Mommy-Daughter / Papa-Son Day

This Saturday was Mommy-Daughter / Papa-Son Day. I was hoping to take Adelaide to the zoo, like with Kestian, but the weather gods were calling for rain, so we headed to the aquarium.

Our first stop was breakfast at McDonalds, where I got to witness one of the most disturbing things in a long time: Adelaide submerging her eggs completely in syrup, then slurping them all up - and loving every dripping minute of it. I don't know where she learned it. They don't give the kids eggs at school - or syrup - and when the kids eat eggs at home they don't dunk them in syrup. It was like watching a train wreck: horrifying, yet I couldn't look away.

Ok. After shaking that off, we were back on track to the aquarium. I didn't plan ahead so well for this trip and didn't by our tickets online. There was no monetary incentive to do so, and I didn't think there would be a really long line. But there was a line after all, so we waited amongst the masses. Once we bought our tickets we were in for another treat: we had to wait in an even longer line to get in. Great.

So after probably an hour of line-waiting we made it in. I'm so glad we waited, because once we got in it was sooo crowded. So crowded that Adelaide kept saying: "I want to go home." Great. But we busted through the masses and got to an area that was less crowded and were able to finally start enjoying ourselves.


We wandered through the maze of fish and sharks and crocodiles. We hoped to find the jellyfish, but alas the exhibit was closed for remodeling.


So after an overpriced lunch and a stop at the gift shop for some keychains, we headed home. I think we had a pretty good time, and Damon (now fully over his strep throat) reported a good time with Kestian.

It will be a while before we can repeat these fun weekends, and next time Damon will be the one who goes on the outings, but I'm glad we had a little chance to spend some one-on-one time with the kids.

Stuff about movies

Inspired by Joslyne (being the mother of Zorro and all), we got Zorro the Gay Blade from Netflix and watched it last week. No, seriously, I was inspired by misreading her daughters name and moved the movie up on our queue. It was OK, but it missed out on a lot of possible humor and there was too much dead space; OK for its time, but it could have been so much better. If I had lots of money, I’d pay to have it remade, but any ‘wackiness’ must not be there in it because movies like this must be played straight (sorry, pun only partially not intended). Overall, it was enjoyable for something on a rainy Sunday afternoon but nothing to go out of your way to see.

Our next movie is Parenthood, you know the Ron Howard directed movie starring Steve Martin and a bunch of other people from the 80s and early 90s that you’ll recognize. Now we are only about halfway through (not even that actually) because we can’t ever get a whole movie in, but here are my impressions. First, Steve Martin’s character says he 35 at the beginning of the movie. Really? Wow, I’m not buying ‘mid 30s’ for any of the adults there at all. Early to mid-40s is much more believable (maybe I just misheard him, but I doubt it).

But the thing that really strikes me is that I do not relate to any of them at all. Maybe I am such an awesome parent? Ha, unlikely! But many of their problems seem to be self-inflicted and obvious that any observant or thoughtful person would see them a mile away and head them off before they get there. Easy to say, I know, but instead of relating to them I pity them in a condescending way. Maybe it’ll change in the second half?

We still have V for Vendetta from Netflix to watch since its been sitting on our TV for a couple of weeks. Getting the time in to watch something is tough. Mostly, though, we’ve been watching Flight of the Conchords again.

All done!

So after several days, the kids finally assembled their dressers.

I'd say they did a pretty good job.

We found one

It was bound to happen. I got the call last week:

Me: "Hello"

The Other Voice: "Laura? It's Ms. Shannon...from Kindercare. Kestian's not feeling well. He has a fever of 102.1"

Me: "That's not good. Ok, I'll come and get him."

I pack up and head out to get my sick boy. I get to the daycare and find my Kessie lying on his cot under his little blue trucks blanket, motionless. Even when he sees me he doesn't move. That's not good.

Adelaide rushes over for hugs. We go over to the lump of a boy. He's hot. He's pale. He sits up. He takes a drink of water. He throws up everywhere. That's not good.

