Rolling with Ruby

a little buzz going on

2010-07-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

"Where there's danger, there's a Space Ranger!"

I'm usually not excited about trash.

Hopefully, Buzz has saved the day. Because Ruby's been refusing to poop on the toilet for tooooo long.

We took her to see Toy Story 3 and she became enthralled with him - and the movie. So after trying various other bribes, treats, etc. to get her to potty somewhere other than her pants, I figured we'd take a field trip to Wally World and purchase a big 'ol Buzz and see if that helped. It has.

I could hardly get her to look at me.

The road to getting him was pretty bumpy, but it was the best success we've had yet. I told her if she went on the potty three times she could open him and play with him. If she goes in her pants now, Buzz goes back in the box until she's back to the toilet.

Hopefully it sticks because I am SICK of cleaning poop out of little girl underwear.

She opened him and I asked her if she liked her new Buzz. She said "Oh, yeah, he's good peeps!" She's also said "Hey, mom - I pooped THREE times for Buzz!" Everything has been about Buzz today. And he's made it into the rotation for her role playing - where she assigns us each a member of the family to be instead of ourselves.

He also has an impressive amount of buttons and gadgets. I confess I spent a bit of time playing with him myself.

Praying for poop deposited regularly in the same spot. Is that too much to ask?

And yes I'm aware that I can get much better quality photos than my iPhone. But it is sooo handy!

emmett etc

2010-07-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

My big lil guy turns four months TODAY. Manalivewheredoesthetimego!?! I am more acutely aware of the time this time around probably because he is my last. Even though I'm still not sleeping as much as I'd like to at night, I'm taking it all in.

This kid is sooo giggly and smiley. He smiles instantly at Ruby especially. He coos at and sings with her. He's also a mama's boy, although dad's gotten into his good graces a little more lately.

He rolled a month and a half ago, but is doing it constantly now. If I lay him under his playthings, flip he's over. And he's not mad about it either, at least not right away. So that's a good thing.

He is the wiggliest of wiggly worms. Strong is not the word for him. Sturdy. James and Ruby were both strong and James was very wiggly (we thought he had RLS because of how much he kicked his legs in the early days)... but Emmett is another story. He will wiggle out of anything he's not strapped into. He will wiggle out of anything he IS strapped into. He was tightly strapped into his swing and guess what. Yeah that couldn't have been a soft landing. He has also catapulted himself out of the Bumbo seat. Another not soft landing, but not as bad as the swing. Which makes me sad because I really loved using that with Ruby, it was her "stay" spot when I was doing whatever. The kid is wiggly and tough.

This is not an optical illusion, a trick, he was not propped. He is standing, holding on to the back of the couch. 3.5 months.

Daddy calls him EmStar. I call him WigglyButt, Stinky, Schnooks, Ottobot. Ruby still simply calls him Baby and that is probably what he is most referred to as around here, period. He will always be the baby. So I guess it's fitting.

Here is an approximate 3 month photo.

And one at 3.5 months

One with Sister

And another

friday.

2010-07-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've been here. I've been choosing which things to spend my time on and which to neglect. Guess which way I went with this blog. I really wish I'd posted at least weekly for my own taxed memory's sake. I'm pretty random anyway with what I've been posting, so I guess it doesn't matter if the timeline or dates are just right.

The thing that's been on my mind most in the past week is Ruby's friend, 3 year old Abby. Her mom is my friend, Kris. I have photographed her kids since they were babies and I also photographed her wedding. A week ago Abby got e.coli and got dehydrated -- her kidneys began to fail and she was diagnosed with HUS. We have been to see her in the hospital and trying to do little things to help Abby feel better as well as help out her mommy and daddy. Ruby has been telling everyone, even at the grocery store, that she has a friend named Abby who's in the hospital because she's sick. Yesterday we went to visit and it was so hard to see someone else's baby, my own baby's age, in so much pain and miserable. We brought baked goodies and meals as well as things to try to help brighten Abby's day. At first Ruby wasn't sure what to say to her lil' buddy that was whimpering on the bed with all the tubes coming out of her from every which way. But finally she got comfortable and sat on the end of Abby's bed and chatted. The girls shared glow in the dark bracelets (we'd had fun at the dollar store buying little things to wrap that Abby could open randomly). They were a hit.

Abby is on the left with the orange bracelet. Ruby is wearing a pink one. Kris posted this on Abby's CaringBridge and I took it from there.

Ruby's also been making a drawing or writing a letter or sending a card every single day to Abby in the hospital. This morning I documented what we have been doing - or at least what we did today.

We had picked flowers previously and Kris said that was the first that Abby had smiled while in the hospital - opening the flowers from Ruby. So Ruby wanted to do it again.

Picking flowers

More picking

The flowers

Proud of the flowers

The card.

Please pray that Abby's kidneys are working correctly soon. It sure puts in perspective how small my problems are.

Happy Friday!

jesse's girl - and boy.

2010-05-21T08:58:00.001-07:00

Roobs (what we call her 99% of the time) is very in tune with tunes and what's on the radio. We were listening to the radio yesterday while daddy was in Radio Shack. The song 'Jesse's Girl' came on the radio. She's usually toe tappin and dancing to music, but I guess being strapped into the carseat makes her do less of that and more paying attention to other things like lyrics.
I heard her thinking out loud. "Jesse's girl? Jesse... "
She said to me, "Hey, mom - that's you! Jesse!"
She paused. "If you're Jesse, then this song is about ME! 'Cause I'm Jesse's Girl!"
--Can't argue with that.

She was running around the other morning. She put on her apron and declared that she was to be called Baker. And I was to be called Maestro. And then she suggested we buy a really big violin. All day she was Baker and corrected me if I called her anything else. She would occasionally call me Mom and then say "Sorry to call you Mom. I mean Maestro."

The other day she was on the phone. Her play Princess phone. She was talking to James, asking him when he'd be home from school. I asked her to pick up a book or something. She SHUSHED me. "Shhh, mommy, I'm ON THE PHONE."

We went shopping at Target and picked up some new hair barettes. She was very excited. I had nothing but a little basket to hold her fun hair stuff. I remember having a fun dolly head to put mine on, and I had bought a cute little dolly purse at a garage sale for $1 and washed it up. I had some yarn on hand not serving any purpose so I had an idea. We did a little crafty hour and made the dolly purse into a hair accessory holder. I didn't take any before pics but I'm sure you can imagine the doll without those long braids.

Emmett is eight weeks. The little man is ridiculously smiley. I do feel bad because he seems to reserve all his smiles for ME. Mommy. While I feel bad for daddy (he gets the cries and fusses when he picks him up) I am relishing this because I know that it's probably temporary and when he learns that daddy is far more fun than mommy that'll change. It's so much fun to have him more interactive rather than a cuddly sleeping little lump. Which I didn't mind either.

Here's a little video clip that I shortened showing his darling face and huge smile. He has dimples like Ruby. Not sure where my kids get dimples. But they're sooo cute.

we have rollover

2010-05-10T15:24:00.001-07:00

Today the little man rolled over. Of course I don't have it on video - although my new camera has video, my point and shoot camera has video, I have a Flip AND we have a regular Sony Handycam. Poor third child. Then when James got home I was doing something in the kitchen and Emmett was lying under the little plaything. James had been down on his hands and knees and cooing and playing with him and startled, said "hey, MOM! He rolled over!" So, he's got it. But he hasn't done it since - although now I'll have to tie him into the bouncy seat like good parents do because he tried to flip over onto his belly in that, too.

He has also figured out how to smile about a week and a half ago- unassisted by gas. It's the real thing, folks. Because I can just coo at him and I get a big whole-faced smile and sometimes even a bonus coo back at me. And this can go on for a while until someone gets bored. It's always him.

A lot of people say he looks "just like daddy"... I don't think he looks a ton like either of us. He does have pretty blue eyes, but so did Ruby at this age - I had to wait a year to find out what color her eyes were REALLY going to be.

I'm uncertain how "big" he is right now as we have yet to go to the dr. Appt will be made this week though. He's comfortably in 0-3m.

Nights are still kind of long, but we are up only twice now usually. I won't complain. He at least doesn't want to stay up and party, just get down to the business of eating, burping (the time consuming part) and go back to sleep. He's up for longer periods during the day, which I love, except for when I have some work that has to get done.

He also holds his head up steadily. Today was the first I really noticed it was a constant thing. Not like 24/7 constant because I assume his neck gets tired, but he is certainly doing a great job of just holding it up and looking around without wavering or losing control.

All three of my babies have been excellent at the physical stuff as small babies. Ruby held her head up so well in the hospital she freaked us out. James rolled over at 3 1/2 weeks. So I knew he would probably hit these milestones soon, just not so soon! Ahhh my baby is growing.

UMTYMP - the beginning

2010-05-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

My kid is officially a college student. I never thought this would happen before he hit puberty. But on Thursday night we went to the UMPTYMP parent orientation at the U. It was from 5-630 pm. (By the way, UMPTYMP stands for University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Program.) I wasn't nervous getting there, because I had myself a handy dandy map that I printed off of the U's website. Let's just say I was on track to be almost 30 minutes early and ended up being 15 minutes late. James was with me and was not happy. He hates being early but hates being late even more.

Anyhow, following the map looked so very easy. But it turned out notsomuch. I got caught up at Seven Corners and ended up on the East bank instead of the West Bank. Or the West instead of East. I was so confused and flustered and it was rush hour -- I couldn't remember. I don't consider myself to be bad with directions but this was ridiculous. Finally I got back on the freeway and took the exit that was labeled the correct Bank. We parked in a public ramp and ended up running like mad across campus, through buildings, over buildings, you name it, asking a student here or there if we were going the right direction to Smith Hall.

The hall was HOT and crowded. And full by the time we got there. And stunk like Doritos. I prefer to think of it as Doritos and not someone's nasty b.o.

Nothing spectacular happened, just a basic info session followed by a question and answer time. In a nutshell, it's a 5 year program. My baby will be doing high school math the first two years and college level the remaining three. One night a week he will have class for two hours, (ON campus, yuck for that drive) and in each class they will cover three weeks of a regular high school math (Algebra to start) class. The idea is that the kids in this program are able to get a concept the first or second time it is introduced, as a regular high school student needs to see it about a dozen times. He will do some online course work. He will do some traditional work. It's going to be a big time commitment on his part and ours.

The majority of the kids beginning the program with him in the fall will be in the 7th grade while some will be starting in 8th grade and a few from 6th (James' grade). He will be the youngest of the group at 11.

After he completes the five years, and assuming he does (grades need to be a B- or above), he will be able to take advantage of other perks from the university including tuition for additional classes for which the University will pay as well as for books, etc.

Whew. I am exhausted thinking about it. This has been in a way, an answer to prayers about how to accommodate him and keep him challenged. Not sure how our crazy.smart.but.very.disorganized.and.a.bit.immature child will do with it, although we have no doubt at all he will be able to do the work. I want to keep him challenged and this seems like a good way, at the same time he is just a baby who's been grade skipped and that rocked his little world for a while. I do think it will be excellent to have him in with his true peers. We'll take it as it goes, I suppose.

terrible terriffic three

2010-05-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Where have I been? Good question. I've been all over the place. Waiting for an extra minute of time to have so I could update my blog. Yeah-huh that's gonna happen. As it is I'm wrestling with a squirmy boy who's got some gas to work out and trying to keep a little girl from destroying my studio. Right now I'm on Emmet's schedule and he doesn't care what I want to do.

Rewind a little I guess. Ruby turned three. In the days leading up to it she would ask "is it my birthday yet?" and she ran around wearing my photography prop birthday hats.
We had two small parties for her. One on her actual birthday. Attendees were mom, dad, James, Emmett and the birthday girl herself. I made some cupcakes and we sang and opened a few gifts. We got her a little camera that works and actually takes some decent pictures. She did not put it down for a looooong time and we had to teach her to stand and hold the camera still or the image would be just a big blur. She also got Candyland, a bat/ball set, and a glove.

The second party was the following Tuesday the 27th. Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie B, Andie, Adam, Jenna and Auntie Kim graced us with their presence. She got the dinosaur cake that she requested. I have photos, lots of them but it'll have to wait for another day. The day that has extra time in it. I think her favorite toy, though, has been the Fisher Price Cool School - it's kept her attention and taught her a ton!

For now, I'm going to make this post more a "Ruby Update" -- her funny sayings and doings and things at this point.

First, on a slightly negative note - still no potty training going on. She is very much into what Baby is doing, and thinks she should be doing that too. i.e. Pooping her pants. I take solace in the fact that she won't go to kindergarten untrained. She has also been quite a handful. I do believe it's a combination of the baby (although it doesn't seem to be jealousy, she just sees him getting attention in a certain way) and being THREE. James was harder at three than two. Not sure why they call them the terrible two's, because frankly both of my kids were quite easy at two.

I digress. Here are some funny things Ruby's come up with lately:

The other day she walked over to Emmett, kissed him on the head, and said "You're a funny looking guy, Otto."

Emmett is a very loud baby. Even when he's sleeping. One day Ruby said to me "Mommy, what's going on with baby? He's squeaking like a rubber ducky!"

I overheard her say to her sippy cup: "Mmmmm... I'm absolutely loving my.... (big pause)... glass of water"

This morning, I told her NO, so she went to Daddy, asked him and followed it with "Mommy is getting on my nerves."

