Dog bowls (Cal)

Both of my kids have gone through a phase of being thoroughly impressed with Izzy's food and water bowls. Lola did it; now Cal's into it. At least Cal has gotten past the phase of eating the dog food. Nowadays he just likes to fiddle with the little pieces; sometimes he likes to hand-feed Izzy and other times he likes to drop them in her water...you just never know. It's a little gross, but I don't think it's too big of a deal. As long as he's not eating it, I'm fine....

...until the water starts to get everywhere. I don't mind him getting wet, but our patio gets extremely slippery when wet. I don't know how many times I've almost fallen. And, since Cal's already cracked his head HARD on wet concrete at the pool, I gotta watch him. This is him after I shut his party down. Poor kid.

But he recovers quickly. He loves to run around barefoot in the yard, so he was fine.

Sammys (lunchtime)

Recently at a craft show, I bought a little sandwich gadget. When I make the kids' "samwiches" using that press/gadget, they love it. It makes the sandwiches into a little pocket thing. Anyhow, it's funny to me how they're so impressed by them.

I can't believe Lola's big enough to sit on our bar stools these days. I thought she'd be at least a few years older before she was big enough to climb up on them and sit safely. Kinda makes me sad to see how quickly she's growing.

Lawnmower & Letters

Cal was cracking himself up here. That little mower makes a "gunk-gunk-gunk" sound, like if you were pouring something down a drain. He thinks it's hysterical. So in every one of these pics, he's laughing at that sound. He'd turn the knob to make it go off again, then make sure I was listening and laughing too. He's so silly. The very first picture is my favorite.

Meanwhile, my other child was practicing writing her letters on her Leap Frog thingy. She is a little brainiac, and I'm not just saying that bc she's my kid. She loves to learn. She takes learning very seriously, as these pics prove. (Granted, in that one pic she's tracing a heart, but all the rest were letters.) She's known and been able to identify the alphabet since she was two. Uppercase and lowercase. She's at the point now that she knows all the sounds that each letter makes and can even sound out simple words. (Thank you, Super Why!) She does a good job at writing too. She can write her name and Cal's, and is working on a few other letters that stump her. She always gets her J's backwards, though. I admit, I work with her a lot in an unstructured manner. She just really enjoys her little workbooks and learning new things. It's crazy! Homeschooling her would be such an adventure, but something I'm seriously researching and learning about. At this point, it's a very good possibility that that's what we'll be doing next year. And, Cal will even get in on the excitement as well. It's a little tougher to try to understand how he works since he's still so young. He does enjoy scribbling and putting stickers on paper, though... I've just kind of learned how Lola works and so it makes it easy to teach her new things. She's definitely a hands-on learner.

I was so proud of her today bc when I picked her up from preschool, one of her teachers said that she was the only kid this week who knew her Bible memory verse! She also remember last week's verse. She's such a neat little kid and I realize I'm gushing about her, but since she's my little munchkin, I think that's okay once in a while. :) I always downplay compliments when it comes to her, but she deserves a little recognition for all of her big accomplishments. I'm so proud of her!

I kept saying, "Bee, can you show me your eyes? Will you please give me a smile? Don't you dare look at me..." (she loves playing that whole reverse psychology thing.) Nope, nothing. She was focused on her letters. Oh well.

Jumpin' Jumpin'

This weekend we went to some friends' house for supper and Bee got to jump on a big trampoline for the first time ever. Our neighbor has a little trampoline that she's jumped on a few times, but when she heard that she'd get to jump on a "huuuuuuuge" one, she was pumped!

Cal, on the other hand, watched from below. We were going to put him up in it with the girls, but he decided he'd rather run around in the grass and splash in the little water puddles in the yard. After supper the girls jumped some more but this time they added a sprinkler. Much fun! Cal didn't seem to be too impressed with three little girls laughing and screaming wildly at the same time. Most of our friends' kids are little girls, so he's really outnumbered for the time being. KJ says that when he's older, he'll love it. Something to do with "the pretty, older girls" or something...???

