Jon's Girlfriend

It's amazing; posting to my blog does not make my to do list any smaller. I will continue to test this theory.

I obtained this photo from my friend Jon.



Everyone has been guilty of bad judgement, but really, what was she thinking?

Coffee Cup

You can always tell when I'm busy.. I make a lot of posts to my blog as a way to avoid whatever is attempting to make me busy.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Femme, challenged me to a weight-loss competition. Around the same time there was a fundraiser at Makena's school where I found the perfect gift for Femme--leaving her looking very catty as she sips her coffee. I was going to modify said gift by adding the words "except Kelly" at the end, but realized that the gift would remain at my house for months and months with all my best intentions of making the modifications. So, instead I had it sent directly to her. I told her about my intended modifications and very kindly asked her to make the modifications for me. Apparently she is not good with directions.



At least now I know why I'm gaining back all the weight I lost!!

Meow

The doorbell rang a few minutes ago. I gazed through the peephole trying to figure out who it was. (Mark has already met our annual quota for magazine purchases from door to door salemen--so I try to avoid such solicitors.) Anyway, the guy on the other side was making a funny noise. I finally worked out that he was meowing, yes, meowing.. over and over again. After a few more seconds I recognized that he was our Bug Guy. A few more seconds passed before I deduced that he was having a conversation with our cat that he could see through the office window. Perhaps the pesticides are getting to him?

Makena's Birthday Weekend

Saturday

What a great weekend! We went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk on Saturday. The weather was beautiful and thanks to the recount on Makena's height she was able to go on some rides all by herself! She LOVED it!

Mark took her on her very first rollercoaster ride ever!! You can't exactly tell by her expression, but she loved it. Mark did too, except his knees were aching the rest of the day!



This photo was of Makena on a mini version of "The Drop Zone". It basically drops several feet and leaves you feeling like you're free falling. She went with Mark first and he said she giggled the whole time. She wanted to go again, so I took her the second time. I was shocked at how scary it actually was.



Here are some more photos from Santa Cruz.




BIRTHDAY Sunday

At 6:45 this morning Mark went to the garage to get Makena's presents so I could wrap them. He had to open the garage door which is just under her room. She was already awake (but would have definitely fallen back to sleep), but the opening of the door was her queue to get up. As luck would have it, she came out of her room just as Mark was coming upstairs with her unwrapped presents. Mark managed to scurry to our bedroom as I diverted her back to her room. Close call!

Unfortunately, she wanted nothing to do with going back to bed, so we wished her a happy birthday and tried to get her excited about it. She practiced telling us that she's 3!! Not 2, not almost 3 (as she had been for the last 2 weeks), but 3!!!

We had to have the festivities early because Mark had to fly to LA later. We ended up making a last minute logistical change and had cake and opened presents at the park across the street. I set things up while Mark distracted Makena and Kessler at the play structure. When I was ready he brought them over. Here's the conversation.. (for some reason it didn't occur to me to video tape this..)

Mark: Let's go over here Makena.
Mark: Oh, look, who's that?
Makena: It's Merlie Dog. (I had Merlin with me.)
Mark: Yeah, who else? (They're about 75 feet away.)
Makena: Mommy.
Mark: What else?
Makena: (A bit of a pause) IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!! (and she takes off running in my direction.. bypassing all the presents--heading for the cake! :) Is she a Pellas or a Knight?)

We convinced her to open 2 presents before we had to have cake.

While I didn't get video of the "It's My Birthday" realization, I did take pictures. Apply the transcript from above to the photos below and it'll seem like you were right there with us today!





We had such a fun weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAKENA!! We love you very much!!!

What's been happening..

Here are some photos from breakfast one day last week. Fun Stuff.





While I'm here I'll update you on some things that have been happening.

Kessler

Besides consistenly falling asleep in his jumper, Kessler has been cutting his fifth tooth. We've had quite a few sleepless nights since this past Monday. But, it seems to be getting better. And while he doesn't like growing the teeth, he seems to like having them. He's a biter. It is extremely funny when Mark is Kessler's snack of choice, but I've learned it's no fun to be anything but a spectator in the activity. He bit me so hard last night it brought tears to my eyes and a bruise to my shoulder. OUCH!

He had his 9 month check-up yesterday and all is going well. He's 22.4 pounds (75th percentile) and 31.5 inches (90th percentile). I don't recall his head circumference, but he's in the 75th percentile as well. All the nurses were trying to flirt with him.. he'd smile and curl up into my chest, which made the nurses flirt more. He already has it figured out.

He hasn't thought much of crawling since a few nights ago. He is pulling himself up quite regularly though.


