Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Apple Cup
Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Trains
Black Friday...
Friday morning we got up early and headed to the mountain. I stood in line to get tickets for over thirty minutes. Allie was done with skiing at that point. She literally skied about five feet, threw a fit, and I carried her to the lodge. Maddie on the other hand had a blast. She did not want to quit.
On Saturday we went to visit the tree farm. For the past three years we've heard "next year!" on whether or not the farm train will be running. So, here's to hoping that the train is working next year. Regardless Maddie got to switch the track, run around on the track and pick out our tree.
My mom is convinced that the only thing I did was point to the tree I wanted and then left. Here's your proof mother:
And then finally, to cap the weekend off we went to go and play with trains at Nonna's house. Uncle Chris and Maddie could probably sit there all day and watch the trains go round and round.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
The Bravern
On Saturday the 19th we ventured on over to The Bravern in downtown Bellevue. Per the Seattle Times "Weekend Happenings" The Bravern was having their Christmas tree lighting, Santa sightings and pony rides. Remember our October post about riding ponies? We were going to stop that 2 year waiting-to-ride-a-pony clock. So we loaded everyone up and wandered around. And NOTHING was going on. After finding the concierge we received the bad news that the Times had misprinted the date. The ponies don't show up until this weekend. To soften the blow she gave both girls a coupon for a cupcake at Trophy.
And they got to ride this guy
Needless to say, we'll be heading back in the next week or two. Apparently the ponies are there every Saturday and Sunday until Christmas. Anyone want to join us?
Maddie
Maddie,
We just had our first parent-teacher conference for you. Just as your dad and I suspected you have a voracious appetite for learning. So much so that your teacher wants to set aside some time during the week to start to teach you how to read. I can't tell you how much this excites me. Also, this will come as a shock to no one, you love to hang with the boys. Come toy time you're hanging with Marky and Dennis playing with planes, trains and automobiles. You've even encouraged a few girls to cross that line, for which your teacher is very excited. Napping at school rarely happens for you. Every adult in the room sighed when we broached that subject. By the time you're reading this you'll know why...a daytime nap that someone is making you take is like winning the lotto. Regardless, you've come out of your shell and are becoming quite the young girl. We're so proud Maddie Moo. Keep up the good work.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
My Little Sidekick
She's my little helper, every single day. She and I pal around and for the most part she's awesome. And even more than I do, this girl LOVES a loud radio. She's also been diaper-free for a few weeks and totally deserves a double high five.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Untitled
Alternate Titles:
All I want for Christmas is...a deep clean
Character Building?
(shit)storm watch 2011
The things I could have bought with that $200
Anyone have a steam cleaner we can borrow?
Dumpster diving in the great lakeridge yonder
It all started on Monday. Rudder puked. I didn't attach pictures for your viewing pleasure (oh yeah, you know I took 'em) so I apologize in advance. I'll try and create a very clear mental image for you. Rudder puked. I groaned and then took off to pick Maddie up from school. We then headed down to South Center. I texted Kip to complain about the traffic. He said, "I'd rather be sitting in traffic that cleaning up this puke. There are four more piles." So, I sat back, cranked up the heat to an unbearable level, cranked the radio volume to an almost unbearable level and enjoyed my traffic. Remember my pennies? Turns out dogs prefer to puke in the most inconvenient places. Yup...he got them. Whatever though. It was all cleaned up by the time I got home.
We all went to bed and per the usual Maddie came into our room around 3:00 AM. Rudder also woke us up. Have you heard a dog before he upchucks (I'm trying to be more polite now)? It's like a slow motion horror show. I equate it to the sound of a plunger. And there's only about 3-4 plunges before you've missed your shot. And you normally take about 1-2 plunges to realize what that weird plunger noise is. So yeah, we missed it. 3:00 AM and we were all up for the day. Kip got into the shower to get ready for work and I took one for the team and crawled back into bed with Maddie. Except it honestly smelled like we were baking a poop cookie in bed. It. Smelled. Horrible. And it was my dear, sweet, innocent 4 year old (who I later learned tried to wipe her own butt) that smelled like shit. So, then I had a crying poopy child who I took into the shower to clean up. We got back into bed, snuggled and while I still smelled the faint trace of fecal matter I was too exhausted at that point to care. Back to bed we went.
