My friend Jenni just made up this new meme.... At least, it's her own idea, whether or not it exists out there on the 'net in some form or another. And I love it so much that I'm going to participate.
The idea is to share a synopsis of the week through the little mini-updates I've posted all week on Facebook. A lot of you don't follow me on Facebook, and I haven't been in the best frame of mind to deal with big long posts on my blog, so this is perfect! You can catch a little glimpse of what's been going on with me for the past week. :)
I'm going to start from last Friday. Feel free to join in, if you use Facebook, too!
Friday, April 17
1:03pm
Becky had two nights in a row with some major insomnia issues. Wonders if the kids would let her get away with a nap on such a gorgeous, sunny day. Hmmm. Not too likely.
6:58pm
Becky finally got a new hand-blender, and has been mixing up full meals for Alex to enjoy with us now that he's 1 year. He really loved blended-up Rachel's Pasta tonight, saying "aaaaaaahh" after every bite, asking for more!
Saturday, April 18
12:25pm
Becky got back from the kids' swim class and is getting some lunch ready. More sun today, in the 70's.... perfect Saturday, yay!
1:33pm
Becky is taking the family out to the NCR trail.
Sunday, April 19
5:30pm
Becky just woke up from a lovely, uninterrupted nap.
Monday, April 20
10:12am
Becky is listening to Karen Carpenter's "Rainy Days and Mondays"... But truly, this rainy Monday isn't affecting me as much as they usually do. I was just in the mood for the song. ;)
10:41am
Becky is doing ShrinkyDinks with the kids.
4:22pm
Becky is thinking about what to do if Jesse's car is declared totaled from the recent minor accident. Buy a cheap used car? Buy a much-needed recent-model van despite good job security? Go back to the life of single car living?? Get him a bike for work? Ugh. Not a happy thought process overall. Don't like being forced into these decisions.
Tuesday, April 21
11:15am
Becky needs to grocery shop but is once again having a hard time thinking up a meal plan for the coming week.
4:11pm
Becky just *loves* already-exhausting grocery trips when every potty-trained child just HAS to go potty at the most inopportune time. Sigh. At least it's over for another week!
10:47pm
Becky should probably go to bed now... but where's the fun in that?
Wednesday, April 22
12:19pm
Becky paid her library fine today. It was even worse than I thought. $.20 per book (NOT $.10), 26 books, 4 days overdue: $20.80. VERY expensive forgetfulness. I could kick myself a very long time over that....
8:26pm
Becky can't believe her husband never read Sideways Stories of Wayside School as a child!! Got a few giggles out of Melinda at bedtime while I was reading it, though! :)
Thursday, April 23
3:09pm
Becky wishes it were Friday. I'm beat.
5:09pm
Becky and the fam are walking down to try the new South American Grill instead of cooking dinner tonight. Yay for Brazilian food right down the street!
Update:
Well dang, it was oddly closed during their advertised business hours. No info available at their phone number, but I left a message at their email. I was very excited to eat there tonight, too.
Since we walked all the way down there, we decided to try a little Mexican/Salvadorian grill that we hadn't ever noticed. Looks like it was family run, food was authentic and very tasty. Loved it. If I had to settle for something after getting my hopes up for Brazilian, this was the thing to "settle" for. :)
Friday, April 24
2:13pm
Becky can't get Alex to take a nap at his regular time on the one day this week that it actually matters.
(Had to cancel plans with friends on this beautiful sunny day, since he took his nap SO much later than normal. This was the one thing I planned all week that depended on his nap happening normally. Not cool.)
4:47pm
Joy. Jesse's car has been officially totaled. For $600 in parts and $2000 estimated labor, just some dented body work and a busted headlight, and they're taking our car away. They're giving him a very "generous" $1400. Like that'll get us even close to a reliable a replacement. Looking at options. Ugh.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Circus
I had known about the circus being in town for a little while, but I was having a hard time deciding whether we should go or not. The best time would be to go on April 1st... My little sister Kaija would be here to enjoy it with us, but the biggest problem was that it wasn't scheduled to even start until the time that we normally put the kids to bed. And April 1st was also Alex's birthday, so it would be an active day. I wavered back and forth about it a lot, almost purchasing tickets two separate times before I talked myself out of it. Jesse wasn't a lot of help in deciding - he recognized the same drawbacks as I did, and also hesitated to put the whole family in downtown Baltimore in the late evening. But in the end, I decided it would be fun, even if the timing would be tricky. So, off to the circus we went, after rushing out the door after Alex's birthday celebrations.
