our January timer photo

I posted a challenge last Wednesday to take one family photo snapshot per month in 2010. We decided to drag the cats into the first shot of the year so we opted for inside today. Angus is covering mine, but I have on a Bills shirt, too. See, nothing fancy, just our whole family together. I think next month I will volunteer to sit on the couch first and let Lew be the one who ends up being a touch closer to the camera. I want more of me hiding behind people next time! He can work the timer and have to grab a cat & a kid and run into the shot! I would have used my cute, cool little infrared camera remote control to snap this shot, but when I was home for Christmas, it was so cute and cool that Mom & I decided she needed it. No biggie, I would pick one up for myself when I got back here. So, last week when I picked up my camera, I asked for one of the remotes, too... adn learned they are sold out. The store can't even order them on backorder. Their guess is Nikon is producing more and hopefully they'll be available soon. So, Mom - pull it out and make J, C, & K sit on the couch with you... and use the remote to trigger the timer!

I'm just glad we snapped this new shot and I didn't have to fall back on our four-in-the-bed shot!

photo Friday! my camera is back!

I got to pick it up yesterday!!! Woo Hoo!! I'll share some more shots from yesterday. I've been too busy today with Carl's speech session etc to take and edit more.

Here's a quick Carl update brag:

The term "light years ahead" came out of Tracey's mouth today when she was telling me about Carl's reading skills. She said when they look at books at school, he tells her, "that says _____" or "that word is _____". She said - in a very positive tone - "That is not typical." She told me this past quarter has been his biggest for progress with her since she started working with him. Now, if we could just boost some of his social skills. One issue she is working on with him is moving when a friend asks him to. I told her this morning that if they say, "Carl, move to the left, please" (or right) he will follow directions every time. She just laughed and said the other kids in the class don't know their left and right yet. They can't ask him that way! Pfft... Carl has known left and right (with 100% getting it right, Gretchen still hesitates sometimes) for months now.

anyway...photos from yesterday 1.28.10


This is still one of the best places to get them both to stop for a split second...

Check out this jacket. Kudos to LL Bean for their quality. This jacket has JH's name in it crossed out, then CL's name in it and now Carl's name in it. And we all know pre-school aged boys are not known for being easy on their clothes. The sleeves are looking a touch short... it might be almost ready for MW to add his name to the tag!
Gretchen drew this picture for Lew & me after The Big Red Party last night! She doesn't even have to ask how to spell our names! Lew is the red one with curly hair, of course. I am shorter with straight (or flat as she calls it) hair! She later added a heart above me like she has one above Lew!

The Big Red Party

Oh, if you get invited to A Big Red Party - consider yourself extremely lucky!!

Of course you're confused. I'll explain......

A Big Red Party is an amazing performance! A combination of song and dance that will amuse and delight you! You'll laugh! You'll cry! OK, you'll laugh 'til you cry!!!

The evening opens after a long day of anticipation. You will be reminded that "Tonight is The Big Red Party!" all day long, if not for 2 days prior. Once the night arrives, you will be escorted to your seat. That's correct, you will not choose your own seat, you have an assigned one. Then the show can commence!!

Gretchen takes the stage and begins to do a dance that is best described as 'interpretive'. She will spin and flow and wave her arms around, ending in a falling motion forward to the floor. Then she will begin singing, too. Not any song you know already. No, she will make this one up on the spot. More improv! And, should you be laughing hysterically already, she will be singing lyrics something like, ♫"oh what is so funny? and why are you laughing so much? You should be paying attention..."♫ Often, by the close of the performance, she will grab her favorite dance partner, Carl and they will circle the stage together. She lovingly refers to him as "My Prince." The show can last up to 5 or 6 numbers before closing. Applause is welcomed in between each act.

We visited a friend's last Saturday evening and he was blessed to enjoy A Big Red Party in his home after the great meal we enjoyed together. He then threatened to call Child Protective Services on us if we did not immediately purchase a video camera and record this masterpiece!!!!
Oh, you can only hope and wish that someday, you, too shall receive an invite to one of Gretchen's Big Red Parties!! Dare to dream, People!!!

with good health, comes reality

Thankfully, we're back to healthy this week. The kids have been going to school every day! We've also been doing our fun stuff on the off days. Monday, Gretchen & I did the craft shopping then hair salon. Tuesday, she & I hit the Children's Museum. Yesterday, Carl and I got to go swimming. Today, Gretchen & I went to the library then shopping at Walmart (woo hoo, right?). Tomorrow, after speech therapy, I'll take Carl down to the Children's Museum for an hour, too.

