3.29.2011

thru Small Son's eyes

My small son is always, always wanting to take pictures with my cameras. Perhaps because he'd like ME to know what it's like to constantly have a camera in my face...anyways. He's not allowed to touch my work (re:expensive!) cameras, but last summer on one of our hikes we let him use the little point and shoot. Now, whenever he sees it out, he wants to use it. After naps one day last week I had it out to snap some quick pictures and he asked nicely....and he found the zoom lens.not too bad for a 3 year old, eh?And yes, I know I look utterly silly (and sweaty! I had been working out during naps). But what, I ask you, do YOU look like when a 3-year old points a camera in your face??

3.17.2011

Spring Break....

....was a flop. At least, the spring break visit-the-far-away-family trip we had planned was a flop. Today marks the first day 10 days that there haven't been lots of liquids coming out both ends at our house. And I couldn't be more thrilled :) And, although we were bummed we didn't get to see our family...and then bummed that we had to cancel our last ditch attempt to "get away" to Denver with the kiddos on Wednesday...I'm SUPER thankful that we didn't drag a super-sick kiddo (who is already prone to motion sickness) over several mountain passes and then force his sick body to endure a whirlwind of friends, food, and attempts at fun. So what did we do? WElll....
nothing. Just rested, cleaned up after sickness, rested some more, did more laundry in 4 days than I have in the past month (pretty sure our sheets have never been so clean...they both only threw up in their beds once, but managed to hit ours about 10 times. Each.) went on a few walks to air out, see the chiropractor, and do a major grocery store run because I'd perfectly coordinated the emptying of our fridge with our scheduled trip. And, of course, Adam and I tried not to get sick. Which means I've practically sterealized our entire house (spring cleaning, anyone??). We DID manage to make it to a very cool pool in the next town over today and thoroughly wore our kiddos out in 45 minutes-they both crashed in the car at 11:45 and Small Son slept until 3:30. So much fun and totally worth it! Adam is coming down with the crud now; I'm not feeling fantastic myself. Too bad he has to go back to work tomorrow. I so hate seeing my kiddos feel so very crummy...especially when there's just not a lot I can do to help. I've never seen Pax sleep so much or Baby Girl be so fussy. Poor things were miserable. I cannot even describe to you how very, very, very thankful I am that my husband was home this week! He's such a great dad- and, let's face it, it's nice to know you can leave the clean-up to someone else and just take care of washing the sick kiddo off-or vice versa. So. We know how to party, eh? We gotta work on this Spring Break thing...

3.16.2011

Wordless Wednesday


....have I mentioned I love my job??












3.10.2011

Adventures of the Cupboard Dweller.