After confining Rudder to one room so that I could go to work knowing that there'd only be one area to check for throw up, versus the entire house, we all took off for a few hours. And man oh man did he have some "fun" while we were gone. We have two rugs in our room. One is from Pottery Barn and the other Ikea. Who wants to guess which one he chose to throw up THREE times on? At this point paper towels and carpet cleaner is not going to do the job so I remove the chunks (with a lot of commentary from Allie) and then drag the rug into the shower. What I've failed to mention so far is that Allie has had at least five fake-out "I need to go poop" attempts today. But right as I'm getting the rug rinsed off she has a serious, panicked sounding "I need to go poop." I drop the shower head, facing towards the wall, snatch her up and throw her on the potty. Then I hear a noise. I look back and see that the shower head has turned itself around and is now spraying the entire bathroom. At this same moment Allie announces that no, in fact, she does not need to go to the bathroom. Okay, deep breath. Laugh or cry, laugh or cry, laugh or cry. I chose to laugh.
I clean up the bathroom, start my millionth load of laundry for the day and then begin stripping my sheets. There is a poop smear on the sheets. LAUGH OUT LOUD! This day is awesome! Not only did Maddie smell like poop, which is gross, but we also slept in it! New sheets on the bed. FAST.
In a time of stress, and multiple piles of dog vomit does equal stress, new music can help. I plug in my phone in an attempt to download some new stuff onto iTunes (another fun story is that I lost 95% of my music when our computer died a few weeks back). iTunes won't work. I quickly call Apple Support. I wait on hold for 10 minutes and just as the call connects Allie announces again that she needs to poop. So, I'm reading a serial number off and wiping a butt. That is a true mama. But then she starts complaining that her vagina hurts. Loudly. I try to ignore her but the harder I try the more she repeats it and the louder it gets. So I pick her up and lay her on my bed (my freshly made bed) so I can put diaper cream on. And then she shits. On my bed. I hung up on my Apple friend.
Kip comes home, yay!! He's pretty stuffed up but notices a smell downstairs. He asks if I smell it. (of course he asks, (she who finds it gets to clean it up) downstairs is HUGE so actually walking the one lap from the dining room to the kitchen, to the office, to the hallway, to the living room and back to the dining room would not be advisable) So, we find three more files of throw up. And finally, we find one 4" chicken bone. (for the record Kip did clean it up which was very nice of him) And now I panic. This dog refuses to eat or drink and we've had 24 hours of vomiting. I'm a little concerned he's going to die. I mean really, this is the first time in the 3 years we've had him that I've pet him! If you know Rudder you know he goes bananas when you try and touch him. Now he just sits calmly and lets me pet him, and he looks at me with some very sad brown eyes. I take him to the vet who says that they want to watch him overnight. I ask, "oh, is there somebody actually there all night?" Yeah, not so much. What's one more pile of puke? I'd rather him puke at home than alone in a cage. Plus, I'm hoping we can just work this one out on our own. We don't. I offer the most GLORIOUS dog breakfast in the world and he refuses to eat it. :-( Back to the vet we go.
But before we go, everyone has to get ready. And Allie's fingernails are really freaking long. So, I cut them. Despite her protests. And there's one final little sharp edge that I want to get off. Do you want to know where that little thing landed? IN MY EYE. Seriously. I am not making this up. And I couldn't stop blinking. And it hurt like a mother. Serious. I'm pretty sure I scratched the shit out of my eye with a two year old's fingernail clipping.
ANYHOW
After I froze my ass off in a plane, and the girls got to go swimming with Zaide (another post) Allie and I come home for lunch. She's announced she needs to poop. So we go into the bathroom, she does her thing and then back to the table we go. But then she needs to poop again. So I pick her up with my right hand, lay her over my arm and start pulling off her pants and undies with my left hand. And then there is a turd in my hand. Yes. You can't make this stuff up. I'm just going to leave it at that. Here's to a better tomorrow!