Makena

Makena is doing well. I can't believe she will be 3 on Sunday!! Time goes too quickly. She loves to play with her baby dolls. She tells us off all the time for being too loud. For example, we'll be at the supermarket and she'll say, "Shhhh, mommy, you're too loud. My baby is sleeping." "Where is your baby?" "At home sleeping, shhhh, mommy." I guess I'm really loud.

She still loves school and swimming. She never complains about either, which is so nice. Her favorite shows are Mickey's Clubhouse and Dora. Mark and I are ready for her to outgrow Dora, but she's still holding strong.

Her favorite foods for the moment are oatmeal, applesauce, yo baby yogurt (strawberry), budda bars (breakfast bars--strawberry, apple), strawberries, avocado and mac & cheese. A new favorite is pistachios. She calls them nachios. Sort of sounds like nachos, which has led to some mistakes by the kitchen staff. Really, I should be fired.

I guess that's all for now. I hope everyone is doing well!

Addendum: Makena had her 3 year check-up on Friday. She weighs 30.5 pounds and is 37 inches tall. She's finally in the 50th percentile for both!!! Yay!! It was a bit frustrating because the nurse measured wrong the first time; originally she had 34.5 inches which put her in the 5th percentile. That height along with her weight made her overweight. We contemplated making an appointment to see an endocrinologist, but decided to check in 6 months to see how she's doing. On the way out of the doctor's offie I decided to measure her again.. in 20 minutes she grew 2.5 inches and went from the 5th to 50th percentile!!

Happy Birthday Sister/Cousin, Niece Phoebe!!!

We hope you are having a wonderful birthday! We wish we could be there with you!! Have a piece of cake for us!!

We love you!


XOXOXOX - Makena, Kessler, Uncle Mark and Auntie Kelly!!!

Nap time.

Go figure. It turns out that the only reliable way to get Kessler to take his naps during the day is to put him in his jumper. He'll jump in there forever or until he falls asleep. He's done it twice a day for the last 3 days. I tried to video it before but by the time I got the camera, he's out cold. I had what would have been an awesome video today, but I guess I never hit record on the camera. I was able to salvage this video, however.



He's such a sweetheart.

KESS CRAWLS

He's been so close for a few weeks. He'd get in position and rock back and forth. He'd even jump both knees forward at the same time, but he hadn't quite worked out the "crawl", that is, until last night. And of course, I missed it. But, apparentlly he did FIVE knee steps. I did see the triumphant conclusion of his long trek. He very proudly pushed himself up into the sitting position, something he's never done either. But, he did it like he's always been able to do it. He kept smiling and giggling. He knows he's a stud!

We're going to work on getting video tonight as all attempts to duplicate resulted in slithering rather than crawling!

Kessler's Noggin!

This scan was done yesterday.

The difference between the diagonal measurements is 7.4.

The blue line is the current measurement. The red is from the first visit.




This scan was done 3/24/2008.

The difference between the diagonal measurements is 8.7.




This scan was done 3/3/2008

The difference between the diagonal measurements is 12.4.
The original difference was 13.1.

So, it's changed a total of 5.7 in nearly 2 months. The orthotist had a moment of, "Wow, how long has he been wearing.. good, this is good." I'm hoping that means he's progressing quickly and we'll be able to take the helmet off before we reach 4 months. Though, he's well within the normal range, so we can really stop at any point. I guess we'll see how it goes. He really hasn't seemed to care until recently. When we've taken it off the last few days he rubs his head up against us like a cat on a scratching post. Poor guy.

The Funky.

Monday I took Makena to get her haircut. This was only her second haircut ever (one of the benefits of not having bangs). So, she was very excited. The sylist did a great job; she put two little braids on each side and pulled them together in the back. She also put sparkles in her hair. She loved it. The first thing she said when Mark walked in the door from work was, "Look daddy, I have 'parkles in my hair!! I got a haircut!!"

Figuring she would like to wear her hair to school like that on Tuesday I put off washing it until last night. I unbraided her hair to get her ready for her bath and sent her to the mirror so she could see what happens when you unbraid hair.

Mommy: "Makena, look at your funky new hairdo."
Makena: "That's cool and funky."
Mommy: "Yes, it is. Do you like it?"
Makena: "Yeah, it's cool and funky" (Everything is cool and she's still only 2!!)
Mommy: "Alright, let's get in the bathtub."
Makena: "Are we going to wash out the funky?" :)

Someday I'll have to let her know that paternal genetics aren't washable. But, for the time being we washed out the waves left from the braids.

Incidentally, Makena doesn't enunciate the "n" in funky--it's just fuky.

RIP Treo.

Today, my Treo powered on for the very last time, just before I dropped it on the garage floor, for the umpteenth time. It seems, she could only take so much abuse before she had to quit fighting the inevitable.