I change his clothes and we all go up to the car. I'm hoping, hoping, hoping for the flu. The daycare warns it could be strep. No! I want it to be the flu! Why? Kestian is allergic to most antibiotics. What will we treat him with? I hope it's the flu...

While I'm in the car I make a doctor's appointment. "Can you be there in 30 minutes?" the nurse asks. "Sure" I say. We drive on over. Kestian throws up again. That's not good.

I change the poor boy again. We go up to the doctor. I don't bother with his shoes. He won't walk. He has no energy.

I check him in. We sit and wait. He throws up again. I hope it's the flu.

Finally it's our turn. The doctor examines him. She says it could be a stomach virus. Oh! That's good! She takes a throat culture. We wait.

The doctor comes back. The test is positive. It's strep throat. That's not good.

We discuss what he can take. The doctor doesn't share my worries. I hope she's right. We go on our way. Kestian throws up again.

I get the antibiotic that the doctor said to try. I worry. I give it to him. I worry. I tell him to tell me if he feels weird. He falls asleep. I check on him.

He's fine.... He's still fine.... He's still fine....

I'm relieved. I go to sleep.

The alarm goes off. It's a new day. My Kessie is back. The fever is gone. His energy has returned. And we now have an antibiotic he can take.

That's GOOD!

Stopping in at Ikea

Ha! That's an oxymoron!

So yeah, on Sunday, Damon was still not feeling better, and my frustration with the kid's dresser had reached a boiling point. I had been talking about getting them a new dresser for a while, and I had been eying something from the Ikea website. But did I want to pay for shipping?

I looked online at ads at the local shops. Nothing grabbed me. Guess what kids: We're driving to Ikea. Fortunately it's just over an hour to the store. So, to give Damon some quiet time to rest and us something to do, I loaded the kids up and off we went.

I had hoped to stop at the Fuddruckers in Florence on the way up, but we found out that it was no longer there, so we stopped at a Waffle House instead. Hey! I'm always in the mood for breakfast!

When we finally made it I was not too surprised by how big it was on the outside. Little did I know what I was in store for on the inside.

So we get inside. I saw some people lining up with their kids for something...some playground thing. It seemed like they could drop their kids off there for a while while they went shopping. I paid little attention. Come on kids, let's go up the escalator!

Up we go into the massive showroom. Ok. So how does this work? Oh, ok. You go through the showroom with your map and you look at everything. You write down on your map what you might want to buy and note the aisle and bin number (listed on the item's tag) of where you will find your box in the 'furniture area' if you want to buy it.


Ok. So we start going through the labyrinth. The map above does not do it justice. It's more like walking through a forest blindly than this cute little right-left-right-and-you're-through! depiction. The kids were good for a while, but then started climbing on everything. Hmmm. That playground thing may have been a good idea. "Let's go back to that playground, guys!" Wait...how do we go down? There's no 'down' escalator! We had to wind through the entire store (took 10 minutes) to get back to the entrance again. Flashbacks of being in a casino came to mind as we wove back and forth through the aisles, our only clues being the occasional arrow left like breadcrumbs by someone before us in hopes that our destiny would not be the same fate as theirs.

Now, let me tell you. Ikea has it going on. This idea of theirs: 'Smaland' where you sign-in your kid and then you get an hour to go shopping - by yourself!!! That's worth the trip in itself!!! We had to wait in line for a little while because they were at capacity, but it was worth it! Once they were unleashed into the playroom, I was able to do so much by myself in there without having to watch the kids. And even though I was rushing through the showroom at lightening speed, it still took up my whole hour!

Time's up!

Ok. I went back to get the kids and by then I had decided on the dresser I wanted to get them. After all, that's why we came. And I'm so glad we came. Because when I saw the dresser I was looking at online in person, it was, well, crap. I was disappointed. Disappointed because I didn't think Ikea sold crap. Wal-mart sells crap. But I guess even Ikea has some crap too. So I looked at some other options and it came down to either getting them a nicer dresser that still wasn't too expensive but was still 'fiberboard', or go up even more in price and get a solid wood dresser. Sure they had even more expensive dressers there to pick from, but I had my limits...

