Pickle's an all day kid

Pickle has finally made it to all day kid status, or luncher as she likes to call it. She has been counting down the days all summer until she could go to school for the whole day like Bubba. She is out of the house at 9 and doesn't return until 3. A full day of learning in store. I told her teacher today that I wanted her reading by Christmas! I hope she didn't think I was kidding.

Someone else was pretty excited to see Pickle go all day too! New Kid isn't going to know what to do with all the quiet around here.

2nd Grade

The yearly ritual of taking a picture on the first day of school is so ingrained now, that after getting dressed, The Boy actually walked down the hall and stood in the spot on the wall waiting for his photo to be taken. So this begins the second grade for him. He trotted off to school with Christi by his side and a backpack laden with too many supplies that I feel certain will never be used.

Addition to my Office

JP recently hung some shelves in my office which are to serve a couple of purposes. 1) Makes it more office like and 2) considering my office is in my bedroom for now, it is also holding pictures and other items that we had on the armoire in the room. I love the sleek look of the shelves.

The log cabin was a Lego purchase I made for ME . . . not the boy, not JP, but ME! I like to play with Legos as much as they do and I wanted the cabin! I put it together (sharing the fun with all) over the 4th of July weekend and decided to display it in my office. I figure it is also a visualization tool to manifest what I want . . . my own log cabin on a river with a canoe. I've just taken it up a notch from cutting pictures out of a magazine to make a story board of my wants, I create them with Legos!

JP asked if we could park his Ferrari next to the log cabin but I feel it is a bit pretentious to park your sports car next to your 2nd home.

Hiking in the City

One of the best things about living in Phoenix is the accessibility of outdoor activities. We live within a mile of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve which is a fabulous "park" right in the middle of the city where we can hike, run, climb, and bike and feel like we are no where near civilization. Once the summer approaches and there is enough light for me to head out by 6am, I forgo the gym and choose to hike as many mornings a week as I can. I get lost on the trails and get excited when I see wildlife like coyote, quail and jackrabbits; I've even come across a rattlesnake. One day last summer I stopped to watch a coyote chase a dog . . . I am confident he just wanted to play but the owner should have had his dog on a leash, if you ask me. The only times I realize I am near the city is when I reach the top of a climb and I can see the highway already filling up with cars. For the most part I have the trails to myself but there are many others out there enjoying the mornings. My favorite is a group of older women - 70's maybe or even 80's - who I see EVERY morning out there; they are truly inspiring.

The Many Faces of Pickle

What does $165 get you?

What does $165 get you? It got me two very nice people to spend nearly 8 hours cleaning my house from top to bottom. It removed the grime from my fans and bathtubs and returned white things white again. It got my furniture vacuumed - even turned my couch upside down to vacuum underneath - and even my air vents cleaned. My furniture was dusted, floors mopped, and windows cleaned. In short my house was CLEANED; I'm talking scrubbed - not just the quick version I typically do on the weekends.

But more importantly than a clean house it gave me a whole Saturday with my children lunching with them and my two best friends and then spending the afternoon at the theater to see Annie. It gave me a good nights sleep last night as I looked forward to a whole Sunday of doing what I want to do instead of what I need to do. It gave me a chance to make blueberry muffins from scratch and to read the paper with my hot cup of coffee. It allowed me to take the time to sit at my computer and type this blog post and I hope it gives me the chance to catch up on some old magazines and maybe play some games with my children today.

The cost was pricey - as it always is for an initial cleaning - but it was so worth it and I hope we can have them return (at a lower price point) every other week. We're not extravagant people but this is a luxury I could certainly get used to having.

Sleeping Controversy

This started out as a comment on one of our friend's blogs and I decided to keep typing and share it on my blog. The theme of her post was about letting her 9 week old still sleep in her bed and how the "co-sleeping" thing can be controversial. While we did not do the co-sleeping thing with any of our kids, we did put them on their stomachs. *Gasp*

The only place our son would sleep for the first 8 weeks of his life was in his car seat. I remember sobbing in the doctor's office because he wouldn't sleep (he was less than a week old) and the only rest I got was when he was in his car seat. Do you know what the doctor said? So let him sleep in his car seat . . . it was so nice to hear the doctor say that. That worked great until I woke up to find him upside down in his car seat and that put an end to that.

Turns out the kid had GERD and was only comfortable upright; he HATED to be on his back. He was a horrible sleeper and we got a lot of opinions and two really stuck out for me - my grandmother and my friend who was a nurse - and they both said to put him on his stomach. We did that starting around 9 or 10 weeks and that kid has been an amazing sleeper ever since!


With kid #2 I tried to be good and do the whole "Back to Sleep" thing - I mean, crikey, their dang clothes say it - but that lasted about 4 weeks when Josh couldn't take it anymore. He walked into the guest room (where Pickle and I had been stashed for sleeping), took her out of my arms and put her down on her stomach. She went right to sleep. I didn't even bother trying with kid #3; pretty much as soon as she was home she was sleeping on her stomach. She did sleep somewhat upright in her Boppy for a few weeks until she would slide too far down. I put a twin bed in her room and she would sleep in the Boppy next to me and then eventually in her crib while I slept in the room with her.

The thing with all three of mine is that they all slept through the night quickly so they didn't really need me for nighttime feedings. There wasn't much point for them to sleep with me. With each one I felt guilty for leaving them in their beds to go sleep in mine but they have all loved their crib and now their beds so in the long run I know they are happy sleepers. New Kid wouldn't have it any other way . . . it is her happy place. I'm not sure we will ever get her out of the crib.