked down.
I just had to go up recover Quin's tooth brush for him. Since he started getting in his second year molars he needs a tooth brush to chew on to go to sleep. Could be worse things, I suppose. Occasionally as he drifts off it drops out of the crib, this wakes him and he starts crying. So mom must run upstairs recover toothbrush, rinse it off and hand it back to him. As soon as he has it in his hands he curls back up to go to sleep.
July 8,2008
Learn something about your kids all the time. It's amazing how different they can be. This trip to TN taught me that it doesn't matter what time Quin goes to bed he'll wake up about twelve hours later. So if I put him to bed at 8 he'll wake at 8. I now realize this is why he was up at 6:30 every morning, he was going to be at 6:30 every night. Why? because that's what we did with Alex when he was that age. No matter what time he went to bed he was up at 6:00 am. So if I wanted more free time it was better to get him in bed earlier.
The result of this is Alex is going to bed before Quin now, of course he's not taking a nap very often either.
I think it's going to be easier to get Alex night trained than it will be to get him to actually poop in a potty. 3 days out of 4 he wakes up dry and is still dry an hour later when I help him get dressed. I don't even bother with a pull up on the days he does take a nap. But man, I would just love if once just once he'd actually poop in a potty. Not sure how to motivate him on this.
Quin had a bunch of achievements this week. He learned to crawl up the stairs. Getting down is still a problem but up certainly isn't. He also started the "he's touching me/I'm not touching you" teasing. I was hoping they'd be a couple years older before this started. It was cracking Ken and me up. What he does is swing his leg over the arm of his seat and wave his foot at Alex. This of course sets him off and he's yelling an whining for Quin to stop. The he starts pushing the foot away. Quin brings it right back giggling the whole time because to him it's a game to relieve his boredom. I told Alex to ignore him and it would stop, because it's not fun if there isn't a reaction. Ken just shook his head no way that was gonna happen. Alex can't ignore anything unless it's something he doesn't want to do.
We have skin sensitivites in this family. I have to be very careful what I use or I get a rash/hives. Heh, I just found a shower gel I can use everyday a couple months ago. In most cases if I can use it my kids are okay with it. So I found a new sunblock and it works really well on me and Alex. Quin was not so lucky. The problem was I first tried it on him Saturday when we were at the party. He spent most of the afternoon playing in the water at the bottom of the slide and there were mosquitoes everywhere. So when I noticed Sunday there were only three-four bumps on his calves and thought they were bug bites. We weren't outside for any length of time until Tuesday. Well Tuesday night they were all up and down his legs and arms. Making for one miserable boy. Benedryl cream to the rescue. So now I have to find something new for him. I'll see if I can find california baby around here.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
catching up once more
May 22, 2008
I keep going back and forth about how much I'm going to worry about Quin's developmental delays. Some days I really worry, did I do something? Or not do something? Should I get him tested for autism? Then I see him playing next to his brother, fighting and laughing with him. Stopping to sit down and look at a book. Giggle as I read to him. Give me a look after I think he's done with lunch that says "hey where's the rest?" Come from another room just to give my knees a hug. When I see these things I think oh he just has his own schedule on what he wants to learn The teacher from infants and toddlers, who started working with us, teaches a music class for children with developmental delays, including those with spectrum disorders. She invited us to join her last two classes for the spring. (there won't be any during the summer). We went to one yesterday. Quin really enjoyed it, let me help him do some of the motions for the songs. He seems to respond very well when there is music. So I have a feeling we'll be using that more to encourage communication skills.
She gave me a few things to work on last week during her home visit. One suggestion since he enjoys eating, was to take a picture of him in his highchair, laminate it. When it is meal time hand him the photo repeating several times "Quinton time to eat" Then take his hand and walk him to his highchair. It didn't take long before as soon as I hand him the photo and say "Quinton time to eat" he'd take the photo walk to his chair and set the picture on the tray then raise his arms to be lifted up. Mostly we were working on this as a way of getting him to respond to his name. We're also supposed to offer him choices, food, toys, what ever, getting him to participate and engage with others.
So all this is going on and we're trying to get the house in order for the weekend. Ken got the main part of the backsplash up. The area behind the microwave can wait. He also patched, primed and painted the walls in the front hall. Mother's day weekend he trimmed all the tree branches. Tomorrow he'll be powerwashing the outside of the house. I've been cleaning, vacuuming and trying to just generally purge stuff from the house. Heh I have a bag of baby clothes and books to send home with my mom this weekend. The clothes she'll give to my aunt, to give to my cousin for his baby boy. The books will go to the library she's a board member of.
Now I just have get together a bag of ripped torn clothes to go for fabric recycling. Our county has an place that accepts electronics and fabrics for recycling in addition to traditional recycling of thing like paper, yard waste, plastic, metal and glass. That's where all Alex's pants with torn out knees will go as soon as I can convince him to wear shorts. Heh I can't even convince him to wear short sleeved shirts yet. He will be the kid wearing socks with sandals this summer.
June 14,2008
Not too much going on here. We went cold turkey with Alex and potty training last weekend of May. Now this is the second time we've tried this. The first time was about a year ago and he would just pee where ever he stood, didn't matter if he was dressed or naked. He just couldn't be bothered to stop what ever he was doing to go potty even though I had him on a timer. It seems to be working this time. We started with every half hour the first week. I also told him if he wet his pants he'd get a new pair of underwear but not new pants/shorts. A second time he'd be stuck in his wet underwear. If he made it to the potty three times after that he could have dry clothes again. With in a couple days he was at least trying every time the timer went off. We stretched the time out and now we're at every hour/hour and a half and a couple times he's actually taken the initiative and gone on his own before the timer went off. Most mornings he's waking with a dry pull up but I'm not going to worry about night time yet. Next step is poop.
I think the reason it's working this time is because he's interested in certain activities like t-ball (next spring) and swimming lessons and I told him they don't let kids who can't use the potty do those things. I think that and the peer pressure at school and in playgroup are finally working in our favor. Al the kids in our play group are potty trained and have been for a year, half of them aren't even 4 yet. And several of the younger set 2-21/2 year olds are starting. He's a smart kid I think he's figuring out this isn't the way to still get babied.
I need to make an appointment for Quin with an opthamologist, just one more thing to eliminate in terms of reasons for the developmental delay. My mom had mentioned while she was visiting, that our family has a tendency to be farsighted. We have noticed that he has a bigger emotional reaction to stuff the farther away he is. Not sure it's a real big difference but it may be just enough that he isn't making the connection between words and objects.
Ken had an interesting conversation with his sister the other night. She'd recently been to a conference on learning styles (she's a trainer for Xerox). There are two main styles experimental and contextual (I think, have to talk to Ken to confirm) We all have both styles to one degre or another. It's just more apparent with people at either end. Basically we figured Alex tends to be a contextual learner. He just absorbs information, by seeing and hearing and practicing he makes connections between things very quickly. Tell him something once or twice and he knows it. Show him how something works like basic addition/subtraction and he understands and starts playing with it on his own.
Experimental learners don't always do well with tests and books, but once they find their niche they are the best at what they do because they know it backwards and forwards. It's starting to look like Quin is more of an experimental learner. He examines everything, picks it up and looks at is from all angles. When he first started playing with cars he'd see how they work by rolling them on the floor, then at waist level then at eye level then on something taller than him. After that he's try different surfaces, smooth, soft, bumpy. I'm starting to think this combined with the second child tendency to do things later because the older one does things for them is some of the reason for his delays.
He's still not really reacting to his own name but he is starting to bring me toys to look at. He's also starting to copy what Alex does as he plays. He wants to play next to Alex or watch him while he plays a lot mre now too. His new favorite song is Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes I have to help him with the motions but after I help him he grabs my hands and does the same motions.
Last night/today has not been a good day. I spend an hour with Quin because he had a tummy ache. I just rubbed his back and belly, he acted a couple times like he was going to throw up. I was even trying to encourage him, just so he wouldn't be in pain but he swallowed it right back down. Finally he burped a couple times and ten minuted later farted. After that he wanted to go back to bed. Then at 5 am Alex wakes up screaming at the top of his lungs that he needs to brush his teeth. Now we brushed his teeth before bed, he didn't want to do it himself so I did it for him (he goes back and forth between brushing his own teeth and having an adult help) I was so pissed but I got everyhting ready for him and let him brush his teeth on his own. Now because he was carrying on so loudly Quin woke again. Quin has a temper, takes a while to set it off but once he's lost it he gets a bit violent. I went in to settle him down and he was fine while I was there until he realized that I wasn't going to pick him up and take him downstairs, then he threw himself down kicking and screaming. I just walked out and closed the door. He screamed for another 5 minutes. I packed Alex back into his room and told him he couldn't get up and go downstairs until 7am.
Since summer started he's been getting up and quietly going downstairs to play and watch tv between 6-6:30. For the last year he had been getting up but playing quietly in his room until 7am then getting me up to go downstairs. Either way it is kind of nice because I don't have to actually get up when he gets up in the morning. So today I've had to cranky whiny children, I'm pretty cranky myself from interupted sleep, not a good combo. Hoping they both take long naps.
