Thankful - Day 2

My sister and some friends on Facebook are doing "Thirty Days of Thankful" for the month of November. Each day they are posting something in their lives for which they are grateful. I decided to do the same, but will write it here instead. 

Day 2

I am thankful for my husband, Andy.  He is funny and smart and thoughtful and generous and he has so much integrity.  I am truly blessed to have joined my life with his, and I love the life that we are building together.

Thirty days of Thankful

My sister and some friends on Facebook are doing "Thirty Days of Thankful" for the month of November.  Each day they are posting something in their lives for which they are grateful.  I decided to do the same, but will write it here instead. 

Day 1
I am thankful for my life.  I know that this is a broad statement, and in the next thirty days I will get far more specific, but I recognize that I have a great life.  I have a great family, both here and far away.  I have a wonderful husband.  I have amazing kids. I have awesome friends.  I have a nice house.  I have enough food and money to feel secure.  I have time to do things that I want to do.  For all of these things, I am extremely grateful.

what's in a name?

The conversation went something like this:
Devin: "I'm going to give Alex the nickname 'hot head', because when the sun shines on his hair it looks like fire.  Like a hot head."
Mom: "The term 'hot head' usually means someone who has a bad temper; who gets mad fast."
Alex: "I'm not a hot head.  I'm a trouble maker."

Time for something new

September is a time of new beginnings.  New school year.  New teachers.  New friends.  This year, September is a time for new sports for the boys.  For the first time in four years, we do not have a soccer player in the house.  After last year's huge soccer commitment of two boys in three practices per week and two to five games per weekend, this is a major freedom for us (which comes at a great time, since Andy and I are both training for a half ironman in October and we need time to train!).
Devin chose to play flag football, and quickly took on the roll of quarterback.  He has quite an arm and he's working hard to learn all the plays.  This week, I think he went out to toss the football every day.  Plus, he's swimming twice a week in a league that works more on perfecting stroke technique than on racing. 

Alex chose Tae Kwon Do.  He has been asking to try it for ages, but was unwilling to give up soccer to try it (and given that TKD is two or three nights per week, we were unwilling to do both).  He is taking it at a place whose students are primarily kids, and they make it a lot of fun.  He will be testing for his first new belt soon, and he is so excited.

Izzy is doing dance again, and she tried out for a small, local production of the Little Mermaid.  We haven't heard back yet from auditions, where she jumped up on stage to shake her booty and belt out "California Girls".  I vacillated between wanting to take some video of the occasion and wanting to crawl under my seat. 

tribute to summer - part III

The boys had a great swim season this summer.  Alex was young in the age group, so he didn't win a lot of races (including some against his brother), but his times improved tremendously over last year.  Devin had a banner season (both winning races and beating his old times), and even won medals in the all star meet!

Climbing out after a great race!

Swim Buddies

Devin in his trademark orange cap

All star relay. "Swimmers, take your mark..."

tribute to summer - part II

The Blake's maintained their beach bum status this summer, and Izzy even learned to boogie board!!

 

three little fishes, swimming in the sea...

Can you believe what this salt air does to my hair?



Cuddles between best buds on the beach

 



Devin and I completed this 750 piece puzzle in two days. We were both obsessed!

tribute to summer - part I

I realize that I have been pretty quiet lately, so today I am making a new commitment to my blog.  First, I will catch everyone up on our lives by posting all the family pictures and fun stuff from this summer (a tribute to summer, if you will).  Next, I will try (very hard) to make weekly updates.  Now that the kids are back in school and going to bed at a decent hour, I am optimistic that I can carve out the time to write all the great posts that I create in my head during my long bike rides and other times that I cannot actually sit down at a computer and write.

So, here goes.  One of the first things that happened this summer was Isabel's first dance recital.  The video is clearly as amateur as the dancers, but she's as cute as ever (on the right).  Enjoy!

 

Happy 9th Birthday Devin!!

I know this is late, but Happy 9th Birthday Devin!!!

I love this picture of Devin.  I know he's not looking at the camera, and he has a swim cap covering his beautiful blond hair.  However, in this picture, I can almost see what my nine-year-old boy will look like as a man.  It's awesome and terrifying at the same time.  I love this kid, and I am so proud of the thoughtful, fun and kind person he is becoming.

