That's Life...

Check out my work in progress That's Life v 2.0 - if you have managed to even get here...

 

Dash has never been much of a sports fan untill this summer.  Suddenly, just as he turned 7, he has become obsessed with sports.  His favorite sport to watch is baseball and his favorite team is the White Sox.  He is so obsessed that he wants to stay up to watch every game, every night.  This becomes a problem since many of the games don't start untill 7 pm or so.  Sometimes we TIVO them for him and he will finish watching the game in the morning.  He follows the team standings, is learning all the players and now owns two Sox shirts and his trusty hat that he even wears in his sleep.  He told us that if he takes his hat of the team might lose.  So, if the Sox go on a losing streak next week - it will be because Dash started back to school and he won't be allowed to wear the hat to school.

 

Dash has learned 7 years worth of baseball information in the past two months of the summer.  He is now learning the names of the the different baseball stadiums along with their locations.  Above is a picture of Dash at his last trip to "U.S. Cellular Field."  The Mr. and I realized the depth of Dash's obsession the other night.  Dash was in the living room watching the game and the Mr. and I were in the kitchen when the telephone rang. The Mr. took a look at the caller ID and saw that it said "U.S. Cellular."  The Mr. said to me "Why does the caller ID say US Cellular?"

 

And suddenly, from the other room Dash came sprinting into the kitchen with this question for us "The White Sox are calling?!"  It took the Mr. and I a moment to make the connection with US Cellular Field and our caller ID and then the Mr said "Yeah, they want you to help coach the team!"  I Love It!

Baby Jack Jack is going to be the death of me; or of himself.  Jack has the personality of a very persistant wanderer and explorer.  Indoors, he gets into all sorts of trouble.  Even though our house is as baby proofed as possible, he can still find the three things that we could not baby proof and he goes after them constantly. 

 

 - I have now rearragned the cabinet drawers, so that there are only child safe items in them.  I even have one drawer completely empty, because I finally put the plastic wrap and foil in the pantry after finding him sawing off little pieces of foil to eat. 

 

 - The Lazy susan, now only has cans and unbreakable items in it.  Yet, yesterday I picked up the baby to give him a kiss and he smelled like onions.  I knew I did not feed him onions...Ah ha!  It was the package of Lipton Onion Soup that he had stolen from the lazy susan and then chewed on until he could eat the contents.  Amazingly enough, he was enjoying his snack.

 

 - The laundry room door is now shut unless I am in there.  And even then, Baby Jack Jack pulled the lint screen out of the dryer (this he does all the time so I wasn't suprised) and then shoved a plastic frozen smiley face (that he was holding after he bumped his head just few minutes prior) into the lint vent. This was while I was standing right there! I am obviously not smart enough to think some of these things through.  I did not realize how far down this vent goes until I had to use the BBQ fork to try to pull the stinkin smiley face back out so it wouldn't melt in there.

 

- Baby Jack Jack can now scale small buildings with his Spiderman toes.  The Mr. caught him standing on top of the kitchen table, which is the same height as the counter tops.  Unfortunately the Mr. did not get to him before he fell off the table, doing a belly flop to the floor.  I do not know how he survived this one.  But, except for having the wind knocked out of him, he did not even have a bruise.  Thank goodness for the rug we have on top of our hardwood floors.

 

- This morning while I was making breakfast, Jack Jack found out that he can open the TV cabinet and I found him pulling the tape out of one of our home videos.

 

- Last Sunday, Jack Jack wacked his head above his eye and went to church that day with a black swollen eye.  This Sunday the eye was almost all better, but he was sporting his lastest look - a fat lip from trying to climb over the stair gate to follow Dash upstairs, but then falling and hitting his mouth on the wood part of the stair.  Someone is going to think we are abusing him, or at the very least, negligent in watching him.

 

- Sometimes it is so much work trying to keep him safe in a fairly safe environment that we take him outside. But, there again, the wandering instincts kick in, and just runs away from us, always going the opposite direction we are.  The little stinker is pretty fast too,  I have had to sprint to keep him out of the street countless times.

 

There are about two places that the kid is safe - strapped into his stroller or his carseat.  He can even wiggle out of the straps in his high chair.  Oddly enough, he hasn't made it out of his crib yet.   I know it can't be long.  And I am so dreading that day.  Nap time is our saving grace around here.  It is also the only reason I am able to blog (darn work filters are working to well at work again!).  It is certianly a good thing that Jack Jack was not twins or triplets (I don't know how Sue's sister does it).

I start work again this Wednesday.  My kids have two more weeks before they start school, however, since my time is short I have started my end of the summer organizational binge.  Pity my poor children.  I have this idea in my head that if we start the school year off with clean, organized rooms, that the year can't help but be a good one.  By clean organized rooms I don't just mean reorganizing the stuff that's in there and leaving all the bits of crayon wrappers and old papers stuck into corners.  By clean rooms, I mean a full-on purge of all things that are too small, not played with, broken, stuck into corners, you get the point.  So, for the last three days my children have been hard at work sorting through their stuff.

