Friday, June 29, 2012

7 Quick Takes (Vol 4)


--- 1 ---


I left Facebook. Completely. It's crazy and liberating all at once. :)

--- 2 ---


Jason's parents screened in our side porch so that we could spend some hopefully cooler, more time outside.




[caption id="attachment_589" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Most of the length of the porch[/caption]

--- 3 ---


Unfortunately, it is extremely hot outside and Dominic doesn't handle the heat very well. :( So, despite having a water table, he gets hot really fast and we have to come inside.

[caption id="attachment_590" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Dominic gets thirsty, what can I say??[/caption]

--- 4 ---


Then we got a little climber with a swing and a slide too. So that it can be put on the porch and Dominic can get some fun sliding and swinging in, despite not being able to go out on the big one.

[caption id="attachment_591" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Look at that happy boy![/caption]

--- 5 ---


But alas, too many hot days and some heat exhaustion for Dominic. :( So....

[caption id="attachment_592" align="aligncenter" width="300"] This was right before Dominic shoved him off.[/caption]

We brought it inside. It makes life exciting. :-/



--- 6 ---



I managed to clean the whole kitchen and the living room including sweeping, dusting and vacuuming. Of course the boys did not enjoy the vacuuming. Christopher followed me around while crying. It was so sad. And funny. Mostly funny.

--- 7 ---


We had an eye appointment on Monday. And my vision is apparently so much better that I don't need glasses. Go me. I don't know what caused it, but hey, I'll take it. :)


For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Time to Simplify

I will not be having a Facebook presence anymore. I have connected with some really awesome people, and I am going to miss that interaction, but as we find and read about so often, sometimes we are too connected. Right now people can check out Google+, Twitter, here, or Facebook to find out what I'm doing, see the most recent pictures of the boys, or just drop a little note. It's awesome, and frightening; engaging, and time sucking. In short, it is a distraction that I need to limit. I have a hard time focusing on things around our house, playing with the kids, and soon I will be teaching them. I need to minimize distractions. So, Facebook is the distraction that I have chosen to lose. It seems like there are many aspects of it that suck you in, and I am apparently quite susceptible.

So, simplification begins today. :)

Monday, June 25, 2012

To Be Organized

I can't quite seem to get organized to do blog posts on any regular basis; or keep my house picked up; or the laundry done. Maybe it's me??

But have no fear, I have some great ideas for posts coming up.

In the meantime though, I'm working on a cleaning schedule/organizer. So far what I'm doing is using my task manager on my phone, and trying to do one major room a day. What do you do?

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The One in Which I Show Off Dominic's Cuteness

I thought I would use this space today to record some of the funny, adorable, weird things that Dominic says and does. Why? Because it's my blog and I can. :) Also, because I keep meaning to write it into his baby book, but I forget, then I look at it and it doesn't have a space for it so then I would have to put it in the margins and that kind of messes with the tiny little bit of OCD-ness that I have.

Dominic's vocabulary is really expanding, sometimes I think that he doesn't say much until I'm listing some of the things he says. He loves being outside and swinging and sliding. He can say "slide" and most people would know what he was saying. But, we kept hearing him say "ness?" and couldn't figure it out (he also says "mess" very clearly so we thought it was that for a while) until I noticed he mostly says it when getting into or out of the car when he desperately wants to go out back and swing. So apparently "ness" means swing. He will repeat it after you say "swing". And it is definitely one of his favorite things to do!

[caption id="attachment_571" align="aligncenter" width="2048" caption="Although it's getting increasingly hard to get him to smile for a picture."][/caption]

He can say "sandal" but it sounds more like "dannndal" and he thinks anything on someone's feet are sandals. Socks, shoes, doesn't matter, to him they are "dannndal".

He has been saying "thank you" when you give him something for a long time now, probably since he was about 13 months old. But he hasn't figured out "you're welcome", usually that results in him saying "thank you" again. Instead, when he is handing you something he will happily say "thank you" and thrust it into your hands.

He can say "ball", "bath", "buh-bye", and "balloon" but that sounds like "maaaalllooon" for some reason. Interesting enough, he has the weirdest word substitutions. For "phone" he says "mone" and for flower he says "be-ow" and for "spoon" it is "pooooosh".

