Hello From Colorado

Sunday's drive to the mountains was a "quick" trip considering the lengthy drives we put the kids through over the summer. Door to door was only nine hours and that included one stop to change Pickle's clothes and one stop at the Durango Wally World to pick up some flashlights. As far as a 9 hour car ride with three kids go, it was perfect.

Forty minutes into the trip and kid two throws up. She was in a defiant mood and didn't want to eat any of the breakfast that was provided. This, coupled with the fact that she was force fed orange juice at home before we left in an effort not to waste the freshly squeezed stuff, meant that the contents of her stomach were ripe for egress. JP refused to stop the first time and I did my best to contain it and clean her up, but when the second round started there was no salvaging the clothes. I couldn't force her to sit in vomit-stained, wet clothes for another 7 hours. We pulled over between Payson and Heber for a quick change and a quick introduction to some very cold temperatures!


The rest of the day was relatively uneventful and we pulled into Pagosa Springs right at 5:30pm. During check-in I discovered that JP's Aunt and Uncle were also here for a night so we enjoyed a short visit with them after dinner.


Day one of our vacation was very laid back as we wanted to get everyone acclimated to the altitude and have no forced activities so we could be sure to have some good blocks of time for naps. The day was filled with brief trips to the playground - the wind was vicious and parental units could not stay out there very long - coloring, lego play, and puzzle time. I know the boys were extremely bored but I think it was nice to have a day to do nothing.


Today we are off to find some good snow in which to play!

She sits on cubes

There was a post a couple of years ago, when there were only two spawn in the house, discussing nurture vs. nature, link.
It seems that our luck did not stop with #2. New Kid's newest trick is to climb on the corduroy cubes and dance and bounce. This behavior is no doubt a learned one and learned from her older sister at that.

Hi Darth

Of the two oh so adorable turners pictured above we only have one. The all powerful Darth! He is a huge hit in our house and every time he makes an appearance Pickle says, "hi Darth," in the cutest little voice. He has really been personified to the point that he is not the spatula, or turner, named Darth; he is simply Darth.

On an unrelated note whatever sickness made the rounds here 3 weeks ago seems to be coming back. New Kid has it the worst and her nose is a snot faucet right now. On a 10 month old that is absolutely horrible because she doesn't have the wherewithal to wipe on anything so it is just constantly flowing. Probably not the image you wanted but it isn't the image I wanted either so I thought I would share.

Pickle Gets a haircut

Pickle finally got a hair cut. I don't say finally To imply her hair was knappy and the time for the hairs to be cut was overdue, but finally in the sense she is over three and had never had one.

She had been asking for a trim for quite some time. Every time we got the clippers out to trim the Boy's hair she would ask for a haircut as well. She even wanted the 2 guard treatment like he gets.
Christi thought it best I not hack off all of her hair like that so a trip to the salon was planned. The Boy's first trip to get a haircut was an awful experience for most involved. See photo below.


Christi was determined to make it a very easy experience so we talked it up a great deal. The two older women of the house chose a date and made an appointment. Pickle was very big girl about the whole thing. I was a little nervous so was a bit over zealous in my texts to Christi asking how it was going. The report was good and in every picture I received Pickle looked like she was doing well.
In the end she came home with lovely trim and it is very easy to manage. Hair brushing time is no longer a battle and she doesn't have to hold her hair back all the time to see what she is doing.

10 months

So new kid rolled through her 10 month birthday today. She is taking this growing up thing in stride and progressing as she should. She is still mimicking the sounds she hears, which may result in a delay of speech development because it is really funny to hear her growl. She is also convinced she can stand straight up from a sitting position. This has yet to work out for her but she rocks and jostles in an attempt to get her feet under her and ends up throwing herself over forward onto her belly.
In lieu of a 10 month birthday cake we gave her the first of what will most likely be thousands of pancakes. She did eventually eat the whole thing but most liked clutching it in her little warm hand when she first got it.

All I want for Christmas...

A discussion was had the other day about updating the blog. It was decided that a post about the Boy's missing teeth and Pickle's very first haircut were great topics. I wanted to cover the lack of contextual understanding behind incentivizing bringing my own bag to the grocery store and the macro economic zero sum shell game that is cutting education funding but we can make time for those topics later.
Two members of the household are getting their two top front teeth at the same time. One is taking the event much better than the other. What I find most amusing about the concurrent cuspid cultivation is how silly one looks without the two front teeth and how silly one will look when her two front teeth finally make it in. I recall when the Boy's top teeth came in the first time and he immediately went from cute little infant to swamp person!


Capturing a picture of new kid's budding teeth is proving to be a bit harder than planned! I will try to sneak up on her and get one posted soon.