We arrived just as things were getting started, and an usher lead us to our seats. We were on the highest open level, on the back row against the wall, but it still seemed like fairly decent seats to me. We could see most everything easily ... the exception being high-rise stuff that was sometimes blocked by the basketball hoops. Melinda, Jacob and Alex (and the grownups, too, I think!) were all instantly mesmerized by everything going on. A whole song-and-dance routine, with clowns by the dozen, dressed up girls, prades of animals... what a sight!!
In this first picture, sort of front-and-center is a guy on GIANT stilts. I was absolutely amazed by him. He was hopping around, dancing, and later on even did a limbo sort of move, putting his body completely horizontal to the ground, backwards. I can't imagine how he didn't ever fall over!!
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There were so many fun things to see. I couldn't take pictures of even half of them. One thing I wish I had taken a picture of was a man who did monkey bar rings way up at the ceiling, upside down, with his feet. Near the end of his routine, he flung himself, still with his feet, towards the horizontal bar/swing at the end of the rings. No net under him. He caught himself, but it was amazing and tense!
There were some lovely more quiet routines - one segment including a few strong men who were balancing themselves acrobatically on each other, all while another girl across the floor was balancing on her head on top of tall poles stacked on top of more tall poles, all while yet another girl was doing an amazing floor-to-ceiling length, twist-herself-in-ribbon dance. I wish they would have been one at a time - I felt like I was missing something from one of the other two every time I focused on just one!
There was also a segment with girls "dancing" on rings while another couple of people did a ribbon-dance. This one was amazing. The ribbon people would wrap themselves up in the ribbon just right so that they would let go, then roll speedily towards the ground from all the way at the top, only to stop suddenly at the bottom. I can't imagine what must have gone through the head of the person who invented that sort of routine... how they figured out in the first place that wrapping yourself just so would make you roll dramatically but stop just in the nick of time, you know?
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During intermission, we grabbed a couple clown-head mugs with snow cones inside. Jesse had to run Jacob down to use the potty, but the rest of us stayed up. (Melinda suddenly figured out she had to go halfway through the second half. That was sad, we had to miss things!!) Alex liked getting tastes of the snow cone, as his blue tongue will testify.
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And look! I really was at the circus, too! Photographic proof!
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Of course, there was a cage full of tigers, which was neat to see, especially since tigers are one of my absolute favorite animals, but I can't say that I was particular amazed by the routine. It seemed like they were just being guided from one side of the cage to another. Cartoons make it more fun, with tigers jumping through hoops and everything, but I suppose just the fact that a single man surrounded by many tigers - who could "turn" at any moment - is amazing in itself.
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There was also a fun little elephant routine. They did a lot more interesting things when I wasn't taking pictures. Melinda was particularly upset that I didn't get a picture of the elephant that did a "hand"stand, using its trunk curled up on the ground as an extra balance point.
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There were some not-so-interesting things, like a bunch of white ponies that were cute, but basically just ran in a tight circle for what felt like 10 minutes. They switched directions like a flock of birds... but I've seen horses run before. The most interesting thing about them was when they were lined up tallest to smallest, the smallest looking like a large dog.
There were also some guys who were hopping all around on giant tire-shaped bouncy balls. They did some pretty impressive tricks. One guy's ball popped partway through the routine! He didn't get hurt, thank goodness, and it didn't seem to impact the routine, either.
But then there were also thinks like trapeze artists (yay!), motorcycles driving on a high-wire with a girl balanced underneath, and of course, the motorcycles in a steel cage. THAT was cool. Excuse the shaky video... I was zoomed in as far as my camera could go, and of course tiny movements like Alex bumping me make a big shake on the screen. ;)
After the circus, we headed back to the car. That's when Jacob had his melt-down about not getting a "glowy sword", and Melinda was upset that I wouldn't buy her something or other (I think it might have been a stuffed horse). They were T-I-R-E-D. Jacob insisted he didn't like it. Even the next day and the next. It wasn't until after Kaija went home that he admitted to liking the circus, and asking to go again. And of course, parking was in a garage, so there was a super-fun line to get out. But once we did get out, we were home free. Got home at almost 10:30pm. Yikes!! But what a night. It's not often you get to see a circus. I know the last time I saw one, it was with my grandparents back in Tacoma, Washington. I can't have been older than 8. I'm glad we went, after all- it was a fun time. Kaija sure seemed to enjoy it, too! (We miss you, Kaija!)
