Lots of Catching Up...

This post is mostly pictures of every day life that I've taken from the past month and a half or so. Please note in the porch swing picture Jack's prominent little tooth on top :)

Do you see what I see?

The perfect paci holder.

Our little visitor in the garden wall..

Jack on ice cream cake

The tray on ice cream cake.

A typical mid-morning playtime on the porch.

Note Jack's tooth :)

Sweet lil Maggie pie.

Jack's pretty non-stop now too.

Jack's new favorite toy - you plop the ball in one of those tower thingy-dos..

And he is SO proud of himself when he can make the ball go down (it's actually quite hard)

Jack on cupcake icing.

Oh hello, there. This is what happens when I turn my back to put away kitchen towels.

The Buck Stops Here :)

so, I've been tapped to fill out this lil bitty survey by my friend Emilie. Who also tapped Sarah. And I believe that leaves me with no one else to tap as... Sarah already tapped Allison and I don't think anyone really ever reads our blog! so the Buck ends here.

1. How many children do you have? 2 (unless you count Maggie as more than 1 child)

2. What are their ages? Maggie is 2.5, Jack is 1.5

3. What time do you start your day? It is getting later.... usually 8 these days. Days that Jon has to teach, closer to 7.

4. What do you eat for breakfast? Kellog's Smart Start or eggs. And coffee. Though everyone who knows me already knows that.

5. Do your kids watch TV? Yes - mostly only in the morning, unless it's Dora the Explorer at 7pm. Mags loves the Disney playhouse shows but usually only sees Wiggles, Tigger & Pooh, & Little Einsteins. Jack pays a small amount of attention to the shows, but is usually trying to upset Maggie by turning the TV off over and over again on her.

6. What are their favorite activities? Jack loves to play ball. Anything to do with a ball. Maggie likes to sing, color, climb, play dress up...

7. Do you get a break during the day for some you time? Sometimes. Some days their nap time is work time for me, as I work from home. When work isn't busy, I get a good 2-2.5 hours of catching up on chores, reading, or just unwinding a little.

8. How do you end your day? Usually watching TV and catching up on any work necessary, but trying to do that as closely as possible with Jon.

9. What is your best parenting advice or tip? Well, Sarah's right about keeping your sense of humor. As for the parenting experience I have up to this point, here's what I think - for Babies: routine, routine, routine. For Toddlers: Teach that everything they do is a choice, and there are consequences/results for both good & bad choices.

Because Now I'm Really Curious...

I first saw this on our friend Kennan's Facebook page. And I made a remark that I probably shouldn't do this because the soundtrack to my life, as comes up on my iTunes would comprise of mostly Richard Marx songs. Then Sarah did it... and well, now... I'm just straight up curious. Just how many Richard Marx songs comprise the soundtrack of my life?

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool


Opening Credits: "Mexico" by James Taylor. Huh. Great song...nice and mellow... good intro to a movie in my opinion.

Waking Up: "Take This Heart" by Richard Marx. Well that didn't take long.

First Day At School: "Your World" by Richard Marx. This is actually a decent song for the first day of school kind of event - it's a father singing to his kid about how the world belongs to him/her now.

Falling In Love: "Should've Known Better" by Richard Marx. (i'm seeing a trend here...). But - ouch.

Fight Song: "Once in a Lifetime" by Keith Urban. (who, by the way, I like to refer to as my Richard Marx of country music :)). Not a good fight song though.

Breaking Up: "Endless Summer Nights" By Richard Marx. Very fitting.

Prom: "Those Sweet Words" by Norah Jones. Perfect. prom is pretty mushy like this.

Life's OK: "Congratulations" by Blue October. Definitely NOT a "life's ok" song but it IS my new favorite.

Mental Breakdown: "Again" by Richard Marx. Sort of fits. Also a new find (this song is on the first Richard cd I've bought in approximately 10 years, to my defense).

Driving: "Calling You" by Richard Marx. Bleh.

Flashback: "My Immortal" by Evanescence. Yikes.

Getting Back Together: "O Come All Ye Faithful" by Josh Groban. this is getting just a little funny.

Wedding: "Georgia Rain" by Trisha Yearwood. totally inappropriate to be singing about an old love at wedding time.

Birth of Child: "Heaven's Waiting" by Richard Marx. again - horrible match.

Final Battle: "Dance" by Petra. PERFECT song. "Dance with the one who brung ya! Dance with the one who got you there!" (this would be a la Jono)

Death Scene: "Creepin' In" by Norah Jones. YIKES.

Funeral Song: "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake. I could not have ended on a more inappropriate note.

End Credits: "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey. WTH?


Well, there it is. The horribly assembled soundtrack of my life. Of 19 songs, 7 are Richard Marx. And the remainder did not fit all that well. I must have needs to update my iTunes.

The Dictionary According to Jack

Jack's vocabulary has not quite exploded, but we seem to be nearing that point... here's a list of all his words to date:

Mom/Mommy/Mimi
Daddy/Dada
Daisy/Doggie
Baby
Ball
Baba
Up
Off
Bye Bye
Hi/Hello
Cracker
Water
Please (very recent addition...only used twice)
Amen (most recent addition... just used last night for the first time)

As for animal noises... which don't quite count as words, but I'm his mom and therefore they count to me...

Quack-Quack (only when he sees a Duck)
Moo (same deal, as with cows)
Cock-a-doodle-doo (comes out Cock-a-oo!... also recent - used for roosters/chickens)
Roooaaarrrrr! (for lions, tigers, and dinosaurs)

Here's a New One

Maggie is actually having a fit because she cannot each her cheezits with oven mitts on her hands. Go figure.

Watkins Glen Gorge

Kathleen and Luke made at trip up to see us for the long weekend (and celebrate my bday). We had tons of fun with the kids and spent quite a bit of time outdoors, enjoying the beautiful warm weather that seems to be slipping away up here... So, Sunday - Kathleen was dying to go to Watkins Glen to visit this amazing state park there. There is a gorge along the Glen River (?) and they've made a gorge trail along it. I am telling you - it was incredible. I haven't seen anything quite like it since we honeymooned in Hawaii. So, the four of us decided to hike it - 1.5 miles up to the top of the gorge - carrying the kids the whole way. And when I mean carrying - I mean - on our hips & shoulders as we have no hiking baby carriers. So, we did it. It was awesome and the kids loved it. And here are a ton of pictures from it:

Entrance to the Gorge Trail

From behind a waterfall