Rudder's fine. I think the chicken bone he finally barfed up was the last of the garbage. Unfortunately with that much throwing up comes air. Air in the stomach, air in the intestines and a whole lot of pain. His x-ray showed a very irritated intestine and a large chunk of air in his stomach. He still is not interested in eating. But we did finally get an egg and some cheese down the hatch. I will say, however mean this is, I love mellow Rudder. He is so sweet. But we're ready for the crazy goofball to come back and join us. I hope he got a taste of the good life and realizes how nice it is to be petted but my guess is as soon as he's back to normal one hand out to pet equals a dog that starts bouncing all over the room.
All I want for Christmas is...a deep clean
Character Building?
(shit)storm watch 2011
The things I could have bought with that $200
Anyone have a steam cleaner we can borrow?
Dumpster diving in the great lakeridge yonder
It all started on Monday. Rudder puked. I didn't attach pictures for your viewing pleasure (oh yeah, you know I took 'em) so I apologize in advance. I'll try and create a very clear mental image for you. Rudder puked. I groaned and then took off to pick Maddie up from school. We then headed down to South Center. I texted Kip to complain about the traffic. He said, "I'd rather be sitting in traffic that cleaning up this puke. There are four more piles." So, I sat back, cranked up the heat to an unbearable level, cranked the radio volume to an almost unbearable level and enjoyed my traffic. Remember my pennies? Turns out dogs prefer to puke in the most inconvenient places. Yup...he got them. Whatever though. It was all cleaned up by the time I got home.
We all went to bed and per the usual Maddie came into our room around 3:00 AM. Rudder also woke us up. Have you heard a dog before he upchucks (I'm trying to be more polite now)? It's like a slow motion horror show. I equate it to the sound of a plunger. And there's only about 3-4 plunges before you've missed your shot. And you normally take about 1-2 plunges to realize what that weird plunger noise is. So yeah, we missed it. 3:00 AM and we were all up for the day. Kip got into the shower to get ready for work and I took one for the team and crawled back into bed with Maddie. Except it honestly smelled like we were baking a poop cookie in bed. It. Smelled. Horrible. And it was my dear, sweet, innocent 4 year old (who I later learned tried to wipe her own butt) that smelled like shit. So, then I had a crying poopy child who I took into the shower to clean up. We got back into bed, snuggled and while I still smelled the faint trace of fecal matter I was too exhausted at that point to care. Back to bed we went.
After confining Rudder to one room so that I could go to work knowing that there'd only be one area to check for throw up, versus the entire house, we all took off for a few hours. And man oh man did he have some "fun" while we were gone. We have two rugs in our room. One is from Pottery Barn and the other Ikea. Who wants to guess which one he chose to throw up THREE times on? At this point paper towels and carpet cleaner is not going to do the job so I remove the chunks (with a lot of commentary from Allie) and then drag the rug into the shower. What I've failed to mention so far is that Allie has had at least five fake-out "I need to go poop" attempts today. But right as I'm getting the rug rinsed off she has a serious, panicked sounding "I need to go poop." I drop the shower head, facing towards the wall, snatch her up and throw her on the potty. Then I hear a noise. I look back and see that the shower head has turned itself around and is now spraying the entire bathroom. At this same moment Allie announces that no, in fact, she does not need to go to the bathroom. Okay, deep breath. Laugh or cry, laugh or cry, laugh or cry. I chose to laugh.
I clean up the bathroom, start my millionth load of laundry for the day and then begin stripping my sheets. There is a poop smear on the sheets. LAUGH OUT LOUD! This day is awesome! Not only did Maddie smell like poop, which is gross, but we also slept in it! New sheets on the bed. FAST.
In a time of stress, and multiple piles of dog vomit does equal stress, new music can help. I plug in my phone in an attempt to download some new stuff onto iTunes (another fun story is that I lost 95% of my music when our computer died a few weeks back). iTunes won't work. I quickly call Apple Support. I wait on hold for 10 minutes and just as the call connects Allie announces again that she needs to poop. So, I'm reading a serial number off and wiping a butt. That is a true mama. But then she starts complaining that her vagina hurts. Loudly. I try to ignore her but the harder I try the more she repeats it and the louder it gets. So I pick her up and lay her on my bed (my freshly made bed) so I can put diaper cream on. And then she shits. On my bed. I hung up on my Apple friend.