I keep going back and forth about how much I'm going to worry about Quin's developmental delays. Some days I really worry, did I do something? Or not do something? Should I get him tested for autism? Then I see him playing next to his brother, fighting and laughing with him. Stopping to sit down and look at a book. Giggle as I read to him. Give me a look after I think he's done with lunch that says "hey where's the rest?" Come from another room just to give my knees a hug. When I see these things I think oh he just has his own schedule on what he wants to learn The teacher from infants and toddlers, who started working with us, teaches a music class for children with developmental delays, including those with spectrum disorders. She invited us to join her last two classes for the spring. (there won't be any during the summer). We went to one yesterday. Quin really enjoyed it, let me help him do some of the motions for the songs. He seems to respond very well when there is music. So I have a feeling we'll be using that more to encourage communication skills.
She gave me a few things to work on last week during her home visit. One suggestion since he enjoys eating, was to take a picture of him in his highchair, laminate it. When it is meal time hand him the photo repeating several times "Quinton time to eat" Then take his hand and walk him to his highchair. It didn't take long before as soon as I hand him the photo and say "Quinton time to eat" he'd take the photo walk to his chair and set the picture on the tray then raise his arms to be lifted up. Mostly we were working on this as a way of getting him to respond to his name. We're also supposed to offer him choices, food, toys, what ever, getting him to participate and engage with others.
So all this is going on and we're trying to get the house in order for the weekend. Ken got the main part of the backsplash up. The area behind the microwave can wait. He also patched, primed and painted the walls in the front hall. Mother's day weekend he trimmed all the tree branches. Tomorrow he'll be powerwashing the outside of the house. I've been cleaning, vacuuming and trying to just generally purge stuff from the house. Heh I have a bag of baby clothes and books to send home with my mom this weekend. The clothes she'll give to my aunt, to give to my cousin for his baby boy. The books will go to the library she's a board member of.
Now I just have get together a bag of ripped torn clothes to go for fabric recycling. Our county has an place that accepts electronics and fabrics for recycling in addition to traditional recycling of thing like paper, yard waste, plastic, metal and glass. That's where all Alex's pants with torn out knees will go as soon as I can convince him to wear shorts. Heh I can't even convince him to wear short sleeved shirts yet. He will be the kid wearing socks with sandals this summer.
June 14,2008
Not too much going on here. We went cold turkey with Alex and potty training last weekend of May. Now this is the second time we've tried this. The first time was about a year ago and he would just pee where ever he stood, didn't matter if he was dressed or naked. He just couldn't be bothered to stop what ever he was doing to go potty even though I had him on a timer. It seems to be working this time. We started with every half hour the first week. I also told him if he wet his pants he'd get a new pair of underwear but not new pants/shorts. A second time he'd be stuck in his wet underwear. If he made it to the potty three times after that he could have dry clothes again. With in a couple days he was at least trying every time the timer went off. We stretched the time out and now we're at every hour/hour and a half and a couple times he's actually taken the initiative and gone on his own before the timer went off. Most mornings he's waking with a dry pull up but I'm not going to worry about night time yet. Next step is poop.
I think the reason it's working this time is because he's interested in certain activities like t-ball (next spring) and swimming lessons and I told him they don't let kids who can't use the potty do those things. I think that and the peer pressure at school and in playgroup are finally working in our favor. Al the kids in our play group are potty trained and have been for a year, half of them aren't even 4 yet. And several of the younger set 2-21/2 year olds are starting. He's a smart kid I think he's figuring out this isn't the way to still get babied.
I need to make an appointment for Quin with an opthamologist, just one more thing to eliminate in terms of reasons for the developmental delay. My mom had mentioned while she was visiting, that our family has a tendency to be farsighted. We have noticed that he has a bigger emotional reaction to stuff the farther away he is. Not sure it's a real big difference but it may be just enough that he isn't making the connection between words and objects.
Ken had an interesting conversation with his sister the other night. She'd recently been to a conference on learning styles (she's a trainer for Xerox). There are two main styles experimental and contextual (I think, have to talk to Ken to confirm) We all have both styles to one degre or another. It's just more apparent with people at either end. Basically we figured Alex tends to be a contextual learner. He just absorbs information, by seeing and hearing and practicing he makes connections between things very quickly. Tell him something once or twice and he knows it. Show him how something works like basic addition/subtraction and he understands and starts playing with it on his own.
Experimental learners don't always do well with tests and books, but once they find their niche they are the best at what they do because they know it backwards and forwards. It's starting to look like Quin is more of an experimental learner. He examines everything, picks it up and looks at is from all angles. When he first started playing with cars he'd see how they work by rolling them on the floor, then at waist level then at eye level then on something taller than him. After that he's try different surfaces, smooth, soft, bumpy. I'm starting to think this combined with the second child tendency to do things later because the older one does things for them is some of the reason for his delays.
He's still not really reacting to his own name but he is starting to bring me toys to look at. He's also starting to copy what Alex does as he plays. He wants to play next to Alex or watch him while he plays a lot mre now too. His new favorite song is Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes I have to help him with the motions but after I help him he grabs my hands and does the same motions.
Last night/today has not been a good day. I spend an hour with Quin because he had a tummy ache. I just rubbed his back and belly, he acted a couple times like he was going to throw up. I was even trying to encourage him, just so he wouldn't be in pain but he swallowed it right back down. Finally he burped a couple times and ten minuted later farted. After that he wanted to go back to bed. Then at 5 am Alex wakes up screaming at the top of his lungs that he needs to brush his teeth. Now we brushed his teeth before bed, he didn't want to do it himself so I did it for him (he goes back and forth between brushing his own teeth and having an adult help) I was so pissed but I got everyhting ready for him and let him brush his teeth on his own. Now because he was carrying on so loudly Quin woke again. Quin has a temper, takes a while to set it off but once he's lost it he gets a bit violent. I went in to settle him down and he was fine while I was there until he realized that I wasn't going to pick him up and take him downstairs, then he threw himself down kicking and screaming. I just walked out and closed the door. He screamed for another 5 minutes. I packed Alex back into his room and told him he couldn't get up and go downstairs until 7am.
Since summer started he's been getting up and quietly going downstairs to play and watch tv between 6-6:30. For the last year he had been getting up but playing quietly in his room until 7am then getting me up to go downstairs. Either way it is kind of nice because I don't have to actually get up when he gets up in the morning. So today I've had to cranky whiny children, I'm pretty cranky myself from interupted sleep, not a good combo. Hoping they both take long naps.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Mother's Day
This past week was no big deal until the end of the week. Wednesday we spent most of the day at Longwood Gardens. I had to leave by 2:00 because it’s an hour home and I had my yearly visit to the gyn at 4:30. Fun fun. The nurse who took my vitals was surprised I spent the day running around then came to the appointment. Then she thought about it a moment and said. “I guess this is kind of a vacation.” A bit. Next came the normal questions.
“Do you smoke ?”
“no”
“Do you drink ?”
“occasionally”
“Tonight ?”
“yes”
Everything looks normal, it was time for another pap smear, every three years now. It’s also time for another mammogram, o joy. Need to call for that appointment.
Thursday I got a fun e-mail. A producer from food network wanted to know if we wanted to have our cake shown on Ace of Cakes. Kind of left me a bit giddy. They wanted the backstory on the design.
The idea for the cake just started with monkey's and cameras. My husband is Chinese and 1968 was the year of the monkey. SO we're both monkeys, our oldest son was born in the year of the monkey as well. Until our younger son was born we were a house full of monkeys. My husband and I met through photography. He's a wedding photographer, I'm a pretty good amatuer especially with kids, my own plus their friends. Between us we've got more than 40 years experience with photography. My husband hobby jumps he's gotten back into trains because both our boys love them. He spent the winter building a HO scale track in our basement, so I threw in the idea of having him and the boys riding in an engine with me chasing them with a camera.
Friday Ken and I moved all the furniture out of the dining room, so we could get that mopped. Then I took the kids over to visit one of Alex’s best buddies. While we were out Ken put down a layer of linseed oil on the floor. Came home around 2:00 and put Quin down for a nap. Let Alex have a snack then he went down for one too. While they were both sleeping we moved all the furniture back slightly rearranged.
Saturday Ken had a wedding so I did laundry as my cold came on full fledged. Actually I felt it starting Friday night, the nodes on the right side of my neck were sore. I even went to bed early, that means I wasn’t feeling well. By this morning most of the scratchiness in my throat was gone but I’m completely congested. I didn’t really get a break from the kids. We got a break in the rain so Ken was out getting the yard ready. We really only have one more weekend to get everything in order before the party. No rest for the weary, especially since Quin decided he didn’t really want to take a nap. I barely got a shower in. I called into word, I’m hoping today was the worst of it and I can go in tomorrow.
