our latest doings

Sooo.....
It's been a while, yes I know, and while I did miss blogging about some things this summer, for the most part it was pretty boring, with nap schedules ruining any chance to go to library story times or playgroup. However, now that it's fall (my absolute favorite season), I have activities scheduled for every weekend.
Last weekend, we decided to zip off on a trip for Labor Day. I have always wanted to be the kind of person who could just take off on a trip and love it. Unfortunately, when I do that, I forget things. Important things. Like a crib for my daughter to sleep in. Or my husband's CPAP machine. So I guess I need to be a plan-ahead type of person when it comes to trips.
We went to the Olympic Peninsula, just a couple of hours away. We got to take the ferry (the kids' and my first trip) and we went down and walked the trail to Dungeness Bay beach. We were planning on seeing the Olympic Game Farm, but we didn't have time, and everyone was exhausted by Monday because a) Steve got no sleep without his machine-- how on earth did he ever survive college we look back and wonder-- and b) both kids wound up in our bed both nights.
We did get to go to a neighborhood park by our hotel, and the trip was just refreshing because we stayed in this little town where it's just trees and farms and little tiny communities every so often. Everyone was friendly and kind, and we decided that it would be a fabulous place to retire.

In other news, Nicole is talking quite a bit now, and she and Adam have a great time playing together. Adam is really good at playing pretend, though if you try to join in, he feels the need to remind you that's it is "just pretend." Nicole loves dolls and wearing dress-up frilly skirts, and both of them can "sing" a song or two by themselves.

So here are some visuals for what we've been up to:

Tired and hot at Snowbird:



Adam and Nicole on a family picnic at a favorite park here:


Adam at that same park, doing the zipline by himself:






Wading in the freezing waves at Dungeness Bay:




So there you have it! More posting next week if we get to do our weekend plans!

the car movie

I'm sure you're all wondering what we've been up to.... well, not much, actually. We've had colds this past week, and have not ventured out for story time at the library or play group or anything else I had planned. We have hung out with friends around the neighborhood, and now that we're feeling better I hope to finally go to story time if the nap schedules will line up! We did go to a couple of new (well, new to us) parks, which both kids enjoyed, and we've been cleaning out excess stuff in our apartment so our kids have more space to play. We got this cute movie of Adam and Nicole playing on a ride-on toy (just ignore the lunatic laughing in the background-- I happen to find my kids hilarious).



And these pictures.


Adam got his new mixer (we love that it has a hand crank-- finally, a kid-powered toy!) and sleeps with it.


Nicole is getting more teeth, and she's started bringing books to me to read at bedtime.

Adam has an ongoing joke where he will bring you a bunch of an item, like diapers, and say, "Twooooooo diapers." Or, "Twoooooo books" after bringing over an armful. Then he giggles and waits to be tickled. Nicole has also started trying to take a step, but she has no confidence in her feet and always falls. I think she'll be walking soon, though-- I hope so for the sake of her poor bruised head!
Still, even though there are not many exciting or unusual things to blog about, home life is always fun. I love the silliness of toddlers and the adorable exploring nature of babies! I love when Steve gets home and our kids rush to play with him and we share an I-missed-you kiss. I love relaxing at night, knowing our little angels are sleeping and we are all home and happy. These are the moments, more precious even than memories of super-fun or expensive things we've done-- the simple moments, at home. Those are where happiness begins.

a trip to the park

We took a little family trip to the park this week. We wanted to get the kids outside on a gorgeous day, but they both screamed the whole way there, and then did NOT want to cooperate with the camera. I'm mostly posting pictures of Adam, because Nicole either wouldn't look at the camera or looked like she was getting a cold (which she was). We've had colds all week and-- would you believe it-- the diaper stuff was back, too. They got yeast coupled with impetigo (that's what the chart said-- we had to see a different Dr. and he did not do a lot of things, including culture their sores-- we still think it was MRSA again), plus head colds. So we were miserable all week and Nicole is still pretty stuffed up. Everything else seems to be doing better, but we have a week left on the antibiotic...

Anyway, here are the salvaged pictures from the park.




At least we also got a good video of Adam riding his trike. It was so funny: he'd be going great, and then something would distract him and he'd pedal off into the grass because he wasn't watching. In the movie, he's looking behind us at the slide in the park.

Nicole's Crawling Movie!

Here she goes! A little compare/contrast: She does the tummy crawl, like Adam, but she gets her legs into it. She's almost doing the traditional crawl; Adam never did. He went from the butterfly-stroke-on-land to pulling up.
ANYWAYS. I always give out TMI. Enjoy the movie!

The Laughing Movie

With bonus feature: Adam Singing, at the beginning.



Those of you who missed Adam's version of this when he was her age, look here.

Now just tell me you're not laughing!

the Crib Movie

Hey, it finally posted! enjoy the long-awaited Crib Movie!

What Adam's Been Up To

Ha! I was going to come up with an excuse for not posting in so long, but I decided I don't have to. Yes, these are the sort of liberties we SAHMs like to take. :)
So, last week, Adam decided he wanted to play with the vacuum cleaner. Which is fine, except he decided that he wanted to play with it on.


He got it in correctly on the second try. I was shocked and amazed, but had to take it away after he licked the plug. We really don't want any fried Adams.

And this is what happens when Adam is let into the kitchen when mommy and daddy are too preoccupied to really think about what he's doing.


Can you find Adam? He's in the corner eating an apple he found.


(And I know his eyes look a tad weird... I had to re-color them myself, since apparently MY version of Photoshop doesn't have the red-eye tool.....) ANYWAYS...

