Meet Bob and Chip

Meet Bob and Chip . . . birthday gift from the Kris. We think of them like the odd couple. Chip is full of energy and a constant swimmer while Bob just hangs in what we have termed the "Bob Corner." Bob seems to be getting used to his surroundings as he is becoming a bit more active.

Brother turns 5

So almost exactly 5 years ago today this little boy entered the breathe on your own world. He was fairly big! 8 pounds 10 oz in fact. I thought for awhile that he wasn't going to come out. He just hung out in there very stubbornly refusing to even move around. But alas at 6:42 the boy came out. We did not know that he was to be a boy until his arrival. I think this was a bigger deal for Christi than I . I really didn't care the sex. I just wanted whatever it was to be healthy. So he has made it all the way to the little Legos and as I type this he is sitting on the floor next to me building a Coast Guard helicopter. I am constantly amazed, proud and inspired by him and I can only hope he maybe feels one of those for me every once in awhile.

Birthday Party

Whew! The birthday party was a success. I am always glad we keep things simple and short and I think other parents appreciate that especially since they come and hang out. Weekends are busy and I know everyone has other things they would rather be doing. Luckily it was a beautiful afternoon to have a party at the park and the kids all seemed to have fun playing and the adults seemed to enjoy hanging out and talking.

This year we had the party from 2-4 in the afternoon so I did not have to serve lunch. I put out a bunch of snacks and candy and of course we had cake and ice cream. Cee-Cee made another great cake with this year's theme and it sounded like she had some interest in her skills. She also did a craft with the kids, kept the Birthday Boy on a good present-opening pace, and coordinated the timing of the party so we finished the pinata at 3:58pm! She and Kris then immediately started packing everything up. Having friends like that certainly makes my job as Mom a lot easier!
The craft . . . they made their own badges!

Unfortunately the pinata didn't last very long . . . I think I overfilled it. We also didn't blindfold the kids and it only took a couple of them before it was on the ground.

Sleeping Bags

Popsie and M'Lynn also gave him a sleeping bag! He is very excited to go camping this summer and Josh and I are very appreciative that they got him such a nice bag. The last thing we want on a night of camping is for him to get cold. Little did they know but they also got Mickey a sleeping bag while at REI: What you can't see in this picture is the pile of sticks that is the campfire to keep Mickey warm. I love my son's imagination!

Birthday Celebrations Begin

The Little Guy is turning 5 on Monday! I know it is a common parental refrain but it bears repeating here, "I can not believe he has grown up so quickly!" I'll gush more about him on his birthday but I wanted to share a quick update and some pictures from the first of his birthday celebrations.

My Dad and his wife were here this past weekend to visit and they wanted to throw a little party for the Birthday Boy. He got his choice of dinner - Pei Wei - and then we came home to have cake and open presents.
This is what they got him . . . .
Of course it wasn't put together when he got it . . . it was in 500+ pieces! The Little Guy is moving up to the little Legos and this was his first prize! It only took him and JP one short evening and some time the next day to complete it. Look at the detail . . . can you see the little "Bob" in the cab and the control stick? The detail on this thing is crazy!

Yesterday he had his "Circle of Life" celebration at school which is what they call birthdays. Parents are supposed to bring pictures from each year of their life and share brief stories while the child walks around a candle. The candle represents the sun and they make one revolution for each year. The children then share a small snack. Yesterday they combined 5 of the children whose birthdays fall close together.

Tomorrow we are hosting his birthday party at a neighborhood park. It will be a Fire Truck theme including a Fire Truck pinata, Fire Truck cake, and Fire Chief badges. Our friend is a firefighter and he got us some fun stuff like hats and pencils to pass out. Unfortunately I have no clue how many children are coming since NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THE CONCEPT OF RSVP!

Much to say . . . not a lot of time

Here goes . . . we leave tomorrow for our vacation so I want to get a lot in today to let everyone know where we're going and share a couple of quick stories about the kids. Unfortunately the laptop is officially kaput so we will not be able to take it with us and blog while on our trip. What I will be doing is updating Josh's Twitter which he has posted on the blog (look left) which will provide a running commentary of the trip. I will also update my Twitter which you can follow at cjchristensen6 but we were not able to put both of our Twitter links on the blog.

We are spending part of The Little Guy's Spring Break in Utah/ Nevada mostly at Zion National Park. JP and I spent a week camping there in 2003 and we absolutely loved it. It is a beautiful place full of great hikes and lots to do. This time around we are not camping since the nights are still pretty cold and we haven't acclimated the kids to camping just yet. We're staying in a condo unit in Mesquite, NV which looks a little scary but I am sure it will be sufficient as a base camp for us.