We've had some potty training challenges. Daddy, trying to psyche her out, or be sarcastic (I'm not sure why exactly) - tells her LOVES changing poopy diapers. So one day while I'm changing one, she asks "Mommy, do you love changing poopy diapers?"
"AbSOLUTELY NOT, Ruby!"
"Well, DADDY Do!"

She's been a rockstar at writing and drawing letters - and has been practicing on her Cool School deal she got for her birthday. She was drawing a number 7 and drew it upside down. I told her she had it upside down. "Well then I'll just have to try to do it Upside UP!"

She has an amazing vocabulary and will pick up some crazy words and use them correctly. She does have some interesting pronunciations also.

Computer: Com-pu-du-der
Guitar: Mc-Tar

Her L's are usually either "w" sounds or "y" sounds. But sometimes they're L sounds. Go figure.

marsmallow moustache

2010-04-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

a smart cookie

2010-04-20T17:20:00.001-07:00

Ruby can write her brother's name. She wrote this about the time he was born so a month ago, I have just been slacking at getting it documented. She can also write her own, and she wrote them both on the same paper, but I'll have to dig for that one.

catchup.

2010-04-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

Time flies when you're... mommying. I guess I can also say "having fun". Except for the middle of the night feedings. Those are not fun. But when I think negatively about it, I tell myself this is the last time I'll be doing this stage and it makes me glad and sad all at the same time.

Emmett is growing steadily. I only know this because he is growing out of his preemie and newborn sleepers. He's a really noisy baby. James was noisy and Ruby less so, and Emmett is the loudest baby. Not crying, he seldom cries. But he is a noise factory when he sleeps. He has gone from being up three times a night to eat to two. Hoping it stays that way (and continues to get less) His face is also filling out a bit.. I think that today he is one month old - he was born on the 19th and today is the 19th. I missed where that month went.

As I sit here Ruby is holding her cabbage patch baby, kissing it up, consoling it and saying it's okay. She picks up a letter "P" that is a fridge magnet and pretends it is a bottle and smooshes it into the baby's face. "That's okay, baby. You're welcome for the bottle."
We had just changed both babies' diapers. As I was taking pictures, Emmett was voicing his displeasure that I wasn't on top of getting him taken care of. Ruby said to him "It's okay, Our Baby. We will get your pants changed too."

She is still doing well with having baby around. The only negative is the potty training thing. She thinks diapers are cool right now. Not sure why. And the other thing I guess is that she cries to get what she wants. Which doesn't work, but I know it's because she sees us jump when baby squeaks or cries. Makes sense.

This past weekend was kind of All About Ruby. We only had the two little ones and Floyd decided he wasn't going to work so we took off to the children's museum and then to the MOA. I'd say it was close to a dream day for a nearly three year old.

Planning Ruby's birthday party. Her actual birthday is on the 24th (Saturday) but we are waiting til the following week to do a little party as my parents will be down then. She's requested a Dinosaur themed cake/cupcakes. We'll see what magic Mommy can dig up for that. I have a couple of cute ideas.

what i did today. i.e. superproductivity.

2010-04-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

Today was a day that I would consider SuperProductive considering my circumstances. Nothing crazy major got done, but with a newborn and a toddler and a middle schooler who leaves and then crashes early midday, most anything that gets accomplished can be considered SuperProductive.

This is what I did today.

Made oatmeal for mommy and toddler.
Fed baby.
Washed bottles.
Got all dirty laundry picked up from everywhere
Four loads of laundry, washed/dried/dragged upstairs but not folded.
Bathed baby.
Bathed toddler.
Made lunch.
Put toddler down for nap after reading book.
Fed baby.
Showered. Dressed. Even combed hair.
Sent a few personal emails.
Designed logos for two separate companies.
Responded to 3 photography inquiries via email.
Tweaked website design.
Tweaked website design again.
Fed baby.
Surfed FB a couple times.
Got peed on by baby.
Dressed toddler.
Threatened toddler and boy to stop fighting (x1000) or ELSE
Delivered boy to his dad.
Proofed a few photos.
Texted husband several times.
Fed baby.
Updated blog.

This is all I wanted to do today. Besides get a nap.

to sleep or not to sleep

2010-04-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

I think I've taken two naps since we brought the new guy home thirteen days ago. Yeah, I give some mean "nap when the baby is napping" advice but do I take it? Awe well, I guess there will be time to sleep when my kids are in college.

I've also been slacking in the picture taking (*gasp!*) area. When Ruby was new, there were new pictures and snapshots every day. I have gotten that first, aforementioned photo shoot out of the way and done one since, but I need to have my point and shoot closer at hand. Because this guy is not going to be small for so long.

Another slacker mom list item. Supposed to bring him to his 2 wk appointment. In order to do that I need to MAKE such an appointment. Oh well, Ruby is not up on all her well baby - I think 18 mos or two years was the last? Horrible, horrible. Part of my hesitation is that I have a friend whose son's autism seems linked to getting the regularly scheduled shots, and I want to be more informed before I just get the ones on the roster. I better get on that. I do plan to delay, just not sure how. Scares me!

Another good example of slacker-mom-itis? My housework - but thankfully my husband has been in and out to get dishes and such done. I loooooooove him. The laundry, well, that would fall into the same category.

What else do I need to do since I'm listing this stuff? I want/need to get Ruby into some sort of gymnastics or music or figure skating, etc. program. I am opposed to dance classes right now - just because I see how they cake that makeup on those little girls. Not a fan. I know she would get a kick out of the costumes and whatnot. We'll find her an outlet. Even if it is just something through the community center or ECFE.

Also need to (finish) potty training Ruby. She's gone downhill and we've let it go - because of lack of energy and follow through. I don't have a ton of concern here, she is a pretty independent and self motivated kid, so I think we will be fine once we keep it up. I am really tired, however, of changing the ultimate in poopy stinky diapers. Eeeeee!

All in all, life is grand. Emmett (Otto as Ruby calls him) is not sleeping much at night, but I go to bed fully prepared to be awakened SOON. For I know this stage will go by in a blink - two weeks already has!!

emmett

2010-03-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

Finally, he's here.

Emmett Otto Roy
March 19, 2010
weighing in at a whopping 6 lbs 10 oz

The past week and a half have been a bit of a blur, of course... but all went wonderfully. Better than I expected.

Grandma and grandpa M were here for his birth/right after, and Grandma spent several days with us being extremely helpful and wonderful.

James and Ruby both adore him - what's not to love? And there are no jealousy issues - keeping fingers crossed that that continues.

We did spend the following weekend up north so that the extended family could get a peek at him.

And he's had his first official photo shoot.

really, already?

2010-03-17T10:48:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow I have a morning appointment. Then assuming we don't "go" by 8 pm tomorrow night, we are getting ourselves checked into the hospital. Arrangements have been made for James and school, for Ruby should we need it before my parents arrive tomorrow (thanks a gazillion, Andie!) and bags are packed (from our last week trip into L&D).

On or before Friday morning we shall hold our newest family member. Woah. It has all gone so fast.

We were on our way to Target to buy a few necessities the other night. It hit me that we probably should have a gift or something from baby to Ruby. You know, to weaken the blow and as a peace offering ;) Floyd suggested a dolly. I vetoed that because, well, I really don't want another doll/stuffed animal/etc laying around my house for me to pick up. What does she like? Hmmmm. She loooooooves music. So how about her own little CD player? Yes, an excellent idea. Floyd didn't want to "just" get her a CD player, after all we're not in the Dark Ages anymore. We had to get her an mp3 player :) So here I sit, simultaneously ripping a few kiddie CDs into mp3s and loading on her brand new Hello Kitty mp3 player. It was very, very reasonable considering what other mp3 players/iPods cost. Hopefully it lasts a while. We also got a cute little speaker that plugs into the headphone jack.

I think she'll think it's groovy. All I need to do is finish loading the music, put it back in the package, wrap it up and put it with our hospital stuff.

Hospital stuff... you'd think I'd know what to bring by now. Ha, ha!

She also pretends that her Tinkerbelle phone can take pictures. She needs to have this phone with her most of the time. Terrible parental influence on that one.

James went to the Wild game last night with his dad. He got to sleep in this morning and even skip school. Cuz we're cool parents like that.

Yesterday he came home from school and didn't even make it into the house. He plopped himself down in the driveway and read a book.

Next blog post, probably post baby. We'll see.

03.16.1999

2010-03-16T04:54:00.001-07:00

That's the date my firstborn entered the world. Wow. Excuse me a moment while I tear up.... and get all sappy. When I got pregnant with him, I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea what wonderful, surprising, exhausting, challenging, marvelous things were in store for me. I had no idea that he'd be obsessed with trains, sharks, space. I wouldn't have guessed he'd be a math genius. I would not have believed that I would actually cry at his hockey games. I had no idea he'd be good at just about anything he tries. I wouldn't have thought he'd be such a challenge at times. I couldn't have imagined the rewards. I certainly had no idea how my heart would grow a million times over. I could never imagine how fast time would fly, how much and how quickly he would GROW. I would never have guessed by ten years old his feet would be exactly the same size as mine.

Today my 'baby' is eleven. Two ones. What in the world!

Over the weekend my parents come down to celebrate with him (us). We went bowling, to the arcade at the bowling alley, out to lunch, came home for cake and ice cream and presents and overall had a very nice time.

He wasn't loving the first game of bowling because he kept gutterballing it. He even pouted some. Ah, my competitive boy. Ruby was happy to line up her little kitties and watch.

The second game he figured it out and got two strikes in a row. This one ended up to be a strike.

He's the luckiest kid around, usually...

Some teenager gave him extra ticket points.

Ruby really got into the shooting game.

Actually, everyone did.

When we went home, we had cake and ice cream. He was impressed with the cake - I tried to make a math cake that had equations that equaled 11.

Figuring the only "hard" equation out...

From my parents, he got the ever so cool Wild quilt, a couple of games, oh my there's a whole long list.

We got him a skateboard. He's more excited about it (I think) than shows in this photo...

Ruby loved the cake. Well more like she loved the fondant and the icing. She was certainly sugared up for the day and combined with no nap... wheeeee!

Today after school his dad is taking him to the Wild game. It'll be his second Wild game this week. Like I said, lucky kid. And I'm lucky to have him.

Happy birthday, Boo. Jiminy. Bud. James I love you. We love you.

2010-03-12T06:33:00.001-08:00

The baby's room - I'm stuck. What color to paint the walls?

Floyd has told me that the baby will be just as happy to have James' old sharks swimming around as anything. I would leave it but 1) the blues don't quite match and 2) The paint really, REALLY has taken a beating and needs freshening anyway. It WOULD work, because the baby's room will be a lil' surfer dude theme. Here is what James' room looked like put together with sharks:

I have the baby's quilt designed and handed over to Grandma again to put together. It's got so many colors, and that's part of my problem. I have a sketch/rough draft of it but not going to post it on here because it is so rough that it really doesn't look like what the final quilt will - much.

Here are the colors in the fabrics. Too many options.

I will say, the colors that are my faves are the greens, oranges, and blues... still isn't helpful for me though.

Argh. Make a decision!

I am baking James' birthday cake today. He has been on 'spring break' since Wed. and today he is off to his Math Masters competition until this afternoon. I've got some inspiration and pray that I can pull it off.

Also trying to get my house put together and cleaned up a bit for my parents as they are coming down for the weekend.

false alarms and evictions

2010-03-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

My last doc appt was pretty uneventful, routine. It was last Thursday. He asked, "Having much for contractions?"
"Nope."
Ok, then, carry on... and we parted ways.

And literally, no sooner than I had pulled out of the parking lot at the clinic - guess what. BH to the max. And they didn't / haven't stopped. They went all through the weekend and just ramped up in severity. In fact, on Tuesday they were so bad all day, unprovoked (I sat around most of the day), that Tuesday night we went into L&D. I was in so much pain I was very near throwing up. But my cervix didn't change and we came home. Ruby's story is similar. Contractions constantly, causing me not to sleep for a week and a half.

So today, a week later... we've scheduled the induction for next Thursday night, with a baby birthday of Friday the 19th. That should ensure he comes before then. Or not.

James is adament that it does NOT happen on his birthday. Any bets that's the day it happens?

organizing fool

2010-03-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

Oh so much has gone on in my house in the last couple of weeks. Changes. For the better. Wow. Not only purging but organizing. Now I know some people are usually organized and some may even have their houses in order. That is seldom me. But slowly, I'm actually combing through areas in my house that are screaming at me to do something about them and wow what a difference! This is the most recent spot... but there are countless areas that have been upturned and made so much better. I love walking into Ruby's room right now. I love walking into any room that feels so calm and clean...

The letters were an afterthought, I was covering the ugly pressboard bookcase end with some colorful paper and thought - hey I have these things floating around... so why not put them up. She is tickled that they're there.

I'm feeling much more ready for the baby to come. Like, today if he wanted to. Over the weekend I had some crazy contractions but I knew better than to get all excited because that's what Ruby did to me too. Today they're there, constant, but much more mild.

I also have all the appliques done for mom to work on the baby quilt. That is also exciting because it brings me to wonder - hmmm what color should I do those walls? :)

I get to see James' quilt tomorrow - he doesn't get it til the weekend when we celebrate his birthday, but I MAY throw it on his bed and take a few pics. I am soooooo excited, my mom said people are offering to buy it and want to order them it's so cool... she said she laughs because it was "sort of" a time consuming quilt.

