Friday, April 29, 2011

Grateful for McDonald's

I haven't posted for a while because I want to upload my photos from last weekend, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm going to do it this weekend when I get a chance, but I thought an update would be good.

Tonight I am grateful for McDonald's. We normally come home together as a family on Friday nights, but we had an extra car in Seattle this week and Josh needed to finish up some stuff in the office before he leaves for Taiwan on Sunday night. So, I packed the kids in the car and started the trek home, but planned to stop in Gig Harbor with the kids for dinner at McDonald's. We have never done this before, but it was a great time for the kids. They have a really good indoor playground there and the kids had a blast. It was a nice way to end the week.

Thomas has taken to getting out of bed frequently at night before he finally goes to sleep. Just now he showed up in our room to tell us that he had lost his blinky light. He also is our greeter in the morning. When he first started coming over in the morning, he would just want us to get up and feed him. Now he gets in and falls back asleep. Since he tends to get up around 5:30, I am grateful that we now get a little extra sleep, even it if is with a squirmy child. (He just came down again to tell us that there is a string on his sock.)

Charlotte has discovered a deep love of candy thanks to Easter. She would like it morning noon and night. We have decided that she cannot have it every day, even though it will take a year to get through her candy from her Easter basket. She is also learning a bunch of words and starting to put them together which is great. She is also at that stage where she is unafraid. She would like her daddy to throw her in the air over and over again.

Tomorrow we have a full day - getting the car fixed, ice skating lessons and a likely trip to Costco. I'm really looking forward to being with the family all day. After working all week, I really appreciate seeing them on the weekends.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Busy night

Tonight, I had a "busy" night. All that means is that I did laundry and then put it away and had to put the sheets back on Charlotte's bed. Charlotte has now decided that she loves kisses, so I can grab her and kiss her neck and she just laughs and laughs. She also burrows into her pillow at night and reaches for the blanket to pull it around her. She could not be cuter.

Thomas is having fun trying to figure out his boundaries. His new word is "dangerous" as in "the parking lot is dangerous". While I don't want him to go around being scared about a lot of things, I do want him to have a healthy respect for the danger around a moving car. It is a fine line.

The big news today is that I finally got my act together and got a new mobile phone. When Josh went to work for HTC, I inherited his old iPhone. It was a fine phone and I probably would have gone on using it for a while, but Apple released a new version of iOS that patched some security holes and they did not make it compatible with my iPhone (an ancient 3G model). Therefore, in order to get my work email, I had to get a different phone. So now I have the same model phone that Josh has (an HTC Inspire) and a spiffy purple case to go along with it.

That's all the excitement for today. Except for the fact that there are now only 3 more dessert free days ahead of me. Of course the more important part of that is celebrating Easter on Sunday, but I'm really looking forward to some chocolate eggs.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Update on Lent

I haven't written too much about giving up sweets for Lent. I have not had too much trouble except for one mental lapse where I just ate the ice cream that was put in front of me without thinking about it.

Here is what I have learned:
1. The Girl Scouts should not sell cookies during or right before Lent. I have two boxes in my freezer, but it was mean, just mean to see them continuing to sell them.
2. Sometimes fruit is better than cookies or candy.
3. Everyone keeps assuring them that morning doughnuts make them feel bad (as in sick). I try to take comfort in that, but they really look good.
4. I don't miss chocolate nearly as much as I thought I would.
5. It is easier to give up if it is not in the house.

There is one more week left until Easter. I will continue to keep more fruit and less cake as a way of life. But, I am looking forward to at least a little dessert every once in a while.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Driving

We came home to Bremerton last night, so I had to commute today. I love to drive. Friday mornings are a particularly good time to drive because there is less traffic. Strangely, Friday nights have lots of traffic. You wouldn't think that so many people leave on Friday nights, but they must because the traffic is generally terrible on Friday nights. I enjoyed my time in the car, catching up on world news and then listening to some music. It was a nice way to leave work behind and get my head into the weekend.