Oh and my favorite new book, I saw this last week and have already gifted it to someone. If you have little boys it’s perfect. Little Boy It made me laugh as tears welled up in my eyes. It’s just as sweet in its own way as her other book SomeDay
“Do you smoke ?”
“no”
“Do you drink ?”
“occasionally”
“Tonight ?”
“yes”
Everything looks normal, it was time for another pap smear, every three years now. It’s also time for another mammogram, o joy. Need to call for that appointment.
Thursday I got a fun e-mail. A producer from food network wanted to know if we wanted to have our cake shown on Ace of Cakes. Kind of left me a bit giddy. They wanted the backstory on the design.
The idea for the cake just started with monkey's and cameras. My husband is Chinese and 1968 was the year of the monkey. SO we're both monkeys, our oldest son was born in the year of the monkey as well. Until our younger son was born we were a house full of monkeys. My husband and I met through photography. He's a wedding photographer, I'm a pretty good amatuer especially with kids, my own plus their friends. Between us we've got more than 40 years experience with photography. My husband hobby jumps he's gotten back into trains because both our boys love them. He spent the winter building a HO scale track in our basement, so I threw in the idea of having him and the boys riding in an engine with me chasing them with a camera.
Friday Ken and I moved all the furniture out of the dining room, so we could get that mopped. Then I took the kids over to visit one of Alex’s best buddies. While we were out Ken put down a layer of linseed oil on the floor. Came home around 2:00 and put Quin down for a nap. Let Alex have a snack then he went down for one too. While they were both sleeping we moved all the furniture back slightly rearranged.
Saturday Ken had a wedding so I did laundry as my cold came on full fledged. Actually I felt it starting Friday night, the nodes on the right side of my neck were sore. I even went to bed early, that means I wasn’t feeling well. By this morning most of the scratchiness in my throat was gone but I’m completely congested. I didn’t really get a break from the kids. We got a break in the rain so Ken was out getting the yard ready. We really only have one more weekend to get everything in order before the party. No rest for the weary, especially since Quin decided he didn’t really want to take a nap. I barely got a shower in. I called into word, I’m hoping today was the worst of it and I can go in tomorrow.
Oh and my favorite new book, I saw this last week and have already gifted it to someone. If you have little boys it’s perfect. Little Boy It made me laugh as tears welled up in my eyes. It’s just as sweet in its own way as her other book SomeDay
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
End of April catch up
Not much going on here. Seems like Ken and I have hit the same "I don't want to do anything" rut. Don't want to work on the house, most especially the kitchen, don't want to do the usual hobbies, don't want to do anything that involves thought. Now I don't mind hanging around outside watching the kids play in this wonderful weather. But once they're in bed I'm kind of veging with real arcade games. Ken's been watching lots of You Tube.
I finally got my hair cut last Tuesday. I compromised, I really prefer my hair short, Ken likes it long. So I got a layered bob, cut right below my ears, stacked up in the back so it's off my neck. I hate hair stuck to my neck when it's warm, even if it's long enough to pull up because it's wavy/curly some always escapes. It looks cute when my hair decides to be curly and ok when it doesn't. Pretty much wash and wear which it the best thing for me. The less effort on my part the better.
Last Thursday we went up to Erie to visit my mom. Friday did a little shopping. Saturday my Aunt came in from Cleveland for a visit. Sunday I hung out with Sherri my friend from HS. Monday I drove back. Alex is the perfect age for trips like this. He gets so excited he was talking all week about going to visit his grandma. Quin on the other hand was a bear. But then all kids 1-2 1/2 years old suck at travel. It messes with their routine and they're in an unfamiliar bed. He didn't settle in until sunday and the next day we went home. Alex was the same way at that age so it's to be expected.
I got our Birthday bash invites in right before I left town. Finished sending those out today. I have a few extras if anyone wants one. I don't expect you to come to Baltimore, memorial day weekend, I'm sure most people have plans at this point but I'm happy to invite people. My Aunt Bonnie is all excited to come so she can see the Ace of Cakes cake we're getting. Duff made our wedding cake so I figured a cake for a combined 40th birthday was a big enough deal to get another one from Charm City Cakes.
Sunday was our 5th anniversary, guess this is a big year all around for the Eng household. We went to Tir Na Nog for dinner. We spotted it as we were going to PF Changs for my birthday dinner. Ken saw the big Guiness Draft sign in the window. He's all about Irish beers lately and most especially Guiness I'm wondering if he was Irish in a past life. I can't believe I am sometimes because I can't stand beer. No gifts this year because 5th anniversary is wood and we got all sorts of new wood in our new kitchen, that we both wanted.
Dinner was wonderful. Very tasty and protions were normal sized. Just enough room for us to share a piece of the Ginger and Guiness Spice Cake. That was so yummy. After we walked over to Cheesecake Factory and got a couple pieces to take home for later.
Monday was the boring usual. Tuesday after I dropped Alex off Quin and I went to the Family Center for his evaluation with Harford County's Infants and Toddlers. His skill sets are all over the place.
Cognitive 9mos
Communication 6-9mos
Social Emotional scattered to 12mos
Adaptive 12-15mos
Gross Motor 15mos
Fine Motor 9mos
So he's in need of intervention. The good news is that we've found this early and with a little work by the time he's three there shouldn't be any noticeable differences in his skill levels. I'm almost glad he'll miss the cut off for Kindergarten when it comes time. I think it'll be better for him to have the extra year. They want to start home visits with a special educ teacher. Work with him to get his play more varied, have him start imitating others, make consistant eye contact, so interest in a wider selection of toys, follow direction, and to play with toys in the manner they're meant to be used. Right now he plays with anything that rolls; cars, trains, balls but when he plays with other toys like markers he doesn't use them to write he rolls them around. He doesn't really stack things but he will put things in containers. Anyway I guess the key to him connecting words with actual objects is through imitation, so getting him to start doing that should help with his language skills.
We're lucky this is a free program through the school system. Our tax dollars at work.
Today was a trip to the Herr's snack factory in Nottingham PA. The kids (well the older ones) loved the tour. And once you have warm fresh potato chips, anything else isn't quite as tasty. I picked up a couple of bags of snacks for Ken. He was so hapy to see the jalapeno kettle chips, he opened them right up.
Tomorrow I get to call around and set up food for our birthday bash. We're looking at going with a place called Beefalo Bob's Ken is getting a bit nervous on the number of people it's looking like a solid 60 but possibly as many as 80. We should have better idea of numbers by next weekend.
That's about it for now.
I finally got my hair cut last Tuesday. I compromised, I really prefer my hair short, Ken likes it long. So I got a layered bob, cut right below my ears, stacked up in the back so it's off my neck. I hate hair stuck to my neck when it's warm, even if it's long enough to pull up because it's wavy/curly some always escapes. It looks cute when my hair decides to be curly and ok when it doesn't. Pretty much wash and wear which it the best thing for me. The less effort on my part the better.
Last Thursday we went up to Erie to visit my mom. Friday did a little shopping. Saturday my Aunt came in from Cleveland for a visit. Sunday I hung out with Sherri my friend from HS. Monday I drove back. Alex is the perfect age for trips like this. He gets so excited he was talking all week about going to visit his grandma. Quin on the other hand was a bear. But then all kids 1-2 1/2 years old suck at travel. It messes with their routine and they're in an unfamiliar bed. He didn't settle in until sunday and the next day we went home. Alex was the same way at that age so it's to be expected.
I got our Birthday bash invites in right before I left town. Finished sending those out today. I have a few extras if anyone wants one. I don't expect you to come to Baltimore, memorial day weekend, I'm sure most people have plans at this point but I'm happy to invite people. My Aunt Bonnie is all excited to come so she can see the Ace of Cakes cake we're getting. Duff made our wedding cake so I figured a cake for a combined 40th birthday was a big enough deal to get another one from Charm City Cakes.
Sunday was our 5th anniversary, guess this is a big year all around for the Eng household. We went to Tir Na Nog for dinner. We spotted it as we were going to PF Changs for my birthday dinner. Ken saw the big Guiness Draft sign in the window. He's all about Irish beers lately and most especially Guiness I'm wondering if he was Irish in a past life. I can't believe I am sometimes because I can't stand beer. No gifts this year because 5th anniversary is wood and we got all sorts of new wood in our new kitchen, that we both wanted.
Dinner was wonderful. Very tasty and protions were normal sized. Just enough room for us to share a piece of the Ginger and Guiness Spice Cake. That was so yummy. After we walked over to Cheesecake Factory and got a couple pieces to take home for later.
Monday was the boring usual. Tuesday after I dropped Alex off Quin and I went to the Family Center for his evaluation with Harford County's Infants and Toddlers. His skill sets are all over the place.
