January 31, 2013

I like to get out of the gym once or twice a week and go for a run outside.  But this morning I just wasn't feeling much enthusiasm for my usual route on the bike trail, so I decided to head to the beach.  We have had gorgeous weather this week and today was no exception.  I felt so lucky to be running in the sun, on the beach, in January!  Luke had a bit of a meltdown when we first got there because he saw the ocean and wanted to run straight into it, rather than being strapped down in a stroller for 6 miles.  So after finishing my run we went down to see the water for a bit.  And I am already planning a trip to go back and play sometime in the next week.  

January 30, 2013

This is Luke's therapist, Stephanie.  She comes to the house a few times a week to play with Luke and work on some basic skills.  He LOVES her and gets so excited when I tell him that she's coming.  He will go and stand by the front door and wait.  Unfortunately, she is leaving in a few weeks for a study abroad program in Germany.  Of course Luke has no understanding of any of that so I just have to be sad for him.  We will miss her greatly.  

January 29, 2013

This is my friend Sherri with Cracker on her lap and her dog Lucie sitting next to her on the couch.  Isaac and Sherri's son Daniel are only a week apart and have been friends since they were babies.  We haven't been able to get together much lately because we both have busy schedules that don't quite match up.  Evenings when our husbands are away have turned out to be the best time for play dates.  Tonight Sherri fed us a yummy dinner, the kids all had fun playing, the dogs had a nice lap to sit in and Sherri and I had a chance to chat and catch up.  

January 28, 2013

Because Isaac has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) for school, he needs to have several evaluations done to determine his placement for the coming school year.  Today we had to have a health screening with the school nurse.  Just routine height, weight, hearing & vision.  When we were all done he asked the nurse "Am I tall enough to go to kindergarten?"  It made me laugh.  

January 27, 2013

Here's Luke at church waiting for Sacrament meeting to start.  Charlie would have been proud of me because I was actually a little bit early!  I keep this book of vehicles in my church bag and Luke loves it.  We go through it and name each vehicle and I tell him what it does - probably 5 or 6 times every Sunday.

January 26, 2013

Today I took the boys to a birthday party for a friend from ICEC.  The weather has been rainy for the past few days but it cleared up just enough for a party.  They had a big bounce house with a maze & slide inside.  It was pretty crazy in there with all of the big boys, so I was glad that Luke was content to stand with me in the corner of it and just watch.  It was fun to catch up with some old friends and both boys had fun.  I thought Luke was super cute taking his turn with the pinata.  

January 25, 2013

This morning I dropped Charlie off at the airport.  He is on his way to NYC for a week.  It is nice that he is traveling less often with this job, but that doesn't make me miss him less when he does go.  And it's the worst when he's gone over the weekend.  I'm counting down until next Thursday night! 

January 24, 2013

Tonight I attended a baby shower for my friend Sherri.  She is expecting her third baby in the next couple of weeks and just wanted to get together with a few friends.  We had dinner at Canaletto Ristorante at Fashion Island.  It was nice to have a relaxing and yummy dinner and to talk with friends.

January 23, 2013

The theme for Isaac's class this month is the community.  In the parent newsletter the teacher encouraged us to take our children to different places like the post office, dry cleaner, library, etc.  One of the moms put together a little field trip to take the kids to the fire station.  I think the highlight for both Isaac & Luke was when they got to sit inside the fire engine and pretend to drive.  They were also excited when the station got a call and several of the firemen geared up and headed out with the sirens blaring.  

January 22, 2013

When I was looking for dinner ideas for the week I ran across some recipes that Charlie brought home from a Food Network event in South Beach one year.  I'd made this a few times before but it had been awhile.  Tomatillo Shrimp and Coconut Rice.  I felt like we maybe needed a third or fourth dish to complement the meal but I couldn't really think of what...  It made for a yummy dinner anyway. 

January 21, 2013

Sometimes we watch cartoons on Nick Jr. and recently they started advertising for a new program - Nick Mom - that they air during the evening.  The commercial says something about "no kids allowed" and the first time Isaac heard it he was devastated!  I don't know why, but it is seriously funny to me how he gets so upset about this commercial.  Every time it comes on he tells me "I hate that!"  (Even though we've told him a million times that he cannot use the word hate.)  It's not like he's ever watching TV at that time anyway, but he just can't stand the idea that he's not invited.  Funny kid.  

January 20, 2013

This is not the greatest photo, but it's very representative of my Sundays.  It's no small task keeping these two boys entertained, quiet, and somewhat reverent during sacrament meeting.  Luke needs to have either food or a pacifier in his mouth in order to be quiet.  And he can't have a pacifier without his "googin" (the blanket).  Towards the end of the meeting I was just about out of tricks, so I pulled out my phone and we started looking at pictures.  Luke always thinks it's funny to see himself on the camera so I turned it around for a second to snap a photo of the three of us.  