Tomorrow we will drive to Mesquite via Page, AZ and through Zion. We're choosing to drive this longer route to avoid the Hoover Dam/ Las Vegas weekend traffic. On the trip home we will come back that way and stop for the Hoover Power Plant tour. So tomorrow will be a long day (roughly 9 hours total, we think) but it will be a beautiful drive and I can not wait. The weather promises to be kind to us with sunny days and highs in the 70's which is a lot like here right now.

Most of the trip (probably 2 days) will be spent at Zion exploring the trails that are safe for a 5 year old but we are also going to check out Lake Mead one day and I found a bunch of little hikes that should be perfect for little people. There is one that is on an old railroad line with tunnels and everything - sure to be a big hit for both the boys.

We'll be back on Wednesday and I promises to post pictures and stories as soon as I can.

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Now a story -
JP was picking up The Little Guy on Wednesday and I happened to be working at home that day. He got in the car and the conversation went something like this . . . .

Little Guy: "Where's Pickle?"
Dad: "She's asleep in her bed."
Little Guy: "Is she home alone?"
Dad: "No, Mom's there."
Little Guy: "Did she win the lottery?"

*Giggle*
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And now a picture - She has found my supply of gift bags and loves to walk around with a collection. Is it a purse fetish or does she think she's been shopping? I don't know! She's helping herself to bags right now!!!

Where's Pickle?

A frequent refrain around here is "Where's Pickle?" Often she is in her Brother's room or possibly we left the bathroom door open in our room and she is climbing on the toilet or the one I really hate is when she is actually playing in her room and then she is disturbed and moves on to something she should not be doing. Today I found her on top of the back of this chair:Let me make sure I am clear here. She was on top of the back of the chair . . . not standing in the seat area but standing on the top looking out the window and trying to pull on the window treatment that hangs there. Now, I had a split second decision of what to do and I chose the good momma route of getting her down . . . when what I really wanted to do was run for the camera.

Sunday

Let me start this update by saying a couple of things:
1) I wish I had something cute and funny to blog about but it will just be the same stuff and
2) Our laptop is on it's way out (again) so I am using the desktop which is painfully slow.

Okay, now that I got those two items off my chest let me update you on our exciting world. There is not much to report . . . we had a fun evening last night of hanging outside on the patio with a fire drinking beer, chatting with friends, and wrangling kids. The first part of the evening was trying to keep the toddlers from destroying the snacks that were laid out and the second part was trying to keep them from putting their hands in the fire. At the end of an evening when we have had friends over for dinner or we've gone to their house for dinner I always feel very grown up. One of the most pervasive memories of my childhood was my parents having dinner parties or pool parties so I guess this is what I associate with being an "adult." Weird, huh?

Yesterday I also attended the Girl Scouts First Saturday event. This is a program that the Junior League of Phoenix is currently coordinating where the committee volunteers serve as the Troop Leaders for a large group of girls who would not otherwise have the Girl Scouting experience. It's a really neat program. This month they were learning all about nutrition and how to be healthy so my friend Kris and I taught them some kickboxing moves. Actually Kris did the teaching since she is trained as a kickboxing instructor and I just played along. It was quite a workout to run through the steps with 6 different groups!

Today we have many projects - as always - including getting ready for our upcoming trip. Next Saturday we are leaving to spend a few days in Nevada and Utah during Brother's Spring Break. Since we are not on top of the vacation planning game we didn't have a whole lot of choices for Spring Break where we could still book our time share. One of the two options was Mesquite, NV which is very close to St. George, UT and Zion National Park. I'll provide more details later this week!

We also need to make the invitations for Brother's birthday party which will be at the end of the month. I can not believe he will be 5! This year's party will have a Fire Truck theme. The party will be very simple and we are going to have it at a park this year since our house is being torn up. We are not the parents who hire the clown, face painting, or get the jumpy thing. The kids lose interest in them pretty quickly and then they're just running around playing anyway. We did get a pinata which I think is fun and it was fairly cheap (which is the key word here).

That's about all I can think of to update you on this week.

Update

Take a look at our before and after dinner activity. Slowly but surely we are removing the tile . . . Hallelujah! And it is a family business . . . even Pickle is getting into it. She picked up a big chunk of tile and headed out the back door . . . JP yells to me to get the gate . . . and she kept on walking right out into the alley. I picked her up and she dropped the piece into the trash. She also likes to help pick up the pieces and put them in the bucket.
Soon we will begin removing walls and tearing out the cabinets you see here. We have completed the floor and baseboards in all the bedrooms.