Cognitive 9mos
Communication 6-9mos
Social Emotional scattered to 12mos
Adaptive 12-15mos
Gross Motor 15mos
Fine Motor 9mos
So he's in need of intervention. The good news is that we've found this early and with a little work by the time he's three there shouldn't be any noticeable differences in his skill levels. I'm almost glad he'll miss the cut off for Kindergarten when it comes time. I think it'll be better for him to have the extra year. They want to start home visits with a special educ teacher. Work with him to get his play more varied, have him start imitating others, make consistant eye contact, so interest in a wider selection of toys, follow direction, and to play with toys in the manner they're meant to be used. Right now he plays with anything that rolls; cars, trains, balls but when he plays with other toys like markers he doesn't use them to write he rolls them around. He doesn't really stack things but he will put things in containers. Anyway I guess the key to him connecting words with actual objects is through imitation, so getting him to start doing that should help with his language skills.
We're lucky this is a free program through the school system. Our tax dollars at work.
Today was a trip to the Herr's snack factory in Nottingham PA. The kids (well the older ones) loved the tour. And once you have warm fresh potato chips, anything else isn't quite as tasty. I picked up a couple of bags of snacks for Ken. He was so hapy to see the jalapeno kettle chips, he opened them right up.
Tomorrow I get to call around and set up food for our birthday bash. We're looking at going with a place called Beefalo Bob's Ken is getting a bit nervous on the number of people it's looking like a solid 60 but possibly as many as 80. We should have better idea of numbers by next weekend.
That's about it for now.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Birthday week update
Tuesday was Quin’s 18 mos appointment. He’s doing well growth wise. 40th percentile for weight 55th for height, 90th for head size. The last of course means he’s gonna hit s growth spurt soon. Our pediatrician has started screening for autism at 18 months. I’ve read articles about starting treatment earlier being more successful. Well Quin failed the initial screening. Now this isn’t all bad, the doctor told me it was because of his delayed speech he failed. He has some pretty significant social skills. Basically they’re setting the net really wide because they’d rather over test and rule out kids who aren’t autistic than miss one who was. He did give me numbers for speech pathologists so I could set up a consult with one. He also gave me the info for the Kennedy Krieger Inst in case I felt I needed to have them look at him to be sure. I’m in the process right now to set up a consult with the speech pathologist they’re supposed to call me back to set up the final appointment today or tomorrow.
I was talking to my friend Jean yesterday and she said her pediatrician has started to do screening for autism as early as 6mos. They were asking her questions about Will at his last appointment. She thinks Quin probably had his one and only ear infection at a bad time. Not only was he learning to walk but it was a time when they pick up new words. Once he was able to balance himself all his concentration went into walking. That combined with the fact that he didn’t pop one tooth until 9 months old and has been getting a new one every couple weeks since then, most recently his second year molars, it probably made things hard on learning new words.
He’s got a big knot in the middle of his forehead. We spent Saturday up in Brooklyn. The only place to run around in front of my FIL’s brownstone is a concrete pad. The entire time we were there not one fall. We get home and I let him out to go play in the yard while we move all my IL’s stuff from the van to my BIL’s car. Suddenly we all hear a loud THUNK!!, followed by crying. He fell right on his face in our driveway.
Like I mentioned I received part of my birthday present Sunday on my birthday, the first season of Torchwood on DVD. I got the rest of it along with a Cold Stone cake on Tuesday. I guessed right. I have a new kitchenaid artisan mixer. I’m excited. You can buy all sorts of attachments for it. Yesterday was good and bad, I woke with a migraine. Even taking pain killers when I wake with one means, I can take the edge off but it won’t completely go away. Unlike the ones I get monthly due to hormones, which go away once I take something and lie down in the dark for a half hour.
We were supposed to go to Towson after Alex’s gymnastics class. Even though it was sunny the temps were in the 40s and it was really windy. It was not great weather for playing in the park, the original plan. Towson mall has a play area for preschoolers in the middle we were going to meet there then go to lunch at the Rainforest café. The thought of driving 25-30 minutes and all the noise once we got there, only to drive back was enough to make me queasy. So we didn’t go. I met Jean and her boys for lunch at the McD’s down the street, it has a play area. An hour of noise, I could handle. Then we came home and everyone took naps. By the time I got up an hour and a half later my migraine was a twinge.
Ken took me to PF Chang’s for dinner last night. It’s definatley a fusion of food styles not sure I’d call it American Chinese because there were a lot of South American/ Mexican flavors in the mix. I enjoyed it, not bad for a chain restaurant. We feel like boring old fogeys though because we were home by 9 PM. We thought about going to a movie but nothing appealed to us, and we’d have to wait almost an hour before the last shows started. With my head still aching a bit I knew I’d be out like a light if we sat in a theater.
In kitchen news we got our pulls and knobs in. Ken put some of the pulls on the drawers. They look really nice. The last of the trim goes up this weekend. SO all we have to do now is put in the order for the 2x6 burgundy tiles to use in the backsplash. So close to being done, not sure it’ll be ready by the party but we’ll try.
I was talking to my friend Jean yesterday and she said her pediatrician has started to do screening for autism as early as 6mos. They were asking her questions about Will at his last appointment. She thinks Quin probably had his one and only ear infection at a bad time. Not only was he learning to walk but it was a time when they pick up new words. Once he was able to balance himself all his concentration went into walking. That combined with the fact that he didn’t pop one tooth until 9 months old and has been getting a new one every couple weeks since then, most recently his second year molars, it probably made things hard on learning new words.
He’s got a big knot in the middle of his forehead. We spent Saturday up in Brooklyn. The only place to run around in front of my FIL’s brownstone is a concrete pad. The entire time we were there not one fall. We get home and I let him out to go play in the yard while we move all my IL’s stuff from the van to my BIL’s car. Suddenly we all hear a loud THUNK!!, followed by crying. He fell right on his face in our driveway.
Like I mentioned I received part of my birthday present Sunday on my birthday, the first season of Torchwood on DVD. I got the rest of it along with a Cold Stone cake on Tuesday. I guessed right. I have a new kitchenaid artisan mixer. I’m excited. You can buy all sorts of attachments for it. Yesterday was good and bad, I woke with a migraine. Even taking pain killers when I wake with one means, I can take the edge off but it won’t completely go away. Unlike the ones I get monthly due to hormones, which go away once I take something and lie down in the dark for a half hour.
We were supposed to go to Towson after Alex’s gymnastics class. Even though it was sunny the temps were in the 40s and it was really windy. It was not great weather for playing in the park, the original plan. Towson mall has a play area for preschoolers in the middle we were going to meet there then go to lunch at the Rainforest café. The thought of driving 25-30 minutes and all the noise once we got there, only to drive back was enough to make me queasy. So we didn’t go. I met Jean and her boys for lunch at the McD’s down the street, it has a play area. An hour of noise, I could handle. Then we came home and everyone took naps. By the time I got up an hour and a half later my migraine was a twinge.
Ken took me to PF Chang’s for dinner last night. It’s definatley a fusion of food styles not sure I’d call it American Chinese because there were a lot of South American/ Mexican flavors in the mix. I enjoyed it, not bad for a chain restaurant. We feel like boring old fogeys though because we were home by 9 PM. We thought about going to a movie but nothing appealed to us, and we’d have to wait almost an hour before the last shows started. With my head still aching a bit I knew I’d be out like a light if we sat in a theater.
In kitchen news we got our pulls and knobs in. Ken put some of the pulls on the drawers. They look really nice. The last of the trim goes up this weekend. SO all we have to do now is put in the order for the 2x6 burgundy tiles to use in the backsplash. So close to being done, not sure it’ll be ready by the party but we’ll try.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Burning Down the House
It’s been an interesting week. Last Saturday night Ken almost burned the house down. All just so he could move the switches for the family room over a foot, because of the wall extention. Granted when the electrician came Tuesday and got a look at everything he thinks whatever Ken did was just the last straw. He did say Ken’s work was good. The damage was done when he packed everything back into the box after he tested it the first time. A couple of wires must have touched when they weren’t supposed to. It caused the breaker to blow and the wire insulation to melt. So the breaker was replaced as well as the whole circuit rewired. The electrician was shaking his head the entire time mostly about the slipshod job the original builder did with the wiring. Stuff that definitely wouldn’t pass inspection now. He’s guessing back in ’86 the inspection checked a few things make sure they were done right then okayed the whole house. That was all compounded by the original owner who added a bunch of light fixtures to the house and did his own wiring. This guy did a lot of changes to the original floor plan of the house and he knew what he was doing structurally but electrically he didn’t. Ken now doesn’t feel safe in this house. And wants to go through and bring everything to code. This one little mistake cost us $2000, basically there went our tax refund.
Quin must be getting in his second year molars. The kid has been trying to stuff his entire hand into his mouth the past couple days. In other news I have an appointment with a hearing specialist for him. At almost 18 months he basically still only has two words. I know he has some hearing because he loves music and laughs at Alex when he’s goofing off, but he doesn’t react to his own name. I hope I’m wrong and he’s just a late starter. He’s my little cuddle bug. Comes up to me all the time to give and get hugs. If were sitting on the floor together he’ll lean against me. Alex on the other hand only wants hugs when he sees Quin getting them or when I drop him off an school and at bed time. And when I give him a kiss he turns his cheek towards me like “alright get this over with mom” Though he does ask for 5 kisses when I do this.