I asked Melinda and Jacob what their favorite parts of the circus were. Jacob said something like "the ladies going on the string down to the square"... which might have referred to the ribbon dancers. Melinda said "the girls with the pink scarves", which againis probably the ribbon dancers. Though not all of them were girls, as far as I could tell from our distance. ;)
A few people have mentioned how I haven't blogged in a while. Sorry about that... we're still here, life still goes on, I just haven't been in a blogging mood, and I haven't been managing my free time well this week. I'll be busy the next few days, but after that I'll try to get all caught up and everything. Hopefully. ;)
We arrived just as things were getting started, and an usher lead us to our seats. We were on the highest open level, on the back row against the wall, but it still seemed like fairly decent seats to me. We could see most everything easily ... the exception being high-rise stuff that was sometimes blocked by the basketball hoops. Melinda, Jacob and Alex (and the grownups, too, I think!) were all instantly mesmerized by everything going on. A whole song-and-dance routine, with clowns by the dozen, dressed up girls, prades of animals... what a sight!!
In this first picture, sort of front-and-center is a guy on GIANT stilts. I was absolutely amazed by him. He was hopping around, dancing, and later on even did a limbo sort of move, putting his body completely horizontal to the ground, backwards. I can't imagine how he didn't ever fall over!!
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Just more busy activity in the grand opening of the circus! It was hard to watch everything happening - there was so much going on at the same time!
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The kids' reactions: Melinda is drop-jawed, and Alex is more wide-eyed than I usually see him when he's excited about something he sees.
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Jacob was grinning and pointing to things quite a lot. (Can you believe he told us after the circus was over that he didn't like it? He was having a grand ol' time! But it was all because we wouldn't buy him a "glowy sword" that he saw among all the souveniers available. He had a bit of a fit about that... but who can blame him, after all the sights and sounds, and then being up at such a later hour after an already busy day!)
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Nearing the close of the grand opening, a parade of elephants, among other things.
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There were so many fun things to see. I couldn't take pictures of even half of them. One thing I wish I had taken a picture of was a man who did monkey bar rings way up at the ceiling, upside down, with his feet. Near the end of his routine, he flung himself, still with his feet, towards the horizontal bar/swing at the end of the rings. No net under him. He caught himself, but it was amazing and tense!
There were some lovely more quiet routines - one segment including a few strong men who were balancing themselves acrobatically on each other, all while another girl across the floor was balancing on her head on top of tall poles stacked on top of more tall poles, all while yet another girl was doing an amazing floor-to-ceiling length, twist-herself-in-ribbon dance. I wish they would have been one at a time - I felt like I was missing something from one of the other two every time I focused on just one!
There was also a segment with girls "dancing" on rings while another couple of people did a ribbon-dance. This one was amazing. The ribbon people would wrap themselves up in the ribbon just right so that they would let go, then roll speedily towards the ground from all the way at the top, only to stop suddenly at the bottom. I can't imagine what must have gone through the head of the person who invented that sort of routine... how they figured out in the first place that wrapping yourself just so would make you roll dramatically but stop just in the nick of time, you know?
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During intermission, we grabbed a couple clown-head mugs with snow cones inside. Jesse had to run Jacob down to use the potty, but the rest of us stayed up. (Melinda suddenly figured out she had to go halfway through the second half. That was sad, we had to miss things!!) Alex liked getting tastes of the snow cone, as his blue tongue will testify.
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And look! I really was at the circus, too! Photographic proof!
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Of course, there was a cage full of tigers, which was neat to see, especially since tigers are one of my absolute favorite animals, but I can't say that I was particular amazed by the routine. It seemed like they were just being guided from one side of the cage to another. Cartoons make it more fun, with tigers jumping through hoops and everything, but I suppose just the fact that a single man surrounded by many tigers - who could "turn" at any moment - is amazing in itself.
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There was also a fun little elephant routine. They did a lot more interesting things when I wasn't taking pictures. Melinda was particularly upset that I didn't get a picture of the elephant that did a "hand"stand, using its trunk curled up on the ground as an extra balance point.
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There were some not-so-interesting things, like a bunch of white ponies that were cute, but basically just ran in a tight circle for what felt like 10 minutes. They switched directions like a flock of birds... but I've seen horses run before. The most interesting thing about them was when they were lined up tallest to smallest, the smallest looking like a large dog.
There were also some guys who were hopping all around on giant tire-shaped bouncy balls. They did some pretty impressive tricks. One guy's ball popped partway through the routine! He didn't get hurt, thank goodness, and it didn't seem to impact the routine, either.