In the end I chose the solid wood dresser, even though it was more expensive. I figured it would be more durable and worth it in the long run. This was their first piece of furniture I've bought them actually. Everything they've been using so far has been used. And I wanted them to each have their own dresser (until now they've been sharing one), but since Ikea doesn't have a huge selection I had to get them the same thing:


To help make it a bit more unique for them, I also got these 'drawers' to put in the slots you see. The black flowers for Adelaide:


And the green stripes for Kestian:


So, as I mentioned above, I had just gotten through the 'showroom'. There was still the entire 'marketplace' to go through, but for this section I convinced them to sit in an uncontrollable crazy cart. You know, the kind where all four wheels turn. (Who ever thought that would be a good idea?) So some more winding through the store and we get to the 'furniture area'. We have to switch carts so we can get our boxes. (The wheels on this cart are no better!)

Remember those aisle/bin numbers we wrote down? Our notes have paid off! This is the part of Ikea that looks a lot like Sam's Club. We roll our cart through the towering aisles of brown boxes and finally locate aisle 26, bin 20. Aha! There it is. How do you fit such a big dresser into such a small box? It was a good thing though, because I was getting two and we don't have a big car.

I loaded them on the cart and off to checkout we went. After heaving them into the back of the Matrix, we went back in for ice-cream cones and to go potty before we left. Total time spent there: 4.5 hours. You heard me! 4.5 hours. Yeah, there's no stopping in to Ikea. This was just a "small" trip with a plan to just get dressers. Imagine if we had come to browse, or eat at their full-service cafeteria?

After getting home and a quick dinner, I did manage to put one of the dressers together before bed. I'll get the other one done tonight, and then some things will need to be rearranged for everything to fit.

Ahh it will be so nice.

Hullabaloo

The kids got this game, Hullabaloo, as a gift for their birthday. I've never heard of it and I'm glad someone gave it to us because we would be missing out otherwise. It has been so fun for them and they can play it by themselves. They can set it up, play it, and clean it up so easily.



This parent gives it 5 stars!

MS/PD Day #1

Ok. So today was the inaugural event. It was Mommy-Son / Papa Daughter Day (still need name suggestions, people!). The plan was for me to take Kestian to the zoo while Adelaide stayed home and did stuff with Damon. The trip to the zoo was a success, but Damon's health seemed to have deteriorated as the day went along so I don't think he enjoyed his time as much. I know they did stuff with birdfeeders, went for a walk, ordered pizza, and other stuff, but I'll let him post about his day when he's up to it. Here's how my day went with Kestian:

A quick breakfast at McDonalds was followed by an hour drive to the Louisville Zoo. Kestian didn't know we were going to McDonalds or the zoo until we got into the car, so when he found out he was all to happy and kept himself quite busy with books and coloring all the way there.

Now, I found out that I could buy tickets to the zoo online at a deep discount being a UK employee, so I already had tickets before we got there allowing us to walk in the gate with no waiting (SCORE!). And I got the "package" with the carousel, tram, and train all day, which was a good thing because the first thing Kestian wanted to do was the carousel - and of course he picked the zebra:


The zoo was pretty empty and so we walked through and looked at whatever animals at whatever pace Kestian wanted to go at. It was nice.

(Can you see us in the "door"?)

Then we played at the park for a little while


before waiting to ride on the train and then having overpriced pizza for lunch. A stop to see a few more animals and it was time to go. I bought Kestian a pen and we picked out one for Adelaide too, and then Kestian slept all the way home.

Sounds like a good day huh?

Well, I've been home 4 hours now and the kids have been a royal pain in the tuckus all afternoon. Picking on each other. Not listening. Making tons of noise. Complaining. Whining. Yelling. Asking for more dessert after we've had dessert and I've already so no more dessert and stop asking for dessert!

Such a nice morning contrasted to the super-nanny house I am back in now....