Alex lost all his trains and cars Friday. All day I had to referee between the two boys. Every time Quin was playing quietly Alex would horn in and take things away from him. And the constant. “mommmmeeeee Quinnnsss at the traaaaaiin table” was driving me nuts. The thing is he likes playing with Quin other times, loves to make him laugh. But when it comes to cars and trains, even the ones that are actually Quin’s he won’t share or he’ll take them from his brother. So in order to earn everything back he has to do some real work on sharing.
I mentioned I was competing in a creative team contest. The designers at DSP, every six months hold a competition for a team of eight to create pages using their products. Well this time around I made it as far as round three. It’s farther than I’ve gotten before. It would have been a nice birthday present, for myself, if I had made it. Ah well the competition was really tough, some amazing creativity out there. And yes it’s coming up, this time next week I’ll be 40. I’ll get to spend the day before on a day trip to Brooklyn. We’re going to pick up Ken’s parents and bring them back to MD. His brother will then take them back to VA. While we’re up there we’ll take part in the Hong San so we can introduce Quin to the ancestors.
Ken is taking me out to dinner the following Wednesday. Then I really have to get onto making the invitations for our combined birthday bash over Memorial day weekend. I would love to invite all my online friends. I might even send them out anyway, it would be great to have you here even if it’s only in spirit.
We just spent Saturday evening watching 300, twice. It reminded me all over again of my love of ancient Greece and Rome. As a kid I had a fascination with Greek and Roman mythology, this in turn an interest in the history itself, mostly the Hellenic period of the Odyssey and the Illiad. It even started my interest in Architecture. At U of MD I took a few classes on ancient architecture because of it. Actually I see all along my fictional interests have guided my non-fiction ones. When I was reading a lot of fantasy I learned a lot about medieval Europe, science fiction lead to actual science, and even now the romance novels I read are all in the Regency/Victorian era, so I’ve picked up a lot of info on the Napoleanic Wars. Not sure how much of this will be useful in the long run, anyway back to 300, which took place in Doric Greece. Later than my earlier interest. I think now if I was to be back in ancient Greece I’d like to be a Spartan woman from that time period. They had many more rights than most other women, including the right to own and inherit property. They were educated right along with the men, I guess with it being a military based society the women needed to run the farms and businesses when the men were off fighting.
Quin must be getting in his second year molars. The kid has been trying to stuff his entire hand into his mouth the past couple days. In other news I have an appointment with a hearing specialist for him. At almost 18 months he basically still only has two words. I know he has some hearing because he loves music and laughs at Alex when he’s goofing off, but he doesn’t react to his own name. I hope I’m wrong and he’s just a late starter. He’s my little cuddle bug. Comes up to me all the time to give and get hugs. If were sitting on the floor together he’ll lean against me. Alex on the other hand only wants hugs when he sees Quin getting them or when I drop him off an school and at bed time. And when I give him a kiss he turns his cheek towards me like “alright get this over with mom” Though he does ask for 5 kisses when I do this.
Alex lost all his trains and cars Friday. All day I had to referee between the two boys. Every time Quin was playing quietly Alex would horn in and take things away from him. And the constant. “mommmmeeeee Quinnnsss at the traaaaaiin table” was driving me nuts. The thing is he likes playing with Quin other times, loves to make him laugh. But when it comes to cars and trains, even the ones that are actually Quin’s he won’t share or he’ll take them from his brother. So in order to earn everything back he has to do some real work on sharing.
I mentioned I was competing in a creative team contest. The designers at DSP, every six months hold a competition for a team of eight to create pages using their products. Well this time around I made it as far as round three. It’s farther than I’ve gotten before. It would have been a nice birthday present, for myself, if I had made it. Ah well the competition was really tough, some amazing creativity out there. And yes it’s coming up, this time next week I’ll be 40. I’ll get to spend the day before on a day trip to Brooklyn. We’re going to pick up Ken’s parents and bring them back to MD. His brother will then take them back to VA. While we’re up there we’ll take part in the Hong San so we can introduce Quin to the ancestors.
Ken is taking me out to dinner the following Wednesday. Then I really have to get onto making the invitations for our combined birthday bash over Memorial day weekend. I would love to invite all my online friends. I might even send them out anyway, it would be great to have you here even if it’s only in spirit.
We just spent Saturday evening watching 300, twice. It reminded me all over again of my love of ancient Greece and Rome. As a kid I had a fascination with Greek and Roman mythology, this in turn an interest in the history itself, mostly the Hellenic period of the Odyssey and the Illiad. It even started my interest in Architecture. At U of MD I took a few classes on ancient architecture because of it. Actually I see all along my fictional interests have guided my non-fiction ones. When I was reading a lot of fantasy I learned a lot about medieval Europe, science fiction lead to actual science, and even now the romance novels I read are all in the Regency/Victorian era, so I’ve picked up a lot of info on the Napoleanic Wars. Not sure how much of this will be useful in the long run, anyway back to 300, which took place in Doric Greece. Later than my earlier interest. I think now if I was to be back in ancient Greece I’d like to be a Spartan woman from that time period. They had many more rights than most other women, including the right to own and inherit property. They were educated right along with the men, I guess with it being a military based society the women needed to run the farms and businesses when the men were off fighting.
Friday, March 07, 2008
I was talking to Ken the other night about how some people become better judges of character over time and how some don’t. He mentioned that his sister, who is ten years older, doesn’t have good judgement about people. She puts her trust in people who disappoint her again and again. Ken said his life got a whole lot better when his stopped listening to his family’s advice and went his own way. He said it still bothers him that they never give him credit for knowing anything. He can’t even shove it in their faces when he’s right because his brother always restates what he says and get the credit. Ahh, the trials of being the youngest.
This got me thinking about how I would have reacted to some of the people I work with if I had met them 15-20 years ago. There are a couple of guys in particular who are in their early mid-twenties. Both have graduated under grad, one is in grad school the other is kind of trying to figure things out. Travis, I met about a year ago when I came back from mat leave. When you first meet him he seems very serious but he has a very dry sense of humor. He teases me all the time, calling me a cool mom. He’s done this since he found out I was actually around for the tail end of the punk era. Travis is into classics; literature, poetry, music, even classic rock. I know if I had met him when I was younger the only time I would have talked to him was if we happened to have friends in common. He would have seemed too serious and even a bit snobbish to me then. Now we rib and joke and tease each other, and even talk a little literature. He really started teasing me after Ken wrecked my car and I had to drive the minivan full time. Heh, he comes to me when he has a head ache because moms have the good drugs.
His buddy Dave, I met this past holiday season when he was hired through Travis’s recommendation. He’s one of those good looking guys, who is really casual and doesn’t even know he’s good looking, and is just a little bit goofy and earnest. I know I would have had a super big crush on him when I was younger. I wouldn’t have done a thing about. I would have just hung out, thinking there was no way he’d go out with someone like me. I get Dave, I’ll talk to him about anything from graphic novels to philosophy. It’s fun to flirt a little but he’s at the searching stage. I remember that stage, seaching for what you want, who you are, what you believe in, your spirituality. Makes me realize how young he is to me. I guess as I get closer to my 40th birthday, I’m starting to really realize how lucky I am to have found where I need to be and who will travel that road with me.
Wednesday we had the granite installed. Ken was so happy that afternoon he was singing “you’re beautiful” to it, (the James Blunt song). It does look really good. And yes I have pictures. As of tonight we have a working gas stovetop. We were actually able to cook a full dinner tonight with out the help of a microwave. YAY!!!!! The plumber is suppose to be by tomorrow so the sink and dishwasher will be working and anything after that is cosmetic. I spent Quin’s naptime yesterday laying out the tiles patterns for our backsplash. I wanted to be able to figure out how many of each tile type we’d need and add 10% for errors. Then Ken and I started talking about pulls and knobs. I’ve found a set we like but I’m gonna check a bit more see if there is a better price out there. I do have to say that it’s a good thing our taste is very similar, there is usually not too much arguing over the little choices.
This got me thinking about how I would have reacted to some of the people I work with if I had met them 15-20 years ago. There are a couple of guys in particular who are in their early mid-twenties. Both have graduated under grad, one is in grad school the other is kind of trying to figure things out. Travis, I met about a year ago when I came back from mat leave. When you first meet him he seems very serious but he has a very dry sense of humor. He teases me all the time, calling me a cool mom. He’s done this since he found out I was actually around for the tail end of the punk era. Travis is into classics; literature, poetry, music, even classic rock. I know if I had met him when I was younger the only time I would have talked to him was if we happened to have friends in common. He would have seemed too serious and even a bit snobbish to me then. Now we rib and joke and tease each other, and even talk a little literature. He really started teasing me after Ken wrecked my car and I had to drive the minivan full time. Heh, he comes to me when he has a head ache because moms have the good drugs.