We are going to round two of ice skating lessons tomorrow. We've had lots of talks this week about it and I think Thomas is ready. We'll see if we have to resort to actual bribery. Josh is going to go out on the ice with him tomorrow and we have been working with him on why it is good to try things even if they are scary.

Now that Thomas is able to get out of his bed, we are working on the fun stuff like actually staying in bed. He is usually pretty good, but he did show up once this week next to my bed. He said "Mommy, I'm chilly." So I got up, took him back to bed and covered him with two blankets. He was out in two seconds. We also had a small incident this week where he climbed into Charlotte's crib with her at 5 am. She thought it was hilarious.

Thomas and Charlotte are both growing out of their clothes faster than I think is possible. And, they are both getting new teeth. Charlotte now has 4 molars and Thomas also has his final molars. They are both looking forward to a weekend of running around the house, stomping their feet and generally making lots of noise. I am looking forward to watching them and laughing.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Short weeks in Seattle

We are now in the throes of hockey season which means I should take some action shots of Josh on the ice (or in the penalty box) and post them here so you can see what we do on the weekends. The games are on Thursday and Sunday and the teams rotate a little, but it seems like we are getting a lot of Thursday games. When it works, that means we leave here on Thursday night instead of Friday. It makes the week go by faster, even though I have to commute in on most Fridays.

We had several fun things going on this weekend. On Saturday, we took Thomas for his first skating lesson. 26 minutes into it, Josh got him to crawl out on the ice. We have decided to resort to bribery next week (in other words - candy if he can make it on to the ice). He is going through a phase of being nervous about things that were fine before. He also struggled with his class at the rec center today. We'll see if he can get over it in the next couple of weeks.

My parents came over on Saturday night which allowed Josh and I to go see a movie. We are really blessed to have so much family nearby. I know many parents in our situation (2 really young kids) and they rarely get time alone together. We also got to go out to dinner on Friday night and I got to go watch Josh's hockey game on Sunday afternoon all by myself. It made the weekend feel longer and more restful.

We cam back here last night which allowed me to go to yoga this morning. I do not do all the well at Monday morning yoga. I don't know if it is because it has been a few days since I did it last or because I really wish I could still be in bed, but I struggle a lot more on Mondays than when I do it on Wednesday or Friday. It is still worth it because I feel so good when it is over, but I have to earn it more on Monday.

That is pretty much the story for today. Now I am going to curl up with my book and read for a while.

Friday, April 08, 2011

At the Airport in NJ

I'm getting on a plane in a few minutes to fly to Minneapolis and on from there to Seattle. It was a great trip to NY, capped off by a fun night last night. I got to meet up with a friend for drinks and then out to dinner with 4 people I work with. We ate at a little restaurant called Piadina in the Village and monopolized the table for 2 and a half hours. It was the most funny dinner I've had in a while. I didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight and 8:00 came too quickly this morning.

This week went by really quickly and I can't wait to get home and Josh and Thomas and Charlotte tonight. It was strange to be away from them for a couple of days...

Happy Friday and hope you are enjoying your day, whatever you are doing.

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

I took this picture for Thomas because he loves tunnels. I went through the Midtown tunnel on the way in from JFK.

I spent a good amount of time at this tiny desk this afternoon, catching up on work.

I got upgraded to a King room. Pretty much the bed and the desk are the whole room. Just like I like it, nice and compact.

I went out to Park Slope (Brooklyn) to have dinner with my friend, Andrea. On the way back I took a picture of this cool old church because I liked it and it looked cool in the rain.
I am in New York on business. I flew in today and got to finish my book. I have been reading The Name of the Wind - a favorite of my husbands and many other good readers that I know. I loved it so much that I broke my rule and got the next book in the series and started it right away.