Adelaide took it well when she found out that we went to the zoo, knowing that she will have her turn next Saturday. Question is: Who will take her - Me or Damon?

No (r)egrets

You know, we (still) rent. It’s not like we planned it that way. We came to Kentucky from Arizona with all of our stuff in the back of a U-Haul truck and our car in tow. We found a hotel, opened a newspaper, and started looking for a place to live. A few days later we found a cute little townhouse and called it home. It was an awesome place and the rent was so cheap. In fact it was the biggest, and yet cheapest, place we had ever lived in.

We lived there for years. Our plan when we came to the K.Y. was just to rent while Damon worked on his degree. When he graduated, we planned to move on. We were always given two pieces of advice when it came to buying a house: don't buy one if you can't live in it for at least several years, and make sure you have a big down payment. When we first got to KY, we did not plan on being here very long and we had no money. So buying a house didn't seem like a good option.

However, things happen and time passes and its 8+ years later. We stayed in that wonderful place until last summer. We would have stayed there if the kids didn’t make it so crowded, so last summer we got a bigger place.

But the thought crossed our minds: Was it finally time to buy a house? We are starting to save some money (depending on how big a down payment you are talking about), and the new carrot out there offering first time home-buyers an $8,000 tax credit (which never has to be paid back!) is very hard to refuse. But now we really are not going to be in KY for another several years at this point. Damon is on the crux of finishing his degree and the professional opportunities for him beckon him to leave the state. It was always our plan anyway. Damon graduates…we move.

Then, Damon reminds me of this article, which as he every so often reminds me: Renting = Good.

The articles lists three bad reasons to buy a home, and I think it’s great to hear, because so often it’s what everyone always tells us are reasons to buy a home:

It’s a good investment

Not all houses go up in value. There are a lot of people who are upside-down right now with their mortgages. Lexington seems to be pretty insulated from the real-estate recession, so maybe this argument does not apply to us, but it’s one that people always throw out that really everyone should be wary of. And I love this quote: “The Wall Street Journal once estimated a typical homeowner over 30 years would pay nearly four times the house's purchase price in maintenance, repairs and improvements.” That’s not quite my idea of investing.

I’m tired of throwing away money on rent

I can’t tell you how often I think this. But truth is, we can get a lot more house for our money by renting than what we’d pay for in a mortgage. Plus, we don’t have to pay for any maintenance, taxes, and we can move anytime we want to. And am I really just “throwing my money away?” And as the article states “You're not really throwing money away when you send a check to your landlord, anyway. You're exchanging it for a place to live. You're also getting flexibility and freedom -- things you sacrifice when you buy a home.” I am getting something for my money. It’s just a less-tangible something than people think of.

I need the tax deduction

Yes, you can get a tax deduction, but as the article states: “Buying a house just for the mortgage break would be like giving somebody a buck just to get 35 cents”. So for now, taking the standard tax deduction as a renter is not a bad deal, as I’m not having to spend money to get money.

But even with all of these reminders I kept having all these thoughts about our housing situation as I walk around our rented dwelling:

• Has renting for so long been the right choice?
  
• Should we have bought something with the hopes of a quick turn-around?
  
• Are we behind with buying a house?
  
• Will we be renting forever?

and then reason comes back to me:

• Right choice? We could never have foreseen living here for so long, so we can't blame ourselves for that.
  
• Quick turn-around? While some people are successful at selling their houses as soon as they are ready to move, many are not, and we are not so flush with cash right now that we can afford to pay a mortgage for an extended period while waiting to sell our house and having to pay rent somewhere else because we had to move.
• Are we behind? Yeah I often think that as I hear about other people my age on their first or second houses. Is there really a timeline? Sometimes I have a little bit of the "keeping-up-with-the-Jones'" syndrome, but then I have to slap my inner-self knowing that everyone's situation is different.
  