Look at that kid's legs! The crazy thing is they're much less chunky now than they were a few months ago. I love it! Lola was like that too but it's hard to imagine that now. Here he's pointing to the newborn our friend was holding. He was a little fascinated by baby Ryker -- but much too busy to give him too much attention. There's just something so fun about playing with other kids' toys, I guess.

More new projects...

These little scraps hold lots of potential. I've been doing more projects....

Good morning, Sunshine...(not)

Good morning, to you too, son.

He was NOT happy.

Notice how he threw the sound machine lamb hard enough that it landed under the bed?

The bed rails (which are pointless anyway) are ripped off?

And then I show up with my camera....not such a good idea.

*Note, no babies were harmed in the taking of this photo. He recovers quickly. Just say "pancake?"

Tippi Toes Dance (Lolabee)

Last night was Lolabee's first day at dance class. It's called Tippi Toes and it's a combination of ballet/jazz/tap. I admit, I have been hesitant to let her join a dance class bc I had this fear that their dancing style would be a little too risque for my three-year-old. Mini Vegas showgirls kept coming to mind. Maybe I've watched "Toddlers & Tiaras" on TLC one too many times...As a kid, I took dance but only for a few years. I liked the costumes more than anything, I think.

However, I found this flyer at church and, after a little research, I decided it'd be okay to enroll her. She loves to dance. She likes to dance in the car, at home, out in public -- just recently we were at the mall for the first time this year and while passing Abercrombie, she heard their blaring music and had to stop and dance a little. It was so funny. We like to be silly. These days, even Cal dances. Granted, he looks more like Forest Gump, but that's just his style. Ha!

The class started off with each little girl getting sparkles dusted on their arms and ended with a ballerina sticker. Lolabee loved it. I was so proud of her bc she listened very well to the teacher and followed the directions given. It's my hope that she's always like that when we're not around. She had a lot of fun. Plus, she looked so stinkin' cute in her little dance outfit.

More toes...

I apologize for so many feet/toe pics. I just love them!

There's a giant canvas hanging in our church's preschool area that was the inspiration for this shot. I've always loved that picture and finally remembered to try it with my munchkins.

It's not perfect, but Cal kept trying to escape, so this was as good as it gets.

I'm sorry, Dad, that the kids' heads are cut off. That was on purpose.

A New Project

I have some huge plans underway with this big stack of old records. I love Bing Crosby (that's him on top) and he's going to help me take these dusty, smelly old records and make them into something much cooler. Curious? Let's just say that over the past 2 weeks, I've bought roughly 35 old records. Hahahahaha! I'm so serious.

Paint & Bug

Bee and her paints -- all lined up neatly

"Ta-da!"

Brother, after just walking on top of her project; feeling kinda tough...

...until I showed him this giant, dead bug I found on the floor. Then things got a little tense. "Mr. Tough Guy" was a little disturbed.
He wanted nothing to do with the bug.
Then he was curious.
Then he didn't want it near him.
Then he was curious again.
He'd swat at it and say "uck!" and then walk quickly away.
Then he'd turn around and point at it and want to see it up close again.
Then Daddy got home from work and he had to tell him about the bug.

Lil Mama (Beezy)

Went in to check on Beezy during her naptime. It looked like she fell asleep reading her Jesus Storybook Bible (which is a great book for littles) after she tucked in "Boofa" and "Coco." She always has to get her babies just right at bedtime too. So cute.

Pina Colada Cake (my version)

The whole time I was pregnant with Cal Rocco I craved pina coladas. The funny thing is, I think I've sipped on one once in my entire life. I am not a drinker. Not even socially -- ever. We thought it was so bizarre that I was craving them while I was pregnant! Obviously, I never got one while I was pregnant, but while in Playa del Carmen this summer, I broke down and ordered one while relaxing on the beach. It was nonalcoholic. The waitress looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for it that way. I just wanted to get a taste of it to see why it seemed so appealing a year earlier. After a few sips, I decided it was definitely tasty -- but if it was in dessert form, like a cake -- not just a slush. I love my sweets.