All in all, I'm just excited. I feel good. And it's even Monday :)

on james

2010-03-04T08:42:00.000-08:00

I feel like this is a duplicate themed post. If so, well then I'm sure SOME of it is different. :)

I feel like I'm always ON JAMES. Meaning, telling him do this, do that, etc. and expecting so much out of him. I always have to step back and say, "he IS only ten. What was I doing at 10?" I sure didn't have the schedule or expectations and things he has.

Sixth grade was a bit rocky, leveled off, and continues to be a bit up and down. We've got conferences at 7 am today. He still has issues with organization, although that's much better than before. His grades at midterm were not impressive. This is not because he doesn't know or learn the material. On the contrary, he aces tests and knows all of the material within seconds of being given the concept. His problem is that he doesn't see the point in the details - i.e. actually doing the assignments AND TURNING THEM IN. That last part is the stickler. Now, I can completely relate to what he's thinking with this. If you know it, why spend more time on it -- move on. But grading doesn't just take into account how you do on the test. We have been trying to help him on that idea. Telling him that sometimes in life, in work, in school, in everything we do things just because we have to. What else do you say? The importance of the actual assignment is very small, and to tell him it is important is kind of a lie. The gifted and talented people have told us that it's just fine to tell him sometimes we just push through and do things we don't want to do. It's frustrating because he really, really doesn't seem to care if he gets the "details" taken care of. In math, he knows how he gets to the answer, whether he can explain it on paper or not. But this year for the first time in math he's having to show all of his work.

He is testing this upcoming Saturday for college Algebra courses at the U of M. It's called the UMPTYUM program, and if he gets in we will have one night a week of two hour classes at the U. Now I don't relish the whole idea of driving all that way, but we really want to make sure we nurture this math thing he loves so much.

He's not loving the hockey season, mainly because there are some little, um, brats on his team. Some of the kids are really disrespectful and downright mean (not to James in particular, to each other in general). There are many "stars" on there who are all about themselves and selfish with the puck. He is not thrilled with his coach, who seems to yell more than teach. He's just disillusioned this year and I feel bad, because he sure does love his hockey. He is hoping to be in a 3 on 3 league which will be much lighter. Provided the aforementioned grades are in the process of being taken care of.

He is also anxiously awaiting Golf this summer. A light hockey schedule combined with this Golf (which will be through MNjrPGA) is all I think I can handle. Last year was TOO MUCH HOCKEY, period.

His birthday is also coming up, and I can't believe I have an eleven year old. We'll celebrate on Saturday evening the 13th.

just because et cetera

2010-03-03T08:24:00.001-08:00

I'm posting this just because it's so cute.

Today Ruby slept in until after 9. It was the cutest thing, I peeked my head in her room and she was singing to herself. I wish I had a video camera. Then when she noticed me, she said "Good morning, mommy. The sun woke me up today" with a big grin. Then she wanted hugs. Many mornings she wakes up yelling "Moooooooooom! I want water! or "Mooooooooommmmmmmy, I peed in my pants!" - so this was a wonderful start to our day. We read a few books and I didn't want it to end. It made me a little misty because I know our days as just the two of us hanging out are numbered. Ok, there I go again. Teary.

Why does my body insist that I am up and ready to go when she is snoring away? I for the life of me cannot sleep in. Not that I really have the option. I need to get my boys up by 6 and send them off around 7... then if she's sleeping I have the option to go back to bed for a few but I guess maybe my body is preparing me for baby and thinking I should be awake. Thanks a lot, mother nature/hormones, whatever it is. The last two nights I did sleep, I think. I don't remember getting up to pee.

Today and yesterday I have been nauseus beyond belief and a little achy. It doesn't feel like a flu or anything... I was reading that it could be my body's way of preparing for baby also. Great. I need a couple of weeks yet, so this preparation could hold off for a bit.

Baby's room update: There really isn't one, except in my mind. I decided this morning (much to my husband's delight, haha!) that I might want to start on it. I'd previously said that I would probably hold off. I've got a teeny bit of inspiration, so I might go with it. There are only 9,624 other things that really should be done around this house.

Baby's name: Still up for discussion.

Baby's position: He is head down, ready to head out. Right now he has hiccups for the third time today. It's 1030 am. Oy, it has to be my least favorite thing about baby movements. I would rather have him rack my ribs and beat up my insides. Which he does plenty of.

We still need to get a carseat. I recently heard that a seat is only good for six years and then the plastic starts to "break down". Just another way to get you to buy more crap. The infant seat so far is the only thing we may have to buy. We don't have the money for it but it could be worse, we could need more crap. We are doing a minimal crap theme this time around. Baby gear is nice, but thinking back to how much gear I have had in the past and how much actually got used, due to things like remembering we had them, liking them, baby's preference... much of it was wasted money. Min.I.mize.

curly

2010-03-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

I don't know where Ruby gets her curly hair. The only thing I can think of is I've seen pictures of my mom and aunts when their hair was chopped as little girls... their hair was very curly. Otherwise, Floyd's is stick straight and mine has some annoying wave under the straight.

See how long it is when I comb it straight -

And then it wants to go to this - love it!

This was posted on my facebook, but for blogumentation purposes, going to put it here again. I may have my husband take some better ones of me this weekend, but for now, this is what I have. I set the timer and Ruby randomly walked by pushing her dolly stroller. I think I was actually saying "Ruby, wait a second, stop." ...

I can lessen the guilt that this baby will have less documentation than the last. Although there are maybe two known photos of me wearing something hideous when I was pregnant with James. I did gain almost 70 pounds with him so I was not anxious to be in front of the camera.

This is a busy week, wrapping up my photo shoots and burning disks. I'm thinking I'm not taking any more appointments until the baby is born pretty much only because of my mobility. I look quite awkward I'm sure and it's so very hard to get up and down on my hands and knees let alone on a stool once in a while.

comparison revised

2010-02-28T13:51:00.001-08:00

It was pointed out (thanks Mandy!) that I am not in fact 35 yet. I'm still 34. Woah, I'm a little off with everything I guess.

Here is the pregnancy comparison with corrections as well as a couple of new items added...

comparison

2010-02-26T13:40:00.001-08:00

I decided to write up a little comparison on my three pregnancies. It's kind of a neat thing to look back on and remember... I know I'm forgetting some fun things that would be nice to document... but these days I'm lucky to have this long of a list!

Now, the labors and such - a whole different chart :)

I may add to it - I haven't done much in the way of documenting... so this is good for me.

Had a dr. appt today - baby's head down and ready, cervix closed. He knows I'm not ready! I told Floyd that in about a week and a half from now is when we had Ruby!

Needless to say it will be another productive weekend.

where to start

2010-02-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

Before the weekend, I had no idea where to start with any of the bazillion things I felt needed to be done. But during the weekend I found a bit of focus and we got a lot accomplished. Now instead of a bazillion, there are three quarters of a bazillion things to get done.

Friday night James was supposed to have a game. He came home from school with a fever of 104. So instead of hockey we went to the minute clinic. No strep, but he was miserable with something viral for a while. And because he was sick, no going to his dad's... since Jody (stepmom) is undergoing chemo her immune system is compromised. So we hung out here. Saturday he convinced me he was better and his temp had dropped to 99.3 when I gave in and let him play at his game. His skating was a little sluggish and I knew he wasn't 100% but he was pretty persistent and I figured he knew better how he felt than I did.

Floyd got shelves up in what is the 'closet' area of James' room. We also figured out how to put his lamp together. Building anything with three hockey sticks and getting it to work out - a challenge! Here's what it looks like:

I have many, many details I want to add to the room, but all in good time. I'll just have to update as I go because I'll be in and out of there. I need help with a few of the projects, and since it's once again the week my husband is no longer hostage to my demands :)

I spent a good portion of the day on Saturday cleaning out James' old/baby's new closet. It contained four large boxes which hadn't been opened since we moved from Albertville (going on 6 years ago?) as well as two bookshelves full of books. Books were sorted into big kid/little kid and throwaway... man it felt good! I threw away a lot of the stuff in the boxes. In fact, I threw away MOST everything in those boxes (don't tell my mom!) except a Sit 'n Spin that was James'. Ruby LOVES that thing and has probably logged no less than six solid hours on it since Saturday. The junk went to the trash and the spare bed from Ruby's room went into the baby's new room. So now she's got a ton of room and I get to decide how to make her room more friendly for her to actually play in there. Before it was just a jumble of EVERYTHING, with a full size bed, toddler bed, her lovely but monster kitchen, bookshelf, etc etc etc.

Have I mentioned how I love my husband??

Sunday James had another game. He skated harder - and felt much better. He still has a cough and complains his throat hurts a bit but overall is doing well.

Over the weekend I also had three photo shoots... a six month old boy, a one year girl and a family of three. It was exhausting in my condition - but fun.

Today I'm trying to get proofing done... Ruby's down for a nap so I figured I'd update this in the midst of the photo proofing. There is never enough time. A bit ago she was entertaining herself here in the office/studio with a balloon and then playing in the 'dress up' stuff I've got all over.

spoiled much?

2010-02-17T12:07:00.000-08:00

This is what I've got packed up to get rid of. It's all Ruby clothes. It isn't even shoes, or winter stuff... ahhhh! I do have a fellow hockey mom who's going to go through it but I know I'm not going to want it back... it was hard enough to put it all in boxes and think that it is going to be goodbye.

aimless and frustrating

2010-02-15T12:51:00.000-08:00

Today I wandered around my house aimlessly wondering what to even do next. Honestly, I haven't a clue. Well, I know what needs to be done, but when I think about it all it overwhelms me so much I actually get physically tired. I know, I know. Focus on one room, etc. Well, the problem is that things from every room are getting moved to another home. That brings every room into play at the same time. The only two rooms unaffected in the whole house (which has recently become a 5 br house!!) are the bathrooms. And speaking of bathrooms, we have another to build. EEEeeeeeEEeeeeeeeee!

My biggest problem (pun intended now that I think about it) is that I cannot physically do everything I want. I am BIG. I can't bend over well. I can't move furniture. That's the biggest thing. So I stare at it. And wish it weren't there and in its final resting spot. Of course that only causes more frustration because I'm not able to move things with my mind. I just feel a little panicky and I know it's nesting/hormones/etc etc etc but that does NOT help my state of mind right now.

I'm not feeling prepared for this little boy whose arrival is imminent in about a month or so. I have really nothing. Well, we have a crib and that's good, the kid will have somewhere to sleep. I got rid of most everything because I wanted it OUT. Decorating his room may be what I let go of in order to begin to keep my sanity. Although that is something I was very, very much looking forward to.

On top of it today, Ruby is still in the throwes of potty training. Which is good and fine, if that's what I had to focus on. But so far today she's pooped on Hello Kitty and peed on another Hello Kitty. So far we are good with Tinkerbelle, but she should be warned, being a princess-y fairy hasn't helped the former victims.

James is also home today. Which should or COULD be a help, but it may in fact be the opposite. He fights with his sister as much as if they were a couple of years apart. I feel like I'm yelling at my kids all the time. And that is just adding to my frustration.

It's Monday.

I'm closing my eyes and envisioning that I am here....

it's a hallmark/dollar store/target holiday

2010-02-14T09:14:00.001-08:00

We can always count on Grandma to send a package full of, ahem, goodies, for every holiday. Princesses get "glass slippers" to tap dance in for Valentine's day. I'm sure my hardwoods are loving it.

And Prince Charming got a Rubik's cube ball - he got frustrated with it right away. But he's come back to it a couple of times to see if he can get it worked out.

And alas, he's discovered girls. Or at least started thinking about them. Last night he said, kind of out of the blue "There are a lot of mysteries in girls I wish I knew." I was surprised to hear that he'd been contemplating girls, period. "Like what?" ---

"Well, like they're always in clumps of three or four and always giggling and snickering. And have you seen that commercial for jewelry where the girl puts her leg up when they hug? Why do girls do that?"

Hoo boy.

the room, progress report #1

2010-02-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

I was going to do a nice long post with progressive photos. Since I haven't the energy, and my photos are spread between my iPhone, point and shoot camera, and my big camera, that just sounds like an awful lot of work.

Floyd's been working on building the room for a while. I won't even try to put dates. I've been dying for him to finish the mudding and sanding so that I can get my hands on it and paint, and that has happened none too soon because today I finished MY physical part of it, which was crawling around on the floor adding "skate scuff" details to the floor with white paint.

I highly endorse Scotch Blue Painter's tape from 3M. Especially the stuff for delicate surfaces. I had Floyd get me some rolls as samples, because he could, and because the stuff is $9 a roll at the House of Orange! Silly. Anyhow, all of it has been too long a process for me because if you know me at all, I like to finish a project in a day. Ha ha. I came up with the brilliant plan to make it mimic the stripes on the Wild jerseys and as you can imagine, that did not take a day. Or two, or four. That's a lot of measuring, taping, painting, untaping, taping again, painting again... yeah I think I'm conveying the idea pretty well. I'm glad I chose to use a real gold color rather than the yellow gold the Wild have spec'd for their colors, because it looks so much more classy.

If you've painted with red you know that you can't get away with one coat. Or two. Yeah. The stripes weren't so bad but that logo was a killer. I did enjoy doing the logo though and while I struggled with placement and size, I think it's not too big or too small so I'm happy.

Wednesday night I painted the center faceoff circle on the floor, two face off dots and one blue line. The colors (red and blue) looked too stark and bright so I kind of whitewashed the whole thing and added the ice gouges. I'm pleased with the way it's come along although the floor was as much work as the walls.