We're having fun just feeling good and enjoying each other, but they are not wanting to go to school. Gretchen is only vocal about it. She logically explains to me that I will be lonely and miss her if I drop her off at school. Carl, on the other hand, is back to crying at drop off. Actually, today, he teared up when I got him dressed because I said "You can wear this to school today". He whimpered, "Gretchen wants to stay, Carl can come home with Mommy."

He's cried each morning this week at drop-off which is bad enough, but then one of his teachers made me feel even worse about it yesterday. I know she meant well, but she went on and on about how badly she felt for Carl the day earlier when he sobbed "I want to go with Gretchen and Mommy!" as we left him in the classroom. (and you know, I've said this before: I know how to drop a child off. I do not linger to make it worse. I do not return to the room after walking out. I simply hug him, give him a kiss, tell him, "I love you and I'll see you after lunch" and leave. I do help him wash his hands if I am not talking to the teacher or unpacking his lunch - it's not like I drop-kick him into the room and bolt.) Today was the worst day yet this week. I think the swimming yesterday really hit him that I am going to do something fun with Gretchen while he is gone. I think he thought we were going swimming. Oh, he loves that! Yesterday, he was under the water sooo much! At one point, he turned to me and smiled, "I am yike a fish!" He knows that on Saturday, we will take Gretchen and Daddy swimming with us.

But, right now, in a sweet, four year old boy's world - reality sucks.

photo challenge Wednesday!

I'm challenging you! and myself. You didn't see any great resolution post from me for a reason. Too much pressure, too much failure smacking in the face in the first month of the year. No resolutions.

But, I did decide to challenge myself to a photo project.

You have probably heard people talk of 365 photo projects. Pretty easy to explain, take 1 photo every single day for a year. I actually did this for the first at least 2 years of the twins' life without even knowing it had an organized name! Oh, how I wish I knew even 1/10 of what I know about photography back in Nov 2005!! The biggest thing I wish I knew was that there are newborn photographers who would have come to the house! Being a month early, I kept them inside and out of public places until the passed their due date at least. (It was 6 weeks actually, They only went to their own doctor appts until then. We skipped family Thanksgiving (4 days old) and Christmas, too! Oh wait, I take that back... we took them for pictures with St Nick at about 3 weeks old. He was outside in a glass gazebo palace in Corning NY - the Crystal City - and when we went, there were no other children around at all!) How I wish I had snuggly squishy newborn photos like I see my photographer friends take! Oh well... not having more kids just to do that! So, I will be content with my own newborn shots of them!

But, a 365 project is not my challange. (Too many other people doing it... you know me, I hate being like everyone else)

Anyway... back to the actual challenge. It's pretty simple. Take a family snapshot once a month this year. That's it. Grab your tripod (or set the camera on the end table), set the timer and get your whole family in one photo per month. Or, grab a friend or relative to snap something for you! Or, squish your faces together closely and have the person with the longest arms reach out and take the photo of yourselves!

We've actually got a head start on ours... (we have several good shots from each of these occasions, but I'll just put up one)

Nov 2009, taken by my mom:


Dec 2009, taken by my Aunt Lila: I know Gretchen & I aren't looking in this one, but I thought it was cool how much the pose looks like the month earlier's pose

I don't *think* they're antiques

I don't really know a lot about antiques, except that pretty much, if it came out of my grandmother's house it is probably worth money since no one would buy things that odd or ugly if they weren't valuable. I also know that when people list buttons on freecycle or craigslist, they always make a big deal about how there are no antique ones in the bunch blah blah blah... with this knowledge, I may have made a costly crafting mistake today.

This morning Gretchen and I shopped at AC Moore before her haircut. We bought glitter glue, sequins in Valentine's shapes, new Crayola markers, a mambajamba container of foam sticker hearts in all shapes and sizes and a 1 lb bag of "paper scraps". (Yes, I have tons of paper here, but this bag ended up being the only item we were buying that wasn't on sale already, so we got to use our 40% off coupon on it. Besides, when you have sequins, glitter glue, markers etc... you need cool small pieces of various colored paper, too!)