Since I had kids, I don't like to travel as much as I used to, but I was reading 1000 Gifts on the plane and thinking about enjoying the moment and I decided that I can enjoy the moments that I am here even as I miss my family. New York felt like an old friend to me as I passed through familiar streets and recognized places I have stayed before. The past couple of times, I've also gone out to Brooklyn to meet up with friends and it is nice to discover new places here rather than just go to the same ones over and over again.

I don't know that I will have time to take pictures tomorrow, but I am going to try. I rarely take pictures while I am here and it is one of my favorite cities (after Paris, Seattle, San Francisco and London). Now I have to go to sleep since my day starts early. Good night!

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Short Sunday night post

We are back in Seattle after a fun filled day in Bremerton. We went to church and then out to lunch with my family. It was a full table today because Rebecca and the boys and Hannah got to join us. Meaning my entire family was there with the exception of Robb (Rebecca's husband) - he was flying back from Mexico today where he went to build houses for a week. We were sad to miss him, but it was great work that they got done there.

We took our very sleepy children home for naps and Thomas slept in his big bed again. We are kind of liking that he can get out of bed by himself because he just shows up when he is done with nap. I'm still getting used to it in the morning.

We are back in Seattle late after we watched Josh's hockey game and then bundled the kids in the car and headed over. It was a great game - which they won 6-5. It included two trips to the penalty box for Josh which means he was playing really hard (he explained to me early on that sometimes it is better to get a penalty than to let a guy score - as long as no one gets hurt). We haven't done this with the kids yet because I am not always a big fan of sleeping in the car, but they really did well. They stayed asleep for the most part on the stroller ride up to the apartment and then went straight to bed. We still have to figure out the best way to configure Thomas bed since he can now get out and we are looking at changing his crib into a toddler bed.

It is a short week in Seattle for us. I leave on Wednesday for New York and Josh is going to take the kids back to Bremerton because he has a hockey game on Thursday night. I'll try to take more pictures and post them as well. Sleep well!

Saturday, April 02, 2011

First Family day in a while

We spent the day together just the four of us for the first time in a while. We talked about a few different options and ended up spending the day close to home. Our first adventure was playing in the yard.
Here you go, Mom.

I'm going to leave this truck here and go check out something else.
Then we went out for a little grocery shopping and came back to nap time. The kids were cooperative and fell asleep in the car on the way home from the grocery store. After naps, we decided to go to Scenic Beach in Seabeck. We had never been there before and it wasn't raining too much so we were pretty sure we'd be able to catch at break in the weather.

Oh, yeah, I love my car seat.

What do you mean I have to be 16 to drive?

Wait for me!

Look at this cool gazebo I found.
We walked around and explored the picnic area, but the beach was closed. The kids didn't care. They were really happy to be outside. We looked at a leaf and some sticks, we ran around in circles and the kids got to stomp in some puddles. It was great. Just when we left, it started to pour - great timing :)

Finally, we had a family dinner. Josh kept the kids distracted by turning the oven mitt into a talking, tickling dinosaur. They thought it was hilarious.
The dinosaur oven mitt
One final note of the day. After 2 mornings of Thomas showing up in our room (yes, he learned to climb out of his crib and last night we put up a gate upstairs and he climbed over that, too), we moved Thomas to a big bed. He made it through nap okay and then just came downstairs when he was done. We are entering a new era.

Friday, April 01, 2011

Weekend, how I love you

I love yogurt - can't you tell?
Josh and I were both struggling to stay awake on the drive home which is a clear indication that we are ready for the weekend. It was a busy month with lots of travel and we now have a lively 16 month old girl who is fighting bedtime. We found the cure tonight - driving and the movie Cars. Also, she didn't take a nap this afternoon. But, look at that face. How can you not just love her? So, we are getting ready for the transition to one nap and the arrival of more teeth.

We have absolutely nothing planned this weekend. It is a nice way to start a month. Hope everyone else is enjoying a little downtime, too!