• Renting forever? Renting a while longer actually may be a smart idea. Yes, it will prolong the American dream, but think about it. I keep hearing it's best if you can put down 20% towards your house. That's a lot of money, but that makes sense. By renting longer you can save more money for your down payment. That down payment is key in how much you less your actual loan will be. And the smaller your loan, the less interest you will pay, which is really the killer amount of money you end up paying. Everyone: Get your pencils and paper out. Ready? On a $200,000 loan at 6.5% interest (30 years) with $0 down you end up paying a total of $ 560,088.98 (with all the taxes, interest, etc). On the same loan with $20,000 down (which is only 10%, mind you) you end up paying $504,080.08. So that $20,000 down just saved you $56,000 (imagine if you had put down 20%) .Now if it takes you 3 more years renting to finish saving up that money, are you spending $56,000 on rent? Probably not. So yeah, it's probably better to rent as long as you can to get the biggest down payment you can get to bring down that interest. It's the damn interest people forget about. Such a crazy, wacky variable.
  

So soon Damon will finish his degree. Soon we will move again. And soon we will look at buying a house – because while Renting = Good, we still would one day like to buy a house for our family. But for now, I’m not going to regret renting for all these years. It’s allowed us a nice place to live. We haven’t had to pay to replace that damn air conditioning unit that broke down three times. And I think ultimately it’s allowed us to save more money for when we really do want to settle down and own our little abode. Our time will come, but no regrets for now.

Just me and you, kid

Sharing is not something we have to worry about teaching our kids. For Kestian and Adelaide, being a twin means that just about everything in their lives (from the moment they were born) is shared between them. Since they are the same age, they have the same baths and bedtimes. Since they are in the same class - and therefore have the same friends - they have the same birthday parties. Since they at the same reading level, they have the same books. Etc, etc, etc. They are joined at the hip. For the most part, they like it, as they are best friends. They will forever have this connection. And while we understand they share so many things out of convenience, we make many efforts to make sure their individuality is not lost (they each have their own clothes, their own toys, their own place to sleep, etc).

But with all this sharing comes always having to share Damon and I. Damon and I have to do everything with both of them together. And while I don't mind it most of the time, I really never get any alone time with one or the other. Both go shopping with us. Both go out to dinner with us. Both go to the park with us. And perhaps part of this has to do with never having a babysitter (but it's not like we're against babysitters, but I'm just too cheap to pay someone to watch my kid/s while I go out).

Be that as it may, it is what it is.

My concern these days is that we also need to make sure the kids get enough of our undivided attention. So I decided that I'm starting Mommy-Daughter/Papa-Son // Mommy-Son/Papa-Daughter Days (Hmmm, I need a good name for this.... Anyone? Anyone?)

Oh, how nice it would be to just have a day out with Kestian at the zoo. Or to take Adelaide, and just Adelaide, to the aquarium. I'm so excited just thinking about the alone time with them. How I can just talk to Kestian about his favorite animals, holding his hand strolling along. Or how I can stop and point out jelly fish to Adelaide and then skip down the ramp to see the sharks. When the kids are together, it can be fun too, but they often feed off of each other so I have have to switch into every-body-hold-my-hand-now mode or make-sure-no-one-gets-lost mode. With just one, I can be just Mommy.

There's just one problem: The kids.

Usually when I try something like this it backfires. You see, they both have this crazy attachment to me, and while they adore Damon, they both always want to go wherever I am going. So to try and get one to stay with Damon while one gets to go somewhere with me - well, it usually never works out. But that's actually another reason to do this. By spending more one-on-one time with Damon, the kids will see how great and fun spending time is with him (loosening their grip on me), and I think Damon will also enjoy it because he won't have to be in don't run-or-you'll-get-a-time-out mode and can instead just be Papa.

So I haven't figured out how to fully execute my magnificent plan. Especially given that since we only have one car, whomever is left behind will be stuck at home all day. But it will work out. It will be great. And the time all of us are spending one-on-one will be appreciated by everybody.

So let's see...when is the zoo open?

Happy "Green" Day

I asked the kids what today is. Their answer: "It's 'Green Day!'" Sure enough!