Then, she got her haircut which was fun. We were the only ones in there and 2 stylists were there. They put Nickelodeon on for Gretchen and after Teresa finished her haircut, we stayed another half hour just visiting. I love adult conversation!!!!!

Picked up Carl. Then home for nap.

After nap...... she knew we could break out the crafts. I had also found a pile of popsicle sticks which for some reason reminded me I saw a pile of buttons on the garage floor. Yes, on the floor in a nice circular pile. I saw them this morning when I was out there grabbing a pair of boots to drop the kids off at school in...... we got something like 18 feet of rain last night. I remembered thinking, "who would sweep them into a circle and then just leave them on the garage floor?" BAH! I crack myself up! We all know it wasn't Carl who did it. Turns out, there was broken glass in the pile, too... ah ha. This was my cute, old, little Ball canning jar of old buttons. No clue how it got broken in the garage, but oh well, I scooped up a bunch of buttons, picked out the shards of glass (and shook them well enough to get any leftover pieces - I know my mother is going to question me on this one) and gave them to Gretchen.

She was in heaven with her glitter glue, the popsicle sticks, sequins and these buttons. We're going to add magnet strips onto the back and give them as gifts. Of course, my favorite button (the red plaid one.. the one she picked up and said, "Mommy, this one is just like a picnic blanket!") she said needed to go on Lindy's magnet. Oh well - she did pick some other really cool ones for mine. And we found one with a piece of the red plaid on it for mine as well.

This one is mine:
she didn't designate the top one, but the bottom one - with the red plaid button - is for Lindy:



So, these buttons might have been worth something before we glitter glued them... but now, after Gretchen has finished with them - they are priceless!

Happy Birthday, Beth Ann!

We love you!!! Happy 50th!!!!! (hey, I just realized, the twins turned 50 months old on 1/20. I know no one counts in months, but in this case, it's cool!)

...a few photos with the twins...

Nov 2006, Gretchen & Carl's first Candy Making/first birthday party!

Sept 2007

December 2009, taken by Gretchen (cropped my me)

sneak peek Sunday

OK, that sounds better than just plain old "photo Sunday". Anyway, ......

photo Sunday

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

She hates things in her hair. She allowed me approximately 6 seconds to snap the first photo before yanking them out. We're going to get her haircut tomorrow after dropping off Carl.

a loaner from a friend!

One of my camera club member's has generously loaned me his older camera so I can get the kids' Valentine's shots! I actually asked him if he'd come over and take them, but he offered me his good camera. No way! But, when he offered me his older D100 (2002, 6mp - but very nice camera!! It was super fancy in it's day!) I agreed. He brought it to me last night at the camera club meeting.

Oh - we do a 50/50 raffle at each meeting. They draw one number to win the 50, and a second number to win $1 as a silly prize. Well, the last few meetings, someone thought it would be nice to mix things up some and they started drawing the $1 ticket first. I know it sounds petty, but I casually mentioned it at a board meeting - that all the tickets sold should be eligible for the large prize. By drawing the $1 first, that person has no chance of winning the 50/50 pot that they bought their ticket to win. I don't buy tickets because I never have cash in my purse. But, last night, the lady selling tickets approached me and asked me again which order to draw them in. (I didn't think it was that tricky, you follow my logic, don't you?) Since I had gotten Carl's haircut earlier in the day, I did have change in my purse, so I bought 6 tickets for $5. Do you know my mother? She wins tons of stuff. Well, she must have been thinking about me as I handed that $5 to Linda last night, because I won the 50/50! And let me tell you - I was very happy they didn't draw the $1 winner first last night!!! I won $50! Nice down payment on my camera repair.

The estimate for repair came back at $169.22. That is well below the limit I had in mind for not being worth repairing. If it had been $250, I would have not repaired and put that money towards the replacement. But, $170 is only 20% of the cost of a new one... so that sure didn't make sense right now. I will be happy to have my camera back in working order! I don't need big purchase guilt right now!