Kip comes home, yay!! He's pretty stuffed up but notices a smell downstairs. He asks if I smell it. (of course he asks, (she who finds it gets to clean it up) downstairs is HUGE so actually walking the one lap from the dining room to the kitchen, to the office, to the hallway, to the living room and back to the dining room would not be advisable) So, we find three more files of throw up. And finally, we find one 4" chicken bone. (for the record Kip did clean it up which was very nice of him) And now I panic. This dog refuses to eat or drink and we've had 24 hours of vomiting. I'm a little concerned he's going to die. I mean really, this is the first time in the 3 years we've had him that I've pet him! If you know Rudder you know he goes bananas when you try and touch him. Now he just sits calmly and lets me pet him, and he looks at me with some very sad brown eyes. I take him to the vet who says that they want to watch him overnight. I ask, "oh, is there somebody actually there all night?" Yeah, not so much. What's one more pile of puke? I'd rather him puke at home than alone in a cage. Plus, I'm hoping we can just work this one out on our own. We don't. I offer the most GLORIOUS dog breakfast in the world and he refuses to eat it. :-( Back to the vet we go.
But before we go, everyone has to get ready. And Allie's fingernails are really freaking long. So, I cut them. Despite her protests. And there's one final little sharp edge that I want to get off. Do you want to know where that little thing landed? IN MY EYE. Seriously. I am not making this up. And I couldn't stop blinking. And it hurt like a mother. Serious. I'm pretty sure I scratched the shit out of my eye with a two year old's fingernail clipping.
ANYHOW
After I froze my ass off in a plane, and the girls got to go swimming with Zaide (another post) Allie and I come home for lunch. She's announced she needs to poop. So we go into the bathroom, she does her thing and then back to the table we go. But then she needs to poop again. So I pick her up with my right hand, lay her over my arm and start pulling off her pants and undies with my left hand. And then there is a turd in my hand. Yes. You can't make this stuff up. I'm just going to leave it at that. Here's to a better tomorrow!
Rudder's fine. I think the chicken bone he finally barfed up was the last of the garbage. Unfortunately with that much throwing up comes air. Air in the stomach, air in the intestines and a whole lot of pain. His x-ray showed a very irritated intestine and a large chunk of air in his stomach. He still is not interested in eating. But we did finally get an egg and some cheese down the hatch. I will say, however mean this is, I love mellow Rudder. He is so sweet. But we're ready for the crazy goofball to come back and join us. I hope he got a taste of the good life and realizes how nice it is to be petted but my guess is as soon as he's back to normal one hand out to pet equals a dog that starts bouncing all over the room.
And stop eating garbage you moron!!!
And trust me, I know he learned no lesson from all of this.
And you want to hear one more final funny thought? I had to bring rudder into the vet sans leash because we have no leashes. Want to know why? He's eaten them all. Serious. Santa is bringing him some new ones. And hopefully a brain too.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
peas in a pod
I think I find these phone shots so hilarious because there's probably an equal number of self portraits of Maddie as there are of me.
Rudder
Lis: I'm on my 5th pile of puke. Allie just said she needed to go poop so I left the shower running where i was washing the rug to lift her onto the toilet and the head twisted and sprayed the entire bathroom. I now have the blow dryer on to dry out underneat the cupboards. It's so horrible it's comical now.
Kip: Maybe something will catch on fire and finish it out.
Kip: Maybe something will catch on fire and finish it out.
Poor Rudder.
Called the vet but they don't have any openings until tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that the vomit stops.
So cute it makes my heart hurt a little
1. She actually smiled
2. We actually had her hair brushed even though we didn't know it was picture day.
3. She loves school. She loves her teacher.
(excuse the picture of a picture. we're not too fancy here in south seattle with those new fangled scanners)
2. We actually had her hair brushed even though we didn't know it was picture day.
3. She loves school. She loves her teacher.
(excuse the picture of a picture. we're not too fancy here in south seattle with those new fangled scanners)
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Yo Gabba Gabba
Going to a show targeted towards kids is awesome. We totally blend in with the 'average' crowd. For once, my somewhat ill-behaved children aren't the worst in the room. You can talk as much as you want, jump on the seats as much as you want and kick the back of the seats as much as you want...money well spent I tell you.