3/3/09

To start, there is something unique about today's date that will not occur again for roughly 2551 days. Give it thought and I am sure you can figure it out.

In blog reading one comes across the same couple of things every time. Politics, family, general complaining and events. Today I will discuss family.
It is common in every parent's reference to their children to point out how smart the offspring are. This is so because to not think that your child is smart is a tacit admission of abject failure in educating your child. A parent that says their child is less than brilliant is one acknowledging that they themselves are not the sharpest tool and that they have let society down by bringing into it a member on the left side of the bell curve that will eventually tax and drain the resources of that society. That is about as irrational as having IVF when you already have a bunch of kids. But I digress. I will dispense with trying to persuade you that my elder child is the smartest thing in the world and that he can do this or that better than any other almost 5 year old out there. I will let you know that he is pecular.
If you have followed along with the posts in the past you are aware that there are many projects going on around the house. In playing the home version you may have also noticed that the child reffered to as Pickle came about her name in two ways, one of which being that she gets herself into trouble, a pickle, quite often. It is her desire to search out trouble that has resulted in the kid's bathroom door always being shut. Since it is a ridiculously large bathroom, tools and equipment get stored in there when not in use. It is just convenient as it is in the middle of the house. When we first started stashing the compressor and R2D2, the shop-vac, in there, Ranger would not go in there to poop. This was hard for me because I really don't like irrational behavior and this was hugely so. We had arguments and discussions and both of us would have to go to time out to think about why the compressor was such a problem.
So, we have reached a point where, at least for the short term, the compessor is not needed. Thus it will move back to the garage. This coincides with guests coming over for dinner this weekend. At dinner last night we were discussing when the compressor would be moving out of the bathroom, and in my smart ass way I asked " what, guests don't like pooping with equipment in the bathroom?" I admit this was a dig at Ranger as I am still smarting from him not admitting that it is irrational to be scared of an inanimate object that is not on and not plugged in. So in reply I get a story about how the problem was the compressor would get up and walk around while he was in there on the commode. But that it is all better now because he, being the newly personified compressor, just sits there and reads quietly without disturbing anyone. This was all said with a bit of indignation. As if I should have aksed the compressor to sit still in the first place. I sat mouth agape wondering what it must be like to be almost 5 again.
Maybe next week we can discuss bug dozer or mister bug and the stuff they do around here. Until then I am off to get a new book for the compressor.

No Time for Mommy to Be Sick

I missed doing the Daybook yesterday as I am not able to get to our blog at work anymore and I was at work from 7am to close to 5pm yesterday. It's been a rough couple of days since I have been (and still am) sick. I had been fighting a simple cold and sore throat for a few days and then BAM on Sunday it just hit me hard. I couldn't stop sneezing or keep my eyes open especially in the bright sunlight. For about an hour I just laid on the loveseat outside and stared at the trees and sky while the children played. I am sure I dozed off from now and then only to be awoken by Pickle's little head on me. The Little Guy was making "soup" for me and would bring me tupperwares full of dirt to sip from time to time.

But duty calls and I had to be at work at 7am on Monday so off I went . . . feeling much better after I had some breakfast from Starbucks. I survived the whole day and even came home to whack some tile and thinset before dinner and then clean up after dinner. I must have put on a good show because JP asked me before bed, "Are you getting up to go to the gym?" Don't make me laugh, hah, hah, hah.

This morning I am still congested and have a wicked cough. I feel like I have the lung capacity of 50 year smoker. But the show must go on. In the next 21 minutes I will make The Little Guy's lunch, pack my own, put on some makeup and clothes, and dry my hair. Then I am off to the office. When I get home I will attempt to do one of the many things on the chore list for the week.

My favorite laugh when I am sick is for people at work to say, "why don't you go home?" And I say, no I have a better chance of resting at the office. Mom is not allowed to take a sick day.

In a Pickle

Last night I went to Bunco and I get a text from JP that says:
She jumped into the shower head first with her clothes on. You would not believe the shriek he let out!
The full story is that while Brother was in the shower she and JP were sitting on the couch. She jumps down and runs full (cute Toddler) speed to the bedroom and pushes open the bathroom door where she jumps into the shower fully clothed.

Now JP thought nothing of it because presently our bathroom door sticks and it takes a mighty shove to open, but she was able to muscle her way in which had Brother shrieking the whole time. By the time JP made it to the bathroom she was in the several inches of water splashing and having a grand time!