But then there were also thinks like trapeze artists (yay!), motorcycles driving on a high-wire with a girl balanced underneath, and of course, the motorcycles in a steel cage. THAT was cool. Excuse the shaky video... I was zoomed in as far as my camera could go, and of course tiny movements like Alex bumping me make a big shake on the screen. ;)
After the circus, we headed back to the car. That's when Jacob had his melt-down about not getting a "glowy sword", and Melinda was upset that I wouldn't buy her something or other (I think it might have been a stuffed horse). They were T-I-R-E-D. Jacob insisted he didn't like it. Even the next day and the next. It wasn't until after Kaija went home that he admitted to liking the circus, and asking to go again. And of course, parking was in a garage, so there was a super-fun line to get out. But once we did get out, we were home free. Got home at almost 10:30pm. Yikes!! But what a night. It's not often you get to see a circus. I know the last time I saw one, it was with my grandparents back in Tacoma, Washington. I can't have been older than 8. I'm glad we went, after all- it was a fun time. Kaija sure seemed to enjoy it, too! (We miss you, Kaija!)
I asked Melinda and Jacob what their favorite parts of the circus were. Jacob said something like "the ladies going on the string down to the square"... which might have referred to the ribbon dancers. Melinda said "the girls with the pink scarves", which againis probably the ribbon dancers. Though not all of them were girls, as far as I could tell from our distance. ;)
A few people have mentioned how I haven't blogged in a while. Sorry about that... we're still here, life still goes on, I just haven't been in a blogging mood, and I haven't been managing my free time well this week. I'll be busy the next few days, but after that I'll try to get all caught up and everything. Hopefully. ;)
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
April 1st Rundown
April 1st was so interesting last year, what with me going into labor and all. This year's April 1st was also an "interesting" day. A full day, for sure.
This was the day that I woke up with my voice completely hoarse and bullfrog-like. Fun times, for such an unexpected twist! (Nature's April Fools joke on me??)
We started off our morning bright and early with Melinda and Jacob's swim classes. Melinda is definitely being moved to a Level 2 class. She kept insisting her teacher said she would be Level 2, but nobody talked to me about it until this week. The teacher tested her very quickly on things like "diving" into the water and floating on her back, because she wasn't sure if she'd be better off in Level 2 or Level 3, I guess. But Level 2 it is. Melinda absolutely *amazed* me by retrieving 3 toy rings from under the water at the end of class. She wouldn't open up her eyes underwater, of course, but she'd take a good long look at where the rings were, close her eyes tight, take a deep breath, and plunge underwater. She'd stay there for 3-4 seconds, feeling around with her hand, and pop back up for a breath. She later told me that she even took her feet off of the ground while she was under. With some persistence, she got all three of the rings, and dunked herself under the water at least 10 different times! She had the most proud smile on her face as she handed her three rings to the teacher! Jacob was okay for most of the swim class - he avoided getting his head near the water during the "Simon Says" portion at the beginning, but didn't hesistate with hopping back and forth between walls when it was time for that, and didn't really seem perturbed by jumping into the water off of the wall when his teacher was ready to catch him. He DID freak out about being asked to float on his back, though, even with support. I could hear his yells of "It's too scary for me! I'm tooooo scaaaaary!!!" from inside my closed-off room. He curled his body up and wouldn't relax to even try. Not unexpected, though - he does that even in the bathtub. And the other little girl in the class reacted the exact same way, only without the words. We'll see if he gets brave enough to try over the next few weeks, huh?
After swim class, we popped over to the party store and bought a boquet of balloons for Alex. Because what new 1-year-old boy doesn't like a fun floating balloon? And then we stopped by Edible Arrangments to order a special treat for Jesse. Jesse's just been amazingly supportive and loving lately, and then I got to thinking about how I wouldn't even have these adorable kids to celebrate their birthdays if it weren't for him, and I just decided it was high time he got something special, too, for always being there for us and making our lives so much better.