Questions

Alex is fond of playing the "question" game.  This is one where he compares different people by answering questions like, "Who is stronger, Papa or Uncle Billy?" or, "Who is prettier, Isabel or Katie(Izzy's friend)?"  It's a useful way to get him talking to me about his friends and kids at school, but it's also funny to get some of the responses that I get.  For instance, I know that he used to like Laura, but now he likes Sierra too.  I know that Phillipe is one of his best friends, but he plays with Davis more at school.  I know that he loves Devin, but would protect Isabel over Devin, "because she's so little and Devin is strong."  And I know that he thinks Andy is the strongest man he knows.  Up until today, I thought he liked Mrs. Price (his teaching assistant) more than anyone in the world.  Maybe it's because of Mother's Day, but Mrs. Price has fallen in the ranking behind Mommy and Grandma.  More than anything, I know that this little boy loves his family, and behind is goofball demeanor is a sweet, caring little man.  I love you, Alex.

Happy Birthday Awesome Alex!!

Happy seventh Birthday Awesome Alex!  You bring so much laughter and joy to our lives!

Happy Birthday Isabel!!

Happy fourth birthday to my little beauty!!  I love you!!

problem solved

I was driving the boys to school today and Alex started asking me about our cars.  Which one cost more money?  (Andy's)  Why? (Because mine was used, Andy's is new and is a different kind of car).  This led to a discussion of the differences in the cars.  Which one had more seating, which one was noisier, which one had the adapter to play Alex's iPod, etc.  Alex finally concluded that he likes Andy's car more than mine.  His reasoning was that Andy's car is cleaner.  I asked him who he thought made the mess in my car, and he completely fessed up that it was him and his siblings. 

Problem solved.

Among the Chaos

It was a crazy day.  It started with a particularly loud carpool of five kids and lots of drama and attitude and requests for different music, turn it up, put on a show. "He won't give my book back.  It's mine!".  There were items forgotten at school.  There were tears.  We got home and there were kids who needed a snack, who couldn't find their soccer socks, who needed help with homework, who couldn't unzip their coats.  All of it, right now!! Right Now!! 
After a brief forty-five minutes at home, we had to leave.  "Let's move!  We are going to be late for Devin's last soccer game of the indoor season!"  Find the socks, fill the water bottles, zip the coat, bring the homework for the car trip...  Then the team lost, and Devin was done playing with the team that he played with since August.  He was a little sad. 
On the way home, I decided that we all needed to mellow out a bit, and switched the radio to the Grateful Dead station.  As we were pulling into the neighborhood, China - Rider came on (a two song combo that happens to be one of my favorites).  I pulled into the garage and just sat there for a minute to listen. 
Andy came out of the house and got the kids.  He brought them and the noise and chaos into the house with him and closed the door.  He started dinner and brought me a glass of wine, handing it to me through the open car window. 
I love this man.  He gets me.

Shades of Beauty

Isabel and I were at the mall yesterday and after she "helped" me shop (where "help" means that she selects a every article of pink clothing for me before trying to sit in the mannequins lap), we went to the makeup counter so she could look at lip gloss.  Yes, I did use the lip gloss as incentive for Isabel to behave.  This is not bribery, but merely insurance.  We went to the makeup counter where the nice lady lip gloss on Isabel while I checked out the free bonus gift with purchase.  Isabel's lips looked like this.

Fantastic, right?  I mean, not for a three year old, but the lip color is great.  Then I remembered that I am running low on mascara.  The mascara didn't cost enough to get the bonus, but with that gorgeous lip gloss, I can get the bonus.  This is what I call a win-win.  We made our purchase and headed to the car, where I tried out my new lip gloss.  It looked like this.

Yes, that is the same lip gloss in both pictures.  Clearly Isabel and I have different coloring.  I guess this just goes to show that the lip gloss is not what makes Isabel beautiful.  What a lucky little girl!

Things you shouldn't have to say...