His buddy Dave, I met this past holiday season when he was hired through Travis’s recommendation. He’s one of those good looking guys, who is really casual and doesn’t even know he’s good looking, and is just a little bit goofy and earnest. I know I would have had a super big crush on him when I was younger. I wouldn’t have done a thing about. I would have just hung out, thinking there was no way he’d go out with someone like me. I get Dave, I’ll talk to him about anything from graphic novels to philosophy. It’s fun to flirt a little but he’s at the searching stage. I remember that stage, seaching for what you want, who you are, what you believe in, your spirituality. Makes me realize how young he is to me. I guess as I get closer to my 40th birthday, I’m starting to really realize how lucky I am to have found where I need to be and who will travel that road with me.
Wednesday we had the granite installed. Ken was so happy that afternoon he was singing “you’re beautiful” to it, (the James Blunt song). It does look really good. And yes I have pictures. As of tonight we have a working gas stovetop. We were actually able to cook a full dinner tonight with out the help of a microwave. YAY!!!!! The plumber is suppose to be by tomorrow so the sink and dishwasher will be working and anything after that is cosmetic. I spent Quin’s naptime yesterday laying out the tiles patterns for our backsplash. I wanted to be able to figure out how many of each tile type we’d need and add 10% for errors. Then Ken and I started talking about pulls and knobs. I’ve found a set we like but I’m gonna check a bit more see if there is a better price out there. I do have to say that it’s a good thing our taste is very similar, there is usually not too much arguing over the little choices.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Updates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwlK3GC3lXs
Ken's video of our kitchen remodel to this point
2/21/08
I swear I think Quin has a crush on Dora. As soon as she appears on the screen he gets this huge smile on his face and stops what he's doing to go up to the TV. His ears have cleared up there is still a little fluid but our ped. feels the tiny bit remaining shouldn't interfere with hearing. He recommended that if Quin isn't saying a couple more words (in addition to the two he has) in the next couple weeks, we should set up an appointment with an audiologist and rule out a hearing problem. He does hear things but I notice they tend to be on the higher end of the scale, so it's possible he's missing sound on the lower end. Ken thinks it's just because he's pretty easy going and what makes him happy is pretty basic. Since we're meeting those needs without much effort from him, he doesn't feel the need to talk. 5-10 words at 18 months is considered normal so I'll give it a bit longer. It's so hard not to compare but I know Alex was unusual, he was babbling at 7 months and by a year speaking sort sentences. He talks a mile a minute now and his vocabulary amazes even me. I wonder where he gets some of the words he knows. Quin tends to be a much more physical child anyway and there are things he does better than Alex like catching and throwing a ball. (Alex still has trouble with that) I still can't help but worry a bit.
I hate cold bathrooms, so winter is the worst cold porcelin in the middle of the night is no fun. It finally dawned on me why my bathroom is so cold. It has an outside wall. I was gathering up clothes to put in a basket to take down to the basement and the ones closest to the wall were ice cold. Duh, I've been in this house three years and I just figured that out.
2/29/08
WooHOOO!!! We have a date for the granite to be installed. Next Wednesday, Ken has lined up the gas hook up to the stove top and the plumber for the sink. By the weekend we should have a working kitchen once more. That gives us three months to get things finished up, like the tile blacksplash and the cabinet trim. Just in time for our joint birthday party. That'll probably be the first time more of our family will see the new kitchen.
Ken almost gave me a heart attack today about the party. We we'r discussing what we need to bring to VA for his father's 80th birthday party tomorrow. Then he confirmed our party was over Memorial Day weekend. I said yes on Sunday. "I better check and make sure I didn't book that day. Oh wait all my spring weddings are Saturdays" I swear I would have smacked him if we had booked it. We picked the date before Christmas so we could get the word out to family, that way they'd be prepared for the invite. (My family mostly, I know my immediate family will come but some fo the extended family says they'll come then they back out whenever I try and host something. If they're gonna back out I want to know early on.)
I was talking with Alex's teacher Monday. She told me I could probably start working on simple addition and subtraction with Alex at home. His number recognition is the best in the class. He's also one of the youngest, I think there is only one kid younger than him, and a couple others that are a week or two older. She said none of the other kids are even close to ready. And the only time she can work with him is right after lunch when he waits for me to pick him up, and the other kids are settling down for naps. That's not a lot of time. Yay!! the John family math gene has bred true in at least one of my kids.
Ken's video of our kitchen remodel to this point
2/21/08
I swear I think Quin has a crush on Dora. As soon as she appears on the screen he gets this huge smile on his face and stops what he's doing to go up to the TV. His ears have cleared up there is still a little fluid but our ped. feels the tiny bit remaining shouldn't interfere with hearing. He recommended that if Quin isn't saying a couple more words (in addition to the two he has) in the next couple weeks, we should set up an appointment with an audiologist and rule out a hearing problem. He does hear things but I notice they tend to be on the higher end of the scale, so it's possible he's missing sound on the lower end. Ken thinks it's just because he's pretty easy going and what makes him happy is pretty basic. Since we're meeting those needs without much effort from him, he doesn't feel the need to talk. 5-10 words at 18 months is considered normal so I'll give it a bit longer. It's so hard not to compare but I know Alex was unusual, he was babbling at 7 months and by a year speaking sort sentences. He talks a mile a minute now and his vocabulary amazes even me. I wonder where he gets some of the words he knows. Quin tends to be a much more physical child anyway and there are things he does better than Alex like catching and throwing a ball. (Alex still has trouble with that) I still can't help but worry a bit.
I hate cold bathrooms, so winter is the worst cold porcelin in the middle of the night is no fun. It finally dawned on me why my bathroom is so cold. It has an outside wall. I was gathering up clothes to put in a basket to take down to the basement and the ones closest to the wall were ice cold. Duh, I've been in this house three years and I just figured that out.
2/29/08
WooHOOO!!! We have a date for the granite to be installed. Next Wednesday, Ken has lined up the gas hook up to the stove top and the plumber for the sink. By the weekend we should have a working kitchen once more. That gives us three months to get things finished up, like the tile blacksplash and the cabinet trim. Just in time for our joint birthday party. That'll probably be the first time more of our family will see the new kitchen.
Ken almost gave me a heart attack today about the party. We we'r discussing what we need to bring to VA for his father's 80th birthday party tomorrow. Then he confirmed our party was over Memorial Day weekend. I said yes on Sunday. "I better check and make sure I didn't book that day. Oh wait all my spring weddings are Saturdays" I swear I would have smacked him if we had booked it. We picked the date before Christmas so we could get the word out to family, that way they'd be prepared for the invite. (My family mostly, I know my immediate family will come but some fo the extended family says they'll come then they back out whenever I try and host something. If they're gonna back out I want to know early on.)
I was talking with Alex's teacher Monday. She told me I could probably start working on simple addition and subtraction with Alex at home. His number recognition is the best in the class. He's also one of the youngest, I think there is only one kid younger than him, and a couple others that are a week or two older. She said none of the other kids are even close to ready. And the only time she can work with him is right after lunch when he waits for me to pick him up, and the other kids are settling down for naps. That's not a lot of time. Yay!! the John family math gene has bred true in at least one of my kids.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Happy Chinese New Year
Gong He Fat Choi
Welcome to the year of the Rat, or mouse if you prefer, either way it’s a rodent.
The year of the rat is auspicious for all new beginnings. It’s a time to turn over a new leaf and take a fresh look at the world. Spirits rise in the Rat years and market economies begin to show and upward turn. Discoveries and inventions are especially prevalent and, for all, opportunities abound.
Leadership sits well on the shoulders of those born in the year of the rat. For, just as this is the first sign of the twelve, so Rats like to be head of the game, at the forefront of the action and where they can give orders. Restless and inquisitive, these are busy people whose minds are constantly on the go. Above all they are clever and instinctively shrewd. As the Chinese say even in times of scarcity, Rats somehow always know where sacks of grain can be found. No wonder, then, that these remarkably resourceful creatures are the supreme opportunists and arch survivors of the Animal signs.
From east west astrology by Lori Reid
Not much going on, on the kitchen front, just minor things this past week. Ken set up the wiring for the oven and a couple extra outlets. They came and measured for the granite. We should be getting the replacement trim today so they can finish up the cabinets this weekend. Ken being the engineer that he is, has been particularly anal. The cabinets on the return are slightly off square, each one is an 1/8 inch off so overall it is ¼ inch off. He’s been trying to figure out how to fix it without taking everything apart. Mostly because the facing has been glued into place on the backside and the cabinets are screwed together in such a way that it’s really hard to get to a couple of them.
Thursday was Quin’s well baby appointment. I made it so we went right after I dropped Alex at school. I mentioned to the doctor that I was starting to get worried about Quin’s lack of vocabulary. He has three words at this point Mama, Aweh (Alex), and Dada. He gave me some numbers for hearing testing because he’s not really making animal sounds or pointing to body parts and such when I say the names either. When he checked his ears there was a lot of fluid. I got a script for some antibiotics, I guess it looked like they’d been like that a while. His first ear infection and I didn’t notice. I guess I figured his discomfort when lying down was from all the teeth he was cutting. They’ve been coming through one after the other the last two months. He has almost all of them now. The Doctor did say that they may not test Quin until 18 months because it’s a bit early to worry too much. It may also be that he had the fluid in his ears so long he wasn’t hearing anything correctly.