Adam also discovered the joy of dancing, and how much entertainment can be had with just a blanket, the giggles, and a low tolerance for pain... but unfortunately, to show those, I have to wait in line for my hubby's computer since it is where I am forced to do my movies... next time I get a laptop I am going to add every darn cord attachment they make! But they are very cute movies, and I promise to have them up sometime this week. Really.

So there you go, people: the week in Adam. Enjoy! And stay tuned for news on our trip this weekend and my rants on who wins the primaries tomorrow! (p.s. GO VOTE EVERYONE!!!!! IT'S SUPER TUESDAY!!!!!)

A Randomly Fun Day

(And I just realized that this is my 101st post! Wow!)
Today we were enjoying Steve's day off. We had a leisurely breakfast while Adam rearranged our kitchen, and then he took two wonderful naps. Later, I was pointing out the enormous pile of snow on our deck, and Steve suddenly had the idea to go sledding (well, his parents had actually talked about it earlier). So we bundled up Adam in coat, hood, mittens, and thick pants, made him wear his tennis shoes (and, Rachel, we also had to do the baggies over his shoes) :) and took him outside. He was pretty happy to be playing in the snow for his first time. He laughed and talked as we took picture after picture.

I have the cutest husband.

Adam in his plastic-baggie shoes. Look how deep the snow is! Knee-high (on me) in some places.

Aw, we're so cute.. don't look closely though. We literally threw on what looked warm and ran outside.

Adam thinks sledding is great!

Then we headed off to a small, but very steep hill. Steve took him down several times, each time Adam looking more scared than the last. Steve went down face-first by himself, and then we called it a day. We asked Adam what he thought about sledding and he said, "WAAAHHH-aaaahhh" in his loudest voice. Wah-ah indeed; check out our video:

(Yes, I was much too scared to do that with an 11 month old.)

Then, as we were walking in the house, Steve said we should go swimming. I said it was 5:00. Dinner time. Then bedtime. Then (yea!) couple/me time. But then I thought, everyone's life needs an occasional bit of crazy*. So off we went. And of course Adam had a great time (he's a really good swimmer!), and Steve's mom even came, too. The pool was pretty cold for an indoor, so we didn't stay long, but we did manage to take some shots of Adam in his swim shorts. So cute!


So that was our crazy day. It was really fun. And Adam went down perfectly after all that sledding and swimming. The past 2 nights have been amazing... crying for 1-2 minutes tops, then not a peep until 6:30am. I had no idea that could happen. He's even stopped crying on the way to the crib, and naptimes, though not as long as they should be, are also less crying-prefaced.
So life is pretty good. I've got a perfect family, a (mostly) clean house, and the prospect of getting to bed by 10:00. I wish you all had it as good as me. :D

*This is a fabulous quote. Write it down. It's by me.

The Walking Movie

This one is for you, Grandmother. I sure wish you were here to see Adam taking off!

I love how it ends with Adam running to his daddy. He and Steve are two of a kind.
So Happy Wednesday, everyone! Only 17 more days for you, Michael and Brittany, and only 20 more days until Christmas!

Movie of the Past

This is a movie of Adam tossing his ball. He's really cute! And I will be posting some pictures tonight, too, but the movie of him walking will have to wait. So it won't be of his first steps, more like how he's walking now. But anyway, I'm sure you won't mind. :) Enjoy his athletics.

A Broken Record

So Steve and I finally had to break our record these past few weeks. We've been married 3 1/2 years and never spent a night apart-- ever. Until the Great Job Hunt began. He's been flown out to 3 companies this last week with one more to go, and my heart just goes out to all the couples who have to travel and/or are in the military. How do you do it?!
Anyway, there's only one more and then he's home for good! Yea!
On the good news side, here is that long-awaited movie I've been promising. Keep in mind that it was past Adam's bedtime (there always seems to be a disclaimer for my movies!), so the little guy doesn't even have the energy to smile at me. You can just imagine what he does with this thing at full force... let's just say I'm glad that there's durable paint on the walls! Here's our little cutie the night I got him this:

okay, okay, so after that blog I just had to post the movie...

Adam starts solids

We started Adam on rice cereal today, with my mom behind the camera. It was really fun to feed our Little Bug, and he seemed to enjoy himself, but at the same time, I could not believe it was time for big-people food!!! Where on earth does babyhood go?!

Crawling Success!

I FINALLY have the movie of Adam's first crawl. This was almost a month ago, but it is too cute not to post. Naturally, he is much faster now, and he periodically stops to sit up and survey the room, check for power cords, and decide what to get into next.

We never did figure out what was so darn funny about the water bottle.

Adam Enjoys His Tent and Does Crawling Attempt, Take Two

I used to love making tents when I was a kid, so I made Adam one out of two blankets and his play gym. Here's a little video story I put together about Adam's first tent experience.

Starring Adam

Here's another movie for all the Adam fans out there. This is him playing in his Exersaucer. He is having fun, though you will hear some teething moans. I'm sorry the first part is so jumpy and repetitive; I kept forgetting if the camera was off or on. I was going to do more editing with the movie, but he's so cute!
I decided to just post the whole thing. Enjoy!

Crawling Attempt, Take One

Okay, so I'm so excited about being able to post videos that I couldn't resist one more. This is Adam trying to crawl at 3 months and then again today, at 4 months. Look how he's grown. (And how adorable he is!) Oh, and just so you know, this one's about 5 minutes long, too.

Water Baby

We enjoy taking Adam swimming in our apartment's pool. He loves it! Check it out!
*Word of warning: Blogger downsizes the resolution on movies, so it's a little fuzzy.