So, I of course, had to practice with the camera this morning so I can be ready to do the Valentine's 5th annual shots maybe Saturday morning. It was actually starting to sprinkle, but Gretchen had been bugging me soooooo much to color with sidewalk chalk. When it started to sprinkle at 9am, she cried, "Oh! Now my perfect day is just ruined!" So, we actually went out in the rain to color... and shut her up. Of course, she complained out there that her hands were cold. We stayed out about a half hour, then I convinced her to go back inside.

sidewalk chalk fun... Carl looks really sick, doesn't he???

Got some shots of Carl's sunglasses to share, too!

the sickness soap opera

Like mercury through the thermometer, so are the days of our January....

if you are following our sick kid drama you'll love hearing that I have yet another pillow currently in the washing machine. (fyi: pillows don't wash well. I need to do some pillow research to see if they make machine washable ones. If not, I might find some waterproof material and make cases for the new pillows I am going to have to buy.) Why am I washing another pillow? Because the boy woke up in a puddle of throw up.

His temp is only 99.2*, but his eyes are tired looking. I actually thought about cleaning him up and sending him to school and acting surprised if they called me. Only for a minute. (It does mean another therapy session cancelled. grrr) I gave him a shower and washed his hair twice... and now it's dry and he still smells of puke! Oh, sorry, it's early in the morning - hope you've had your coffee and aren't eating some yummy danish while reading this. Man, I don't have any danish.

My guess is, he coughed until he threw up. Now, he's happily playing, bouncing around in his Tigger sweatshirt looking completely adorable. Oh - I finally got his hair cut yesterday!! He almost needed one when we headed home for Christmas, but then once we got back here he was too sick to take. Maybe he was yesterday, too. We were literally the only ones in the salon. There was even only our hairdresser. I learned she normally has Wednesdays off - so that was good to learn. I'll keep that in mind for future appt days. I think they do a great job - none of you have ever confessed you think the kids' hair looks bad. A good cut and they are fast. Not bad for $13!

Well, Gretchen is bugging for fresh air. Might do us all some good. It's supposed to rain today, so if we want to take a short walk, we'd better go now.

another hit toy!

Well, with Carl anyway. You're going to think all I bought were Leap Frog toys. Well, I did place a whopping order with them before the holidays because they had such a wicked sale. I actually bought this toy because it was on sale for $6. I figured, if it was a dud, it was only $6. I even bought one to give a friend's son for his 4th birthday. In hindsight - I rock!

Leap Frog Fix The Mix. I have to show you a stock photo. (no call yet on my camera estimate) The box says it is for ages 3-6.

The child hits that start button and the machine plays a sequence of 5 things. Carl immediately turns it to Level 3. That level has things like "The Wash Your Hands Song"... the 5 parts are: wet your hands, get some soap, lather up, then rinse 'em, dry 'em off. It sings it in a little tune. Then, the kid has to push/twist/squeeze one of those colored buttons trying to find the first direction. The goal is to push all 5 in correct order. Once you make a mistake, you have to go back and start with the first one. After they get all five in the correct order, the machine congratulates them, gives them a score, then tells them the tally of all the rounds they have played so far and says something like "awesome!" or "that's amazing!"

Level 3 has other songs/directions as well. Counting to 10 by 2s, Counting to 25 by 5s, ABCs, months of the year, Life Of A Butterfly, Body Parts top to bottom and a few more. Carl has his favs and he'll keep hitting the start button to scroll through to find one he likes. But, he stays on task and finishes every time. He's really good at remembering where the song pieces are when he makes a mistake and doesn't make the mistake twice.

It's a cool toy, but I can't find it on Leap Frog's site again. And Amazon has it for $22! I love it when I make a good purchase!!

http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-29114-Fix-the-Mix/dp/B00134PM5U/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I did also buy this one below (Match Up) for $6 and it isn't anywhere near as cool. It's confusing and we haven't really figured it out yet. Maybe if we play with it a lot more, it'll get to be fun, but for now, he's happy fixing his mixes!

http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-29108-LeapFrog%C2%AE-Match-Up/dp/B00134O9HC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1263844684&sr=1-1

her future's so bright, she's gotta wear shades!

After the poor sick kid posts, we all deserve a wicked cute kid picture, right?