I wish my husband had more time because I don't feel comfortable tackling the trim myself... oh well it's likely that the kid will be moved in and living in there for a while before the trim gets up.

My other plans include making a few different "props" or maybe accessories is a better word out of a bunch of hockey sticks that I have. I also have a bunch of pucks to incorporate into the room.

Here are a couple of photos. I'm excited to get the furniture in and the quilt that my mom's working on --- that won't come until next month as it's a birthday present for him, but I'm soooo excited to see what it looks like all together.

I'm contemplating doing a big silhouette of a player on that wall that has the faceoff circle... have other things that are going to take priority though.

To the left in these shots is a huge window, and around the little corner to the right is the door to get into the room. I'm standing in what is kind of the closet taking the pictures.

say what!?

2010-02-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Ruby and I like to be crafty. Today she made a "flower" out of a red pipe cleaner.

She brought it over to me. "Smell it". I did.

SMELL IT.

I smelled it again.

Smell it louder.

She wanted to make sure I gave it my all with a nice, loud sniff.

These are the moments.

movin' on up

2010-02-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

Last night James and three of his Squirt teammates were chosen to skate with the Varsity players at/before their game. Really there wasn't much skating involved, but he was pumped as all get out and thought he was pretty hot stuff. They announced his name with the starting lineup and he stood there in line while they played the anthem.

The varsity boys got whomped, but oh well. It was fun to see a more fast paced game but not as fun to see the checking and fights (yes, there were two fights!) with the fact in mind that he will be allowed to check NEXT YEAR. Hoo boy I'm not looking forward to that...

Waiting to go on the ice...

more waiting...

High fives to the varsity players after they called his name...

National Anthem

All smiles coming off the ice

Can't forget to mention the other piece of our family got home today. She's as sassy as ever and despite getting up at 5 for the drive down she's refused to nap. She does love James' new room as it's empty and echoes, she's been dancing in there for an hour. I'll try to catch a picture of that. She stops when I come near with a camera.

haaaaapppyy biiiiiirrrthdaaaaaayyy

2010-02-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

Today is my husband's, uhm, thirty-somethingish birthday. Happy birthday, hon. We love you!

Here are two of my favorite pics of him. What a cutie patootie.

I was going to do something special, like take him out - but I realized we had zero in our account. So we got a couple of movies and I made some chili. Sounds romantic right? I did take him out to James' hockey game on Saturday.

Our weekend was very, very productive. I feel soo good about the progress on James' room and hoping to move him in next weekend - if not sooner.

Oh, and who was betting on the retainer? It made it....... drumroll please.....

..........

.........

.............

.................

................

.............

..........

five

whole

days.

Appointment tomorrow to get a new one molded. He will have it on a string this time if I have my way. That stuff ain't cheap!

2010-02-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

I just can't open this blog without smiling. Aren't those chocolate eyes on that sweet face just to die for?

We're taking a little break from that sweet face (or she is taking a break from us) as she's staying a few days at Grandma and Grandpa's house. She'll be home soon, and I should be running around cleaning and such, but all in due time. It will just go back that way is what I'm telling myself. And my bending over is so limited - I make a ridiculously loud grunt whenever I have to. Ruby's having a grand time at the grandparents', and Grandma is insisting that she finish up potty training NOW. So I expect that we'll have a fully trained (vs. about 2/3 trained) girl on our hands in a couple of days.

We (we meaning my wonderful, sweet, loving husband, primarily) have made great headway on James' room. The walls are painted, the stripes are almost done on the walls, the floor is primed and painted with its first coat, and we are headed to the great HD to get something for the floor trim. I'm hoping to make the floor look like a rink. I have a long list of things that need to be done yet... but it feels good to be getting somewhere. REALLY good. I'm very impatient, though, and I hate waiting for paint to dry. I have taken photos, but I will probably just do a progressive post with photos chronologically.

Floyd and I went to see Avatar. Our first movie in ages together. It was pretty good, although I had to leave twice to pee and had to take my blood glucose numbers about halfway through by the light of my iPhone.

And because I think pictureless posts are boring, here are a couple of shots of Ruby a couple of weeks ago, when I was moving my office into the studio. She made herself at home on this shelf with her MagnaDoodle. She recently started putting glasses on her people. Pretty cute ifIdosaysomyself.

glucose and grandma's

2010-02-05T07:09:00.001-08:00

A week ago today I found out I didn't pass the 3 hour glucose testing. Here's what happens for anyone unfamiliar. They give you the same wonderful uncarbonated orange syrup to drink as the one hour test. You get four blood draws during this time and each draw is tested for glucose levels. Their baseline is 130 and on one of these draws it was a bit high. So they sent me in to see the hospital's nutritionist.

The nutritionist was a nice lady, probably sixty-ish. What struck me most about her is that she ended most sentences with "and stuff." Which started to drive me crazy. Anyhow, she shows me my numbers from the 3 hour gluc test, we talk about the food pyramid (and stuff) - and portions, sugars, etc. Then she gives me a meter to check my blood glucose four times a day, a prick on the finger. Crap. So now I'm watching what I eat and watching the clock. I've been doing this since Monday. So far I have been well below the 120 they are asking of me (in the 80s mostly). I'm thinking that judging by the numbers I'm getting it's a little bogus that I'm having to do it, but it's made me think of all the crap I have consumed and how it affects my blood sugar. I have an appointment with my regular doc and we'll see what happens next. Here's what the glucose meter ensemble I have looks like:

I don't know how diabetics do it. After just a few days I've run out of fingers and places to poke.

Trying to look on the bright side... I guess I should be thankful I'm not classified as a "geriatric pregnancy" yet, right?

I had plans to go up to my mom's with the kids on Tuesday morning and return Thursday. Monday night on the way to hockey the Tahoe started making a really loud, fun scraping/grinding noise. Long story short, a wheel bearing went out and we had AAA tow it to our house. Floyd's cousin Chad who lives about 35 min away is an awesome mechanic and fixed it the next day. Oh what a load off my mind. The kids and I still went up, we just took the car instead.

Once up north, we made great headway on The Quilt for James' new room. I got all of the fabrics picked out and graphics cut out. I'm so very excited to see how it will look all put together. The paint (base coat) is almost done in his room and then I'll get to the fun stuff - the details.

This is the only photo I took while up north:

chest

2010-02-02T15:00:00.000-08:00

James started playing chess when he was four or five years old. He used to call it "Chest". I believe it was Floyd who introduced it to him. Anyhow, he has loved to play since, although he has a hard time sometimes finding somebody to play with him. He's tried to teach me twice and my eyes cross. I make him write down the pieces and everything they can do - I also drive him nuts because when it's my turn I always ask "what would YOU do if it were your turn?" - He still asks me to play though so he must really be that desperate for a partner.

I digress.

This past Saturday the 30th we had a hockey break and got to go to his first chess tourney. It was in St Cloud/Waite Park. He was in his element.

They were to play I think 8 rounds of chess. When they got to the 6th round their computers BOTH "went down" and they weren't able for some reason to play those last two rounds. Whatever. He ended up in 14th place out of 48 kids. I was a little worried because the first round some kid beat him in I think two moves. And he doesn't particularly take losing well. But he was geeked most of the day, running around and talking to kids and comparing notes - he learned a "4-move kill" I think he called it, which really excited him.

I'm kicking myself I didn't bring a real camera, but the 'ol iPhone always works in a pinch. They frowned on flash photography, which made us giggle because, really? At any other sporting event you can use your flash. Whatever. I didn't have that option anyway.

This is how Ruby spent most of her day, although we did take a little lunch break and go get some veggies to snack on.

This morning I sent a note to his Math teacher (who's also sort of his 'advisor') asking what it would take to get a Chess Club started in school. She thought that was a great idea and said she'd look into it.

something to smile about

2010-02-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

After last appointment's disappointing outcome (they mistakenly scheduled him for a 20 minute appointment instead of an hour), James finally got his hour appointment and his braces off today. I really felt for him, it was a bit of an ordeal. Not only did the braces come off, but three baby teeth came out with the expander - they'd had nowhere to go with the trays on them... so they were free!

Before - the handsome boy with the braces.

The day he got them - Sept 18, 2007: just a baby at 8 years old!

After - the handsome boy without the braces.

How much does the tooth fairy leave a ten year old with three teeth at once in an expander? This is kind of a gross photo, but then again, this blog is for documenting our lives and this is what happened today :)

We'll see how long the new retainer goes without getting broken or misplaced...

The other thing he has to smile about today is the I didn't take him back to school after his appointment. He "got" to come to my gestational diabetes consult and keep an eye on Ruby. Judging from the way they interacted in the car I was dreading it - but they were perfect angels and sat and played blocks for an hour.

The smiles continue as he gets to skip school Tuesday through Thursday to go up to Grandma's for a couple of days with me and Ruby. What a cool mom am I!

nice.

2010-01-29T13:22:00.000-08:00

What will I miss when my kids go to college?
Probably not a snow chunk the size of Ruby in my entryway.

for documentation's sake

2010-01-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

The Monster Belly at 31 weeks (last week). By the time the third baby rolls around I guess your body likes to do things faster. Let's hope that we plateau here.

I obviously haven't documented this pregnancy because my last post from the last time I blogged was back in May. Let me summarize:

Got pregnant as soon as we started trying.
Was outrageously sick for twenty solid weeks.
Popped out immediately. Thighs and butt have done their part in the growing and have long grown out of anything that says "S".
Secretly (0r not so secretly) hoped for a pink bundle. Found out it was most definitely blue.
Been at zero energy level since the beginning. Still waiting for nesting to kick in.
Baby definitely has energy. He has been a mover and shaker, I've felt him strongly since around week 15. He has not stopped moving since, I swear. And it hurts most of the time. He likes to keep me up from around 9 pm - 3 am.
Had issues with dizziness but cleared most of it up with iron supplements
Having issues with breathing. Wish the kid would drop some. I am out of breath just thinking about moving
Changed doctors involuntarily because my NMW is on an "indefinite leave of absence."
Gained 40 lbs to date (ouch!) - Hoping it comes off as easily as with the other two
Struggled with boys' names. (Still struggling)

the ruby show

2010-01-23T14:00:00.000-08:00

While this blog is named for her, and has her picture smeared across it, it's obviously not all about her.

But in her little mind, EVERYTHING is about her.

A couple of weeks ago, she entered my office wearing nothing but her boots and a smile and threw out her arms and announced, "Welcome to the Ruby Show!"

She still adores all things pretty, princess-y, and pink. Recently I heard her say this: "*Gasp*! It's twelve o'clock. I must go!" I came home the other night and found her in this getup... pig pajamas, a red tutu, butterfly wings, and a big fat flower on her headband.

The love of shoes also continues. Shoes are not only for feet, but hands too (pretending she's a puppy or kitty....?) - and Shoes Must Be Worn at All Times. It doesn't matter if they're your own shoes.

Just yesterday she told me she was a doctor. "What do doctors do?" I asked her. "I dunno. Eat."

She knows all of her letters (uppercase and lowercase) - and can spell a few words. She can even write most of the letters. She also identifies numbers and can to twenty, sometimes skipping 5. Not sure why 5 is shunned, but she seems to do it on purpose. She also knows her colors and shapes. She spotted a stop sign the other day and she said - "look! A red octagon!" She's known colors for as long as she could talk - which was well before she was two.

She is the goofiest kid. She asks us to 'read books with me' - but her version is not to sit and listen while you read, instead bring out a book for each of us and we read our own. Usually she likes to actually narrate her own book while you are reading aloud.

Last week we took her to see Sesame Street Live. She was so very excited, and when Big Bird walked out on stage, she stood up, waved her hands and yelled "Hi, Big Bird! Up here! Big Bird, hi!" Terrible, but I didn't take a single picture there.

Recently there was an opera on TPT. She was mesmerized. She would watch intently, then give it a whirl herself. Check out the vibrato. I'd even bet she's singing in Italian :) Oh, and she's not vain at ALL... she is looking at herself in a mirror.

We've been working on the potty training. For a while we tried it on the Big potty. Then we got a little potty for the floor. She picked it out and it's been much more promising. But when we moved to the princess panties, not so great. Apparently she doesn't care if she tinkles on Ariel or poops on Cinderella.

We've been talking about the baby. But I'm pretty sure she doesn't quite get it. I bought a couple of books and hope they will be helpful. She definitely has opinions on what his name should be.

Today she 'made her own sandwich' (pronounced sammich in Ruby-ese). This means she pulled a chair up to the counter, broke into the bread and smooshed two pieces together and ate it. I guess she is proving she is self sufficient. Either that or she doesn't get fed enough. I like to think it's the first and that we could just skip finding a sitter and go out.

so much to do.

2010-01-21T08:25:00.001-08:00

James will be eleven in March. Then sometime after that (I'm thinking not long after, and definitely before the end of March) we'll have another birth to celebrate. Then Ruby will be three in April. Who planned all these spring babies?

While my husband has been working on James' room downstairs (where he is excited to move, I think it's mostly because he thinks he'll be away from his annoying sister), I have been thinking of getting ready for these birthdays as well as decorating a big boy's room and re-decorating for a baby boy.

When I asked James what he wanted for his birthday, he said, "A new hockey quilt from Grandma." Easy enough. That helps with his bedroom decor ideas. I asked if he wanted a hockey room. He said yes, please. And he suggested we do a MN Wild theme. Great! This is awesome from my indecisive kid who really doesn't care what people get him for his birthday or any other occasion - he is happy with literally anything. So, the paint is purchased and as soon as the mud is smoothed over the sheetrock and the walls are primed, game on.