By the time we got home, it was 10:30. Kaija was still in bed, asleep. I certainly couldn't blame her... I'd probably still be sleeping at 10:30am if I had a quiet house, too! But we woke her up at that point, and then I baked a cake. After lunch, we headed out to Coldstone Creamery to get a free ice cream for the birthday boy (which we had *just* signed up for that morning... yay for printable birthday coupons!), and one for everyone else, of course. And really, Alex only had a few bites of the ice cream, I ate the rest. ;) After Coldstone, we were just heading back to the car, where we were going to go pick up Jesse's boquet and deliver it to his work, when he called. Hands juggling 2 ice creams, keys, a diaper bag, and trying to open a door, I opened up my cell phone and wondered why he was calling so soon after lunch. He'd been hit by a car on his way back to work. The guy was making a left-hand turn onto his road, didn't see Jesse (it *was* a dreary day, and the road is busy), and hit his bumper to Jesse's bumper. Jesse had seen him coming, and slammed on his breaks, but with the wet roads, he couldn't stop soon enough to avoid being hit. His passenger side headlight is now gone, the front grill was smashed up by another driver on the road, and the bumper and hood took some damage. But luckily, nobody was hurt, not even a little bit of whiplash. Unfortunately, with Kaija being here, and us being busy, we haven't gotten his car to a body shop yet. We were about to do it on Saturday morning, but discovered the shop that the guy's insurance recommended was MUCH too far for us to go to. When we called to check on alternatives, we discovered that the insurance rep would be gone for an entire week. So his auto care is still up in the air at this point, since we don't want to simply assume we can go wherever we'd like, but have some confirmation so we don't get stuck with a bill. Also, Jesse is really hoping they don't decide the car it totaled. It's still running well enough for him to drive it now, as long as he doesn't take it out at night when he would need a headlight. But if there's some internal damage that would get costly to fix, Jesse seems to think there's a good chance that it could cost more than the car is worth, at it's old age ('94). And then we wouldn't have enough money to get a car to replace it, more than likely. Well, we do, but with
job stability being what it is, we wouldn't spend it on a car.
Anyway, so after talking to Jesse and first freaking out and then calming down, we moved on and picked up his boquet. When I dropped it off at his work, he was already talking with insurance people. So I just gave him a quick hug and kiss and let him get back to all of that... but I think it was a nice surprise.
Kaija, the kids, and I all headed out to the Towson mall to do some quick browsing and to play at the playplace. Kaija picked up some new shoes at Nordstrom Rack (holy wowza, the high heels she picked! I don't think I could walk in them! But they looked fantastic on her!). I couldn't resist buying a sweet pink lacy-overlay type of dress for Melinda that was hanging near the shoes. She can't wait to wear it to church this coming week, either.
We headed home just in time to get back and decorate Alex's cake and make dinner. Alex had fallen asleep on the way home from the mall, and he woke up with perfect timing at the end of dinner, giving us just enough time to do presents, cake and ice cream before heading out to the circus.
Now, I didn't spend tons of time on this cake... just made something simple and quick. Sorry Alex. I hope you don't mind in 15 years or so, when you're looking through all your baby pictures. We were so busy, and you were just going to smash things anyway. ;)
And now for the barrage of picture. Don't worry, I'm only showing you about 1/3 of what I actually took...
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Okay, now the fun starts! He loves the curly ribbons. .jpg)
Peering past the torn paper to figure out what's inside: .jpg)
Kaija puts the bow on Alex's head. Awww, how cute! (And, yeah, his clothes are dirty. Remember how short on time we were? Not gonna change the clothes just before cupcake time, not smart!) .jpg)
Yes! The piggy bank was an instant hit! (This one was from myself and Jesse.) Jacob likes it a lot, too. :).jpg)
Alex opens a fun little bathtime toy from Grandma Wilcox. Really getting the hang of present-opening now! .jpg)
Not the best picture ever, but it's the only one I took of Alex playing with the new ball toy (from myself and Jesse). .jpg)
Aunt Rachel (I hope I got that right!) sent Alex a fun little book called Swing!. I've actually been thinking about buying this one for a couple months, so it was a perfect gift! Jacob "yoinked" it so he could look at it himself, and Alex was just walking up to him to take it back, because he was so interested in seeing it. The pictures move when you turn the pages. .jpg)
Grandma and Grandpa Newson sent this adorable pajama set. It fits perfect, I love the big truck theme, and he needed new PJ's. Thank you so much!! .jpg)
Uncle Ben & Aunt Brea also sent a lovely card in the mail. And a few days later, we also got a card in the mail from Aunt Megan and her family, complete with Alex's first dollar bill. Thanks everyone!
On to cake time. Here's the cake I decorated for Alex. Cream cheese frosting is difficult to decorate with because it's so soft... especially when you're in a hurry, and you had forgotten that you ran out of frosting bags and had to improvise with Ziploc bags. That's all I'm sayin'. .jpg)
Alex carefullly inspects his individual cupcake. .jpg)
Flips it over a couple times. .jpg)
Eventually, he smashed it apart, never attempting to really eat any of it. But he definitely enjoyed licking his fingers when everything was flung off of his tray. .jpg)
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Such a silly birthday boy!! .jpg)
Here are the videos, which, for me, is the best part:
And of course, after all of that, we spent a few minutes finishing up our cake and ice cream, cleaned up Alex, and made sure everyone had clean clothes on. There was just a couple minutes to play with toys, and then we went to the Circus down at the 1st Mariner Arena near the Inner Harbor. But that's a post all of it's own, so I'll save it for later.