He hasn't got any colors down except for "yellow" which he can say and even often pick out. It might be because we are a SpongeBob house. :-/ Dominic says "buh-bob" and "ratrick" which also sounds like what he says when he's trying to say "cracker" so you have to just know what he wants at the time. He says "buh-bob" when he sees anything square and yellow, and he says "ratrick" when he sees any star. It's so cute. But also probably means we should expand his viewing.

He still usually just asks for a "bite" when he's hungry, but has started calling everything "pizza". Probably we eat too much pizza, but hey, we're an Italian household. :) He usually says "bite" when he wants a drink so the only way to know if he actually wants a drink is if you offer him food and he pushes it away.

He won't attempt to say his own name or Christopher's, but says "momma" and "daddy". Often he says "daddy" whenever he sees any guy anywhere. Apparently the only man he thinks exists is his daddy. :) Whenever he sees Christopher after he wakes up or has been gone he says "baaaaby awwww bababababy". I think he likes him.

And now, more cute pictures. :)

[caption id="attachment_572" align="aligncenter" width="2048" caption="Comfy spot to lay"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_573" align="aligncenter" width="2048" caption="Lately he's been climbing into the front seat when I set him in the car and don't strap him down right away."][/caption]

Friday, June 1, 2012

7 Quick Takes (Vol 3) The One in Which I Almost Drown the Baby


--- 1 ---


I have been doing a walk (almost!) daily, and I'm already starting to notice a bit more energy and it's been great. I'm not losing tons of weight, but, you know, baby steps or whatever it is they say. I should probably stop eating ice cream. Good thing I've been wanting fruit lately!

--- 2 ---


Speaking of fruit, I am the only person in my house that likes watermelon. How is that possible??? The look on the boys' faces when I gave them bites of it was so bad you would have thought I was putting something really bad in there. Like brussels sprouts or something. ;-)

--- 3 ---


We are having my father in law do a bunch of work around our house, because he is a handy man so we're keeping him busy with jobs, but also because we have decided Jason's time is so limited with the family that we'd really like to be able to focus on fun family times when he's home.

--- 4 ---


Speaking of the stuff we're having done around the house, the first on the list was this musty, moldy smell that was coming from the basement, but we couldn't locate precisely. There was a spot on one of the walls downstairs that had an old wet spot from when our toilet was leaking (around the base, clean water folks) that needed to be fixed, so we had decided that he would knock out that part of the wall. Well, what he found was...not good. The entire wall was rotting out because the people who had put in our shower apparently didn't know that you had to seal the drain and whatnot. It was a mess. A serious, wet, nasty mess that could have eventually caused some mold and really bad stuff. If that toilet hadn't leaked and made it so wet there that the wall was messed up, we might not have looked for it for a L O N G time.

--- 5 ---


Dominic still is not sleeping all the time alone in his bed. Sometimes he wakes up and walks to the couch. Silly boy.

--- 6 ---


**shhhhh, I don't want to jinx myself, but it has been several nights in a row that Christopher has only woke up twice in the night. This is an awesome development that makes my heart happy. And my brain. I'm tired.**

--- 7 ---


The boys love swimming, and going down the big slide at the pool. Jason was having to go up the stairs over and over, so I thought I'd try taking Christopher down. Well, the first time was OK but I really felt like I was going to fast, so Jason told me to spread my legs out and that would slow me down. It did not. I got knocked back onto my back and I'm holding Christopher as high as I can, but when I come off the slide I go under and I know that Christopher has too. Unfortunately I couldn't get my footing so I'm freaking out thinking I'm going to drown the baby. Nobody is coming to help despite me feeling like I've been under water for several minutes. Finally I come up and see that Christopher is soaked, Jason seems so far away, and the lifeguard is just looking down at me. I hand off Christopher and try to get to the edge of the pool and catch my breath, coughing, sputtering, the lifeguard asks if I'm OK. Later I'm told that it was only a few seconds I was under with Christopher. He wasn't even crying. But I won't be going down the slide holding a baby again anytime in the near future.


For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Our Walking Journey

OK so we had 11.75km left in this leg, that's the last view of Hobbiton. On Wednesday we walked 2.18km and on Thursday we walked 2.36km. That leaves us with 7.21km. Good thing that Frodo doesn't have to wait for us!

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