The kids got real Ray-Ban sunglasses when we were in NY. I didn't get a chance to get Carl's picture in his before my camera got sick, but I'll put him up as soon as I can! Down here, we wear our sunglasses a lot! The kids had plastic ones last summer and loved them, so I was happy to be able to get them more sturdy ones with better lenses. Carl especially wants to wear his all the time. He is just like me - I go nowhere without my shades! I got a new fancy dancy pair, too, but no pics of me either. Trust me - I do not look this cute:

did you know??

That when a child takes amoxicillin for the first time, they may develop a nasty looking rash? I know I have seen dozens of kids on amoxicillin in my time, administered many many doses to infants and toddlers myself. But, apparently, none of them were first timers falling in the 3-10% category. Yeah, that's Carl... 90-97% get by non-rashed. He is looking pretty pitiful. It looks just like a Fifth's Disease rash - minus the cheeks. But, with him just finishing his course of amoxicillin, Fifth's doesn't make anywhere near as much sense as a reaction to the drug does.

I can't take his picture, but he looks like the kid in the photo on wikipedia's page about amoxicillin. (we're in the photo #2 look right now) I called our pediatrician's office (and the nurse's message line said someone would return my call within 30 minutes. Two and a half hours later, Lew called back. He got put through to the hospital. We're guessing the ped's office actually closed - if they were even really ever open - and they never returned my call. Then, the service started dumping calls to the hospital. Anyway, that nurse basically read straight from the wikipedia site. She did say he is fine to go back to school. Oh boy! How much do you want to bet they force me to take him to the doctor on Monday and won't allow him back with this rash without a note????? You know I've been here before!

It doesn't mean he is allergic to amoxicillin or other penicillin family drugs, just happened to get this rash. Unless it gets worse.....

here we go again

8:00 pm
Gretchen = 103.2*

wordless Wednesday

another cool toy, TAG readers

The kids got so many wonderful toys for their birthday and the holidays, I thought maybe I'd highlight a few. Partly to recommend them anyone reading who has younger kids and partly for me to help remember what they loved when they were 4.
These TAG Reading Systems from Leap Frog were a birthday gift. I researched them to within an inch of their lives. Oh wait, if you know us, we do that with everything.... even maple syrup*. I went back and forth on buying a $40 toy per child. I read reviews, reviews and more reviews. I asked friends who had the toy already (their glowing reports are what really pushed me over the edge.) and I stood in Toys R Us picking them up and putting them back many times.

So, if you like reviews from someone you know... feel confident buying your 4 year old a TAG reading system! The twins love them! Be sure to buy the one bundled with The Cat In The Hat, though - not a book with Ollie in the title. The Ollie one looks identical - and if you have twins, you'd be tempted to buy the 2 different books, so one of each.... but the computer pen that comes with the Ollie book is the old version and only holds 5 books in it's 16 MB memory. The Cat In The Hat one has 32 MB and holds up to 10 books. The pen reader tool comes in either green or purple so you have an easy way to tell them apart. For now, they each have all the books we own loaded on their pens, so they can read any of the books, but they sort of feel certain books belong to them vs belong to their twin. They do share nicely most of the time.
Once you buy the pen part, you go online and download the stories into the pen. Then the child is ready to "read" the individual books that are loaded up for them. The pen only works with the TAG reader special books which you have to buy separately (they run $10-$14 dollars most places, sometimes Leap Frog's website has good sales. I got several for only $5 each before Christmas.) They can click one icon and the reader literally reads the page to them. Or, they can choose to touch each word individually to hear the story. Touching the pictures will say different things. There are different games to play where the pen asks them questions and they have to touch items on the pages to answer.

Another cool thing is you can then plug the pen into the computer and it tells you exactly what your child has been doing on the TAG reader. This plug-in feature shows how much time they spent with each book, how many times they "read" it, clicked on the individual words, what percentage of game questions they answered correctly, what skills they excel in and even what grade level they place in based on their answers. FYI... Carl is scoring at a 1st grade level on some things!!

I definitely recommend the carrying cases right from the start. They also come in green and pink, so you can easily tell whose is whose. You're able to fit 6 books in each one. Stock up on AAA batteries or get some good rechargeables. You can buy headphones, but really, it isn't that loud and even in the car for 18 hours to NY, with 2 of them playing in the back seat, I never got bugged by the sound. I kind of like eavesdropping on their activity anyway.I highly recommend the TAG Reading System! And, Carl & Gretchen recommend it even more!!