This was the day that I woke up with my voice completely hoarse and bullfrog-like. Fun times, for such an unexpected twist! (Nature's April Fools joke on me??)
We started off our morning bright and early with Melinda and Jacob's swim classes. Melinda is definitely being moved to a Level 2 class. She kept insisting her teacher said she would be Level 2, but nobody talked to me about it until this week. The teacher tested her very quickly on things like "diving" into the water and floating on her back, because she wasn't sure if she'd be better off in Level 2 or Level 3, I guess. But Level 2 it is. Melinda absolutely *amazed* me by retrieving 3 toy rings from under the water at the end of class. She wouldn't open up her eyes underwater, of course, but she'd take a good long look at where the rings were, close her eyes tight, take a deep breath, and plunge underwater. She'd stay there for 3-4 seconds, feeling around with her hand, and pop back up for a breath. She later told me that she even took her feet off of the ground while she was under. With some persistence, she got all three of the rings, and dunked herself under the water at least 10 different times! She had the most proud smile on her face as she handed her three rings to the teacher! Jacob was okay for most of the swim class - he avoided getting his head near the water during the "Simon Says" portion at the beginning, but didn't hesistate with hopping back and forth between walls when it was time for that, and didn't really seem perturbed by jumping into the water off of the wall when his teacher was ready to catch him. He DID freak out about being asked to float on his back, though, even with support. I could hear his yells of "It's too scary for me! I'm tooooo scaaaaary!!!" from inside my closed-off room. He curled his body up and wouldn't relax to even try. Not unexpected, though - he does that even in the bathtub. And the other little girl in the class reacted the exact same way, only without the words. We'll see if he gets brave enough to try over the next few weeks, huh?
After swim class, we popped over to the party store and bought a boquet of balloons for Alex. Because what new 1-year-old boy doesn't like a fun floating balloon? And then we stopped by Edible Arrangments to order a special treat for Jesse. Jesse's just been amazingly supportive and loving lately, and then I got to thinking about how I wouldn't even have these adorable kids to celebrate their birthdays if it weren't for him, and I just decided it was high time he got something special, too, for always being there for us and making our lives so much better.
By the time we got home, it was 10:30. Kaija was still in bed, asleep. I certainly couldn't blame her... I'd probably still be sleeping at 10:30am if I had a quiet house, too! But we woke her up at that point, and then I baked a cake. After lunch, we headed out to Coldstone Creamery to get a free ice cream for the birthday boy (which we had *just* signed up for that morning... yay for printable birthday coupons!), and one for everyone else, of course. And really, Alex only had a few bites of the ice cream, I ate the rest. ;) After Coldstone, we were just heading back to the car, where we were going to go pick up Jesse's boquet and deliver it to his work, when he called. Hands juggling 2 ice creams, keys, a diaper bag, and trying to open a door, I opened up my cell phone and wondered why he was calling so soon after lunch. He'd been hit by a car on his way back to work. The guy was making a left-hand turn onto his road, didn't see Jesse (it *was* a dreary day, and the road is busy), and hit his bumper to Jesse's bumper. Jesse had seen him coming, and slammed on his breaks, but with the wet roads, he couldn't stop soon enough to avoid being hit. His passenger side headlight is now gone, the front grill was smashed up by another driver on the road, and the bumper and hood took some damage. But luckily, nobody was hurt, not even a little bit of whiplash. Unfortunately, with Kaija being here, and us being busy, we haven't gotten his car to a body shop yet. We were about to do it on Saturday morning, but discovered the shop that the guy's insurance recommended was MUCH too far for us to go to. When we called to check on alternatives, we discovered that the insurance rep would be gone for an entire week. So his auto care is still up in the air at this point, since we don't want to simply assume we can go wherever we'd like, but have some confirmation so we don't get stuck with a bill. Also, Jesse is really hoping they don't decide the car it totaled. It's still running well enough for him to drive it now, as long as he doesn't take it out at night when he would need a headlight. But if there's some internal damage that would get costly to fix, Jesse seems to think there's a good chance that it could cost more than the car is worth, at it's old age ('94). And then we wouldn't have enough money to get a car to replace it, more than likely. Well, we do, but with
job stability being what it is, we wouldn't spend it on a car.Anyway, so after talking to Jesse and first freaking out and then calming down, we moved on and picked up his boquet. When I dropped it off at his work, he was already talking with insurance people. So I just gave him a quick hug and kiss and let him get back to all of that... but I think it was a nice surprise.
