Photo Friday-Scooter Time

We managed to luck out again today...another day forecast of rain and another sunny day. Apparently it won't be the same tomorrow. So, we got outside for a bit after naps to scooter. And yes, I let Kate stay in her dress-up dress. She was Scootering Cinderella.

Padyn started off scootering in her slippers. Eventually she decide that wasn't working out to well for her and put on her oxfords instead. Smart move.

This is my favorite.

Happy Friday!

(PS Since I'm been so good about blogging this week, I'm taking a break this weekend. Don't expect anything new from this site for a few days.)

Cookie Time

I've been making a lot of cookies lately. (Must be a pregnancy thing.) A few weeks ago I had a craving for Chocolate Crackles, a cookie my mom made all the time when we were growing up, but I had never made as an adult. I didn't have the recipe, so instead of calling my mom (sorry, Mom), I looked on-line. There are hundreds of "Chocolate Crackle" recipes out there. I chose the one that looked the easiest and that I had all the ingredients on hand for. Turned out I made a fine call. We've had them twice since then. They are really good. If you want the recipe you can go here to my recipe blog. (Didn't know I had a recipe blog? Well, now you do.)

Part of the cookie making process is rolling the balls of chocolate in powdered sugar. Here are the girls helping out with that. You can use your imagination to visual how messy this process become. Powdered sugar everywhere. But the cookies were totally worth it.

And no...it wasn't warm day. My 3 year old just doesn't like putting clothes back on after her nap. And that 5 year old thinks it's summer all year long. I was probably wearing a two long sleeve shirts and a fleece sweatshirt. We're a bit different, these girls and I.

Catching Up...

Here's a couple of shots I took today in an attempt to get a good one of the two of them...

The princess top Kate is wearing over her clothes? She's been wearing that all day long. With the skirt. Over her jeans. She had many admirers on our errands around town today.

Looks like the rain is on it's way back in, eh?

Updates

I know I've been a total blogger slacker lately. It's not just my blog that I'm avoiding. I haven't even looked at my friends' blogs in a few weeks. This phase seems to be lasting longer than usual, but I am trying to come out of it. It doesn't help that there are a bunch of things that consume my time that I can't write about. I have to stick to the safer subjects, which I'm not as motivated to write about.

But, as an attempt to overcome the staleness of my blog, instead of taking a shower right now (yes, you see the time stamp correctly), I'll give you a few updates on us.

*Kate is all about being almost 3. Currently she is in a heap on the floor that is supposed to be a time out. She crinkled up her sister's school page then refused to give it back to her. She loves running away from Padyn holding something of her sister's above her head (as if Padyn isn't taller than she is.) She knows how to push all of Padyn's buttons and doesn't hesitate to do it-even when she knows it will get her in trouble.

*Oh, and then there is this milk thing. She still wants her milk heated up. She gets milk twice day-when she wakes up and when her quiet time is over. Lately, her requests have gotten more bizarre and if the temperature is not just right, she could end up in a 30 minute screaming tantrum. Apparently her milk now has to be "hot and cold." Basically, she wants me to heat it up too hot to drink then add a splash of cold milk. You see why this is difficult? Sometimes I don't give in to her insane demands, but you can see where this is going-screaming heap of mess of floor. Not fun for anyone.

*While Padyn still complains about going to school everyday, she clearly is very happy in kindergarten. She's got her best bud that she plays with everyday, a nice bunch of kids in her class who seem to treat each other very well, and plenty of books to read. She's gotten pretty good at sounding out basic words and we are working on sight words. She wants to know how everything is spelled and quiz me on simple math equations. At least she seems impressed that I know what 4 + 1 is.

*Padyn's favorite thing right now is computer time. I only let her look at a couple different websites. If I let her, she'd be on it everyday for hours at a time. Good to see she follows after her parents.

*Out is the tent, but hanging in their pjs for the afternoon is still a fun game. The castle recently reappeared as a new favorite toy and fort building also seems to be making a comeback. We talk a lot (or whine a lot) these days about"shared toys" versus "special toys." Kate is pretty good at being willing to share with her sister and Padyn is pretty awful about it. Padyn has reached expert levels of tattling and and acting like the Mommy.

*The whining (on Padyn's part) and the bickering (on both their parts) is driving me crazy. I've been trying to not yell but some days it is so maddening I think I'm going to come out of my skin. I'm such a crank by the time they go to bed because I'm so sick of refereeing all day long. I really really really need wine. Of course, even if I had a little, it would just exacerbate the acid reflux and would be of no use.