My mom wanted help with what to do with his quilt. So I got a bit of inspiration from PB Teen and designed a quilt in Illustrator that he will be thrilled with. Doing this also makes grandma ecstatic because she 1) never knows what to get for him and 2) loves to quilt. The design is very simple with some applique work... I have to get up to my mom's quilt shop to pick out simple fabrics and my aunt owns a quilting machine and I have some ideas on how to quilt some cool patterns. I like the un-busy-ness of it. I'm not stuck on the colors but I think that with the way his room will be painted, it won't fight with the walls. The final product I expect to be oh-so-much-cooler. I have a dozen or so used hockey sticks and some old pucks that I am going to use in the room redecoration. I'm actually quite excited to get my hands on this project.

Then I can be on to the baby's room decorating ideas. I will once again hit up Grandma for the quilt and sewing.... just have to settle on what in the world to do with the ideas that are swarming in my brain!

inspired

2010-01-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

I was recently inspired to come back to this blog. Thank you, Andie. I really am losing track of what's going on from day to day as it's becoming a blur and I just really despise that feeling. Looks like I've been away since Mother's Day '09.

So, here we go. I read some of this blog to see some of the stuff we'd been doing last year. Lots of things are the same but many are different. The biggest difference this year is my size. Specifically the size of my belly. Our very last little family member will be joining us at the end of March (I'm already hoping it's a bit - or a lot - sooner), baby boy, or Guido, as daddy calls him.

Things that are the same: my Ruby is just as sweet and sassy as ever. She is the cyclone that helps make my world go round and on which I blame the majority of the messes around here. She is amazingly articulate and part of the reason for returning to this blog is to document that. I have to write this stuff down, because it is priceless. James is great, this has been a year of huge transition for him as he's battling middle school and while it was a rough start when it comes to organization with six different classes to go to, he seems to have it much more under control. He's in his - hmmm - can it be sixth? - year of hockey. He's always full of jokes and riddles and wants you to listen to a "funny Garfield" or test you with a math problem. He recently read the Harry Potter series with such amazing speed that I thought he had to be faking, but he takes AR tests on them and his comprehension is definitely there. He started the big, fat one (#5?) in school and by the next afternoon had it finished. Am I correct in saying there are 7-800 pages? Anyhow, he loves to read. My dear, sweet husband is still working his butt off, commuting 1.5 hours one way to 3m in Woodbury for ten hour days. I can't say enough about how wonderful he is and has been. Awe!

So, hopefully I can sort of pick up where I left off, starting today, and document some of this daily stuff. No promises how often I'll get updating, but with life's pace hopefully I can stay on top of it and write things down for my poor memory's sake.

happy mother's day

2009-05-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mommies and soon to be mommies.

My hubby took some photos of me and the two fabulous people that call me 'mom'...

:)

earth.

2009-05-09T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today I took Ruby and James to see the Disney documentary, Earth. It was really great, and a good choice of activity for my age-spanned children.

Ruby did well, and I shush'd her a few times... until the woman in the middle aged adult couple (childless) a few seats away answered her cell phone. Not only did the thing ring, loudly, but she had a conversation. For a few minutes. After that, I let Ruby say whatever she wanted to. Which was mostly, "Mom! What that? What he doin'?"

And great to hear James' commentary. He explained to me what was going on with the humpback whales at feeding time. (He used to be OBSESSED with sharks and whales) He got the biggest kick out of the exotic bird in the rainforest doing his mating dance and "show" ... He was sitting there giggling at the bird, who looked silly, and that alone would make someone giggle. I leaned over and asked, "Do you know what he's doing?" He said, "Mom! Lookin' for a WOMAN!" I had a good laugh. I was sure, because of the fact that he'd been a shark fanatic recently that his favorite part would be the great white shark lunging out of the water, many feet in the air. It was spectacular. He was impressed, but again, on our way out, I asked him his favorite part. And again, in a fit of giggles, he described that silly bird dancing and showing his stuff for a girl!

I'd read some reviews before going, and it said that James Earl Jones, who was narrating, was dry and the narration was silly. I think that for it to be a movie that would keep kids' attention, it needed to be silly. I braced myself to be annoyed, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.

My $0.02 about it: It was a wonderful summary of the Earth, its circle of life, and a good Mother's Day reminder that moms go to the ends of the earth and sacrifice everything for their young.

life's simple pleasures

2009-05-08T12:14:00.001-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we headed outside to blow bubbles. I have to give all the credit for the idea to Ruby, because she found a bubble refill for my studio's bubble machine and insisted we "bow bubbles". After nap we changed her into her cute birthday outfit from Grandma and went outside. It was 75, sunny with big fluffy clouds that allowed me to have alternate overcast and sunshine in the pics. She refuses to look at me when I'm carrying the camera, and if she does look at me it's largely accidental. She does not take bribes. So I have to settle for what I can get.

It was so windy at times she barely had to blow.

The adorable flip flops that stay on nicely, but don't protect from the sand burrs in our "lawn".

A seldom shown smile flashed at the camera.

Too cute for words

A little close to the lips with the wand...

Getting it down.

Spilling the bubbles...

definitely blogworthy

2009-05-07T14:06:00.001-07:00

My girl can wear PIGTAILS!

Coming soon: bubbles!

someday i'll laugh

2009-04-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

This girl is constantly doing things to make me crazy. It's great.

Today, she discovered she's really good at zippers and found that there was a fun bottle of Benadryl in the diaper bag. We keep a rather large bottle in there alongside the Epi Pen in case of swelling for nut emergencies. Where was I? Honestly, cleaning up after her breakfast hurricane.

I didn't look, so I'm not sure that the bottle boasted to be unbreakable, but it was plastic. Not sure if she dropped it - or banged it against something. Before I knew it, she was off, down the hall and into the bonus room area by our bedroom. I am still unaware. I hear a crash. Then a whine. Then scuffling. Another crash. A cry. Then, a scurrying up the half flight of stairs to my bedroom.

I walk down the hall thinking "Hmm, something is sticky on the floor. I need to get out the Clorox wipes and spot clean. (once I get back from checking on Ruby.)" There is an unfamiliar, sweet smell when I round the corner into our bedroom area. She is at the top of the stairs, a big red mark on her cheek, holding something. Something dripping. I recognize it as the Benadryl bottle. Sticky Benadryl dripping, dripping, running. Onto my floor. My beautiful Brazilian Cherry floor. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! Nnnnnnoooooooooooo!

There are five or six stairs separating us. I start toward her, and I slip and fall in a lake of Benadryl. I am not exaggerating. Lake Superior. Now that I know it's going to be ALL OVER the floor and stairs between the two of us, and being in bare feet and covered to my thigh in smelly, stickyness... I'm trying to get to her without stepping in more AND not getting what's already covered me and my feet on the clean spots in the floor. It is everwhere, between what I have spread and then I realize the couple of crashes I'd heard before were her slipping in it repeatedly.

When I finally navigate the puddle at the bottom of the stairs and get halfway up, seething in a stream of mumbled expletives, she sees the red glow in my eyes realizes she might be in trouble and turns and runs into my bedroom, dripping Benadryl the whole way. Little did I know she'd ALREADY been up there to spatter my entire room with sticky ick. ENTIRE. Room.

Normally I am calm in these Ruby situations, as I have survived the Cocoa Incident, a Lawry's incident, scribbles on computers, walls, tables with everything from pencil to Sharpie and numerous other situations --- but this time, I was GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I picked her up and threw her into the shower and began to tackle the cleanup. Somehow, it was even under my bed. She wasn't even up there that long!

The bottle of Benadryl was completely empty. With a hole in the BOTTOM.

*sigh* Someday, I'll laugh about it.

How about a picture to remind me why I don't eBay her? She sure is cute.

master of the math

2009-04-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

Life is just too jam packed to keep up with a blog! Hah. Let's do an easy blog entry. Saturday morning before the Big Two Year Old Party (to follow) was James' big Math Masters competition in Sartell. It's a regional thing for fifth graders, and 4000+ kids gathered at various places statewide to show their skills. James has been going to his Math Masters practice since February, I think... two days a week for an hour after school.

They were timed, with either 5, 10 or 15 minutes to complete each set of questions. He walked away with 7th team place out of 30. Not bad. It lasted from 8 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. I'll let pictures tell the story. I guess took more than I thought!

They got some GIANT shirts to wear. I don't think any of the 5th graders came close to filling them out.

The whole scene - all of the participants.

Sister showing her support and sipping on her juice box. She was amazingly quiet during the whole thing.

Working hard.

Getting their bodies moving during a break.

Fueling their minds... cookies and lemonade were provided.

Explaining some big challenge to his coach. (the woman at the far right)

Happy to be done.

Some of the winners from his school.

Pretty proud.

Hugs from Grandma.

happy, happy birthday, baby...

2009-04-24T08:01:00.001-07:00

Say it ain't so! I can't believe she turns two today.

At the ripe old age of two, she:

• is still into shoes. Anyone's shoes. She wore "uncle Aaron's" last week in AK.

• says soo many things and has moved to using pronouns... "my toy" rather than "Ruby's toy"... it's so cute!

• is showing an interest in potty training - although I'm not sure if I'M ready!

• wants hugs when she's sad - she holds out her arms and says "Hugs?"

• loves animals. Especially doggies and monkeys.

• insists on calling Grandma or Grandpa several times a day. She brings me the phone and repeats "Call Gamma" over and over until I relent.

• has a cute little bottom lip pout and tremble when she's sad.

• would rather read "beside you" than "with you"... meaning, if I sit down to read her a book she wants to have a book of her own on her lap and say jibber jabber along with me reading, as if she's reading a book too.

• can identify almost every letter of the alphabet.

• has been able to spell her name for months.

• can sing her ABCs from beginning to end, not missing a single letter. But, NOT on command. Of course. You have to overhear it.

• loves Curious George and Max & Ruby.

• can draw several shapes and her own version of a 'cupcake'.

• insists that I draw for her and squeals with delight when I do as she identifies the pictures.

• hates to have dirty hands.

• prefers milk. Not a big juice fan but she likes water and watered down apple juice.

• will eat pretty much anything.

Happy Birthday, baby girl. We love you.

paxson andrew

2009-04-23T19:08:00.001-07:00

We had a fabulous time in Alaska visiting Aaron, Janelle, and the new Paxson Andrew. I will blog about the trip more when I have some extra (!) time... but for now, here are some shots of the perfect little man...

pajamas

2009-04-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

Our whole family has been sick since last week. Well, it staggered. About every two days. First, James got sick. Then Ruby. Then Floyd, then finally me. I suppose it happens that way so I can take care of everyone else and then get sick. Sounds like a good theory.

So, we have been spending lots of time in our pjs. And watching lots of Clifford and Curious George.

Here is my funny girl being cute in her rubbermaid container.

I mentioned also that my mom sewed the kids McD's pjs. Which of course are a huge hit. So I put them together in the chair in their pjs and came up with these.

Ruby really looks like a little clown in hers ;) - I was unable to get a full length body shot of her. If she doesn't want her picture taken, or if becomes a game, all I get is a blur.

I am still quite sick. I'm feeling like it's moved to my ears. It would be the second time in my whole life I have ear infections. The first time I had an ear infection I was an adult, a few years ago. And it reeeeeaaaalllllllly hurt.

I have to get better soon. I have a huge list of things to do BEFORE leaving for Alaska on Tuesday, including: making the decorations for Ruby's birthday cupcakes out of fondant, send out the invites to the party (should be here today), getting the kiddie four wheeler ready to sell, gathering all of the things that need to be packed for Alaska and actually fitting them into two bags as well (as as little camera equipment I can get away with for photographing a newborn), CLEAN because I haven't cleaned in days... ok my head is hurting from thinking of all the things I've got to do. Oh! Get the taxes done! - I'm trying to divert that to my dear husband by telling him he's SO much better at it than I am. Whew...and we might color easter eggs somewhere in there.

Whew, I think I need a nap.

...and hemi has a name!

2009-04-07T08:58:00.001-07:00

My dear cousin Aaron and his beautiful wife Janelle welcomed little Mr. Paxson Andrew to the world on April 4. He weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz (exact same as Ruby) and 19 inches. I am so very pumped to go see them in Alaska next week!

Love to you all!

the day after april fool's

2009-04-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

I've been writing things down on little scraps of paper to be able to document in my blog. Do you think I can find them? Hah! And why in the world, when I go to sit in front of this computer, does my mind just go blank?

Floyd's on his last week at home, I believe. Doing very well. We'll see if he returns next week to driving. For now he's working on 3M stuff from home. And building his FB game.

James is doing his Monopoly hockey now thru June and I signed him up for Golf league, which is nearer the end of summer. He's really digging his iPod and I'm glad I made that choice. He wants to buy every Metallica song ever made on iTunes. Hmm whose influence is that... ??? We took him to the school meeting about playing in band next year. It was funny, the choices he set for himself. He wanted to play the bassoon or oboe. Not sure why. After the band teacher's presentation, he decided on either percussion, trumpet or trombone. I would be happy with any of those choices. We'll have to rent something in the beginning either way to see if it sticks. To be in percussion the students need to have taken at least 2 years of piano (since they need to be able to know the bass and treble clef)... so our three years of piano were not for naught. ; ) We have an individual appt. with the teacher on the 13th to discuss further.