So, I spent the better part of this afternoon picking my next victim. Every housewife/stay at home mom needs the latest and greatest cell phone. I mean, she needs to be able to exchange recipes without delay, and surf the web for the latest cleaning tips. Just in case she happens to be in Australia is no reason for her to be unconnected. So, as you can see, I had to get the phone that would work anywhere in the world, possibly anywhere in the universe.

I certainly did not purchase this phone because it's better than my husband's.. because my husband has several more months on his contract before he can get a new phone.. because my husband always has the best gadgets on the market. I absolutely did not buy this phone because it has a plethora of features, which I will never use, but could use if I wanted, unlike my husband who would use all those features and download software so he could have more features. No, I did not buy this phone for that reason.

Just want to make sure that everyone is clear about why I bought this phone.

Here's my new phone:

Blue Tongue Duffa!

Please, everyone, take your seats.

What you are about to witness is rare.. never-before-seen footage of the Blue Tongue Duffa tribal dance. What's even more remarkable is that our extremely talented videographer was able to capture the leader of the tribe, Duffalupagus Noony herself, performing the dance.

Amazing.





Did you see her "hit the floor"?

Makena Stating the Obvious.

You'll need speakers to fully appreciate this one. Besides the adorable giggling, Makena expresses her frustration with the size of daddy's bum!!

Makena, sweetie, it's something you will get used to in time. I promise.

Ni-Ni

Now that I finally figured out why my videos weren't posting properly, I have to catch up on some older ones.

Kessler LOVES his jumper. I usually put him in it when I take a shower.. the shower takes a very long time to warm up so while he's hanging out and the cold water is draining from the pipes, I'll try to get chores done. The jumper squeaks like crazy so I know as long as I hear squeaking, Kess is okay! On this particular morning, all of a sudden I notice that there is no squeaking.

There never is NO squeaking, at least not without crying and that only happens after 45 minutes of jumping. So, I run to the bathroom to find something similar to what you see in this video. In my panic, I jerk him out of the jumper only to realze that he's sleeping. So, I put him back in and he immediately falls back to sleep allowing me to take this video. Nearly as rare as Kessler not jumping in his jumper is Kessler sleeping when there is anything.. ANYTHING else to do.

We notice over the next couple of days that he has a runny nose and it seems like he's not feeling well. That explains the odd behavior!

If you have speakers, you can hear the poor little tired guy snoring.

My Birthday Cake..

What a great birthday! Besides learning that my wonderful friend Femme and husband are coming to visit this weekend, Mark, Makena and Kessler made me a cake!!! Not just any cake either. It was a chocolate and vanilla cake smooshed together with heaps of homemade whipped cream and sprinkles and Dora heads on top! YUM! Take a look:





Now, I'm going to let you get some sneak peeks into the kitchen of Master Chef's Mark and Makena. Don't dare try to duplicate this recipe! Seriously, don't.
Making Whipped Cream:




Finishing up the Whipped Cream (and apparently mommy is a big duffa):




Adding Applesauce and taking a break for tea:



I'm not sure what you want to call this maneuver:



Decorating the cake and causing a cake slide:




Finally, it's time to sing Happy Birthday.

Happy Hollow Zoo and Park.

Here are some photos from our trip to Happy Hollow Zoo and Park last weekend.

The Perfect Storm

They are good, and I'm oblivious.

Where to begin... well, I'm not really sure where the beginning is as I'm still in the process of sorting the pieces together.

So, let me tell you what I know.

Just over 4 weeks ago, my friend Femme, challenged me to a weight loss competition. We were both trying to lose about 6 or 7 pounds. It was a brilliant idea! But, we had to decide what the prize would be. I told my husband about our little wager and he suggested that the loser buy the winner a plane ticket to come visit. I had the same thought but wasn't sure if it was a bit much to expect Femme to buy my ticket when I kicked her ass. At some point Femme made a similar suggestion. I'm smiling now as I recall the email I sent to Femme about bringing my family along. I felt like I was inviting my whole family to come stay with her if I won AND she'd have to pay for my ticket. That's a lot to ask of someone because they lost 5 lbs and not 6. Anyway, the wager was great. We sent our food journals to each other everyday. I lost like 5 lbs in 2 weeks, then Femme found out she's pregnant, so the competition weined a bit (I gained 2 lbs back the next 2 weeks). Really, a lot of this is inconsequential, but I didn't want to leave you hanging.

In the meantime, Mark is fretting about my birthday present. Well, he doesn't really fret. He just makes comments like, I still need to buy your present. And, I'm trying to decide between 2 different things and I'm waiting for them to get back to me. He warns me not to read his email or check the Amex bill. Then he says, he finally bought it, but it probably won't make it in time for my birthday. No big deal. Then he tells me not to make plans for this Saturday because he has something planned for me, etc, etc.