Maddie had a shaky start. Shocker. Actually, to be fair a lot of kids were totally overwhelmed.
But after the intermission a switch was flipped and she unglued herself from my lap and started running up and down the aisle, dancing, clapping and overall just participating. That truly was a shocker.
Allie followed big sis around. And while they were about 5 rows in front of us I saw a giant carrot headed their way. And I knew Allie was going to freak. And she did. And Kip and I thought it was hilarious (this was the only time during the show that we didn't hear her asking to pet the characters) but she recovered quickly.
Maddie had a shaky start. Shocker. Actually, to be fair a lot of kids were totally overwhelmed.
But after the intermission a switch was flipped and she unglued herself from my lap and started running up and down the aisle, dancing, clapping and overall just participating. That truly was a shocker.
Allie followed big sis around. And while they were about 5 rows in front of us I saw a giant carrot headed their way. And I knew Allie was going to freak. And she did. And Kip and I thought it was hilarious (this was the only time during the show that we didn't hear her asking to pet the characters) but she recovered quickly.
And just for a fun mental picture: The family of four in front of us had two boys and a mom and dad who could care less whether their kids liked the show. They were dancing, clapping, singing out loud, and taking video and pictures of each other. They were seriously the happiest couple ever. Very cute.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
We're back!
From the land of excuses. Or maybe it's just so cold outside that sitting in front of the computer, in bed, sounds nice.
Anyhow, the girls spent their first night at Nonna's (other than the week we were gone last year...but their first night when I was home) after my mom, Kip, Sonja, and I went to the Cirque du Soleil Michael Jackson tribute. The show was amazing. I loved it. So, thank you to my mom for taking us, and for letting the girls stay asleep on Obie's bed. Uncle Sam put the girls to bed on the "love sac" (worst product name ever?!). I picked them up bright and early Friday morning. Neither were happy to see me. They both wanted to stay at Nonna's house.
But we went home and ran through some torrential rain and some massive puddles.
And then quickly ran back inside to get warm.
Where we made a card for dad
And then ran right back outside when we heard the hail
Anyhow, the girls spent their first night at Nonna's (other than the week we were gone last year...but their first night when I was home) after my mom, Kip, Sonja, and I went to the Cirque du Soleil Michael Jackson tribute. The show was amazing. I loved it. So, thank you to my mom for taking us, and for letting the girls stay asleep on Obie's bed. Uncle Sam put the girls to bed on the "love sac" (worst product name ever?!). I picked them up bright and early Friday morning. Neither were happy to see me. They both wanted to stay at Nonna's house.
But we went home and ran through some torrential rain and some massive puddles.
And then quickly ran back inside to get warm.
And then ran right back outside when we heard the hail
And then right back in again for me. It was FREEZING OUT. She was happy as a clam though. And not happy as a clam when I made her come back in.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Halloween
It only took four years! Maddie finally said "trick or treat" when we went out the other night. This post is a tad late but after I was hit with the plague the only thing that sounded at all like fun was 1) standing in the shower until all the hot water ran out and 2) laying on the couch. The nice thing is someone said I was super hot yesterday after I spit in front of him. Yay for that.
Anyhow, back to Halloween. They rocked. Allie was completely freaked out when groups of kids would walk down the street towards us. Fuh-Reak out. But other than that she held onto that king sized butterfinger like her life depended on it and continued to delegate bucket holding duties so that more candy could be added to the stash.
The girls got to pick 10 pieces of candy for the week, gorge themselves the night of, and then the switch witch came and swapped all the extra candy for a toy. The switch witch was a hit.
Anyhow, back to Halloween. They rocked. Allie was completely freaked out when groups of kids would walk down the street towards us. Fuh-Reak out. But other than that she held onto that king sized butterfinger like her life depended on it and continued to delegate bucket holding duties so that more candy could be added to the stash.
The girls got to pick 10 pieces of candy for the week, gorge themselves the night of, and then the switch witch came and swapped all the extra candy for a toy. The switch witch was a hit.
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