This came home randomly in his backpack. Niiiiice!

While at the band meeting, Ruby was a superstar. I'd brought a small container of Play Doh and she sat quitely and played with it, keeping it in the container. She made two small holes with her finger and said "Look, Daddy! Eyes!"... then daddy mushed them down so she could start a fresh pallette in the dough... and she said "Eyes closed!."

She loves her "Game". It's a pink GameBoy I got on eBay after learning that she wasn't going to let the kids play theirs in peace in the car... it's been a real nice tool to whip out and keep her happy. Although, she's learned the volume control...

She's such a stinker. This morning she brought me the phone insisted "Call Gamma. (grandma) CALL GAMMA!" So we called Gamma and got Gampa. She said "Hi Gampa. Where cookie? Where Gamma?" - She and grandpa have this book they read together about cookies. He taught her about cookies. So grandpa will forever be associated with cookies.

hodgepodge

2009-03-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

My trip to Alaska is booked! Sah-weet. I cannot wait to meet little mister Hemi and see Alaska!!

Ruby was up at grandma's (and grandpa's!) for a few days and she was missed. Big time. Like you would miss your big toe. I could function without her... but it left me a little off balance. She was always on my mind... I missed her like crazy. but Floyd and I took the opportunity to do things we aren't able to with her around. Have silence. Have a nice dinner out. Go to a movie. And we did make up for lost movies. We saw The Watchmen, I Love You Man, and Duplicity. She's home now and my big toe is back in action. And getting into trouble again.

For some time she's been my little parrot. Peat, then repeat. Everything. We had the tv on , nothing racy, just a regular sitcom with her in the room... and someone made the 'female dog' reference. Immediately, she said "BITS!" ahhhhh.... so the monitoring what we say continues... and not only repeating everything but she also does the whole Mimic. Everything. -- Since James got his iPod he does these silly made-up dances holding up the microphone to his music. She joins right in and sways to the beat. Even if he has headphones on and she can't hear the music.

My knees have been driving me crazy. I'm hoping it's the weather, but I bought some glucosamine in case... the pills are ridicuously large and hard to swallow. I think it's a combination of the weather, my awful hard hardwoods and not wearing shoes or socks on them, and sitting on my feet for years and years.

I continue to be a 'cool mom'. I let James stay home today because he was invited to a birthday party of one of his hockey teammates. This teammate goes to a different school and they're on spring break. So instead of pulling him out of school half-day I let him skip it all together and we went to the Maple Maze to meet up with my friend Bakula and her son Vir. Ruby enjoyed herself bossing all of the toddlers in the toddler area. Seriously, the girl even has attitude in her walk.

I'm planning Ruby's second birthday party. Trying to come up with some fun ideas that I can do on a budget. A very small budget. Likely shoes will enter in to the decor somehow.

My parents, well pretty much my whole family (as well as some friends), got hit with that crazy ice storm up north. My parents are still without power and that may be the case for the next 4-5 days. Wowee. Photos courtesy of my cousin Cindy.

james' big day

2009-03-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

This will be a very long, photo heavy post. But I must say, it was my son's "dream day".
Monday, March 16, my "baby" turned ten. A decade. I really, really felt the heartstrings being tugged and the tears threatened (ok, a little more than threatened) to fall at the thought of having given birth to this amazing child a whole decade ago.

My parents came down on Sunday evening. I was just finishing up making THE cupcakes. They were 'just' time consuming enough. Meaning, any more work and I would have been wondering what I was doing spending so much time on cupcakes.

The golf balls were made of white chocolate melted into golf ball ice cube molds.
The flag poles were black spaghetti.

Monday we let James sleep in and stay home from school. At about 9:30 Ruby decided he'd slept long enough and crawled in bed with him.

I made french toast (his favorite) for breakfast. We sang happy birthday and he blew out his french toast candle.

Then, he opened his mountain of gifts from us, grandma and grandpa, and great grandma and grandpa.

From Grandma and Grandpa he got a new fish'n pole, net, and tackle. He got some fun Hockey and McD's pjs that Grandma made as well as some clothes that won't fit until fall.

Grandma also made him this very cool, very personalized quilt. It's "All About James". It has all sorts of things that he loves - several sports (including hockey and golf of course), math/numbers, fabric that says "BOO" (Boo Boo has been his nickname since about birth), music, games, fishing... it is so VERY COOL and he loves it.
She also made him a matching pillowcase.

We gave him an iPod, dock, headphones and an iTunes gift card. He loooooved it!

After gifts, we played a game he also got from G&G, called "Last Word". Super fun game.

Then we packed up everything and went to lunch at Space Aliens Restaurant. His all time favorite.

They won the 750 ticket jackpot.

Ruby kept an eye on the tickets as they were dispensed from the machine

After Aliens, we went bowling. At James' request, of course.

Ruby and Grandpa cheered.

Ruby did her own thing.

Then we headed over to the waterpark for the big party. It went roughly from 5-8 p.m. and it really couldn't have gone better.

I simply cannot believe how much pizza eight 10-year old boys can eat!

They weren't hesitant about belting out the ABC song when I asked how their singing voices were. We followed it up with Happy Birthday.

Ruby and Grandma enjoyed the water.

Ben, Conner, Owen, Connor, James, Andrew, Cole, and Tyler.

We got home and James played Hangman (that he redeemed his Aliens tickets for) with Grandpa.

What a fabulous way to mark ten years. I love ya buddy!

miss matched

2009-03-14T06:26:00.000-07:00

The love of shoes grows stronger (and stranger?) ever day... this definitely says 1/2 mommy, 1/2 daddy...

And this makes me think of the song "You Light Up My Life" - or maybe you HIGHlight up my life? Either way, she continues to get into things, and most times it's a mystery how she does it and where she finds it... I'm beyond getting upset. It doesn't do me any good. Recently I learned that she pushes chairs over to places to get to forbidden things more effectively. How can I outsmart that? Lock and key, I guess.

She's been under the weather for several days. Started out as a fever, off and on for a couple days. Then she got this weird raspy breathing and awful cough that was weird and sounded like what I would classify as croup. But the minute clinic said that it was just a virus, so we're just hoping it passes soon... poor girl!

This is the last weekend of regular season hockey. Tournament in Paynesville. James' team put up a tough fight in last night's game but alas... maybe today!

The cupcake plans are coming along nicely. We made a run to the golf store to buy golf ball ice cube molds - worked perfectly for my candy golf balls for his cupcakes. I will bake them tomorrow and probably decorate them Monday morning.

buuuuuuuuugg.

2009-03-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

Ruby's got a fascination with bugs. This japanese beetle dude was really stressed about the whole situation, I'm sure. She wouldn't touch him after I raced for the camera, but trust me - he got a whole lot of nudgin'....

We are at home after being held up by the weather. We were supposed to go to my parents' after James' game on Tuesday night. That's when the blizzard decided to hit. Not so much here, as up there... I think they got over 8 inches.... anyhow, Floyd wasn't really up for driving (riding) at night in blinding conditions and I think he was afraid I'd kill him if we went in the ditch. So we opted to stay home. Wednesday was bright and sunny, but up north the roads were still slippery and the wind was still blowing. So we're home.

Instead of going to Grandma's, we decided to take James to Aliens. He is a BIG FAN. ;) Floyd likes it about as well, though... As with practically all other things he tries, James is good at the skill games. He wins the 750 ticket jackpot every time we go. This time, he helped a kid win the jackpot, thinking they would share the tickets. The kid - and his mother - had other ideas. Poor James, lesson learned. Sort of.

I've been planning James' birthday party. We're having it at the Otsego waterpark. He is absolutely no help with anything. He has no opinion. What kind of kid has no opinion??? We've invited 11 of his friends, 10 of which are coming on Monday the 16th (his actual birthday) after school. (by the way, he DID have an opinion on who to invite) ~ I'm preparing some golf themed cupcakes instead of a cake. I think he loves golf as much as he loves hockey. With a big out of town tourney (last one of the year) this weekend, I won't have a lot of time to dedicate to decorating a cake. My ideas for the cupcakes will take long enough. More of that will be posted, I'm sure.

pretty... like mommy?

2009-03-11T08:48:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Ruby was digging in the bags I was packing to go up to Grandma's.

Ok, so the girl doesn't get enough supervision.

But she did get it in the right spot. Sorta.

Can't wait til she's a teen.

post op

2009-03-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

I didn't blog yet about Floyd's surgery. "We" are almost two weeks post-op and he is doing very well. The last couple of days he's had headaches, and we're not sure what they're from. Otherwise, everything 'appears' to be doing well. I sometimes need to make sure he takes breaks, but all in all I think he's on the road to full recovery.

The hospital experience really couldn't have gone more smoothly. Other than setbacks like a crappy cold place for me to sleep and mushroom broth for Floyd, we don't really have much to complain about.

A few photos. Lots of people may have seen these on his facebook.

A few nerves before. The nurse who came to do the port for his IV was bragging about how good she was. Then she poked him like four times. Niiiice.

I leaned in to check him over afterward, and these little oozing gashes on the sides of his head freaked me out... guess it was from where they clamped his head to hold it in place...

We were there during a blizzard. Noplace to go, so no big deal.

The only pain he complained of in the hospital was that he had a sore throat from the breathing tube they had in during surgery. Plus he was hungry, so ice chips for a while were great.

The 'wound suction evacuator'. I was so fascinated by the whole process. I wanted to watch the surgery. They laughed at me.

Enforcing the clear liquid diet. I loved this nurse's name. Junia. Soft J.

Battle scar.

The drug lineup...

Ruby wanted to help daddy out. I personally think he overdid it a bit on the treadmill the couple of days he walked it.

His appointment to see the doctor again is March 26. Until then no lifting more than 10 lbs, no driving... I have to take out the trash... ; ) - it's been quite a two weeks so far. But so far so good.

and then it was tuesday

2009-02-24T07:34:00.000-08:00

The weekend was a blur. I do have photos of my mouth but they're iPhone photos and I have to get them off of the phone first. :)

Saturday the 21st I went to Baldwin, Wisconsin to photograph a wedding. Toby, who works with Floyd at 3M and his beautiful bride, Tanya, tied the knot. Here are a few photos. They got married at their home, which was so very neat. I was expecting to have to shoot in a cave but it was bright, beautiful and a gorgeous old victorian home. I had to turn down cake because of my teeth. Ruby stayed at home with Daddy. I did miss one of James' games but you can't win 'em all. Which they also didn't do.

Here are a couple of photos from the wedding..

Sunday I believe Floyd worked much of the day. I proofed, proofed, and proofed some more. We went necessity-shopping and had Culver's.

Yesterday I did about 12,659 loads of laundry. AND folded. AND they're *almost* put away. My mom is coming to stay with the kids while we're at the hospital for Floyd's surgery, and I don't want her thinking she needs to do my laundry.

Today is Tuesday and I babysat 2 year old Madeline again. She and Ruby seem to like each other. Madeline wanted to push Ruby away, out of her "space", I assume... but after we talked about sharing and I suggested a hug, everything went very nicely.

They looked out the window at some "deers".

They played kitchen. Not sure why they wanted to do it away from the actual kitchen in Ruby's room, but whatever.

Right before Madeline got here, I caught this. Ruby knows where to put the hockey socks and was trying to figure out the shoulder pads ;)

This afternoon I have to stop at the bank before running to drop James off at Math Masters, then when we pick him up we're headed to Delano for the 2nd game of the week.

what! no pictures?

2009-02-20T08:05:00.001-08:00

It's been a week.

Monday, James had a game. They lost but should've won :) It was fun.

Tuesday, Floyd had an appointment with the neurosurgeon. They scheduled the surgery for next Thursday, Feb. 26.

Wednesday Bev came over and watched Ruby while I got my gums hacked up. Also called crown lengthening surgery. OUCH. I literally watched his scissors go in and out of my mouth and then he stitched me up. Thank you to whoever invented vicodin. As a result, Wednesday night and Thursday were a blur.

Thursday, Floyd had an appointment to get a physical which was required by the surgeon to make sure he was fit to undergo the surgery. I spent a lot of the day sleeping and wishing I could eat.

Today I'm laying low. Doing better with the mouth, still super tender and walking jostles me and makes my mouth hurt. Ruby's down for her morning nap and I'm thinking I'll get caught up some on laundry. Whee!

woah, been a few more days

2009-02-16T13:43:00.000-08:00

So I'm not the best blogger, but I can catch up! I think I can...

Last Wednesday Auntie B came over and we did our felting. We came up with the idea to do wine sleeves. They're adorable! I'll have to post a pic, I forgot to take one. She did bring Ruby a lovely girlie-girl Valentine gift, though. Check it out.

The weekend was our home hockey tourney. One game on Friday, one on Saturday, one on Sunday. They won the Friday game, but not Saturday or Sunday. Which put them into fourth place. James did so well, though. He did get a hat trick the third game. Bummer they didn't win. They sure deserved to! :)

After the game, we went home and chilled on Valentine's Saturday. It was nice. Then we went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday. I was craving their salad bar. We thought it would be crazy, but maybe it was our timing. We didn't have to wait and it wasn't crowded.
We are so romantic. Here is my card to Floyd:

inside:

Here is what he found online with intention to **modify** and make me a card. Note he was going to take out the part about LISTENING... :~)

Last night (Sunday night) James and Floyd were playing on the computer. James was asking about Pi. He wanted to look it up and they spent 10 minutes writing down the first 3 lines of numbers from a website that had Pi calculated out to 1 million characters - he was very excited about it. Floyd read off the numbers while he wrote them down. He said "he wanted to memorize them and be the nerdiest kid in school".