Today is the day many worship St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Most think it's a day to drink and binge, but I suppose there is some actual history to the day (albeit a history of drinking and binging).

Since I have Irish ancestry in my family, it's a good time to reflect on this area. Looking at some family history stuff, I can at least trace back the McCaughey name to Derry County, Ireland in the early 1700's. That's Northern Ireland. I think I have been told that our family was more rooted in the protestant (i.e. "Orangemen") side, but apparently if I were to wear orange on this day I could probably expect an ass-whooping.

We tend to focus a lot on Damon's Italian side these days, and I think that's great. The kids need to know about their heritage, and I'm glad that Damon embraces his. But I guess in the mix, and just through laziness on my part, we have not been emphasizing my Scotch-Irish side.

Now, many of you probably know, one of my boring, old-person hobbies is family-history research (I say that lovingly, Mom and Diane :) ). I love this stuff. I don't see why this is just something that people over 50 enjoy. How can you not want to know about where your peeps came from, and their stories and life struggles back then...back when the world was so different not really that long ago?

It's also like that for stamps. Stamps are ok interesting as objects themselves. But what is so fascinating (I think) is when I get an old stamp on a crumpled envelope. All I can think about is: What letter was in that envelope? Who was it written to? What did it say? Was it good news? Bad news? Did he/she walk the letter to the mailbox? Was it raining that day? Oh the story that could be written just about the letter. That's what fascinates me about stamps. (Plug: Send me your canceled stamps if you've got any!!!)

And that's what fascinates me about family history. Today our lives are run by cell phones and email. And one day our kids will have thoughts and stories about us with all of that. But to think about what life was like for Joseph McCaughey in Derry County Ireland in 1750. Hmmm. Did he have a farm? What did he farm? Was his wife pretty? How big was their house? Were their kids helpful? What did their kids play with back then? How far was it to town? Was he an important man or the annoying neighbor? How hard/easy was it to get water?

And I guess because I'll never know these things, I love this stuff even more. I get to just wonder about it and move on. But every now and then I do get a piece of the puzzle. A picture. A newspaper article. An obituary. Something that fills in the gap just enough to make the whole collage a little bit less fuzzy as it keeps growing every time a new name come along.

So on this St. Patrick's Day, as everyone drinks a green beer and stuffs down more bacon and cabbage, I'll be pondering greater questions, like "for a non-Irish old guy, St. Patrick looks pretty good on this stamp, but who sent it to whom and where and when and why?"

Disney on Ice (Stand back! Everyone will have a chance to be gouged!)

Today we went to see Disney on Ice. I know Damon was not excited about it, but the kids were, and I was too.

The kids dressed up in the only "Disney" shirts I could find (I didn't think to put Adelaide in a princess dress, but she didn't ask either) and we picked out Minnie and Buzz to accompany us on our excursion:


I've never been to Rupp Arena so I had no idea if our seats were any good, but they were not bad. We had a straight on view, but we also were near the exit to make for a clean get-away.


Now I took like a thousand pictures, but I'll just put a couple up here, so as to not bore everyone...


Overall, I thought they put together a pretty good show. The show started at 1pm and ended at 3pm and it was just at the very end that the kids started saying they wanted to leave. That's pretty good to be able to keep our kids' attention that long. Kestian had some trouble sitting still (but he always does), but everyone was pretty pleasant.

I always forget, though, that Disney never misses an opportunity to market, market, market. Oh. my. gosh! The only thing I wanted to get was a program, and that was $15. Sno-cones were $10-$12. I'm not kidding! $10-$12. Yeah, they came in these cool cups for you to take home, but geez! We did buy some popcorn too ($6) but everything there was way expensive.

And of course Adelaide wanted one of the sno-cone things, but I was not spending $20 (because I'd have to get Kestian one too) for that. So we went out for ice cream afterwards instead which pleased her. But also I could not believe how many people DID buy that stuff. I mean if you bought drinks, pop-corn, sno-cones, cotton candy, those twirly light things...you could drop $100 easily.

