"Where'd all the photos go? And the calendar, with the handy links?" you might wonder. Well, we're upgrading our blog software and still figuring out how to rebuild some of the old functionality. Until we have it sorted, please stay tuned!
August 2007 Archives
Just a little update post on our two little wonders.
Sophie is now almost completely potty trained during the day. We moved her over to big girl underpants about 4 days ago and so far she has done pretty good. We use pull ups at night and that seems to be working out too. Now we were originally rewarding her with Hershey's kisses when she used the bathroom but I recently took those away and am just rewarding her with a "great job" from mom. So far, the verbal reward actually seems to have more lasting power than the kissies. Unfortunately, Josie also saw that chocolate was being doled out to anyone sitting on the toilet so she has decided to start potty training as well. In theory, this sounds great right?! Get them both potty trained at the same time. I know in the long run it makes sense but currently, I feel like I spend 1/3 of my day in the bathroom. Josie will only go #2 on the toilet and sadly the verbalization of "poo poo" comes out sounding like she is asking for a bottle. So I often run to the kitchen to get her a bottle only to realize that she has just hunkered down for the long storm in her diaper. And as for the reward, the verbal praise just doesn't fly with Josie. As soon as she sits on the toilet her hand flies up toward the counter and she makes a sound that is pretty close to "chocolate!". Once I explain that she actually has to produce something for her reward (or as my brothers boyfriend put it, "make a kiss to get a kiss") she wails. I have some mini M&M's in the kitchen and am debating switching to those for a reward as I won't give her a whole kiss which means I end up eating 3/4 of it. Lord knows I don't need any more chocolate than I already eat.
In addition to using the bathroom now, Josie has also started refusing to leave my side. If Jake is pushing her in the stroller and I drop two feet behind him she starts wailing "Momma! Mommy! Momma!" until I come back into view. Basically any time she gets more than two feet away from me and is with another adult, she will wail. I guess I need to get out of the house alone more often. Hopefully it is just a phase and our new babysitter won't lose it when she comes over for the first time.
Since college I have periodically battled very itchy excema on my forearms and hands. It seems to stem from stress, dry skin and overexposure to the sun. Even with 45 sunblock, a sunny day at the beach will bring it out and Sunday on Martha's Vineyard was exactly that. My forearms flared up on the drive home, and by Tuesday afternoon they were in full blistery bloom.
Affected areas are extremely sensitive to heat: direct sunlight or even proximity to someone makes it feel like it's baking. For some reason, this is also when people (especially the shorter ones around our house) suddenly find my arms great things to grab, scratch or pound with blunt objects. I don't recall when Sophie's ever given my arm a full-on body hug, but of course she's done it about twenty times in the last 24 hours.
One of Murphy's Laws? Maybe, or perhaps just karma: once in high school I jabbed my friend John in the shoulder in that friendly, joking way guys sometimes do. It was summer-time, during band camp, after a particularly hot bunch of days. John yelped, and I found out he had sunburned so badly his skin blistered. My blind jab had violently burst one of the larger ones.
I'm sorry about that John, but I think I've paid my dues. Feel free to lift this curse anytime you like!
Saturday morning after breakfast with Grandma & Grandpa at Apple Hills we hit the road to visit our friends Mike, Susie, Kane, Matt, Ashleigh & Gram who were vacationing on Martha's Vineyard. Despite a few mixups with the ferry we had a fantastic time visiting with our old Petaluman neighbors and their beautiful kids.
Sunday we spent a good part of the day at the beach and had a great picnic dinner & ice cream at Menemsha. Monday we visited the cliffs at Gay Head and Oak Bluffs before missing and then catching our ferry home.
I didn't get to see any dorsal fins (even after chumming the water with my own blood by scraping my foot on a rock), but we did see a lot of the Jaws locations. Thanks to Mike, Susie and her parents for having us, and to Matt & Ashleigh for sharing their vacations with us!
She's a little older than pictured here but no less interested in handbags - only now she makes them herself, along with about anything else you could want! If only we could afford to have her decorate our house...
Happy Birthday Aunt Sarah, we love you!
After all these years, he's still got it: good looks and charm to spare! All the ladies here agree. Have a great birthday Dad, we love you.
Birthday Week continues with Sophie & Josie's brilliant & beautiful Aunt Lauren (that's her on the right, without the tux): have a Happy Birthday, we love you!
It's Birthday Week here at the Ranch, and today's featured pinup is our dear friend Clint: we love you Big Guy! Have a beer for us, and don't forget to find Brandie some bread.