Today is President's day and no school. So what do we do? Yeah, more hockey. James had Monopoly hockey today. I just dropped him off, and I hung in the car with Ruby while she napped. He decided it was a good idea to lend his hockey socks (the big stocking dealies that cover his whole legs) to some kid he didn't know. And instead of getting them back afterward, the kid stayed for the 2nd session and James didn't tell me this whole story until we were halfway home. Instead of driving all the way back to wait until some strange kid was done with hockey, I decided we would just buy some new ones... so we went to Play It Again Sports. I bought them, and when we got them in the car, James inspected them closer. "These aren't red, they're orange"! Ok, yeah, they were. They looked red in the store. Back inside we go to exchange them. I do have to say that I'm proud of him for sharing... but very irked that he didn't know the kid to know he was going to stay for two sessions!

Another James story. He told me this one. Keep in mind, James is usually the last kid out of the locker room, because he has advanced social skills. I mean, he is on his own time. Anyow, today, after Monopoly hockey, he was really fast. Another kid's mom was there and her son was not being as fast as she'd have liked. She asked James if his parent was there. He said no, well, she is outside waiting. The lady apparently praised him for being so fast and asked her kid why he couldn't be like that. When he told me the story, I told him(a little sarcastically) I was glad he could be such a good example for another kid. He said "Aw, it was nothing". He kills me.

On another note: Look at our poor yard. Where is all my snow?? I am not silly enough to think that it is going to be spring soon...

webcam

2009-02-09T15:06:00.001-08:00

Ruby loves the webcam. We turn it on and she just looks at herself, moves around and makes faces. Somehow it's much more fun than a mirror.

Today we Madeline over to play while her mommy went to school. She's two and so very cute.

A couple new Ruby-isms. Last evening I learned that she hasn't been saying "hockey" as I previously thought. I did think it was funny that she said it so much. She handed me her play food from her kitchen and said "Hockey". Then she went out and pointed to the fridge. "Hockey". And it hit me. "Hockey" means 'hungry'. Whew, I feel like Sherlock Holmes after figuring out a big case. Ha, ha.

She is also fascinated with zippers, and says "Zip, zip!" She unzips her footie pjs and sticks stuff in there. Then zips it back up. She also puts things down her shirt and stores them there.

James was doing his homework last night. Ruby loves to hover. So he said "Stop plucking my ear hair, Ruby". Who knew that means she's too close?

Tonight we tackled James' valentines. That's always a fun event, for a boy who couldn't be less interested in Valentine's Day. I used to make them with him. Last year I talked him into photo valentines of him playing hockey. And this year, he cares even less. So I let him pick out some from the store and we'll leave it at that. No matter what, the process is like pulling hair. He rushes to get through writing the names and it's nearly impossible to read them. So I sit there and say repeatedly, "Neatly, James. NEATLY." Why do I bother?

The shoe love continues. She likes to be naked except for her feet.

catchin' up

2009-02-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

How many days did I miss without an update? Woah.

Let's start with this. This is what a nine year old does in the bathroom when he is supposed to be brushing his teeth.

Saturday was a packed day. Janelle came for maternity photos. Here's a sneak peek. She looks so beautiful. Can't wait to see the little guy in April!

Then, Floyd, Ruby and I went to see our friend Eddie's band, Gin Doblé. First we met his lovely wife and my friend Doreen for dinner. The original plan was to go to Porky's. We didn't know Porky's was a drive-in only. Then we were going to try Key's Cafe. It was closed. Then we decided maybe we'd try the small cafe down the street. That one looked a little shady. Finally we decided to go to Jimmy John's. :)
Eddie's band sounded great. I got some fun shots there, too.

Ruby's a rocker. She wanted to storm the stage. She needed restraint a couple of times ;) -- She did love looking at the lights too!

We went through the McD's drive thru right before the show to get chocolate shakes. Let's just say good thing mom is prepared with an extra set of clothing most of the time.

Sunday was Floyd's birthday. Ruby was eager to help make him his birthday breakfast. (in bed!)

And then she, of course wanted to help him blow them out.

And then she wanted to eat.

It was a nice day. We didn't do much.

Today Ruby and I picked up Janelle and drove her to the airport. Ruby was awesome in the car for 2 1/2 hours or so. What a girl!

And tonight, there is no activity that I have to drive to, shuttle from, at ALL! Hoo. Ray.

felted

2009-02-05T16:36:00.000-08:00

Wednesday was a nice day. I made apple bake/apple pancakes in the morning and then Auntie B came over and we did some felting. It was a brand new experience and it was fun. I do little, I mean no sewing. I also am an immediate gratification sort of gal. So one of the sweaters that B had felted had pockets. I cut out the pockets and did a couple of fun little designs using felting with different colored roving that I'd ordered off of eBay. One, a butterfly and the other a cute argyle design. Ruby napped for a lot of the time so we actually managed to get something done before she awoke. She was all over Auntie when she did get up, though. And she was all over cute new purse.

Ruby and B working on the first pair of mittens.

Bev doing her second pair of mittens.

The cute little purse I made. Super easy.

And it matched Ruby's outfit perfectly.

The whole ensemble, complete with Mom's shoes. Er, shoe.

Showing it off some more...

The colorful roving.

B left about 330. I had to shower and run James to 4th street. Then we were off to our Wild game. Floyd was coming from 3M so we met in Maple Grove. I'm not a big fan of driving separately but you gotta do what you gotta do. It was great, right up until the beginning of the 3rd period when the people directly in front of us cracked open the bag of peanuts. We walked around for a while and then decided to leave. Ruby was just really crabby, it was getting late and I was done. I feel bad, because we should have been able to enjoy that. Someday we will. The Wild won 3-3. I got some fun ideas for redoing James' bedroom when he gets sick of his shark theme. Note to self: remember the hockey stick picture frames.

A really dorky guy offered to take our picture.

Today was a very laid back day. I threw in a couple of loads of laundry and we really didn't do a whole lot. I was beyond tired, I don't know what's up with me lately. I returned some business calls, and sent some emails with wedding pricing.

Ruby and I watched 'Max and Ruby' which I'd never seen before. It is adorable. She loves them. Anyhow, we really just laid low. I hope I'm not getting this sick that everyone is talking about. Ruby got into the toilet again. This time I'd had the door shut. Grrr! So, we hopped into the shower. I thought I'd shave my legs while she played with the bath crayons. She held her leg out for me to do the same to her. I flipped the razor over and ran it down her leg. She thought that was funny. I probably just started something. Keep the razors out of reach, hun!

James decided he didn't want to go to 4th Street to practice tonight. He just told me he was tired out so I had him call his dad and let him know. I don't blame him. A lot of hockey. So tonight we'll have Floyd pick up a pizza and we'll have a nice evening in.

rubiness

2009-02-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

Today has been a lovely day. Floyd worked on the studio, and by golly, I think he's got it. A nice way to have all of my paper hanging. Will still take some work, but it's a start.

We went to Home Depot and Target. HD, to get misc. items for the aforementioned studio project. Target, because we were in dire need of food in the house and Floyd needed socks. It was just a nice family outing. And the sun was out, so who can beat that.

Ruby was such a card today. I love all of the fun little things she does. She sneezes and then says "Ah-choo". It's adorable. It wasn't busy in Target and we weren't in a hurry, so it was a nice time to let her out of the cart and just wander. Before too long she was pushing the cart. We had it loaded down with milk, bottled water, multiple boxes of diapers and wipes and assorted other goodies and groceries, and she was still able to push. We of course had to steer but really had to work to keep up with her. It tired her out and led to a really nice nap. That's always the hope when I let her run.

Oh, and this morning. She was in the bathroom and 'brushing her teeth' with Daddy. Well, he was rinsing his toothbrush in the water in the sink. What does Ruby do, but rinse hers in the only water she can reach. Yeah, eeew, gross.

She loves all of the dress -up stuff around here. She frequently brings me a tutu and I help her get into it. This time she insisted on having it on her head. Gotta love this girl. Actually looks like some silly high fashion deal.

On a side note, I am so blessed. We were discussing money, which is something that is a topic of many discussions these days. I expressed some regret about not being gainfully employed. Floyd responded that even though we might go without a few things now, all the time I'm able to spend with Ruby at home is worth more than millions. It brought tears to my eyes, I love him so much. But I still need to make some money.

I'm off to pick up James from Math Masters and deliver him to 4th Street hockey. Outdoor hockey today = brrr!!

2009-02-02T09:33:00.000-08:00

The weekend was filled, mostly, with hockey. I'm still working on getting the clips off of the nicer Sony DV video camera. I highly endorse the Flip camera. A no-brainer to use. I used it for the first game and love that it makes a new clip each time you hit record. Then plug it in your computer and bam. There it is.

Early Saturday (Like 6 am) we left the house for Faribault for James' first game. He plays so well, I just can't brag about him enough. The team still needs to work on supporting each other - i.e. passing and staying in their positions. James got a beautiful goal that he lifted above the goalie's head. Niiiiiice.

We took the kids over to the hotel (the team was staying at a Days Inn) to swim until the second game. He didn't score that game. I think they nearly got skunked.

We drove the hour and a half home (leaving James to stay at the hotel with his dad and the team) and bright and early in the morning on Sunday, approximately the same time, I packed Ruby up and we headed down. The sunrise behind the Minneapolis skyline was breathtaking as we whizzed down 94 and 35. We got there with 10 minutes before the games started, which is perfect timing.

They even played the anthem before the game. They're growing up! I didn't take many stills of the action, at least not with James in them, because I was filming while his line was skating. James scored two goals during Sunday's game. Beyond exciting :)

Whose kid is goofing off while they announce the lineup?

The Anthem.

sister showing support by wearing his picture button

Ruby is so funny. Today she refused my help holding her hand and insists on going forward down the stairs. She has such patience and a preciseness about her, it's adorable. She's always been a very calculated kid. I put piggies in her hair and did an impromptu photo shoot. Just because she's that cute.

She's also moved into 24 month clothes. Stop it already! Most of her 18 month still fits. But glad I bought some winter 24m!

"Mean moms update: I found a couple of moms that don't have some sort of problem and we've setup a carpool thing for the Tuesday/Thursday Math Masters sessions. Feeling good about that.

one thing after another

2009-01-30T05:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (Thursday) felt like a day of rush, rush, rush. We went to meet Auntie B at Joann Fabrics and used her 40 and 50% off coupons for the essentials to do needle felting. We decided that we'd seen some cheaper stuff online and would get the rest of it there. After that we went to Goodwill (one of the nicest Goodwills I've seen) and picked up 4 wool sweaters for B to make into mittens for us to felt on. Can't go wrong at $3-4 each. I'm excited to get this little creative project started.

We got home in time to leave again to pick James up from school to bring him to the other elementary for Math Masters. We got to the school and I walked him in. This is where I got totally snubbed by my child's classmates' mothers. I introduced myself, a squirming Ruby on hip, and proposed we do some sort of carpool from one school to the other, which would make it easier on all of us. Two ladies looked me up and down, stared at Ruby, looked at each other and announced they'd rather have the kids' teacher set it up. They literally turned their backs to me and didn't look at me after that. I was taken aback, because for one thing, why wouldn't they want to just exchange phone numbers and emails and get it over with? For another, it's not the teacher's job to organize since this is extracurricular and not really even a school run program. Third, teachers are not supposed to give out personal information about children or their families, including addresses to other parents. (I know this after trying a couple of years in a row to get such information to invite some of James' classmates to his birthday parties). I don't know why I felt so snubbed. Was it because I was young? (ok don't laugh, young compared to them. I'd guess one of them was near 50) Toting a toddler? (who has a nearly 10 and nearly 2 year old) Not as put together as they seem to have been? Did I have a booger hanging? What!? --- I just left there feeling very bad. I called Floyd - he always grounds me and gives me a different perspective, which helps. And then I returned an hour later to pick him up. Ruby and I just cruised the streets of town because had we gone home we would have been there for all of 20 minutes.

James loved Math Masters. He came out of there beaming and talking nonstop, daring me to challenge him to any math question. (Which I usually fail) This will be fun for him. I dropped him off with his dad for the evening, and went to meet Floyd to drop Ruby. I was going to my girls night.

After a stop at Byerly's to get a dessert sampler, I went to my friend Bakula's and we dined on curried squash soup, homemade salsa and sangria and watched Slumdug Millionaire (yes, it's in theaters right now. She said her brother in India got the movie. It's been out there for a while now.). There were five of us, I knew all but one but it was a great group dynamic, everything flowed easily and it was so very nice, especially after my stressful afternoon. Slumdog Millionaire was a pretty good movie. Great evening and great company. Got home about 1130 and felt tired yet refreshed and blessed.