January 19, 2013

Charlie somehow convinced me to go the entire month of January without eating any sugar.  I am dying!  I have a major sweet tooth so after just a couple days I started really noticing how hard it is to go without treats.  Today Isaac came in the living room and declared "Let's make COOKIES!!!"  Upon hearing this, Luke immediately started going nuts and saying "goo!  goo!  goo!" (his work for cookie).  Charlie is nicer than I am because he agreed to make cookies with them.  But even with freshly baked cookies sitting in the kitchen Charlie & I both stayed strong.  12 more days!  

January 18, 2013

Luke started his therapy program back in November.  I originally planned to have him go through ICEC where Isaac did his program, but the behavior therapist recommended something different.  Everything has been great so far, but his therapist is leaving in February and we're going to have to change things up a bit.  So today I brought Luke to ICEC to meet Jess (Isaac's speech therapist) and Erin.  I really connected with these two ladies when Isaac was there and I would love to have Luke start working with them.  I love how Jess works with kids because she is so fantastic at playing with them, so that it really doesn't seem much like therapy at all yet they are still learning.  

January 17, 2013

On Thursday's Luke has his therapy sessions at the clinic in Fountain Valley.  Isaac and I go and run errands while we wait for him.  Today we went to Bloomingdale's and Isaac wanted to look at jewelry with me.  He always goes for the most colorful pieces!  Meanwhile, Luke was apparently playing with (in?) beans because when I went to change his diaper later I found a little surprise.  I gasped at first because it was so unexpected but then I figured it must have been from the clinic.  

January 16, 2013

After our last trip to the library I decided that we are not going to bring Luke back there for awhile.  So tonight I waited for Charlie to get home from work before taking Isaac to pick out some new books.  Isaac likes to use the self check-out computer and scan all of the books himself.  "Revenge of the Dinotrux" is easily his favorite of the bunch.

January 15, 2013

We went to my sister Sandy's house this afternoon.  Isaac always loves going to visit "the cousins" and has so much fun playing with his cousin Ryan.  We don't have any kind of video games at home so Isaac thinks it's really cool to play Mario on the wii.  Luke picked up an extra controller so he could play too.  He loves doing everything that Isaac does and it was pretty funny how he was getting so into the game and swinging his controller all over the place yelling "yeah, yeah!!!"

January 14, 2013

Sitting in Luke's dark room is starting to get old.  We decided to try and ditch this routine a little at a time.  A few nights ago I sat right outside his door, and tonight I moved around the corner.  He can still see my shoulder and my legs when he stands up.  And he keeps popping up over and over to check and see if I'm still there.  Go to sleep Luke!  This wood floor is hard.

January 13, 2013

We had some wet bed sheets to wash this morning.  The washing machine started making this awful grinding noise.  Here's a little known fact about me:  I've actually repaired a washing machine before.  Okay, so the repairman showed me how to do it so he wouldn't have to charge me (nice guy, huh?).  Now I realize I'm probably a little overly confident in my washing machine repair skills, but I decided to take the cover off and see if I could diagnose the problem.  Luckily the next load didn't make any weird noise at all.  Isaac & Luke were both fascinated by the inner workings of the washing machine.  Maybe one of them will grow up to be our Mr. Fix It around the house.  

January 12, 2013

Do you ever just feel like stretching out on the floor for a minute to relax?  I usually refrain from doing it because in our house, if you lay on the floor it is only a matter of minutes before you have a dog and one or more children on top of you.  Charlie decided to use the opportunity to ask for a back massage.  As you can see, these boys are going to need a few more lessons on how to give a proper massage.  

January 11, 2013

I had to take Luke back to the doctor for more x-rays of his hip.  The doctor says that his leg looks fine but there are some other possible conditions that could be centered in his hip.  Isaac was with us this time.  40 minutes in the waiting room with the two of them was trying my patience.  And Luke did not want to cooperate (ie. hold still) for x-rays, so that was a bit of a battle too.  But seeing my cute boy lying on that table tugs at my heart and I just pray that everything is okay.  

January 10, 2013

Our heater has been broken all winter long.  Like when it first started getting chilly and we tried turning it on, it just wouldn't turn on.  Winters in Southern CA are usually pretty mild and we were afraid that since the furnace is 30+ years old that we would end up having to replace the whole thing.  So we put off having it fixed.  We bought space heaters, but we had to be careful when we used them because we kept blowing fuses.  Old wiring I guess?  And then it started getting colder.  And we had Christmas expenses.  And colder.  And both our cars broke down.  And colder (like in the 30's at night! Yikes!).   And we finally gave in and called the repairman.  Luckily the old furnace was repairable and of course Isaac was fascinated by the process.  And we are all thoroughly enjoying the warmth! 