 

I have become a neat freak in my old age.  I know I did not recieve the neat genes from my mother...her clutter was driving me crazy for the last three weeks.  In a bit of self-analysis I decided that family life is chaotic and not always under my control.  But, I can control the clutter in my house if nothing else.  OK, so much for deep thoughts for today.

 

Anyway, I try to leave the kids rooms alone, but, we have lived in this house for a year and it is amazing the amount of "stuff" they have accumulated in the past year.  Time for deep cleaning.  We had boxes to keep, boxes to throw away, and boxes to give away to charity.  As we were going through Dash's room I decided that he needed a new organizational system for the masses of Legos.  All the the sets he gets are really cool and he spends hours putting them together.  Then the new Lego masterpiece will sit on his shelf where he can play with it until the fateful day in which it crashes down and breaks back into the thousands of pieces that it came in to begin with.  At this point the Legos get tossed into many boxes and the specialized pieces get lost, never to be built the same way again.  Really I think this is OK, because the creative process is much more engaged when he is creating his own masterpiece rather than a scripted one from the instructions.  But, still I thought the pieces could be organized in a way that would encourage Dash to put his Legos away better.

 

So, we discussed and decided that we would sort them by color.  I bought half a dozen bins from Target that we could label with chalk and we set out to sort thousands upon thousands of legos by color.  It was a monumental task and Dash wasn't sure we would ever get done.  But after three days, we did.  It really became very addicting.  Every time Jack Jack was napping I would sit down and start sorting.  Black & grey in one box, Red, Blue, Green & and Yellow...Over and over again.  There was something satisfying about watching each Lego go into a bin with similar colors and I hated to stop.  I wanted to keep going until they were all done.  And now they are.  I haven't yet figured out why that task was so satisfying to me.  I guess I will have to go have a few more deep thoughts tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Incredibles had a great three weeks in California.  But, it is so sweet to be home again.  Ahhhhh...

 

Yesterday was our full first day home and we did nothing.  Well, that is not really true. I unpacked all of our things right after we got home on Tuesday, so all I had to do yesterday was grocery shop.  But, after three weeks of not being home, filling up our pantry was a monumental task.  I spent almost $300 at the store and the shelves still look bare.  That is frightening. 

 

Now today we are again doing...Nothing! I need some days of nothing since I start back to work in less than a week.  But, we may try to get in some golf with Dash if the weather cooperates.  We had some big storms last night and this morning, so we will see.  I also have to start planning for back to school for the kids in about three weeks.  Shopping, room cleanin and organizing are all in the list coming up, so I guess I will enjoy my nothing days while I have them.

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I am still getting used to these Spaces changes.  I am not sure if I like them or not yet.  I will reserve judgement for a little while.  But, I don't like that I haven't figured out a way to add non-msn blogs to my friends lists.  I would like to just migrate my whole blog roll list over there, but that doesn't seem possible...or is it?

 

 

Well, we are sort of back.  We are out of the mountians and back at my parents'.  We spent another un-airconditioned night trying to sleep on the futon, with two more nights to go.  I am so looking forward to going home.  I have very much enjoyed our trip, but there is no place like home (hum...that sounds like a movie phrase).

 

While in California I have started a mental list of all the things I like about Indiana.  While I always miss my family and the mountians and the beach, there is actually a lot to like about Indiana (no joke, really!)

 

So, here is my list:

1. Air conditioning on hot humid summer nights - because I am in charge.

2. Having a baby proofed house - I am so tired of constantly having to keep Jack Jack out of trouble.

3. Neatness and order - The clutter here can drive me insane, plus it is just more for Jack Jack to get into trouble with.

4. Large parking lots with wide spaces - is it just me or do they make the parking spaces smaller here?

5. Knowing how long it takes to get somewhere based on how far it is, not on how much traffic there will be.

6. Not taking 5 freeways everytime I need to get somewhere.

7. Friendly people who say hello and make eye contact.

8. Open spaces where there are not houses, or shopping centers, or another dry cleaner.

9. Having to drive more than a mile to get to a Starbucks or coffe Bean and Tea Leaf - this saves me a lot of money.

10. Not feeling like I live in a slum because my house isn't worth more than $700,000.

11. Not hearing the traffic drive by my window all day long.

12. And the thing I am most looking forward too...my own bed and my own pillow that have just the right softness vs. hardness with my own bathroom nearby and no children sleeping in my room

 

Two more nights and one long plane flight to go...

But, first, Tomorrow night is Taco night with Grandma!  This is always one of my favorite things about California. 

My family and  I will be leaving tomorrow for a family church camp up in the mountians.  This is a camp I went to almost evey year of my childhood so it will be a little like coming home again after not being there for the last eight years.  Hopefully it will cool down a little bit from today's high of 99 degrees.  For the mountians that is ginormous.