This particular part of the story is not directly part of the Perfect Storm, but I will insert it as it has to do with my sneaky husband and my oblivousness. Over the weekend he says that we need to go to the mall so he can buy my present. I say sure, not really thinking that this is nothing like Mark. Also forgetting that he already has it according to him. I figure he had something in mind and he would leave me for a few minutes while he went to go buy it. He didn't do that; we just walked around. He takes me to Nordstrom to look at purses, but I don't see one that I like. As we are leaving Nordstrom we pass by a jewelry store where he bought a watch a few months ago. The watch had to be sent back and Mark's been talking to the store manager and he want to go introduce himself. So, that's what he did. I decide to put Mark in an uncomfortable position and tell the store manager that my birthday is coming up. Of course, the manager latches onto that, but rather than make a joke about it and leave Mark decides to turn the table on me.. or so I thought. He knows how much I hate to waste sales people's time. I HATE IT! I get hot and start to sweat and get anxious. Somehow we end up looking at watches. I don't have a nice watch; the last not-so-nice watch I had broke when I was in the hospital having Kessler. Long story short, he shows us a bunch of nice watches.. I squirm and sweat and try to have small conversations with Mark when the sales guy is not in earshot. Mark finally says, "do you think this wasn't my plan the whole time?". Yeah.. let's go to Nordstrom... let's go to look at purses, which happens to be on the 2nd floor.. which happens to be where the jewelry store is.

He's a puppeteer.

Moving right along, he decides that he's going to tell me about the rest of my present on my birtday. So, this morning I call him at work and he has me check my email. There's an email from him with an airline itinerary. First I think, where are we going?? Then I see, it's for Femme and her husband to come here. Then I say, "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!! Do they know? Oh no, she's pregnant, crap, does she know? CRAP!!" Apparently I think my husband is an idiot and came up with this whole idea on his drive to work this morning and assumed that Femme and husband would just be game. Au contraire. It turns out that Femme and Mark have been in cahoots for several weeks. Hence the very thoughtful suggestion of a weightloss competition. Since I couldn't prepare myself for the visit, she figured she'd give me alternate motivation to look my best.

They are good. I am oblivious. The Perfect Storm.

Thank you both so much! I can't help but smile at all of this! I can't wait to see you-Femme and husband!!!

The Little Things.

I started this blog because I wanted to let our families in on the little things that happen in our lives. It's easy to get caught up talking about consequential things when we are on the phone, that we forget to talk about these little things. Another reason was to document my kid's childhood, again with the little things that might be forgotten over time.

With the latter in mind, I'm sure you might be getting sick of these stories and if you aren't yet, you will after you read this one. But, bear with me anyway.

I came home from picking Makena up from preschool. I had to pee something fierce. So, as I'm scurrying to get Kessler in his exersaucer I explain to Makena that I will get her milk after I go to the potty.

Here's how it went:

Makena asks, "Do you have to go poopies?"
Still scurrying, I tell her, "No, just pee-pees."
Very excitedly she says, "Okay, I'm going to help you."
At this point I'm walking quickly to the restroom and she's running to keep up.
I tell her, "Ummm.. that's okay sweetie. I should be good."
She persists, still telling me that she plans to help.
When I finally arrive at said potty, she says, "I'm going to hold your hand."
And that's what she did until I was done. The part that I can't articulate is how sweet and sincere she was. It was all I could do not to cry. She is such a beautiful angel!

Hat Conspiracy

I try to take the kids for a walk a few times a week. Being the courteous member of the community that I am, I started wearing a hat to cover the rat's nest that sits upon my head. It really is much more pleasant when kids aren't screaming and running the opposite direction when they see me coming. Anyway, when Makena first saw me in the hat, she insisted I not wear it. I explained to her that I needed to because my hair is messy and dirty and the hat covers it up. She found this answer to be acceptable and no longer protested my new accessory.

Fast forward a few days to one of our walks. A woman ran by us; Makena exclaims, "Her hair is dirty! Her hair is dirty Mommy!!". This particular dirty haired hat wearer pretending to be a jogger wanting to keep the sun out of her eyes blew past us too quickly to realize Makena was onto her. The next imposter probably won't be so lucky because, as it turns out, anyone wearing a hat is doing so because they have dirty hair. Makena has honed her radar and immediately points them out!

Tonster

A friend of mine recently made a major change. He lived in San Jose, California for all of us life (he's old--so that's a long time! :)). He decided to leave everything he's known and pursue his dream to become a chef. So, he enrolled in a Le Cordon Bleu Culinary school in Las Vegas. He moved there a few weeks ago.

If you get a chance, visit his blog --GoTonster and offer him some encouraging words. I imagine any supportive sentiments will be much appreciated, because as with any major change...I'm sure he's wondering what he's gotten himself into. Go Tone!

Thanks!!