I spent Thursday evening and Friday doing last minute stuff for the book fair. Ken got home around 4pm, very jet lagged. He wasn’t very functional but he needed to stay up until at least 9:30 or he’d never get back in the right time zone. I had to wake him the next morning at 9:00 so I could go over to the store and make sure everything was set up. Came back home fed the kids lunch put Quin down for a nap and took Alex back over to the store so he could help me with story time. We picked Bear Snores On and Snowmen at Night to read. Ken came by after Quin woke up and got Alex and I went to work. Lucky me I ended up in receiving, actually it’s not a bad thing. I had a migraine so dealing with people would have been a trial. I’d taken enough painkillers at that point it was just a dull throb. At around 8:00 I was freed to help clean up the store which looked like a bomb had gone off. It was in a good cause and with the sales the book fair brought in the Goddard PTO will take home almost $600, especially since it wasn’t a lot of work on their part.
Sunday I wasn’t supposed to wake Ken until I was ready to leave for work but he got a bug up his butt about the oven cabinet and figured out it was made in such a way that we were supposed to cut it to fit our specific oven. So he worked on that until I went to work. My job Sunday was to take down January displays and put up February ones in the kids department.
Monday was back to routine, almost. Ken was home to meet the guy doing the granite template. I took Alex to school, came back played with Quin a bit, fed him put him down for a nap went and got Alex. The teacher said he’s doing really good with his numbers and he’s one of the youngest in the class. Of course part of his motivation was this week’s subject is trains and the game they had on the computer was Thomas. It is pretty amazing watching him lately, he spells out all the words he sees. I see the understanding between letters and sounds and written words starting to click. I worked again Monday night and Tuesday was back and forth to the dentist day for cleanings. Silly me back in August, when Quin wasn’t really mobile, I figured I’d split up my cleaning from Alex’s. Take Quin with me in the morning have a friend watch him in the afternoon when I took Alex after school. That won’t happen again next cleanings are back to back. But my friend Jean was really great about watching Quin for both appointments. She said she’s just returning the favor of me taking her oldest to gymnastics class the last few weeks because she’s had to take the baby to weight checks at the doctor’s office. He wasn’t gaining enough weight and it was becoming a failure to thrive situation. He’s doing much better now on the right formula and gaining about a pound a week.
Yesterday was gymnastics class and playgroup lunch at Chuck E Cheese. I don’t mind these as much anymore most because my kids collapse in exhaustion when we get home at 1:30-2:00. Last night was the PTO meeting. My son isn’t even in elementary school and I’m going to PTO meetings, weird. Not sure how long this will last but I’m doing a self portrait a day challenge this month. I’ve kept up so far. I know I couldn’t do a whole year. I’ve been trying to do just a photo a day challenge for a year and a half now, and the days I miss add up to about a week a month. I’ll upload what I have so far and try and post them.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
I love my children I really do but when I don't get that two hour break from them during the day you get one cranky, irritable woman by 4:30-5:00pm. Alex is the one who really gets to me with the constant chatter, singing and questions, he's only ever quiet when he's sleeping and even that is questionable. Today being his birthday, (we had a party for hi Wednesday with his playgroup friends) I took him to cold stone creamery for his free birthday ice cream. Quin silly child that he is promptly fell asleep in the car. We did make one other stop at Hallmark, because I needed birthday cards to go with the present I'm mailing my step-dad for his 70th birthday next week. Quin slept through the stop at the card store and the trip over to cold stone, he woke as I put him back into the stroller a second time. So he might have slept 30 min max, usually he takes a two hour nap and I thought we'd left early enough that we'd get home and I could just put him to bed. But I think the little stinker was up at 6am like Alex was today.
We enjoyed our ice cream, I shared mine with Quin. Alex ate half of his and we took the rest home for later. We got hme and I figured I'd let them burn off a bit of their sugar high. An hour and a half later I took Quin up hoping for another hour of sleep from him. I told Alex he didn't have to go up and take a nap (mistake, big mistake) but he did have to lay down on the couch and rest. Now usually if I lay down on the couch with him he'll fall asleep. Not today, kept up the questions and chatter and after an hour I gave up and let him go play. I could hear Quin on the monitor the first half hour we tried this, then silence but that was short lived, so he came back down too. Needless to say I had them both in bed by 7pm, took a shower to de-stress and watched Night at the Museum. At a little before 10 I hear Quin fussing, then quiet, then full out crying, then quiet, when he didn't get quiet again the third time I brought him down. He was acting like his throat bothered him a bit gave him a little juice flavored water and set him in Alex's vibrating rocker.
Ken's gonna love this, Quin was completely fascinated by Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Let him chill for a half hour and took him back up. I have a whole week of this my only breaks from Alex being when he's in school and the night I work. I can do this.
Speaking of school Ken and I had a chat a couple weeks ago about school once the boys got older. Elementary school doesn't worry us. The school they'll go to is one of the better ones in the county. It's once they get to middle school I worry a bit especially if the "Every Kid Left Behind Program" is still in effect. I'm sorry but I feel that in certain subjects kids need to be grouped depending on ability. It's not so bad here in HS because they offer AP classes, I just feel like middle school will be the lost years. Alex is a bright kid and loves to learn I don't want him to loose that. He's and Aural learner. He hears something he picks it up pretty quick. I just worry he'll get bored in class and start acting up, clowning around, get in trouble if he's not challenged. Quin I worry about in a different way because I can see even now he has very hands on learning style. He has to sit there and hold things, manipulate them, alot like his dad. He's not going to test well, unless he works really hard. I'm a visual learner to some extent, some subjects I can read and understand others I have to sit there and play, write, draw it out. I know I have a visual memory not photographic really but if I physically put something somewhere I know where it is even if it gets buried. This was a big help when I was front list manager at the Union Station store. If I set up a table display or put things in overstock, you only had to ask me and I'd point right where it was.Back to what I was actually talking about before that tangent. Worried about school. We talked and if it's only the two boys, meaning I don't get pregant by spring, we're going to consider sending the boys to private school starting 6th grade, if we can find something that isn't too religious. I doubt that's very feasible in this area. If we have a third there is no way we can swing private school for three kids. That's actually where we left it to revisit later. I'm almost hoping Alex's artistic ability gets stronger then he'd be able to apply to Maryland Inst of Art as a high school student, easier to get in than if you wait until college.
Well almost all the cabinets are in place. Only one last one needs to be fixed in place and that's just waiting until the spackle on the wall extention dries. They come on the 4th to do the template for the granite. Could have done it this week but Ken felt it would be better to wait until he was back from Korea.it'll be another 2 weeks after that before it's installed. Gives Ken time to do the wiring for the oven. That and they should be able to get the molding up on the cabinets by then as well. If of course it actually gets here this week. It was supposed to be in before all the install started.
You can see the wall extention better from the family room.
As of today this is what the kitchen looks like.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Monster post to catch up on everything
01/07/08
So Friday night was just the beginning. Soon after I posted Ken got home with Alex. He curled up on the couch which isn't unusual after he's had an active morning. Then he complained about his tummy hurting. I thought nothing of it because I figured he was hungry, since he hadn't really eaten anything since breakfast. Fast forward and hour later and he's puking all over the couch and his favorite blanket and stuffed animals. Load of laundry parts two and three. Then Ken got the idea to run out to the store and get a bottle of lysol hoping to control the germ spreadage. I think it was too late at that point. Alex threw up a couple more times before we convinced him to go upstairs to bed. Then the diarrhea started, popped him in the tub hosed him down. Got him into bed, told him to take a couple sips of water. He woke a couple hours later and gulped down what was in his cup then threw it back up ten minutes later. Load of laundry number 4. Quin through all this is trying to get us to walk with him, though he did pull himself to standing without using furniture. Ken got that on tape.Once the kids were in bed I made the mistake of eating dinner. Soon after my lower intestines liquified. At about ten pm dinner came back up. I curled up on the couch with my heating pad (for my back) and our big fluffy blanket now clean again, and watched Oceans Eleven. Crawled up to bed around 1am. Ken got up with Quin and fed him around 8am. Alex was up soon after so I went down to help. At 9:30 I was getting hot and cold flashes and everything hurt so I popped three ibuprofin and went back to bed. Woke around 1:30 took a hot hot shower and felt almost human except for the achiness and fatigue. Heard Quin in his room waking from his nap, changed him and brought him downstairs. Ken was crashed out on the couch in the front room and Alex on the one in the Family room. Dinner that night was two pieces of wheat toast. Ken was smart and didn't eat dinner so when it him a couple hours later all he was throwing up was toast and water. Why he even bothered trying to go to work this morning I don't know. So that was my fun weekend. I'm letting Alex recover one more day before sending him back to school. Hopefully routine will be restored.