Here are a couple of a silly girl from yesterday morning who is obsessed with accessories. These happen to be Mr. PotatoHead's glasses. She doesn't care they look silly and don't even come close to fitting her little face.

avoid eye contact

2009-01-28T14:14:00.001-08:00

Today James came home from school and I greeted him in the usual way. I always ask how his day is going or how it went and he tries to give me the usual copout answer, something like "good". In the past I've told him that he needs to elaborate on "good". Then he started trying synonyms for "good", such as "awesome" or "I had a super day, mom". He thinks that this will get me off his back about his day. Sometimes I let it go. Sometimes I tell him he needs to give me the highlight of his day or the worst part of his day. The highlight usually includes gym or a pick-up football game on the playground at recess. The lowlight is usually a project in Social Studies. Today I didn't even get the chance to ask him how his day went. He came through the door, dropped his stuff and with a sigh said "Never look people in the eye." What a funny thing to say. So of course, I said, "Why?" He said "Because. If you look somebody in the eye it's a sure thing that you will have to start a conversation with them. And if you start a conversation, it will be a long one and you just can't stop talking. It happens all the time with me in my classroom. So just don't look anybody in the eye." I'm guessing he got in trouble for talking too much. Multiple times.

Then, on the way to hockey this evening, he asked me what time it was as we were pulling into the arena lot. I said "7:10, why?"
"Ooh, yeah. That means I have 10 minutes to get my equipment on and 20 to visit!" -- yes, he used the word 'visit'. Ahhh, I've got a talker.

Today Auntie B came over to play and we had a very nice afternoon. She brought over some wool mittens she'd been working on and wanted ideas for embellishing them. After chatting and perusing the internet, we discovered how to do needle felting. It looks like fun. I need projects that I can do in one sitting. Ruby sure misses going to her house, so that will be fun to have a regular day to see her. In Floyd news, he is still saying that the pain is mostly gone after the injection but still has numbness in his hands. I am hoping there is no nerve damage. Here are a couple of photos from Monday's injection appointment.

Before the Big Shave.

...and meanwhile, back in the waiting area...

fairly painless

2009-01-27T20:52:00.000-08:00

Today Floyd needed to go in to work since he didn't work on Monday (yesterday). I had a dentist appointment scheduled and when they called to confirm yesterday, I said I wouldn't be able to make it because I had a toddler. They somehow talked me into bringing her. And what was I worried about? She was truly a little gem. Perfect. An angel. While I sat in the dentist's chair for two and a half hours getting a crown and a filling, she entertained anyone who came near. What a girl.

This evening I took James to the 4th Street outdoor rink so he could skate with his buds. It was 3 degrees out and he loved it.

a slow start

2009-01-26T11:43:00.000-08:00

We've got a slow start to the week going on here. Let's rewind. Friday the 23rd we went to visit Floyd's neurologist. Or the neurologist/neurosurgeon that he was referred to. We waited for some time in the waiting room, as is typical with drs visits, and it went as well as could be expected with Ruby. Let me say that she is a certified Friend Maker. Anywhere we go she has pretty much every single person oohing and ahhing and basically captivated by her. She's gotten used to this and will go over to people and get in their face ("Hi! Hi! --- Hiiiiii!!!") if they don't immediately give her attention. If they do give her attention right away she plays coy just long enough to get them reeled right in. What a kid.

Of course, photos. Courtesy of my iPhone.
Here she is doodling with the flower pen from the reception area. We played "mommy draw" and Ruby guesses the drawings. She guessed flower, monkey, apple (seems like her favorite), banana, kitty, puppy, house, the list continues.

here are some of the actual doodles...

getting bored and peeking out the door...

and pushing the button on the elevator.

The neurosurgeon gave a couple of options as he saw them. Floyd could opt for surgery right away. Or they could do steroid injections which is supposed to reduce the inflammation around the area and take pressure off the nerve. We opted for the steroid shot and it was scheduled for Monday (today.)

Friday night James had a game at home vs. Crow River. 2-2 tie. At this point he still shared the title of leading scorer. It was a nail biter, the two goals his team scored were in the 3rd period and we were down 2-0. Whew! Stressful. I am glad I'm not the goalie's mom. THAT would be stressful.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing a little cleaning and not a lot of much. Sunday we used our gift certificate to the Canyon Grille.

Sunday afternoon James had another game. Here is an overly excited mom filming his goal. He is now in the coveted leading scorer position. The team lost 2-1 but made a valiant effort in spite of some bad calls and being shorthanded for much of the 2nd period.

Today, the trip to CDI (Center for Diagnostic Imaging) in Coon Rapids for the injection. I must say, I was pretty nervous. A needle into his neck and into the nerve did not sound like any fun. As it turned out, it wasn't. They made Floyd shave, though, and that was nice because I've been requesting that for a few days. They swabbed iodine over his neck and injected the steroid into the nerve. I would have thought they would go in from the back but they didn't. I did not watch. I had my hands full with Ruby in the waiting room. According to Floyd, it was painful when they hit the nerve. I would say yeah, that sounds about right. We had to stay another 20 minutes after the procedure to make sure he had no adverse effects and then he was free to go. They told him that he may be in more pain than before, that it would feel like a bee sting (yeah right) and it could take effect in as little as a day or as long as two weeks. Fun stuff. So I drove us home and he's been crashed out in bed since. He said the pain in his arm was more.

I thought it would be more like a pain in the neck. Heh. heh.

a little under the weather but not keeping us down

2009-01-23T07:24:00.000-08:00

Ruby's had a cough for a couple of days and last night slept terribly. I brought her into our bed so we all could sleep terribly. *sigh*. It doesn't seem like an awful cough and no other real symptoms, but we may take her to the minute clinic just to be sure.

James had a hockey game in Buffalo last night. The kids played fantastically and pulled off a 5-0 win. James was so very proud of his goal and two assists. Here are a couple of photos.

he-shoots-he...

SCORES!

He's still tied for leading scorer. He really, really would like to not share that title. I can sympathize as he gets a bit of his competitive nature from me. We'll see what happens as they have another game tonight.

Also in other James news. He has been tested for Math Masters, which is (0bviously) a math team who will practice two nights a week after school and participate in a big competition in April. He is geeked about this, as math is really the only reason he likes school besides recess and gym. He doesn't know that he's made it yet, the organizer has asked me not to tell him until he finds out on Monday. We had a discussion about it this morning when I was driving him to school. I asked him about the test that he took and he said it was easy and a lot like CML (Continental Math League), which he also loves. I will hae to share in another post what a typical CML question is like.

Today we're off to Minneapolis to meet with Floyd's neurosurgeon and see what his opinion is on the whole thing. He, of course, is a surgeon and will likely recommend surgery. But until Floyd feels like we need to take drastic measures I think he may choose to do some PT and chiro treatments for a bit. Insurance is also a big factor. We'll see.

escape

2009-01-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

So my little girl is obsessed with doors. Specifically, doors that lead to the OUTside. Great. Fantastic. Another thing to worry about keeping locked. Oh. Did I mention she can open them? We have the sideways 's' curved handles on our doors so they're easy for little hands to grasp and then just a pull down and, well, there you go. The other night daddy was in and out of the house working on a house project... when, from the garage, he heard a voice saying "Cold. Cold. Cold!". Sure enough, the little turkey had opened the garage door and gone out there. What next!

The reach.

A success.

Daring me to yell at her... looking so innocent...

Finally, aren't these boot slippers a-dorable! Target, 1.98. Who can pass that up?

wednesday

2009-01-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a morning shoot. Floyd scrubbed the floors in the kitchen/dining/living areas. He moved all the furniture - yeah, I don't remember the last time that was done. I think my mom probably did it. Anyhow, it was fantastic. The shoot went nicely and then I took some Valentine photos of Ruby. They are adorable, of course. Some of the cutest yet. But they won't be shared until closer to V-day. I'm not good at waiting either.

When James got home I made him "suffer" through some photos with his sister. He secretly loved it. Yeah right... I dropped James off to go to the Wild game with his dad, then went to a much needed GNO. So nice to see the girls, especially since I missed the last get together. It was a long night. Ruby was up at 2:30 and is so tired she can barely see straight. Not sure if she's not feeling well or what.

I'm so tired, I can hardly hold my head up. Maybe a nap's in order for me when she goes down.

Here's a pic taken a few days ago of my rockers.

ahh, monday.

2009-01-19T14:57:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I ran downstairs to switch out laundry. I just left her playing with some shoes. Innocent enough. What I came back to was anything but innocent. Usually the baking cupboard is locked. Today it wasn't.

I reach the top of the stairs and see this.

Note that that sweatsuit started out black.

She's lucky she's cute. She said to me "Mommy. Dirty."

The something new learned today: when you pour an entire container of cocoa onto the hardwood floor and step, roll, and play around in it, it's not just a vacuum up kind of job.

mwah

2009-01-18T14:30:00.001-08:00

It was a nice weekend. Grandpa George brought the kids down which rocks. Floyd's not all the excited about sitting in a car in his condition.

Saturday morning bright and early James had a game vs. Virginia. As in the state. There is a squirt team in Virginia whose coach is from these parts, and he brought his kids and their parents on a road trip I guess. Maybe I didn't get the whole story. But it's very cool. Anyhow, they scheduled a game with our squirts. James' team won 4-0. I made sure he had plenty of rest the night before which I believe made a big difference. He hustled like I've not ever seen him hustle. And he made this amazing goal which was a little 360 move. Nobody expected it to go in, least of all James. He is looking into patenting the move and calls it the "spin-a-rama". Of course the times I don't bring my camera, he does something camera-worthy.

Saturday evening Geo took us out to eat at Famous Dave's. I enjoyed the food. It didn't like me.

Today was practice. Ruby and I took James, dropped him off, then went to peruse the 75% off shoes sale. I would be lying if I said I resisted temptation. We also picked up these cute little shades in the $1 section. Courtesy of my iPhone. She is saying "mwah"!

a sneak peek

2009-01-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

For Kaatji and Roger. You have the cutest family. Love you all.

they didn't cancel school for cold when i was a kid

2009-01-16T17:36:00.001-08:00

They didn't cancel school simply for being COLD when i was a kid. Maybe it's because it was routinely -20 and if they canceled school for cold, it would never be open.

First an update. James scored a goal at his game last night. Even though I wasn't there to witness, the thought makes me swell with pride because I can imagine it. It is such a thrill to see your kid do something they love and are good at. Even if you are freezing your butt off on the sidelines. ;) The teams tied 2-2.

Even WITH school it is a busy day. Floyd spent the morning at the House of Orange and working on my new studio setup. Can I just say how I love this man? I ask for something, he gets it done. It rocks. He had an appt at noon with the neurologist about his back and neck, but forgot the MRI scans at home so ended up rescheduling for next week. I *might* have had something to do with his forgetting, as I was back later than I said I'd be and he went out the door in a rush.

Roger, Kaatji, Trenton and Jace dropped in for a family shoot. It was a fun challenge. I'm always exhaused when I shoot smaller kids. I really get a workout. We got some cute ones. How could we not?

James had an ortho at 3:50. First I had to coax him into his hockey gear (well most of it) so that I could do a mini shoot with him to get some buttons made for all of his adoring fans to wear. That is like pulling teeth, because all he wanted to do was make silly faces. We had a nice 20 minute run then were off to the ortho. That appointment went smoothly and then it was off to hockey practice. The kid is scheduled from sunup to sundown. Whew. He needs days off of school just to regenerate.
Here's my favorite from my shoot with the Star:

a little catch up

2009-01-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

Let's backtrack a little bit, to document for my sake. On the 10th, which was one of my favorite cousin Aaron's 30th birthday, we went shopping. Just to get out of the house. We were half serious when we talked about talking Ruby to a movie. We decided on Marley & Me. I could hear the thoughts of the rest of the people attending that showing as we walked up to our seats. I used to think the same thing "What in the world, great. We're going to have to listen to crying and whining during this movie"... She absolutely loved it, and the "pup-peee!" was in nearly every scene. She was an absolute angel during the movie and was entranced the whole time, not making a peep. I figured it was a combination of the Twizzlers, the huge puppy onscreen and the fact that it was bedtime that kept her quiet. That night I was putting on her pjs. She looked at me and said, "Mommy! Pup-peee! Moo-mees!".

On the 11th, we decided to take her to see Despereaux to see if it had been just luck that she was so good. Nope, again she watched as if in a trance. The only sound she made was when daddy threw some popcorn at her. She looked around, said "Oops!" and went back to being engrossed in the movie. Not a peep from her. She definitely likes going to the moo-mees.

We highly recommend both movies, by the way. Just be prepared for some tears during M&M.

Tuesday the 13th Kaatji came to visit. That was so nice, relaxing, and we didn't even leave the house. It would have been fun to go shopping, but I think we'll hit Albertville next time. Too cold for an outdoor mall. Kaj stayed overnight and on Wednesday she went to pick Roger up from the airport and take him back up north.

The evening of the 14th, Ruby ate a miniDV that had something important on it, I'm sure. We may never know since it wasn't clearly labeled. I don't know how she gets into the stuff that she does but wow, she finds everything. Then she ate a tube of chapstick. Are we raising a girl or a puppy?

Today (the 15th) we are home laying low. Floyd went to the chiropractor, which he's been doing pretty much daily. James has a hockey game and I think we'll opt out of going this time since it's like -40 with wind chill. It's nice to stay inside and bask in the sunlight reading books, PRETENDING it's warm out...

the original intent

2009-01-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

I'm starting this blog to simply document what's going on in our lives. I'm horrible at keeping up with scrapbooking, so that's out. I just need a way to say this is what we did, when we did it, and with whom. So really, it's for myself and whomever else has the patience or desire to know. I wanted to do a 365 sort of blog, but it happens to be the fourteenth of January already, so this would make it more of a 351 journey and beyond. And pictures. Can't forget pictures. I will take as many as I can and try (I said try!) to post at least one photo per post. Lastly, the name. This blog is not dedicated to my littlest gem, but will certainly contain lots of her. ...see?