The girls and I went on a Blueberry picking outing organized by a member of a mom's group I belong to.. We headed up to Apple Hills (or Green Brothers if you've lived in this area more than 20 years) and took a tractor ride to the blueberry "patch". Now, when I think of a patch, it usually would be less than an acre. This however, was huge. I was and still am overwhelmed by the amount of blueberries that were growing. Row upon row and all of the bushes were heavy with beautiful ripe blueberries. There's no way they'll all get picked in time!
The girls and I tried our best to pick as many as we (I) could carry. Sophie and Josie probably each ate 1 lb of blueberries and we weighed out at 6 lbs of blueberries all for just under $9! I mean, we even got two tractor rides out of it. Some places they charge you $9 for the tractor ride! The girls were very good helpers and Sophie would point out when she was getting a blueberry that was very high and marvel at how tall she was. Josie didn't realize that eating the berries was an option for about 10 minutes. Then she caught a glimpse of her sister eating one at which time she hurled her pink binky down the row and shoved a handful of berries into her mouth.
We've frozen half of the berries and I have been busy trying to find the perfect blueberry pie recipe to use for the other half. Any suggestions?
Happy Birthday to you, sir!
Sounds like you had a great one, can't wait to see you guys up here: car bombs at our place.
Sorry it's been a while, we've been having too much fun to take pictures this summer! Pics of the new house coming soon.
That's right, 15 months already. Our baby is starting to become a toddler. A very bold and fearless toddler. She recently took a tumble either down our stairs or through the railing to the bottom of the stairs. Unfortunately, neither of us saw her although we were each within 15 feet of her. We both heard a loud bang that sounded like a chair falling over, then she started crying and when Jake got to her she was laying at the bottom of the stairs. She cried for about 2 minutes then pushed away and wanted to crawl up the stairs. We were both petrified that she had broken something, had a concussion or internal bleeding. But she honestly walked away without even a scratch.
A couple days later, she was behind me in the driveway (easily 4 feet behind me) and I closed the car door. She sprinted then thrust her hand in the door. I totally panicked. She was crying and Sophie was crying because I freaked out so bad. All I could picture were little finger tips falling to the ground as I opened the door. Thankfully, it seemed as though she didn't get them in to the seal as there wasn't even a dent on her fingers.
She falls and bashes her head on any number of surfaces everyday. The day before her doctors appointment, she fell and hit her head on the concrete while we were getting ice cream. Of course she had a huge scrape, goose-egg and bruise on her head for her appointment the next day. Thankfully our doctor is very understanding and let us know that hopefully her boldness will calm down once she begins talking more (now that I type that, I think he was just trying to pacify me as I was beside myself with the amount of stress that she has been causing us).
Here's her physical update from the above mentioned doctors appointment. She weighs 24 lbs 4 oz and is 31 inches long. She is in the 95th percentile for head size (big brain the doctor says) and 75th for height and weight. She got two shots and hated them. Sophie seemed to forget about her shots right away but Josie was tugging at her leg and crying almost all day. Then, insult to injury, we had to take her in the next day to get blood drawn for a state mandated lead screening. Thank goodness the nurses were quick and right on in finding a vein. Still she didn't care for it one bit and started crying before they even poked her with the needle.
She is starting to talk more and adds a word or two every day. She bellows most of the day but here's a list of things she says regularly.
Hi
Bye Bye
Byyyye
Bye Bye Daddy
Mama (her most recent attention getting trick is to yell "MAMA, MAMA, MAMA, MAMA..." until you finally pay attention to her. Once you answer her question and return to whatever you were doing (eating, cleaning, folding laundry) she starts the shout all over again).
Daddy
PopPop
Up
Uh Oh
Nigh Nigh
Woof (sound for a dog)
Roar (sound for a bear and apparently an owl)
Apple
nana
Ball
ugh (which means "yes")
Owww
mwah (kisses) She'll also blow you a kiss
aaachooo (fake sneeze)
Thank you (although, it's nothing that clear, I just can't think of how to type it)
aah duh (all done)
bah bah bah (chicken sound)
cack cack cack (duck sound)
dutt (duck)
she tries to make a pig sound but it just sounds like she is about to spit on you
She seems to be a very passionate girl. She loves snuggles, kisses, drinking her bottle on your lap, reading books on your lap, reading books with her sister, swimming, chasing her sister down the hall, laying in bed with her sister, shouting with her sister, shouting at us, shouting at the animals.