Tonight we're going to some friends' house for supper and I'm bringing the dessert. Since summer's coming to an end, I thought I'd try to drag it out a tad bit longer. This dessert just doesn't "fit" in, say, January. So, here's my idea of a pina colada. I mixed a church friend's recipe with another cake recipe of my mom's to get this. It's super easy.

Pina Colada Cake

1 white cake mix

8 oz. coconut flakes

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can cream of coconut

1 small container of Cool Whip

1 small box of vanilla pudding

1 small can of crushed pineapple, drained

A dash of powdered sugar

Prepare the cake mix according to the instructions on the box, but add about half of the coconut to the batter. Bake. Remove from oven and poke holes all over the top with the end of a wooden spoon. In a small bowl, mix together the sweetened condensed milk and the cream of coconut. Pour over the cake. Let the cake cool. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the box of pudding and the pineapple; stir well. Fold in the Cool Whip. Spread over the top of the cooled cake. Sprinkle remaining coconut over the top.

Lola (crazy hair)

Bee wakes up with hair like this almost every morning.

She calls it crazy hair.

I think she's right.

A Big Pizza Pie

It's not often that we have a Saturday at home with just us 4 with nowhere to go. KJ has always enjoyed making homemade pizza, so that's what he did. Cal snuck bites of cheese while Lolabee added the toppings. She really enjoys helping out in the kitchen and I/we want to nurture that. I've promised her that when she gets older, she'll be allowed to cook supper each week all by herself. This thrills her! She likes to come up with her menu while we're in the car driving somewhere. Out of the blue, she'll start talking about, "Someday, when I'm big, I'm going to cook you some chip tacos," or whatever. (FYI: "Chip tacos" is her idea of crunchy tacos.)

The pizza was delicious.

STEPB/TPHO*E / PH*FP

That's how you write "steno machine" in steno. Crazy, I know. I recently took some pics for a friend of her steno machine. Since I have given up my career for the time being, it's been a few months since I've seen my steno machine. This little, expensive gadget was my life for 13 years. From 1996 when I started college to learn how to use the crazy thing, until 2009 when I semi-retired, the steno machine was how I made my living. I loved my job. It was hard work. It was the perfect job for me bc it was so detail-oriented and let me use all of my Type A tendencies. I'm a good listener and prefer to blend into the background; that's what this job required. I remember in college, my instructor telling us, "You're nothing more than a piece of furniture in the room. However, your job is to get every, single word that's spoken during your hearing or deposition. Every word. You don't decide what's important. You just write it all down. But remember, you're just a piece of furniture." That was so encouraging. Not.

I heard lots of crazy, sad, freaky, hilarious, heartbreaking things in those professional years. I also met my fair share of great, friendly attorneys and, also, plenty of which were obnoxious and scared me to death. I do not miss the late nights spent preparing the verbatim written transcript. I don't miss the next-day trial dates either. My everyday life revolved around my schedule of depositions and getting those transcripts prepared. I especially thrived on this as a single adult. I was never into partying and going out, so my weekends were often spent just at home proofreading transcripts and then spending the money that I earned. Foolish. I was so materialistic then.

Then I became a mom. It quickly became obvious after Cal's birth that there wasn't really room in my life for the steno machine anymore. At least not on a regular basis. (This was the best choice for us; I have no judgments for the moms who can juggle both. I just couldn't. They are really supermoms; I don't know how they do it!) Lola's first few years were spent being hauled to a sitter (thanks, Mom, for all you did -- you have no idea...) and shuffled here and there all for the sake of my job. I wasn't doing a great job at either one. We knew we didn't want that to be her life anymore and now that Cal was here, he deserved better too. We'd cut back everywhere necessary to make that happen. December was the last time I did a depo. There are moments where I miss aspects of it, a few of the people I worked for, but nothing compares to the satisfaction I get from being here daily with my kids. I'm on a new journey now and I'm loving it.

