21 January 2010

Today's posts have been a little abbreviated. We lost our dog tonight, so it's pretty sad around here. She has been a part of our family only since August, but we've grown to love her. A stark reminder that we live on a very busy road.

RIP Iris.

21 January 2010

I wanted to take this shot of Calvin because it reminded me of one I have from when Maisie was about this age, standing at our doors in Gig Harbor. He was putting one of those magnets through the freezer door handle. It would fall through, and he'd sit down and grab it, then stand back up and try again. He's starting to stand on his own--standing up against something and then letting go.


Ah...found the picture. First picture is Maisie, about 11 months old. Calvin is the second picture, 12 months old.

21 January 2010

A little game of copycat. We taught Calvin to raise both arms over his head the other night at dinner. He had it by the end of bathtime. And he practiced for Kelly yesterday-her son asked if Calvin had a question! I guess he was just raising the one arm. :)

18 January 2010

Maisie is learning to be a computer nerd just like Daddy!

17 January 2010

This is a fairly new expression.

17 January 2010

Calvin learns what bubbles are all about!!

14 January 2010

Ahhh....another nightstand capture.

What can you see:

M*A*S*H dvds on loan from Martin's collection or Dad's, not sure who they actually belong to

A new book given to Greg for Christmas from a fellow teacher (who obviously doesn't know Greg very well, he'd never READ a book!)

"The Other Queen" by Phillippa Gregory and Julie and Julia-got that from my sister-in-law's collection she pared down when she moved.

Emu oil in an old film canister for Calvin's heinie.

Phone
Clock radio (Taylor Swift cd in there that Maisie and I listen to when we get ready in the am)
water
cell phone

High School Musical dvd-I think I had to extract it from my computer when I started watching M*A*S*H.

If you look hard, you can see the antenna from Calvin's baby monitor.

That is all.

13 January 2010

Miss Maisie Daisy.

Is there any such thing as a "normal" picture of 4 1/2 year old? She always has to pose or act silly, make a funny face....I guess the pictures are true to life, because she really does always act that way!

We are going through a MONSTERS phase with Maisie. It's really testing our patience, she asks for accompaniment every time she needs to go down the hall to her room or her bathroom. She has a bottle of monster repellent spray, Greg put up blue LCD Christmas lights in her room (monster repellent lights) and she has a night light. Her sweet preschool teacher has incorporated a lesson into school for us-Jesus always watches over you-"and he would never allow monsters into our homes to harm us" is the specific part that I added. Maisie told me to be quiet, she didn't want to hear it. Sheesh. I read an article online about children and their fear of monsters-Greg and I did just about every wrong thing! So we are learning. But I felt really bad when I realized that Maisie is afraid of monsters in her room and I'm afraid of monsters on the OUTSIDE. Our not-so-friendly neighborhood marauders are back in action on Road 11, and frankly, I spend the better part of the morning with one eyeball glued to my driveway to make sure I don't have to pull a Mama Bear on someone's butt. It's kind of exhausting.

Hopefully this will be a really quick phase for the Maise, and we'll be over monsters soon!

12 January 2010

Dad and I ran over to the condo to finish the picture taking! If you could see around corners, you'd see Calvin in front of the stove leaving his handprints on the freshly scrubbed oven door!

11 January 2010

Back to work. Mom and I are listing Grandma Dena's condo--she moved into the Cambridge assisted living in November, but we just couldn't get her condo emptied out and cleaned as fast as we'd have liked to so this week it's finally on the market. I left the kids in the car to take this photo-had tried to park on the west side, but didn't realize I couldn't get in that way-I actually had to go through the house! Just needed the one picture (in the daylight, no easy feat right now!) for the listing the first day. We had to clear a few more things on the inside to make for better pictures inside.

10 January 2009

More cake smashing!! Greg and I took cake and ice cream to church today for a little more birthday celebrating, and Calvin liked it just as much the second time around! Let's hope he had his fill, because food smashing is just not as acceptable at mealtimes...

I thought Greg was going to miss this party, too, since when we woke up Sunday morning Iris' left eye was puffy and red. Our best guess is that she got too close to Luigi or Biggs, and got swiped. So now she's being medicated. Oh brother, what fun. The vet sent a cone home for her, and although she's being pretty agreeable about not scratching at her eye, I'm dying for the photo op!

January 8, 2010

Calvin is one year old!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALVIN!

I can't believe it's been a whole year since this little guy surprised us a whole month early. It could just as easily be yesterday for how well I remember the day. Days. I was in the hospital for 24 hours before he was born...but that's beside the point.

We are so blessed to have him-he's such a joy. After a long busy day today, he made it through dinner, cake, opening presents, still had a bath and then Papa fed him his bottle, and I took him to his room. I turned off the lights and turned on his music, and then I got a neck hug with both arms until I felt him start to relax a little. Sometimes he leans into the crib and I put him in, put the blanket on him, and he snuggles in. Sometimes I hold him for just a while longer. :) It won't always be like this. But the current "this" is VERY VERY good.

January 6, 2010

Clean babies, fresh from the tub. Maisie caught the end of Alladin before bed-Calvin lasted about 3 minutes.

January 4, 2010

Tastes like chicken!!!

This boy is a wild alligator in the bath tub! He starts squealing the moment he hears the water start running, and he stands at the edge of the tub, so totally excited to get in! Once he's in, he lays on his tummy and just thrashes around, splashing water all around the whole bathroom!

December 31, 2009

Happy New Year! :)

We had dinner and cake at Mom and Dad's--it was YUM! Then we played dominoes until midnight. Maisie lasted until about 11-but wouldn't go to bed, so we put her on the couch, and she was asleep instantly. Such party animals we are.