*Me? Well, still pregnant. Couldn't really tell you how far along I am. I know I'm in my 3rd trimester and after my appointment next week I have to start going in every 2 weeks. That makes me think I'm getting closer to the end. My glucose and iron levels are good, so that's nice. I would hate to have to cut out the sweets or have to go on the constipating iron supplements. This little guy is super active and loves to kick anyone who puts pressure on his bedroom (aka my stomach). People tell me I don't look that pregnant but I certainly feel pregnant. I'm starting to get really tired in the afternoons and I have started trying to sleep sitting up to avoid the acid reflux feeling. (I really haven't been good about cutting out the foods that are supposed to be bad for it.) There are no pictures of me (blame Daddy) and no names yet.

I guess it's time to go take a shower now since I'm pushing into dinner time...

Fairy Running Princess

Vacuum Day

If only I could get them to do all my household chores...

Is it too early to have them do their own laundry?

Photo Friday-TV Coma and Close-Ups

I know, I know...it's been a really long time since I've put pictures on. I missed last Friday, and it's been a busy week. I've hardly taken any pictures in the last couple weeks, so I decided to take some close-ups today. All the ones of Kate are while she's watching Curious George. Clearly, she's a little distracted. The one's of Padyn are a combination of TV viewing and posing.

We're going to stay indoors this weekend to stay dry. Not complaining about the rain, though...we really need it. Maybe we'll go stomp in some puddles tomorrow.

Happy Friday!

Snow Instead of Football

Since we aren't really into football, and therefore, don't really give a hoot about the Super Bowl, we decided that yesterday would be a good day to go play in the snow. Padyn has been bugging me to go since Christmas. (I think she was jealous that many of her classmates spent time over winter break in the mountains.) I try to avoid all things crowded on the weekends, but since most people would be home eating chicken wings and onion dip, I figured this particular Sunday wouldn't be to crowded, and therefore tolerable.

Off to a SNO-PARK we went. We've never done a sno-park before...it's a CA state park that is just what it sounds like. A place to play in the snow. It's SO MUCH CHEAPER than skiing or paying to go to one of the resort's "playlands." Even if it totally sucked, we'd only be out $5, so who cared?

The fun started in the parking lot. Kate was fascinated with the snow bank. She kept stomping on the fallen snowballs and digging out the side of the bank. She would have stayed there all afternoon if we let her. But the rest of us wanted to see more of the park, so we made her come with us.Oh, where they excited when they saw that snow was EVERYWHERE. Daddy went off to find a good place to sled, so we practiced making and throwing snowballs. I think she had just hit something with a snowball...Kate wasn't so into the sledding. This is about as far as she went..."sledding" on her bottom down a 5 degree, 5 yard "slope"... and being pulled up the mountain (and back to the parking lot). We spent a bit of time wandering around the mountain looking for a good place to sled. We finally found one...Padyn and Daddy spent the rest of the day coming down this little hill. Padyn had a blast. This was by far, her favorite day ever (well, in 2009 anyway).Kate, on the other hand, spent her time hanging out in the snow. We built a baby snowman, she tried to make snow angels, and she pulled her water bottle around in the sled. She particularly enjoying throwing little bits of snow around.

Eventually, Padyn did the unthinkable...she wanted to go down the hill by herself on the saucer. Daddy was happy to oblige seeing as how his neck was getting quite sore from all the bouncing around. You should have seen her flying down that hill. The photos can't capture the sheer joy she was experiencing.

Padyn's first question when we got up this morning? When can we go back...

Snow Day

This picture pretty much captures the day.

It's a Cruel, Cruel World

Acid Reflux has set in with this pregnancy. I remember experiencing it with Kate when I ate Chicago style pizza, but I don't remember much else triggering it.

This time, things are a bit different. I seem to be experiencing it daily, regardless of whether pizza is on the menu or not. So, in an attempt to be pro-active (because really...who wants to constantly feel like they have food in their throat if they can help it), I looked up the foods that trigger acid reflux. I am not happy with what I've found.

Fatty Animal Products: non-lean meat, cheese, eggs
Citric Foods: lemons, oranges, tomatoes, vinegar, etc
Soda
Coffee/Tea
Chocolate
garlic
mint
Dairy-milk shakes, ice cream, sour cream
Mashed Potatoes
French Fries
Potato/Corn Chips
doughnuts
salad dressing
cookies

Can you see why I'm depressed? Chocolate? Ice Cream? Coffee?!?!?! How will I get through the next 3 months without those things? I eat so many of these things every week. I don't know if I can reasonably restrict them from my diet.

So, maybe feeling this way is really not that terrible. Maybe I can live with it. I'll just keep avoiding tomato sauce...

Photo Friday-When the Cat is Away, the Mouse will Play

It's not often that Kate gets to stay home and play while Padyn is at school. Today was one of those rare days. And what does Kate choose to do during that alone time? Well, after watching too much TV (Mommy's fault-she got busy and forgot), Kate chooses to play with the things that Padyn usually keeps far far away from her curious fingers...the blue fancy dress-up dress that Padyn got from Mimi for her birthday and Padyn's jewelry box.