But it was a fun event and I'm glad we went, keeping as much money in our pockets as we could.

Birthday party (this time not ours)

The kids were invited to a birthday party this weekend. It was at this place called "Kids Place." I've never been there before. I'm not sure I'd go back there. It's this crazy place where on one side the kids climb through this massive jungle-gym-rope-slide apparatus most certainly in due time to kill or break their necks. The other side has all those crazy games you put tokens in to win tickets so you can earn a key chain or pencil cap. But, you know the kids LOVED it.

When we first got there they played on the jungle gym death trap side for probably an hour before lunch. They crawled up the nets first, and at one point I had to go up there to help Kestian get through a section.

Let me tell you about these nets. Have you ever stepped on the handle of a broom barefoot? It was like doing that about 8,000 times. Torture! I don't know how the kids could stand it.

Then the kids almost drowned in the ball pit

before they went UP this one slide


so they could traverse more death nets to go down another slide. Adelaide and her friend speedily passed through the course, but Kestian could not navigate so easily, getting hung up in the nets like a dolphin at sea. And this particular part of the net system was inaccessible by me. The only way to get to him was to go up that green slide, and I just wasn't able to do it. So I finally found and convinced the girls to go get Kestian, who by then had been up there crying for about 20 minutes. They found him, guided him to the other end, and down the slide he came:

I was sure his traumatic experience had scarred him and that he would cling to my arms for the rest of the time we were there. WRONG! I couldn't even get him to stop long enough to ask him if he was OK. Oh well.

So then we did some games before the birthday lunch


After lunch, the kids enjoyed the prospect of almost throwing up in the jumping area

before playing fireman down the pole


Thankfully it was time to go after 3 hours. Whew! I was exhausted! I took the kids home so they could have a nap (for which they did not sleep). Then we went out to the library - and you can see how well that turned out....

Ha! Take that!

Recently we applied for our passports. Not that we are planning some luxurious or exotic trip across the world. No. We're going to Canada. Nowadays, we need passports to go to Canada. Great. But it's not all bad. I told Damon that when he finished his degree that we would go to Italy, so the effort is not wasted...

Anyway, as all of our audience knows, you have to send in a picture with your passport application. Aside from all the money we have to pay in application fees to get 4 passports, we were looking at about $8-12 (x 4) to get the special "passport pictures" taken. Ummmm. Seriously? Why do I have to pay that much for a picture? I can take a picture a print it out at Wal-mart for $.15. What a rip-off!

So Damon found out online how to make your own passport photos, and we took our own pictures. Now the first time around, we didn't get our pictures quite right (too many shadows or whatever), and the lady at the passport office said, "Honey, these'll never work." At least we knew before we tried sending them in.

We humbly hung our heads down, took our papers home, but undefeated, we tried again. With new pictures and some creative Photoshoping: Voila! The best mug shots you could ask for!


Now I'll tell you: I was nervous. It's not like the government is going to come looking for you if your pictures aren't right. The worst is that they just will send back your applications to have you re-do your pictures. But, I didn't want our apps to be rejected because of our pictures. I kept wondering how strict they would be. Would we be found out that we skirted the system and only paid $1.12 to get our passport pictures done instead of $48?

But no. Two days ago, the kids' passports arrived, and today we got ours. And I thought these were so cool. Last time I got a passport, they just taped my photo onto the passport. Not these new ones. They have digitally scanned the pictures so that the picture is part of the passport paper. Really neat.

Anyhow, we are all cleared to go to Canada. Make room Paul and Maggie...here we come!

Library fun!

Oh boy, it has been quite a travail with the kids lately. The funny thing is that I thought about how I would explain this to someone who doesn't have kids, and I realized they would just look at me weird and think "what is so exhausting and draining about that?" It is just they don't listen, or (more often) when they do listen, they just don't do what you tell them to. Like...ever. But when you add to that the ever present whining about everything and it just wears you totally out. And I say this as someone who didn't have to deal with them while they were at their friend's birthday party! Poor Laura, so exhausted by them that she went to sleep at 8:30 tonight (no joking there).