01/08/08
Preschoolers are strange and wonderful creatures, Charming and whimsical one minute frustratingly stubborn the next. Shortly after he turned three Alex insisted we leave the light on for him to sleep. Now he already had a night light in his room but he was insisting on the overhead light. I KOed that and brought in a small table lamp. Well for the last month he's been sleeping with his covers over his head. Now I asked him if I should just turn the lamp off. "NO!NO!NO!" He just wants me to tuck him in with his covers over his head. The Whys have started in full force. A typical conversation goes like this:Mommy Why Gordon break Trevor cart?Because he couldn't stop in timeWhy could he not stop?Because he didn't see the crossing gate was closedWhy he not see the crossing gate?Because the Banner was covering his eyesWhy the banner on his eyes?The wind blew it thereWhy the wind blow it there?I don't know (teeth clenched in frustration)now this wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't read this story to him dozens of time and if he hadn't seen the video version of it just as many. Multiply this by thirty and you have a typical day for me when we're both home. Good thing he has school three days a week and I work two evenings, or I might be crazier than I already am. I don't know is the only way to actually stop the questions because if I say something like that's how the story goes or that's nature he'll ask why again.It reminds me of some of the lyrics in Chris Isaac's song PleaseWhat's the problem?What's the question?What's the answer?Where's this heading?You keep talking.Where's it going?If there's an answer I don't know it...PleaseYou're killing me.PleaseYou're killing me with all these questions.
1/12/08
So Monday was a recovery day, Tuesday Alex went back to school, which is just what my nerves needed. I went to a PTO meeting for his school that evening. I'm now organizing a book fair. Not that it's really much work I have connections, since I actually work for B&N. I attempted to take down Christmas decorations. We got the tree down but all the extras are still hanging out mostly because the bin I need to put things back in is down stairs and even half empty it's heavy and I need Ken's help to bring it up. I keep forgetting. I really need to take care of it this coming week. We need all the space in the dining room so we can unload our cabinets. Kitchen remodel begins Friday. Well it kind of begins Thursday. The plumber is coming in to install the pipes for the gas line. Once we have that in we contact BGE and they put in the connection to the main line in the street. Wednesday as you can tell from my post a couple days ago, was a hair puller for me. I'm so looking forward to gymnastics starting up again. Wednesday aren't as bad for me once we start having a regular activity to do. Thursday was another school day and Friday I made a playdate for Alex with his best buddy. Jean, his mom and I spent the afternoon chatting between refereeing. Saturday we went out to VA to take Ken's parents out for Dim Sum. Originally my BIL planned this but they changed their minds because next weekend Ken's niece is bringing her baby to see his great grandparents. We can't go next weekend because we have to be here for the kitchen destruction/construction. Su was actually happy we came and took the parents off her hands for the day, mostly because next week she'll have to play host with everyone there.Big news Ken interviewed for his GS 13. He's pretty sure he's got one of the two available slots. The first two people took an hour in the interviews and the one guy came out shaking his head saying he really screwed up. Ken thought he was in trouble going in but he was out of there in a 1/2 hour. Usually you'd expect shorter to be bad but the interview is a lot of technical questions about how projects are handled. Ken said as he answered questions the information he included answered several of the follow up questions. So he's feeling pretty good but he doesn't want to get his hopes up too high.So the travel starts once more. Looks like this year there will be 8 trips to Korea. Ken is figuring he'll be on at least half of them, starting with the one at the end of the month. Not quite as much travel, but the time he's gone will be a full week to 10 days. So I have to hope work can be flexible for me those weeks. I can get a sitter for Wednesday and Saturdays, I normally work either Friday and Sunday or Sunday and Monday.
01/15/08
This Wednesday was a bit busy. Gymnastics started again for Alex, I think we have a birthday party following that for one of the playgroup kids. Then that evening Ken’s work group is celebrating a good year by going to dinner at Fogo de chao. Our sitter got here at 4:30 dinner is at 6:30 we were gonna make a brief stop in White Marsh to look at granite for our counter tops and get a quote, but I found out they close at 4:30 so no point.Oh man I just realized Ken is going to be out of town for Alex's birthday. Ahh well Alex won't really know since we're having his party 4 days earlier.
okay I just want gravity to lay off me for a while. I slipped and fell twice today. First time I was in th parking lot outside Target. Just pulled Quin out of the cart and was heading for the sliding door to put him in his car seat. Slipped on some black ice. Pulled a muscle in my left thigh and am pretty sure my butt is bruised I have a big bruise coming through just under my right knee as well. It was pure luck I didn't re-injure my right knee. It's also lucky Quin wasn't hurt. He didn't roll out of my arms until I was already on the ground. It's also good that kids winter wear is so puffy. As soon as I got him buckled into his car seat he stopped crying, really he was just scared.We went home hung out a bit then at 11 I decided I needed a shower, it wasn't quite Quin's nap time but I figured the safest place for him was his crib if he fell asleep good if not I'd get him once I was dressed. Fall number two was in the shower. Foot slipped and I basically sat down on the edge of the tub tearing the shower liner. 01/19/08
I don’t know why I thought yesterday was going to be the start of our renovation. I guess because the plumber was in Thursday to rough in the pipes for the gas line. Anyway we spent Friday faxing around our floor plan to get quotes on granite for the counter tops. Then we cleared out the rest of the stuff in our cabinets.
The guys got here bright and early this morning. We hit a few snags two minor, one kind of major. The first was the tile backsplash was adhered to the wall so well they had to cut it out and replace the plasterboard. Then once they removed the cabinets the found out the wood floor was put in around them. So there is wood where ever the appliances were but under the cabinets there is none. The guys are gonna put in some particle board to even out the floor, because we’ve extended them out to get a return and enclose the space a bit. Those cabinets will be on the wood floor so to get everything even we have to fill in the holes. The final one is a big pain. We were not expecting pipes in the one soffet. Yes it does share a wall with the half bath but the two upstairs bathrooms share the wall on the other side of the half bath, the one that has the toilet and sink on it. So you would think all the pipes are in that wall right ??. If we can get the pipes raised two inches there will be no problem because the build up of the cabinet molding will cover it and we can get the cabinets in where they’re supposed to be. I think a plumber is coming by to look at it Monday.
Alex had a grand time watching everything going on. We have a window between the family room and the kitchen, he climbed onto his train table and had a perfect view. He was of course asking questions every five minutes. “What’s the man doing? Why he do that? What that noise?” He also spent some time ringing the chime we have in that window, well that and hammering the sill with his plastic hammer.
Quin was the real surprise today. He didn’t wake up until 9:30. Even when he sleeps late it’s not much past 8:00 especially with him in bed by 7pm and one two hour nap. Usually he’s up as soon as Alex is noisy which is 7am.
I’ll probably post this in the preschooler forum to see if anyone has suggestions. Alex is really getting annoying with his delay tactics. The bedtime ones I can handle. He knows I’ll read him two books so if he putzes around too much he loses a story. If he really takes too much time he loses both. He’s only lost both stories once, but usually once a month he loses one. He doesn’t like losing a story so just the warning “Finish up in Five minutes or you lose a story” gets him moving. What is frustrating me are the delays when we’re trying to go somewhere, even if it’s someplace he wants to go like gymnastic class or a friend’s house. Soon after becoming a mom I learned to build in a half hour 40 minutes to my out the door time. And many times I’ll load things into the car ahead of time like when the boys are eating breakfast. That means all we need to do is use the potty and get shoes and coats on. He knows how to use the potty by himself, I get him into the bathroom and then I go get Quin ready expecting him to be finished , when I get back five minutes later. No, he’s still standing there singing the same song, or spinning the toilet paper roll. Even if I stay in the bathroom and continuously repeat pull your pants down and use the potty, he’ll just want to play. Shoes and coats are slightly better. He’ll happily run to the front hall and get them, but then he’ll sit on his feet so I can’t get his shoes on him. Or he’ll stand there crying because his mittens fell out of his hat to the floor under the bench in the front hall. He’s smaller than I am and closer to the ground to boot, so I tell him to bend down and get his gloves, they’re right there. Even getting him into the car and buckled in is a chore. By the time this is all over we’re leaving 5-10 minutes later than I wanted too. I have the feeling that no matter how much time I get things going before hand it’s till going to happen. Now I know some of this is my issue. If I’m on time, I’m late, because on time to me is ten minutes early. I let this go when we don’t have a specific time to be anywhere and to be honest I was way worse when I was single because I was always 15-20 minutes early for stuff. If we’re going somewhere I don’t want to go I will time things so we’re 5-10 minutes late. Like I said I’ve gotten better, mostly because Ken’s family can’t agree on a plan or time for anything so we’ll only get a general range for when something will happen. I guess that’s where he gets it from.
my 1980's kitchen
My diningroom filled with stuff
my kitchen this morning
my kitchen tonight, not much cooking going on it huh
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