*disclaimer... do not use maple syrup on the TAG reader system!

my weather report

I'll even archive for y'all....

Mon 1/4,
Tues 1/5,
Wed 1/6,
Thurs 1/7 ..... water in dump truck on the back deck = frozen.

Fri 1/8 .... the only day all week that the water thawed!

Sat 1/9,
Sun 1/10,
Mon 1/11 .... frozen again!

Plus this morning (1/11), it was not until 11:15 am (yes, I kept checking and watching the time. I want this to be accurate!) that the pond out back's layer of ice started to thaw!



sickness report:
Carl is down to 40.8 lbs. You should see his ribs! I weighed him naked, so that might account for some of the weight - the doc's weigh-in last week 42.5 was clothed. His head cold is a doozy! Gretchen seems OK.
My throat isn't as bad today. Phew!!!
No school for Carl today, but I might try sending him tomorrow. We'll see how the afternoon goes. His therapist called in sick today, too. She was up all night throwing up. Ugh! Poor Ashlie!!!

it's 2 birds! it's 2 planes! it's Super Twins!

AKA, the cool gifts from Liz! Thanks! They love them - seems they bring out an aerobic behavior!

These photos were taken the day before the kids got sick....
1.4.10

still sick, cabin fever setting in

Not me, I rather like holing up in my own house. But, poor Carl has actually been asking me, "Please go to Walmart?" C'mon. Walmart? How sick is this poor kid??? Just a few minutes ago, he brought me a pair of shoes and asked me to put them on him. I think he thinks if he has the proper equipment, we'll take him outside.

A friend was going to invite us over for dinner this weekend, but on Friday, we said "no thank you" and told him of the pink eye. He was happy we passed on sharing that with him. But, he said he wanted to have us over very soon. We made the mistake of telling the kids maybe next weekend we'd be going to Lindy's house. Well, that wasn't good enough. Carl wanted his shoes immediately, so we said, no maybe next Saturday. Now, he is going on and on about going to Lindy's house next Saturday. He plans to wear his monkey suit since we Trick or Treated at Lindy's and of course, he'd love to see the outfits again, right?

So, the fever started on Tuesday afternoon and he is still running one. The Motrin brings it down and he is happy to play, but once it wears off, it bounces back up. Yesterday (Sat) it was still hitting things in the 103 range. Now, today, it is only going to 100 when the drugs wear off. This can only be seen as progress.

It has to be a plain ol' run of the mill cold doing this. He's been on an antibiotic for an ear infection since Thursday and it hasn't touched his thick constantly running nose, so that can't be a sinus infection. No school for him tomorrow because 1.) he won't meet the "24 hours fever free" rule and 2.) he is just too physically tired still. I don't think he has the energy to go and function for a few hours.

Both kids' pink eye seems to be gone... pink-wise. Well, it was blaring red, not pink. But, the drops have removed the color. Still, Carl's eyes are still super tired looking. Probably the cold, but could still be irritated from the conjunctivitis.

Because of the stuffed up nose, he is snoring like crazy when he sleeps. Yesterday for nap, Lew ended up letting Gretchen go to sleep in Grammie's bed in the guest room because she couldn't fall asleep with Carl's snoring. Last night, she apparently figured out a good solution to her problem. When I went in to check his temperature at midnight, she had her full-sized bed pillow completely covering her head. (Well, a 4 yr old beneath a full-sized pillow means it covered everything from the waist up) I wished I had my camera!

________________________________________________________
**edit to add**
8:30 pm

• Carl was only about 100* before bath, but after he got out he puked all over the bathroom. (great, surely lost that dose of amoxicillin....)
• Gretchen told me "My ears are scratchy". That doesn't sound promising to me.
• Come to think of it, my throat hurts a little now, too.

no camera = Flashback Friday

OK, truly, I have plenty of current pictures to share, but, hey, we haven't cruised down memory lane in what, 6 weeks?


January 6, 2006

January 7, 2006

January 7, 2007
January 8, 2007
January 8, 2008. Yup, shorts in January.

January 20, 2009. Last year, I didn't have a camera right now either. So, here are some pictures I got to take when a friend loaned us his camera. We knew snow was in the forecast so Lew asked if we could borrow a camera to capture it!