I'll continue to maintain my license and certification. I just don't have a plan for when I'll break out my machine again full-time. If ever. Homeschooling is something I'm learning about and that may be how I spend a chunk of my time for the next decade. Who knows.

The Flying Blanket

Almost exactly two years ago (9-1-08)

Present day

KJ's always making these flying blankets. Bee's always loved them. This was Cal's first go at it. He's almost exactly the age she was when KJ first introduced "the flying blanket." Crazy. Despite what it looks like, Cal enjoyed it. I think the thing that bothered him was bc I was cooking supper and he knew it. Getting wrapped up in a blanket and getting swung was interfering with his usual routine of sitting at my feet and having me sneak him tiny nibbles of whatever I was cooking. Bee liked trying to grab him while he was flying by and he thought it was pretty funny too.

Cal (cheap toys)

Cal found my wooden yardstick the other afternoon and it became his favorite toy. He'd just walk around dragging it, poking things, hitting things, tapping it, on and on. He was so happy.


I was a little nervous -- not because he was hurting anything/anyone -- but that thing cost me $7 at Hobby Lobby! Not a little cheapy one.


I try to tell the grandparents that the kids don't need toys. They (the g-parents) are relentless. I'm going to start taking pics of the fun my pumpkins have using everyday objects as their toys, and then post them here as proof. I love it bc they're using their imaginations. I love it almost as much bc it's free.


Below, he just wanted to stab me while I was trying to take some pics. Lola never did things like that. Maybe it's a boy thing?

Cherry Berry

Friday night, I took Lola to Cherry Berry. She LUVS Cherry Berry. She knows how to get there from our house. We don't go there super often, but just enough to make it a special treat when we do. Since she had such a great first week at her new school and had also been a very good helper all week, she deserved a treat. We had a girls' night. After supper, we loaded up and away we went. She gets soooo excited! It makes me happy that we can do these little things for her.

It was a busy night but we were able to get a kid-sized table and here she is enjoying her reward. She got her usual: chocolate, strawberry, and birthday cake with sprinkles, gummy bears, and a gummy worm. It sounds like a lot, but she really gets just a couple good squirts of the fro-yo and the toppings are very minimal. By the end of her dessert, she had goosebumps and told me her teeth were cold.

Ummm, okay...??

I think these pics speak for themselves. Obviously, Cal wasn't as impressed by the "new" Barbies as Beezy was. Sheesh. He was pretty proud of himself after each attack. Boys...

Crafting

Pieces of a project I'm going to try to complete tonight, now that everyone's in bed.

Summer's Ending

I'm feeling so bummed about summer coming to an end. I should have made that a sad face on the "2010" above.

Our neighborhood pool is okay, but our favorite pool down the street closed last week without me realizing it. I had planned to take the kids one more time, but it closed too soon. I thought for sure they'd stay open until Labor Day. Now every time I drive past it, I just get sad. The kids really loved that place.

I'm going to miss seeing these little chubby toes in flipflops. His feet barely fit in these flips. The strap on top gets a little tight. His other sandals have to be buckled on the last hole just to fit his foot inside. No other shoes fit his feet. I think we've even tried 3 different sizes of Toms. We thought they might fit with the velcro straps. Nope. His feet are just too fat for shoes. Soon, these little pie feet will be covered in socks. No fun. It's hard to imagine that someday these little feet will be all grown and stinky and, as my favorite blogger mentioned once about her sons, maybe even hairy! Ewww.

However, the plus side in summer ending is that it makes it a little nicer to play outside without getting totally sticky and sweaty. The other night was a tad cooler than our usual 100+ weather, so we played outside and it was actually very pleasant. I forgot what that was like. Normally we all go in extra grimy and the kids' sweaty clothes go straight to the washer instead of their hampers. This night, that wasn't necessary. That was also kinda nice.