Kaija, the kids, and I all headed out to the Towson mall to do some quick browsing and to play at the playplace. Kaija picked up some new shoes at Nordstrom Rack (holy wowza, the high heels she picked! I don't think I could walk in them! But they looked fantastic on her!). I couldn't resist buying a sweet pink lacy-overlay type of dress for Melinda that was hanging near the shoes. She can't wait to wear it to church this coming week, either.
We headed home just in time to get back and decorate Alex's cake and make dinner. Alex had fallen asleep on the way home from the mall, and he woke up with perfect timing at the end of dinner, giving us just enough time to do presents, cake and ice cream before heading out to the circus.
Now, I didn't spend tons of time on this cake... just made something simple and quick. Sorry Alex. I hope you don't mind in 15 years or so, when you're looking through all your baby pictures. We were so busy, and you were just going to smash things anyway. ;)
And now for the barrage of picture. Don't worry, I'm only showing you about 1/3 of what I actually took...
Alex plays with his balloons for a minute before he gets started with the presents:
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Okay, now the fun starts! He loves the curly ribbons.
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Peering past the torn paper to figure out what's inside:
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Kaija puts the bow on Alex's head. Awww, how cute! (And, yeah, his clothes are dirty. Remember how short on time we were? Not gonna change the clothes just before cupcake time, not smart!)
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Yes! The piggy bank was an instant hit! (This one was from myself and Jesse.) Jacob likes it a lot, too. :)
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Alex opens a fun little bathtime toy from Grandma Wilcox. Really getting the hang of present-opening now!
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Not the best picture ever, but it's the only one I took of Alex playing with the new ball toy (from myself and Jesse).
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Aunt Rachel (I hope I got that right!) sent Alex a fun little book called Swing!. I've actually been thinking about buying this one for a couple months, so it was a perfect gift! Jacob "yoinked" it so he could look at it himself, and Alex was just walking up to him to take it back, because he was so interested in seeing it. The pictures move when you turn the pages.
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Grandma and Grandpa Newson sent this adorable pajama set. It fits perfect, I love the big truck theme, and he needed new PJ's. Thank you so much!!
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Uncle Ben & Aunt Brea also sent a lovely card in the mail. And a few days later, we also got a card in the mail from Aunt Megan and her family, complete with Alex's first dollar bill. Thanks everyone!
On to cake time. Here's the cake I decorated for Alex. Cream cheese frosting is difficult to decorate with because it's so soft... especially when you're in a hurry, and you had forgotten that you ran out of frosting bags and had to improvise with Ziploc bags. That's all I'm sayin'.
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Alex carefullly inspects his individual cupcake.
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Flips it over a couple times.
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Eventually, he smashed it apart, never attempting to really eat any of it. But he definitely enjoyed licking his fingers when everything was flung off of his tray.
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Such a silly birthday boy!!
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Here are the videos, which, for me, is the best part:
And of course, after all of that, we spent a few minutes finishing up our cake and ice cream, cleaned up Alex, and made sure everyone had clean clothes on. There was just a couple minutes to play with toys, and then we went to the Circus down at the 1st Mariner Arena near the Inner Harbor. But that's a post all of it's own, so I'll save it for later.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Been Busy
A brief note to catch everyone up to my life, which has been unusually busy for the past week:
- My littlest sister, Kaija (well, youngest... turns out I'm the littlest in my family), came to visit us during her spring break. She arrived on Saturday evening, and left Friday midday. We had TONS of fun with her here, and had something big and exciting to do almost every day she was here, including a zoo trip, swimming lessons, the circus, bike riding at the park, the ever-fun grocery trips, birthday cake & ice cream, visiting Washington, D.C., baking cookies... phew. Usually that much stuff gets spread over an entire month!!!
-Jesse and I have new callings at church. More on that another time.
- Alex obviously had his 1st birthday on April 1st. I'll be working on getting birthday pictures and videos up here first, before anything else, and then I'll be going back to share what else we did with Kaija here.
- I was at the tail end of a cold when Kaija arrived. We were so much busier than I'm used to that my body didn't like it much. I woke up with a total bullfrog voice on April 1st. It was really creepy. But the next morning when I woke up, it was completely gone. Weird.