Today we went to the library to return books and pick some new ones up for the kids. I thought I could browse around to find something to read (after they were born I checked out a neat book about Latin and its early evolution to modern Romance languages, and I wanted to re-read it now in my non-exhaustedness). Nope. Laura helped them pick out some books, but I only had a few minutes I could slip away before I was needed. Its ok, I have plenty to read (yeah...book a week....I started one book and I don't like it so I'm going to start another one, plus I am behind because of actual real work).

So as we are in line to check out we get into the whole not-listening-kids fun. First they don't want to hold my hand, which makes it difficult because they both want to hold Laura's hand. Whatever. Then they don't want to do that. Then Adelaide climbs up almost to the top of the counter (after I told her not to), so I pick her up and cart her off to the side to tell her that if she doesn't behave then I will just take her to the car and we'll wait for Kestian and Mommy, but before I could finish, I hear Kestian start to scream and wail about something (I'll be damned if I know what it was about), and drop to the his hands and knees at Laura's feet screaming and whining and obviously preparing to flail about.

This was a point where things were about to fall apart since Kestian was ready to melt down (they didn't nap today, opting instead to be loud and have timeouts), so I let Adelaide scamper back to Laura and grabbed Kestian, flung him over my shoulder (he can protest all he wants, but his Papa is easily 6 times his size and knows all his moves) and took him to the little entrance lobby. We had a talk about how what acceptable and unacceptable behavior is (I'm suuuuure he listened) and how we will NOT be going back in and instead will be waiting for mommy and Adelaide in the entrance. He was not happy, but at least stopped screaming (loud whining was still there). So, when Laura and Adelaide came out, Kestian picked up where he left off, because he wanted to go back inside, and started screaming and flailing. That was it, so I picked him up easily (33 pound kid is nothing for me), flung him again over my shoulder, and marched to the car where I strapped his ass in his car seat. He wasn't happy, but he got to hold one of the dinosaur books so he calmed down.

While we were driving home I was (understandably) grumpy. I know, I'm a grouchy person to begin with, but I wasn't happy. As we were driving away I said to the kids, "Kestian, I am not happy with the way you acted, it was not acceptable. Adelaide, you were only marginally better." To which my daughter cheerily said "Ok! Thank you!"

Me and Laura just busted out laughing. Damn kids, even when I'm grumpy they still make me smile.

Up. to. date.

I have updated the pics on shutterfly and the website.

That is all.

Did you notice?

In all the chaos and confusion that was the kids' birthday, we actually went through a pretty big step with Damon Adelaide. Have you noticed? Let me show you:

Before

After

Notice anything?

Damon let me We cut her hair!!!

She had been complaining to us for a little while about it, and really aside from one time to trim the split ends last summer, I have never been able to we have never cut her hair - EVAR.

So, with Damon in full support of what Adelaide wanted for her haircut sitting in the other room, I cut a few inches off the back. Adelaide really wanted more off; Damon thought that would be a good idea preferred the longer-look.

She really wanted it to be like Kestian's (haha - seriously!) but really her complaint was that it was always in her face. I'm sure by cutting it shorter that it would help it not being in her face some, but she has that fine, silky, straight hair that always just falls forward in her face. Her new haircut does not seem to have solved her problem:

Probably the only way to solve her problem would be to give her bangs, which I know Damon loves will NEVER agree to. I can understand not liking bangs, and as someone who used to have bangs

I'm glad that (under Damon's suggestion) I grew them out years ago. But it's a tough thing. I hate having hair in my face all the time more, so I understand how Damon she feels.

An experiment in photographic expression

Tonight, to keep the kids from going crazy (for five minutes), I let them take some pictures with the camera. It was fun to see how well they could use it as well as what they would take. I'll let you see how it turned out.

First Kestian:

(Yes, he really did take this picture!)

Ok, now Adelaide:

(My favorite)

Apparently Kestian's favorite subject matter was dinosaurs, while Adelaide's was me.