January 9, 2013

As we were coming home from the gym today Luke ran over to the side porch where we keep the bikes and started going crazy, begging to ride.  I obliged and after snapping on both of their helmets we were off!  Luke is still too small for Isaac's old tricycle.  He has the shortest little legs and he can just barely reach the pedals with the tips of his toes.  But he loves wearing a helmet to be just like Isaac, and having me push him all around.  We rode down to the lake and stopped to see the geese and ducks, and then rode over the wood bridge before turning around and coming home.  Isaac would have loved to go much further but Luke was done riding and kept jumping off at random, so that pretty much put an end to the fun. 

January 8, 2013

I started attending spin classes at the gym back in July after I hurt my ankle and had to take some time off from running.  Since then I've grown to really enjoy it and normally go twice a week.  I finally decided it was time to invest in cycling shoes.  They clip into the pedals rather than having to tighten the adjustable straps over my regular tennis shoes.  I feel like kind of a nerd for being so excited over these shoes, but I know they will give me so much better form.  I can't wait to try them out in tomorrow's class.  Also, I love a good deal and was thrilled to get these $109 shoes on sale for only $69!  This guy is installing the clips for me.  

January 7, 2013

Luke has been limping for over a month now.  He doesn't do it all the time, but he does it enough that people have noticed and commented on it.  His normal walk is a little funny I guess, but then occasionally he will start noticeably limping.  I can't recall him ever getting hurt and he does not seem to be in any pain.  He will walk for over a mile (seriously - Charlie takes the boys on walks in the evening sometimes and Luke refuses to ride in the stroller, opting to walk for 1.3 miles instead).  Anyway we figured since it's not going away we should have the doctor check up on him.  Unfortunately I left the appointment feeling more worried, not less.  They took some x-rays and could not see any sign of injury or anything in the leg.  The more concerning point is the hip which will have to be x-rayed further and studied by a radiologist.  If you google "limping toddler" you can read all about the horrible diagnosis that are possible.  I'm trying not to get too worried yet until we know more.  

January 6, 2013

Charlie and I have been switching off putting Luke to bed.  Which means sitting in his dark room and surfing the internet until he falls asleep.  Ridiculous.  I know.  Anyway, when I am not in Luke's room Isaac and I usually read a few story books before bed.  This is his current favorite, "Diary of a Spider."  It's a library book that we've had for a few weeks and have read no less than twenty times.  I think he has the whole thing memorized.  What cracks me up is that he can't quite say it right and always calls it "Diarrhea of a Spider."  I am not above potty humor.  

January 5, 2013

Luke is not the easiest child.  We have a very short list of places where we will attempt taking him out to eat.  Usually it is somewhere with a lot of noise but it also has to be somewhere we can get in and out of quickly.  Luke has been especially ornery the past few days so I'm not sure why we thought it was a good idea to try and go out tonight.  Oh yes, I do know why.  I didn't plan anything for dinner and still needed to go grocery shopping.  Anyway, we tried Sharky's - a fast casual Mexican place.  This is Luke taking one of the four bites that he actually ate.  The rest of the meal was spent with him flinging beans from his spoon across the table, throwing plastic utensils on the ground, and attempting to climb out of his high chair while screaming.  Fun times.  

January 4, 2013

Today in Isaac's karate class Sensei Wayne announced the winners of his Horse Stance Competition.  It was a photo contest that he held where each student was supposed to submit a photo of themselves doing "horse stance" in the craziest place they could think of.  Our entry was a photo of Isaac doing horse stance on the Target check out stand.  Sensei told us that everyone thought Isaac's photo was the funniest and he won 3rd place!  There were over 50 entries.  Here is Sensei Wayne presenting him with his prize which was a $20 gift card.  Isaac wants to use his winnings to buy a Star Wars movie.  Here are the three winning photos: 

January 3, 2013

I got my hair cut tonight.  I always put off getting it done until it is absolutely driving me crazy.  It looks so much healthier now and also I really love my new hair lady.  Like my favorite hair person ever in my whole life.  Which is not saying much because I've never really liked anyone that I've seen before all that much.  But she is fantastic.  

January 2, 2013

I took down the Christmas decorations today.  I was eager to get the house cleaned up and back in order.  After taking all of the ornaments off of the tree I had to do a thorough search deep within the branches.  Just a few days after we put our tree up this year Luke discovered that if he threw a ball at it, the ball would stick and sit nicely in the branches.  As much as I tried to discourage him, he was constantly throwing balls (and other small toys) at the tree!  I guess that was better than having him pull the balls and other ornaments off of the tree?  Anyway, the bigger brightly colored balls were always easy to see and pull out of there but the little ones usually disappeared.  This is the stash I found today.  

January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!  I've decided to give 365 a try again this year.  I've still got a lot of updating to do on our family blog, but maybe this will get me back in the habit of posting.  So... here we go again!

Charlie's parents came to visit us for the New Year.  We went to Newport Beach for a bonfire on New Year's Day.  We did this two years ago and were surprised to see so many people burning their Christmas trees in the fire pits.  It must be some kind of tradition, because they were back again this year.  There was one group with a pile of probably 20 trees.  It was entertaining to watch and also, as you can see, gave us a lot of light around our own fire.