Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Funny Girl


I just love watching the personalities emerge from each child. Here's my memory of the first personality experience for each child. (I find myself reminiscing now that we're through having kids :( )
James - Hard to say when that moment was because he was always so laid back and quiet. But I remember how he would walk around in his walker in our house in Nantucket pulling out all the drawers. He thought that was great.
Ryan - Ryan made an impression early on. I can honestly say that he smiled at me around 2 months. And I'm glad he did, but he also did a TON of screaming. At least I knew he was trying to be happy despite his subtle acid reflux.
Olivia - She loves her brothers. She loves to watch them and have them roll over her and tickle her. Recently, she's been sticking her tongue out, like so, and the laughing. So, this is her first attempt at showing us personality. The picture isn't that great, a little fuzzy, but I'm not a great photographer.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Stomach Bug


This is what the stomach bug looks like at my house. James has a sinus infection so I finally set up a dr appointment to get some drugs but instead, James decided to throw up all morning. So, I still went to the appointment knowing that he wouldn't be able to keep anything down and we'd have to wait this bug out. Nothing's worse than telling your 1 week away from being 4 year old that he can't have orange juice or milk or sweet tea or even gatorade because it'll make him throw up. So, he resorted to falling asleep on the couch.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

3 Times this week

I made it to the gym, 3 times this week. Mostly because Alex had to work late all week, I needed to get out of the house, and the gym watches my kids. So, I took Zumba, Body Flow and Zumba again. I started watching myself in the mirror, since I kind am getting used to how the class goes. Latin hip movements do not come naturally to me, as I saw as I watched myself in the mirror. But, I'm not the only one, as I peered around the room.

There are a group of ladies that stand in the front and center and seem to anticipate the instructor's movements and never fall behind. Me?! I was next to a 60 year old and behind a 70 or 80 year old. So, I looked pretty good :) But again, when it came time to cool down, one of the Zumba groupies decided to continue to Zumba while we all stretched. She did manage to encourage another groupie to join her, but it was a bit crazy. But then again, Zumba does make you do things you might not normally do. And what's up with that? Why is it that in a group, women will do almost anything, even if it means hip dancing, bum spanking and shimmying your shoulders in a glass enclosed room? You'd never see men do that. but then again, men would walk around a locker room in nothing but their birthday suit and I don't us women have a tendency to do that? I couldn't bribe Alex enough to take this class. A full hour of embarassment?? Not a chance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm7DyRjtWRc

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Dressing up the Girl






These boys love Olivia or "Baby" as they call her. She is also enthralled with these 2 jumpy energetic boys. No one can get her belly laughing as good as Ryan and sometimes James. So, this is what I found today. Ryan helping her look as good as she can get.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Who's watching?

I am. Truthfully. I recently joined Gold's Gym again, motivated by a 3 time mommy tummy and childcare. As it turns out, I'd do almost anything if it provided childcare. Who can watch my kids from 4-6 while I get dinner going? Not the point....Yes, I joined Gold's Gym. I went for the first time today to Pump and Sculpt, a class that requires you to get there on time so you can grab your step, ball, 2 sets of weights, and yoga mat. After all that, there's not much room to do anything. The class entails a few basic moves on the step while holding weights, other weight exercises and using the ball with the weights for more exercises. Nothing terribly crazy, but could be a good workout. Me, I'm still sick but well enough to try the class. But 10 minutes into it, I realized how out of shape I was with my 2 low weights and frumpy with my baggy pants and t-shirt. Usually, I try to wear something fun and edgy, but those cute shirts don't cover the tummy yet:)

But I'm always reminded of being asked to join some sort of fun exercise class and my friend will say "don't worry, nobody's watching you". Well, let me tell you that I do. Yes, I watch other people in the class. One, to see if my skill level is not at the lowest and two, it's fun. You get to see the person who is working super hard, not hard at all and the one that takes it way to seriously. Yes, this post does have a point. I was standing behind one lady, who looked to be in her late sixties, but feels as though she's back in her thirties. Sometimes, you can just tell something like that just by looking at someone.

So, in my mind, here's what I was thinking. She was dressed in all black and had black gloves. Maybe gloves help with lifting, but she only had 8 pounders. She started doing weight exercises before the class officially started and I can only assume she had taken the prior class and was still excited from that one. I also noticed that when it was time to rest or drink some water, she continued to do her exercises as if she could just not get enough. There was also this air of "This is not big deal for me, I could lift weights all day". Well, the time came for the class to be almost over so we were winding down doing some big ball exercises. And yes, this lady decided do some of her own hip rolls while we were resting because what else should you do while sitting on a big silver bouncy ball?? She was looking quite proud of herself because she kept looking all around the room trying to catch someone's eye and say "Yes, I still got it".

Point of this, people do watch. I watch. I like to be entertained and think about other people. Hopefully I'll see her again and maybe I can do some of my own hip rolls and join the fun.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

They don't get it or Do they?!

Some days it feels as though my kids just don't get it. As I'm strongly communicating with them I'm getting the glazed donut from their big blue eyes!! (I'm super excited all my kids have blue eyes). Then out of the blue, they say or do something that lets me know that it's not all sawdust in there. I've been working on a sinus infection and thanks to our friend,the doctor, he called in a Z-pak for me. So, I was with the boys getting ready for bed last night and our routine is to read some books, the bible, whatever and then sing a few songs and go to bed. Well, my voice is really rough and after a full day of communicating with my children, I was worn out. So, after I made it through the Itsy Bitsy Spider, I came down and asked Alex to help me out because I just couldn't talk to them anymore. So, he obligingly took the baby, who was asleep on him, up to her bed and finished the bed task. But before I left the boys, I told them that Mommy hurts so daddy's coming up. James and Ryan were on the bed and James told me to stand up. So, I stood up in front of him. Then he told me to turn around, so I did. Then he patted my back and said "back hurt mommy?". I said 'No, my throat hurts'. So, he rubbed my throat and then gently kissed it on either side. What boo-boo doesn't go away with a tender kiss? Well, my throat still hurt, but my heart was full!

Monday, October 26, 2009

The Cake, The Cupcakes, The Food!






When I get in cooking mode, watch out!! Sometimes I just do too much. But I don't think that happened on Saturday. I was able to knock out some items friday while the boys were at the movie theater. And the rest of the stuff was for the oven, so that didn't take a ton of time either. But, here's a picture of the cake. Boy, was it good! I know you're not supposed to compliment your own cooking, but it wasn't my recipe and I just followed directions and it was YUMMY!! Of course, I thought it wasn't big enough for everybody, so I made some box cupcakes for the kids.
Our Community group was coming over Sunday so I decided to cook some stuff for that. So, there were meatballs, pumpkin bread, cupcakes, cookies and bread bowl artichoke dip. As I was looking at my display, I asked Alex "Did I over-do it?" If I did, nobody said anything and there were hardly any leftovers. So all in all, a good cooking weekend!
Tonight, something from the freezer :)