 

I am so looking forward to the week.  However, it will mean a week without the internet.  The laptop has already been shut down and packed away for the week (I am in mourning).  So, until next week...the motto will be "survive the heat!"

The frentic actvity of our first few days in California have slowed down a bit.  But, Grandma is busy enjoying having her grandkids around.  We spent half a day at the LA zoo where it was VERY HOT (I guess it is that way everywhere), but there was some animal activity and the kids enjoyed it.  As always, Violet's favorite animal exhibit is the Reptile House.  Why?  I think there is some sort of facination with animals that normally would scare the bajeebees out of you, but are safely behind glass for the time being.  We also where able to see a mama kangaroo with a joey in her pouch.  Cool. 

 

After that hot day we spent some time in the pool cooling off.  Wednesday I had lunch with my brother's new wife, who I don't know very well.  It was really nice to be able to spend some time getting to know her.  She earned my stamp of approval.  Yeah!  I also got to visit with my best friend, who has been my friend since kindergarten.  She just had her first baby and I loved holding and smelling a new baby.  I hope the Mr.'s surgery worked, because my hormones were going crazy just holding that baby.  No more for me, thank you very much. 

 

The highlight of my week thus far, may have been yesterday, when the Mr. and I spent the afternoon and evening sans children at the Getty Art Museum.  AWESOME.  I am not really and artsy kind of person.  But, that place ROCKED!  We then went to dinner at Gladstones in Malibu, always a favorite, where I had swordfish and a Hurricane. 

 

We then took the long way back spending two hours driving down Sunset Bl.  We found the site where OJ Simpsons's house once was and took in all the clubs and crowds on the sunset strip.  That's not my scene, but an interresting drive.  The kids spent the day swimming with Grandma.

 

Today, we are relaxing a bit while Grandma took the older two to see Cars and to the mall so that Dash could pick out a B-Day present at the Lego Store.  Sunday is his birthday and tonight we are having a small celebration with my grandparents.

 

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OK, to change the topic...I have started posting some of my photo highlights on Flickr.  Check them out if you would like.  This is not an exhaustive collection.  I have a personal site where I post all of my pictures for my family and friends.  But, I decided that Flickr was a cool place to at least store my favorites.

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Speaking of pictures...Who can tell me how to get pictures in the middle of my blog, so that they don't end up as little thumbnails at the bottom?  Anyone?

 

At home, in Indiana, when it is hot, we run our air conditioning.  It is so humid in the summer and fall that we set the air conditioner for a comfortable tempurature and then we leave it there, day and night.  For the most part this actually costs less than it does to run the heater during the rest of the year (except for the two months of the year - one spring, one fall- that the temp outside actually makes it comfortable inside with maybe some windows open).

 

My mom, on the other hand, has some philosophical belief that the air conditioner SHOULD NOT be run at night, not even under dire circumstances.  Her belief is that if it is cooler outside then we should open all the windows and let the cool air in.  This works sometimes (not in Indiana where it doesn't really cool off at night), but most of the time it does not and we are left sweating in the evening and mornings.  She will not deviate from this belief even if my dad is busy mopping his head and neck and even chest and back with a small towel to keep some of the sweat off.  She will not deviate even as the rest of us complain of the heat. 

 

Last night, we sat down to play a game and the air conditioner turned off.  So mom jumped up to open all the windows.  I said "you are opening all the windows already?" 

 

"Well, the air turned off, so it must be cooler outside"

 

"But, mom, I was sweating before the air turned off"

 

No response from mom.  So I got up to get a cold beverage and took a look at the thermostat.  It was set at 85 DEGREES!  "Mom!  The air turned off because it is set for 85!"

 

"Yes, because it is cooler outside."

 

"But we are not outside.  We are inside and it is hot in here"

 

"Well, if we open all the windows it will cool down."

 

And on, and on, and on.  There is no reasoning that it is not going to cool down in the house for a long time beacause there is no breeze to blow cool air into the house.  There is no reasoning that when it is 80 degrees outside and it is 84 inside that the outside air is not going to help much.  There is no reasoning that people don't like to sleep in pools of their own sweat.  There is no reasoning that her daughter may have inherited her father's overactive sweat glands and so the two of us are now blind from the sweat running in our eyes and cannot see to play a simple game of Clue.

 

I told the Mr., as we lay in bed making sure not to touch because that would create more heat and then we would be stuck together, that maybe I should just give up making comments about the air conditioner at night, because mom obviously is not going to change her ways for us.   But, maybe it is more fun to be obnoxious and see how long she can ignore my pleas for relief.

 

So, we went to bed last night with the windows wide open, listening to the sounds of the busy street nearby and the sound of the very lound ceiling fan above us.  And, we awoke this morning to rain drops being blown through the window and hitting me in the head.  Nice.