I won't tell Padyn if you won't.

Happy Friday.

Slick Deals

I hate buying shoes for the girls. First of all, they have SO MANY SHOES already. (Yet, for whatever reason, they only seem to wear one or two pairs.) Secondly, kids' shoes are ridiculously expensive for the amount of time they are able to wear them. I hardly spend $50 on a pair of shoes for me, and my feet aren't growing rapidly (though they could be getting wider). I just can't possibly spend that on my children. (I feel the same way about clothing.)

But, even though I'm morally opposed to children's shoe stores that charge ridiculous amounts of money and try to tell you that you are doing the right thing by spending $55 on this product for your child, I went into one on Monday with the girls. Mainly, I wanted to get Kate's feet sized-she always complains about her shoes and she refused to wear her tennis shoes. I wanted to make sure she was in the right size. (She wasn't...she was off by at least a size, plus she's a wide. Go figure). While we were there, I browsed to see if anything on clearance was worth looking at. Nope. Clearance items were still $30. Still too much.

But then, as I was about to leave, I spied a rack that claimed "2 for $30." Thinking that I couldn't do much better than that at Target, I went looking. And lo and behold, we came away with a pair of tennis shoes for each girl. Yes! Neither of the girls has a good pair of tennis shoes that they are willing to wear. For this price, I could risk it.

Sure, Kate's are too big still (better than small, right?) and Padyn's are a bit large...but still! $15 a pair! I don't think I could have done better at the outlet. And the best part? Padyn has not taken hers off since we came home. She wanted to take a nap in them yesterday. (I wouldn't let her as she was napping in my bed.) She wore them all day Monday, to school yesterday, and all over the house when she usually comes home and immediately takes her shoes off. Plus, she is now motivated to learn to tie her shoes.

I wish I could find deals like that everyday.

Even 2 Year Olds Know His Name

Being the historic day that it was, Kate's preschool class (all 3 of them) joined the elementary kids next door too watch the inauguration of our 44th president.

When I picked Kate up later, I asked her what she did at school. Her response?

"I watch Bama Rock! On TV!"

701

This is my 701st post. Wow. That's alot.

This is what our afternoons have become...

Currently, our days are highly predictable and routine. We get up at 6:30, leave for school at 7:45, come home for lunch around 12:30, and then the girls play until it's Kate nap time (around 2). Lately, this is what play time has become: The girls put their nightgowns on as soon as we get home, grab their pillows and lovelies and head to the tent. I'm not sure what they do in there, but they are happy for long periods of time, so I gotta love that.

I wonder what the next fad will be.

Photo Friday-Ballerina Sisters

When they aren't spending their afternoon in their nightgowns and tents (tomorrow's post), the girls are usually dressing up. This was a new one...dressing up in their leotards and dancing around.

Happy Friday!

Chocolate is the Best Bribery Tool

Kate actually ate green beans tonight. Not just one or two little ones. A whole (though small) serving. This has never ever happened before. She's put one in her mouth before and promptly spit it out. She's even asked for them before. But she'd never actually swallowed them before tonight. And said she liked them. Miracles abound.

Sure...I bribed her with the head of a chocolate bear. What good mother wouldn't? I gotta get her to try green foods some way. I'm not ashamed.

But knowing this child, I'm sure she won't touch green beans again for a year, even if I offer her the ENTIRE chocolate bear. She's funny like that.

Winter Weather

The girls and I are planning on going to the park this morning, seeing as how it is finally sunny after a week of fog and rain.

Currently, it's 43 degrees at 11am. That would not be so bad...

...except that with wind chill it feels like 36.

Yea...I don't think we are going to the park for a while. I'm a wimp like that.

Living in CA sure does spoil you, doesn't it?

And the Title Will Be...

***If you want to be surprised, then do not read on. Just close the page now. Come back in a few days when I have posted something else.****


(BLANK SPACE TO GIVE KAZZ A CHANCE TO LOOK AWAY....)


Coming in May to a blog near you:

Girls 2 Boys 1

Apparently, the girls are going to have a baby brother. But don't even ask about the name yet. It's still not quite real that I am having a male child. I'm excited...don't misunderstand. I'm just used to GIRLS. And I have lots of girl stuff. So, if you have boy stuff you want to pass on, feel free to send it my way. I'm going to need some.

Padyn may be disappointed, though. She really wanted a baby sister. I haven't told her yet. I'll let you know how that goes.

I don't think Kate will care one way or another.

And Daddy? Yup, he's pretty excited, as you would expect. I might even use the word elated.

Happy Friday!

Happy 2009...

...from the re-incarnated Jerry Lee Lewis and the whole family.