Alternatively titled, the most disgusting thing I've experience with my kids, to date. **FAIR WARNING: If you don't like gross port-o-potty stories, or bodily functions make you gag...PLEASE don't read this**. For the rest of you....a little glimpse into our lives :)
About a week and a half ago, the littles and I headed out for a little park-time. It was beautiful out; almost-warm and sunny, and we were all antsy. So we headed for one of Pax's favorite parks around here- the "dinosaur park", as it's known in our family. After a little (very little!) playground time, the boy began to run up and down the large hills and trails surrounding the playground...I followed with Littlest, "chasing" him and having a wonderful time. Pretty soon, though, my slightly-too-strong cup of morning coffee began to kick in...and I realised I had to find a bathroom. Preferably as soon as possible. Around here, the parks close their bathrooms in the winter...don't really know why, but they do. Since we were up high, I looked around--and spotted it. That turquoise-blue rectangle of dubious cleanliness called a port-o-potty, shining in the morning sun. I began to hurry my kiddos towards it, knowing there was no other option. We crossed grass, weeds, and parking lots as quickly as possible; I opened the door, helped Pax inside-and gasped. Disaster. The MOST DISGUSTING port-o-potty I have ever, ever, EVER seen. Seriously, it looked (sorry folks-gonna get graphic here for a second!) like someone had had explosive diarrhea--everywhere. I stood there for a minute-but there was no other option. I COULDN'T make it anywhere else. I sort of squatted over the hole; and that's when Pax actually LOOKED at his surroundings. And immediately began to dry-heave. "DON'T LOOK!! DON'T LOOK!!" I yelled, visions of my small son adding puke to the disgustingness filling my head. He hurriedly turned away...and then peeked back over his shoulder at the horror again. And began to dry-heave. Again. BOYS! I kept yelling, "DON'T LOOK!! DON'T LOOK!!" and he kept turning away, peeking back over his shoulder, and dry heaving. Then the baby toddled over to touch the potty...I frantically told her "NO! DON'T TOUCH!!" at which point she looked at me, her face crumpling as the tears started; and she LAY DOWN ON THE FLOOR OF THE PORT-O-POTTY. Gaaaaaahhh!! I quickly reached for the toilet paper just wanting to get my babies the heck out of there...and there was no toilet paper. And, of course, I'd left the diaper bag in the car. I'm pretty sure I would have started crying at this point...except for the part where I had one child about to puke and one child about to make ME puke as she lay on the floor. Necessity being the mother of invention, I quickly tore up the cardboard toilet paper rolls and got us out of there as fast as I possibly could! We burst out of the door--ahhh, fresh air!!--and started heading back toward the park. All I could think about was the packages of sanitizing wipes in the car that I was prepared to wipe my children down with from head.to.toe...and then I heard a sweet little voice. "Mama, that was a YUCKY potty!" "Yes, it was, baby," I agreed.
"Mama...I need to go potty,"
I crouched down. "Are you SURE?" a nod. "She She (it means pee in Portuguese...it's what we call it at our house) or poop?" I asked, dreading the answer. "she she! she she," he hurriedly assured me.
Thank goodness, I thought, because even if it wasn't we'd be diggin' you a hole to go in before we went back in there!
The next weekend, we went back to that park with Adam.
"Daddy," Pax said as we turned in, "there's a yucky potty here. It's a YUCKY potty!" Adam laughed and agreed with him, having heard of the trauma already. Pax was quiet for a minute. Then, "Daddy," he added, "I don't need to go potty here,"
HA! I'll bet ya don't, little guy!
And, yes, this story was truly so horrible that I felt compelled to share it ;-)

3.09.2011

Wordless Wednesday

One of my verymostfavorite people. Ever.

3.08.2011

Diary of a (Pre)Med-student('s wife)

I've spent the last 3 nights looking at diagrams of dissected cats & brains, helping my husband study for his Anatomy & Physiology midterm today...and although I'm more than happy to help him study...I may never eat another chicken wing again. (there's a reason he's the one getting into medicine)

3.05.2011

Once Upon a Snowman

Last week, at the tail-end of a nasty cold my kids began passing back and forth as soon as I stepped off the plane, we had a beautiful, fantastic, lovely snow. The kind that is perfect for making snowmen. You know, very wet and mooshy and not too cold the day after...perfect snowman weather for my not-so-good-at-being-winter-Coloradoans kiddos.A certain little boy insisted he wanted to make a snowman...Daddy decided it needed to be a giant snowman...and so it began. Although I'm pretty sure Adam did 90% of the actual building of the snowman.
And, yes, I know my daughter only has a sweater on-please don't report me, it was really quite warm by this point and she was only outside long enough for me to document the snowman-making. I promise! TaDA!! the finished product.
As soon as I snapped this picture, Adam turned to his small son and asked him if he wanted to knock it down.
KNOCK IT DOWN?? you just spent a half-hour building this thing!! I thought to myself...but Pax shouted "YEAH!!!" (of course!) and I switched to video mode....this is the difference between boys and girls. Girls like to admire their handiwork for a bit...boys just want to tackle it. And each other. I'm so glad I have one of each!