- I was so zonked on Friday that I did absolutely nothing productive after we dropped Kaija off at the airport. I just bemoaned her absence, as it now felt much more lonely without her around to talk to.
- Saturday & Sunday was General Conference for church, which typically takes up our entire weekend, with four 2-hour sessions, starting at noon and 4pm, with only a 2-hour break in between. We got out into the gorgeous sunshine briefly on Saturday, and grabbed a few groceries, but otherwise, Conference was our weekend. When Jesse was out for the Priesthood session on Saturday evening, Jacob started throwing up. All over his bed. He kept throwing up most of the night, and was sick with a low fever all of Sunday. He threw up again this morning. Still has a fever. Currently taking a nap, which is why I can sneak on here, and he otherwise needs lots of cuddle time, and cajoling to get enough fluids. He takes illness pretty well in stride, though, not complaining, just resting. I'm doing my best to keep the rest of us from catching it as well, though, since it's obviously not a quick little 12-hour stomach bug. I'd hate for that to run through the whole famiy. In the meantime, about the only thing I'm managing to get done is all the laundry that Jacob has vomited on. And when that includes big things like pillows and blankets, which can barely fit into our tiny washer... well, it's a full-time job.
SO. I have a lot to post about - tons and tons!! But it might take me a while to get around to it. Keep your eyes peeled, though, because I wouldn't want you to miss anything if I find some time and get on a roll. ;)
- My littlest sister, Kaija (well, youngest... turns out I'm the littlest in my family), came to visit us during her spring break. She arrived on Saturday evening, and left Friday midday. We had TONS of fun with her here, and had something big and exciting to do almost every day she was here, including a zoo trip, swimming lessons, the circus, bike riding at the park, the ever-fun grocery trips, birthday cake & ice cream, visiting Washington, D.C., baking cookies... phew. Usually that much stuff gets spread over an entire month!!!
-Jesse and I have new callings at church. More on that another time.
- Alex obviously had his 1st birthday on April 1st. I'll be working on getting birthday pictures and videos up here first, before anything else, and then I'll be going back to share what else we did with Kaija here.
- I was at the tail end of a cold when Kaija arrived. We were so much busier than I'm used to that my body didn't like it much. I woke up with a total bullfrog voice on April 1st. It was really creepy. But the next morning when I woke up, it was completely gone. Weird.
- I was so zonked on Friday that I did absolutely nothing productive after we dropped Kaija off at the airport. I just bemoaned her absence, as it now felt much more lonely without her around to talk to.
- Saturday & Sunday was General Conference for church, which typically takes up our entire weekend, with four 2-hour sessions, starting at noon and 4pm, with only a 2-hour break in between. We got out into the gorgeous sunshine briefly on Saturday, and grabbed a few groceries, but otherwise, Conference was our weekend. When Jesse was out for the Priesthood session on Saturday evening, Jacob started throwing up. All over his bed. He kept throwing up most of the night, and was sick with a low fever all of Sunday. He threw up again this morning. Still has a fever. Currently taking a nap, which is why I can sneak on here, and he otherwise needs lots of cuddle time, and cajoling to get enough fluids. He takes illness pretty well in stride, though, not complaining, just resting. I'm doing my best to keep the rest of us from catching it as well, though, since it's obviously not a quick little 12-hour stomach bug. I'd hate for that to run through the whole famiy. In the meantime, about the only thing I'm managing to get done is all the laundry that Jacob has vomited on. And when that includes big things like pillows and blankets, which can barely fit into our tiny washer... well, it's a full-time job.
SO. I have a lot to post about - tons and tons!! But it might take me a while to get around to it. Keep your eyes peeled, though, because I wouldn't want you to miss anything if I find some time and get on a roll. ;)
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The Baby Turns One
At any rate, today is the day he turns one year old. Amazingly. Incredibly. Unbelievably. And we're fortunate to have my little sister Kaija visiting with us this week, so I'm busy bonding and hanging out and running us all ragged. Well, not too ragged, but I'm definitely on the go more than usual with someone to entertain in the house!
So, we will be celebrating today, but you won't get full details for a while. You'll all have to wait until later, probably after the weekend, after Kaija is gone, when I will actually have time to really sit down again. I sure have a lot to share, already! But I wouldn't want to be a negligent host/big sister. ;)
In the mean time, feel free to reminisce with me by re-reading Alex's birth story, looking at some baby pictures. I'll be enjoying the second April Fool's Day of many, many more to come that I will always cherish in a whole new way: No longer a day just for jokes and pranks, but a day to celebrate our family being blessed and forever changed for the better..
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