As a parent, we all find ourselves saying things that we never really thought we would have to say.   Like when Alex was having "tummy time" as a baby and I had to tell Devin not to roll him around the room.  Or when Isabel got into my makeup bag, in the car, and decided to put the 'black lipstick' on her lips.  But the black lipstick was mascara and suddenly my goth daughter and my back seat were one huge slimy black mess.  I told her that little girls never wear black makeup and she shouldn't put anything black on her lips.
This morning Alex was packing up for school and I told him he probably needed a sweatshirt because it was cold.  He grabbed one and immediately used it to wipe his nose.  He was standing next to the desk where the tissue box sits.  I said, "Do you want to wear your boogers to school today?"  The answer was no.  So I suggested that he put that sweatshirt in the hamper and find a clean one. 

What to do...

We have been a little ill around here lately.  The boys have avoided the yucky cold, but the rest have fallen prey, and Isabel went down the hardest. 

So, what do you do when you are home with a little girl whose nose is a faucet?  One who wants to cuddle on the couch constantly, except when she is demanding more tissue, "and some lotion please for my red nose".  Well, you cuddle.  A lot.  And you read books and sing songs.  If she's really ambitious, you may make it to the table for some crafts (preferably painting or play doh - the messier the better).  Finally, when she is tired and just wants to zone out you put on a movie ("Annie" being the latest favorite) and hop on the bike trainer to sneak a little exercise in while she is occupied.  aaah - the life of a Mommy. 
The cuddles are great though.

Big day

I cleaned out my sock drawer today.  Whoop!  Do I know how to have fun or what?!

Just Label It

When is comes to food, I've been a label reader for the last fifteen years.  It started when I decided to make a change for my health and primarily focus on losing weight.  I had always been athletic and active, but was never thin and my weight crept up through high school and college.  So I was learning about eating better and watching fat and calorie intake and reading labels.  When I started buying food for my kids, I would look at ingredients to ensure that I wasn't buying things like bread and apple sauce with high fructose corn syrup.  My thought was that my kids didn't need the extra sugar in the things that they eat every day (the bread) and the things that they like without the extra sugar (since I never add sugar when I make applesauce from scratch). 
Some of my friends have made pretty extreme changes to the foods that their families eat.  One cut out gluten because potential links with their child's ADHD.  Another removed casein and gluten because of the impact on Aspergers.  One went vegan because of possible links between animal proteins and her autoimmune disease, and noticed a positive affect on her husband's Chrone's disease. 
While my family has been lucky enough not to have any health issues that are tied to foods, we are also concerned about all that we have been hearing about high fructose corn syrup and genetically modified foods.  We live in a rich country that has more food than ever, and yet there are more food issues and allergies than ever.  The more Andy and I learned about food processing (thanks to movies like Food Inc and countless websites) the more we are concerned about what we are feeding our families.  Food manufacturing and processing has changed exponentially over the last 20 years and I firmly believe that the methods used are a huge contributor to the rise in obesity and food allergies that we see today.  The food that we ate as kids may have the same name, but it is not made the same way as the food we used to eat. 

Andy and I are still label readers, but now our focus is more on buying food that is natural rather than low fat. If my kids can't pronounce the ingredients then we probably shouldn't be eating them. 

Just Label It

Devin's Eclipse

The kids were doing art projects today, and Devin came up with this:

Every now and then I have a moment when I realize that Devin is growing up, and this was one of them.  I love his creativity and ingenuity.  He is learning so many new and interesting things, and our conversations (and his questions) are getting more complex and challenging.  I love it.

Izzy's Jukebox

Isabel has been singing all day long.  Here is her play list:

Love You Like a Love Song - Selena Gomez
Someone Like You - Adele
Shake Those 'Simmons Down - Music Together
Tik Tok on the Clock - Ke$ha
Save Me San Francisco - Train
Everybody Dance Now - C+C Music Factory
Play the Drum - Music Together
Dynamite - Taio Cruz
Chicken Fried - Zac Brown Band

I certainly appreciate her varied music taste, and take comfort in the fact that at least a couple of the songs are intended for little kids (the ones from her Music Together class).  I managed to catch one of her performances*.  Check it out:

* Please note: wearing pajamas at 2pm is perfectly acceptable in our world.  Enjoy the booty shake.